//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7 
// Story: Crystal Cotillion 
// by kudzuhaiku 
//------------------------------//

To amuse herself while waiting for the train, Flurry Heart made snowflakes. They didn’t last very long in the late summer sun, but make them she did and then she blew them about with a tiny, billowing gust of wind. She was learning—gaining some much needed restraint—though it was quite difficult to keep the micro-storm from taking on a life of its own and whirling out of control.

Of all of the things that Sunburst had taught her, his best lessons were about control. With a nudge of her mind, another batch of snowflakes came into existence and then were tossed about in a teeny, tiny whirlwind. Entranced by her own magic, Flurry watched the glittering flakes swirl around with rapt adoration. Her command was growing and just a couple of summers ago, this would have spiraled out of control.

The train station had been decorated so that the Lulamoons could get a proper welcome and something about the festive bits of paper strung about left Flurry excited. Ponies were armed with confetti poppers, streamer launchers, and party-based weaponry, which left her feeling embarrassed about being so foalishly exhilarated about everything. It just didn’t feel mature. Looking over at Chartreuse, Flurry saw the maturity that she desired, that she coveted. Chartreuse, a filly that was about the same age as Sumac, knew exactly what she wanted from life and had set out to get it. She had her stuff together… she was a filly that had seized control of her own destiny… and Flurry was just a smidgen jealous.

Chartreuse cut a commanding figure in her robes and wizard hat. Flurry thought about wearing a cloak, but that got in the way of wings and she tended to trip over the fabric when it somehow managed to get beneath her hooves. Sunburst wore no hat, he seldom did, but with his dignified goatee he looked the part. Dim too, had a goatee, but something about it made him look wicked, diabolical, and alas, it seemed that nothing Dim did could help him fit in better.

Wearing a cloak meant constant use of one’s magic to keep it aligned with the body and out from beneath the hooves. It meant constant situational awareness so one wouldn’t trip. This is what Sunburst had told her. It required constant little fixes, little tugs, little careful acts of magic to keep everything neat and tidy. Keeping a cloak sorted out was all about discipline. For Flurry, this had mind-blowing implications, as she had utterly failed at her attempts of wearing a cloak.

Possessed with an idea, Flurry reached out with her magic, and did her best to be careful. Her tongue lolled out from her intense concentration, and she undid the clasp that secured Sunburst’s cloak around his neck. Raising an eyebrow, Sunburst looked at her and the sun glinted off of the lenses of his spectacles, but he didn’t look annoyed. Seeing no signs of protest or disapproval, Flurry took his cloak, gave it a few shakes to get rid of the many orange hairs upon it, and then threw it over her own back. It took a few tries to get the clasp to lock, but she managed. It was a puzzle lock, designed to train telekinesis with each use, and Flurry was surprised by how well she had done.

Now, she looked regal and important, and she wished that her mother would stop making those faces she was making. Her mother was trying not to laugh, and not doing a very good job of it. Little Flurry felt a tug on her cloak and it was straightened out a little, but she couldn’t tell who was doing it, as several horns were lit at the moment.

“The cloak looks marvellous on you,” Chartreuse said with a smile.

“It’s a little big.” Flurry noticed Cadance’s tone was one of teasing. Oh, how she noticed. “Perhaps we should get something more suited to her… something pink… and frilly.”

This gave Flurry an idea, but it also made her anxious, because she knew that she lacked the magical know-how required to make this idea a reality. But Sumac on the other hoof, Sumac might be able to do what she could not, and if all else failed, she might try asking Trixie. As far as aunts went, Trixie was pretty laid back and was okay with mischief, which drove Flurry’s mother nuts. All the more reason to love her Auntie Trixie.

It also brought up a question that Flurry had been meaning to ask for a while: “Is Sumac my cousin?”

“Technically, yes,” Sunburst replied without a moment’s hesitation.

“Not exactly, no.” Cadance appeared irked, perhaps because she had been beaten to an answer by her court wizard.

With what was sure to be an eyeroll behind his goggles, Dim muttered, “Oh, here we go.”

“Look, Flurry, you’re not exactly related, okay? Sumac is an Apple and received a tiny bit of Trixie’s soul to help restore him. Trixie and Twilight are half-sisters through your grandfather, Night Light, so you are related to Trixie in a real, meaningful way. You’re relation to Sumac is… well, let’s just say it is different. You could be called cousins, but not really.”

“So begins the slippery slope… once cousins become acceptable, other options present themselves to create fascinating, complex family trees—”

“Dim! Shut up!” Cadance commanded as she turned her head to stare at the mumbling wizard. When he did his best to look wounded, she snorted, and Flurry began to giggle when her mother moved to soothe over Dim’s snide suffering. Spreading her wings, Cadance pulled Dim in for super-happy-huggy-fun-time while he grunted in protest of her smothering affection.

Flurry adored moments like these when her family was happy. Oh, they might bicker—she and her sister bickered all the time—but when trouble came, they were as thick as thieves, as Dim was fond of saying. Flurry laughed because her mother was trying to kiss Dim on his cheek, and Dim was trying to pull away. How they acted, what they did, their interactions, all of these things had left an impression upon Flurry and impacted how she treated others.

She had other family members, but they weren’t here just yet. Friends too. For Sumac, the line was blurry and Flurry didn’t know what he was to her, other than he was one of her best friends and a member of the Wipe-Outs. Unable to wait a second longer, Flurry spread her oversized wings, flapped once to get airborne, and then took off to look for the train.

“Flurry! No! Wait! Where are you going? Stop!” Cadance disentangled herself from Dim, and with a flap of her own wings, she took off after her daughter who already had a head start.





Pebble’s kiss tasted of toothpaste—fennel toothpaste, which to Sumac, tasted just a little bit like black licorice. It wasn’t a great flavour, but such was the cost of kissing Pebble. She had surprised him with a lippy smooch, and had done so in full view of his mothers, which Sumac reasoned was some kind of challenge that he just didn’t understand.

Now, Pebble was looking him in the eye and the tip of her orange tongue peeked out from between her dark, chocolate-brown lips. Aware that his parents were watching, aware that Lemon might be judging his performance, Sumac made a bold move by slipping his foreleg around Pebble, pulling her a little closer, but instead of kissing her, he pressed his cheek against hers and then just held her close.

This close, tender moment suffered a drastic change when the larger Silver Lining picked them both up and began to crush them against her pillowy body. She squeezed and squeezed, because of course she did, and Sumac could hear the blood pounding in his ears as parts of his body rubbed against both girls, overwhelming him.

“You’re both so little and cute!” Silver Lining cried. “I just want to hug you and love you and crush you and squeeze you!” So squeeze she did and the griffoness showed no mercy with her aggressive affection. “You’re both like little snuggly stuffed animals that I can play with! So tiny! So cute!”

Hanging upside down from her tail, Boomer turned the page of her book and ignored what was going on down below. Meanwhile, Spike kept himself occupied with a fresh comic, the latest edition of The Nightsinger. Crooning pop-star by day, hard-singing, bone-breaking vigilante by night. The comic had a ten rating on the cover, meaning that it should only be read by those ten and older.

“Mom,” Sumac said to no mare in particular, and he had to strain to get his words out. “When will I be a stallion?”

“Um…” Trixie’s response lacked definition to be certain.

“Uh…” Lemon began tapping on her chin with her hoof while she tried to think of a suitable Lemon-esque answer that was somehow noncommittal, but still sincere, meaningful, and inspiring.

Twinkleshine took a far more practical approach with her answer: “When you can hold down a job and fully support yourself, you’ll be grown up, Sumac.”

“Superhero work doesn’t seem to pay much,” Sumac said in a mock-whine. “I was gonna milk this Professor Egghead thing for all it was worth.”

“Aunt Pinkie left home when she was young to become an apprentice for the Cakes.” Pebble, held with Sumac in Silver Lining’s embrace, now looked almost thoughtful. “She was a foal when she left home to find her way, and like so many others, she went out into the world hoping to find her place. Some of us leave our parents before our parents are ready to let go, I think.”

“Yeah.” Lemon Hearts nodded and for a moment, it looked as though she was going to say something else, but she didn’t. Instead, her ears drooped, she patted her stomach, and belched. Closing her eyes, she burped again and leaned up against Twinkleshine, seeking comfort.

“The First Tribes put adulthood at fourteen,” Twinkleshine said, and was about to say more when Trixie cut her off.

“Yeah, but they also have a thing about twenty one being something like the age of wisdom, or something.” Leaning over a bit, Trixie looked at Lemon’s now bulging cheeks with concern. “They recognise that there is physical maturity and mental maturity. Lemon, are you going to spew?”

“Just a lot of gas all of a sudden, and a sour stomach,” the panting yellow mare replied.

“Poor sour Lemon.” Reaching out with her foreleg, Twinkleshine reached around the smaller yellow mare and held her close. “Sumac, do you think you are grown up?”

“Not at all,” Sumac replied right away. “For a time there, I thought I was getting closer to being grown up, but then the thing with the wings happened and now the finish line for adulthood seems a lot farther away as I have more things to figure out.”

“That is the best news that Trixie has heard all day.”

“Mom, I’m being serious.”

“So is the Great and Powerful Mom.”

Exasperated, Sumac rolled his eyes and let his mother have her fun. His gaze fell on Pebble because she was right there in front of him, pressed up against him, and he began to think about her. If she had to, Pebble could look after herself. She could cook, balance the books, and if necessary, work from sunup to sundown to secure a means of support for herself.

Silver Lining was even closer to actual adulthood because she matured faster, but Sumac was dubious about her ability to care for herself. She was like a big fluffy housecat, and he felt bad for even thinking this, but she was not the lean, mean hunter type that griffons tended to be.

“Incoming!” Boomer shouted, and this time, Sumac looked left first.

Right outside the window were two pink alicorns—with the smaller one wearing a cape—flying alongside the speeding train with relative ease. Flurry wasn’t even flapping her wings hard and she was waving through the glass at him. After working his leg free, he waved back, and so did Pebble. Flurry was getting sooty from the black coal dust being belched out by the locomotive, but Sumac knew her well enough to know that she didn’t care.

“Look, Sumac, your fiancé—”

“Shut up, Pebble!”

“Oh, come on, can’t we keep her? She’s cute. We need a maid.”

“Pebble!” This time, when he said her name, she booped him on the nose.

Sticking out her tongue, Boomer began licking her eyeball and this made Flurry cover her face with her forelegs. The alicorn filly veered away from the train, disgusted—her shrieks could be heard through the glass—and Boomer sucked her tongue back in with a slurp while looking pleased with herself. Based on Flurry’s reaction, it was hard to fly and cringe at the same time.

Soon, the train would pull into the station, and Sumac would be able to greet his dear friend…