//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6 
// Story: And Now For Something Exactly the Same 
// by Damaged 
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A month of work and it seemed like we'd barely gotten anything done. Training for older foals meant ascertaining what skill such foals would be at. Then we had to get EEA certification—although that was really easy once they inspected our paperwork and found it stamped and approved by Princess Celestia. 

"And we still don't have our venue for this. If we want to run our first summer school this year, we need to work out where we'll hold this." I looked up at Sweetie and threw my hooves up.

"Where is easy. We build the summer school at the bottom of the mountain. It's central and close enough to Canterlot that we should be able to get ponies from there and all over Equestria. We need to build it from scratch, but that's what we prod the Guard Engineers for. Make the lieutenant work for us for a change." As she spoke, Sweetie Drops prodded at the map we had. "And the land down there is mostly unworked because of the shadow Canterlot casts over it. This means we don't have to pay anypony to move."

"We'll still need direct approval of the princess for this." I circled the spot Sweetie suggested.

"No, we need approval of a princess. It's late and I believe Princess Luna had started holding evening court. You should pay her a visit and see how her advisors are working out. I'll go talk to Stiff."

"Scootaloo will be here soon." I stretched and rolled my shoulders. It was almost time to go for a run, but I'd see Princess Luna first.

"Have you noticed anything about her?" Kissing me, Sweetie Drops let out a happy huff of breath and nuzzled me even when our lips parted.

"You mean how she got in tight with some fillies at school? That's distracting, you know." Despite my complaint, I nuzzled her back.

"I hadn't heard her mention that, but she has been very busy after school each day, even now Trixie has moved out. Also, she's running better." 

"She almost runs as fast as we can. Pegasi just have that extra stride, you know. Maybe I'll try to—" Our almost-embrace was broken at the sound of the front door of our small office opening. Jerking away from Sweetie, I spotted the subject of our discussion walking in. 

Scootaloo did look more solid, as well as the tone she was putting on from running with us. She'd developed some muscle across her breast that said she was doing something more than running with her forelegs. "Hey! What's up?"

"Just about to settle on a location for the summer school. What about you?" Sweetie asked. 

Opening her mouth, Scootaloo looked about to say something when someone knocked loudly on the door. She turned around and used her wing to open it—then looked up at the Royal Guard stallion who stood in the doorway. "Uh, hi?"

"I have an urgent message for Lyra Heartstrings from Tufts Mango. Your mother just went into labor. She's at Canterlot General hospital." The stallion didn't seem to blink at Sweetie and myself wearing armor, which meant he probably knew who we were. Well, of course he knew who I was, he hadn't asked to see me—he'd just blurted his message out. 

My brain prodded me that there was something more important to attend to that had nothing to do with the Guard or our plans or anything. Mum was having her foal. "Mum's having her foal? Mum's having her foal!"

Sweetie snorted a laugh. "Lyra, go. You can teleport yourself there quicker tha—"

I didn't let her finish. I jumped over my desk and grabbed Sweetie and Scootaloo with my magic, pulled them close, and teleported straight up. It had become as normal for me as running. I sighted around as gravity started to pull me down. The hospital was across the city, but there was nothing in the way between us and the ground in front of it. "Hold on!"

"Lyra!" Sweetie and Scootaloo shouted together.

Not normally teleporting to the ground directly, the reversal I added to our falling sent us bouncing up into the air a few pony lengths. Scootaloo jumped clear of us and spread her wings to glide down while I used a smaller teleport to bring us down to ground level again. 

"In the interests of time, I won't yell at you now for doing that. Come on." Sweetie led us inside in the unique way a mare in heavy armor could that defied everypony's ability to stand their ground against her. 

Everypony but the duty nurse who stepped in front of Sweetie and deployed a glare that said she'd stopped entire armies in this very entrance. "Are you invading, is this an emergency, or is this a social visit?" 

"Lyra's mother is having a foal. Joyce Mango." Sweetie planted her hooves and I could feel the buzz of her personal magic that could have stopped a train in its tracks. "Please escort us there immediately."

Leaning to the side to look around Sweetie, the nurse raised an eyebrow. "Funny, for the daughter of two bat ponies, she sure seems to be lacking in the bat department."

I didn't have time for this. Reaching out for Mum, I tried to locate her or Tufts. Tufts was far easier to find, and I picked coordinates nearby him—ran the numbers in my head as fast as I could—and grabbed Sweetie and Scootaloo with my magic.

Sweetie, unfortunately enough, was still anchored to the floor with earth pony magic—so when I tried to teleport, her anchor sucked all my magic up and sunk it into the rock under her. "Lyra? Oh, horseapples." 

Horseapples. It was the last word I remembered before everything turned black and fuzzy.





Waking up, I realized the mistake I'd made in trying to cast a complex spell on an earth pony who had grounded herself. Yup, and I even had the headache to prove it. "What happened?"

Sweetie loomed over me and reached to my face with her huge, armored hoof—and booped me. "You've got a new sister. Oh, and don't try to teleport me when I've anchored." The giant hoof retreated,  she stepped to the side, and I could see the rest of the room.

Mum was laying on a hospital bed on her back with a tiny bundle cradled in one wing. Beside her, Tufts seemed completely oblivious to anything but the two, and on her other side Scootaloo was asleep. 

Okay, the world around me seems fine, time to take stock of what I did to myself. 

Headache—check. 

Horn feeling like it was going to drop off—check (but at least that meant it hadn't dropped off yet).

Armor—missing (hopefully it was Sweetie or Scootaloo who removed it and not the nurse).

Nopony was panicking about anything, either, which meant I probably wasn't in too much trouble. Wait a second. "Mum?"

"Seems all I can get these days is girls. You want to come and see little Garawang?" She sounded like she was more wrecked than I felt, though her face was pulled into a big grin that had her fangs showing all the time.

"Garawang?" The name felt familiar, but I couldn't remember where it was from. Leaving that thought aside, I stood up and walked slowly over to the side of the bed Tufts was laying on.

"A native fruit. Tiny berries that taste like apples." Tufts reached out to me with one of his wings and hooked it around my neck to pull me closer. I froze at the sight of her eyes. Big and golden, she looked up at me with every indication that she knew who I was. 

"Whoa." It was all I could get out.

"You said the same thing when you first saw Robin," Mum said. "And Gara is fine for a shortened version of her name." Then Mum eased the blanket down from Gara's head and showed off her tufted ears and gray-black hair with a deep red mane.

Now I realized why Tufts was so engrossed. "She's amazing. Here eyes are—"

"Golden, like yours. I'd lift her out of her blanket so you can see her wings, but I can promise you they're huge, and she needs to rest too." Mum still sounded completely drained, but at the same time there was a warmth to her tone. "Sweetie said you tried to teleport to me when the nurse questioned you invading the hospital."

"Yeah. When Nurse Ratched tried to stop us, Sweetie dug her hooves in. I completely forgot about that when I grabbed her and tried to teleport us all to see you. Who'd have thought it would be bad to try to teleport an earth pony who doesn't want to be moved?" Setting my chin down on Tufts' side, I slumped myself against him and the bed. "How bad was it?"

"Easier than either you or Robin were. Pony bodies are so much better at this than human ones. Can't say I'm not feeling a little drained, still. I think, out of the two of us, you had a worse day." She stretched out a forehoof toward me.

Squirming to press my nose against her hoof, I relaxed a little more and almost slumped my way right off the bed. "We need to send word to Robin. She'll want to come and see Gara."

Mum's hoof rubbed the soft fuzz of my snout for a bit before she let out a chuckle. "Don't forget to let Dream and Candela know too. I don't suppose you'd be able to get me some of that fruit over there? I'm feeling a little drained and—Thank you, dear." She cut off short when Sweetie got her the whole bowl.

Tufts used his thumb-claw to tap Gara on the nose, only for the little bat pony to let loose a high-pitched squeak that was just about the cutest sound I'd ever heard. 

"Your armor's safe, love." Sweetie set the bowl down in front of Tufts. "Come on, let's get Scoots and head home so your parents can relax a bit before the coming storm."

Mum laughed. "This isn't my first chick in the nest. I know what's coming." Her eyes twinkled as we walked around and picked up Scootaloo.

"Mmm—What's going on? Where are we?" Scootaloo looked around and reached up with her hooves to rub at her eyes. "Oh."

Gara seemed intensely curious about everything and watched Scootaloo closely as I picked her up and set her on Sweetie's back. 

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Way past the last train to Ponyville, and the doctor said you won't be casting any more spells tonight. We'll head to the Guardhouse and get a bunk for the night. It's not like we use the ones they're supposed to provide for us anyway." Sweetie started for the door. "Your armor's under the bed, Lyra."

Feeling myself needing more sleep, I managed to drag my armor out and flop it over my back. "Sorry, Mum, wife is dragging me away. I'll visit again in the morning when my work can brain again good."

I stumbled out of the room with Mum and Dad's laughter behind me and followed Sweetie down the hall. Scootaloo (still on Sweetie's back) looked about how I felt. She was slumped down and looking at me with a grin, though. "No run tonight."

"Yeah. Was it really that bad to try to do magic on Bon Bon?" Scootaloo asked.

"If I'd been prepared for it and buffering for a fizzled cast, I could have shrugged it off. I wasn't exactly thinking straight at the time." Reaching through my own mind, I found things a little fuzzy in my short-term memory. "Ugh, and I think I've forgotten a few weaves, too. Guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow morning." 

"Don't you normally spend just an hour doing that?"

"Not when half my spell weaves—that should be pristine and clear to me—are fuzzy and loose around the edges." 

Sweetie cleared her throat. "Sorry about that. I didn't think you'd try to grab me, and reinforcing like that has become second nature."

Looking at her, I couldn't resist reaching out to hug my wife. Arguments were one thing, but staying mad at this mare was impossible for me. Halted as we were in the street, I had all my physical attention on Sweetie but my magic focus was yanked skywards.

When two alicorns—ancient beyond a thousand years—reach into the sky and shove heavenly bodies around, it causes a certain amount of wonder in any unicorn sensitive to their magic. With my horn still rattled by the failed teleport, I felt particularly vulnerable to the rush of power overhead.

"Are you alright, Lyra?" Sweetie asked.

With the spell broken—literally, they were done moving the sun and moon—I shook my head and looked back to Sweetie. "Sorry. With my horn all woogly, it made me a little extra sensitive to what the princesses do."

"Huh. Come on. We'll bed down and worry about the world again tomorrow." Sweetie led the way to the E.U.P. Guard grounds and we got waved through by the guard there. It was hard to even think straight, so I didn't and just kept following until—inexplicably—I was in a bedroom with just one bed. "Let me get that off your back. We can visit Sharp Horn tomorrow and she can chew you out for the state of your gear."

All I could manage was a whine as I stumbled toward the bed. Sweetie moved faster than I could process (which probably wasn't all that fast) and caught me on the bed. Strong legs and a snuggly muzzle found me and coaxed me to sleep.





It had been sunset when I'd gone to sleep, but my training wouldn't let me sleep past dawn. Dawn, when I felt again Celestia and Luna's magic thundering into the sky with intense purpose. The curtains were drawn, but they wouldn't stop me from feeling the sun's wrath. 

The shoulder I was using as a pillow shifted. "Awake?" Sweetie's voice was soft, for which I was thankful.

"Yeah. I'm way more sensitive to the princesses' magic than I should be. I need breakfast, a coffee, and a good run to get this out of my system, then I'm going to spend the rest of the morning focused on spells." Though the day was calling, and my morning was planned, I spent a few more minutes just snuggling and nuzzling Sweetie.

A knock at the door broke the mood, but only barely. Getting out of bed—a bed far too narrow for ponies who didn't know each other very well to sleep in together—I walked over to the mirror while Sweetie walked to the door.

I looked at my horn and found it to still be there. Yay. I didn't dare attempt to use my magic before having a clear head for it, so settled for using my hoof to straighten my mane and tail.

"Morning, Scoots. Sleep well?" Sweetie asked behind me.

Shifting a little, I could see over my shoulder in the mirror and spot Scootaloo at the door. She looked like she'd been up for some time doing exercise. Thinking back on the previous day, we'd talked about her adding new muscle.

"Morning!" Scootaloo said. "Are we running?"

I nodded to her in the mirror. "Heck yes. I feel terrible enough today without missing a few laps of the city."

"Is that meant to be sarcastic?" Scootaloo asked.

"Honestly?" Sweetie rolled her eyes at me. "I can't even tell sometimes. She can go from deadly serious to cracking wise in a heartbeat, but I think she's serious here. Let's go and stretch our legs."

Turning, I hoped my mane didn't look quite as bad as I feared. By the look on Sweetie and Scoots' faces, it did. Don't care. "I'll demand a double tribute of coffee after this."

"Yeah, yeah. Get your armor on and let's go."

"She's probably not using her horn, so we'll have to help with her armor." Scootaloo walked over to where my armor was on the floor and tried to pick it up. What surprised me is how well she was managing it.

"Yeah. My horn will be tender for a bit yet. I don't want to stress it," I said. What I wanted to ask, though, was how Scoots knew that. It wasn't like she'd been with me when I'd overreached with my magic before. I couldn't ask her outright, of course. She had a secret, and I had to trust her that it wasn't anything dangerous—and maybe pick up the pieces if it was.

I let Scoots help me get the armor on, and we headed out for our run. My whole body felt stiff, and the movement helped to free up all those muscles—all except one. We got three laps in at a good pace before we judged it time to break. Circling back around, we came into the training grounds again with a good lather under our armor. 

"Hey, uh…" Scootaloo was walking beside us to the mess, but she slowed a little. "I need to see Sharp Horn about something. Can I…?"

"Sure." Sweetie showed no hesitation. I could sense she was as curious as I was, but she seemed ready to let Scootaloo do her own thing. "We'll be in the mess having breakfast. Don't be long."

As soon as we were out of earshot of Scoots, we looked at each other with raised eyebrows. 

"She's been training," I said.

"She's getting armor," Sweetie said.

"But who's training her?" we both asked at the same time, then laughed.

The mess was fairly empty. There was a few other officers sitting down and chatting about this and that. Stiff Peaks was sitting down with a daily paper propped before him, eating his breakfast.

We aimed away from them, making our way to the serving counter and got a bowl of porridge each and a cup of coffee. I carried mine around like any earth pony would, and we settled at a table together. "We'd have noticed if it was someone from the Guard," I said.

Sweetie nodded. "True. That leaves somepony in the field, somepony in Ponyville maybe, or…" Her eyes widened and she grinned. "She knows a certain captain of the Royal Guard, doesn't she?"

It fit so well. I scooped some of the hot oats into my mouth and chewed them thoughtfully. When I gulped it down, I had come up with something. "We ask Cadance. She'll be able to get anything out of Shining. If it's him or even one of his subordinates doing it, she'll find out."

"That's a little cruel, don't you think?" Like me, Sweetie was gulping down her breakfast between sentences. "Getting a princess to use all her powers to crush the mind of one, poor captain?"

"He'll get over it. Besides, he needs to get used to—" I realized I was planning to do the thing I said I wouldn't. "Scratch that. We should let her have this. She—We should treat her like an adult."

Pausing for a few seconds—not even eating her food—Sweetie finally let out a sigh. "You're right. I just want to make sure she won't get hurt."

"If it's Shining organizing it, she won't. I'd trust any of the Royal Guard at my back." It was time for coffee. I reached out with both hooves, careful not to spill a drop, and lifted the mug to my lips and sipped.

"Lyra, if you made that face and that sound in public, we'd get arrested." Her comment almost made me spit the coffee out—almost. Not that Sweetie didn't enjoy her coffee too. She lifted her own mug and took a sip while making much the same face and sound I had.

We finished the sacred ritual of absorbing caffeine and stood up from the remains of our breakfasts and carried our trays over to the cleaning pile. I grabbed a second coffee, gulped it down, and we made our way out of the mess and back into the cool morning air. 

"Winter's getting closer," Sweetie said as if she heard my thoughts. "Where's Scoots? My hooves are itchy."

I fussed at my armor, working the straps to make sure it was on and fitted properly. By the time I was done, Scootaloo was trotting toward us, looking excited. And for good reason. The armor she was wearing looked like good, light pegasus armor, but there was obviously some work done to make it adjustable for the filly wearing it to grow. I recognized some of the modifications as those Sweetie had been designing for her adjustable heavy armor.

Okay, Lyra, time to play it cool. Don't even mention the armor. "Hey."

"Nice gear." Meeting Scootaloo halfway, Sweetie walked around her and tested the armor with a few strikes. "Solid fit, too. You need to brace behind hits. I can teach you that if you want?"

Scoots looked surprised. She hadn't expected us to offer to help? She rolled her shoulders under the armor and shrugged. "I have somepony teaching me stuff already. If you really want to, though, I could always tell them I found another trainer."

"Give me a few hours each evening before our run and I can get you bracing and shrugging off strikes in no time." Sweetie trotted in place a few times and then gestured to the main gate. "Come on, time to start getting used to extra weight."

It's true, I wanted to protect Scootaloo. That's why I joined up and why I stay part of the Guard, after all, but I could see a filly who walked in my hoofsteps. Dammit. When did I become a role model? "Last one to finish the first lap has to lead the second," I said.

The first lap saw us all gallop past the gate together, but I could see that Scootaloo was straining to keep up her pace. Armor put a whole different kind of purpose to every movement you took, and she wasn't used to that. At times she was fighting her armor, which meant she was burning more energy.

After the second lap, Scoots looked really beaten—but she strained to keep her pace up with ours. She was using that extra gear that pegasi had, and it was costing her stamina at a huge rate. I slowed my pace to a canter, which Scoots and Sweetie matched as well. "Sorry, guys, I guess I'm still a little wonky after last night," I said.

Lying through my teeth? Yeah. I could have galloped all day, but pride cost me nothing and bought Scoots a bit of a reprieve. She still looked like the third lap would do her in, but now it wouldn't send her to hospital. So we cantered around Canterlot, our muscles singing the tune all ponies' (and horses, I guess) bodies knew. 

By the time we got back to the Guard training grounds, Scootaloo looked pretty wiped out, but she was still moving. Hooray! 

"Alright, I'm going to hit the showers and then try to recover some semblance of my normal spell repertoire. Might I suggest giving Scoots a quick lesson in not fighting her armor?" I gave a wink to Sweetie when Scoots wasn't looking.

Pegasi metabolism being what it was, and her being the kind of filly who ran three times a day, Scootaloo was recovering fast. "Not fighting it? What do you mean?"

I left Scootaloo to Sweetie and headed for the showers. Once clean, I made my way to the Guard magic library and started in on my memorization work. Normally it only took an hour a day or so to keep most of my spells up to date—but I'd taken a major mental thump from the failed teleport, and everything felt fuzzy.

Teleport was the first. I opened the book—one of my spare spellbooks—to the appropriate page and began to dread what was coming. "No pain, no gain. Come on." Focusing on the weakest amount of magic I could, I produced the barest flicker of light—and it still caused my horn to throb.

By the time I was done with all but my simplest spells (that I still had a good grip on mentally), my stomach was grumbling and my legs felt like jelly. Too bad, I had a head full of magic and wanted a belly full of food. Trusting my horn to not fall off, I let my magic flow and ran the calculation I needed to go up—up a lot.

The clouds over Canterlot always felt at home to me for some reason. The pegasi didn't bother with the really high ones, and they provided great cover and, sometimes, a good place to stop and think. A quick shot of cloud-walking on my hooves and I landed on one fluffy ball of moisture and air.

"Hi, Lyra!"

It wasn't that uncommon to see a pegasus up here, let alone have one talk to me. I turned and looked back with a smile. "Hiya, Derpy. Fancy meeting you up here."

"Well, I am a pegasus. I was just taking Dinky to Canterlot to get her registered to receive her own payments. She's growing up so fast!" Shifting her body a little let me see that Dinky was astride her mother's back. 

"Hi, Lyra!" Waving a hoof, Dinky grinned from cheek to cheek. She was an adorable little filly, and sharp as a knife with magic. I might not have learned magic how your average unicorn did, but I couldn't help but recognize that she was well-ahead of foals several years older than her.

"How's my number-one student doing today? I hope Trixie has been keeping you on-track?" I walked over the soft cloud to where Derpy and Dinky were. Before Dinky could answer, I cast a cloud-walk spell on her.

Nodding her head a bunch, the filly nearly exploded my heart with cuteness. "Tr-Trixie taught me how to count cards!" 

There would need to be words with Trixie when I saw her next. "Did she? Well, counting and probability are good skills for a pony to have. What about your magic?"

"Oh! I learned how to clean things! Twixie has me re-memorizing it every day, though, so it's getting boooooring." Scrunching her snout up and squeezing her eyes closed, Dinky stuck out her tongue to show what she thought of it.

Turning her head, Derpy kissed Dinky on the nose. "But it's a great help." Both their faces burned bright with happiness. I was glad I wasn't diabetic or I'd be dead where I stood.

I'd mostly been focused on spells to help the foals learn, but maybe I should be pushing Dinky with ones that she'd want to use. I'll have to work on that idea. "I was just about to have lunch with Sweetie and Scootaloo. Would you two like to join us?"

"Can we, Mom? You have the whole day off, and we were going to have something anyway." Dinky jumped to her hooves and started bouncing on Derpy's back. She slipped on the third bounce and landed on the soft cloud.

Derpy looked from her filly to me with a frown on her face that quickly broke back into a smile. "Thank you, Lyra."

I gave her a wink. High as we were, even if Dinky fell from the cloud her mother would be more than capable of catching up with her before anything actually dangerous happened. It's why the sky was always safe for a pegasus—it was the last few meters that caused the most problems. "Dinky, you know cloud-walking. Why don't you cast it?"

"But you alread—" Dinky closed her eyes and I could feel her building the spell from memory. She had it perfect (better than I did six hours ago). "You wanted to test me, didn't you?"

"Always. Gotta keep you on your hooves. You think you'll get into Princess Celestia's school without work?" Reaching out with a hoof, I ruffled her mane a little. "Besides, you need to remember to do that whenever your mum is taking you for a fly."

Dinky nodded while her mother picked her back up with her wings.

"Where will we meet you?" Derpy asked while getting Dinky settled again.

I thought quickly for one of the places I used to visit frequently. "You know that little coffee shop on the second ring in the castle-quarter?" 

Derpy's wings shot up and she was nodding excitedly. "They do great muffins!"

"That's the one. How about we meet there in about ten minutes?" I asked.

Not pausing her nodding, Derpy just turned for the edge of the cloud. "We'll see you there!" She stepped off the cloud with her wings out, hovering in place for a moment before she started to drift away and down.

"Sometimes I wish I had wings, but from what Cadance said, it's not all it's cracked up to be to have all the toys." Stepping off the cloud, I triggered a teleport to the practice field I could see below. I didn't target right for the ground, of course. I popped into being about four meters in the air, just enough distance for a quick bouncy legs spell that had me land with ease right beside Scoots and Sweetie. "Hiya! You'll never guess who I met."

"Your magic's working again, I see. What was that spell you used at the end there?" Sweetie asked, her stance changing from "ready for anything" to "relaxed".

"Oh, wobbly-legs? It's normally used to disable a pony by turning their legs all rubbery, but I found if you reduce the kick to it, it makes your legs into great shock absorbers." I noticed that Scoots had been standing in that same wary pose, but she took longer to leave it. "Anyway, how does lunch in about ten minutes with Derpy and Dinky sound?"

"Like we need to rush a shower. Where are we heading?" Sweetie wasted no time. She was unbuckling her armor as she walked toward the shower block.

Giving chase, I kept pace with Sweetie and let Scoots catch up. "That little cafe I used to get lunch at all the time when I wasn't eating lunch at school. Want me to help you dry off?"

"That'd help." The way she said it made me think Sweetie would have wanted to do more than let me dry her off.

In the end we cleaned up and made our way through Canterlot sans armor. Sweetie and Scoots' armor was all sweaty, and mine still needed a little looking at. I don't like having others handle my armor—well, anypony but Sweetie and Scoots—and was still a bit worried the nurse might have done something to it.

There was a certain amount of off-dutyness to being out of our armor. Derpy and Dinky were already seated at a table with drinks in front of them. "Hi again!"

As we settled down, the waitress came over and pulled an extra table up so we had more room, and she also took our orders. It was an unwinding. We chatted about schooling—for both Dinky and Scoots—as well as the special school we were going to set up. 

Derpy talked about how she was giving pegasus lessons in Ponyville on her off days while she worked for the post office during the week. When Derpy let it slip that Dinky getting her own income would make life easier, it made my heart wrench into a knot. I didn't know things had been hard for her, but then I realized that she'd been raising a filly on just her own income—of course things would have been tight.

"Hey, uh, Derpy. You mentioned you trained in Cloudsdale's flight school, right?" I asked.

Perking up even more, Derpy ruffled her wings and nodded. "I was training up to be a Wonderbolt, but then I got my cutie mark and my eyes started messing up. It—It's not easy to talk about even now, but if it hadn't happened, I'd never have had Dinky." She reached a wing around her filly and gave her a kiss on the top of her head. "But if you're asking what I think you're going to ask, I'm too busy with my job at the post office, Lyra, and teaching young pegasi how to work their wings for Cheerilee."

I paused to catch up with her reasoning and realized she was ahead of me in the conversation by a few steps. "Ya got me. Are you sure we can't tempt you?"

"Until this little bundle of fluff is all grown up, I want to spend as much time as I can with her." Spreading her wing around Dinky's back, they hugged for a moment. "She might even want to go to your school."

"About that. I was thinking of sponsoring her, actually." I looked to Sweetie and noticed her shocked expression—she knew what I was talking about. "All the work I've done with Dinky has shown her to be a very special filly, and I know the perfect school for clever, young unicorns."

Tapping her chin with her hoof, Derpy looked down at Dinky. "What schools are there?"

"Well," Scootaloo looked across the table at Dinky, "she can't go to the Wonderbolts, and the earth pony university is out too. That only leaves the new school Lyra and Sweetie are making or…" She snapped around and looked at me before covering her snout with both hooves.

Leaning across the table, about halfway, I used my magic to make a hand to shield one side of my mouth and whispered loudly to Dinky, "Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns."

"I-I can't afford that," Derpy said.

"You won't need to. Princess Celestia accepts recommendations from her staff and former students. If Dinky was accepted in that way, her tuition would be free. If not, I'll pay for her to attend." It wouldn't be cheap, but Sweetie and I were getting paid well for our jobs and even helping Trixie get a new wagon didn't bite into that too much. 

Scootaloo, whether she wanted to go through the Guard or direct to the Wonderbolts, would have her path paved by others. 

"You can't do that, Lyra." Derpy looked shocked and turned to Sweetie. "You can't do that. Tell Lyra she can't."

Sweetie bumped my hoof with her own under the table before she started talking. "If Lyra thinks that's a good plan—and if it comes to that—then that's exactly what we'll do. Assuming, Derpy, that would be alright with you and Dinky?"

Dinky was bouncing in her seat and Derpy looked at least twice as confused as usual. "I—" Derpy looked at her excited filly and I saw the first crack in her resistance. "Y-You know what this means, Dinky?" When Dinky shook her head, Derpy yanked her a bit closer with one wing. "You have to work really hard in school and do your horn exercises."

"Yes, Mom." The little filly had a huge grin on her face. "I do that already."

The conversation returned to simpler things—things I didn't have to bet a stake in our family's finances in. When the lunch was over, and a great deal of hugging from both Derpy and Dinky wound down, we said our goodbyes and left the cafe.

"You can't help it, so don't bother begging my forgiveness. You don't need my forgiveness." Sweetie put a foreleg around my neck and pulled me into a hug the likes of which nothing short of a freight train could break away from. "I love you because you have that attitude, not despite it."

What else could I do than hug back? She was the greatest mare in all Equestria and somehow I'd found her and, crazier still, she'd agreed to marry me. "I love you too, Bon Bon, despite being unable to work out how a mad mare like me managed to catch your eye."

We traded more sappy and sweet phrases, only stopping when we both were lost for words due to giggling at them. "Let's go and see Princess Celestia instead of Princess Luna. We don't really have much else to do today," I said. "Then we can make more plans from there."

"We'll see your mom after that." Sweetie sounded absolutely firm on the matter. Of course, it reminded me of how amazing a pony birth had been—though I suspected Tufts might have had something to do with it too.

We broke the hug, though I couldn't stop walking beside Sweetie close enough that our shoulders and hips kept brushing. If Scootaloo weren't with us, I'd have booked us into a cheap hotel for the rest of the day. 

That's when it hit me. Mum having a new foal, offering to be a fairy godmother for Dinky, increased sex drive—I was going clucky. My hormones were screaming for a foal of my own. Wow.

Michael Robertson couldn't be further from who I was now. Slaking my desire for an offspring only required me to look to my other side and see Scootaloo. She was as much a daughter to me as I will ever have. 

Sweetie bumped my shoulder a little more firmly. "You're quiet. What's up?"

When I looked around me, broken from the daze of my own thoughts, I realized we were at the ramp that led up to the castle. "Realizing a bunch of things. I was getting clucky."

"You were what?"

"Clucky. It's, uh, based on the sounds chickens make." I only just realized I'd used an Equestrian accent to say an English word. Well, I had to move on now. "It means I kept seeing foals around me and got them on my brain."

"Ah. Biological clock ticking a little early, don't you think?" Sweetie asked.

"Turns out I'm all-in on being a mare now. Michael wouldn't have had these thoughts, I can tell you."

"Thoughts?"

"I need to learn to keep my mouth closed, don't I?"

"You didn't answer the question."

"Okay. So I was thinking about it all. How seeing Mum with Gara, Derpy with Dinky, and even the naughty things I was thinking about you all piled up to one conclusion—and it was stupid. I already have an amazing filly to help take care of." I turned my head to look at Scoots. "Just nod and look adorable."

After a moment of her looking at me with confusion on her face, I shrugged. "That'll do. So, big confession I guess. I think of you as my filly." Was I saying these words? It seemed like I was, and the surprise on Scoots' face seemed to imply I was. "I don't mean to—"

"Lyra, I—I kinda feel the same way. Whenever I do anything new, I want to come running to you or Sweetie to show it to you—just like I did with Mum. When I get sad, I want you to hug me—and you do." Scootaloo sighed. "I actually started feeling bad getting training behind your backs, but I didn't want you to worry about me. I wanted to be strong."

"Well, you still have a bit of growing to do." It was understatement of the year, though for her age Scootaloo was doing super well. "And I might slip and say something that implies you are my filly. Can you deal with that? You're allowed to bop me on the shoulder if I do."

"Only if I can slip and call you Mum every now and again."

Ugh. These feelings were too strong and—dammit, now I'm crying. Using my magic I picked Scoots up hugged her, then put her on my back. And that's how we marched all the way up to the front doors of the royal castle.

I didn't recognize the stallion taking names at the entrance. He took one glance at me and nodded softly. "Sergeant Lyra Heartstrings, Sergeant Sweetie Drops, and Scootaloo to see Her Highness. Please escort them through as the next petitioner." It was an odd sensation to be known on sight to someone who I didn't know. We weren't wearing our armor, she he must have either read a description or seen us.

"We're not in a hurry," Sweetie said. "We can wait behind the others."

"Sergeant, I am not going to be the pony to tell Princess Celestia why you were kept waiting when her direct orders were that if you ever come here seeking audience, you be admitted at the next possible juncture." The stallion gestured with a hoof that I estimated could break a tree in half. "Please, proceed to the end of the hall."

Scoots jumped down from my back. "I mean, you are here on official business, right?"

Dammit, she was right. I sighed, since I couldn't think of a good enough gag to use in reply. There was nothing else for it but to be resigned to exploiting privilege. At the front of the queue we weren't even told to wait—the Royal Guards just opened the doors and let us in.

Princess Celestia wasn't alone. Even excluding her guards, Prince Blue Blood was present—as was Princess Luna.

Okay, so a packed house of royalty, and here was me, my wife, and my adopted daughter. That last bit, even in my head, sounded amazing. "Your Highnesses," I said as I dipped my head the appropriate amount.

The moment the doors closed behind us, all three royals sighed. Luna, however, passed a Bit to Celestia. "Next time I won't take that bet."

"Ah! It's been some time since I've had a meeting with a fellow troubleshooter. I trust you and your family are doing well?" Blue Blood waved us over to the little grouping he had with Celestia and Luna.

I looked at Sweetie, then at Scoots, and had to admit things were going well, despite the craziness that seemed to happen around us. "We're well. How goes your eternal search for the perfect mate?"

Both Luna and Celestia snorted, while Blue actually laughed. "Such a creature, I fear, doesn't exist. It doesn't help that everypony knows me as the foppish, self-absorbed nincompoop who only reflects on his own beauty. Well, everypony who doesn't know me professionally."

"Lyra's the opposite. Nopony but Scootaloo and myself know how much of a lunatic she is." Sweetie tilted her head to look at me, daring me to gainsay her.

I just shrugged. "Guilty as charged." Of course I stuck my tongue out at her. "But my continued charade of normalcy is not why we're here. We need a grant of land to build our school on, and a further grant for a stadium."

Sweetie produced the sheaf of papers and let me pass them to Celestia. "As you can see, we have a site scouted out already that would be perfect and isn't already in use."

"The base of the mountain?" Celestia sounded surprised.

"It would have great access to Canterlot via the railway." Princess Luna was bringing up all the talking points for us, or so I hoped, so I decided to keep my mouth shut. "And it is just as central to the rest of Equestria as Canterlot. The only downside is there are literally no services extended down there. You'd need power and water."

Sweetie was quick to reply. "The main aquifer that feeds Canterlot's water supply is nearby. With just a little work we could bore into that for water. Power is another matter."

That's when it came to me. "We won't need power. We'll have unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi. Teaching them to work together to work around what each lacks will be a major part of the school." It worked so well I should have thought of it before.

Luna looked surprised for just a moment before a big smile creased her lips. "Working together in harmony is a good endeavor. If my sister doesn't grant you access to this land, I will."

It surprised me that Luna would make such a statement, but then, she did want to be seen as an active influence on Equestria. At first I thought Celestia was going to say something to Luna to claim it back for herself, but instead she nodded. "I believe this will be a good project for you to approve. Are there any other assets you'll require?" Princess Celestia asked.

There was, and I should have thought of this before too. "We'll need a Guard outpost. Sweetie and myself would be enough, but we can't always be there. The foals' safety needs to be our top priority."

Smiling more, Princess Luna dipped her head. "Please tender such a request to Lieutenant Stiff Peaks. I'm sure he'll be able to resolve that issue." 

"Was there any more business?" Princess Celestia asked.

Something clicked for me as to how I thought about both princesses—how they spoke and what they were talking about also affected whether I measured them as being on duty or not. I even thought of them as more princess in those moments.

"Actually," Sweetie Drops said, "there was one more thing. One of our friends is a single mother, and though she worked hard at multiple jobs, she still barely had enough bits at the end of each month. Is there really no compensation for single parents with a foal under the legal age to receive their own payments?"

Celestia paused, and I mean really paused. She appeared to stop breathing for a moment, then became animated again. "A quick review of the payment code would reveal there is such a hole. I will ensure something is done about your friend's situation."

"Well, her daughter has just reached the legal age where she can apply for her own, but I'm sure she's not the only single mother out there—" I'd almost forgotten! "Also, I'd like to propose her daughter for a scholarship to your school."

I'd like to say I captured her interest. She raised one eyebrow and I got a glimpse of both her eyes at the same time as her mane fluttered a little more than usual. "You have taught her?" At my nod, she smiled and her face registered more relaxation. "Then she's accepted."

Just like that. Was my word really that powerful? It was a little startling that she would say yes without even having seen Dinky. "No test?"

"She's already passed the most important one—she impressed one of the greatest magic users in Equestria. If you think a test would be a good idea, however, I could arrange for one." This was pure Celestia. There was none of the ruler in the way she spoke, only a mare who enjoyed helping foals become all they could.

"I think it might be best. She's still very young, but I'd judge her memorization and attention to detail as being that of a foal several years older than her. Can I give her the news?" It was exciting, and I couldn't wait to see Derpy and Dinky's faces when I told them she got in.

"That is my prerogative." Celestia stuck her tongue out at me. "Imagine how excited she'll be when I knock on the front door?" 

Blue snorted, reminding me that he was present. "It's one of auntie's favorite things." It was so easy to lose track of even an amazing pony like Prince Blue Blood with both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna present. They filled the room so much that it almost made everypony else seem smaller.

"Perhaps I could do a similar thing with your school, Lyra?" Luna, I realized, would make a great figurehead for the school. She was just as regal as her sister, but she had a certain youthful energy.

I nodded. How could I not agree to having a princess as a patron of the school? "That would be great! Though, we will be accepting anypony, so there won't be as much competition as with Princess Celestia's school."

"Everypony?" Luna asked.

Sweetie mad an affirmative noise. "Absolutely everypony. This isn't something we're willing to bend on. If we have two hundred foals arrive on our first day, we'll find a way to teach all two hundred of them."

"If we have business taken care of, I have a small task for you, Lyra." Despite her claiming business was done with, this was Princess Celestia all the way. I was a trouble-shooter and she had some trouble. "As you may know, I have my annual Grand Galloping Gala coming up soon. I'd like you both there as casual guards. I'm not expecting anything exactly, but I have an uneasy feeling that life will be getting far too interesting soon, and I don't want to be caught unawares."

It wasn't the kind of request any Guardpony would say no to. Beside me, Sweetie joined me in straightening up and snapping off a crisp salute. What I didn't expect was Scootaloo on the other side of Sweetie managing her own perfect salute. "Your Highness, we're on the job."