"You bit her?" Baritone demanded, looming over his cringing wife. "Without her permission?"
Mercury nodded, her eyes closed in shame. "Yes... and... and..."
"And me and Henry too, right?" Twist asked, drawing everyone's attention again. Then everyone turned back to the mare.
She nodded again. Yes. I'm so sorry."
"I thought tho," Twist muttered, rubbing the side of her neck. "My necked itched thomething awful after the firtht night."
"I-I barely b-broke the skin," Mercury defended weakly with a small shameful sob. "It was completely healed by morning."
"Oh, my dear beloved mare," Baritone sighed wearily as he rubbed his head. He stepped forward and picked her up off the ground, holding her against his chest as he stroked her mane. "Why?"
It was a simple question. But it cut deep into the heart of the cause.
"Because I lost my son," she cried, letting loose the floodgates. "I... I... I wanted to do every-everything in my power to keep my baby s-safe after that horrible day. I know it was wrong of me. And... and then I suddenly find myself a grandma... it all just came flooding b-back to me. I just want my family safe."
Bon Bon sighed to herself. She placed her daughter upon her back and approached the thestrals with calculated steps. Her face was stern. "While I am very upset... very, that you would do such a thing without permission... I understand why." She watched as the crying mare turned her eyes to meet hers. "We mares will do very stupid things when we believe we might lose the things we love. Maker knows how many times I've wished Twist came attached with training wheels, or perhaps a tracking device. I can't imagine what it was like to lose a child, and I hope I never do."
"I hope not as well," Mercury sniffed, cuddling closer to her stallion. "Darn near killed me."
"I am going to forgive you, Mercury," the other mare continued, holding out a hoof. "But, it's going to require some trust, on both our sides. You've bitten most of my family already. Why not finish the job? We are your family, now, after all."
"W-what?" Mercury asked in surprise. Even Baritone seemed taken aback.
"Right now, we have to stick together," the mare kept on talking, presenting her hoof to both the thestrals. "You've raised and protected Lyra ever since she was a little filly. I expect you do to the same to my children as well. Understand?"
The thestral nodded quickly. "Of course."
"Well then?" Bon Bon, no, Agent Sweetie Drops asked, looking down her muzzle at thestral. "Get on with it. Let's go save my herdsister and son."
It truly was a painless experience, if not a little itchy afterwards.
* * *
"They must have gotten lost or something. Papa loves arcades. Stupid giant ship."
Lyra glanced about the large arcade in an annoyed fashion. A pony could get lost in the place. Must of had some sort of dimensional expansion matrix to make it so big in the inside. It could almost have been mistaken for a casino. Well, there were a few gambling machines here and there.
She made sure her little colt stayed away from them.
Not that that was especially hard. Like most colts, he was more interested in the large video game machines that were offered. But she did ensure he got familiar with some of the more physical games.
Like Hot Trot Dance Spot.
The mint mare turned her attention back towards the screen of the obvious ripoff of a human classic. Boy, was she out of practice. Then again, she had it set to "expert" for herself. Henry, in the mean time, was struggling with the beginner level she'd set for him. He still didn't have that great of coordination yet. It didn't help any either that the dance pad was meant for older ponies.
It was kind of comical to watch him leap to and fro on the dance pad with a look of near animalistic desperation etched in his face as he tried to keep in time with the arrows that flew across the screen. He even slipped off the entire machine itself more than once in his near hopeless thrashing.
"Easy, buddy, don't hurt yourself," Lyra warned him, slightly concerned. Did all colts try to show off like this? She looked around again, perhaps he had spotted a cute filly.
Not seeing any in the immediate vicinity, she quickly had another thought.
D'aw. Was he trying to show off to his mother? That was too precious. He deserved something for being so cute. "Missing" some timing and beats would help even their scores. That ought to make to little guy smile.
Sure enough, by the time to song was over, Lyra had managed to almost make it a tie. Even though he did still lose, Henry still beamed at the fact that the scores were so close to each other.
"I did it, I'm getting better," Henry said, huffing a bit to catch his breath as he looked down at his hooves. He looked back up at the unicorn. "I'm walking better. Almost as good as you, Mrs. Heartstrings... er, I mean... mom. Hehe."
Lyra chuckled and kissed his cheek, causing him to blush. "You certainly are, big guy. Now... how about we play some games that'll give us tickets to purchase prizes?"
Henry tilted his head to the side. "You can win prizes for playing games?"
Lyra stared back at him for a minute. "You've never been to an actual arcade before, have you?"
He shook his head. "No, ma'am."
Lyra sighed good-naturedly. "Well then. I guess we're just gonna have to win the grand prize, aren't we? Make it memorable, as it were."
"The grand prize?" Henry asked as he gripped her mane.
She nodded. "Yeah, I think they said it was a first edition Daring Do book. Eh, it'll make a nice edition to the home library."
"Are Daring Do books any good?"
Lyra facehooved and groaned. "I knew I was forgetting something important."
* * *
"Dock 23, section 180," Baritone restrained himself from jumping down the throat of the unicorn.
"Don't rush me, impudent colt," the very old unicorn muttered from behind the window as he adjusted his glasses and turned the pages of the large volume that contained the day's information. "What was the dock number again?"
"Twenty... three," the thestral growled, shaking in agitation as he ground his teeth.
After several long moments of turning pages and mild noises of contemplation, the unicorn looked up and smiled sheepishly. "Oops. Silly me. This is yesterday's manifest. Let me see if'n I can't find today's fer ye."
Two earth ponies and a thestral mare barely kept Baritone from lunging through the window that kept them out of the information desk. They managed to calm him down by the time the unicorn returned. Mostly.
"Now, lemme see 'ere," the unicorn said, opening the book and licking his lips. "What was the dock number again?"
Before Baritone could unleash a nightmarish assault upon the poor stallion, Mercury shoved a granddaughter into his hooves, apparently a great cure for rage, and looked through the window at the stallion with narrowed eyes.
"Dock twenty-three, section one-eighty," she said in a slow, smooth voice that dripped venom and conjured up images of dark shadows filled with pointy things. Truly she was a master of vocal persuasion, able to put fear in the most hardened of hearts.
It just seemed to bounce off the forgetful stallion, who nodded slowly with an almost grandfatherly smile before going back to perusing through the book. The poor mare groaned and slammed her head against the counter a few times before stepping back to cover her face with her ushanka so as to muffle her screams.
"Should have just asked a sailor," Noteworthy sighed. His wife nodded in agreement as she rubbed the head of Twist who was snuggling beneath her grandpa's chin.
"Ah, here it is," the unicorn finally said stopping on a page. Everyone pushed up against the window to have a looksee. "The Stinky Gross Bucket garbage barge. It's destination... the dump."
"Excuse me?" Bon Bon asked, peering at the page. "Uh, that's section one-eight-one. Go back one, please."
The unicorn looked down at the paper in surprise. "Oh? You're right, missy. For a moment, I thought you might be some of the dumpster divin' troupes."
No one wanted to know if that was a real thing.
"Okay," the stallion said, turning back the page and running his hoof down the list of ships and number. "Ah. Here we are. The Ivory Titan jet cruiser. Destination..."