A Mistake to Remember

“Big Softy,” a feminine, melodic voice called, resonating through the outer lair before reaching the inner, “I need your help putting up the decorations.”

A low grumble could be heard from beneath a pile, or more accurately a mountain, of pillows and blankets in the living room. This was followed shortly after by a stirring of the mountain and an almost harmonic collection of purrs.

Danger trotted into the living room and gave a sigh while rolling her eyes at the sight before her. Then, with a smirk, she announced, “Alright, I was planning on giving everyone that helped me decorate one of the cookies in the kitchen, but, if cuddling is more important…”

Cuddling had barely left her mouth when the pile before her erupted in a cacophony of movement, as well as demands and complaints. In a matter of seconds, the head of Fiery, Danger’s kirin daughter, finally popped out from underneath some pillows, shortly followed by her draconic son Nightflame, and after another few seconds, Kindling, her pegasus son.

“So if we help decorate, we each get a cookie?” Fiery excitedly asked.

“That was the plan, but, you three look like you're having so much fun cuddling with your father, I wouldn’t want to pull you away.”

Each of the kids looked at each other, conflicted as to what they wanted to do, but ultimately, the promise of sweets won out.

After extricating themselves from the pile, the three of them ran off towards the outer lair with cheers of excitement. After they left the inner lair, the pile shifted once more, and this time, Black Death’s mildly annoyed face emerged.

“I was cuddling our bornlings. Couldn’t decorating wait? Hearth’s Warming is the pony holiday of family cuddling.”

“Oh, I see.” Danger spread her wings and flew over to her mate and gave him a kiss on the lips before continuing with a smile. “Seeing as I wasn’t invited to join in on the cuddles, I must not be a part of this family.”

Suddenly, Black Death stood up and flared his wings, tossing off all the blankets and pillows that had been covering him, catching Danger by surprise. Taking advantage of this, Black Death moved forward, grabbed his mate in his arms, flipped her over so she was lying upside down, and gave her a deep kiss on the lips, which she reciprocated.

When he finished kissing her, Black Death pulled back with a smirk. “You are always invited to join in on family cuddle time. All you had to do was crawl into the cuddle hoard our kids made. Or simply get close enough that I can grab you and bring you in.” Black Death went for another kiss but was stopped by a hoof being pressed to his lips.

“Unfortunately, Big Softy, I want to have the lair fully decorated by the time our parents arrive tonight, and since Never, Holly, and their family are going to be here any minute, I would prefer it if we got our decorating done before the five of them arrive so they won’t feel pressured to help. Which means,” Danger pushed herself out of her mate’s hold so she could begin hovering in the air and placed a small kiss on his nose, “decorating comes before cuddling until everything gets done.”

Black Death smiled back. “Then I expect a long family cuddle session when we’re all done.”

“And here I was thinking you’d say something different. So, same deal as last year, you hang the moon crystal lights along the ceiling and walls while the kids and I decorate the garden. Oh, and before I forget, I got us a few sets of starlight crystals from the village I thought would look nice in the pond, the basin under the waterfall, and behind the waterfall.”

“That should look interesting. I’ll make sure to look down every now and again to see how that looks.”

“Well, I was thinking, since the waterfall is so strong, and the rocks behind it are probably extremely slippery, I was wondering if my ever so strong and skilled mate might not be the best suited to doing that.”

Black Death began to purr as he leaned forward to nuzzle his mate hoovering before him, enjoying her flattering words. “Alright, I‘ll handle taking care of the waterfall.”

“Well, seeing as you’ll already be getting wet doing the waterfall, would you mind doing the pond and basin as well?” Danger asked while looking at her husband with the most enormous puppy-dog eyes she could manage.

Releasing a good-natured sigh as a naughty smile spread across his muzzle, Black Death replied, “Since I’m such a nice mate, I think I can manage that. And, since I know you’re such a good mate, I have a feeling the two of us will be having some extra cuddle time after the family one.” As he said this, the tip of his tail found its way onto her hindquarters and began to caress her.

“I think that sounds like a wonderful idea.” Fluffy replied before pushing his tail away, “but as I said, until the decorating gets done, none of us can have any cuddle time.”

“Then we best get to work. Did you take the crystals out of the storage holes?”

“Yeah, all the boxes you’ll need are up by the tunnel to the surface.”

“I see. And what would have been your plan if I’d have said no to putting up the lights behind the waterfall and in the pools?”

“As you said,” Fluffy responded with a smile before giving him a kiss and flying out towards the garden, “you are a nice mate.”

Black Death couldn’t help but snort after hearing this. “Evil pony tricks.”

“I call decorating around the sunstones!” Nightflame shouted as he ran towards the box containing the strings of crystals they used to decorate the garden.

“I call decorating the far garden!” Fiery called as she flew past her draconic brother, causing him to extend his wings and take to the air in order to beat his older sister.

Amused at her children’s antics, Fluffy turned to her last remaining child with a smile. “Are you planning to help your brother again this year?”

“Yeah,” Kindling said with a nod. The two of them were practically inseparable, doing just about everything together. If she was being honest, they had been alive more years than times she’d seen them apart.

“Tell you what. Since your brother and sister are off doing their own thing, why don’t you help me with the small garden? If you do, I’ll let you have the first pick of the cookies.”

Fluffy could see her son’s muzzle scrunch up in indecision. She knew it was a bit underhoofed to bribe her son to stay with her, but with her never getting to have any alone time with either of her sons, it felt at least somewhat justified.

It took Kindling a few seconds to finally come to a decision, but eventually he turned to his mother and nodded. “Ok, I’ll stay and decorate with you.”

Fluffy smiled and brought Kindling into a sideways hug with her wing as she began walking with him to the box of crystals. “Thanks for that, Kindling. And, if it’s any consolation, knowing your brother, when he finishes decorating around the sunstones, he’s probably going to come over and help us. That or decide to practice killing your father’s tail.”

That earned a chuckle from Kindling. His brother had gotten into the same habit their sister had when she was their age. It was always funny watching the young dragon attacking TBD’s tail, especially when he encouraged it by flicking it back and forth on the ground.

When the two of them arrived at the box of decorations, Kindling dashed forward and began to dig through everything that was remaining to find the string of crystals with the most yellow ones on it.

“You know, you don’t always have to decorate with only yellow.”

“But it’s not only yellow, there’s blue and green and red too.”

“I know.” Fluffy smiled and ruffled Kindlings main with a wing. “Why don't we start over by your father’s favorite sunstone, that way you and your brother can decorate together for a bit before he has to work on the other side.”

“Ok.” Kindling dashed towards the aforementioned stone with the string of crystals dragging behind him.

Fluffy was glad at least one of her kids was a pony. Dealing with two dragons and one kirin was hard enough already. She was a pony, so raising a pony, especially a pegasus, just felt easier.

The one thing she did pray for though was that Kindling didn’t take after his brother too much. He was already emulating him in some aspects, like helping with Night’s hoard, sharpening his hooves on rocks, and she had even caught him chewing on a gem once.

She had seen the two of them digging in the garden a few times, but given what she knew about colts, she was hesitant to say one way or the other that that was something he had picked up from Nightflame.

After grabbing the box of decorations and flying over to Black Death’s favorite stone, Danger found Kindling tangled up in the string of crystals he had grabbed and his brother doing his best to untangle him.

“Be careful with your claws, Night. We’ve already had to replace the crystals you ate last year, I don't need you damaging the decorations again.”

“I am being careful! Kindling tripped and the stupid decoration tied him up.”

Danger just rolled her eyes at her sons’ antics. At least one benefit having non-pony children had was that they seemed to grow up a lot faster. As such, rather than having to deal with two five-year-olds that play off of each other to create bigger problems, Night seemed to act more like a bigger, older brother, despite only being so by a centimeter or two and a couple of minutes.

After about a minute of frustrated growling and careful claw use, Kindling was finally freed from the decorations, and was quick to give his brother an appreciative hug. After this, the two of them set to work trying to untangle the entire string and untie any knots that had formed while Danger worked on decorating.

It was at this point that Danger heard something she really didn’t want to hear just yet.

“Fiery!” came the echoing call of a filly from the tunnel to the surface.

“Soundy!” returned Danger’s daughter as Danger watched her drop what she was working on and fly up to the opening.

She didn’t need to wait long, as the white, red, and orange shape of Soundy came crashing into her cousin and wrapping her in a hug soon after. Almost as fast, the two began to excitedly ask each other how they had been doing and talking about their lives.

“Fiery, I know you two can’t wait to catch back up, but you did promise to help decorate the garden. So, if you're going to talk, try to keep working as well.”

Fiery turned to face her at that with a face filled with both smug superiority and righteous indignation in equal amounts. “Nuh-uh, you promised to give us cookies if we helped, we never promised anything.”

It took everything in Danger to not release a sigh at that. Of course she would bring that up. Of all the instincts she inherited from her father, she had to inherit his need to stay to the word of an agreement. However, while Black Death had some tack when it came to broaching the issue, and she had learned how to word things around him, for the last few years, Fiery had been even more literal about what was and wasn’t an agreement than Black Death ever was.

“That is true, you never promised to help decorate, but, my promise was contingent on you helping to decorate, and since I’ll be the one determining what counts as help… well. Additionally, seeing as your cousins have just arrived, and my promise was that everyone who helps gets a cookie, the chocolate chip ones might run out before you get one, and since I never promised what kind of cookie you would be getting…”

A look of horror crossed over Fiery’s muzzle, followed quickly by one of anger. “You wouldn’t, you-”

“I promised that you would get ‘a cookie from the kitchen’, I never said what flavor it would be. And, since I know your aunt, uncle, and cousins don’t mind my lemon or apple cookies, they might be the only ones available for a good while.”

Faster than Soundy could react, Fiery grabbed onto her and began dragging her back to where she had been working. “Come on, Soundy, we need to finish before everyone else so I can get those chocolate chip cookies.”

“Just so you know, I promised Kindling that he’s getting first pick, so no grabbing cookies before me and him get there.” Danger wasn’t sure if either of them heard her, but if they didn’t, she knew she could find a way to keep to her deal with Kindling,

“Hey, Danger. Still working on decorating?” another mare announced as she exited the tunnel into the lair.

“Hey, Holly. Yeah, just trying to finish decorating the lair. I was able to get the inner lair done pretty quickly, but couldn’t find the time to do the outer lair.” As Danger looked up, she saw her sister-in-law and brother walking down the ramp to the garden with their two sons in tow as well as Holly’s ‘pet’, Blue Ember, riding atop Holly’s back. It brought a smile to her lips seeing her brother struggling to both keep the mountain of wrapped gifts stable on his back while also keeping their younger son, Cairny, next to them.

However, Blue Ember did not remain on Holly’s back for long after they entered the outer lair. Grünchen, who had been perched in one of the many crevices in the walls, presumably sleeping, suddenly flew down and towards the night phoenix and swooped him, causing Blue Ember to flap his wings in agitation. The sudden blur of green passing by and the flapping of Blue Ember’s wings surprised Never, and the sudden jerk he did because of this almost caused him to drop the mass of presents, but he was able to save it at the last second.

After being swooped another three times, Blue Ember seemed to have had enough of this and took off from Holly’s back. This didn’t seem to help though as Grünchen continued to pester the night phoenix in the air, and even when Blue Ember managed to fly into one of the deeper crevices in the walls, Grünchen followed him in soon after.

“Sorry about that,” Danger said somewhat softly, “I thought Grünchen would have grown up a little since the last time you were here and leave Blue alone.”

“Oh, that’s alright, he’s just trying to play with him. While Blue isn’t his biggest fan, I’m sure their not going to try killing each other.” Holly began looking around as she descended toward the garden, her eyes eventually landing somewhere that caused her to smile and shake her head. “I see you shanghaied our daughter to help with finishing the decorations.”

“No, that was all Fiery. There’s a deal currently in effect that promised cookies to everyone that helps decorate, and I may or may not have engaged in some sword-point diplomacy with Fiery to get her to get back to work after deciding to just talk with your daughter, leading her to get volunteered into helping decorate.”

“Never and I are going to have to steal you away in the near future. If you keep acting more and more like your mate, I wouldn’t be surprised if we came back one of these days and you were covered in scales.” Holly asserted good-naturedly as she reached the garden and began walking over to Danger.

When she reached the other mare, the two wrapped each other in a hug. “Speaking of your mate, where is he? Knowing him, since he’s more invested in the holiday than ninety percent of ponies, at least when it comes to the family aspect, I would have expected him to be holding you under his wing and purring.”

Danger ended the hug, and when they had fully separated, began to point up with a hoof. However, almost as soon as she began the gesture, the sound of wing beats coming from above slowly became audible and steadily grew louder.

Looking up, Danger frowned slightly at the sight of her husband. “Hey! You can’t just leave the decoration box up there, what if it falls down and onto somepony? You can come greet everyone when you finish decorating the ceiling. And the faster you finish the decorating, the sooner I hold up my end of the deal!”

With a slightly unhappy growl, TBD made his way back up.

Holly’s smile doubled as she watched TBD return to decorating. “I see, so cuddle time comes after decorating, and If I also had to guess, he’s not planning for that session to end until everyone else is asleep.”

“Ok, seriously, Holly, it never gets any less weird when you do that. I know you said your father taught you how to read ponies, but every time you say something that makes you sound like you can read minds or look into the past, I second-guess your honesty.”

“If you think what I do is weird, I should invite my father to visit one of these days, then you can experience what it feels like to talk with someone so good at reading ponies that you would bet your life that he was reading your mind.”

“Sorry to interrupt your mare talk,” Never interjected before Danger could respond, “but where do you want me to put the presents?”

“The tree’s already set up so you can put it there. And, if we’re not finished by the time you come back, your welcome to lend us a hoof.”

“Alright, I’ll be back in a few days.” And with that, Never was off towards the inner lair.

“So, back to what we were talking about.” Danger declared as she turned back to Holly.” I don’t think Big Softy would appreciate having your father over.”

“Probably not.” Holly looked back from watching Black Death fiddle with the crystals on the ceiling and towards Kindling and Nightflame as they messed with a string of crystals on one of the bushes, trying to work out some knots they had missed. “How’s it going you two? I’m surprised you didn’t follow your sister’s example and run over to greet Dusk and Cairny.”

“Hey, Aunt Holly,” Kindling responded, not even turning away from what he and Night were working on.” I’ll play with Dusk after I finish helping Mom. She promised I would get first pick of the cookies, so if I finish super fast, I can get the cookies super fast.”

“That sounds reasonable. And what about you, Night?”

“I don’t need to go over to greet Cairn since he’s already over here helping. And I also want to get done quickly so I can have one of Mom’s cookies.”

Holly’s eyes went slightly wide at Night’s comment since she didn’t see her youngest son over there, but when she turned around to look for him, all she saw was her older son, Dusk Light. “Cairny.”

“Yeah, Mom.” came the calm, almost tired voice of the little earth pony from behind the bush Nightflame and Kindling were working on.

“Just checking to see if you were really over there,” Holly replied. Shaking her head and sighing, Holly turned back to her sister-in-law. “I swear, I'm about ten minutes away from buying a harness for him and attaching a leash to it so I can keep him from walking off without my knowledge. And, if he gets his cutie mark and it has something to do with sneaking around, the harness and leash are getting bought that second.”

Holly then turned to face her other son. “Dusk, would you mind keeping an eye on your brother? I don’t need him and Night going on an adventure out of the lair today.”

“Ok, Mom.” And with that, the colt trotted off.

“I don’t think that will work how you think it will,” Danger stated as she watched the colt reach the rest of the kids. “Dusk, Night, and Kindling may all be the same age, but Night’s more like twice their age.”

“I know, I know, but it makes me feel better knowing somepony has an eye on Cairny. It’s not gotten any worse, but not any better. I swear, that colt inherited all of his father’s traits that had to do with going off exploring and doing so without concern for his safety.”

“Well, if you look at the bright side, at least he can only get into so much trouble as an earth pony, you won't have to worry about him becoming Dangle junior.”

“That’s what you think. I’m not holding my breath that he won’t find some way to pull off something like that, but I see what you mean. Yeah, unlike you, only one of my kids has the capacity to use wings to cause me grief.”

“True, but one of your kids can’t breathe fire onto the only nonflammable member of your family.”

“Oh yeah, I remember you told me about that. Surprised Kindling and Nightflame are still as close as they are after that.”

“It was an accident. Nightflame didn’t know his brother didn’t inherit Black Death’s fire resistance, so that was a less than pleasant way to discover that. Speaking of, last I heard, you were recruiting your siblings to help Dusk Light learn how to use his magic.”

“I did. We haven’t been able to get my brother’s help too often, but when he is able to, we definitely see Dusk making progress. Unfortunately… Night Whisp is… not the most tactful individual.”

“Well, at least he’s making progress.”

“Indeed. So, since Cloudy, Gold, and Black Death’s parents should be here in a few hours, and it looks like the entire family has been recruited to finish decorating, I might as well join.”

“I thought you said you wanted to get everything done before anyone arrived so they wouldn’t feel forced to help, Fluffy,” rumbled Black Death as he descended, landing next to Danger and pulling her into his side with a wing.

“That was fast. I hope you didn’t rush just so you could come down here. And I did. Unfortunately, they showed up early, and Firey press-ganged Soundy into helping after I reminded her my promise had stipulations.”

“And everypony else?” TBD asked as he picked up Holly for a hug.

“Nice to see you again, Black Death.” Holly hugged Black Death back, and when he put her back down, answered his question. “Never went in to put the presents by the tree, Cairny decided he wanted to help, and I sent Dusk to keep an eye on him.”

“If you are worried about Cairny wandering off, Night and I have excellent senses of smell, we would be able to find him in a heartbeat.”

Holly couldn’t help but snicker as she noticed the subtle shift in Black Death’s posture as he said this into the reserved stance he took when he boasted or said something that was meant to make him look good. “Sadly, I can't exactly trust Night not to encourage nor enable Cairny. To remind you, the last time the two of them got together here, Night carried Cairny up to one of the alcoves near the ceiling and it took us an hour to figure out where they’d gone.”

“They are family, they are supposed to get along with each other. And besides, Cairny had no complaints about being flown up there,” Black Death countered.

“Well, I’ll have to remember that the next time the kids decide they want to play in the snow and end up digging tunnels or running out of your sight.”

Both Holly and Danger cracked smiles as they saw Black Death sag slightly, unable to counter Holly’s point.

“Anyways, to get back to why we’re here,’ Holly stated, wanting to get back to the peaceful interactions, “any funny stories about the lead-up to Hearth's Warming? Soundy was asking if we could get her an adar cadence. Even if it wasn’t a protected species, the last thing we need is another singer in the house.”

“Sounds like Nightflame’s idea for a gift, except he asked for a manticore,” Danger replied.

Holly couldn’t help but look between Danger and Black Death with a look of concern. “Please tell me you didn’t.”

Danger scrunched up her muzzle, cocked her head, and pulled it back slightly in confusion. “Of course not. I may trust Big Softy to keep the kids safe, but getting a manticore would seriously be stretching that.”

Holly released a sigh at hearing that. “You know, given that you gained the power to catch on fire like a Kirin, I really shouldn’t be surprised that you act like one. Half the time you sound like a pony, the other half like your mate.”

“Just so you know, she hasn’t changed all that much,” came Never’s voice as he returned from the inner lair, carrying a few cookies on his wing. The first thing that crossed Danger’s mind at seeing this was anger. If Never took her cookies then he had just created a time bomb with the kids. However, on second glance, they didn’t look like any of the cookies she had made, though they were similar. Thinking back, she had given Holly the recipe she used for her cookies, so these must be ones she had made and brought with her.

“I have changed thank you very much. You know, just for that, I’m taking your cookie.”

“Oh really. And how do you expect to enforce that?” Never asked, his voice a mixture of smug amusement and genuine interest.

“Simple.” Danger turned to her mate. “Grab three cookies, one for me, two for you.”

“Sorry to burst your bubble there, sis, but I only brought three since I already ate one,” Never responded as TBD grabbed the cookies from Never’s wing and handed one to his mate. “So unless you’re planning to take Holly’s cookie, probably not what you want to do. And before you ask, yes, you’re welcome for bringing everyone a cookie.”

Danger fixed Never with a glare before turning to Black Death and asking him to give Holly one of his cookies. After he did this, Danger turned back to glare at her brother. “You know, it’s rude to offer ponies someone else’s food when you didn’t ask them first. And who said we weren’t planning to have other snacks after the decorating gets finished?”

“Are these Fluffies cookies?” Black Death asked almost as soon as Danger had finished, turning the cookie around in his claw and examining it.

“No, these are Holly’s. She wanted to get your feedback on how she did with them, Danger.” After this, Never just shrugged as he turned to face his sister. “What can I say, I’m just an inconsiderate husband and guest. And besides, we both know the only reason you’re angry is because you can’t take one away from me.”

In response, Danger just released a ‘hmm’ of irritation and began to eat the cookie she had been given.

As everyone was finishing their cookies, the sudden appearance of Soundy and Fiery on Black Death’s back brought everyone’s attention back to the kids.

“Done!” the two announced almost in unison. And, a few seconds later, the two were joined by the rest of the kids, all jumping onto Black Death’s back.

“Did you all do a good job?” Danger knew the question was more than a little pointless, none of them were going to admit to doing a bad job if they thought they did, but she could only expect so much from them, and them feeling good about the work they did was rewarding in its own way. Besides, from what she could see from where she was standing, the work they had done didn’t look too bad.

“Yep, so, can we have those cookies now?” Fiery asked, her tail waving back and forth in excitement.

“Yes, but remember, your brother gets the first pick.”

“Yay!” all six of them shouted as they ran towards the inner lair.

Holly shook her head and smiled at the kid's antics. “I think I’m starting to understand what my parents were talking about when they said time seemed to go by faster when me and my siblings came along. I swear it hasn’t even been five minutes since we arrived and already the kids finished decorating the garden.”

“To be fair, there aren’t too many decorations for the garden, and kids tend to work a lot faster when there’s the-”

“Mom!” It was Fiery’s voice, and from the sounds of it, she was rather upset.

“Coming.” Danger then released an exasperated sigh. “The one downside to the holidays is there tend to be more problems, and they’re always the ones you only see at this time of the year.” After extracting herself from under Black Death’s wing she began to make her way toward the kids.

Wanting to see what this was about, and to remain by Fluffy in Black Death’s case, the rest of the adults were quick to follow. When all four of them arrived in the kitchen, following the sound of arguing kids, they were greeted to the sight of an angry nirik, dragon, and pegasus, and a rather startled and confused pegasus, unicorn and earth pony.

“You broke your promise, Mom!” the irate nirik shouted as soon as Danger came into his sight.

“What are you talking about? I said you could each have a cookie, and I clearly remember informing you about Kindling getting first pick.” Danger looked between all of the kids in complete bewilderment, utterly sideswiped by the accusation. Danger knew how seriously her kids took deals, so Fiery accusing her and not being countered must mean they felt they were right.

“You said I could have first pick,” Kindling spoke up, his face reddening by the second as he angrily pointed at the two plates of cookies on the counter, “but there aren’t as many cookies as there should be, so you must have eated them first!”

Ah, now things were making sense. It was a little surprising that Kindling was so upset about not having the absolute first pick, especially when the cookies he was referring to hadn’t even been taken from the batch she had made, but it was a reasonable complaint. A complaint she was going to have to deal with.

Danger turned to face Never with a glare, that quickly turned into a smirk. A look that made her brother begin to sweat pebbles “Oh, you are definitely going to pay for earlier.” Turning back to the kids, Danger put on her most understanding and saddened motherly voice. “Sorry kids, I should have realized earlier, but Uncle Never brought us adults some cookies earlier after having one himself.”

“Now wait j-”

Never’s complaint was silenced by the sudden hostility his niece and nephews were now showing him, causing him to cut his words short. It would have been impressive to see just how scary the bared fangs of a nirik and dragon not even half his size could be if it wasn’t aimed at him. However, this was only the first of his problems, as after an enraged roar, TBD pounced on Never, rolling him onto his back and holding him there as he growled straight into his face while presenting his fangs.

“Now now, I’m sure he’s very sorry and would be more than happy to make it up to you all by making you all replacements.” Danger stated, placing a hoof on both kids threatening to pile onto her brother like their father.

However, Fiery wheeled around on her, still looking as though she was ready to bite into her uncle everywhere she could reach that her father wasn’t already threatening. “But that still means you didn’t hold up your promise. They won’t be the cookies you promised us!”

Now Danger had to get creative with how to fix this. “Is that true though? The deal was, if I’m remembering correctly, that everyone that helped would get a cookie from the kitchen. The exact time was never specified, only that you would get a cookie if you helped. Plus, if you want to argue that what I said only applied to the cookies in the kitchen when you entered it, are you going to stand there and say that if I had been in the middle of making bigger, better cookies when you did so that you wouldn’t argue that those new cookies could be taken instead?”

Fiery was left opening and closing her mouth as her brain spun its wheels trying to counter her mom’s argument. Ultimately, she turned towards her father. “Is Mom right?”

Black Death stopped growling at Never and looked to Danger for a few seconds before turning back to his daughter and nodding. “While it isn’t in the spirit of the original deal, your mom is right. As long as she gives you a cookie from the kitchen, she fulfills her agreement.”

Fiery puffed up her cheeks in indignation and turned to her uncle. “You better make the best cookies to make up for what you did.” She then turned back to her mother, still looking miffed. “You still broke your promise. Uncle Never got the first pick so you broke your promise.”

“Now wait a-” Before Danger could further voice her objection at being guilty of something she had no control over, Black Death had gotten off of Never and lifted her up by the scruff of her neck and was carrying her away. “What in the Tartarus do you think you’re doing!”

“Pacta sunt servanda.” His words were muffled and distorted by Danger’s presence in his mouth, but they were still somewhat discernable. “You couldn’t hold up your end of the deal, thus you must be punished.”

“Big Softy!” she yelled in outrage, struggling in his grip. “That wasn’t my fault! It was Never who…!”

“Doesn’t matter,” he mumbled between her rambling, “your deal, your responsibility.”

“So now I’m getting punished? This is ridiculous! Let me down this instant!”

“No,” Black Death simply said, carrying her over to the living room and dropping her in one of the corners. Danger immediately attempted to escape, but was pushed back by one of Big Softy’s wings. “You lied, you have to stay in the corner for an hour.”

“I will not…!” Fluffy yelled and intensified her attempts to escape, but it was in vain. Black Death always pushed her back.

“You must be a good example for the kids, Fluffy!” He scolded her. “The rules are the rules!”

“But,” Fluffy put on her best cute pegasus eyes, “it wasn’t my fault!”

“It was, and you know it.” Black Death lowered his head to place a kiss on his wife's head. “See you in an hour.” And with that, he walked out of the inner lair to finish decorating to get his much-deserved cuddle time with his mate.

With a stomped hoof, Danger released a string of muttered curses before turning to face the wall and accept her fate, though not without complaint as she still continued to curse under her breath all the while.

Seeing this, Fiery developed a smug grin across her muzzle as she turned to face her uncle.

“What’s with the grin,” Never wondered as he got back up from the floor, already getting a very bad feeling about the situation.

“This is way better than biting you, Uncle,” Fiery replied, her grin intensifying.

“How is that?” Now sweat was beginning to form on Never’s forehead.

“Mom will get angrier and angrier the longer she stays in that corner, and when she finally gets out,” she looked him straight in the eyes, “she will blame you for it.” She then turned to the other foals and wyrmling. “Let's go play while Uncle Never makes the replacement cookies.”

While Kindling was quick to follow, Nightflame took his time to growl at his uncle and added a loud hiss to make sure that making his twin brother sad would not be tolerated. However, with his father having already made it clear that Never had messed up, he finally trotted after the others. The other three hesitated for a while before awkwardly exiting the kitchen.

“You do know I kind of suck at baking, right?” Never called out to Black Death and Danger, but when he looked over to his sister for any form of sympathy, the look of pure, unrestrained murderous intent she fixed him with caused him to swallow any other words he was planning to voice.

“You’ll just have to hope the kids will take sympathy on you, won’t you?” Black Death stated as he watched said kids run through and between his legs. “You dug this hole yourself and caused Fluffy to break a promise. Hopefully the cookies you bake will be good enough that they’ll save you from her wrath.”

Holly wrapped a foreleg over Never and gave him a kiss before smiling as the stallion began to show the first signs of a panic attack. “Don’t worry, Dangle, I’ll help you out. I’m sure the two of us can fix up some cookies that will meet our niece’s and nephews' expectations.”

Never just grumbled to himself as he followed after his wife to help her with the cookies. Meanwhile, Black Death continued to watch the kids play as he worked on the last of the decorations.

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