With time, the foals began to grow and flourish as individuals. The elder sister was energetic, loud, playful, and mischievous. She spent her days aiding their new parents around the home. The younger was quiet, thoughtful, and proper. She chose to remain indoors most days, too small to do as much as her sister...

“How much longerrrr?” Celestia wined pathetically from her place at the table. Her chair had been turned around to face the hearth and counter, and Luna sat beside her, appearing far less anxious.

Honey smiled at Celestia’s question and gave an exasperated titter. “Be patient, Celestia. Luna’s loaf is almost ready,” she said with a simple nod towards the counter. Celestia followed her adoptive mother’s gesture to see the two hidden loaves of bread hidden beneath a loose cloth; the fruits of both her and Luna’s labors. The smell of fresh bread had long ago filled the cozy interior of the home, and Celestia’s stomach was starting to growl intensely.

Luna looked sideways at Celestia as she once again fidgeted, a far less amused look on her face. “I still dunno why you wanted to make this a competition…” she muttered quietly, a lock of her blue mane falling in front of her face.

Celestia turned back to Luna. Her little sister had grown considerably in the last two years. She had a skinny frame at this point, an indication of her light diet and lack of intense physical exercise. Her mane and tail had grown out slightly, and her wings were now easily large enough to keep her aloft for long periods of time on the rare occasion she was called on to help Celestia deal with the weather.

Celestia, meanwhile, had grown comparatively little in the same time. She still stood a full head shorter than Honey, and even shorter than that compared to Sprout. The twelve-year-old filly’s wings had grown noticeably, though, to the point that Honey and Sprout had confidently told her they were larger than that of most pegasi her age. Although, they had gone on to clarify that they hadn’t actually met pegasi her age, and were simply assuming based on the wings on the adults they had seen in their time.

Celestia stuck out her tongue at Luna. “Cause it’s more fun to do boring stuff when there’s a game attached to it!” she proclaimed enthusiastically.

“Like how you and dad see who can find the most dead plants, or lift the biggest fallen trees?” Luna asked.

Celestia beamed, thinking fondly back on some of her exploits on that front. “Absolutely!”

Luna hummed quietly but did not offer up any other form of response. Celestia frowned at her, wanting to playfully thump her on the shoulder and get her to liven up a little. She resisted the urge, though, and instead refocused on Honey.

The older mare smiled at them again, then turned to the cloth. She eyed it for a few moments and sniffed a few times before turning to look out the nearby window, muzzle scrunching up in thought. She was probably trying to gauge how much time had passed. After a few seconds, she gave a satisfied nod and turned to the cloth. “Alright, kids, I think we’re about ready.”

Celestia immediately focused on the bread, her eyes alight with excitement. “Alright! Crown of the Dough Master, here I come!” she said, shifting eagerly on her haunches.

Luna rolled her eyes and Honey chuckled. Then, with a needlessly fanciful flourish, Honey rolled the cloth down and swiped it off of the bread. Celestia remembered that her loaf had been the one on the right.

The two loaves looked to be largely identical at a first glance, but after staring for a moment, Celestia began to pick out the occasional lumps and bumps marring the shape of Luna’s, while her own was, by and large, relatively uniform. It was obviously a far cry from what Honey could make, but, if nothing else, Celestia’s had a better shape than Luna’s.

A thought confirmed by Honey with a sagely nod. “Well, Celestia, looks like yours has a better shape. Very consistent and even. Luna, yours has more hills and valleys all over. I’m seeing a lot of bumps.”

“Ha! Alright, that’s one win for me!” Celestia cheered, pumping her hoof in victory. Luna glanced sideways at her.

“Well, there’s still two more criteria to get through,” Honey said, stifling her amusement as she moved on to the next one. “Next, let’s see how firm they are.”

Celestia was quick to quiet down, but she was not able to resist the urge to stick her tongue out playfully at Luna. Her younger sister pouted at her and returned the gesture, causing both of them to giggle slightly. A few seconds later, Honey let out a quiet ‘oh my,’ drawing the two foal’s attention.

Celestia blinked. “Wow. Luna, how in the hoof did you manage that?” she asked, pointing at her sister’s loaf. Honey had just cut a slice out of each of the loaves, revealing their insides. Celestia’s was white and fluffy, looking to be about as dense and firm as Honey’s, while Luna’s looked a bit more like someone had taken one of Honey’s loaves of bread and used a fallen tree as a rolling pin to compress it.

Honey examined the bread for a few seconds, then shrugged her shoulders. “Well, whatever the case, the bread being hard isn’t necessarily a loss.”

“What?” Celestia exclaimed in confusion. “But, but, mine’s all soft and fluffy! How is that not better?”

“Because some ponies like their bread hard,” Honey replied without missing a beat. “We’ll call this round a tie.”

Celestia crossed her hooves in a childish grump, ignoring how Luna blew a raspberry in her direction. She was definitely gonna get her back for that later if she had any say in the matter.

“And finally, there is the taste test,” Honey declared. She cut two more slices from each loaf, gave one of each slice to both Celestia and Luna, and kept the remaining two for herself. “Now, I want you two to be honest in how you feel about your sister’s bread here, alright? If they did better than you, admit it with grace. If we wind up in a tie, I’ll be the tie-breaker.”

Honey nodded. “Of course! Now, Celestia’s first. Take your time, really taste it.”

Celestia resisted the urge to groan. It was pretty evident at this point she was going to win, so why bother with taking their time? No way Luna’s rocky cracker of a loaf of bread tasted better than hers, but she didn’t make the rules; she followed them. So, with a smile, she took a bite out of her bread slice.

“Not as good as mom’s,” she thought with a hum as she chewed. “But still good.”

The trio chewed in silence for a few moments before moving on to Luna’s slices. Celestia eyed the hardened slice in her magic for a few moments, testing its toughness by applying pressure from both sides. It was definitely dense, she had to give it that. And hard. It resisted her efforts to compress it quite impressively. After a few seconds, she shrugged and took a bite.

Celestia had to bite excessively hard to pull the chunk of bread away, and it crunched and crumbled in her mouth in the process. The taste wasn’t bad, per se, but it was definitely made a lot less enjoyable by the fact it felt like she was chewing a rock. If she were a dragon, she’d probably rate this bread a lot higher, but as it was? Nah, not a chance.

The room was filled with the crunching of their chewing for a short time before Luna stuck out her tongue in disgust. “Blegh. I’m not a good baker…” she complained.

Celestia grinned, turning back to Honey. “Alright! I win mom, I win!” she said, bouncing eagerly.

Honey chuckled, setting the bread back on the counter. “Yes, yes, I suppose you did,” she acknowledged. “Alright. With the power invested in me as the Dough Master, and as your mother, I hereby confer the title of Dough Master Junior to Celestia!”

Celestia’s heart swelled with pride. She knew it was a basically meaningless title. Heck, she had invented it as a joke when they started this little contest. That didn’t matter, though, when her mother had delivered it in such an authoritative and official-

Honey’s smirk was one of complete parental mischievousness. “You’re going to have to work a lot longer and harder than that if you want to dethrone me, little miss,” she stated, her words an open challenge and affront to Celestia’s very soul.

“What?! Oh, it is on!” Celestia declared, shooting up to her hooves from the chair and sticking out her chest. “Just name a time! I’ll bake up the best-darned loaf of bread you’ve ever seen! Or cake! Or, or, uh, a bagel!”

Honey snickered at Celestia’s enthusiasm before reaching over and ruffling her mane. “When I’m ready to face you down, you will be the first to know, Celestia. But for now, let’s just enjoy the fruits of your labors, hm?”

“I won’t say no to that,” Celestia replied, hopping back up onto the chair. Luna nodded in agreement, and the two foals waited patiently for Honey to cut them more of Celestia’s bread. It had long been a practice that Honey dished out the food servings because Celestia would take too much for herself and Luna would take literally anything else.

The trio fell into idle chit chat once the bread was evenly distributed. Celestia dug into her slices with gusto. She asked Honey for pointers on how she could do better next time and listened intently as she was regaled with tips and tricks on how much to add to the dough, how long to let the dough rise, how long to let it bake, and so on.

The front door of the home suddenly swung open, drawing Celestia’s attention. Sprout walked in with a smile on his face. “Hey, girls. You all having fun in here without me?” he asked.

Honey turned to him with a smile. “Just enjoying some bread your daughters made.”

Celestia shot up in her seat, propping her hooves on the tabletop. “Mine was better than Luna’s!” she declared emphatically. “I’m the dough master!”

“Junior,” Honey corrected, drawing a pout of indignation from Celestia. Honestly, would it be that bad to just let her have the title?! She came up with it!

Sprout laughed at the exchange. “Ha. Well, I hope you all saved some slices for me!” he said cheerily. He wiped his hooves in front of the door and cantered for the table, ready and eager to partake in the freshly-baked meal.

In short order, he had joined the others at the table and similarly joined in on the conversation as he was given some bread of his own to nibble on. Honey sat beside him. “So, how was your work out there today?” she eventually asked.

“Pretty much the same as normal. A little colder than usual, but eh, nothing too bad,” he replied with a shrug. “Was weird, though. When I first went out there I thought I heard something out in the forest. Lots of snorting and grunting and shuffling around. Went quiet before long, though.”

“Probably. Dunno what kind, though,” Sprout said with a sage nod. “But enough about me. This bread…”

He held up one of Luna’s slices, eliciting a timid squeak from the blue filly. Sprout gave her a questioning look. “When did we start making rocks?”

Luna whined pathetically from the quip, and Celestia could only snicker at her expense.

From there, the family’s conversation devolved into small talk, and the day continued as normal. Once their bread was consumed, the leftovers were stored away for later, and Honey set about her self-appointed task of tidying up around the home. Luna retired to her room for a while, while Celestia opted to spend some time with Sprout, watching him work a small knife against a piece of wood he had brought inside.

Slowly but surely, he was chiseling the piece of wood into a shape. According to him, it was going to be a pony when he was done, but right now it really just looked like a block with some legs and a lump coming out the top. The details would come with time, Sprout assured her.

The hours slowly ticked by, the sun inching ever so slowly across the horizon. Eventually, Celestia retreated to her room to spend some time with Luna. The younger sister had the curtains drawn, as per the usual, enjoying her seclusion in the dark and the quiet. Celestia simply lay beside her and kept quiet as Luna played with little wooden figures that Sprout had carved for her a long time ago.

Eventually, the light outside began to grow dim. Celestia looked up at the window, trying to gauge what time it was. They probably had another hour or two of light, if she were guessing right. Maybe a little longer. It varied from time to time, depending on the ‘whims of the unicorns’ according to Sprout. It fascinated Celestia that they could move the sun and moon with their magic alone, and she sometimes caught herself wondering if she would ever be able to pull off something like that.

She blinked. “Huh… that’s weird,” she said, breaking the long silence that had been filling the room.

Luna turned to her, still lightly clacking her figures together in a childish imitation of an epic, honorable duel. “What is it?”

Celestia pointed at the window and pulled the curtain back a little with her magic, just enough to give a better view. “Look. The light. It’s getting dark.”

“Well, yeah,” Luna replied, tilting her head. “It’s almost night, isn’t it?”

Celestia rolled her eyes. “Well, yeah, duh, but look,” she said, pointed more emphatically. Luna looked and finally saw what Celestia was pointing out, if the tilt of her head was anything to go off.

The world outside was turning darker far faster than it should have on a regular day. The colors outside were steadily becoming more muted as well, with ominous shadows rolling over from time to time.

“But… didn’t we clear them all out yesterday?” Luna asked, sitting up and shrinking back. “There shouldn’t be any more.”

As if in answer, a single drop of water suddenly splattered against the window. It was followed shortly by another, and another. Soon, sheets of rain were coming down in uneven patterns, pummeling the roof and filling the room with a low, rumbling white noise.

The door to the room suddenly opened up, and Sprout poked his head in. “Hey, you two seen what’s going on outside?” he asked.

Luna nodded. “It’s raining,” she said quietly, shifting closer to Celestia as if she were nervous.

Sprout nodded. “Yup. A bunch of wild clouds just rolled in. Now, I’m all for my crops getting plenty of rain and all that, but this is a bit much.”

Celestia, already seeing where this was going, turned and jumped down from the bed. “Lemme guess; you want us to take care of it?”

“Well, before it gets dark, preferably,” Sprout replied. “Don’t want my plants getting waterlogged, or for you two to get lost. This rain’s pretty cold, too, so don’t stay out so long that you end up sick, alright?”

“Well, more cold than usual, at least,” Sprout replied with a shrug. “Rather not run the risk of it waterlogging my plants, or killing them with such a sudden drop in temperature.”

Celestia frowned. How odd that there would be cold rain coming in now of all times. They were sliding into summer, weren’t they? She eventually shrugged her shoulder dismissively. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that the weird weather was causing a problem, and she and her sister were needed to fix it. “Sure, we can do that. C’mon, Lulu.”

Luna hesitated, lingering on the edge of the bed. “B-but, isn’t the weather usually really nice this time of year?” she asked anxiously. “I mean, it’s almost summer, isn’t it? All the bad weather’s gone, and Tia and I got rid of all the clouds yesterday.”

Sprout shrugged. He stepped aside as Celestia passed him by. “Usually, yeah. Guess the sky had other ideas today, though.”

Celestia’s frown deepened as she passed through the front door of the house and emerged onto the porch. She came out to see Honey already standing there, looking up with an irritated grimace. Celestia looked up into the sky as well to survey the scene. Several darker-than-usual clouds had rolled in, sure enough. They were hovering sporadically over a fairly large area of land, dumping irregular sheets of water. A nipping breeze had accompanied them, whistling through the trees in a way that was unsettling.

Sprout and Luna came out to join her and Honey a second later. Luna blinked a few times before shrinking back, clearly intimidated. Celestia caught sight of this and gave her a big, reassuring grin. She reached over and playfully smacked Luna on the back with her wing. “Come on, Luna, it’s just a few clouds. We’ve busted worse than this before.”

Luna was quiet for a moment, then gave a reluctant nod. “I guess so,” she admitted, moving forward to stand by Celestia’s side. “But… that was always in fall or winter when the weather gets bad.”

Celestia nodded. “Yup. I guess they’re just being stubborn this year,” she said while patting her sister on the back. She turned to give Sprout and Honey a cocky grin. “Don’t worry, dad. We’ll have the sky clear for you in no time.”

“Just be careful, yeah?” Sprout said before she could kick-off. “Maybe I’m just being a paranoid old man like Honey keeps telling me I am, but something just feels weird about those clouds.”

Celestia rolled her eyes. “You said it yourself, dad, you’re being paranoid.”

With that, she jumped into the air. She paused a few yards up to make sure Luna was following her. Luna was slower than Celestia, but she caught up soon enough. Celestia nodded at her before the two continued their ascent side by side. She had to squint to see her goal through the rain splattering against her face and soaking into her coat. The urge to shudder from the cold was strong, and the upward flight they were on made it feel much worse.

Celestia began to veer off slightly, aiming for one of the larger clouds. She rotated toward Luna as she went. “Try and break up some of the bigger clouds first, alright?!” she hollered to be heard over the wind in their ears. “It’ll make it easier to get rid of ‘em!”

Luna shouted back an affirmative, though the specific words were lost over the wind. Celestia nodded, grinned encouragingly, and turned her attention back to her intended target. She stretched out her hooves in response to punch right through it, hoping to undo it in one fell swoop.

To her shock, her hooves met with fierce resistance the moment they came into contact with the cloud. The soft, fluffy surface pushed back as if there were a living creature shoving violently against the inside of the cloud. The force generated by her momentum bled away, and she was forced to back off. She came to a hover a few feet away, eyeing the cloud with a bewildered frown.

“Huh?” she asked. That was weird. No cloud she had ever encountered before had been quite this dense, or so quick to stop her in her tracks. Even the densest of snow clouds she had faced only ever gave a moment of resistance at the worst of times. An uneasy feeling began to build up in her gut. She leaned in to inspect the cloud more closely, now that the rain was out of her face. She prodded her hoof experimentally against the tuft a few times.

The cloud was cold to the touch. Bitingly so. Celestia winced and drew back by reflex, considering her opposition. After a few seconds, she took a deep breath, backed up, coiled like a spring, and launched herself for the cloud again. She angled her hooves in front of her like before, but this time she brought them close together. If punching through hadn’t worked, maybe piercing the clouds like she were an arrow would yield better results.

Again, the clouds offered fierce resistance. In fact, if she didn’t know any better, she would say it felt like the cloud fought back harder than before. Celestia’s teeth ground together behind her lips, until finally, finally she was able to punch a hole through the thick, chilly mass.

This time, she shivered uncontrollably as she passed through. A deep chill invaded her body during that brief moment when the cloud’s residue had surrounded her. Her hooves quickly wrapped around her barrel, while her lungs took in an involuntary gasp of air. These clouds were freezing on the inside!

Celestia turned back to look at the lingering wisps of the cloud she had just busted. She had spent far longer on that thing than she considered justifiable. She began to think about how these clouds were different. They were new. A pit of unease formed in Celestia’s gut, and she very quickly began to fear for Luna. If Celestia had struggled with these things, how would her little sister fair against them? She didn’t have experience with all of the hard manual labor that Celestia typically volunteered for.

Celestia darted around the sky, eyes sweeping this way and that, searching for any sign of her sister. To her relief, it did not take long to spot the little filly. She was struggling against one of the clouds, using all of her body’s weight—as little as that was—to try and push it away from the clearing. Like Celestia’s, this one was clearly fighting back against her every effort with unusual ferocity.

Grimacing, Celestia put a bit of extra power into her wings. She outstretched her hooves, angling to pierce it from the side, hoping she could break the cloud up before Luna had a chance to push through it herself. Celestia did not want her sister to feel the sudden chill that she had.

She came in hard and fast, and her hooves met their mark. The cloud, as the last one had, resisted her, but just like before, she was able to punch through after applying sufficient force. She huddled up as she passed through, trying to keep her warmth on the inside as the unspeakable cold washed over her. She shuddered again before turning to a now-confused Luna.

“Y-y-yeah,” Celestia chattered out, realizing that she was shaking. She shook herself to kick up her body temperature, and flashed Luna a reassuring smile. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Okay…” Luna did not seem convinced, but she did not press the issue. She turned to face the other clouds, her muzzle scrunching up. “I don’t like these clouds… They’re really hard.”

“Tell me about it,” Celestia replied, coming to a stable hover by Luna’s side. There were still plenty of them, and after the trouble the two had gone through just to break up two of the things, it occurred to her that relocation might be the wiser course of action.

Not to mention the cold they contained… She did not want to feel it a third time. Nor did she want to let Luna endure it herself.

“What do we do?” Luna finally asked, drifting a little closer to Celestia’s side.

“Well, we shouldn’t break them, that’s for sure,” Celestia reluctantly admitted. She turned to Luna and nodded. “We’ll just have to move them. It’ll take longer, but it should be safer.”

Luna nodded. “Okay. But they’re really hard to move, too,” she pointed out.

Celestia grunted before angling her head until her neck popped a few times. “Eh. We’ll manage. Now let’s go!”

With that, the two set to work. They stuck close to one another, joining their strength to move the clouds away from their home one at a time. It was a long and laborious process, with each cloud doing its best to stay put and only eventually succumbing to the sisters’ shared physical strength with what could be mistaken as begrudging, malicious compliance.

It didn’t take long for Celestia’s hooves to start going numb. Even without busting the clouds open, the chill they radiated was enough to make her want to shiver. All the while, she grit her teeth and fought the feeling aside, if only so that she appeared strong for Luna.

They took to taking the clouds a ways away from the clearing before giving them harsh kicks to send them drifting even further away. Their flight path routinely took them over the forest. With every pass, Celestia became increasingly aware of just how quiet things had become down there. It was as if the animals and birds were waiting for some horrific beast to pass them by, afraid of alerting it to their presence.

It wasn’t until they were pushing away the final cloud that the silence was broken. Celestia gave off a sigh of relief as they sent it packing. She lifted a numb hoof up to her forehead to wipe away the sweat, then turned to give Luna a warm smile. “And there we go! All done.”

Celestia reached out to give Luna a side hug before turning to head back for the house. “C’mon. Mom and dad are probably wondering what’s up,” she said. “And I’m kinda hungry after all that.”

The two flew in silence for a short time after that. It was almost dark out now, painting the forest below them in muted, darkened shading. Foreboding shadows pooled in the densest regions, obscuring all within. Celestia tried to keep her eyes on the horizon, looking out for their home. Soon, the house became visible in the distance, and Celestia could pick out the shapes of Sprout and Honey waiting patiently for them in the front yard. She lifted a hoof to wave at them in an ‘all clear’ sign. She saw Sprout waving back, and began to pick up the pace.

Suddenly, Luna looked down towards the forest and came to a stop, her eyes flying wide. “Huh?” she asked in surprise.

“What is it?” Celestia asked, confused. She turned to face Luna in mid-air, then followed her line of sight. There was a clearing down below, not terribly far away from the home. It was dense with bushes and rocks. Looking a little closer, Celestia realized that there were animals resting in it. Ones that she hadn’t seen more than a couple of times in all her time living here. Mountain deer, she thought.

“What- Luna, hey! Come back here!” Celestia protested, flying after her. “Mom and dad are waiting for us!”

“I just wanna take a look!” Luna called back, picking up the pace. Celestia grit her teeth, withholding a groan of exasperation. Luna was a shy and timid little filly, but she was also insufferably curious, and terribly stubborn to boot. It would be foolish to try and dissuade her, and so Celestia opted to simply follow her sister down into the clearing.

“Just don’t get too close, alright? We don’t wanna spook them. Big animals can be dangerous,” Celestia instructed once she caught up to Luna. “We stay in the air.”

The two continued their descent for a short time, drawing ever closer to the scene. Details began to become clear as they drew in. Celestia’s brow furrowed in confusion. She had never seen animals laying down like that before. There were three mountain deer sprawled haphazardly amidst the bushes, unmoving, and seemingly oblivious to the foals’ presence.

“Woah… look at them!” Luna whispered, pointing between the three deer. “They’re so big!”

“Yeah, they are…” Celestia replied, eyeing the slumbering creatures curiously. It was odd for such creatures to nap in the middle of the day, wasn’t it? What were they doing here?

Suddenly, Luna gagged and clasped her hooves over her muzzle. “Uuegh!” she groaned in disgust. “What is that?!”

The smell hit her like a punch to the teeth. A foul, indescribable odor swam up her nostrils as they descended into the clearing. Her stomach churned with revulsion, and several instinctual red flags flew up in her brain all at once. She stuffed a hoof up to her muzzle to keep in the bread she had eaten earlier, and her eyes began to water.

“It’s bad,” Luna stated the obvious, her voice quivering with queasiness. “Really, really bad.”

“Guh… yeah, I noticed,” Celestia replied, her eyes glued to the still forms of the deer. Somehow, deep down, she knew they weren’t sleeping. She wanted to call this whole thing off right now, but some small part of her mind was morbidly curious. And judging by the fact that Luna was continuing her descent as well, the same was true for her.

Before they knew it, their hooves were touching down in the sparse grass of the clearing, their decision to remain airborne forgotten. The smell was even worse now, becoming literally nauseating. The foals powered through it, though. To Celestia’s growing unease, there was a small swarm of flies buzzing throughout the clearing, often landing on the bodies before flitting off. Luna took the lead, venturing up to one of the deer.

Celestia reached after her with her magic, grabbing onto her tail to stop her. “Don’t get too close,” she instructed at the questioning look Luna was giving her.

“O-okay,” Luna replied. She turned back to the body and lowered her barrel closer to the forest floor. She tilted her head. “It’s… skinny. And bruised.”

A lump formed in Celestia’s throat. Gingerly, she stepped forward to stand by Luna’s side. It was as the smaller foal had said. The body of the deer was emaciated, and it was covered in a series of horrible bruises. Its hooves were scuffed and chipped as if it had repeatedly pounded against something with all of the strength left in its feeble muscles.

Celestia’s eyes wandered to one of the other bodies nearby. “Oh, gosh… I think they were fighting,” she choked out when she saw that it, too, was covered in the same type of bruises.

“But… why? Why would they do that?” Luna asked, trotting closer to the body. Celestia’s magic sputtered and faded, as she was too distracted and increasingly horrified by what she was seeing to focus on it. But at the same time, she just couldn’t look away.

“Kids?!” Sprout’s shouting voice echoed through the trees, causing Celestia and Luna to both jump in surprise. Celestia spun on her hooves to face the sound. Her ears swiveled forward, and she could hear Sprout’s hooves thundering across the ground for them through the trees. It sounded like Honey was with him.

Sprout and Honey came galloping into the clearing a moment later. Their faces immediately went ashen as the sight and smell of the scene assaulted their senses. Sprout gasped, visibly stiffening. Honey pressed a hoof to her lips, her eyes wide. “Oh my gosh…”

“Luna, Celestia, get over here, now!” Sprout ordered, stomping his hoof for emphasis.

The shouted command immediately clammed Luna up. With a quiet whimper, she quickly scurried over to her parents. Honey scooped her up once she was close enough, the older mare cradling her protectively. Celestia approached at a more measured pace, her eyes still lingering on the bodies.

“What happened?” Sprout demanded. It wasn’t a shout, or even loud, but insistent. “We saw you two just fly down, and we got worried. Then we find you to see this.”

“I’m sorry,” Celestia apologized, looking down. “Luna and I saw this from above, and she wanted to take a look. We just sort of… got lost in it.”

Sprout grimaced, eyeing the bodies uneasily. “...We should go home,” he finally said, gently ushering Celestia for the edge of the clearing. “Right now. Come on.”

“Why did they do it, dad?” Luna asked from Honey’s back. Her eyes were wide and filled with confusion and curiosity. “Why did they hurt each other?”

“Don’t ask that,” Honey whispered, a tremble clearly audible in her voice. “Let’s just go home, okay?”

“No buts, sweetie,” Honey shushed her. Luna opened her mouth to protest, but her obedience to her parents won out, and she remained silent. Celestia gave her a sympathetic look, then turned to look back at the bodies.

The grisly scene burned itself into her mind, and her gut twisted in apprehension. What could have driven such peaceful creatures as deer to do… this to themselves? To fight amongst themselves until they could fight no more? What could they have been fighting over?

The groaning of the leaves was her only answer. As she followed her parents back to their home, the clearing, and the bodies within it, disappeared into the darkness of the forest.

Rise and Shine

by Skijarama

V - Cold Omen