//------------------------------// // Chapter 10, Second Fall // Story: The Chronicles of Summer Rain, Vol. 3 -- Follow the Equestrium // by shysage //------------------------------// Their second Fall came very quickly, and their flying was basically done. The coats came down, and Sue got Shysage's coat, Shysage got Summer's coat, and Summer got Sue's old coat, which looked very nice on Summer, and Shysage said so. Lu's coat was still fine. Sensing a long Winter ahead, Shysage immediately started taking the family to the big meadow, walking, to gather Oats in the bucket. They had plenty of Fall ahead of them, and so took their time, and just enjoyed being together. It was still a busy time. No candles had showed up, so Shysage was thinking he would need to address this as well. On a few days, early in the fall, the family did actually leave their coats in the center and fly around the meadow some, but the cold usually made that a short time. Still, the family clearly loved flying. Shysage also had the quills, and so they were always on the lookout for berries for ink, and wide leaves that could be used for paper. After the first week of wandering around the meadow, these two items didn't show up. So, Shysage and his family headed South, which took them to the opposite side of the road, and they began to wander there. Some distance South from the road there was another large meadow, just not as large as the one they flew in. Still, they began to wander around that meadow, both exploring and keeping an eye out for Oats, berries and broad leaves. They found all three. The berries they found were small, and Shysage thought they would keep a while, and this was important. On a later trip, they filled the bucket up with them and brought them home. Shysage sternly warned everypony that they were NOT to eat these berries. He did not know if they were poisonous or not, and this was important. They were just for ink. Still, a bucket full of berries was a lot of ink. They also found a grove of plants that were a lot like Ferns. They just had very broad leaves that grew out from the core of the plant like Ferns did. Shysage didn't know what they were called. It didn't matter, the leaves were alreay starting to brown. These would work very nicely. Shysage asked Summer to turn him into a 'people', and he pulled a bunch of good, smooth leaves off some of the plants. Then he asked first, then carefully placed a bunch of the long leaves over Cel's back for the trip home. Aside from dropping one or two leaves on the way, which Shysage picked up in his mouth, the trip went fine. They really weren't that far away after all. These leaves were carefully laid down along Cel's room so they could finish drying out. They were also developing a nice pile of Oats, and these were stored next to Lu's room. Shysage liked to plan ahead if he could, and after the first two weeks of Fall, preparations were coming along nicely. Well, except for candles. Shysage knew they needed these, but also knew that he could probably not wander up to somepony and just ask for some. He was pretty sure the ponies in the city were using a 'barter' economy, and he needed to come up with something he could trade. His only option, really, was to draw something, and his Mare gave him an excellent idea, the final scene from the 'Hearts-warming Eve' account. He loved her that night for that. It was cold, but he let her sleep with his head on her chest. Well, he loved his Mare like that as often as he could. The high point of that historical account, was when the three deputies, one from each of the three pony races, simply sat together, and talked and laughed together, as if they were all equals. Their leaders had already been frozen. At any rate, the love and warmth they shared together that night was the turning point in everyponies' lives, and their leades were soon freed too, and they all realized that treating each other as friends was better than turning into Windigoes. Summer's suggestion was to try to draw just the three ponies, laying down, talking and laughing together. This was a good suggestion, but Shysage knew he couldn't draw that well. Any pony he drew would just make anypony laugh when they looked at it. Summer tried, and did amazing. Shysage, as a person, trimmed a roughly paper shaped piece from one of the broad leaves. He gave it to Summer, and, as a 'people', she skillfully drew three ponies, an Earth pony, a Pegasus, and a Unicorn, laying down together, smiling. His contribution was to write, near the bottom, in large letters, the single word "ON", which was the 'old pony' form of 'one' as far as he could tell. The point of this simple picture was clear, and should be very reminescent of the main point of the 'Hearts-warming Eve' event. And again, Shysage felt this particular event could not have been very long ago from the time they were in. How many candles this would be worth, Shysage didn't know, so he and Summer made five pictures. Summer was very good at reproducing her work. Shysage was still learning about his Mare's many talents. Well, it seemed like Fall was the time for a trip into town, and they needed candles. Shysage carefully tucked a picture under each of the girls wings, so they would be easy for him to pull out with his teeth. The fifth picture, he tucked under his Mare's wing, and then scratched her wing some. She loved that so he promised more tonight. Together, they headed for town. They found a large Earth pony with a big supply of candles near the main gate. Shysage walked up and said "candles?" The stallion said "Trad?", which Shysage expected. This meant he wanted to trade Shysage for the candles. Shysage carefully pulled the picture out from under Summer's wing with his mouth, and carefully laid it on the table in front of the stallion. He almost began to cry on the spot, and quickly moved a large bag full of candles over to Shysage. This stallion's mare walked up at that point, and Summer immediately recognized her as one of the mares who supplied coats for the girls. Summer carefully pulled out another picture, from under one of Cel's wings, and gently laid it on the table near the mare. Then Summer looked at the mare, and said carefully "Thanks... for you." The mare did start crying. They both deeply appreciated the message of these pictures. The stallion pushed more candles towards Shysage, but he pushed them back and said "Thanks." Summer pulled out the rest of the pictures, and carefully laid each on the table, in front of the mare and stallion, then said carefully "For your friends." This evidently communicated well, and the stallion teared up now too. He again tried to push another big bag of candles to Shysage, but he pushed it back. Shysage pointed to another smaller bag, which the stallion quickly pushed his way. Shysage bowed to the stallion, Summer hugged the mare, and they were soon on their way back to their house with a nice supply of candles. They would need all of them. Shysage had sort of a gut feeling that this would be a harsh Winter. He also suspected that their Summer was longer than normal, and they did not have as much Fall left as they thought. The next week, the family would head to the meadow, and stock up on more Oats. What they collected that week was placed under their bench. Shysage also realized that he needed a bunch of Oak leaves, and the bucket was used for that as well. They gathered a lot of those leaves. Fortunately, it had not rained yet, and the leaves were still dry. Also during that week, Summer used a piece of paper and put the letters of the alphabet on them. Another piece of paper got some numbers on it too. Summer was planning on doing some school this Winter if they could. And with this, their preparations for the Winter were complete. Even so, their 'large' tree-house was pretty 'packed' with items for the Winter ahead. That's just the way it needed to be. Shysage guessed maybe another month of Fall. From this point on, the family slowed way down, and just took it easy and spent time relaxing together. In the morning, they would frequently walk to one of the meadows while they still could, and eat Oats that were there. Then they would usually walk back to the house and just relax in the afternoons. They would do some school in the evenings if they could, or wanted to. Along with relaxing, Summer and Shysage began to spend more time on the bench with their girls. They had more time for that now. They would hug them, brush their hair, talk to them... Cel was big enough she actually had to hunch over to lay her head across Shysage's lap, but she still did it. She loved her dad lavishing his attention on her. That Fall she started something new. Shysage and Summer would often tell the girls they loved them a lot. Shysage had just hugged Cel's head with a hand on both sides. Then he pulled her head to him, and kissed her forehead. Cel carefully put one of her front legs up on the bench, stepped up a little, then wrapped her other front leg around Shysage's neck, and hugged him. "I love you too, dad" was all she said. Still, it needs to be mentioned again, that mom and dad spent a lot of time with both girls, and they both clearly knew their mom and dad deeply loved them both. There were preferences, but no favorites. Towards the end of the Fall, one afternoon, Summer and Shysage were sitting together outside the house. They were right next to each other, sitting in the Sun, trying to keep warm. The girls were sitting together in a different patch of sunlight, down near the river, just talking. It was quiet for a few minutes, then Summer said softly "Look at our girls, Shysage..." "Yes, I think being friends is better than arguing" Shysage said casually. Even so he remembered that Lu was starting to occasionally pick at Cel now; Cel just ignored it. "Shysage, no... Look at them..." Summer wasn't scolding, she said this quietly. Shysage had been avoiding that... They had been so busy all Summer... Cel's coat was white... Her Mane and Tail were a Pearl colored white. And Cel was a huge pony. Lu's coat was now medium blue, and her Mane and Tail were a light night-mist Blue. Summer said it again "Look at them..." She said it softly. She was hurting at this. "If this really is Celestia and Luna, it would be inconceivable that their father wasn't close..." They both looked into each other's eyes at this point, then hugged tightly. They both had the same growing, nagging fear, that they would need to give 'their girls' up. Nothing would be 'sure' until they got their Cutie Marks, but still... This would hurt a lot...