“What did I do?” Piña asked in a worried whisper.
Grimglammer struggled to stand, her legs not wanting to work. She shook her head, causing her armor to clank and rattle, and finally, with a great deal of effort, she heaved herself up onto her hooves and wobbled unsteadily in the small room.
“We all knew that Piña had magic,” Berry said. “But I don’t think anypony expected whammy jammy zap boom pow magic.”
“I’m starving!” Piña said, rolling into a fetal position and clutching her stomach.
Derpy took this opportunity to snatch Piña again and wrangle her into position for getting a shot in the backside. Piña kicked and struggled, but was left weak from her magical outburst.
“That was unexpected,” Grimglammer said as she crossed the room, and stuck Piña in the behind with a syringe. “Must tell Mistress about this alarming development.”
“OW! GOBSHITE!” Piña swore. Her lips quivered and her eyes filled with tears. She rubbed her backside and glared at Grimglammer. “I should zap you again… if only I knew how I did it the first time!”
Derpy let Piña go and the earth pony foal retreated to the corner with Dinky, both of them glaring balefully at the adults in the room.
“What is with all of the shouting?” Moonbow asked, coming around the corner at the worst possible time. She was half awake and completely unaware of what was about to happen next.
Not saying a word, Grimglammer stabbed a freshly prepared syringe into Moonbow, causing the big filly to snarl, snort, and then roar. Moonbow scuttled off once the syringe was pulled out, fleeing down the hallway, her echolocation making angry sounding squeals, clicks, and pops. Grimglammer prepared another syringe and advanced upon Berry Punch...
“Come on, time to face the music,” Rising Star said, as guard pegasi set him down upon the deck. “Let’s go and get this over with, this cannot be anywhere as bad as Sentinel is saying. There are no needles longer and fatter than a pencil.”
Sentinel glared up at his older brother, his lip curled back, saying nothing.
“Shots aren’t so bad, the needle always looks bigger than it really is,” Sparkler said. She waved at the kind guard pegasus who had set her down gently and nodded her head in gratitude.
Rising Star gently pushed Loch Skimmer towards the cabin door and watched as Sparkler gave a similar push to Ripple. Sentinel followed behind them on his own.
“You will eat your own words,” Sentinel muttered as the group pulled open the door and went inside.
“Woah there, we need to talk this over!” Rising Star said. “Now, I hate to abuse my authority, but as a local lord, I am demanding that you stand down with that weapon!”
“There are now two sources of authority I recognise,” Grimglammer said. “And you are not one of them.”
“But that needle is bigger than a pencil!” Rising Star said, backing his backside up against the hall wall.
“Do your worst!” Sparkler demanded. She stood resolute and unmoving, ready to turn to stone at any moment.
“All of you are behaving like foals!” Derpy shouted.
“You are not sticking me,” Ripple said. She sat down and glared defiantly at Grimglammer.
“You all have to go to sleep sometime,” Grimglammer said.
“You just go right ahead and spook Sparky,” Ripple said with a smug smile.
Derpy rolled Bucky over onto his back and propped his head up on Berry’s soft side. She gently lowered his severed stump down onto a folded blanket on his barrel to cushion it, and was very careful about the gash in his side just behind his front shoulder. She looked at Lyra, who was holding a bowl and a spoon in her magic, the bowl steaming from the reheated blood broth that Lugus had made.
Lyra rubbed her rump and winced before trying to settle into a more comfortable position. She stirred the soup, crinkling her nose as she did so, and then lifted up the spoon, extended it out to Bucky, and fed him a bite.
“Are you comfortable Bucky?” Derpy asked as some soup dribbled down his chin. She watched carefully as Bucky looked at her, unable to respond. He really wasn’t able to move on his own yet or do much of anything, but he was now awake, alive, and slowly recovering because of Grimglammer. His corrupted eye made her feel queasy looking at it.
Unable to contain her curiousity, Bon Bon looked up at Shadowguard. “If Bucky is a prince now, what does that make us?”
Shadowguard pursed her lips and looked thoughtful for a moment. “Mistress was not specific about that. My best guess would be his consorts.”
“My arse hurts,” Thistle grumbled, rolling over onto her belly and rubbing herself.
“It was immensely satisfying watching Piña take down Grimglammer,” Berry said.
“I still want to know why Sentinel was covered in bruises and so was Loch Skimmer,” Derpy said as she reached back and rubbed just behind her bubbles. “And why neither of them wanted to talk about it.”
“Foals don’t always tell their parents everything, especially when they reach Sentinel’s age. He probably doesn’t want to worry you any more than you are. In his mind, it probably made sense, even though in reality it still worries you,” Berry said. “It is going to be awful when Piña reaches that age.”
“She ate like Bucky eats after a big burst of magic,” Derpy said.
“Well, she had a big burst of magic. And now she’s napping, which is probably for the best,” Berry said, stretching her neck out and nosing Thistle as she spoke.
Derpy watched as spoonful after spoonful of broth disappeared into Bucky and she felt a little better. She watched Lyra’s careful movements, the way she wiped Bucky’s chin with the spoon, the care and gentleness she had, making sure she didn’t bang into his teeth or his lips. Lyra was going to be a good mother, and Derpy knew it. The fragile unicorn had her faults, but she was a caregiver.
“Bucky, we have the phoenix egg, just so you know. I don’t know if you remember it, but Lugus and Sparkler found it on the ground next to you. We have it in storage in a cabinet, it is actually what is keeping your broth chilled so it doesn’t spoil. It has turned the cabinet into a freezer,” Lyra said as she continued to feed Bucky. “Something is wrong with that egg. Phoenix eggs are supposed to be hot.”
Bucky squirmed and his mouth moved, causing soup to spill out. His whole body tensed with effort, his eye blinked, and finally, an ear twitched.
“Bucky?” Derpy asked.
Bucky wiggled helplessly in reply, his eyelid fluttering.
“Do you want to see your egg again?” Lyra asked.
The stallion’s lips quivered and his nostril flared.
“Well, after you eat, I will get it for you so you can have a look at it,” Lyra offered. “But you have to eat first. Doctor Grimglammer says you are malnourished.”
“I feel like we are treating him like a foal. Eat your dinner and you get to see your egg,” Derpy said bitterly. “How long is he going to be like this? He’s just laying there, mostly paralysed.”
“Well, Grimglammer told me that he should be dead, so she doesn’t have a basis to measure recovery. He is already awake, somewhat aware, and responding to various stimuli, so it is anypony’s guess really,” Shadowguard said as she shifted her weight and looked down upon the bed.
Derpy reached out with her wing tip and carefully tickled Bucky’s sensitive frog on one of his hindhooves. His body jerked and his eye locked on Derpy. She smiled. “See, that’s something I understand. That look,” she said as she tickled the sensitive place on Bucky again.
“Derpy, stop, I can’t feed him if you are tickling him,” Lyra protested, holding the spoon aloft near Bucky’s snoot.
“Well, I’d kiss him right now but he probably tastes like blood broth,” Derpy said, her words causing Bucky to smack his lips together. The grey pegasus smiled for a moment, a sad smile, and then she placed her hoof on Bucky’s belly, patting it affectionately. “You’d probably really like a kiss eh? I’d say that’s a sign you are getting better.”
The night was warm and full of fireflies. The breeze was somewhat humid, the air was balmy, and the moon was high in the sky. Sentinel sat upon the deck of The Scorned Mare, his journal before him, and his eyes were held skyward.
Returning from a short flight, Moonbow landed on the deck, coming down hard and heavy, before stumbling and going face down into the deck planks. She was already a strong flyer, but her landings were terrible. She picked herself up and recovered her dignity.
She approached Sentinel with a look of mischief and then sat down beside him, a playful grin upon her face. Her face changed to one of concern as she leaned in and studied Sentinel’s stitched ear, and then it changed back to one of playful mischief as she pulled back.
“I heard what happened today,” Moonbow said.
“Loch told you?” Sentinel said.
“Yes she did, future life mate,” Moonbow responded.
“Ugh,” Sentinel groaned.
“I’ve heard that you can fly, but you can’t fly very well. I am guessing you have only flown in the daytime, right?” Moonbow inquired.
The colt nodded after a moment of internal debate.
“The daylight weakens us. Come with me, I will help you fly. Our matriarch has commanded me,” Moonbow said.
“My journal,” Sentinel said, looking down at the rather crude looking book.
“Will be right here when you get back,” Moonbow insisted.
“I can’t fly that well… the few times I’ve flown Derpy had to keep raising me up so I could glide for a while,” Sentinel said.
Letting out a stream of annoyed clicks and pops, Moonbow leaned in and nuzzled Sentinel. “She has feathers. She can’t teach you what I can teach you. Now come on little male.”
“I dunno… after today… I am kinda worried. I shadow dove and wound up outside of The Scorned Mare and no matter what I did, I couldn’t fly, and I think I would have probably died if Loch Skimmer hadn’t saved me,” Sentinel said, his face contorted in shame. “I’ve been stuck indoors at night for so long. I’ve only ever tried flying down a hallway at night.”
“Fly with me,” Moonbow said enticingly.
“I dunno,” Sentinel whimpered.
“I understand. You don’t know how to fly well and you don’t have a lot of skill with your echolocation. You are blind,” Moonbow whispered in a low voice so the pegasi guards wouldn’t hear her.
Upon hearing her words, Sentinel slumped down in defeat, his wings going limp against his sides and drooping down to the deck. His barrel hitched once, then twice, and then continued hitching in the rhythmic telltale pattern of one who cries silently so others do not hear.
Not knowing how to react or what to do, Moonbow sidled up closer to Sentinel and wrapped her wing around him, pulling the smaller colt close to her. “This is nothing to be ashamed of, we can fix this. I do not think any less of you, future life mate,” Moonbow whispered. She waited, letting Sentinel cry his frustrations out.
After a long wait, Moonbow prodded Sentinel again. “Come now, just leap off the edge of the deck and try to fly. If something goes wrong, I will catch you. I give you my word to keep you from serious harm. The landings might be a little rough.”
Sentinel ducked his head and did not respond.
“Our matriarch wants you to fly. The bossy cross female has put her hoof down,” Moonbow stated.
Moving slowly, Sentinel slipped free from Moonbow’s embrace, rose up on all fours, and stretched out his wings. “If I fly and my wings get sore, I will not be able to write,” he said. “Maybe this is a bad idea.”
Feeling frustrated, Moonbow gave Sentinel a shove towards the deck railing. The colt squeaked and stumbled forward, casting one final glance backwards towards his journal. He was shoved again, and then again, and finally, he stood at the rail.
“You know, I don’t know that I am in the mood for a flight,” Sentinel said.
“Don’t make this hard,” Moonbow said, her voice a growl.
“What are you going to do?” Sentinel said, peering over the edge and looking down.
“Well, Derpy and Loch Skimmer both suggested that I throw you over the deck rail,” Moonbow said. “But that would not endear your trust.”
Sentinel froze up completely and then looked at Moonbow. He peered over the side, looked down, thought about what happened earlier, and then back at Moonbow.
“So here is what we are going to do. You are going to climb up on my back, hold on, and I am going to take off, and once we are flying, you are going to slip off of my back and fall back into my slipstream, gliding behind me. If there is a problem, I give you my word as your future mate that I will catch you,” Moonbow explained.
“Okay,” Sentinel squeaked, his voice overcome by uncharacteristic fear.
“So come on then, climb on,” Moonbow said.
Hesitating for a moment, Sentinel found his courage and clambered up onto Moonbow’s back. He pulled himself up, climbing up over her rump, sliding over her back, pulling himself into place by hooking his front hooves onto her wing joints. As he slid over her croup, something terrible happened.
He became aware of exactly how he was climbing onto Moonbow’s back and how it looked. He became aware of the exquisitely soft and shaggy coat that Moonbow had. He became painfully aware that his scrotum was sliding up and over the curve of her buttocks, and then over her well padded croup. And there was the embarrassing awareness of of a growing problem. And by the stars, how it was growing.
“Wait, is that… are you… is that what I think it is… oooh… hey that’s kinda nice,” Moonbow said, shifting her body around, trying to get a feel for what was rubbing up against her.
The sudden movement and the silky feeling of Moonbow’s pelt was too much, and Sentinel found his growing problem has grown out of hoof. He slipped from Moonbow’s back and went scampering off over the deck, trying to hide himself as he fled.
“Sentinel, come back,” Moonbow said, taking off and chasing after the colt. It wasn’t like he could get away from her, being trapped on deck.
She cornered him at the prow, when he had ran out of places to go. He was sitting down with his legs squeezed together, his head down, and his posture submissive. “Sentinel…”
“Just leave me alone,” Sentinel said.
“Sentinel give me a chance-”
“Just go away!” Sentinel interrupted.
“No! What has gotten into you?” Moonbow said. “This is perfectly normal!”
“I don’t want to talk about it!” Sentinel snapped.
“You went hard, so what, I’m flattered!” Moonbow said. “This is your first time, isn’t it?”
Sentinel nodded.
“This is supposed to happen,” Moonbow said.
“You don’t understand,” Sentinel said, ducking his head down in shame.
“You are impossible! You have all of these feelings and emotions. You place so much feeling into everything… I do not understand you at all,” Moonbow said. “Small impossible male,” she grumbled.
“What if my sisters were sleeping with me and this happened?” Sentinel whispered.
Moonbow felt her breath catch in her throat, suddenly understanding Sentinel’s concern. In the short time she had known him, she had come to understand one thing. He lived for his siblings. “Little colts grow up,” Moonbow said, feeling that her words were useless but saying them anyway, not knowing what else to say.
“So what do I tell them? How do I make it better? How do I kick them out of my bed?” Sentinel said in pained whine, his voice full of strain and emotion. He squirmed and tried to cover himself, not liking the fact that Moonbow was still trying to catch a peek, even during this serious moment. “Or you. You’ve been sleeping in my bed as well… ugh this actually hurts.”
“It will go away in time,” Moonbow said. “I had terrible urges during my first heat. I had to chew on these bitter leaves given to me to try and make it easier. And I was separated from the males and had to stay by myself. I spent my time in the top of a very tall tree, sleeping during the day, and waiting out the night hoping that the wolves would not eat me. And I was miserable.”
The colt squirmed.
“I mean I was really miserable. I found out that rubbing myself didn’t help at all. Just made everything hot and sloppy-”
“Not helping!” Sentinel gasped, cutting Moonbow off.
“I am actually really flattered,” Moonbow whispered. “I got to cause your very first hardness, and it happened when you climbed up on my back.” She turned and looked around, the guards were all the way over by the door to the cabin, and she turned to look back at Sentinel.
“You were very soft and I could feel things rubbing and suddenly all kinds of things happened,” Sentinel admitted in a pained whisper. He shuddered, gasped, then he squeezed his hind legs together even tighter and wrapped his wings around his body.
“Tell me how soft I am,” Moonbow said sweetly.
“No!” Sentinel protested.
Hissing slightly, Moonbow slumped. “I liked hearing I am desirable. It makes me feel things.”
“Like what?” Sentinel asked.
“Like I have moths fluttering in my stomach. Like my head is full of moonbeams. And right now I feel sweaty under my dock,” Moonbow answered.
“Uuuuuaaaaagh!” Sentinel gasped, closing his eyes. He clutched himself, pulled his wings around him even tighter, and tried to think about something other than Moonbow’s sweaty dock, which quickly become impossible. The more he tried not to think about it, the worse it became. And then, much to his horror, his hyper-sensitive nose caught a whiff of Moonbow. He needed to be away from her. He needed air free of her scent.
With nowhere to go, and no more deck left to retreat upon, Sentinel, knew what he had to do. Moving with sudden speed and swiftness, Sentinel broke for the railing, spread his wings, and hurled himself over the side.
Plummeting towards the ground once again, his wings flapping uselessly, Sentinel understood just how much of a mistake this was. He closed his eyes and flapped even harder.
He felt his wings brushing up against something, and then he felt something large and solid pressing up against his back. Two large legs wrapped around his barrel, and he felt himself jerked skywards. He opened his eyes and saw the ground just a few feet below his hooves as he soared, slowly being pulled upwards. He heaved a sigh of relief and felt Moonbow squeeze him.
Worst of all, he could feel the cool night air blowing over his fevered exposed skin, and more than anything else, he wanted to find a warm place to bury it.