//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6: Silver Has a Friendly Game of Cards, Life in Cirrus and a Wedding 
// Story: Silver and Foals 
// by dracone 
//------------------------------//

		Silver and some Friendly Games of Cards, Life in Cirrus and a Wedding

It was Silver's fourth month living in Cirrus, everypony had gotten used her nuances. Her monthly trips to Mustang for a game of cards wasn't seen as that unusual, especially since she left for her cave every three to four days to tend her garden. As always every couple of months she would set up a stand in Mustang's market and sell her soy beans (the only different being that when there were no visitors to Mustang, which was often, she was in her natural dragon form.
Silver Fall was digging through her collection before she found her deck of ancient cards; she had no idea how old they are, only that they had series of old standing enchantments that that protected them from the ravages of time. Instead of the standard suites of Clubs, Hearts, Diamonds and Spades that populated Equestria's game halls and tables these cards were in the old suites of Wands/Staffs, Chalices/Cups, Coins/Pentacles and Swords/Blades. Silver Fall actually preferred the older suites to the more modern ones. Not only did it make it easy for her to identify her deck (with its special enchanted wooden case that smelled of apple wood and felt like the wood of an ash tree), but since her emotions had melted free it made her feel like she was actually playing a mystical game of fate with her card game buddies. Speaking of which, she had to get going to the game hall.
Silver stepped into the old saloon turned rustic bar by Apple Chiller and his wife Cider Press, she was in her natural form because all the town regulars were used to see her that way and it was fun hearing the excuses everypony gave the newcomers to town. In the far right corner furthest from the door, like always, were her card buddies who happened to be three two pegasi stallions, a unicorn mare and an earth pony mare. She smiled and sauntered up to the table with her deck securely in its wooden case swaying in her articulate tail.
“Gale Stream, Guard Wind, Night Spell, Cider Press it's good to see you again, she warmly greeted each of the ponies, “I hope there weren't any complications in getting here for the game.”
“Of course not,” said Night Spell, a midnight green unicorn mare with a bright yellow mane and ocean blue eyes, “I'm off the roster for the whole month, something about policy changes.”
“Nice to here,” said one pegasi, a neon blue pegsus with forest brown mane and ocean blue eyes.
“Gale,” said Silver Fall, “nice to see work let you make it this month, I hope Slip Wind wasn't to upset.”
“Not really,” said Gale Stream, “he got a promotion at the Weather Control center last week, gonna be held up with his new duties for at least three months.”
“Pity,” said a dark brown mare with a bright red mane, bright green eyes and cutie mark that showed barrel with an apple being pressed by to big round stones with the upper connected to a corkscrew like pole, “he's missing out on using the best cards for game in all Equestria.”
“What makes you say that Cider?” inquired Silver Fall.
“Because when we play rounds with those cards I always win the last two, and those are usually the big pots,” said Cider Press.
The other pegasus, a white coated stallion with a dark orange mane with streaks of sky blue that looked like blowing wind and lavender eyes, said, “it's your establishment, the place is your lucky charm.”
“I know Guard,” said Cider Press, “but tha' don't mean the cards ern't lucky neither.”
“If anything,” said Guard Wind, “they're Silver's Lucky charm, she always seems to keep a sizable number of bit regardless of the game or winner.”
“What are playing today?” inquired Night Spell.
“I was thinking an old game called Capture the Crown, for starters,” said Silver Fall, “then a few hours of poker.”
“How do you play Capture the Crown?” inquired Night Spell, “I'm an off duty royal guard, but anything that sounds like a threat to crown of Equestria requires me to delve further.”
“Same here,” said Guard Wind.
“It's rather simple, we're all dealt cards, then we have to bluff each other into surrendering cards or force a discard, first one to get all the court cards is the victor and you get bonus points for them all being on suite.”
“And since we're using an older deck that means we need to get the Knight and the Princess in addition to the Prince, King and Queen,” said Cider Press with a smile.
“Actually,” said Silver Fall, “if you have a Knight you can have to play him within 4 turns with 3 cards from your hoof face down, if your chosen opponent has a Knight they respond in kind. Once the Knights and their troops have been set up you turn over the face down cards, the one who wins two or more of the skirmishes with their higher ranking cards takes the cards that were played against them and the knight returns your hand, you can't have another knight or any of the court cards as a skirmish card. You keep count with the cards you capture from your opponents, you can't play them and just keep them at your end of the table face down. If your opponent doesn't have knight to respond then you get to take three cards from their hoof and place them in the tally zone. Once you've captured the Princess, Prince, Queen and King you flip them over and that determines the winner. When I say bluff I mean you have to make your opponent think that each new draw potentially was a Knight, you can also issue skirmishes without a Knight, but when you do you lay the five cards on table face down. We each start with an eight card hand and draw from the central deck. We can play for fun, or do regular betting.”
“Let's do some good old fashion betting,” said Cider Press, “let's see who's best this, I always like it when somepony brings up an obscure game.”
“Remember, we change the name of the game if we want to play it in the guard barracks,” said Guard Wind.
“Agreed,” said Night Spell, “besides this game only works with decks that have Knights, Princes and Princesses. I don't think we have to worry about this becoming something of a regular card at the guard barracks.”
“Even so,” said Guard Wind, “the head of the guard will have our flanks for over a month if they hear so much as a rumor about the game we're about to play.”
“If you two are quite done worrying about what your superiors might hear about what we do in our downtime, I'd like to get to actually playing the game,” said Gale Stream, “If my superiors caught wind of a rumor or two of this game they'd threaten to fire me if I didn't teach it to them, then they'd laugh their flanks off playing the thing.”

***************************

Half an hour later Silver Fall was looking at a Prince and Princess, on suite, along with an eight, nine and three off suite; Gale Stream and Guard Wind were dueling with a Knight of Chalices and Knight of Coins, they decided to add a new rule they called “Wager” where they added extra cards from their to their skirmish group and bet the on the turn of single card of their opponents choosing to turn over to claim victory. Night Spell was writing down the rules, original and added, in her personal logbook, nopony other than her was going to read it anyway (at least that's what she believed at the time, and found no evidence that the contrary was true). Silver Fall just shook her head, it was amazing how competitive those two could be at times.
Ten minutes after the duel Cider Press had claimed most of the deck, followed by Silver Fall, then Night Spell with Gale Stream and Guard Wind tied for fewest cards claimed. “How is that she always wins the final rounds of the games we play?” inquired Guard Wind as he eyed Cider's pile collection of bits that had tripled its size while his and Gale Wind had diminished to a little under half the bits they had brought.
“A mystery for the ages,” said Silver Fall as she shuffled the cards, “okay the next game we'll be playing is 7 card stud poker, Ace's wild.”
“Haven't done a 'wild card' game in ages,” said Night Spell with a smile, “let's do this. So what's new with you anyway Silver? Ponies are saying you moved out to somewhere else.”
“Well I am getting ready to get married,” said Silver Fall with a smirk.
The stallions all dropped their cards on the floor while the mares gave just big smirks.
“Lightning Twist, right?” said Cider Press in more of a statement than a question.
“I've never spent time with anypony else,” said Silver Fall with a chuckle while watching the stallions trying to get their cards off the floor and back to their hooves.
“So, when's the wedding? Where?” said Night Spell with an excited voice.
“Four months,” said Silver Fall, “and in Mustang, after all I'm planning for Night Spell to be my Mare of Honor. It might be a little hard for Night to properly perform her duties if she has trouble getting to the wedding site.”
“I humbly accept, this going to be incredible,” said Night Spell, “I've always wanted to play a part in somepony's wedding. I was almost my aunt's flower filly, but the week of the wedding I had a bad rash of food poisoning, as did the bearer and half the groom's family, we didn't start feeling good enough for activities until three days after the wedding.”
“Yeesh,” said Guard Wind, “I missed my elder cousin's wedding because it was three days after I started guard training.”
“I didn't have any siblings, and my parents tried to keep the rest of the family secret from me,” said Gale Stream, “I've got a little cousin named Rainbow Dash, and she's obsessed with going faster than anypony else, keeps saying she'll join the Wonderbolts when she's older.”
“Yeah, well your other cousins are my housemates,” said Silver Fall, “and one of them has a similar personality. It's so bad her lessons almost fell through.”
“What kind of lessons,” inquired Cider Press.
“Cooking,” said Silver Fall flatly.
The stallions looked at each other and Night Spell asked, “how bad was it?”
“She somehow managed to turn everywhere downstairs other than the kitchen into a Jackson Foallack piece when I tried teaching her how to make pizza, at her request I might add,” Silver Fall gave a sigh before saying, “she almost bungled the sandwich lessons.”
“Yikes,” said Guard Wind, “what about her sister?”
“Took to the lessons quickly, after two little disasters that ended with batter splattering over her face.”
“Is tha' ull,” came a rustic sounding country accent, “nice ta hear yer trying expand the experience of everypony yer livin' wid.”
They all turned to see Apple Chiller with a tray of drinks, his famed chilled apple drinks in particular. Let meh see if Ah got all yer preferences roight,” he continued and began passing drinks around the table, grabbing an amber glass with a hint of purple he said, “ah hard Apple-Grape chiller fer Gale Stream,” then reaching for a light amber glass with a hint of blue, “ah hard Apple-Blueberry chiller fer Guard Wind,” then he reached for a dark amber glass with a hint of dark blue, “ah virgin Apple-Huckleberry chiller fer Silver Fall, congrats on finally decdin's to get yerself hitched, yah couln' ah chosen ah better stallion,” after passing Silver her drink he reached over to a light amber glass with a streak of black near the center, “ah virgin Apple-Night Berry chiller,” then finally reaching for a standard amber looking glass with three sprigs of mint floating on top in formation that looked like an apple (somehow), “ahnd ah virgin Apple-Mint Chiller fer mah darlin' apple blossom, we have ta be careful nah that we got ah foal on tha way.”
“How far along is it?” inquired Night Spell.
“About a month now,” said Cider Press, “good thing our local doctor pony is a unicorn, she even told us the gender of the foal, looks like we're gonna have a littlle...”
“Save it fer tha birthing, sweet-apple,” Apple Chiller, “Ah want it ta be a serprize fer me.”
“But honey, it'll help you come up with names before the foal is here,” said Cider Press.
“Don' rightly care aboot tha',” said Apple Chiller, “tha furst foal should always be a serprize fer tha father, help keep on his hooves, tha's wha' mah ma always said, and I don' rightfully wan' ta go against the word of mah ma.”
“Can't fault a stallion for following the teachings of his parents,” said Silver Fall, “in fact I'm glad that's a tradition that's stuck with your family over the years, your parents and grandparents were the same way.”
“Thank ya kindly ma'am,” said Apple Chiller as he made his way back to the bar with an empty tray.
“I keep forgetting she's almost as old as the Princess,” said Gale Stream, “she fits in so well with how things are now.”
“I'm only a little over three centuries,” said Silver Fall with contempt in her voice, “dad was close to Celestia's age and he kicked the bucket when only twelve, I'll be lucky if I make it past three-thousand years, and by that time Celestia could very well still be around.”
“Yeah, but the only difference would be that it would be you and her playing cards with this deck next to some of our descendants,” said Night Spell, “the Guard's had me on Night Shift since I joined up, but I've been hearing rumors that I might be moved to the day shift. I don't mind the armor enchantment to make my coat change, but what if something happens and they cut me from the Guard? My family has been serving the Princess in the Guard for the past twenty-four generations! Raise three,” she threw three bits into the pile of bits at the center of the table.
“Your concerns are noted,” said Guard Wind taking a sip of his drink, holding his cards in hooves as he used his wing to handle his beverage, “my family has been in the Guard for almost as long, and no offense to our friend here, but I don't want to suddenly find myself with weather duties as my primary job. Call,” he tossed three bits on to the pile.
“Well,” said Gale Stream, “none taken, I fold, the thing is Cloudsdale always seems to place weather priorities on Canterlot and all the major cities, what about the rural places that provide food for all those cities, just once I'd like to see places like Mustang, Appeloosa, and Ponyville be at the top of the list.”
“It would be nice,” said Cider Press, “I raise 5,” she tossed five bits on the pile.
“I know what you mean,” said Silver Fall, “this place is so dry most of the year, dealer folds, I'm surprised I've been able to keep my garden here going for as long as I have.”
Another hour and half hour went, with each of the remaining players taking 2 cards each.”
“Hah, straight on suite with Knight high on suite in coins” said Gale Stream.
“Well, that amusing because I got the same in swords,” said Guard Wind.
“Well that's might peculiar,” said Cider Press, “because I got a Royal Straight, eight low, on suite in Wands,” as she showed her cards.
“Ah, buck it all,” said Gale Stream, “now I owe him,” he gestured to Guard Wind with a wing, “a barrel of my best apple jubilee.”
“You still have barrels of the stuff?” asked Night Spell with an arched brow.
“Only five after I pay up to mister Guard here,” said Gale Stream, “I try to save it for special occasions.”
“Like a wedding,” said Cider Press with a smile.
“You'll still be carrying when the time comes,” said Silver Fall with a stern maternal voice, “all the beverages at the event were going to be non-alcoholic anyway. I never really cared much for the taste of alcohol anyway.”
“You're no fun,” said Gale Stream, “Celestia only knows what you'll be like with foals.”
Silver Fall made a sad face and started slowly shuffling the cards before saying, “even if it turns out we can have foals together chances are they won't make past infancy, hybrids have a very poor life expectancy in their first year, even if they do make it that far there's a strong possibility that they won't be able to bear foals of their own, only one in every twenty-thousand hybrids is actually fertile, according to the last calculations I read. To my knowledge there were no dragon/pony hybrids rumored to be capable of bearing foals. Even if one of the foals I bear is able to beat the odds what's to keep my grandchildren from being born without complications? I don't want my family line to end with me or my children, I want it continue far into the future, that'll never happen with my choice of partners. Love is a mysterious thing, I don't think I'll ever find another entity that resonates with me the way Lightning does, I may never feel the kind of resonance we have ever again. I hope our children can live happy lives if they manage to survive. I don't want to see a still-born,” tears began to flow from the dragoness forming Sorrow Pearls before her, “shatter those things, they're my sadness and sorrow given physical form. I can't keep up the game, sorry everypony,” with that she chugged the entirety of her drink and put the cards back in their case before sliding it closed and leaving her noticeable pile of bits on the table, deck firmly held within her tail.
“You just had to say something to make her sullen,” said Night Spell and Guard Wind in unison as they shattered the pearls, “we're leaving now.”
“The game's pretty much ruined with that downer of a confession,” said Cider Press, “great job making me feel guilty about having a healthy foal developing inside me,” said Cider press with contempt to Gale Stream, “you're not allowed to join us for the next two games, because you just made our best playing buddy feel bad about a relationship she should be overjoyed about.”

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Two hours later a disguised Silver Fall came into the complex she shared with Lightning Twist and his friends, and passed up the steaming pot of spaghetti made by Nimbus Build (whom she said made some of the best pasta she had eaten in centuries) and slowly dragged herself in a sullen saunter to her room. All four stared at the door and stairs long after she left before Night Racer said, “what was that about? She looked...” the sound draconic wailing cut through the house.
“Somepony must of made a comment about her having foals,” said Lightning Twist.
“Why would that be something to make her sad?” said Storm Runner, “she'd be a great mother, she's been playing mother-mare to a lot of ponies in her time!”
“Because of the nature of hybrids,” said Lightning Twist, “she told me most hybrids don't survive their first year, and a good quarter of them are reported to be still-born. She wants to be a legitimate mother more than anything, but she's afraid for any foals she could potentially bear.”
“Oh,” said Storm Runner, “there go all my plans for cheering her up.”
“We should give her time,” said Nimbus Build, “she'll make the decision she feels is best.”

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A month after Gale Stream's mistake Silver Fall was back in Cirrus from a game, they didn't have a fifth player this time around. Silver Fall had decided it was time to tell Cirrus the truth about her, she had mayor call a town meeting. To say her reveal could have gone better was an understatement, they had managed to put a stop on all twelve letters being sent to Canterlot asking for aid against a possible Changeling incursion, and seven letters talking about dragon's find a way to infiltrate every community in Equestria. As luck would have it all the mail ponies were okay with her being a dragon, the mayor and his supporters not so much. It took an additional three weeks to convince the mayor and his supporters that she wasn't a threat and explain how she wasn't a changeling, she 'proved' it by reverting to her pegasus form and remaining to interact with the rest of the town as she always had.

**************************************************

It was the day of the wedding, Silver Fall was in white dress adorned with little dark blue dragons and rainbow pearl designs along the train of the dress in addition to her rainbow pearl hanging from a special gold chain around her neck. She had a nearly twenty minute freak out, which Night Spell personally put stop to before it got out of hoof or claw. After reassuring the dragon she looked gorgeous, she was in her natural form (at pony size), Night Spell helped walk her down the aisle. And that's when she saw Lightning Twist in his wedding formal attire, the white suit with  a black shirt and silver tie made him look like a hero out of story to her. Presiding over the ceremony was Guard Wind, it had been a long debate over who would preside as the arbiter of vows before Guard Wind had been chosen from a lot (against his wishes, Gale Stream had put the name of Royal Guard in as a joke). “I think your much more fun enjoyable to be around since your emotions were freed,” said Night Spell as she led the dragoness down the aisle, “your weren't all that fun to be around before you met your soon-to-be husband. I always suspected something was off about you, and when you shared your secret with me it wasn't what I thought, I nearly had similar reaction to the mayor Cirrus, but my eye for detail noticed how you change and I was okay with it all.”
Looking about she noticed that Cider Press was further along in her pregnancy and crying with tears of joy, Apple Chiller was so close to bawling on his own that it would have caused a number of stallions that to laugh if it weren't for his reputation for trouncing entire gangs of ponies with little effort.
“Dearly beloved friends and family,” bellowed Guard Wind after Silver Fall had arrived at the foot of the alter and Lightning's mother had moved back to her seat, “we are here today to join together in holy matrimony Lightning Twist and Silver Fall, may their union bring them nothing other than happiness and joy. If anypony sees fit to argue why these should not be wed speak now or forever hold your peace.” After waing a couple of minutes he continued with, “bring in the bonding tool. A colt of about eight years rushed up with a golden rope, “begin the ritual.”
Night Spell used her cyan colored magic to tie the rope into a knot around the out raised forelegs of the couple and said, “so as this rope binds your forelegs so too shall this ceremony bind your lives as one.”
“I now pronounce you Stallion and Dragoness,”  bellowed Guard Wind, “you may now kiss the bride.” The two gave a deep kiss that lasted over three minutes.
“Now why couldn't our wedding kiss have been that long,” muttered Cider Press.
“Having regrets about our marriage, sweet-apple,” said Apple Chiller teasingly as the now-married-couple walked by them.
“Only that our wedding kiss wasn't nearly as long as theirs,” said Cider Press without missing a beat.
Silver Fall took the boutique in her tail and wound it up before tossing it with a quite a bit of power once she passed the end of the aisle on her way out, it landed with a *thunk* on Night Spell's flank, the dark colored mare looked back to see the bundle of flowers and blushed so brightly that her dark coat was a vibrant shade of hot pink around her cheeks and the base of her horn.
The after party was simple, Cider Press and Apple Chiller stopped five instances of ponies and alcoholic beverages before they could be implemented (and 3 bowls of bunch were removed when Chiller had tested them to hints of fermentation). The party was short, at the insistence of Lightning Twist. Silver Fall really didn't mind the party's length, all she really cared about was spending time with her friends. She and all 12 of her friends played a few rounds Capture the Crown, everypony just seemed to get great enjoyment out of it (also she had the deck in the bosom of her wedding dress for safekeeping, and a few laughs).
“Well, looks like we're moving into that new house now,” said Lightning Twist.
“Pity you turned down the honeymoon,” said Crimson Skies with disappointment.
“We went over that dad,” said Star Tome, “someopny could crash the whole thing, and maybe be somepony who hasn't been given the privilege of Silver's secret.”
“yeah, yeah,” said Blackout with smile, “pity the papers can't print this, would be ratings gold, and nopony would have to make up a single thing.”	
His mother just shook her head and said, “pity she'll never end up on the stage, pony or dragon she's a beauty to envy.”
“Let's head for our new house,” said Silver Fall as she assumed her pegasus form and readied to take to the air.
“Sorry to disappoint,” said Spotlight Flutter, “but your heading there in style. Star Tome and Thunder Kick will be taking you there in one of the classiest coaches we could get.”
“You mean the wedding coach you and dad road in on your wedding, which was pulled by our grandparents because they thought it would be a hoot,” deadpanned Thunder Kick.
“That's the one,” said Star Tome, “come on everypony, let's get this over with so the happy couple can get down to business.”
“No arguments here,” Silver Fall as they were led to pegasus designed, and pulled, coach wagon  that looked like it was done up in sapphires to mimic a clear day with silver clouds and a topaz sun; looking at the other side revealed a night time scheme with onyx set into the coach and diamond stars along with large collection of pearls done up to resemble the moon.
“This is taking it to far,” said Lightning Twist as the two boarded the coach.