//------------------------------//
// 7 Years - Shine 
// Story: My Little Rainbows 
// by The PatioHeater 
//------------------------------//

Rainbow hummed as she slowly walked upstairs. Shine was taking her time getting ready, which annoyed Rainbow slightly as she was looking forward to seeing Jet Stream again.
Their other attempts at dates had failed spectacularly. Both of them got the flu at different times, which removed quite a lot of available time, and other times work interfered. But not this time.
It was Fleetfoot’s birthday, and Rainbow was determined to go to the Everfree Forest to celebrate it with Jet.
Rainbow reached the door to the bedroom of the three fillies and knocked on the wooden surface.
“You ready yet, Shiny?” she asked politely.
“Almost,” Shine replied as if struggling with something heavy or tight. Something clicked into place and the filly let out a great sigh of relief. “There we go,” she said largely to herself.
The door swung open to reveal Shine, who wore a light blue jumper and some kind of utility belt.
Rainbow chuckled warmly. “You look very prepared, but don’t you think you’ll get cold with only that jumper on?” she asked a little condescendingly.
“Well,” Shine said as she shuffled sheepishly on her hooves. “Maybe. But my coat gets really hot when I fly and gets really uncomfortable.”
Rainbow furrowed her brow with thought. “Right. I’ll take your coat with me though, just in case.”
Shine smiled and nodded. “Good idea.”
Rainbow chuckled again. “Thanks. And what about your belt? What equipment do you have with you?”
“Well,” Shine started with a hint of smugness about herself, as if she’d prepared a whole speech about it. “I’ve got some tweezers to pick up samples, a collapsible net for catching bugs and that, a pouch to store things in as well as a couple of plastic dishes for the gloopy stuff, a magnifying glass and a pocket knife.”
“Ahem!” Rainbow said loudly with a stern expression.
Shine jumped before freezing solid with fear.
“Why, pray tell, do you have a knife?” Rainbow asked with a mild anger in her tone.
“Err…”
“Give it here,” Rainbow ordered calmly as she held a hoof out in front of her daughter.
Shine did not hesitate in the slightest and quickly began fumbling with the fitted strap of her belt as she tried to wrestle the knife from its confines.
Her breath was becoming heavy as she panicked.
“Calm down, Shiny,” Rainbow said calmly and caringly. “I'm not mad at you. Just give me the knife.”
Shine took a deep breath to relax herself, which allowed her to easily slip the item from its spot on the belt and give it to her mother with a shaking hoof.
Rainbow nodded. “Thank you,” she stated as she began to inspect the knife. It was more of a survival tool really, with can and tin openers for emergencies.
Rainbow smirked. “While I admire you preparedness for the wilderness, I am not happy with you having a knife. No matter the size.”
Shine nodded. “I promise I won’t have a knife ever again,” she said shakily but was definitely telling the truth. “Just wait right there,” she asked her mother before quickly scurrying off to her bed.
Rainbow watched with a curious smile as her daughter reached under her bed for something, but this smile soon changed to one of horror when she saw the item the small filly retrieved.
“I guess you’ll want this one as well,” Shine spoke through the sheath of a machete she held between her teeth.
Rainbow stared in horrified disbelief at the huge knife her daughter carried. “H-h-how did you even get that?!” she said in a panic.
Shine shrugged her shoulders before placing the machete on the ground by her mother’s hooves. “I found it.”
“Where?!”
“In the garden,” Shine state simply. “It was behind the tree. I saw the handle poking out of the ground so went to investigate.”
Rainbow carefully picked up the huge knife and looked at it. Engraved on the handle were a few words.
“He who shall pulleth the blade from the sky shall be destined for greatness beyond that of mere mortals.”
Rainbow looked at her daughter, who stared back at her with a relentless, soul piercing gaze, and tried to think how Shine could be destined for such levels of greatness.
She quickly decided to ignore it. “I'm going to put these in my room,” she informed anypony who happened to be listening before turning out of the door. She had the strange compulsion to add, “Until the time is nigh,” in a dramatic voice.
She placed the various knives on her bed for storing later and headed back to the bedroom, where Swirl had joined her sister to wait impatiently for them.
“C’mon, Mummy,” the new filly said loudly. “I wanna go already!”
“Be patient, Swirl. We’re almost ready.” Rainbow turned her attention to Shine and had to stifle a laugh when she compared the size of Shine to Swirl; it was quite noticeable.
“Shine, have you got your glasses?” she asked to make sure.
Shine adjusted her light blue spectacles on her nose. “Check.”
“And what about your inhaler?”
Shine lifted the inhaler that was tied around her neck on a piece of string. “Check.”
“And have you got everything else?”
Shine nodded. “Yep.”
“Good. Let’s go then!”
Swirl jumped up into the air to celebrate them leaving almost an hour later than they said they would.
Rainbow giggled before walking downstairs.

Rainbow spent a quick moment putting on her coat and scarf.
“Where’s Dash?” she asked as she put her forelegs into the correct sleeves. She felt a slight embarrassment at getting it wrong the first time.
The two fillies shrugged and shook their heads.
Rainbow sighed and went on the reluctant prowl for her slightly youngest daughter.
“Dash? Where are you?” she called out as she entered the living room. In reply she heard a quiet snoring coming from the sofa where Dash had inevitably falling asleep while waiting.
Rainbow laughed quietly before kneeling down beside the sofa and readying a hoof for a gentle poke.
“Dash,” she sang as she prodded her daughter’s stomach.
Dash snorted and rolled over onto her stomach.
Rainbow smiled at the adorableness of her sleeping daughter. She grabbed a small, feathery wing and stretched it gently. “Dash,” she sang in time with movement of the wing.
Dash rolled over once again onto her side, facing her mother.
Rainbow smirked as she got an idea. She reached her head forward and rubbed her nose against Dash’s.
The sensation spread through the filly’s nose, making it very uncomfortable to the point where she woke up.
Dash sat up and rubbed her nose vigorously to make it feel normal again. Once her eyes regained focus she noticed her mother in front of her with a gentle smile on her lips.
“What day is it?” the filly asked croakily before yawning loudly.
“It’s Saturday. And it’s about half seven in the morning,” Rainbow said affectionately.
Dash groaned and fell back onto the sofa. “Why do I have to be up so early?!” she asked angrily.
Rainbow felt a twinge in her stomach, she felt bad for having to wake Dash up so early on a weekend, seeing as it was rare for the filly to wake up before ten on a Saturday.
“C’mon, Dash. It’ll be fun. And you get to fly a really long distance,” Rainbow said with intrigue.
Dash looked up into her mother’s identical eyes. “Really?” she asked hopefully.
“Yep. And you get to fly around Everfree Forest. As long as you keep in sight, mind you,” Rainbow added quickly.
Dash rolled over and jumped off the sofa with nary a sound being made by her light hooves as they hit the floor. She eagerly trotted to the hallway to wait by her sisters and to grab her coat.
Rainbow trotted after her.

Rainbow stood tall in the hallway, looking determined and vaguely inspirational.
“Are you ready, girls?” she said in a peppy, inspiring voice.
“YEAH!” the three fillies shouted back enthusiastically. Although Shine was dreading the flight there, she was looking forward to both the barbecue and exploring a forest.
“That’s good to hear!” Rainbow replied with equal enthusiasm, but she quickly turned serious. “But, I have to tell you, the Everfree Forest can be a very dangerous place, so I do not want any of you leaving mine or Jet Stream’s sights. Do you understand?”
The fillies nodded back as they easily comprehended the order.
“Good. And Shine,” she started as she stooped down to meet her middle daughter’s eyes. “We’re going to be flying a very long way, maybe for a couple of hours at least. I know you might find it difficult, but I want you to try and fly for as much of the journey as possible, okay?”
Shine nodded.
“Good. But if you do need a rest, I’ll be flying right alongside you, so you can just sit on my back for a little while, okay?”
Shine nodded again.
“Good girl,” Rainbow said before gently nuzzling her daughter’s nose. She stood back up to her full height and opened the door.
“WAIT!” Swirl shouted before zipping off to her room, only to return barely a few seconds later with absolutely nothing changing about her.
Rainbow raised a curious eyebrow in her direction.
“I thought I forgot my camera but it was here all along,” Swirl explained once she saw her mother’s expression and tapped her coat pocket.
“Okay then,” Rainbow said as she grabbed her pre-prepared bag from the hallway floor. “Let’s go!”
The fillies darted out between her legs and waited on the cold path for their mother.
Rainbow left quickly and locked the door behind her. She took wing and jumped into the air, and her daughter’s followed suit.
They took to the skies and began the long trip to the Everfree Forest, where Rainbow hoped she could finally kiss the stallion that had been in her thoughts rather often lately.


The air was freezing as the Rainbows pushed on through it, yet they were working too hard to notice it. It was quite pleasant, actually.
Rainbow was miles away, trying to remember the most direct route to the meeting point but drifted from that as well, so when a sudden weight appeared on her back she lost focus and nearly fell from the sky.
She quickly recomposed herself from the sudden surge of panic that spread through her as she felt like she was about to die.
She looked round at her back and saw Shine sitting there, panting heavily and gasping for air.
Rainbow slowed her pace to allow her daughter some comfort. She emitted a high pitched whistle through her teeth, signalling for her other daughters to return from where they had flown off to.
Swirl quickly and simply appeared by her mother’s side with a bored expression. Dash, on the other hoof, was more elaborate in her return, as she barrel rolled and looped round to her mother’s other side.
Rainbow smirked at Dash’s theatrics before she started talking. “Right girls, we’re going to be taking it a bit slower for a little bit.”
“Aww,” Dash moaned.
“Dash, stop it,” Rainbow said wearily. “You know we have to wait for Shine and you know she’s not as strong as you.”
Dash tilted her head from side to side in agreement to that fact, and she decided to let the “slowing down” slide for that compliment.
Rainbow looked back at over her shoulder at the wheezing filly. “Are you okay?” she asked concernedly. “Remember your inhaler.”
Shine nodded as she gasped and brought the inhaler to her mouth. She pressed the top down and took a deep breath. The medicine inside did its job and soon Shine felt her lungs relax and she regained her full ability of breathing.
“Feel better?” Rainbow asked sweetly.
Shine nodded. “Yeah,” she said airily. She adjusted her position on her mother’s back and made herself more comfortable.
“You did really good, Shiny,” Rainbow said sincerely. “I'm impressed with how far you went on your own steam, and it’s only about a half hour away. You can ride on my back the rest of the way.”
Shine smiled weakly with relief and gave her mother a gentle hug around the back of her neck.
“Mummy?”
“Yes, Swirl?”
“What exactly are we doing in the Everfree Forest?”
Rainbow pouted her lips. She didn’t really know herself. “Err… nothing much. Just hang out, look around the forest, have a bit of a barbecue. Why do you ask?”
Swirl shrugged. “I don’t know. I was just wondering.”
“Fair enough. And if we’re lucky, we could see some pretty amazing wildlife.”
Shine made an excited sort of squeal. “I can’t wait,” she muttered eagerly.
Rainbow looked out in front of her as the clouds thinned out to in a dramatic fashion, bathing them in the warmth of the sun as well as revealing to them a large opening some distance off in the dense pack of snow-topped trees below.
She raised her hoof and pointed in its direction. “Looks, girls. That’s where we’re going. It’s known as Froggy Bottom Bog.”
Swirl carefully retrieved her camera from her pocket and took a picture of the picturesque landscape.
“A bog?” Dash asked with a slight disgust in her tone. “Why are we going there?”
“Well, Dashie, there aren’t many places which have such a large opening to have parties like this.”
Swirl suddenly sped in front of Rainbow’s vision, taking her by surprise. The filly quickly found a place next to her mother once again.
“Swirl?” Rainbow questioned curiously.
“I dropped my camera,” Swirl replied casually, but the slight redness in her cheeks gave away her embarrassment. “But I caught it!” she added smugly.
Rainbow tittered before starting a slow descent to the ground.

Rainbow’s hooves touched down in the snow, which crunched under the weight. She smirked. “I love that sound,” she remarked to anypony listening.
Dash landed next to her in a stylish flourish, and struck a dramatic pose for a second before looking up at her mother. “What sound?” she asked with childlike confusion.
“Y’know, the sound of-,” she started but never bothered to finish once she looked down and saw that Dash was standing on top of the snow as she wasn’t heavy enough to sink down thanks to her Pegasus child nature. “Never mind.”
Shine carefully perched herself on top of her mother’s back and prepared for disembarking. After quickly judging distances and other such things, she was ready to jump, with her mother watching over her shoulder with anticipation.
Just before she leapt to the ground, Swirl, who hadn’t landed yet, snuck up behind her and gave her a quick shove.
Shine yelped as fell and smashed into the snowy ground.
Dash and Swirl were already doubled over with hysterical laughter. Even Rainbow struggled to hold back a snigger.
Shine grumbled angrily as she pushed herself up. She wiped the snow from her face and shot her family a dirty look. “That’s not funny!” she screamed, making herself go red in the face.
“Yes it is!” Dash and Swirl shouted back, which only increased the laughter.
Rainbow tittered behind her hoof. “Calm down, girls,” she giggled. “Swirl, Dash; say sorry.”
“What did I do?!” Dash shouted.
“You laughed,” Rainbow stated simply.
“So did you!” Dash argued back.
“Well… yeah, but I did it quietly so she didn’t notice.”
“I’ll say sorry if you do,” Dash challenged with a triumphant smirk.
“Dashie, I'm a parent, I don’t do what I tell my kids to do.”
“Huh?” Dash said loudly with her head tilted to one side.
“You’re here!” said a new, much more masculine voice which made Rainbow’s heart flutter.
Rainbow spun round, almost slipping in the process, to see the brown stallion of her dreams.
“Hi, Jet Stream,” Rainbow said with a girlish blush appearing in her cheeks.
“You’re here just in time,” Jet said with a great sense of glee. “I just got the barbecue going, so it’s already nice and warm. Not too long until we can get some food cooking.”
“Good. Flying all the way from Cloudsdale really gets your appetite going.” Rainbow looked down at her stomach as it grumbled loudly at her.
She lifted the bag off of her shoulder and placed it on the ground. “I brought some cakey stuff. And I actually made some of it!”
Jet smiled broadly, since he couldn’t think of anything to say, before grabbing the bag and taking it to the rickety travel table. He removed the few plastic containers and placed it on the table. He opened the corner of one and took a peek inside.
“It looks good… whatever it is,” he said quietly as to not offend the mare of his dreams.
“Yeah, it’s supposed to be brownies, but I never got the hang of them,” Rainbow said embarrassedly as she trotted next to him. “But I’ve never got complaints from my girls, so they can’t be that bad.”
“I'm sure they’re delicious,” Jet said suavely, trying to flatter the mare, but Rainbow just quietly laughed at him, making him go red.
There was a moment of silence which steadily grew in awkwardness.
“So where’s the birthday girl?” Rainbow asked out of both curiosity and the desire to break the silence.
“I'm right here,” Fleetfoot said cockily as she jumped to a halt behind them. The beads tied into her mane clacked together pleasantly.
Rainbow turned around to face her and smiled sweetly at her. “Hi, Fleetfoot. Happy Birthday!”
“Thank you,” Fleetfoot replied with a girlish sway.
“So, thirteen, ay?” Rainbow asked before giving the conversation a chance to die down.
“Yep,” Fleetfoot stated simply.
The conversation took the opportunity to die down, much to the Ponies’ annoyance.
An idea struck Rainbow which would allow her to destroy the silence once and for all. She went to her bag and removed an envelope.
“Here,” she said as she passed it to the teenager. “Happy birthday.”
“Thanks,” Fleetfoot replied as she took the card. She opened the envelope and removed the card. She smirked at the joke on the cover. “Thanks,” she repeated once again and placed the card on the table.
She turned back around and saw a small filly looking up at her, completely awestruck. “Hi there,” she said with an air of arrogance about her.
“You are awesome!” Dash said airily in wonderment.
Fleetfoot smirked. “I am, yes. Lemme guess, you’re Rainbow Dash? Right?”
Dash nodded frantically. “Yeah!”
“I knew it!” Fleetfoot said smugly. “Jet told me about you. Apparently, you fancy yourself as a future Wonderbolt.”
“Yeah!” Dash replied arrogantly. “I'm gonna be the best Wonderbolt ever!”
“Not if I beat ya to it,” Fleetfoot said confidently.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah!”
“Prove it,” Dash challenged.
“Fine,” Fleetfoot said intriguingly. She flared her wings and hunkered down to the ground. “Race?”
Dash mimicked her actions and smiled menacingly. “Race.”
Before both of them jumped in the air, Rainbow quickly placed a hoof on Fleetfoot’s shoulder and looked at her with a very serious expression. “Please, keep an eye on her.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll know where she’ll be all the time.” Fleetfoot turned to Dash with a slightly malicious look. “She’ll be eating my dust.”
“Hey!” Dash screamed.
“C’mon then!” Fleetfoot shouted before blasting off in the sky with Dash hot on her tail.

Rainbow watched as her daughter’s rainbow trail went off into the distance with a smile on her face. A noise drew her attention away from the skies and to the stallion beside her. She looked round and saw Jet Stream unscrewing the cap from a large flask.
“What’s that you got there?” Rainbow asked curiously. Her eyelids suddenly felt heavy and she yawned.
“Just some tea,” Jet said as he poured some into the two plastic cups. “I don’t like coffee myself, so there’s isn’t any. Sorry,” he said sheepishly.
“Nah, that’s fine. I'm not in a coffee mood today.”
Jet smiled with relief. “Sugar?”
“Yeah?” Rainbow replied tiredly.
“No, I mean do you want any?”
“Oh.” Rainbow laughed embarrassedly and went a light red. “Err, yes please. Four please.”
Jet looked over at her with a puzzled expression. “That’s quite a lot.”
“Well, I am pretty sweet,” Rainbow joked.
Jet chuckled. “I suppose so.”


Jet Stream expertly flipped a burger into the air, in an attempt to impress Rainbow of course. The crisp, expertly cooked patty of vegetables turned in the air in a fast yet graceful movement, and descended back towards the grill. It slipped perfectly between the metal bars and slapped against the hot coals, sizzled loudly and began the slow process of burning to a crisp.
Jet bowed his head and sighed.
Rainbow chuckled. “Oh well. There’s plenty more where that came from.”
“Actually, no. I didn’t buy that many, and that was the last one,” Jet said solemnly as he furrowed his brow at the burger lost to the ages.
He carefully removed the other cooked burgers on placed them on a nearby plate. “Grub’s up!” he announced to the small gathering of Pegasi.
Shine eagerly trotted over to the table and began to prepare herself a tasty burger.
Rainbow followed suit and went to make one for Swirl. “What kind of burgers are they anyway?” she asked as she cut open a bread roll.
“They’re hay and carrot burgers. Nothing too fancy but they’re good,” Jet said confidently.
A loud, dull thud came from by the barbecue, drawing the attention of the Ponies, and made Shine squirt a line of ketchup right onto her jumper after losing focus on targeting with the bottle. Nopony noticed.
Dash and Fleetfoot stood on the ground with their heads low and their breaths heavy.
Fleetfoot playfully punched Dash’s shoulder. “You’re fast,” she panted.
“Told ya!” Dash said smugly.
“Looks like we’re just in time,” Fleetfoot said happily. “I'm starved!”
“Did you have fun, Dashie?” Rainbow asked as she cut another bun for her final daughter.
“Yeah!” Dash replied ecstatically. “Finally, somepony to give me a challenge.”
“Yeah!” Fleetfoot interjected. “I had a hard time keeping ahead of you!” she added with mild amazement. She turned to face behind her and looked at Jet with a slight smirk and shook her head. Jet managed to hide the smile on his face.
“Well that’s good,” Rainbow said idly, she was too focused on preparing her daughters’ food to make more of a conversation. “Here you are, Swirl,” she said as she passed the burger to the quietest and most bored of her daughters.
“Thanks,” Swirl said boredly.
“Chin up, Swirl,” Rainbow said in an upbeat tone. “Why so glum?”
“This place is boring. There is literally nothing to do here!” Swirl moaned.
“And what exactly would you be doing at home?” Rainbow asked with a raised eyebrow. “I imagine pretty much exactly the same.”
“Well, yeah… but I have a comfy spot on the sofa at home. And Ticker!” Swirl added quickly and slightly moodily. She suddenly wanted to see her best friend more than anything in the world, indicated by her sour expression.
“I'm sorry she couldn’t come, Swirl, but you can hang out with us for the day!” Rainbow said enthusiastically, hoping her cheery tone would make her daughter more excited. It didn’t work.
“But you’re boring,” Swirl whined.
“We’re not that bad, are we?” Rainbow asked hopefully, playing along with her daughter and putting on a sad expression.
“No no no no,” Swirl insisted relentlessly once she saw her mother’s sad face, she thought she offended her. “I just want Ticker!”
“Well, you can see her tomorrow. As long as you finish your homework.”
Swirl kicked the ground moodily. She thought she had gotten away with not doing her homework again.
Rainbow chuckled before making a burger for Dash, who had been waiting impatiently for her to finish her conversation.

The six Pegasi were sat on the ground on a large blanket, enjoying some delicious failed brownies made by Rainbow.
Rainbow brought her plastic mug to her mouth and took a large gulp of the hot, amber liquid that only tasted slightly of the flask. She gasped with the relief and the burning sensation now coursing down her throat. It was pleasing on such a cold day.
She looked to her side and her heart started racing. There used to be a filly sitting there, but now there was only a small, paper plate with a half eaten brownie on it.
She looked frantically all around her. “Dash?” she called out into the opening.
There was no reply.
“Dash?!” she asked again, only with much more panic in her eyes. She stood to look around, but she couldn’t see a sign of her daughter’s rainbow mane.
Her breath was becoming faster and more panicked, but a stone hitting her nose made her lose track of everything and calmed her down.
She slowly looked up to the tree she was under. She breathed a huge sigh of relief when she saw the cyan hooves of her daughter draped over a branch. Rainbow chuckled.
“Hey, Jet,” she whispered as she poked the stallion beside her.
Jet looked at her before following her hoof which was pointed at the tree. He smiled.
“It’s amazing how they can balance even when they’re asleep, isn’t it?” Rainbow said in passing as she watched Dash and Fleetfoot nap in a tree.
Jet chuckled. “It’s strange, really. With most Pegasi who like to go fast, they always nap. I remember when I was a Wonderbolt and whenever our training lasted more than four hours we would always have a naptime in the middle.”
Rainbow laughed quietly. “Really?” she asked, completely uncertain as to whether or not it was true.
“Yeah,” Jet said simply. “We would just go to a large, empty room with our pillows and have a power nap.”
“You brought your own pillows?” Rainbow asked through a laugh. The image of a tough, powerful Wonderbolt carrying a small pillow in his mouth made her feel giddy. She quickly sat down before she fell over. “That’s so cute!”
Jet let out a small, embarrassed laugh. “Yeah. Kinda.”
It took a small moment for Rainbow to recover from her laughing fit. “I'm sorry,” she said as the last giggles left her system. “I don’t know what came over me.”
“Nah! It’s fine,” Jet said while waving off her apology. “It is kinda funny.”
Rainbow let out a loud yawn. “Y’know, I wouldn’t mind a nap right now. It looks fun.”
“Go ahead. I don’t mind,” Jet said sincerely, hoping to put it across to her that he really didn’t mind. It actually made him feel strangely excited.
“Oh no. I couldn’t. I have to make sure my girls are alright, so I can’t,” Rainbow said worriedly.
“That’s fair enough. But still, I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to nap. You can use me as a pillow too! If you wanted, that is,” he added quickly with a small, forced laugh, hoping to hide his enthusiasm from the mare. He already felt foolish.
Rainbow tutted and rolled her eyes. “If you insist,” she jested. She quickly repositioned herself and rested into Jet’s shoulder.
“Mummy! Mummy!” Shine chirped loudly as she hopped to her mother’s side.
Rainbow quickly sat up again and faced her daughter. “What is it, Shiny?” she asked curiously.
“Can I go exploring now?” Shine asked with a sad yet hopeful expression. It didn’t work on her though. There was something about her eyes that could unnerve anypony who looked into them. They were so large and black.
“Err… as long as Swirl goes with you,” Rainbow said authoritatively.
“Oh,” Shine moaned and kicked the ground moodily. “Like she would want to.”
“I’ll come,” Swirl said with a voice heavy with defeat. She stood up from the blanket with a pained groan. “This place is boring. I want to take some cool pictures to show Ticker.”
“Oh,” Rainbow said with mild surprise. “That was unexpectedly simple. Okay, you two can go out into the forest. But,” she said loudly to make sure they were listening. “You two have to stick together no matter what.”
“Okay, Mummy,” the two fillies replied in unison before trotting off into the dense mass of trees.
The sound of something like a springboard took both of the adults by surprise. They both looked up and saw the branch that once held two Pegasi was bare and oscillating with an unnerving rate.
“Looks like we’re all alone,” Jet pointed out needlessly.
“Yeah,” Rainbow said as she leant into Jet’s shoulder once again. “We are, aren’t we?”
The two of them fell into a comfortable silence as they watched the sun shine off the frozen bog.

Shine’s breathing was heavy. The terrain was less smooth than she anticipated, but she didn’t let that but a damper on her exploration of a new and exciting place.
“C’mon, Swirl,” Shine called eagerly over her shoulder, beckoning her sister to hurry up with a wave of her hoof. She jumped down from the exposed tree root and fell with a thud on the damp soil, but she remained excited to continue deeper into the forest.
Swirl ducked under the root cautiously, yet that wasn’t enough as she banged her head on the way up. She rubbed the pained part vigorously with a sour expression.
“This place is boring,” she moaned. “And it smells funny.”
Shine took a deep breath, taking in the scent of the forest, and exhaled loudly. “I know. It smells good, doesn’t it?”
Swirl stared at her with peeved confusion as her sister continued into the undergrowth. She followed after her with utter boredom.
“Swirl! Swirl!” Shine said loudly and excitedly. “Come look at this!”
Swirl stood by her side. “What?” she said wearily.
Shine fumbled around on her utility belt and pulled out a magnifying glass. She carefully held it over the thing on the ground, keeping her hoof as steady as possible so she wouldn’t scare it off.
“It’s a dung beetle!” she squeaked with glee.
“A what?” Swirl asked, although she was already preparing for the imminent disgust of the answer.
“A dung beetle. See that big ball thing it’s pushing along? That’s a ball of animal poo.”
“EWW!” Swirl exclaimed horribly and shut her eyes to hide the bug away. She already felt sick.
“I read about these,” Shine continued enthusiastically, unaware of Swirl’s discomfort. “They roll the dung back to their nests and then, I don’t know… eat it, I guess.”
Swirl threw up in her mouth slightly.
“Take a picture!” Shine commanded her sister as she gestured for her to step closer.
“Err, no,” Swirl said with a nervous giggle.
The beetle scurried away under the tree.
Shine huffed at the fact it got away. She quickly got over the loss and continued on. Swirl followed regrettably.

Shine walked through the tightly packed trees, looking around at the surroundings, all the while smiling in awe, especially at the gang of monkeys that swung through the branches overhead.
Swirl walked a few aces behind her sister, making sure to walk in her exact hoofsteps. Every single noise sent a bolt of fear running through her spine. Every creak of a tree and every squawk of a far off bird made her jump and whimper.
“Shine,” Swirl called out worriedly, all the while checking her back. “Aren’t we getting a bit too far away?”
Shine spun around to face her sister, smiling like she was about to laugh. “This must be a first. Swirl is too scared to venture where I am not. Come on. I saw something really cool.”
Shine grabbed her sister’s hoof and dragged her forward. She stopped a little further forward. “Look! Fire ants!” she said in awe at the long line of large, red ants walking across their path, all carrying stones and leaves.
“What?” Swirl said confusedly and with a slight hint of fear.
“Fire ants.” Shine took the tweezers from her belt and knelt down. “They’re really cool. They have this defence mechanism,” she said as she grabbed an ant around the middle. “When under threat, they spit this chemical that burns stuff.”
As if on cue, the ant sprayed some chemical on the ground, making the small patch of grass beneath burn and sizzle.
Swirl shuddered. “I don’t like it,” she said, sounding as if she was about to cry.
“Don’t be such a scaredy-flank,” Shine teased before releasing the ant and skipping off further into the forest.
Swirl followed, but her steps were hesitant and shaky.

The dense canopy of only grew denser as the adventurous filly and her terrified sidekick wandered deeper into the forest. The light reaching the floor was decreasing with every step forwards.
“Sh-Shine,” Swirl whimpered. “I don’t like this.” As her hoof stepped down she heard a cringe inducing crunch. She froze and her breath stopped. She didn’t want to look down.
Shine exhaled a heavy sigh. “C’mon, Swirl,” she said irritably. “I just want to go a bit further then we can head back.
Swirl yelped as a bug buzzed loudly past her ear. “What was that?!” she shouted as she spun round, trying to catch a glimpse of the monster that threatened her life.
“It was just a moth, Swirl,” Shine said contemptuously. “I thought you were supposed to be brave. Dash wouldn’t be scared.”
Swirl wasn’t paying any attention. She was spinning around at every slight noise, at every slight movement of a shadow. Her breath quickened its pace as panic and fear became firmly set in.
Shine gabbed Swirl’s shoulders and vigorously shook her. “Snap out of it!” she shouted angrily.
Swirl managed to slow her breathing to a safe level. “Okay,” she panted. “Okay. I think I’m okay now.”
“Good,” Shine said menacingly before slowly taking her hooves from her sister’s shoulders. She turned around so she could continue on her path, but she tensed up and stopped moving completely.
Swirl looked over her sister’s shoulder, trying to get a view of what made her freeze. She would have screamed if weren’t for Shine moving like lightning and lodging her hoof firmly in the scared filly’s mouth.
A snake had reared its head and had extended its ear flaps. Its tongue slithered and hissed at the fillies who had entered its territory.
“Don’t move,” Shine spoke quietly through the corner of her mouth. She stared at the monster in their path, hoping to convey her and her sister’s innocence and unthreatening ways, with little success.
The snake bared its long, shining fangs that oozed with its deadly venom.
Swirl couldn’t take anymore. She pulled away from her sister’s hoof and bolted from the scene, emitting a high pitch scream, and made an escape back to the clearing and back to her mother.
Shine sighed heavily and hoofed her forehead with disappointment.
The snake watched the terrified filly run away with a slight sense of confusion, giving Swirl a perfect opportunity to take advantage of the distraction.
The brave filly swiftly took a rock from the forest floor and lodged it into the snakes open maw, taking the snake by surprise.
The snake, in a puzzled state, slithered back into the undergrowth to find a way to remove the stone from its mouth.
Shine continued forward. Without a quivering sister beside her, her journey became vastly more enjoyable.
She looked around at her surroundings. It was too much to take in. Everything offered new intrigue yet she couldn’t look at it all, not until a flower drew her attention.
There was a large, purple flower growing in the single beam of light that penetrated the leaves of the Everfree.
“That flower’s beautiful,” Shine said in quiet awe. “I bet Mummy would love it.”
She made her way to the flower, being careful to not hit her head on the branches that blocked her path.
Once there, she pulled the flower from the ground, bringing the bulb from below with it.
She marvelled at it for longer. It smelled wonderful, and even cleared her asthma a bit. She placed it carefully in the drawstring pouch on her belt.
The floor shook with a low, deep rumble that resonated up her small hooves.
“What was that?” she asked curiously.


Swirl charged through the forest. Her eyes were shut tight and her mouth screamed with all the fear in the world. She took a deep breath and screamed again.
A tree came in her path, and she hit it at full speed, knocking her to the floor and onto her haunches.
It took a moment for her to regain her brain and its functionality from the mild head injury, although she wished it hadn’t.
A spider crawled down her face and placed its long, spindly, hairy leg on her lip. The sheer terror she felt almost enough to make her heart stop.
The spider continued its slow climb down Swirl’s face. A second leg stroked over her bottom lip, bringing the entire spider into view.
She could see and feel its bulbous abdomen slide between her eyes, tracing a line of web in its wake.
Screams escaped her.
A quiet, demonic ticking could be heard from above, slowly descending from the branches of the tree.
Swirl’s eyes swivelled slowly upwards. A black spider the size of her mother hung above her on a thin strand of grey, using its shining, sickly legs to lower itself from its web in the dark tree.
Swirl’s breath became shallow and erratic.
Something tickled her shoulder, and in a moment of intense fear her eyes darted across and saw the leg of a spider slowly reach out in front of her, stretching out to bend over her face.
The spider on her nose continued downwards. One of its legs took a stand on the tip of her tongue.
Swirl took a sharp breath in.
The scream pierced through the trees, and scared off the birds.

Rainbow could recognise the sound she never wished to hear, and it sent a horrible feeling of dread into every part of her body.
She hadn’t stood up so quickly before in her life.
“Swirl?!” she shouted out to the forest with more worry than she thought possible. She spun round as she tried to judge where it came from.
Jet Stream joined her in her panic.
The screaming drew ever closer, but Rainbow couldn’t do anything except wait for the worst.
Swirl broke through a branch into the bright clearing, still screaming, and began frantically to try and dust herself off.
Rainbow wasted no time and was by her daughter’s side in an instant. “Swirl what’s wrong?” she asked, completely stricken with panic.
Swirl couldn’t answer. She was still screaming and spinning as she tried to get them off.
Rainbow didn’t know what else to do. All that she could tell was that her daughter’s coat was terrifying her, so she swiftly ripped it from her body and threw it across the clearing.
Swirl felt the layer be removed and quickly looked around for the monster that did it, but when she laid eyes on her mother she never felt so relieved. She stopped her screaming and lunged at her mother. She hadn’t hugged so hard in her life. Tears streamed down her eyes like a waterfall.
Rainbow hugged back, trying to give as much comfort to her daughter as possible.
“I don’t like it. I don’t like it. I don’t like it. I don’t like it. I don’t like it. I don’t like it. I don’t like it. I don’t like it,” Swirl whimpered over and over again as she cried into her mother’s soft coat.
“Ssh ssh ssh,” Rainbow whispered affectionately into her daughter’s ear. “It’s okay.”
“I don’t like it, Mummy,” Swirl whispered back, although her words became a quiet squeak at the end.
“What don’t you like, Swirl?” Rainbow asked quietly.
“Sp-sp-spiders,” Swirl squeaked, and buried her head further into her mother’s shoulder.
Rainbow sighed quietly. She was glad it was something less severe than she thought. “Don’t worry, Swirl. There aren’t any spiders around here.”
“Are you sure?” Swirl asked hopefully.
“I'm sure. There are n-,” she was interrupted as she flicked a small spider from her daughter’s mane. “There are no spiders here whatsoever.”
Swirl managed to calm herself down and her breathing resumed a normal breathing pattern. “I don’t like spiders, Mummy.”
“That’s okay, Swirl. That’s okay,” Rainbow comforted. “You don’t have to go in the forest again if you don’t want to. You can stay here with me and Jet.”
Swirl dried her eyes on her hoof and nodded. She started shivering. “I'm cold,” she said as her teeth started chattering.
“Oh, yeah,” Rainbow said sheepishly. She picked up the small, filly sized coat from the floor beside her and held it up.
Swirl recoiled from the web covered fabric at first, but then she noticed the huge rip that tore the coat in two.
“Sorry, Swirl,” Rainbow said sadly, almost like a child. “You were screaming at it so I ripped it off you.”
Swirl didn’t respond as her body started quaking with the cold.
Rainbow quickly tried to hug some warmth into her. “Jet,” she called over her shoulder.
“Yeah,” he replied simply, like he was tired.
“Can you get that coat from my bag please,” she asked sweetly.
Jet nodded in reply and went to retrieve the coat for her.
Rainbow took the coat from the stallion and quickly set about placing it on her shivering daughter. It fit her like a tent, making Rainbow chuckle. She pulled the zip all the way up and hugged her again to make sure she warmed up quickly.
“This coat’s really comfy,” Swirl remarked as she shifted about within it. “It’s so soft and fluffy.”
Rainbow smiled at her. “Good. And I'm sure Shine won’t mind you borrowing it,” she said unsurely.
“Shouldn’t we go get her?” Swirl said worriedly. “She’s all alone and it’s really scary in there.”
“Don’t worry, Swirl. I know she’ll be fine,” Rainbow reassured her. “She’s a smart filly, and I know she’ll be okay. Besides, I imagine she’ll get hungry soon and come running back.” She smiled at her tease, but it made her feel bad on the inside.
“But you said she could only go in there with me and that we had to stick together no matter what,” Swirl said sternly.
“I trust Shine in the forest on her own. Like I said, she’s a smart filly. You were just looking so bored that I wanted you to do something.”
“Oh,” Swirl said slightly angrily. “Don’t you trust me then?”
“Of course I do, but you weren’t the one who really wanted to go in the forest. If anypony, I wouldn’t trust Dash, she’s far too brave and foolish for her own good sometimes.”
Swirl giggled.
“C’mon, let’s go sit on the blanket,” Rainbow said as she stood up and placed her daughter on the floor.
Swirl looked over at the blanket, and then into the tree above. There were some shining strands of web high up in the branches. “No, I-I'm okay,” she stuttered.
Rainbow sighed. “Suit yourself,” she said as she trotted over to the blanket. Jet joined her momentarily.
Swirl took her camera from her destroyed coat pocket, although her hoof shook with the idea that a spider might be waiting for her. Luckily for her, the one in there was far too small and scared to move in the way.
She wandered into the centre of the clearing, as far away from any trees as possible, and sat down heavily with a relieved sigh. She looked out over the bog, it was strangely pretty, so she took a picture of it.
She pulled the fluffy hood up over her head to act as a pillow and laid back on the ground so she could watch the clouds drift lazily across the sky.

Rainbow sighed contently. Resting on jet’s strong shoulder and looking over the frozen bog was her perfect idea of wasting away an afternoon at that moment.
“Y’know, this frozen bog in the middle of winter is surprisingly…” Rainbow couldn’t think of how to finish the sentence.
“Romantic?” Jet suggested hopefully.
Rainbow tittered. “Yeah, that’ll work.” She nestled into his shoulder more comfortably and sighed again. “Romantic.”
They were silent for a moment, just enjoying the company. That was until Jet shivered loudly.
“Damn, it’s cold,” he moaned and adjusted his position on the blanket. “I wish I brought a scarf.”
Rainbow was struck by a sudden bolt of inspiration. “Just hang on a sec,” she said eagerly.
Jet felt the weight leave his shoulder momentarily. He missed it, which he found to be a strange feeling. The next thing he knew a thick scar was being gently wrapped around his neck.
“There you go,” Rainbow said with a restrained laugh.
Jet looked down at the scarf and snorted. “This is really comfy. And it’s rainbow coloured, of course.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow sniggered uncontrollably.
“It’s so soft. Did you make it yourself?” Jet asked curiously.
“In a fashion, yeah.” Rainbow started laughing quietly.
Jet, puzzled by her laughter, looked over at the mare by his side, and started laughing himself. “You actually used your mane as a scarf,” he said as he shook his head.
Rainbow nodded and laughed harder, and Jet joined her.

Their laughter eventually died down to just a few, quiet giggles.
Rainbow looked out of the corner of her eye and saw her perfect stallion wearing her mane like a scarf. The sight spawned many a fluttering animal inside her stomach and made her breath shallower. Everything behind him was out of focus, making him stand out in her mind as if radiating a gentle light.
Jet turned to face her slowly, wearing the most charismatic and charming smile.
Rainbow melted. She thought a butterfly would fly out of her mouth if she opened it. Never before had she had such a strong feeling about another colt. Not even her ex-husband.
She couldn’t take it anymore, and apparently neither could he.
They moved slightly quicker than last time in the park in Cloudsdale, but it felt longer than anything imaginable.
Their breaths quickened with the anticipation of finally making everything more real. They couldn’t even focus their eyes on each other as they got closer, everything was shaking as adrenaline and excitement coursed through their bodies.
Rainbow couldn’t imagine a better scene for their first kiss.
They held their breaths as they got closer. They weren’t even a second away from pressing their lips together in a perfect, romantic, passionate moment.
Jet stopped and pulled back slightly. His eyes were wide with shock and fear.
Rainbow fell forward slightly, which made her jump due to the lack of contact. She was very disappointed that she was robbed off such a fantastic moment once again.
“Wha-?” Rainbow started, but Jet quickly and roughly pushed his hoof against her lips. She sighed into it irritably.
Jet stared straight into her eyes and shook his head ever so slightly. He was clearly terrified.
Rainbow tilted her head to the side and raised a confused eyebrow, but when she felt a horrible, warm, moist wind blow over her body she shared his horror.
Her lip started quivering behind the brown hoof and her eyes dampened.
Swirl skipped to a halt and dropped the brownies she was holding. Her head was pointed to the ground but her eyes looked up at the gargantuan monster before her.
The loud, ragged breathing of the four heads filled the clearing with its foul breath. The sound paralyzed them in their places as it shook the ground.
The four giant heads slowly waved on their long, slender necks monstrously, eyeing up the small prey on the ground in front of it.
Swirl, in a bizarre, confused moment, took her camera from her pocket to take a picture.
The small flash of light entered the monster’s eye, and infuriated it.
The beast took a deep, harsh breath and roared so loudly that the trees shook and the Pegasi went temporarily deaf. Its white mountains of teeth glistened white and red with blood
“RUN!” Jet shouted as loud as he could, but he didn’t have to tell Rainbow.
The rainbow maned mare bolted from the scene and straight for her fear-frozen daughter. She scooped up the filly onto her back and pelted as fast as she could away from the monster.
The Hydra walked after them. Each single step covered more ground than the Pegasi could run, and quaked the earth with each one that slammed into the forest floor, snapping the trees below like twigs.
Rainbow had never known fear like this. Each frantic step forward only made her more and more scared. Tears streamed down her cheeks as the situation was unfolding before her.
Swirl watched the monster behind them and screamed louder than before in her life, only it was dulled by the deafening roars and thunderous sounds of claws on the ground. Its four head made an attempt every second to swipe at them and snatch them in its huge, bloody mouths. Not even the slightly slapstick comedic values of the Hydra’s chase could lessen her crippling fear.
Jet was just about managing to keep a level head. He was used to death-defying stunts when he was a Wonderbolt, but none of them would ever have led to him being eaten alive by a ravenous behemoth.
He shunted into Rainbow and pushed her down a different path and up a hill.
The jaw of the Hydra snapped down on them, only to narrowly miss Jet’s short tail.

They ran towards a gorge, pursued by the giant Hydra relentlessly.
“Run!” Jet ordered as loud as he could. “Over the gorge!”
Rainbow just cried harder and Swirl screamed louder.
Jet barged into Rainbow again and pushed on course.
Rainbow nodded with the tears streaming back in the wind.
There was a small outcrop of rock that stretched across the gorge like a bridge.
“Over there!” Jet shouted.
The Hydra was closing the gap between them with each long step of its gigantic claws. It could smell their fear, which only encouraged it.
They made it too the bridge. It was barely wide enough for them to run across. Jet went first to make sure it was safe, and Rainbow stuck behind him like glue.
The Hydra reached the bridge and raised its monstrous claw above it. The next second it slammed down on the weak rock.
A crack shot through the bridge, and it shattered, leaving only a few tall pillars behind.
The bridge crumbled and fell from below Rainbow’s hooves and she fell. Out of sheer, dumb luck she managed to grab a hold of the remaining pillar in front of her. The shock allowed for a break in her crying and she screamed harrowingly.
Jet spun round to see the love of his life hanging on the edge over certain death, and her daughter hung onto her wings for dear life.
He reacted instantly and lunged to grab hold of her, but a stomp from the monster’s claw shook her grip and she slipped.
Jet watched in sheer horror as the mare of his dreams fell to her death, but he wouldn’t allow her to. His wings flared into action and he rocketed down after her.
The Hydra snapped its head at the brown Pegasus as he dived down with all the speed in the world, but the monster was too slow and dim-witted to pluck him out of the air.
With an extra surge of speed he fired downwards like a cannonball and at the rainbow maned fillies below.
He caught them in the knick of time, any longer and they would have slammed into the ice. He locked his wings and brought himself and the Rainbows into a steep ascent to the other side of the gorge, as far away from the Hydra as possible.

The Hydra opened its four mouths as wide as possible stretched its necks over the gorge. It unleashed a ferocious roar of anger and defeat at the prey that got away. It turned away and headed back to its den in the bogs of the Everfree.

Jet landed carefully on the rocky cliff and gently placed his passengers on the ground.
Rainbow wasted no time and jumped at him, taking him in a tight, teary hug.
Jet hugged back quickly, but he knew they couldn’t waste time. “C’mon, Rainbow,” he said sternly. “We can’t hang around here. We have to go find the others.”
He hated himself for doing it but he had to. He pushed Rainbow from him and picked up the violently shaking Swirl from the floor and placed her on his back. He forced Rainbow back onto her hooves and pushed her with his muzzle to get her walking.
Rainbow did as she was ordered and started walking, gradually picking up speed with each of Jet’s forceful shunts.
They ran onwards, but were quickly met by Dash and Fleetfoot.
“Jet Stream!” Fleetfoot shouted worriedly. She ran up to him and gave him a quick hug, she could tell when he was urgent. “Are you okay?”
Jet nodded. “Yeah. We’re fine,” he said venomously.
“We heard that-that THING roar and we jus-.”
Jet raised his hoof to silence his niece. “We need to get back to Cloudsdale. Get out of this goddamn forest NOW!” he shouted, his temper now lost.
Fleetfoot nodded. She knew now wasn’t a time to be uncooperative and jokey.
Dash quickly hopped onto Jet’s back to Swirl. “Swirl!” She asked fearfully. “Are you okay?”
“She’s fine, Dash,” Jet said coldly. “Just shock.”
Dash didn’t know how to react. Nopony was ever so blunt with here and it scared her. She jumped from Jet’s back and quickly trotted to her mother.
“Mummy?” she asked innocently. She felt lost. “What’s happening? Where’s Shiny?”
Rainbow gasped with horror and shot up. A new surge of adrenaline and fear blasted through her and she started to run away. “Take them back to Cloudsdale!” she ordered over her shoulder as she charged back to Froggy Bottom Bog. She launched herself into the sky and flew over the gorge in a heartbeat.
Dash tried to run after her, but Fleetfoot held her back.
“Rainbow! WAIT!” Jet shouted after her, but she was already gone.


Rainbow arrived back at the clearing where she had almost kissed him. She saw the print of the monster’s claw in the snow and the dirt. She hadn’t realised how big it was until then. She was amazed that it managed to sneak up on them.
She kept walking through the destroyed forest, over the torn down trees and the up pulled roots. She could hear it breathing; a low rumbling that shook the air around her.
Her breath quietened and became deeper as she tried to be as quiet as possible.
The scaly tail of the monster slid past a field of vision; a small, slow movement behind a screen of trees.
She crept along the ground, watching each step intently so she wouldn’t alert the beast to her attention.
The Hydra stopped moving and came to rest in its bog.
Rainbow kept moving, keeping one eye on the monster. She stepped on a twig.
The Hydra’s eyes shot open as its keen hearing picked up on the small sound of a snapping twig. It stood to its full height and its four heads swivelled round on their necks to face the tiny Pegasus mare.
Rainbow froze, hoping the lack of movement would mean it couldn’t see her. It didn’t.
One of the heads lowered to the ground, although it still towered above the rainbow maned Pegasus. It inhaled loudly, sucking Rainbow’s mane towards its nose. It opened its mouth, revealing its huge, gleaming, bloodstained teeth, and roared.
Birds flew off and the animals of the forest ran away.
Various things were blasted from its mouth. Rainbow cringed as the horrid, sickly saliva sped past her.
Something hit her face as the beast stopped, and she risked a glance at the item that fell to floor by her hooves.
Her eyes went wide with horror. She had the unmistakable feeling in her stomach of throwing up.
She reached down and picked it up. She grabbed the broken string in her hoof and slowly lifted the small, plastic container to her face. There was a small blue feather taped to the side and the word “Shine” scratched into it with a compass.
Her mouth started shaking as she held and stared at the small, blue inhaler in her hoof. The cap was missing, and it was scratched and red with blood.
She didn’t know pain like that could exist. It felt like somepony cutting her heart out over and over again.
A torrent of tears flowed down her cheeks and splashed onto the cold ground.
She shook her head in disbelief.
“No,” she whimpered.
She looked up at the Hydra which killed her daughter.
“NO!” she screamed painfully, loud enough to rival the Hydra. She felt like her lungs were being ripped from her throat.
She fell to the ground and broke into relentless sobs. She thought she would die.
The Hydra raised its head high into the sky and launched it down to the ground at the Pegasus.
A huge cracking sound ripped through the air as something collided into the Hydra’s head, forcing down into the ground beside the grieving mare.
Jet Stream landed painfully in front of Rainbow. He thought he may have broken something, but it didn’t matter at that point. He charged at the crying mare and tackled her up into the air.
“NO!” Rainbow screamed hoarsely as she fought back against him, trying to force her way forward and back to where she found out the worst news of her life.
“C’mon, Rainbow!” Jet shouted. He flared his wings and beat them as hard as he could, but not even his strength could make her move from danger.
Rainbow barged past him and fell to the ground. She grabbed the inhaler from the floor and hugged it to her chest. She only cried harder.
Jet saw her pick up the small inhaler and he was instantly reminded of his own pain of losing his child. He could have joined her crying, but the Hydra had reared its four, ugly heads and was glaring down at them.
Jet sprinted at her and grabbed her in his forelegs. He took them into the air and sped off to the sky and back home to Cloudsdale.

Rainbow remained curled up in Jet’s strong embrace as he flew them home. She cried all the way, holding the inhaler as tightly as she once held the child it belonged to. She knew it would be hard, but she could never possibly imagine just how hard it would be to tell herself she would never see her child again. How it hard it would be to tell herself that her daughter was dead.