//------------------------------// // Ch.18 - From One Kirin To Another // Story: The Witching Hour - Chaos is Change // by Chaotic Ink //------------------------------// *Clang* *Clang* *Clang* "Don't keep using both at the same time." *Clang* "You said keep both up!" *Clang* "Yes, but keep one as a guard until an opportunity presents itself." *Clang* "But you aren’t giving me one!" *Clang* *Clink* Midnight looked up from the hoof blade she'd just deflected into the stone floor with a raised eyebrow. "You think a real opponent is going to give you a free shot?" "Sorry," Sapphire said, falling back on her haunches, her wings drooping in exhaustion. "I think that's enough for today," Midnight sighed, eyeing the exit of the ruins and the path back to the house, then the pegasus breathing hard a few steps away. “We both need a rest.” Sapphire shot back up, immediately going into a combat stance. "I can keep going!" "Sapphire," Midnight said, her voice part tired, part exasperated, and part amused. She’d been like this ever since they got back from Dodge Junction, brooding and begging her every hour or so to teach her how to fight. Midnight had finally relented and gotten a spare set of hoof blades from Night Sky and had begun training Sapphire at the ruins of the old castle she'd found a ways into the Everfree. According to Twilight it was the Castle of the Two Sisters (five bits on who those sisters were) and where she and the other bearers had found the Elements. Since that was the case, it seemed appropriate for the ruins to be where the guard should train in secret. That and how the creatures of the Everfree seemed to avoid the place. The pegasus stared defiantly at her for a few seconds more before letting out an explosive breath and sitting back down. "I need to be ready." "For what, exactly?" Midnight asked, kicking off her own blades and moving to sit next to her. "Whatever comes next!" Sapphire said, her wings flaring slightly. "I was just sitting at home while everything was happening; I should have gone with Windrunner and the others!" Midnight raised an eyebrow. "I can honestly say I'm glad you didn't." "I know," Sapphire said, sliding to the ground. "I just don't like being useless! I want to be able to help!" Midnight slid down next to her, resting a wing over her marefriend’s back and pulling her close. "You were helpful; you got word to me as soon as you could so I could get there as fast as I did." "And then I just sat around at home and twiddled my hooves! What use did I have then!?" "And what use would you have been down in that ravine with them?" Midnight asked, a note of agitation in her voice. "You would have been one more pony they'd have to worry about, one more thing that could have gone wrong." She sighed and nuzzled the pegasus. "You've watched over Squeaks every time something's happened and I can't tell you how much that has meant to the two of us. You're there when we get home, you cook, you run the front of the store, you listen to me every night..." she grinned, "you're my favorite cuddle-buddy..." That finally got Sapphire to crack a smile of her own. "I don't need another pony next to me in a fight; I've got the Bearer Guard for that. I need to know somepony is with Squeaks and staying safe, that somepony's going to be there when I get home. You're that pony. You're anything but useless." Sapphire finally returned the nuzzle. "When you put it that way, I sound a little spoiled, don't I?" "A little," Midnight agreed, adding an occasional nip and growl-purr to her nuzzling as she moved from her cheek to the side of her head. "I'm sorry. I have to ask, then, why you agreed to teach me how to fight if you think I do enough already?" "Because, as much as I hate to say it, I won't always be around when something happens and I'd rather give you something to help you help yourself until I get there than just praying everything will be fine. I'll drop the same suggestion in Squeaks' ear when she's older. Look, you’ll get it eventually but these things take time. Promise me you won’t let a few practice fights mess with your head." "Alright then," Sapphire said, "I'll promise to not push it with these training sessions if YOU promise not to nip my ear like I know you're planning. Deal?" She heard Midnight hum. "MidniIIIEEE!" she shrieked as the kirin quickly but gently chomped down on her ear and began to nibble. "NO! Bad Kirin! BAD!" She swatted and pushed against the kirin. Midnight just laid there with a contented, goofy grin. ----------------------------- “To the right, Sir Dinky! The Right!” Sir Pinchy called out from her cover. Sir Dinky belly-flopped to the right just in time to avoid the fiery blast. “Mwha-ha-ha-ah! How can you possibly hope to beat the likes of Storm Dragon if you can’t even beat me!?” called out the guard in front of the knights’ treasure. “Storm Dragon isn’t always a bad guy!” Sir Squeaks called out from the cover she shared with Sir Twist. “Shifamtics,” the guard said. “Semantics,” Sir Dinky called out the correction. “What are you, a dictionary?” Sir Pinchy asked. “Nah, thath Thweetie Belle,” Sir Twist quipped. They all laughed. “Okay, seriously, how are we going to beat her!?” Sir Pinchy called out. “Not calling out your plan for me to hear would be a start!” The guard chuckled. “Okay, that’s it,” Sir Pinchy said, adjusting her helmet. “Cover me!” She called out to the others, then, with a war yell, she charged out from cover. “Ith a good thing we have protection thpellth,” Sir Twist muttered as they watched Sir Pinchy charge, only to get engulfed in flames. “True, but she’s distracted!” Sir Squeaks said as she also broke cover. “All together! She can’t get all of us!” Sir Twist followed after her friend and Sir Dinky also rushed out from behind cover, angling into the defending guard from a different direction. Having dealt with one knight so easily, the guard wasn’t prepared for the other knights to do the same thing only more coordinated. Whipping her head back and forth in indecision for a second too long, she turned towards Sir Squeaks and let loose another torrent of flame. She caught the knight in the fiery blast, but at the last second Sir Squeaks threw her secret weapon: The Terror of Tartarus, which landed smack in the middle of the guard’s face. “Ah! It’s eating my face!” the guard yelled, swatting at The Terror to little effect. Sir Twist used her fellow knight’s sacrifice to duck around the flame and catch the guard in a pincer maneuver with Sir Dinky and they struck her down with twin hits from their swords. “No! I am beaten!” the guard called out, flopping down to the ground, The Terror still on her face. “How could you possibly beat me!?” “Well, there were more of us, Sir Ember, for one thing,” Sir Dinky pointed out. “I demand a recount!” ----------------------------- “One, two, three, four, on attackers; one, on defenders,” Squeaks counted. “Nope still more of us.” Once Arina finally crawled off her face, Ember blew them a raspberry. “How come I’m always the defender?” “You’re the only one who can breathe fire,” Dinky pointed out. “And pick up, like, all of us at once,” Pinchy added. “Eh,” Twist said, making a so-so motion with her hoof. “So, because I’m the best?” Ember said with a grin, ignoring Twist and buffing a claw on her chest. “When you put it that way, it makes sense.” “Best my flank!” Pinchy yelled, tackling the kirin and starting yet another play-scuffle between the two. Ever since Ember had been introduced to them, she and Pinchy had a friendly rivalry going, one that often ended with play-fights like this one. Like Midnight, Squeaks was glad Ember was getting along so well with everypony. Well, except for Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon at school but who ever got along fine with them? Just as Honey, who’d been watching from next to the house, got up to put a stop to the rough-housing, somepony else beat her to it. “Alright you two, break it up!” Midnight called out as she and Sapphire dove in for a landing. At the elder kirin’s approach, both fillies separated with one last punch to each other’s shoulders. “I’d consider it a personal favor if I didn’t find you two fighting every time you’re left together,” Midnight said as she landed, a small grin on her face. “She started it!” they both yelled, pointing accusing hooves/claws at each other. “Sure she did,” Midnight said, unconvinced. “So, how’d training go?” “We beat Ember,” Pinchy said smugly. Ember would have punched her again if Midnight hadn’t leveled a gaze at her. “Four against one? That’s hardly fair,” Midnight noted. Arina squeaked unhappily. “Five against one; pardon me,” Midnight said as the spider scuttled over to her owner and crawled up to her favorite perch. “As I was saying, maybe one of you could be on Ember’s team? Otherwise it kind of seems like you all are ganging up on her?” The elder kirin emphasized her observation with raised eyebrows. The fillies all looked at each other with wide eyes. “Goth, we didn’t mean for it to theem like that,” Twist said. “Sorry Ember,” Dinky said. “We weren’t trying to be mean.” “I know,” Ember said, waving a claw. “You already said I’m the best, so it’s alright.” “How did training go for you two?” Squeaks asked. “Better,” Midnight told her, “It took me five seconds to beat Sapphire this time instead of three.” Sapphire smacked her with a wing. “And they wonder why foals these days are so much more violent! Have you no shame?” Midnight asked dramatically as she looked over at Sapphire, hoof on her chest like she’d seen some offended nobles do, sending all the girls into giggling fits. With a playful smirk, Sapphire gave her another, gentler, smack across the face that was more like a hard caress. “Well, we all can’t be as classy and dainty as you.” “Indubitably,” Midnight agreed, fixing an invisible monocle and sending the girls into another laughing fit. “Ember!” They all turned to see Forest trotting up to them, her saddle bags full of mushrooms. “Did you clean your room before coming out to play, like I asked?” “Yes mom,” Ember practically groaned, her mood dropping instantly. “And why am I always the one cleaning it up? It’s Squeaks’ room, too!” “Because Squeaks cleans up after herself all the time,” Midnight said before either Forest or Squeaks could say anything, “and how fair would it be if she left out a mess and you had to clean it up?” “Not very fair,” Ember reluctantly conceded. “Sorry Squeaks.” “It’s okay,” Squeaks said. “So,” Forest continued, “if I go upstairs right now it’ll be spotless?” Ember looked like a deer staring down an approaching train. “Uh…” Looking around quickly, her eyes fell on the pile of toys they’d been using as treasure. “I think I left a few pieces of treasure upstairs,” she said with an unconvincing smile as she trotted towards the side door, “I better go get them!” “We’ll come, too!” Pinchy said, leading the others after Ember. “We don’t want you forgetting anything else!” Ember glared at the unicorn, but there was little heat behind it and it was quickly traded for one of gratitude as the foals made their way into the house. “That girl…” Forest sighed as she watched them go. “I take it the collecting went well?” Midnight asked, nodding at Forest’s saddlebags. “Very well, actually,” Forest said, picking one of her haul out to show them. “Want one?” “No, thanks,” Midnight said, cringing back from the fungus. To ask those close to her, Midnight was not a picky eater by any stretch of the imagination. Except when it came to onions and mushrooms. When it came to those foods she could be just as bad as any foal with alfalfa except she couldn’t be made to sit at the table until she finished. It also drove Summer up the wall that the only way she would eat them was breaded and deep-fried. Add in all the cheese and butter on other vegetables she made and the unicorn privately wondered why her daughter didn’t have the same… figure as one Mrs. Cake. Then again who could explain Pinkie? Forest shrugged. “Suit yourself.” As she put the mushroom back in her saddle bags, she looked across the road and sighed longingly. “I can’t wait for them to be done.” She was referring to the house going up across the road from Midnight’s home, courtesy of the royal sisters and the… bill? Petition? Law? Whatever they drafted after they’d returned from Dodge Junction. In a nutshell, the document gave them the power to assist any kirin (or their family if under-age) in any way they saw fit to help said kirin in any way they needed, such as providing them with a monthly supply of gems or a new house. Sapphire was sure the royal bean-counters were either still at their desks staring at the papers before them in horror or crying under their desks at the implications. She’d also told Midnight that, no, it didn’t mean she could ask Celestia and Luna to bulldoze Saddle Row in Manehattan and turn it into a fish market “because that would make the city more kirin friendly”. “I still don’t see why you can’t just stay here with us,” Midnight said, “we’ve got the room.” “And Ember and I appreciate you letting us live with you for now but I want my own home and Ember should have her own room. Besides, it’s only across the street; the two of you can see each other anytime you want.” There was an undercurrent of… something in Forest’s voice but none of the others made any serious note of it. They figured Ember was just stressing her out again, something the little kirin had been doing a lot lately. There had been issues at school (she was a fidgeter, found most subjects boring, and had come to logger-heads with the Gruesome-Twosome by the end of day two), issues at home (previously mentioned messy room, generally leaving a mess anywhere, table manners), and just wandering off whenever her new friends were busy. That last one had really run Forest ragged and according to her Ember was doing it more here in Ponyville then she ever did back in Hallow Shades. On the one hoof Midnight could see why Ember was doing, at least, all the wandering. In Hallow Shades her only time outdoors had been at night and strictly for hunting. In Ponyville, she could wander around to her heart’s content without a care in the world and she was more than likely making the most of it. On the other hoof, as a mother, she could understand the fear of not knowing where one’s child was and all the bad things that could happen. “I think it’s a great idea,” Sapphire said, making them both look over at her. “Being able to say “that’s my home” instead of “I live with” should make her more comfortable; maybe that’s why she’s been so excitable since the two of you came here.” “I hope so,” Forest sighed, adjusting her saddle bags and heading inside. “Another day,” Midnight said, resting her chin on Sapphire’s head and letting out a sigh of her own. “You really believe that; that all of this is because she’s moved to a new place?” “And has a bit more freedom, yes,” Sapphire said. “All foals act differently to such things. Some see it as an adventure, while others mope about wishing things hadn’t changed. I think she just needs to find a balance and things will get better. She has you as a role model, after all.” Arina chirped sarcastically. “Nopony asked you,” Midnight growled. ----------------------------- “You’re going hunting?” Ember asked, spraying a bit of food onto the table while they all ate dinner that night. “Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Forest said, exasperated as she wiped the half-chewed bean sprouts off the table with a napkin. Ember finished chewing and swallowed. “Sorry,” she apologized, then turned back to Midnight and asked again, “you’re going hunting?” “Just with Scarlet tomorrow,” Midnight said, between her own bites of turkey meat and hay. “Both of us are running low on meat and she coaxed me into going after a deer or two, though I wouldn’t be opposed to a boar.” She licked her lips and took another bite of turkey. “I especially love the loin and the cuts from the hind quarters.” She refused to say “from the butt” after letting it slip once around the pillow knights and being renamed “Storm Dragon, Eater of Butts”. Squeaks, at least, had looked properly apologetic at calling her so, at least between her own bouts of giggling. “We’ll be going out about mid-afternoon and hopefully be back by dinner time.” “Can I go, too!?” Ember asked excitedly. “Absolutely not!” Forest said before Midnight could say anything. “You’re too young!” “No I’m not!” Ember shot back. “I hunted back in Hallow Shades!” “When I expressly told you not to!” Forest said. “I was worried sick every time I found you went out! How many times did I tell you how dangerous it was outside at night!? You’re lucky Midnight found you when she did!” “And deer and boar aren’t as easy to catch as chickens and squirrels,” Midnight put in, trying to ease the situation. “A deer can hurt you really bad if it bucks you or stabs you with its antlers, not to mention how much bigger they are than you. Boar are even more dangerous. I agree with your mother on this one, Ember; better wait until you’re older, bigger, and more experienced before you come out on a hunt with me.” “But-!” “No buts!” Forest snapped. “You’re not going hunting and that’s that! Now once you’re finished eating you’re finishing your homework before you do anymore playing.” Ember let out a loud whine of protest and looked over at Midnight who continued to eat without looking up. “Fine,” she finally growled before going back to her food, attacking it like it had done her wrong. The older kirin flicked her ear in thought as she watched the younger kirin and her mother argue. Was this what somepony would have seen back when Midnight was Ember’s age, when she and her mother argued? There was almost a sense of déjà vu in it but like watching through a window, detached. With that odd sense came the reminder of where that kind of arguing eventually lead to and the regret that had soon followed. Midnight had hoped that the relationship Ember and Forest had was better than the one she and her own mother had, exacerbated by Midnight’s idolization of her father. With a pang, she realized that they might indeed have had a better one if she hadn’t shown up like she did and swept Ember off her hooves, giving her one of her own kind to idolize. But Midnight had the power to interfere and not let the past repeat itself, a power she fully intended to exercise. Tonight was a little to sudden and the arguing too fresh for her, though, so she’d put off asking Forest to speak directly with Ember about it until a better time. She didn’t want to seem like she was undermining any of Forest’s authority but going straight to Ember. Perhaps after the hunt would be best, Ember having listened to Forest and putting the earth pony in a better mood to listen and agree. As they all kept eating, Midnight began working on what exactly she would say to Ember, from one kirin to another. ----------------------------- Leaves rustled gently in the slight breeze that traveled through the upper branches of trees in Whitetail Woods. The sun shone brightly and reflected off the many droplets that clung to plants like dew, the remnants of that morning’s rain shower, and made said plant life even more enticing to the wild herbivores that called the woods home. Midnight watched the buck below intently, her body as still as a statue and perfectly balanced between a thick limb and where the tree she was stalking from forked. Scarlet was similarly unmoving in her own tree a little ways away. Both had their wings folded tightly against their bodies so that the wind wouldn’t catch and throw them off balance, possibly scaring off their intended target. There were several other deer nearby, including several large does but this buck was even bigger, possibly explaining why he was so content to move so far away from the rest with so little concern. He was currently munching on some grass a few paces away from beneath Midnight’s tree. A few steps closer and he’d be in the perfect spot for Midnight to pounce. If he turned and headed back to the herd, Scarlet would get him. With her heavier form and fangs, Midnight hoped he would come closer to her. She could kill him with almost no sound if given the chance and then tracking the herd for the thestrals or even getting a second one for them would be that much easier. She had talked to several the night before and her hunt had come up. It wasn’t that they couldn’t hunt or that they didn’t have the time but deer usually bedded down by the time they could go out to hunt and deer were hard enough to get during the day. Finding one hunkered down under a tree or make-shift bedding at night, even if you had night vision, was much, much harder. If she could track a herd until night fall, she could tell them where the deer were and give them a better chance. Of course, if she could get two, then she could get home a lot sooner. The buck swung its head towards the base of Midnight’s tree and a patch of clover growing there. It took several steps closer. Three steps away… Two… One… Midnight stepped off her branch and fell like a stone, her wings only opening slightly near the end of her fall for just the slightest bit of control before she hit. Her back legs slammed into the bucks back, breaking it so the animal couldn’t run away if it somehow managed to throw her off, while her front legs nailed the deer’s whithers, forcing down to the ground. Quick as a snake her jaws shot forward and clamped down the deer’s muzzle, muffling the whine of pain it let out. Moving a leg to pin down the deer’s neck, she gave a quick jerk and heard the wet snap of broken bone. She held her new stance as perfectly still and quiet as she had in the tree, her eyes and ears focused on where the rest of the herd had been. All had gone quiet. After several seconds she could hear a snort come from the other side of the bushes and she looked up at Scarlet who gave her a nod. The herd didn’t suspect a thing, nor would they get any kind of further warning from her prey; all tension was gone and no air was going in or out of him. They’d gotten their first deer and with no need to get a third, they could be as loud and violent getting their second as they wished. Midnight quietly dropped the dead deer and nodded back at Scarlet. The hippogriff would take the next one, striking from above like Midnight had, if not from directly above and if she missed Midnight would charge through the bushes, causing even more panic and confusion and allowing them a chance for a second strike. Just as Midnight took her first step towards the bushes an explosive rustle of leaves came from the other side of them and the deer there immediately bellowed and squealed in panic. Looking up at Scarlet, Midnight saw the hippogriff’s eyes were wide with surprise but, thankfully, not panic. Oddly enough it was disappointment that Midnight saw mixed in with the surprise but she quickly found out why as something small and orange hustled through the bushes between her and the deer. Ember was hurrying towards her, a young deer fawn, still with little white spots on its back, being dragged along next to her, and what Midnight assumed was the fawn’s mother racing through the bushes barely a second latter. Midnight immediately jumped forward, landing next to Ember and roaring in the perusing deer’s face. The deer reared up and back, her front legs kicking at Midnight. One hoof scored her cheek before the kirin could back out of range and shoot off a small gout of fire. That made the deer back up and reconsider its actions for a second, which was all it took for Scarlet to jump down on it. A few seconds of struggling and the hippogriff stood over her own kill. With the danger out of the way and their second kill taken, if not maybe how they wanted it to have gone down, Midnight turned on the younger kirin, the proud smile she was wearing fading at the elder kirin’s furious look. “Ember? What. The. TARTARUS!?”Midnight snapped. “We told you that you couldn’t come out here to hunt!” “But I can!” Ember insisted, motioning at the fawn between them. “See!? I got it all by myself!” Midnight did see and couldn’t hide her disappointment. It was true that predators hunted the old, the weak, and the young because they were easy but Midnight wasn’t a normal predator, nor was any of the other carnivores now living in Ponyville. Whatever they didn’t finish could be saved for later and they were feeding more than themselves, so it made sense to go after the large, physically fit members of the herd. Ember taking a fawn like this, when the buck alone would have been enough to share out between the two kirins, Squeaks, and Scarlet, was just an unnecessary waste. “The buck was enough!” Midnight said. “There was no reason to take the fawn and what just happened proves the point we made about it being dangerous! That doe could have killed you!” Here she paused and wiped her cheek with a hoof. It still stung but when she brought her hoof back there wasn’t any blood, so she brushed it off and continued. “Or it could have seriously hurt me or Scarlet and I KNOW your mother didn’t give you the okay to come out here! She’s probably worried sick by now!” It was then that part of her anger turned into an anxious lump inside her stomach. She was not looking forward to bringing Ember home only to hear the resulting shouting, nor about being involved as she would be the one to present Ember to Forest. Midnight said a quick, silent prayer of thanks to the makers for giving her such a well behaved foal as her own daughter. If Ember had been her daughter, she probably would have gone crawling back to Summer, begging her forgiveness. “As soon as we dress these deer, we are going home and you are going to apologize to your mother and promise to never do anything like this ever again, understand?” Midnight asked, her voice back down to a normal, if still very angry, tone. “But-!” Ember protested. “Do you understand!?” Midnight shouted, even making Scarlet flinch away. Cowed, Ember nodded. “Yes,” she finally said when Midnight made it clear she wanted to hear Ember say it. “So, just how much trouble is she in?” Scarlet whispered as she and Midnight began the dirty work on the buck. Ember had been told to stay away from the corpses and not to get a drop of blood on herself. The last thing they needed was for her to show up bloody and give Forest another reason to scream. “The real question is: how much manure am I going to get hit with when we get back with her in toe?” Midnight groaned. “Finding another kirin was supposed to make life better, not more frustrating!” And now all her plans to have a nice, peaceful talk with Forest and Ember were shot; the earth pony would be more pissed than ever after this. Midnight ripped out the deer’s guts with a bit more violence than she meant to. At least here she could vent her frustration constructively. ----------------------------- Sapphire’s ears folded back in sympathy for her marefriend as Forest turned her perfectly understandable wrath on the older kirin, her tirade on the younger one finished and said younger kirin now up in her and Squeaky’s room awaiting punishment. It had been her who found Ember coming out of the woods in the company of Midnight and Scarlet and the older kirin had, with a great fatalistic air that showed she knew exactly what was coming, told Sapphire to find Forest and tell her Ember was alright and with her. Even though Midnight had almost physically pushed Ember in front of Forest and looked down on the younger kirin with as much disappointment as Sapphire had ever seen her give somepony, that hadn’t spared her from getting an earful by the earth pony as well. “And even if you didn’t encourage it, she still followed you!” Forest yelled. “You were supposed to help her, help us, with whatever issue we had! All you’ve done is created problems!” “Forest, I-“ Midnight tried, but Forest quickly cut her off. Midnight let her, hoping that letting her yell herself out would lead to her being willing to listen, even if this wasn’t the ideal circumstance Midnight had wanted to ask Forest to speak with Ember in. What she said next, however, ruined any further thoughts of letting things calm down naturally. “And you keep insisting on us staying here, in your house! You say everything is for her benefit and I don’t seem to be anywhere in those plans! Where do I fit into my daughter’s life, or am I just an inconvenience!?” The implication that Midnight was trying to supplant herself into Forest’s role in Ember’s life immediately made the other three in the room lose most of their sympathy and understanding and replace it with outraged indignation of their own. It was a good thing Sapphire had told Honey to take Squeaks outside but Windrunner really didn’t need to be here for this. Bad luck had her show up just before Midnight and Ember. “Midnight would never!” Sapphire shouted. “Midnight isn’t like that!” Windrunner agreed. “ENOUGH!” Midnight roared, her wings outstretched to help intimidate the others into silence while her eyes became hard and cold. Sapphire and Windrunner immediately quieted, though Sapphire looked at the kirin with undisguised worry. Forest also stayed quiet, though the look of angry defiance stayed. “THAT,” she said in a dangerous tone, “is too far, Forest. You’re angry but don’t you dare imply that I’m trying to drive you and Ember apart. Everything I’ve offered I’ve done so to try and help. BOTH of you.” Here she took a deep breath and visible calmed somewhat. When she opened her eyes again, the cold was gone, but the hardness remained. “That being said, I will agree that I could have made it sound more like I was helping the both of you rather than just talking about Ember.” When Forest didn’t say anything, she continued. “We’ve all seen how Ember has been acting since she got here and it is partly my fault it came to what happened today but not because I encouraged it. I failed to see how much she was acting like myself at that age because she wasn’t doing so for the same reasons. Not entirely, anyway.” At long last, something other than anger crossed Forest’s face. Seeing the curiosity as a sign, Midnight continued. “When I was her age, I fought with my mother all the time, too. My reasons were that I blamed her for not looking for my dad and not really understanding me. I thought that she thought I was just a burden and I grew to hate her for it, so much so that one day I ran away and never went home again. Last night, I saw the same thing starting to happen to you two.” Here all anger had gone from Forest’s face to be replaced by worry. “When I realized it, I knew I had to talk with Ember about it, so she wouldn’t make the same mistakes I eventually did, mistakes I still regret making. However, as she’s your daughter, I wanted to wait and ask your permission to do so. I’d be pretty pissed, too, if Sapphire had tried parenting Squeaks behind my back so soon after I adopted her, or even if it just seemed like she was. I kept asking you to stay here in this house because I thought it would be easier for me to spot issues like this before they got out of hoof. Seeing how long it’s taken me to spot this, even with it right under my muzzle, I can see the argument doesn’t hold any real weight, and I promise I won’t ask it again. “I know this isn’t anywhere near the best time to ask this, but can I please talk with Ember about how she’s behaving? She needs to understand what path she’s putting herself on and she needs to hear it from somepony who’s been down that road before.” Forest continued to look up at Midnight for a few seconds longer, looked at Sapphire, Windrunner, then Midnight again, then let out an unhappy sigh. “Why can’t I tell her what you just told me? Wouldn’t it be better if I spoke to her? As her mother?” “Because you didn’t live it, because you wouldn’t be able to impress on her just how damaging her action would be to your relationship.” “I ran away from home, too,” Forest pointed out. “Because you were scared, not angry,” Midnight said. “It’s not the same and you don’t sound like you regret it.” Forest opened her mouth to argue but stopped before any words came out. To her shock, she realized she didn’t regret leaving home. Unhappy? Of course, but she left to protect her daughter and to even protect her parents from any social ostracizing having a pregnant, unmarried daughter would cause, made even worse by the father not being a pony. Midnight had done so to deliberately hurt her mother as much as possible. There was no comparison. “You’re right, I don’t and I can’t but she’s still going to you for help and advice, not me. Even if you aren’t doing it on purpose, I’m still losing her to you.” “No, you’re not,” Midnight said firmly, “she’s not my daughter and I don’t want her to be. If I have to lay that out as plain as day for her I will. Let me talk with her and it’ll be the last time, I promise.” Forest kept eye contact with Midnight for a little while more, searching those draconic eyes for any hint of deceit in them. When she was finally convinced she couldn’t find any, she closed her eyes and sighed again. “Don’t make me regret this.” Midnight nodded. ----------------------------- Ember kept up with Midnight as the older kirin led her further into the Everfree Forest, towards the clearing she and Sapphire headed off to sometimes. The younger kirin wasn’t sure what to feel right then; Midnight and her mom both still looked pretty angry when she’d been called downstairs but if she was heading someplace alone with Midnight it couldn’t be bad, right? Then again, Midnight still looked angry and hadn’t said anything to her since they left the house. When they came to a fork in the road, Midnight turned left and Ember realized that she was leading her to the top of the cliff behind the house. She’d never been up there (the path still lead through the Everfree, and she and her friends were all still forbidden from going in there alone) and her pace picked up in anticipation of seeing it for the first time. They reached the top of the cliff just as the sun was beginning to descend below the horizon, the warm orange glow and cool breeze made Ember flap her wings happily. Midnight, on the other hoof, just sat down and stared off into town without acknowledging either. Ember quickly sat down next to her. “You said you wanted to talk?” she asked, looking up at the larger kirin. “Yes,” Midnight said, as if not really paying attention to her. In truth, this whole thing had jarred the half-coherent talk she’d already planned out and now she wasn’t sure how to properly proceed. Straightening, she finally asked, “Ember, do you like living here? In Ponyville?” “Yeah, it’s alright, I guess,” Ember said slowly, not sure where Midnight was going with this. “Would you still like it if I wasn’t here?” This took longer for Ember to respond. “I dunno, maybe? Pinchy and Dinky and Twist are fun and so are some other ponies. School is alright, even if it is a little boring, and nopony looks at me like I’m weird and I can go outside all the time, so that’s good!” she finished, more excited than when she started. Midnight nodded. “That’s good but, you know, there are rules every pony needs to follow so things can stay nice around here.” Ember frowned. “Yeah, but so many of them are so stupid! I mean, I’m just going to get dirty again, so a bath doesn’t make any sense and why do I have to eat everything on my plate? Adults don’t have to!” “If you stink, nopony’s gonna want to play with you and the food your mom gives you is so you can grow up as healthy as possible. Yes, I can eat whatever I want, like if I wanted to eat nothing but cupcakes starting tomorrow I could, but it isn’t healthy for me and I can make myself sick and others would have to take care of me, which isn’t fair to them.” “What about Pinkie Pie? She eats nothing but sweets all the time.” “Pinkie is… not normal. My point is that there are rules and you need to follow them. If you don’t, there are consequences; like being grounded.” Ember looked dubiously down at the house. “Am I getting-?” “From now on Ember, when we tell you to do something, you do it. If you’re told to leave it alone, you leave it alone. If you’re told to clean your room, you clean your room. If you’re told not to follow me or anyone else out hunting, you don’t follow on a hunt!” “But I can hunt! I told you; you’ve seen me!” “You’re not listening!” Midnight shouted, “If your mom says not to do something, you don’t do it! I don’t know how to make it any plainer than that! It doesn’t matter what I know or have seen!” “That’s why I wish you were my mom! You’d understand me!” Silence. Midnight only stared down at her, her face blank. It was so unnerving that Ember reached forward, intending to shake her to try and snap her out of whatever it was that was making her that way, when she came out of it on her own. Getting up, Midnight bent over Ember and roared, practically in Ember’s face. The smaller kirin immediately shrank back and into the ground, making herself into a ball and as small as she could make herself. “DON’T YOU EVER SAY THAT AGAIN! DON’T YOU EVEN THINK THAT AGAIN! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT SHE’S DONE, WHAT SHE’S SACRIFICED, TO MAKE SURE YOU’RE HAPPY! SHE YELLS AND SCOLDS YOU BECAUSE SHE’S WORRIED ABOUT YOU!” Midnight snorted heavily and pulled back from the frightened, almost crying, child. “You’re just like I was when I was young, thinking that my mother didn’t care about me, even hated me. I asked you about Ponyville because I only found it after I’d been wandering around Equestria for years. Do you know why I was wandering around Equestria for years?” Hesitantly, Ember shook her head. “Because I ran away from home, again because I was so sure that my mother hated me because she couldn’t understand me! Do you know what I found out, looking back, after I came here?” Again, Ember shook her head. “I found out that I had made the biggest mistake of my entire life! I had no idea what all my mother did to make me as happy as I had been, what she went through and sacrificed for every bit of joy I had growing up. I never saw it because what parent wants their child to know? By running away, I threw everything she did for me right back in her face as if it had been worthless. “No, she didn’t understand everything about what or who I was but that was because she didn’t see me as a kirin, she saw me as her child, and for the most part that was all she needed to know. That’s all your mother needs to know to be the best mother she can to you. That’s why you listen to her, that’s why you do what she tells you to do, because she does so much for you that you might never see that you owe it to her to be the best daughter you can be to her.” Midnight took a deep breath. “I’m telling you all this, how important this all is, because if I could go back in time, I would back-hoof my younger self and call me… several unrepeatable names for how I thought and acted. I can’t tell you how much I regret a lot of what I did and I’m seeing you starting to make those same mistakes. “Your mother loves you, Ember, and no matter how angry she ever gets, that’s not going to change. So, no matter how angry you ever get at her, don’t you ever say you hate her or want someone else to be your mom. One day you’ll look back and wish you could take it all back.” “But…” Ember finally said, “you said you would teach me how to be a kirin; she can’t do that.” “And she also doesn’t have the time to teach you proper schooling; that doesn’t mean Cheerilee is a better mom. When I found you Ember, I was so happy to finally meet another kirin that I made some very bad mistakes and assumptions again, being like a lot of ponies I’ve met before and concentrating on what you are and not who you are. All I should be to you is a teacher and a guide to only certain things that you’re mom doesn’t know or can’t handle. She can’t teach you how to safely breathe fire or fly or fine-tune your hunting skills when I, not you, think the time is right.” She sighed heavily. “Do you understand what I’ve been saying?” Ember nodded slowly. “Yeah, I think. When mom tells me to do something or not to do something, it’s because she’s trying to be good to me?” “She’s trying to teach you life lessons for being a good pony, er, being, things that every adult knows to do or not to do in certain situations. It’s like she’s preparing you for a role in a play and you have to know how to say your lines properly and where to stand.” Ember nodded again and Midnight was glad to see she seemed to understand that. “And when she’s angry, she really isn’t?” “She is,” Midnight said, “but to use the play metaphor again, it’s because you messed up so bad you could mess the whole play up, not just a line or two. She’s teaching you that when you do something wrong, there are consequences, and if you learn why what you did was wrong and that it’s a bad idea to ever do it again, then she’ll never have to yell at you for it ever again. Got it?” “Yeah.” “Alright then,” she sighed again, a sudden need rising in her chest. “I need to go somewhere for a while. When I drop you off at the house, you are going to go apologize to your mother for what you did, promise you’ll never do it again, mean it, and accept whatever punishment she has for you, understand?” “Yes,” Ember said, nodding. She didn’t look too pleased with the prospect of punishment, but what child ever did? “Alright then, hop on,” Midnight said, lowering herself so Ember could climb onto her back. It was dark now and even if the path from the cliff back to the house was safer than the rest of the forest, it was still not very safe at night. Ember obediently climbed up and once she was secure Midnight dropped down to the side door below. ----------------------------- “Midnight!” Summer said in surprise as she opened her front door. “Is everything alright? You’re here awfully late.” “Hey mom,” Midnight said, a bit sheepishly. “Yeah, everything’s alright, I just wanted to come by and visit for a bit.” Summer looked at a nearby clock. “At 8:30 at night?” Midnight shrugged. “Do I need a reason?” Summer stared at her older daughter for a second, then smiled warmly. “Not at all. Come in, come in. Would you like some coffee or tea?” “Coffee, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble.” As it turned out, Summer had already made up a pot before Midnight got there. “Autumn already asleep?” Midnight asked as Summer poured her a steaming cup. “Yes, and so is Orange; he’s heading back to Manehattan to pick up a camera one of his buddies fixed for him and he wants to get there as early as he can.” Midnight hummed as she added the cream and sugar. “So, anything new going one with you? I heard you went hunting with Scarlet today.” “Yeah,” Midnight said, following Summer to the kitchen table and sitting down next to her. She fiddled with her cup before saying, “I guess why I came over was to tell you… tell you how sorry I am for how I acted when I was younger, for running away, and how thankful I am for everything you did for me.” She leaned over and hugged her mother, even drawing her wings around her. “I wish I wasn’t such an idiot back then.” Surprised, Summer returned the hug. “Oh, baby girl, you didn’t mean any of it, you were just too young to say it properly. And how where you supposed to know what I was going through? What parent would let their child know something like that?” she said, unknowingly echoing Midnight’s own words. “Even so.” “Well, all’s forgiven.” “…I love you mom.” “I love you, too, baby girl. I love you, too.”