The Pueric Mother was holding up a large piece of broken glass to better see the tiny script on the missive Lovey had recovered from the burnt carriages.
"We came to the conclusion that that was a parchment from the princess of the ponies," Scarlet explained.
"Well, 'we' excluding Lovey, of course," Cobalt mocked.
"HEY!" the mockee responded.
Pueric nodded. "Yes. She's asking us to start patrolling the lands for any dragons that could be linked to the Red Sun while they look on their side for ponies." The giantess lowered the glass onto the floor and hummed pensively. "Normally, I wouldn't give this much thought, but the ashen dragon you spoke of has given this more significance than normal."
Stremlin let out a bellowing laugh. "Seems ta me like 'e should've left that parchment with Lovey."
"And this also proves that he's affiliated with the Red Sun. We need to track him down for questioning...among other things..." the titan mumbled.
"So what do we do?" Scarlet asked.
"Get some of the lovies more experienced with leading groups. Discuss this with them and determine where you need to go between yourselves. I would personally start with the stomping lands close to the ponies' border."
"Alright."
The three left the room, leaving Lovey all alone. Noticing this, the titan lowered herself to Lovey's level as best as she could.
"What's wrong?"
"Well...I wanted to talk with the rainbow serpent below."
"Really now?" Pueric mused. "And why should I let you down there again? There's no reason to. You're not better than anyone else here."
"I just REALLY need to talk to her. Maybe..." Lovey squeezed her fists and grumbled through her teeth. "To open up a bit."
"Ho ho. That looked like it actually hurt you to say."
"It did..." Lovey replied.
"Hold on then."
The titaness forced herself up, cracking her joints, and lowered the platform back down into the darkness of the volcano's core. The pink dragoness looked around for Emboreale but was perplexed that she wasn't around.
"You want me to help you look for her?" Pueric suggested.
"No. I'm good."
"Alright. I'll wait here until she decides to show up, just in-case. When you find her, I'll return to my chamber."
Lovey ignored the warnings of the Pueric Mother and hopped over chunks of hardened magma. She climbed others and looked around until a loud 'OW' reverberated in her ears.
"Looks like you found her," Pueric shouted. "I'll wait for you in my chambers."
The room filled with colorful lights while the titan slowly rose up on the platform. Lovey was thrown into the air and onto her back by the First grabbing her muzzle.
"That hurt!" she shouted. "Watch where you're going!"
"It's not MY fault you blend into the environment when you're not sporting your race attire," Lovey rebutted.
"I don't know what that means, but I'm sure it's supposed to be an insult." Emboreale rubbed her nose before talking again. "Dragon claws hurt...So what do you want? Why'd the Pueric Mother let you through?"
Lovey stood back up and cleaned herself of ash and soot. "Well, first, I was curious as to how the Pueric Mothers came to be."
Emboreale narrowed her eyes, knowing this to just be delaying, but she went with it anyways. "A Pueric Mother becomes one when I see her as being worthy. Most of the time it comes far later in time as a lovie dovie when they've proved themselves. And very, VERY rarely is it when they just become one of us that I can see the potential in them."
"So it all resides on you?"
Emboreale shook her head. "Of course not. What would happen when I died? They'd be in chaos. No. I can see those who would be great at leading your 'comrades', and most of the time, the Pueric Mother of the time sees it too. If they don't, then I nudge them in the right direction. It doesn't always work out, though, but that's how this works."
"And are they all that enormous?"
Emboreale laughed. "Of course not! The current one is just an exceptional specimen who drank her soup and the cauldron with it. She's by far the biggest Pueric Mother we've ever had..." The serpent's expression turned grim. "And the oldest..."
Lovey didn't say anything, preferring to keep quiet after understanding the tonal shift.
"So what do you want for real this time?" she asked.
"Well...I was wondering if there was a way to go back home now."
"I told you already that--"
"Yes, yes. I know. I need to 'change', but I think I've changed quite enough."
Emboreale was resting her head on an open palm and looked at Lovey's 'innocent' smile with apathy and boredom. "You forgot that I can see into your heart, didn't you?"
"What?"
"You're lying. In fact, you've been lying the whole time since you met me. You've been balling everything up then venting it with breathing." The serpent giggled. "Funny how you developed new stress-relief techniques rather than attack the stress at its source."
"This again?!" Lovey brushed off. "I'm fine! I'm ready to go home."
"No you aren't. You're on the verge of breaking, and I can see it. You've just become adept at hiding it."
"N-no I haven't! I don't have any problems!" Lovey calmed herself, passing off her yell as a joke. "I mean, I can just go home now. There wouldn't be any--"
Emboreale smashed her fist into the ground, creating a tremor and making dust fall down. Her voice was deafening.
"This isn't a joke, Lovey! You're going to end up killing yourself, and the spell that brought you here is no joke, either! We didn't mean for them to hunt outside our world, but those they did bring back were easy enough to free of their issues. Thus we sent them back if they so desired, but you're another case." The serpent passed a hand through her fins. "In your case it's a double-edged sword. You could become healthy in body and mind, or become corrupt to the point that you'll end up killing yourself. You were already on the verge when you came to us."
"And you all made fun of me every second I was here!"
"Because they weren't expecting something like you! All the others, be they from here or elsewhere, were always just filled to the brim with too much ego. If you break the ego in a manner that isn't malicious, you can then explain to them that it was just teasing. After calming down, they think back to that point and realize we were telling the truth." Emboreale scratched the back of her head. "It might be malicious and mean-spirited, but it's worked in the past. They were always withheld by pride and egoism. You're held back by so much more. Only the Pueric Mother understood this when she saw you and stopped everyone."
"No I'm not!"
"THEN WHAT IS IT THAT PREVENTS YOU FROM BEING YOURSELF?!" the First bellowed. Lovey remained silent. "TELL ME!" Lovey clutched her head. "TELL ME!"
"I DON'T KNOW!" the pink dragoness erupted. "You think it's EASY to change like that? Just because you tell me that my way of thinking is 'wrong' doesn't mean you're right! It could mean you're wrong! My whole life, be it through my father, my mother, my cousins, or my friends, they've always taught and told me that men act this way. Men must BE this way, but then people like you come up and tell me 'No, you should act this' way while others say 'You shouldn't care what other people think you should act like'." The dragoness started letting out tears unknowingly. "My parents would get upset if I acted a different way, and others supported their view. They were never mean, but others, LIKE YOU lot, were extremely rude to me when it came to not following your points of view."
Emboreale pulled her head back in a flinch. Stunned by what she was hearing.
Lovey gestured with her hands. "My family supports one view and others support another. Some love and some hate both sides. How am I supposed to know what is right and what is wrong when no one can make the decision? How do I know if I'm allowed to like this thing when a whole group yells at me and another starts attacking that group. What I did brought fighting and rage. So I shouldn't do that again, but I still want to, but I don't want to cause more fighting."
The serpent's face slowly became overcome with sadness and realization at exactly what the pink dragoness had been holding in for so long.
"When I try to tell other people that what they're doing is wrong, they all yell at me and attack me and no one defends me, but then my own family tells me that they're all wrong for their own various reasons." Lovey turned to face Emboreale. "You would believe your family more than strangers, wouldn't you?"
"Yes," the serpent answered calmly.
"Then why is it that the masses yelling louder seem like they're in the right?! Are they just aggressive for no reason or are they telling the truth?! And why is there yet another group telling me to behave in another way?!"
Lovey started crying fully now. To Emboreale, this wasn't just suddenly breaking down as the Pueric Mother explained last time.
"She's actually letting it all out this time. I...was not expecting that."
"When you're told by your entire family that one way is right but goes against your wants and likes, are they wrong or are you wrong? When everyone yells at you for not acting yourself, are they right or wrong? What is the truth and what is a lie?! Is the family right and everyone else wrong or vice versa?!"
Emboreale remained silent. "I'll let her cry a little bit. She needs to let this out a little more, I believe." She sighed. "She's going to need a lot of work, this one."