Twilight's Mind

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As Twilight studied her friend across the cafe table, she couldn’t help but wonder if Rarity felt like the odd mare out. She had, of course, invited Twilight and the rest of her herdmates for a “girls’ day out”, something Twilight would never think to do on her own. It wasn’t that she disliked spending time with her friends, or with ponies outside of her herd, but truthfully arranging parties or friendly meals just never crossed her mind. Thank goodness she had such wonderful friends.

Even so, Rarity was the only pony at the table who wasn’t part of the herd. Twilight didn’t kid herself, she knew full well that since she and Rainbow Dash had herded with Lero, they had grown closer—the nature of their friendship had changed, and new friendships with Lero and Lyra had developed. Did Rarity notice? Was she sitting over there, delicately sipping her tea, like she had always done, chatting airly about some new dress she was trying to stuff Rainbow Dash in (“Darling, I can’t simply spend my days designing for just Earth Ponies and Unicorns, you know, and I suspect your stallion might appreciate it too!”), feeling awkward and out of place?

Twilight wished she could just ask her directly, but obviously, that wasn’t going to fly. Plus, she couldn’t help but suspect that she might be projecting ever so slightly. It had only been three months since Twilight had… alicorn’d, as Dashie insisted on calling it, and as much as she enjoyed flying and her new wings for other… reasons, it was difficult not to notice ponies staring at her. Only a few did it openly, of course, but Twilight could feel their eyes on her when her back was turned.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t experienced this sort of public spotlight before—she had, of course, inherited a noble title the summer prior, and before that, dating Lero, the only human in Equestria, had caused its own stir. Before that, she had led her friends in a string of victories over evil, protecting the Great Herd of Equestria from the likes of Discord and poor, bitter Luna.

And before that, Twilight had been Celestia’s personal student.

And before that, she had been the child of a Duke.

Really, looking back on things, Twilight was wondering why she still found it all so awkward or unusual that ponies were staring at her. One would think she’d be used to it by now.

“Twilight? Twilight, are you alright?” Rarity asked, breaking Twilight out of her musings. A couple of seconds later, Rainbow followed it up with a completely unnecessary jab to her ribs.

“I— I’m… Yes,” Twilight gave her best, most reassuring smile. “I’m fine, Rarity, I just got lost in my thoughts for a little bit.”

“Oh, that’s quite alright, Twilight, dear,” Rarity said with an airy wave of her hoof. “I imagine being a princess means you have a great deal on your mind.”

“No. I mean, yes, I do, but no, I shouldn’t let it interfere with my friends or friendships,” Twilight said, feeling nervous for no apparent reason. She hated when that happened. After so many years of hardship and joy, Twilight couldn’t imagine why, occasionally, she still worried she was going to lose it all. It felt like a wonderful, warm dream, and Twilight didn’t want to wake up from it. Not ever.

“It’s worse when she gets spaced in the middle of sex,” Rainbow said with a laugh, earning her a scandalized look from Rarity, as Twilight’s cheeks burned like the sun.

“Rainbow Dash! I hardly think that’s an appropriate topic of discussion to be having in public!” Rarity exclaimed, although Twilight wondered if it wasn’t partly an act on Rarity’s behalf. It was always so difficult to tell.

“Yes, Dashie,” Lyra said with a mischievous grin. “You wouldn’t want some put-out mare blabbing your bedroom secrets in public, would you?” Twilight and Lyra shared a grin; Rainbow Dash had made them both Pinkie Promise to never tell anypony how much she enjoyed cuddling, but, well… neither of them were Pinkie Pie.

Twilight glanced quickly over her shoulder, just to make sure the mare in question wasn’t about to spring up on them.

“That said, Twilight, maybe you should consider taking Still Way up again,” Lyra continued, waving her teacup around. “I know you’ve been really busy these past months, but a bit of meditation could help you focus… you have seemed a bit… out of it, lately.”

“Maybe,” Twilight said noncommittally. Truthfully, she wasn’t sure she really wanted to take Still Way up again. Before she had discovered her talent and cutie mark, Twilight would have wanted nothing less than to be the best unicorn—best at magic—she could be, but after that first, terrifying aural flare, Twilight had always been a bit… afraid of her magic. Not enough that she ever felt like she needed to stop doing magic, or that she shouldn’t do a spell, that had never been a problem. It was only that she suspected, if she had mental blocks that retarded the flow of magic, it might be better to leave them in place. Now that she was an Alicorn, and she was painfully aware of just how much raw magical muscle she had… it seemed better just to wait and see and ease into her power slowly.

Plus, she wasn’t sure it would help her with the other tribes’ magics, and at the moment, that’s really where she wanted to focus. She had a lot of learning to do, and frustratingly, most of it was unwritten.

“Anyway, as I was saying, Twilight, I was wondering if you and yours had anything special planned for Hearts and Hooves’ day. I just know Fleur and Fancy are up to something—it’s our first Hearts and Hooves together, and I suspect they want to make it special.” Rarity’s face took on a faraway look, one that Twilight had long associated with the mare fantasizing over some Prince or hypothetical romantic life. Not so much hypothetical now, of course. Twilight smiled. She had never known what magic romance could be, until she had fallen for Lero and the herd… it made her just as happy to see Rarity finding the same joy.

Then Twilight frowned, at the question.

“I don’t think so,” Rainbow said for Twilight. “I mean, Lero likes to get us chocolates and flowers, and cook us dinner, but that’s about it. We’ve never exactly been big on it.”

“Aww,” Rarity cooed, shaking her head. “Oh well, darling. I’m sure if you asked Lero, he’d be willing to do a bit more for you…”

“I suppose,” Rainbow looked a bit confused, as if she wasn’t sure why anyone would want a big romantic day.

“I know it’s a bit early,” Lyra said, putting down her cup as she rolled her eyes at Dashie behind her back. If the two of them weren’t so close to one another and Lero, Twilight would have worried about friction developing between her two herdmates. Really, that was more of Rainbow Dash’s concern, as lead mare, but much of the time Twilight felt like she was the one leading the herd. Perhaps it was due to her natural leadership skills—or at least, that’s what Celestia had called them, Twilight had never quite believed her—but thankfully it wasn’t something that had really come up so far. Unlike her parent herd, theirs was mostly calm and harmonious, despite Lero not being a pony. “But have you and Fancy discussed foals, Rarity?”

“Oh, uh,” Rarity blushed and demurred, looking down at her cup with a silly little grin on her lips. “We have, naturally. Who hasn’t?” Rarity said evasively, making Twilight smile to herself.

Rarity had told her once that she did in fact desire a foal or two of her own, although admittedly she had been fairly drunk at the time. Nevertheless, Twilight doubted that desire had changed much.

“And?” Twilight prompted with a giggle. She didn’t mean to tease, but, honestly, the look on the mare’s face!

“We… well, I thought it might be better to put it off, what with my career and everything,” Rarity explained, rubbing her hoof against a puddle of spilled tea in the bottom of her tea saucer. “But, well, you girls know how much I love Sweetie Belle… We’re going to try.”

“Wow!” Rainbow Dash said, sounding shocked. “Seriously?”

Twilight felt a bit shocked too; Rarity, a mother? It was just such a strange image, and one that Twilight had never considered before for some reason, despite her foreknowledge of Rarity’s wishes.

“Y-yes,” Rarity blushed deeply. “I’ll admit, I’m a bit nervous, but… well… don’t you girls tell anypony, but… Fleur isn’t… capable. And, well, I think Fancy wants to make up for lost time.”

“Oh, the poor thing,” Lyra said sympathetically as Twilight nodded. Fancy wasn’t noble born, although he had long since made enough money that he lacked only the title, but Fleur was, and her infertility didn’t surprise her. One of her own herdmothers was the same way; a depressingly common problem among noble unicorns, which was probably why they only herded together on rare occasions.

“She’s not pressuring you, is she?” Rainbow Dash asked, sounding a bit suspicious. Twilight flinched and gave Rarity a hard look. She was well aware that not every herd was rainbows and butterflies, and it wouldn’t be the first time that Twilight had heard, sadly, of a new herd member being forced into things she didn’t want to do by the rest of the herd.

“No, no! Of course not,” Rarity shook her head. “Don’t you worry, no. I want this too, I’m just…” Rarity gave a nervous half smile. “But every mare must feel a bit nervous, doesn’t she? It’s a big step.” Rarity paused and gave a small shiver. “I hate to think what’ll do to my body, goodness!”

That broke the tension that Twilight hadn’t realized had been building up around the table, and the four of them shared a laugh.

“Oh, my, well… we’ll see how it goes, Mhmm…” Rarity shook her head as she tried to get her giggles under control. “But… what about you? How has… well, you know?”

Twilight winced. She supposed it was a natural move in the flow of the conversation; in a few weeks, after hearts and hooves day, they would once again be going into heat. Well, Lyra and Rainbow would… Twilight wasn’t really sure how her new body would affect her hormonal cycles, although Cadance had been quick to assure her that, yes, she would go into heat, and yes, she could bear foals, if she chose to do. Assuming she could get seed that would grow in her fields.

As Applejack might say.

To say Twilight wanted children would be a bit of an understatement. Before she had herded, it had really only ever been a background dream, one she had never really considered or put much thought into. Perhaps it had been because her own mother, Star Sparkle, had never been there, and she wanted to do better, or maybe she just had natural maternal instincts… Twilight had no idea. Once she had herded, though, it had been a depressing thought when she realized the stallion she loved, Lero, wasn’t compatable. So had begun a long quest.

The quest to bear a foal with her stallion. Not just for herself, of course, but for Lyra—and, if she wanted it, Rainbow Dash.

At first, it had seemed like such a simple project, one that Twilight had thought could be solved by simply going to the library and doing the proper research. It wasn’t that Twilight was naive, she knew full well that her books didn’t hold all the answers, but she had assumed that there would be a spell, or a potion, or something she or Lero could take, and make them interfertile. While Lero, as human, was unique, Twilight knew full well their herd was hardly the first to contain non-ponies. And yet, it was one dead end after another. Maddeningly there were documented cases of herds—from centuries ago—having children as well as mixed-species members. Yet it was never explained how they did it! It was as if somepony had gone through and censored every book in existence, rewriting them to avoid answering the question that Twilight wanted answered most of all.

But they had done it, so it was just a matter of figuring it out. And so the experiments had started. Month after month, year after year. Disappointment after disappointment. And still she came up empty hoofed. Currently, she was exploring transfiguration options, but she had faint hope of those working… typically, removing the spell would reverse it with all connected matter; ie blood or sperm. Unless Lero wanted to be a pony for the rest of his life… well, that wouldn’t work.

And she didn’t want to ask that of Lero.

“We… still haven’t had much luck,” Twilight forced herself to say, bringing herself back to reality to answer the question. She couldn’t help but notice how bitter she sounded. “Still nothing.”

“I’m sorry, Darling,” Rarity said, reaching over and patting Twilight’s hoof with a comforting smile on her lips. “I wasn’t thinking, forgive me.”

“It’s okay, Rarity, really.” Twilight smiled weakly and did her best to sound upbeat.

“Yeah! Twilight’s the smartest pony there is,” Rainbow Dash grinned confidently with a nod. “She’ll figure it out.”

“Of course, I never doubted you,” Rarity said with a smile, then her mouth opened, as if she was going to say something more, before snapping it shut as she thought better of it and shook her head.

Twilight glanced over at her herdmates; she wasn’t the only one who had noticed Rarity’s hesitation; Lyra returned her gaze with a cocked eyebrow, and even Rainbow frowned slightly.

“It looked like you wanted to say something more, Rarity.” Lyra prompted calmly, fixing Rarity in a stare. Rarity shifted uneasily and giggled nervously before looking away.

“It’s nothing, really.”

“Come on, Rarity, you can tell us!” Rainbow exclaimed, giving Rarity a wide grin.

“You shouldn’t think you need to keep secrets from us,” Twilight added, just so she felt like she was part of the group. She hoped this wasn’t what Mama called ‘peer pressure’.

“Ah, well, you see,” Rarity continued to refuse to make eye contact with anypony, as she hemmed and hawed. Then finally she let out a long, controlled sigh. “Very well, but please, don’t be mad with me… I’m not trying to criticize. It’s just...I’ve always wondered…”

Twilight and her herd nodded encouragingly.

“With your difficulty at… getting blessed, with Lero… why haven’t you just gone and courted a new stallion?” Rarity forced the last part out in a rush, and Twilight couldn’t help but blink in surprise.

“N-not that I’m suggesting y-you should bed the first colt you see, of course,” Rarity said with a nervous laugh.

“Of course,” Twilight agreed automatically—out of the corner of her eye, Twilight could see Rainbow frowning, and Lyra looking bit surprised. She wondered what her face looked like.

“It’s just that,” Rarity’s voice grew a bit stronger, apparently gathering strength from the fact that none of her friends were trying to take her horn off. “I’ve watched you all struggle with this for years, and I know how much you want foals—and, of course, how much you love your Lero…” the white unicorn licked her lips and glanced down at her teacup, as if wondering if she could escape into it. “But, in a sense, he’s… barren, like Fleur is. I’m not saying I’m nothing but a broodmare for my herd, far from it, but I do know that I’m also a solution of sorts, for Fleur’s inability to… well.”

Rainbow’s face hardened, and out of the corner of her eye, Twilight watched Lyra lay a comforting hoof on their lead mare’s withers, and Twilight hastened to wrap her own wing around her herdmate, comfortingly. A small part of her was pleased she managed to do it, without knocking a chair or two over, but most of her mind was taken up with what Rarity was proposing.

It took all her training—as a student, as a good friend, as a good mare and as a princess—not to slam her head repeatedly on the table. This was hardly the place for that, however powerfully stupid she felt, and with her increased strength, there was a good chance she might break the table if she cut loose like that.

Of course.

Of fucking course.

That’s how those mixed herds had done it. That’s how they had foals. It wasn’t magic, it was practicality. Not all of them had second stallions, of course, but it wouldn’t surprise her if she found, looking through primary documents and similar, if those that lacked them had a close stallion friend, somepony they could call up to donate his seed. Twilight doubted there’d be many stallions—especially in the old days when all they had to look forward to was hard labour or sex—who would turn such an offer down.

Twilight really wished the cafe served something harder.

“I love Lero!” Dashie was saying, with a hard edge in her voice. ‘How can you suggest we replace him? I love him!”

Shaking herself, Twilight pulled Rainbow Dash into a bigger, better hug. It had not escaped Twilight that Lero had been the first stallion her friend had ever had much luck with, and Rainbow was known for her loyalty. Still, it wasn’t fair for her to take out her anger on Rarity.

“I… I’m not suggesting you replace dear Lero!” Rarity said, sounding horrified. “I daresay he’s my friend just as surely as you are, Rainbow! It’s just—no, listen to me, I should never have brought this up. It was very foalish of me, thinking out of curiosity rather than friendship! I never meant to hurt you. Any of you.” Rarity shook her head. “Let’s just drop it, shall we?”

All of them fell silent, and the silence stretched on for several moments before Lyra finally broke it. “Rainbow, Twilight told me you’ve been trying to teach her a few tricks?”

“I—what?” Rainbow looked confused and surprised at the sudden change of subject matter, despite what Rarity had said. Not to mention she had probably forgotten that Lyra hadn’t been there for those disastrous three weeks she had insisted Twilight learn to fly like ‘a pro’. Within seconds her cocksure grin had reappeared. “Oh yeah, Twilight was supposed to do this trick for the Summer Sun celebration, right? But—oh man, you should have seen how badly she was crashing—you remember that, don’t you Rares?”

“I do seem to recall you breaking yet another window in my home, Rainbow…” Rarity said sweetily, before giving Twilight a grateful grin. “Although you also broke your fair share… I really do wish you wouldn’t practice over my home, dears…”

Twilight decided not to explain she had gotten kicked off Sweet Apple Acres after accidentally flattening a couple of prime apple trees in a crash. Earth Pony strength and Pegasus Pony flight should never be combined. She knew that now, and had the tiny scars to prove it.

Dash, however, had no compunctions about that, and quickly launched into that particular story, apparently forgetting what Rarity had said.

When Twilight caught Lyra’s eye, she gave the mare a warm smile for her quick thinking—but couldn’t help it as it turned ever so slightly into a frown. All things considered? Twilight suspected this was going to have to be something the three of them—they’d bring Lero in eventually—were going to have to sit down and discuss at length, and in the privacy of their own home, not in a public cafe.

She could tell neither of them were looking forward to it.

While her friends might choose to describe her in words like ‘smart’ or ‘brilliant’ or ‘egghead’, Twilight herself prefered to think that her best quality was her thoroughness. A plan that accounted for and considered every possibility was a happy plan. A checklist, assuming it was well written and followed to the letter, would always ensure that nothing went wrong. Any task could be broken down into hundreds of smaller, easier to understand and approach steps, and each completed step was just a little bit closer to completing a task.

So, naturally, the very first thing Twilight did when she got home—or rather, the home she shared with her herd—was disappear into her study. Her study had, at one point, been part of a very strange lab that she had found in the basement levels of the library after she had moved in. Over the years, she had used it mostly for its intended purpose, mixing potions or assembling magical devices of various sorts. It was, for the most part, a safe and quiet place where she could set a few Sigils humming or potions cooking, without fear of some pony knocking it over or disrupting what were often delicate preparations of magic and chemistry.

Which wasn’t to say that Twilight didn’t still do that; it was merely that, since she had begun her project, most of the lab equipment had been shoved to the side, and new bookcases had been brought in, to hold the records and data she had collected. Much of the space was filled with copies or originals of documents from all over equestria. Herd charts, family trees, birth and death certificates, and so forth, alongside several hundred artefacts and personal belongings from some of the mixed-species herds. All of it, in theory, was supposed to help her solve the problem, but little of it had been very helpful.

Nevertheless, Twilight wasn’t about to disrupt the herd by bringing the topic up, unless she was absolutely sure. Until she had double and triple checked.

As she worked through the material, however, Twilight’s suspicions seemed to be confirmed fairly quickly. Far more quickly than Twilight would have imagined. She divided the piles of information into two smaller piles, one containing mixed herds with multiple males—with at least one of the two males being a pony—and the second pile containing all the herds that didn’t. With the first pile, Twilight just made the axiomatic assumption that those herds, in fact, had simply used the other stallion’s seed, either intentionally, or… in the heat of the moment, as it were.

The second pile was a bit more difficult to parse.

It only had the names and records of the ponies and others in question, and with each case, Twilight had to go through whatever associated records she had, to try and find evidence of the mystery stallion It didn’t take her long before she started to turn up positive results.

The easiest herds were those with a large unicorn population. Unicorns were, Twilight always felt a bit ashamed to say, not known for being wholly faithful to their herds at all times; It was really a product of a number of social pressures, she knew, such as the rigours and difficulties spending so much time away on research or diplomatic missions. Unicorns were, at least in the very ancient days before Celestia and before Equestria, the most isolated of all the pony tribes, as individuals.

This wasn’t to say that Twilight just assumed those long dead unicorns were going around and sleeping with stallions behind their Griffon, or Dragon, or Reindeer partners’ backs. No, it had more to do with the fact that the unicorns in her records seemed to have no problem sharing details of their dalliances with their herdmates, via letter or diary entries. One or two of them had even stated outright—in the roundabout way of diplomatic speech—that they had gotten themselves pregnant with an outsider.

She really couldn’t believe she had missed that.

Earth Pony dominated herds were also an interesting case of it. While not ones to sleep about in quite the same way as unicorn nobility or those with noble aspirations, reading between the lines, it was clear that for such herds there was an equally vibrant trade in seed going on. The main difference was that the stallions were, apparently, treated like family members of the extended herd, even if they never joined the herds in question.

Now that Twilight thought about it, that was probably why Earth Pony herds tended towards the small size… they didn’t need official stallions in their herds, if they could get by with one or two ‘family outings’.

Once she had gone through all the Earth Pony records, Twilight made herself promise never to bring the topic up with Applejack…

As for the Pegasi, those were a bit difficult. Few pegasi ever actually formed herds with non-pony members, and in the olden days, those who did tended to be rejected from pegasus society. In official records, those ponies were, every now and again, marked down as ‘dead’, long before the other records listed their dates of death. Naturally, it made it much harder to find evidence for her theory, and of all the records she went through, those were the slimmest and most flimsy. One could make the case that, as a matter of fact, those pegasi had never gone outside of their herd for help conceiving. Which was probably how it was meant to be.

But Pegasi, as magical as they were, weren’t unicorns, and couldn’t direct mana or energies in as focused or unusual ways like they could. Their magic lay in the direction of weather manipulation and flying—if any tribe was disposed to the type of magic and results Twilight sought, it would be Earth Ponies, but no such evidence existed.

Twilight could only assume that those stallions who had donated their seed to those pegasi herds weren’t celebrated or honoured, but rather considered dirty little secrets nopony was to talk about.

Even so, the evidence—when she got done with it all—was overwhelming. It was also unbelievably late.

Luckily, despite the floor being made out of wood, Twilight had always found it remarkably quiet to walk around, even in the dead of night, provided she stepped lightly. She wished that she had the sort of control Rainbow did, and could just float around silently on her wings, but she at least had practice with not disturbing her herd. It wouldn’t be the first time she had found herself crawling into bed at a Luna Blessed hour.

Sadly, the doors that led to the rest of the house were not so quiet, so Twilight had to be careful to open and close them slowly and carefully to prevent night-splitting screeches of the hinges. Still, it was worth it. The Books and Branches Library would always be part of her home, but, like her heart, her home had just gotten bigger, and as she was stepping into the den, Twilight could feel a bit of her tension easing out of her withers as she smiled at the moon-lit room.

“Twilight?”

Despite years of Pinkie Pie jumping out of her from everything ranging from bookcases to a pair of tube socks, Lero’s voice still startled her, causing her to jump in a rather undignified way.

Lero was standing, dressed in his bathrobe, in the doorway that led to the kitchen—the kitchen that Twilight’s tired brain only just now noticed was lit. He looked as tired as she felt, but despite his slightly wild facial hair and—part of her still giggled at the name—ponytail, Twilight could tell her stallion… her human, hadn’t slept any yet.

“Lero?” Twilight said, freezing in place. “What are you doing up?”

“I haven’t seen much of you all evening, I was getting worried,” Lero’s face grew into a subdued frown. “I was actually just about to come and get you,” His face broke into an easy grin, which Twilight found herself returning despite the bone deep tiredness she felt. “Drag you to bed, and all that.”

“That’s no way to treat a lady, is it?” Twilight quipped, dropping into an imitation of Rarity’s manners. She couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty when Lero flinched slightly. Twilight and her other herdmates had little trouble laughing that mad, mad week off, nor had Rarity or any of her other friends. Partly because there was little reason to feel upset over something that was wholly accidental and unavoidable, and, partly—Twilight suspected—because Lyra, Rarity and herself were unicorns. It wouldn’t surprise her if Rarity took a lover on the side, and even if Lyra and herself wouldn’t do so, it wasn’t something they necessarily batted their eyes at.

It had been a bit more difficult for Rainbow and Lero…

Still, Lero wasn’t one for getting down into funks, and a moment later he grinned just as widely. “My apologies, your Highness. Might I be permitted to escort you to yon bed chambers?”

“Somepony’s asking for a spanking.” Twilight growled playfully, although she strongly doubted there’d be any sex tonight. She could barely keep her wings from dragging on the ground. “Don’t you have work tomorrow?” Twilight added as Lero walked with her to the bedroom they all shared. It was a bit uncomfortable, and a living situation Twilight wasn’t sure she really preferred, but she did enjoy having her herd around her.

“Weekend,” Lero said simply, although it made Twilight flinch slightly. Had she really started to lose touch of what day of the week it was? “What were you working on? I heard a fair amount of swearing going on, so not well, I’m guessing.”

“Spike didn’t hear, did he?” Twilight asked with a subdued groan.

“He’s been out all day, something to do with the Cutie Mark Crusaders being Dragon Catchers now.” Lero rolled his eyes—or she thought he did, it was a bit difficult to tell when they were so small and beady compared to a pony’s. “Besides, you were using your cute little pretend swears, nothing he hasn’t heard before.”

“Oh.” Pretend swears were what Lero called ‘buck’ or ‘ponyfeathers’, and he wondered why he got such strange looks when he started using ‘fuck’ and ‘shit’ in public. “No, it’s… going alright.” Twilight bit her lip as Lero looked at her expectantly. She hated lying, and she was pretty bad at it—probably the influence of Applejack or the Element of Honesty—but this really wasn’t the sort of discussion she wanted to have in the middle of the night, in a stairwell. A half-truth then. “I’m just following… uh… a lead. On my project.”

“Oh?” Lero said, and for the first time, Twilight wondered if he was just pretending to be interested. It wasn’t that she doubted he wanted foals, not exactly, but…

“Yes, it’s, uh, sort of promising. I don’t really want to jinx it, though.” Twilight gave her stallion what she hoped was a reassuring smile as she pushed the bedroom door open; Lyra and Rainbow were already there, sleeping in an adorable pile. Even if Rainbow did take up more of the bed then was really her share.

It only took a couple of gentle shoves with her magic—and a few caresses in choice spots on the other two mares to clear them a space, and Twilight hopped up on the bed before beckoning to Lero to join her.

“Goodnight, Lero.”

“Goodnight, Love.”

Twilight just hoped it would be a good morning, as she suddenly found sleep eluding her while Lero drifted off beside her.

Oh, Celestia, why did life have to be so difficult?

Ever since that topsy-turvy day several months prior, Twilight had always been ever so slightly suspicious of mornings that were particularly bright, even though she was well aware that worry was irrational at best. And, if she were to ever voice those fears, Twilight would suspect that most ponies would focus on the fact that she had come out of it with wings and a title; it seemed like she was the only pony who realized just how close she had come to losing everything.

Still, it was difficult not to smile a bit when she woke up surrounded by her loved ones. Well, most of them. Lero and Rainbow had a tendency to sleep in, but Lyra never did. Rising with the sun was part of Lyra’s Still Way philosophy, even if—as far as Twilight could tell—it wasn’t a necessary component of the practice. Twilight wished she had as good of an excuse; the sun just tended to shine on her face more often than not.

One day, she’d get back at Rainbow for insisting the window faced the sun.

Still, despite her shorter-than-normal sleep cycle, Twilight couldn’t help but feel somewhat upbeat as she extracted herself from the bed and trotted down into the kitchen. At some point during the night, an idea had blossomed in her mind, and by the time she started cracking the eggs for breakfast, she had a plan.

Since Lero wasn’t going to be doing anything, Twilight thought it might be nice to spend the day with her stallion. Obviously Rainbow could come, or Lyra, but frankly, she just wanted to spend a bit of alone time with him. It wasn’t always easy to find the time, Twilight was finding, especially not now.

Twilight had barely started to warm up the waffle iron when Lyra quietly opened the door that led to the ‘backyard’, as Lero referred to it. It really wasn’t their property, it was just an open bunch of grass and rocks leading up to the Whitetail forest. Eventually it would probably be developed—especially since Ponyville seemed to be growing daily—but until then, Lyra liked to go out and go through her morning exercises.

“Morning, Twilight,” Lyra said with a grin as she plopped down into the nearest seat around the table; it was, normally, Lero’s, but the mare had a tendency to steal it whenever she could. Twilight had no idea why. “Glad to see you got to bed last night, although we missed you.”

“Heh,” Twilight tried to laugh it off as she smiled back at her herdmate. “Sorry.”

“Mhmm,” Lyra murmured as she tapped the table with her hoof, looking thoughtful. “...So?”

“So… what?” Twilight asked, despite the futility of it.

Lyra gave her a knowing look.

“Fine.” Twilight sighed heavily. Some ponies seemed to think Lyra was ‘unusual’ or ‘out of it’, and sometimes she did seem to think at right angles with every other pony, but little got past her, when she set her mind to it. “I… I think Rarity was right. It’s all there, in the records. I just… I can’t believe…”

“It’s okay, Twilight,” Lyra assured her, although Twilight couldn’t help but feel a bit flustered. It wasn’t exactly a minor oversight, it was a huge one—one that only an amatuer would have made.

And Twilight called herself a scholar.

“Wanting to have Lero’s foals, well, it’s easy to see why you’d make that oversight,” Lyra continued, hopping off the chair and giving Twilight a hug and nuzzle. “What do you think we should do, though?”

“We… we need to talk to Rainbow,” Twilight admitted with a tired shake of her head. Suddenly she didn’t feel so well rested. “And… then Lero. If we decide to…”
Lyra nodded as if it was the most obvious course of action. Well, Twilight supposed it was. “How do you think… she’ll take it? Or Lero, for that matter?”

“Badly,” Twilight said darkly, recalling Rainbow’s reaction yesterday. Then her face softened; “I don’t know how Lero will take it, I know he’s done his best to adapted to Equestrian life, but… well…”

“He is pretty hetrosexual,” Lyra agreed, even if that wasn’t really what Twilight was going for. Lero wasn’t a pony, it made little sense that he’d react like one. “I don’t think I’ve ever so much as seen him eye another stallion.”

“No.” Twilight shook her head again, as the toast popped out of the toaster. “No, I agree, but I think the greater issue is going to be—”

For the second time that morning, the kitchen door swung open, revealing a very tired looking Spike. Even if Twilight hadn’t wanted to keep the topic between her and the girls for now, she would have broken it off now that Spike was here, if only because her number one assistant looked like he had been up all night.

“Spike!” Twilight exclaimed, closing the door behind him, causing the baby dragon to jump slightly.

“Oh… Oh, Twilight, hi.” Spike said looking sheepish, “I didn’t—” Spike broke off into a huge yawn “—see you there. ‘Morning, Lyra.”

“Spike, have you been up all night?” Lyra asked, sounding torn between amusement and trying to be a stern parental figure to the young dragon. Since herding, the three of them had agreed, implicitly at least, to look after him.

“Uh, maybe.” Spike admitted, as he ran his claws through his spines. “Those fillies… I don’t know where they get their energy from!”

“Probably Pinkie Pie slipping them cupcakes all the time,” Twilight said with a heavy sigh. “Well, up to bed Mister! You’re still a baby dragon.”

“Aww, Twilight!” Spike said with a long drawn out sigh. “Come on, can’t I at least have something to eat first?”

“I’m sure we can find you something to eat,” Lyra said with a laugh, using her magic to put together a plate of waffles and eggs behind Twilight’s back.

“Lyra!” Twilight said, feeling exasperated. But not too much; she wouldn’t have sent Spike to bed on an empty stomach anyway, she just hoped Lyra wouldn’t contradict her in front of their foals when the—

Twilight’s stomach clenched uneasily. It was like she was already planning a future with another stallion in the herd.

“Did somepony say breakfast?” Lero’s voice rang out as he walked into the kitchen, once again dressed in his bathrobe. Twilight didn’t understand his obsession with covering up all the time, even in his comfort of his own home. Beside him was a ruffled looking Rainbow Dash, and Twilight couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Some days, it seemed like those two were a pair of rabbits.

“Since when do you cook?” Rainbow asked as she climbed into her chair beside Lero. “Hi Spike. Scoots catch you?”

Spike looked downcast and avoided Rainbow’s gaze as he mumbled into his plate about ‘not wanting to talk about it.’

“Yeah, what’s the occasion?” Lero added as he smiled at the plate being placed in front of him. He dug in with a gleeful gusto, and seemed to enjoy it at least. Rainbow picked the dish a bit more suspiciously at first, although Twilight was sure there was nothing wrong with it. She had followed the instructions to the letter!

“I can’t make breakfast for my herd, every now and again?” Twilight huffed as she placed a similar plate in front of Lyra—and then her own plate with the least appetizing pieces. That is, those that hadn’t turned out quite right. “Plus, I’m never going to get better if I don’t practice.”

“You’re a Princess!” Rainbow exclaimed, although not quite in the same sort of tone as Rarity might have said it. “When are you ever going to need to cook?”

“Okay, fine, I won’t cook anymore!” Twilight snapped, feeling slightly angry. Rainbow didn’t mean anything by it, of course, and she was probably just teasing her, but Twilight could hear the unspoken implication behind it. Her herd was mortal, she was not. Eventually she’d be living in a Castle somewhere. She hated thinking about it, but she suspected that Rainbow hadn’t even thought about it at all… or Lyra. Certainly not Lero.

Lero still seemed to be skeptical that Celestia raised the sun.

No, she wasn’t going to dwell on that. She had to enjoy what time she had.

“Sorry,” Twilight apologized as Rainbow opened her mouth to do the same. It wasn’t Rainbow’s fault. “I… Well, actually, since you asked Lero, I was hoping if, uh,” Twilight turned to Lero and gave him her best smile. “If you wouldn’t mind spending the day… with me? Alone?”

“I enjoy spending time with all you girls,” Lero said gesturing with his fork. “I didn’t have any plans, really.”

“I have to practice anyway,” Rainbow nodded, looking pleased. Twilight could guess she was feeling a bit guilty, not having time off with Lero. “You two have fun.”

“Great!” Twilight beamed, avoiding looking at Lyra, who was giving her a quizzical look. Twilight caught her eye and shook her head slightly. No, she wasn’t planning on talking to Lero about it. Not today, at least.

“Do you have anything in mind?” Lero asked between bites. One thing Twilight always liked about her stallion was the fact that he was certainly very polite. Her mother would call him well trained. Twilight gave herself a mental shake. Why was she thinking of her mother, now of all times?

“Um, well,” Twilight paused to think, only to notice Spike starting to fall asleep at his plate. Deftly, she grabbed his half-eaten plate with her magic and pointed up at the floor above. “Bedtime, Spike.”

Spike looked like he was about to argue about it, before sighing and giving himself enough of a shake to wake up. Twilight watched him go, and resolved to check in on him before she left.

“Well, as for today,” Twilight licked her lips, realizing this might be a bit of a flaw in her plan—then an idea dawned on her. “Oh, well, the Traveling Star Swirl the Bearded Museum is in town. We could go to that?”

“Ugh, Egghead stuff,” Rainbow groaned, “now I’m glad I’m not going.”

“Be nice, Rainbow,” Lero said—his rebuke slightly ruined by the the way he rubbed between her wings. Twilight’s wings twitched in jealousy. That had quickly become a favourite spot of hers, if an unexpected one. A lot of unexpected things had come with these wings. “I’d be happy to—he certainly sounds interesting, after all—but weren’t you going to go with Cadance?”

“I was,” Twilight tried not to sigh. She had been hoping Cadance would be able to get away, but… it seemed it just wasn’t in the cards. “She’s sick, though.”

“Sick?” Everypony and Lero echoed. Rainbow and Lyra looked shocked, whereas Lero just looked concerned. Of course he wouldn’t realize how unusual it was for an alicorn to get sick.

“Nothing serious, I hope?” Lero added, pausing with his fork halfway to his mouth.

Despite herself, Twilight giggled. “No, no, nothing serious. I don’t think she’s really sick, actually, just busy.” Of course, morning sickness was a sort of sickness, Twilight supposed, but not one she was going to get worked up about. Excited, yes, but not worried. Still, Cadance had asked her to keep that a secret for now. And Twilight wasn’t about to violate that promise, even if she did want to tell her herd. And her friends. Everypony she met.

“Oh, good,” Lero said with a nod, and Rainbow Dash just shrugged and went back to her meal. “I’d be happy to take you, Twilight.”

“Great!” Twilight said with a grin as she finished her own meal. After all, if she was going out, she wanted to get ready—like taking a shower, for example. And getting dressed up.

She wondered if she still had that Star Swirl costume…

The museum was, as always, very enjoyable. Of course, it was hardly the first time Twilight had seen the museum—or at least, the artefacts on display. As Celestia’s Student, Twilight had access to all but the most secretive archives, including pieces from throughout Star Swirl’s life, and many of them had, as far as Twilight knew, never been publicly displayed. Either they were unsuitable for such things, due to their age and fragility, or were essentially unknown, like Star Swirl’s unfinished spellbook. Not to mention the private, personal letters Celestia had allowed her to read that the old stallion had sent the Princess, mementos of an old and lost friendship.

Still, Twilight had always enjoyed seeing Star Swirl’s stuff, even if it was behind glass and some of the least important things he had left behind. Thank goodness they hadn’t made as many mistakes this time, she’d hate to have to invoke her status as princess to correct the curators. For some reason, they never seemed to like that.

But part of her suspected she enjoyed it so much only because of Lero being there. Despite some of the confused or fearful looks some of the non-ponyville natives had given them, nopony had been rude or mean to him, and Lero had always had a keen interest in Equestrian history, even if he did, every now and again, complain about the terrible ‘puns’ in the names of historical characters and places. Twilight had no idea what he was talking about, it had to be a human thing or something.

“I’m still amazed they have all this stuff,” Lero said, as he took a slow and, Twilight suspected, careful, bite of his sandwich. He always tried very hard to make the ponies around him feel welcome—including strangers in the restaurant, as it were—and part of that was making sure he didn’t act overly threatening. In public, his smiles always became a bit tighter, a bit more restrained, and he never seemed to move as freely as he did when it was just her, or the rest of the herd. It was almost like he wore a second set of clothes. And for some reason, that thought made Twilight feel a bit sad. Why couldn’t ponies be a bit more welcoming?

Human teeth weren’t even that carnivorous!

“I wouldn’t be that impressed, Lero,” Twilight said with a laugh. Really, for everything they had on display, it was nothing more than trinkets. “One day, I’ll have to take you to the National Museum of History in Canterlot.”

“I’d like that,” Lero agreed with a nod of his head. “But I meant more of the fact that this stuff is still around at all. Back on… where I come from, there’s very few things from over a thousand years ago—at least not much in as good of condition.”

“Oh, I see,” Twilight licked her lips and gave herself a moment to think with a sip of her water. Lately, it seemed that Lero had been reluctant to talk about Earth, and Twilight wasn’t sure why. Was he just especially homesick? It seemed like an odd time for that to happen, given that Lero had been in Equestria for a fairly long time now. Perhaps she’d bring it up with him, when they were alone. “Well, even minor enchantments, done right, tend to give their items a bit of a self-repairing capability,” Twilight shrugged. “And I think Star Swirl made a hobby out of enchanting stuff.”

“I was a bit surprised that there were so many ponies dressed up at Star Swirl, actually,” Lero said, changing tracks a bit. “I thought you said many ponies didn’t know about him?”

Twilight giggled, remembering Lero’s reaction the when she pulled out the costume and started dusting it off earlier that morning, She had been a bit surprised when she had discovered that she wasn’t the only pony dressed up for the museum, but Twilight supposed word had spread over the past few years she had been in Ponyville… unless they were just trying to imitate her.

Or follow the trends she was setting, as Rarity had gushed over it yesterday. Apparently she thought it was a great honour, or something to be excited about, but Twilight found it sort of disturbing. Especially that morning when she had awakened to find Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle stomping around her library, dyed a deep purple—from crushed blueberries, apparently—and fake horns and wings. Lyra had found their attempts to get cutie mark in ‘princessing’ to be adorable, but Twilight had difficulty looking at blueberries now without feeling a bit sick.

“None were as good as yours, of course,” Lero added with a wink. “You looked very sexy.”

“Oh good,” Twilight snorted, “I always wanted to be a sexy stallion…”

The colour drained from Lero’s face, “I didn’t mean to—”

“I’m joking, Lero,” Twilight reached across the table and patted Lero on his hand. “And I’m not insulted.” Twilight could still remember that week, when Fluttershy had finally let him out of her cottage, and he kept getting everypony’s sex wrong.

“What do you want to do now?” Twilight asked, changing the topic for Lero’s sake. Not to mention both of their plates were starting to look fairly empty.

“Do you want to go for a walk?” Lero asked, pushing away his own plate. Within seconds, the Waitress on duty had spotted the fact that they were about to get up and leave and flew up and over to remove their dishes.

“I’ll pay now, please,” Twilight said to the waitress as she stacked the plates.

“Pay?” The mare said, giving Lero a suspicious look and sounding surprised. “There’s no need to pay, Princess, it’s on the house.”

“I insist,” Twilight began to pull out what she estimated the price of the meal would be. It was a bit difficult, without seeing the menu, but Twilight had a fairly good idea, based on the current market value of the ingredients and average labour costs.

“I can’t accept your money, Princess,” the waitress shook her head before returning to the air. “Have a wonderful day, Princess!”

Lero watched her go, although Twilight couldn’t help but notice he made sure his eyes didn’t drift anywhere naughty, as Twilight stacked the coins on the table regardless of what the waitress said. Her stallion raised his eyebrow at that.

“I’m paying,” Twilight’s voice was a bit more grumpy than she intended. “Ponies have been treating me like this every since I grew these wings, and I’m sick to death of it!”

“And what lovely wings they are,” Lero commented, reaching over and ruffling her mane. That wiped the frown of her face, for sure, even if it drew horrified looks from the other patrons. “Come on.”

It wasn’t until they were halfway down the street that either of them spoke again. Twilight was mostly concentrating on blowing the other pony’s minds by wrapping her wing around Lero—which, since he wasn’t a pony and she wasn’t practiced with them, meant she had to make sure not to trip him by accident. It might have been petty of her, but she was sick of those looks too. They had mostly eased off, before she had become a Princess, but as soon as she did, those questioning looks started up again. They were probably expecting her to abandon her herd for some noble fop like Prince Blueblood or something.

“Does it really bother you that much, Twilight?” Lero asked softly, causing Twilight to look up and wonder how much of her frustration was showing on her face. At some point, she was going to have to learn to master her emotions, like Celestia and Luna did. Before she frowned at the wrong time and caused the stock market to implode or something. “I know we haven’t really discussed it since this all happened…”

“It’s just… frustrating,” Twilight said with a sigh. “It’s like everypony looks at me differently—and treats me differently. I never wanted to be a Princess.”

“Oho?” Lero laughed, “You mean to tell me as a filly, you never pretended to be a Princess?”

Twilight half snorted, half laughed, “Nah, I always wanted to be the noble mage knight, rushing to save the Princess. Don’t… don’t mention that to Shining, he’s still a little sore that I made him the princess.”

“I won’t, I promise,” Lero said with a grin that suggested that the next time her brother and Lero met, she’d be spending the next few hours listening to her brother grumble at her. “Well, all I can suggest is that you ignore them, Twi.”

“Right,” Twilight agreed, refolding her wings and smiling up at him. “So where are we going, anyway?”

“Ah, well, I was thinking we could swing by Sweet Apple Acres and see how Rainbow’s doing.”

It took all of Twilight’s self control not to frown. She loved Lero and Rainbow dearly, as friends and as herdmates, but sometimes the two of them seemed to be utterly fixated on one another. She knew Lero didn’t mean to hurt her or Lyra, nor Rainbow, but she couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous, and a little bit angry. She was his mare too! At least with Rainbow, she could guess that her ‘bentness’ meant she just didn’t always think of the other mares first, but Lero…

Well, Lero would always be a monogamous at heart, she supposed.

Perhaps another stallion in the herd would help with that, whispered a poisonous little voice in her ear. Somepony to treat you and Lyra the way you deserve.

Twilight growled to herself and shook her head. How could she think that? Besides, it’s not like she had never seen perfectly normal stallions make this sort of mistake too, it wasn’t like Lero was uniquely challenged or something. Perhaps he just needed a bit of a reminder…

A grin washed over her face, as a naughty thought dawned on her. The sort of thought that really wasn’t worthy of a Princess or a smart pony like herself. The sort of thought that would, if anypony knew of it, land her in hotter water than Spike liked to bathe in.

Okay, so it wasn’t that naughty.

“I’ve got a better idea,” Twilight giggled and surged ahead, up the hill and over the crest. They were nearly out of the Ponyville proper now, and Twilight could see the beginnings of Applejack’s orchard. “Follow me!”

Lero didn’t need much prompting, although Twilight had to remember to pace herself as she darted through the apple trees, so she didn’t accidentally leave Lero in the dust. His height and leg length meant he wasn’t that slow, but he was certainly no pony—even a pony like herself, who really ought to work out far more than she did. Or at least, that’s what Rainbow kept telling her.

Eventually, Twilight stopped, judging the depths of the orchard deep enough to provide them cover—even from nosey pegasi. At the very least nopony could see or hear from the road. The hearing part would probably be very important.

“What did you want to show me?” Lero asked, panting only very slightly as he came to a stop behind her.

“Oh, this or that,” Twilight said with a grin as she lifted and hitched her tail to the side, letting Lero see everything she had. Part of her wanted to giggle like a filly from the astonished look on his face—and Twilight wanted to blush at herself too. Usually it was Rainbow or Lyra that was this horny… and this open about it. Twilight didn’t mind waiting for privacy. In fact, she was blushing, but it was the good sort of blush, that really just made her more eager and excited.

Lero’s astonishment only lasted a few moments, before he started to untie his belt. Perhaps he was regretting wearing so much clothing now! Still, it only took him a few moments to get his pants off, leaving him only with his “underwear” on, if rather dramatically tented.

She couldn’t help herself, she wiggled her ass back and forth for her stallion, waiting for him to finally get those stupid things off of her prize. As he straightened up, his cock throbbing in the afternoon air, though, Twilight used her wings to fly backwards and knock him over—she made sure to lower him to the ground with her magic so he didn’t hurt himself.

“Twilight!” Lero protested, looking slightly alarmed as Twilight nuzzled his cock, enjoying the warmth and hardness of it. It was rather oddly shaped, something she couldn’t help but notice every time she saw it. Rather than the flat, flared head of a stallion’s penis, it was more bulbous. Twilight could still remember being worried that it was so red, the first time she had seen it. Truthfully, it was probably a bit smaller than the average stallion, although Rainbow Dash apparently had told him it was bigger and and insisted the rest of them maintain the lie. Twilight didn’t mind—after all, stroking her stallion’s ego was something a mare was supposed to do. Speaking of stroking…

“Yes, my love?” Twilight purred as she ran her tongue up the underside of the cock, enjoying how it flinched and throbbed with new purpose as she did. She gave the head a lick and a kiss, before dragging her lips and teeth back down to where Lero’s testicles were, buried in a nest of flame-red pubic hair. Pubic hair was, perhaps, one of the things Twilight really didn’t like about this, and she was just grateful it was a uniquely human attribute—she’d hate to think of how much hair would get caught in her teeth if Lyra had any.

“Do… do you want to do this here?” Lero’s voice was thin with stress and arousal, but he also sounded a bit concerned too. Twilight stopped and frowned at him.

“Don’t you?” Twilight asked, suddenly feeling self-conscious. Why was Lero resisting? “I thought you and Rainbow had done this hundreds of times?”

Lero opened his mouth to say something, but didn’t get a chance, as a throat suddenly cleared behind them.

“I hope that ain’t true.” Twilight’s head swung around in surprise and horror as Applejack stepped out from behind one of the trees— carrying baskets half full of apples. Oh. Of course. That’s why the trees were so heavy and thick. “I’ll have her hide if it’s true.”

“APPLEJACK?!” Twilight and Lero’s voices mingled into one strangled yelp. Twilight clamped her tail down against her very exposed behind, and Lero scrambled backwards and out from under Twilight, using his hands to cover himself in a rather ineffective and pointless manner.

“I’m flattered, really,” Applejack said with a smirk, as she casually strolled through the trees towards one of the trees on the other side of the row. “But I am tryin’ to work here, sugarcube, and y’all do have a house…”

“I’m so, soooo sorry, Applejack,” Twilight said, wondering if she should throw herself down at her friend’s hooves. That might be a bit much.

“Uh, yeah,” Lero added from behind the tree he was trying to hide and dress behind.

“Nothin’ I haven’t seen before,” Applejack said, matter-of-factly. “At least it wasn’t Big Mac and Cheers this time, I could have done without seein’ that.” Applejack gave Twilight a significant look, “Not that I want to see this again, mind you, ya hear?”

“Do… do you need any help,” Lero said, emerging from behind the tree, fully dressed again. Twilight couldn’t help but feel a little bit disappointed.

And why the hay did Rainbow and Lyra get to do this, and the first time she ever tried being spontaneous, she gets caught? Perhaps a checklist next time would help…

“You offerin’ to help buck some trees?” AJ asked, peering at Lero, her eyes roving from Lero’s face, to his hands, and—Twilight’s heart skipped a beat and she grew a shade redder—his crotch. “Well, Hands, if you’re offerin’, that’s mighty kind of ya.”

Obviously, Lero couldn’t buck trees, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t help pick some of the outlyers. As skilled as Applejack and her family was, they did miss a few every now and again, but Twilight knew Lero could pick those off after Applejack bucked the tree, so there wasn’t any waste.

“I can help too!” Twilight offered, feeling ever so slightly frustrated. It wouldn’t do not to help, not with Lero offering, but she couldn’t help but wish he hadn’t. Still, that was just like Lero, and there was little mystery why he was so well liked around Ponyville.

“Don’t you have somethin’ you’d rather be doin’?” Applejack asked, to which Twilight shook her head. Oh, she could imagine a few things she’d rather be doing… a few whos, too, but, well, Applejack was her friend. “Well, alright then! Looks like I’ve got myself a couple of go-getters! ‘Sides, I’ve been meanin’ to teach you apple buckin’, Twi.”

“I… what? Really?” Twilight had helped her friend harvest the trees before, but she had always used her magic to do so. She simply didn’t have the strength to kick the trees hard enough to make the apples fall out of them.

“Well sure, you’ve been learnin’ to fly from Rainbow, but if I understand this whole alicorn thing correctly, you’re also an Earth Pony!”

“I… suppose that’s right,” It was easy to forget that, if she was being truthful. She never seemed to notice her new found strength until she broke something.

“Since you’re an honorary Apple, I reckon it’s about time I take you under my wing,” Applejack chuckled. “Metaphorically speakin’, of course.”

Applejack turned so her behind was facing the nearest apple tree, “alright, now watch close…”

Lero gave her a bemused look as Twilight sighed and settled in to her first lesson at being an earth pony. Assuming one didn’t count “don’t fuck your stallion in your friend’s orchard” as lesson one.

Hopefully, the rest of the herd would never hear about this. She’d never live it down.

In spite of being caught and getting roped into being improvisational farmhooves for Applejack’s harvest, Twilight felt that all in all it hadn’t been that bad of a day. At the very least, she had enjoyed herself, and even if they were doing manual labour for free, she was getting to spend time with Lero. Not that she minded spending time with Applejack, of course. Plus, even she’d admit she was always a bit of a sucker for learning, even if what she was learning didn’t seem to have that much depth. The applications for the techniques seemed rather limited to Twilight, although she’d never mention it to Applejack.

But it wasn’t easy to master, either. Tree bucking wasn’t nearly as easy as Applejack made it look, and Twilight wished she had brought a hard hat with her when all was said and done. Naturally, there was a magic component to it, but Earth Pony magic wasn’t nearly as refined or controlled as the sort of unicorn magic Twilight was used to, so that was a bit challenging as well.

It was still a lovely day, although by the time the two of them made it home for the evening meal, they were dirty and sweaty and more tired than Twilight had felt in a long time. Even if she did feel more than a bit unsatisfied in… other ways. Thankfully, neither of them had to go through the effort of making a meal, since it was Lyra’s turn to cook. Although the smell coming from the kitchen gave Twilight some pause. While Twilight had travelled before coming to Ponyville, and Rainbow was from another city—not to mention Lero was from a whole other world—Lyra probably had travelled the most, usually as part of her studies in Still Way. It was only reasonable, Twilight supposed, that she’d develop some unusual tastes, but she still hadn’t forgiven her herdmate for that night she tried to serve them live Kelpipus.

Just thinking about it made Twilight’s stomach roll.

Still, she was grateful for the chance to get herself cleaned up and feeling refreshed before sitting down and eating with the herd. Lero helped her wash her mane, and although she teased him, they didn’t really get much further than they had that afternoon. There’d be time for that later.

And Twilight made good on that promise as soon as they had waited an appropriate amount of time after eating, before dragging her stallion to bed. It wasn’t terribly romantic love making, by all standards, but it was enjoyable—even if she was a bit surprised that neither Lyra nor Rainbow joined them. Lyra, at least, Twilight could understand to a degree. It wasn’t that she didn’t like tag-teaming their stallion, she almost made a sport of it at times, but she was also usually sensitive to her herdmates’ needs and desires. So she was clearly giving her some extra space to spend time with Lero.

Rainbow, on the other hoof, had a tendency to never pick up on those sorts of hints, and at times it was almost as if she couldn’t stand being away from Lero too long. So Twilight had, throughout her lovemaking, expected Rainbow to creak open the door and join them—or at least, join in pleasuring Lero—invited or not and, when she hadn’t, it left her with a rather stubborn level of curiosity that simply refused to go away.

So, despite how tired she felt, and how much she honestly wanted to join Lero in dreamland as he drifted off, Twilight found herself staring at the ceiling, wondering where her herdmates were and what the hay was going on. It was a mystery, and mysteries were really just problems waiting to be solved. But, like a dragon, her brain tended to latch onto problems and never let go. It was almost painful, being caught between her overactive brain and her overtired body, and eventually, once she was certain Lero was in a deep enough sleep not to be disturbed, Twilight slid herself out from under the covers and trotted downstairs, trying not to yawn continually.

It wasn’t as if she had to search particularly far—thankfully, the two mares were in the den, apparently relaxing. It wasn’t until Twilight glanced at the clock as she stepped into the room that she realized the real reason neither of them had joined them in bed was probably because it was still very early in the evening.

“I didn’t expect to see you up, Twilight,” Lyra commented as she looked up from her typewriter. While Lyra didn’t have any particular talent in writing, she had apparently decided in the past couple of weeks that she should write a book about Still Way—something to do with a disappointing number of new practitioners. Twilight had yet to see the mare type a single word on the page, though, and she was wondering if she ought to expect Lyra to approach her for help sooner rather than later. “Where’s Lero?”

“Asleep,” now that she had pulled herself out of bed and forced herself to walk around, Twilight didn’t really feel all that tired anymore. Or rather, she felt tired, but not particularly sleepy. With a shrug, she curled up on an empty couch opposite Lyra and Rainbow and pulled over of her unread books over from a stack she had kept in the corner of the room. The stack had grown alarmingly tall as of late, since Twilight had become an alicorn, and Twilight was both excited and dismayed that the first book she pulled over was a new Daring Do book. She had completely forgotten about its release date, and now the book was at least a couple of weeks old.

“Tired him out, eh?” Rainbow said with a cheeky grin. Like Twilight, Rainbow was reading, although it was an older Daring Do book, one she was probably re-reading for the fun of it.

“I guess,” Twilight said noncommittally, feeling herself blush. It wasn’t that she minded talking about it with her herdmates—a bit pointless to get embarrassed talking about something you’ve done with somepony by your side—but she was starting to wonder if the reason she had gotten out of bed was out of an irrational fear that her herd was abandoning her. Again.

Maybe she ought to talk to a therapist.

“So, uh, I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Rainbow cleared her throat and set aside her book. Twilight felt like raising her eyebrow in surprise. Her herdsister sounded surprisingly serious. “What the hay is going on??”

“Huh?” Twilight saw Lyra glance up from her typewriter and shift ever so subtly so she could join in the conversation.

“Last couple of days, you’ve been acting sort of weird,” Rainbow explained, running her hoof through her mane nervously. “You too, Lyra.”

“Weird? How?” Twilight felt her wings fidget. Blasted things.

“Well, like, today, you made breakfast, and then you wanted to spend the day with Lero,” Rainbow’s own wings fidgeted with her nerves, and her face grew sort of pale.

“He is my stallion too, Rainbow,” Twilight pointed out, trying her best not to sound cold or angry at the question. Ultimately, she sort of failed and she ended up sounding cool, if not cold. “I do enjoy spending time with Lero as well…”

“Well, sure, I mean, I don’t have any problem with that,” Rainbow gave a nervous laugh. “But…”

“But?” Lyra echoed, completely pushing the typewriter away now. While Twilight couldn’t help but feel a bit frustrated at Rainbow’s inept line of questioning, Lyra didn’t seem to be particularly bothered by it. The mare had a serenity that Twilight envied at times.

“Well, like, today,” Rainbow’s nervous smile grew a bit more genuine. “I’m flying home, and AJ calls me down to tell me not to be ‘dallying around with Lero no more’ in her orchards—she caught you!”

“I—” Twilight felt herself blush hard. So much for keeping that between the three of them. “I-I can explain—”

“How did Applejack react?” Lyra asked, sounding interested and making Twilight wonder if Lyra had her eye on the mare. She did seem to go for the down-to-earth types.

“I mean, what’s up with that, Twilight?” Rainbow continued, ignoring both Lyra and Twilight. “You never do that sort of thing!”

Twilight wondered how to explain it; how could she explain that she had been hoping to spend the day with Lero, and all he seemed to think about was Rainbow, and not the mare he was with? “I just thought it might be fun.” She forced herself to say at last. It wasn’t a total lie. “It won’t happen again. And to answer your first question, I wanted to spend time with Lero because I haven’t been, at least not lately. I’ve been so busy. I missed him.”

“He misses you too, the big lug,” Rainbow said with a smile. After a moment, Rainbow apparently decided that it was enough of an explanation that she could go back to her book.

It seemed terrible, but Twilight couldn’t help but sigh a little bit in relief. Then Lyra cleared her throat.

“There’s more to it, than that, isn’t there, Twilight?” Lyra asked, giving Twilight a pointed look. Considering Twilight had already sort of explained it to Lyra that morning, she knew full well there was. And she ought to know full well that she wasn’t sure they were ready to talk about the real, underlying reason yet.

Twilight gave her the best “what the hay do you think you’re doing” glare.

“There is?” Rainbow asked, putting the book down again and glancing between her two herdsisters. “What’s going on? Come on, spill it!”

“Lyra!” Twilight snapped, feeling more than a little bit panicked and a bit of bile rising in her throat. She really wasn’t ready at all. This was like an exam, one that you needed to prepare for, to work on for weeks and weeks, to come up with a script on how to broach the topic and ease her way through it. Twilight hadn’t studied at all.

“Twilight,” Lyra echoed, giving her an enigmatic smile. “Now’s as good a time as any, you might as well tell her.”

“No it’s not!” Twilight’s wings were shaking like leaves now. Oh Celestia no!

“Tell me what?” Rainbow asked, sounding a bit impatient. “Come on guys, we’re not supposed to keep secrets from one another!”

Twilight closed her eyes and closed her book and tried to think as quickly as she could. She tried to wall off her fears and rising panic and focus on trying to explain her reasoning to Rainbow. And she tried to block out thoughts of all the nasty things she was going to do, to get back at Lyra for this.

“Well, uh,” Twilight licked her lips as she opened her eyes and avoided Rainbow’s gaze. And Lyra’s. And the picture of the herd Lero had hung on the wall. Maybe keeping them closed was a better idea after all. “As you know, I’ve been trying to figure out a way of making… Lero, uh, compatible with us.”

“Oh yeah?” Rainbow said eagerly, and Twilight had the impression the mare thought she had made some sort of breakthrough. “Are you going to turn him into a pony? I bet he’d make a hot earth pony!” Rainbow stopped and took a deep, sharp breath. “Wait, you’re not going to turn me into a-a-human, are you?”

“What? No.” Even if she could work out the inherent thaumaturgical issues, she strongly suspected the spells would be too intense and draining to be of any practical use.

“I mean, I love Lero and totally think he’s hot and all, but have you see those pictures of human mares?” Rainbow rambled, getting up from the couch and pacing back and forth. “Have you? They have teats, Twilight! Right between their forelegs! I mean, how can they run or anything? They’re so large!”

“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said, putting her best amount of authority into her voice in hopes that she’d listen. “I am not turning you into a human. Or Lero into a pony.”

“Oh!” Rainbow looked pleased, now that her absurd fears had been put to rest, and hopped back onto her seat. “Okay, so what is it? a potion to give Lero a horse dong?”

Lyra made a noise not unlike a cat being stepped on, and fell out of her seat laughing. Twilight was glad somepony was enjoying this.

“No, Rainbow, no.” Twilight sighed and rubbed her forehead. “I… Rainbow, you know how hard I’ve worked on this, right?”

“Of course I do, Twi!” Rainbow looked as if she was wondering if she was supposed to appreciate her efforts more. “I mean, I know I’ve said I don’t want a foal right now, but that’s only because I’ve got the Wonderbolts to think about. I’m looking forward to it, when you’ve got it figured out and I’m ready. Not that you or Lyra should wait…”

“That’s just the thing, Rainbow, I’m not sure I can figure it out,” Twilight avoided Rainbow’s eyes, which suddenly grew a bit disappointed. “I mean… I have figured it out… sort of… uh.”

“Do you remember what Rarity was talking about, yesterday?” Lyra asked, stepping into the conversion and pulling herself up and off the floor.

“Uh, sure…” Rainbow sounded like she had already forgotten everything. “Oh! Wait! You mean the whole ‘you should get a new stallion’ thing? Yeah, can you believe the nerve of her? I mean, I know she’s a unicorn and all—” Rainbow somehow missed the disgruntled looks on both of her herdmates’ faces “—but seriously! How could she suggest such a thing—”

“She’s right,” the words forced themselves out of Twilight, almost by accident.

“What do you mean, ‘she’s right’?” Rainbow asked with a dark tinge of suspicion colouring her voice.

“I mean,” Twilight took a deep, calming breath that totally didn’t work like Cadance had promised. “I mean, Rainbow, that I looked it up. I’ve got records of every mixed race herd I could find, and with those who had foals, they either had a second stallion in their herd, or had close stallion friends who…” Twilight’s mouth was suddenly dry as a desert. “...well, you know.”

Rainbow stared at her flatly, which wasn’t particularly encouraging, but Twilight pressed on. “I… I’ve been looking for so many years, and it has been right under my nose this whole time, Rainbow. These herds have foals, but not with the non-pony member.”

“No!” Rainbow snapped, her wings flaring out in an aggressive display, “What about Draco, daughter of Marigold Star and Theulzuor the Iron?”

Twilight blinked in surprise as Rainbow referenced the infamous herd that had contained a dragon member some nine hundred years ago. She had no idea that Rainbow had been paying attention to her lectures. “Draco was a pony, Rainbow.” Twilight said gently.

“So?”

“I think Twilight is saying that, whoever was claiming to be her father, Draco’s biological father was likely another pony.” Lyra explained in short, and in Twilight’s opinion, maybe a bit too bluntly. “Simply because Theulzuor claimed to her father doesn’t mean he was.”

“But… but…” Rainbow’s face seemed to grow more and more angry, and for once, Twilight was grateful she was so strong now. She didn’t want to hurt Rainbow, but obviously she was—she just didn’t want it to come to blows.

“I’ve tried everything, Rainbow,” Twilight said gently, wondering if she should be doing more to help ease Rainbow into this. Not that she knew what to do, not exactly. If only Lyra hadn’t jumped into this and forced Twilight before she was ready. “Everything I can think of, it’s just not possible. At all. If we ever want to have foals, we… we’re going… I mean, we should think about expanding our herd.”

“I can’t believe what I’m hearing!” Rainbow snapped, “How can you—and you, Lyra, don’t think I don’t know you knew about this!—How can you talk about replacing Lero?’

“No pony is talking about that, Rainbow!” Twilight said with a gasp and wondered why Rainbow kept assuming that. It was a puzzling idea to begin with—all they were saying was that they’d like to expand the herd. “Goodness no! I love Lero! Lyra loves Lero! Just as much as you do!” Twilight ignored that dark voice in her head, that pointed out they did even if Lero and Rainbow never seemed to love them back as much.

Suddenly, Twilight wondered if they had ever actually been a herd, or if Lyra and herself had just been some sort of live-in lovers for Rainbow and Lero.

“Then why,” Rainbow drew the word out, “are you bringing it up?”

“Because I want foals!” Twilight snapped, although as a matter of fact Twilight hadn’t really given it very much thought. She had to solve the issue to begin with, and that’s how her mind had been focused for years. Perhaps she ought to sit down and think about it long and hard. Even so… “And as far as I can tell, this is the only way any of us are going to get them!”

“I’m not going to betray Lero!” Rainbow leapt across the room and shoved her face into Twilight’s. “And neither are you!”

“First of all,” Twilight used her hoof to push Rainbow away from her, her anger drowning out any self-doubt or uncertainty in her. “It is not betraying Lero to expand our herd. Or to simply think about it! Secondly, you have to think about the needs of the herd as a whole, all of us! Not just Lero, or yourself!”

“Oh yeah? If we’re not betraying Lero, why the hell are we down here, where’s Lero?” Rainbow spread her forelegs wide, gesturing to the room as a whole. “I don’t see him, do you? And what do you mean I only think of myself? I care for you guys!”

“Half the bucking time you ignore me! And Lyra!” Twilight snarled, she could feel herself shaking with rage now, despite a small voice at the back of her mind trying to warn her to stop. “And Lero’s the same way! I know you’re ‘bent’,” Twilight spat the word out, “and I’m okay with that, and I know Lero isn’t a stallion but it still fucking hurts!”

“So, what? I don’t suck your teats enough and suddenly we should throw Lero off the side of the cloud?” Rainbow shoved her face back into Twilight’s face. “You know what I think? I think that crown’s gone to your head!”

“How dare you!” Twilight shoved Rainbow back, but before she could regret her action, Lyra stepped in front of them and glared them into submission.

“What is wrong with the pair of you?” Lyra said with a slightly edge in her voice. “I’ve seen jennys who are less mule-headed than the pair of you! Sit down and discuss this like civilized mares.”

Twilight took a deep breath, followed by another as she tried to relax and clear her head as Rainbow returned to her own seat. Why was she getting so angry? It really didn’t make any sense.

“No pony is talking about betraying Lero, Rainbow, and I think Twilight—not to mention I—would appreciate it if you wouldn’t suggest we were by discussing this.” Lyra continued with a heavy sigh—Twilight noticed the muscles in her leg were twitching. Apparently she was angry too, even if she wasn’t showing it in her voice. “All we’re suggesting is we consider expanding the herd so we could have foals.”

“It feels like we are,” Rainbow said sullenly as she crossed her forelegs. “Why didn’t you bring Lero down with you?”

“I wasn’t planning on talking about it,” Twilight said truthfully. “Not yet. But even if I had planned it, I would have wanted to introduce the idea to you first…”

“Why?”

“Because when Rarity suggested it yesterday, you very nearly took her head off, Rainbow.” Lyra pointed out with a shake of her head. “Whether you like what she was saying or not, that’s no way to talk to a friend.”

“Okay, okay,” Rainbow said with a frown, looking ever so slightly remorseful. “Do… do you have somepony in mind?”

“No.” Twilight said as Lyra shook her head. Twilight glanced at Lyra before looking back at Rainbow Dash with a sigh. “But… I think we should seriously consider… you know, looking. Hearts and Hooves day is coming up, after all, it isn’t a bad time to start.”

“Right.” Rainbow’s wings twitched and quivered, although Twilight wasn’t sure if it was with anger or something else. “I don’t think we should. It’ll just hurt Lero, and he’s all I need.”

“You don’t want to have a foal someday, Rainbow?” Lyra asked softly. “I mean, we’ve all seen how good you are with Scootaloo.”

“I… until I met Lero, I never really expected there to be anypony, anyone, in my life like this,” Rainbow said flatly. “And I’m not going to risk losing Lero over something stupid like this. Besides—” Rainbow glanced at Twilight and grinned confidently. “—I’m sure Twilight will figure it out, eventually.”

Didn’t Rainbow understand? It was impossible, or at the very least a foolish waste of her time. Twilight didn’t really want to continue chasing a wild goose, not since she already had the answer to the problem at hoof. Perhaps it wasn’t a perfect solution, but ponies tended to be practical where they could. And this was a practical solution, and a simple one.

But… how was she going to convince Rainbow of this? This is why Twilight would have liked time to prepare. Not that it would have mattered, Twilight suspected. She hated herself for thinking it, she really did, but Twilight knew Rainbow would do anything for Lero, she knew Rainbow was deeply, madly in love with this human; so much so that she couldn’t stop and consider the needs of her herdmates. Twilight felt an intense wave of self-loathing come over her, and it very nearly swept her away and kept her lips sealed.

“I think we should vote on it.” Twilight’s voice only held the barest quiver of a uncertainty in it, of fear and shame. And that made her hate herself all the more.

Rainbow’s eyes grew wide, and Lyra flinched involuntarily while Twilight tried to keep herself from panicking. Normally, voting on something would hardly be contentious, but given that Rainbow had already put her hoof down and said no, to ask for them to decide as a herd, it was as if Twilight was challenging her friend, her herdmate, her leadmare directly. But maybe this was exactly what they needed right now. Maybe they needed… Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep breath before continuing.

“I’m… in favor of looking to expand the herd,” Twilight forced herself to say while she did her best not to shake. This was harder than giving a speech in front of all of Canterlot when she was crowned. “With another stallion.”

“I’m against it,” Rainbow said simply with only the barest hint of anger in her voice. “You say that you’re not betraying Lero, but he’s not even here to vote, and you haven’t even asked him at all.”

“If I—we find somepony we’d like to date, then we will,” Twilight said with a nod. “”We’re just talking in hypotheticals.”

“So?” Rainbow snapped, shaking her hoof at Twilight. “He’s part of the herd too! Don’t you care what he has to think?”

“Of course I do!” Twilight exclaimed, feeling her wings flare out slightly. Didn’t she? “I just thought, I mean, I wanted to talk to you girls first. It’s not like Lero’s going to want to be with him.”

“Exactly! Have you ever thought about how he’s going to feel about this?” Rainbow’s own wings started to flare out again into an aggressive stance.

“It’s not that we won’t consider what he has to say, Rainbow, but you have to think of the whole herd!”

“Balance is important, Rainbow,” Lyra added, although she looked more than a little bit uneasy too.

“If we meet somepony, I promise you we’ll take Lero’s views seriously!” But part of her wondered if she really would. If Lero said no, would Twilight just give up on her dream? She knew where Lero came from, gender roles were reversed, and she’d like to think she was an enlightened mare who didn’t just see Lero as manual labour or a bed warmer. And she didn’t. But at what point was she willing to let his opinion, his vote, outweigh her own desire for foals? Lero wanted children, didn’t he? Surely he could see this would be the only way. Somehow, Twilight doubted it was that simple. Or even close to being that simple.

Slowly, both mares turned towards Lyra. She would be the queenmaker, of a sort, in this debate. Twilight wished she hadn’t put her friend in this position—she had always been very close to her since they joined the herd.

Lyra seemed to be well aware that she was in a very hard place to be, and she glanced back and forth between Twilight and Rainbow. Before biting her lip and staring off into the ceiling as if she was trying to see Lero sleeping above them.

Finally: “A hoof is only as strong as the mind that guides it.”

“What the hay does that mean?” Rainbow asked, while Twilight privately agreed. She hated putting Lyra on the spot, but she hoped the mare wasn’t going to cop out and give them some Still Way sayings and make them work it out between them or something.

“It means… Rainbow, I love you, and I love Lero…” Lyra bit her lip again and sighed heavily. “But I also love Twilight, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have dreams of having my own little filly or colt… I agree with Twilight.”

There was a moment of silence, as Lyra’s answer sunk in and the implications of her answer made the air in the room grow tense and thick. It wasn’t as if Twilight was leadmare now, or something, but… it would be as if her opinions would be somehow worth more, more would be expected of her, and she’d be making more decisions. Eventually, Rainbow Dash wouldn’t be leadmare anymore, and—

Rainbow let out a long sigh and slumped in her seat, looking completely crushed. If Twilight didn’t know it would be rejected, she would have leapt off the couch and over to give the mare a big, comforting hug. What a hollow victory.

For a long minute, no pony said anything. Then Rainbow Dash got up and walked towards the doorway, disappearing into the next room.

“That could have gone better,” Lyra said with a sigh.

“It would have gone better if you hadn’t put me on the spot,” Twilight tried not to snap but it felt like somepony had stepped on her heart.

“Sorry… I… I thought you wanted to talk about it, and that’s why you came back down stairs.’ Lyra’s face drained of some of its colour.

Before either of them could speak again, Rainbow trotted back into the room wearing her saddle bags.

“Rainbow, where are you going?” Lyra asked, sounding a bit frantic as Twilight’s own heart skipped a beat. She hadn’t meant to—she didn’t mean for—Oh Celestia.

“I’m not leaving the herd, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Rainbow’s voice dripped with venom and frustration. “Although you’d probably like that, wouldn’t you?”

“No! No Rainbow, we wouldn’t.” Twilight got up off the couch and tried to reach for Rainbow, but the mare neatly sidestepped.

“We love you, Dashie…” Lyra added, looking as if she was about to start crying.

Rainbow ignored them, “I left Lero a note, it’s on the kitchen table. I’ll be back in a few days.” And with that, Rainbow turned and trotted out of the den. A few moments later, Twilight heard the door open and close, and she was gone.

“I need a drink,” Twilight said with a weary sigh. “I really do.”

“Drinking isn’t going to solve what just happened here,” Lyra pointed out, sounding slightly betrayed by Twilight’s suggestion.

Probably thinks she’s ruined her friendship with Rainbow just to put a drunk in charge. Twilight thought bitterly. “I know.” Twilight trotted over and pulled Lyra into a hug. “But maybe it’ll help me forget what happened here, if for just a little while.”

Rainbow's Heart

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Rainbow Dash loved flying, but hated long trips, if only because while it was still technically flying, most of the time all she was doing was going in a straight line in one direction. The only things she could do were dives or ride thermals—not that there were many of those this late at night—and both of those tended to get really old and dull really quick. Rainbow lived for the thrill, the tricks, the stunts! Speed was something that came easily to her, but no matter how fast she flew, on a long trip, it always seemed to be too slow to get where she wanted to go.

But she had to go. She had to get away, at least for a little while. Anything to stop that seething, roiling cauldron of anger in her stomach.

How could they? How could Twilight? She thought Twilight was her friend—her herdmate! Rainbow had done her best to make her welcome in the herd, to invite her to spend time with Lero, and Celestia knew how much ponyfeathering nonsense she had to put up with! Half the time the mare seemed to think Rainbow was her own private sounding board for ideas—and Rainbow wouldn’t mind half as much if they weren’t all so unbelievably boring and stupid. Who the buck cares about ‘magi-thermal radiation’ or Figgs-Bison fields! She didn’t! She doubted Lero did!

But Rainbow put up with it, did her best to listen, because she thought Twilight was her friend and herdmate, and that she wanted to make Lero happy, even if she did do it in her own weird way. And yet, here she was, stabbing Lero in the back—stabbing Rainbow in the back! Suddenly Lero wasn’t good enough for Twilight, for the Princess. All because he couldn’t give her a foal.

How could Twilight be so selfish? Couldn’t she see she’s just hurting Lero?

Or Lyra, for that matter. Rainbow had grown to respect the mare over the years, even if she suspected she was a few apples short of a fruit salad at times, with all that Still Way mumbo-jumbo, and she agreed with Twilight! Where else was she going to find somepony—someone—like Lero? Yet she didn’t seem to have any problem just throwing him off the side of the cloud when Twilight suggested it.

There was no doubt in Rainbow’s mind that Lero would be hurt by looking for another stallion, let alone bringing somepony else into the herd, even if he might not protest it. He was so gentle and sweet, not like the other colts Rainbow had met, and Lero was always willing to think of her first. Where would they find another pony like him?

Where would any of them find another pony like him? Foals weren’t everything, and Rainbow couldn’t believe that Twilight would do such an awful thing. Not to mention trying to take control of the herd away from her. Yes, she never liked idea that she was the ‘lead mare’, but she was still the first mare in the herd… And she had thought of the herd first! It wasn’t as if she didn’t want Twilight or Lyra in the herd—as friends, yes, but she had never really been into mares. But Lero was, and she was happy to expand the herd for him…

Rainbow Dash flared her wings and came to a stop, hovering over the Everfree forest. She had planned to go away, she just didn’t have a good idea where to go. She didn’t really want to go into town and get a room at an inn or something, and unfortunately, she done far too well clearing the skies earlier that evening, so there wasn’t any clouds she could grab and curl up on. That left sleeping in a tree, but that wasn’t as appealing as it had been a few years ago. She was so used to sleeping on a comfortable bed next to Lero that Rainbow had serious doubts that she’d be able to get to sleep at all.

Plus there was the added problem of what to do when Twilight or Lyra came looking for her. They probably would, if they weren’t already, and Lero certainly would, when he learned what had happened. Assuming they didn’t just lie to him. She hadn’t really explained a whole lot in her note—writing was never her strong suit and she was too upset to really focus on a longer letter. Lero she could face, the other two, not so much.

She didn’t know if she could even accept their apologies, if they came to her and begged her right now. After all, it was really Lero they needed to be apologizing to.

She just didn’t know what to do. It was all so simple, throwing some necessities into her saddle bags and charging out the door, but now that she was out here, she had no clue where to go next. It wasn’t like Rainbow could return home now.

Slowly, Rainbow rotated in the air, flapping one of her wings slightly out of sync with the other so she turned. It wasn’t a terribly dangerous stunt, but her Wonderbolts instructors had said it would improve her ability to make turns in the long run. As if she needed the help. Still, it was something to do while she tried to force her brain to think for once.

Before she had gotten too far with that, however, Rainbow noticed a light coming from the edge of the Everfree forest, and for the first time in what felt like ages, Rainbow felt herself feeling ever so curious. Then she realized where the light was coming from, and found herself grinning. It could only be one place, Fluttershy’s cottage! It was a simple matter to right herself and then fall into a gentle glide in that direction.

Fluttershy had been her friend since before either of them had moved to Ponyville, and Rainbow was certain she had an extra bed—or at least a couch—Rainbow could crash on. Plus—and Rainbow found herself slightly unhappy with herself for thinking it—her fillyhood friend was so shy and timid, Rainbow doubted she’d feel up to asking her any questions that Rainbow didn’t really want to answer, and more over, too shy to rat her out to her ‘herd’ if they came knocking. It was only icing on the cake that the cottage was so isolated, compared to the rest of Ponyville. The only place further out from the town’s center and her house would be the farms, but she doubted Applejack would be up at this hour.

Nevermind the fact that AJ couldn’t tell a lie to save her life.

Thankfully, despite how close Rainbow was flying to the treetops of Everfree, nothing tried to leapt out at her—not that she couldn’t handle it, if they did. She wasn’t looking for a fight, however satisfying it might be to buck something in the face right now.

The ground around Fluttershy’s cottage were dark, far darker than Rainbow was used to, given that the streets in Ponyville, especially in the past few months, were lit with streetlamps, but the light Rainbow had seen from a distance was shining out over the grounds from Fluttershy’s bedroom. It illuminated a good part of the pens and gardens Fluttershy maintained, but it had the added effect of utterly ruining Rainbow’s night vision. But, if she was going to be honest, she wasn’t the sort of pony who used doors anyway.

Flying up to Fluttershy’s window, Rainbow frowned at the glass, before putting her hoof against the upper frame of one of the panels of glass and jiggling it just so while putting a tiny amount of her cloud shaping magic into the wood. In the open air, it would gather moisture and form the beginnings of a cloud, but against wood, Rainbow had long since learned it would cause the metal clasp holding the windows shut to pop out of its holder.

There was a very faint sound of metal scraping against metal, and the window swung outwards, allowing Rainbow to pull them fully open and burst through the curtains to the other side. At this time of night, Fluttershy was probably reading a book to her rabbit or something. Rainbow Dash hated that darn thing, but Fluttershy loved him to bits. Why, Rainbow Dash had no idea. Then again, Fluttershy liked pretty much every animal in existence.

She hadn’t really expected what she walked in on. Intellectually, Rainbow knew full well that Fluttershy had been going out with Cheerilee’s herd for several months—apparently that insane day when Twilight screwed everything up had given Fluttershy the push to go out and be a bit bolder. Yet, on some level, it had never really clicked for her. She supposed it might have to do with the fact that most of the time the three of them were seen together in public, they just stood close to one another. Rainbow had never seen them so much as nuzzle one another, let alone kiss.

And they certainly weren’t kissing now.

Well, not just kissing, at any rate.

Rainbow felt her cheeks grow incredibly hot as Fluttershy let out a horrified shriek and dived over the bed and presumably under it, leaving a shocked and dismayed Cheerilee and Big Mac to untangle themselves from one another to get into a more comfortable position. It took Rainbow a few moments before she realized she really ought to look away, since she doubted… uh… something. She probably shouldn’t be staring, at any rate. Rainbow Dash had never seen such interesting ceilings before.

“Rainbow Dash?” Rainbow would have expected Fluttershy to greet her, but it was Cheerilee who spoke up first, drawing her attention back to the bed as Cheerilee slid off the comforter so Big Mac could roll himself up in it, to hide his… uh… But he didn’t stop there. The stallion shot her an angry look that reminded Rainbow why she did her best not to cross AJ—well, not to get caught crossing her at least—and rolled off the other side of the bed. Rainbow tried not to listen to what Big Mac was saying to her, or how badly the bed was shaking.

“Rainbow Dash,” Cheerilee said again, as she shoved her face into Rainbow’s. It wasn’t the most aggressive stance Rainbow had ever seen, and she had some difficulty taking it totally seriously, given that it was coming from a school teacher. “What are you doing here? Why didn’t you use the front door?”

The unspoken question being “what the fuck is wrong with you?”

“I, uh, I wanted to talk to Fluttershy,” Rainbow said, running her hoof through her mane. Why didn’t she wonder why all the other lights were off? “I saw the light on, so, um, I just thought I’d…”

“You could have knocked on the window, and waited for one of us to let you in.” Cheerilee’s voice was flat with anger, and she let out a snort as she shook her head. “Maybe you’d ought to go.”

Rainbow might be many things, but pushed around was not one of them. Rainbow spread her legs and half flared her wings before she had the good sense to snap them shut. She didn’t really want to get into another fight tonight. “I just wanted to see Flutters, Cheers. It’s her house anyway. And I’m sorry for barging in on you,” Rainbow leaned to the side and raised her voice slightly. “Sorry Fluttershy!”

The bed was still shaking, although a weak voice came squeaking out at her. “It… it’s okay, um, Dashie, really.”

Suddenly, Rainbow felt a wave of guilt wash over her, and it forced her to close her eyes as she tried to calm herself. When she and Fluttershy had been fillies, all they had—to a large degree—was each other, and Rainbow had promised herself a very long time ago to look after Flutters. The poor mare was timid and shy to a fault, and that had attracted the attention of more than one mean spirited pony over the years. And here she was, frightening the living daylights out of her very best, and oldest friend.

“No, Flutters, it’s not.” Rainbow sidestepped around Cheerilee—ignoring her grunt of protest and feeble attempt to stop her—and trotted over to the other side of the bed, which Flutters was half hiding under, shaking, with her butt in the air and her tail clamped tightly between her legs. Big Mac was beside her, apparently under the bed as well, so Rainbow dropped her her own belly and crawled under the bed on Flutter’s other side. “Fluttershy, I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. Or—” Rainbow Dash looked away from Big Mac’s glare as she wrapped her wing awkwardly over her friend “—to walk in on you with your herd. I should have knocked. And used the front door.”

Rainbow felt no small sense of relief as Fluttershy’s body slowly stopped quivering, but before Fluttershy could peek out from her curtain of pink hair and hooves, Rainbow suddenly found herself being pulled backwards by her tail. With a yelp, Rainbow tried to stop herself, but her hooves had trouble gripping the slick wood floors. To Rainbow’s surprise, it was Cheerilee who was pulling her— she had no idea the mare was so strong. Nor had she seen her so pissed.

Cheerilee pulled Rainbow out of the bedroom and onto the landing before finally letting go and allowing her to scramble to her hooves— but before Rainbow could do anything else, Cheerilee pushed past her and slammed the bedroom door shut behind her. It didn’t really surprise Rainbow when she tried the door handle and found Cheers had locked it too. Faintly, she could hear murmuring on the other side of the door, but the wood was thick and obvious the carpenter who had installed it was well aware of how strong pegasus hearing could be.

With no idea what to do now— especially since her saddlebags had apparently fallen off at some point since she had flown through the window, Rainbow let herself sigh as she sat on her behind and watched the door in the darkened landing. She just hoped Fluttershy—and, by extension, Cheers and Big Mac, could forgive her. Both were very nice, warm ponies, but their forgiveness might be a bit harder to get.

She really hoped AJ didn’t hear about this one, or else she might have to spend the next five months looking over her shoulder.

Finally, after what felt like forever, Rainbow heard the clink of the door’s lock coming undone, and it slowly opened to reveal an very disheveled looking Fluttershy; her fur was sticking up in places, and her mane was slightly out of position, a far cry from her usually well cared for appearance. Rainbow couldn’t help but flinch as the noted the matted fur under the mare’s eyes. Still, she was smiling, if weakly.

“Um,” Fluttershy said, her smile faltering slightly as she glanced over her shoulder at Cheerilee and Big Mac, who were now resting on Flutters’ bed, giving Rainbow the evil eye. “H-hello.”

“I’m sorry, Fluttershy,” Rainbow repeated herself. She wished she knew what else to say.

“I know, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said, her tiny little smile returning. A little bit too understanding of a smile. “You always are.”

Rainbow wasn’t really sure how to respond to that, and the two of them stared at each other as the feeling of awkwardness increased between them.

“You, um, said you wanted to talk?” Fluttershy said finally, rubbing her foreleg with her other one as she broke the stare and looked at the floor.

“What?” For a brief moment, Rainbow had no idea what Fluttershy was talking about, the whole fight with her herd fleeing her mind in the chaos of the past few minutes. “Oh. Oh, right! I mean, yes, uh, I was hoping for… some privacy.”

Big Mac snorted, which coming from the powerfully built stallion sounded like a train engine venting steam, “so were we.”

“Hehheh, uh, yeah, sorry… sorry about that,” Rainbow raised her voice and looked over Fluttershy’s head to apologize to the other two ponies she had wronged in the room.

“Okay,” Fluttershy said with a nod, ignoring her stallion’s comment. “Um,” Fluttershy turned and looked back at Cheerilee and Big Mac. “Is… is that okay with you two? I’ll talk to Rainbow in the kitchen.”

The hard expressions on the two earth ponies’ faces softened considerably, and for some reason the look of affection that replaced their anger surprised Rainbow far more than it should have. It wasn’t that she wasn’t used to ponies looking at Fluttershy with sympathy—all too often, it seemed that there was only two default modes which ponies approached her friend. They either pitied her, or wanted to shove her in the mud. But what did surprise Rainbow was the raw expression of love in their faces; they obviously cared for Fluttershy, and their relationship had obviously progressed far more Rainbow had realized.

Which only made her feel more guilty, for not keeping up with Fluttershy’s life.

“Of course, Fluttershy,” Cheerilee said softly, waving her hoof in a shooing motion. “We’ll wait for you.”

“Oh no!” Fluttershy gasped, “Don’t do that! Don’t wait for me!”

“But we want to, my butterfly,” Rainbow was glad her stallion hadn’t taken to calling her his little cloud or something. Or maybe it was just the shock of hearing Big Mac say it.

Fluttershy blushed and smiled back at the rest of her herd, before carefully pulling the door closed and leading down to the ground where the kitchen was. She didn’t light any of the hallway lanterns, apparently feeling more than secure walking around her own home in the dark, but as soon as Rainbow Dash figured she could get away with it, she took flight and hovered behind her friend until she could see where she was putting her hooves.

Once they reached the kitchen, Fluttershy turned the gas up on a couple of low-burning lanterns to provide them light enough to see by, before settling down behind one of the chairs around her kitchen table. Compared to her own kitchen, Rainbow supposed Fluttershy’s was bigger, but most of the room was taken up by food dishes and supplies for her animals. Rainbow settled in next to her, rather than across from her, and gave Fluttershy another hug, trying to convey how much she truly cared for the mare into it.

“Would you like something to drink?” Fluttershy offered, gesturing towards the kettle over the hearth. Rainbow did feel more than a little bit thirsty, but, at the same time, she knew it would take a while to heat the kettle up, not to mention start a fire, and she was getting the feeling that the sooner she left, the better.

“No, thanks.” Rainbow bit her lip, “you didn’t happen to see my saddlebags up there, before you came down?”

“Your saddlebags? Oh… oh dear,” Fluttershy looked embarrassed. “That must have been what Cheerilee was throwing out the window. I’m sorry, Dashie.”

“Heh, no big,” the only thing of value in the bag was a picture of Lero and her and the herd, and she hoped it hadn’t got smashed. Not that she didn’t deserve it. The thought of her herd made Rainbow sigh with frustration again.

“So, um, what did you want to talk about?” Fluttershy prompted as Rainbow suddenly found herself slumped over in her seat.

“Twilight’s being a bitch,” Rainbow said bluntly with a shake of her head. “We had a fight. And Lyra.”

“Oh no! Was anypony hurt?”

Rainbow couldn’t help herself, she giggled slightly. “No, I mean, we had an argument.”

“I see,” Fluttershy bit her lip, and Rainbow wondered if she should just cut to the chase and continue. In her experience, Fluttershy would rather wait for her to speak first, and tended to take a while to prompt a conversation. So she was a bit surprised when Fluttershy brushed a stray strand of hair out of her face and continued less than a second later. “What did you fight about, um, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Err… Twilight and Lyra want to expand the herd. Look for another stallion,” Rainbow explained with a shake of her head. She still couldn’t believe it. “Twilight says there’s no way she can make Lero, um, you know… what’s the word…?”

“Interfertile?” Fluttershy suggested, and Rainbow was forcefully reminded that her friend wasn’t just shy, she was also a veterinarian. Suddenly, Rainbow wondered if she ought to be calling Fluttershy ‘doctor’. “So they can have foals?”

“That’s right.”

“Oh, how wonderful!” Fluttershy gushed, “I always thought you’d be a great mom! And Twilight’s so good with Spike…”

“Wonderful…?” Rainbow forced herself to bit back a sharp reply— it wasn’t Fluttershy’s fault and she had caused her friend enough pain already that night. “It’s not wonderful!” Her voice was still a little bit angry, but hopefully Flutters wouldn’t assume it was directed at her.

“It’s not?” Fluttershy looked puzzled.

“No! Don’t you see, they’re betraying Lero! Not to mention they decided I wasn’t fit to lead the herd anymore.”

“Oh Dashie, I’m sorry,” Fluttershy’s voice was full of genuine sympathy as she wrapped her wing around Rainbow’s barrel. “But you always said you didn’t like being leadmare anyway…”

“That’s not the point!” Rainbow snapped, despite her best efforts. Fluttershy reacted predictably, and Rainbow felt another wave of guilt wash up over her. “I mean… I guess you’re right. Less paperwork, I guess,” Twilight would probably just love managing the herd’s bank accounts and handing out allowances. “I just never thought…”

“Why do you think they’re betraying Lero, Dashie?” Fluttershy pressed ahead, ignoring Rainbow’s feeble half-hearted statements. “I mean, herds are supposed to expand, you know that. I know it’s just been you and Lero and Twilight and Lyra for a while, but…”

“It’s just,’ Rainbow struggled to put her thoughts into order. “It’s just that, Lero doesn’t have anypony else. It’s just me and the girls. What if Twilight and Lyra decide that they don’t want to be with Lero anymore, when they meet some stallion?”

“He’d still have you, wouldn’t he?” Fluttershy said gently, leaning against Rainbow.

“Of course he would!” Rainbow shook her head. What a silly question. “But it would still hurt him, I know it would.” Rainbow dragged her hoof against the surface of the table. “But what if he doesn’t want me anymore, if he thinks I’m with some other stallion?”

Rainbow flinched as Fluttershy booped her on the nose with her hoof. “That’s the silliest thing I’ve heard all evening, Dashie! Lero loves you, and he loves the girls, and the girls love you and Lero back. If Cheerilee added another mare, I wouldn’t think Big Mac or Cheerilee loved me less!”

“Lero isn’t a stallion, though, Fluttershy!” Rainbow said, feeling very tired all of a sudden. “He’s a human, you know what it’s like back on Earth…”

“Um, I suppose that’s true,” Fluttershy admitted, biting her lip. “But he has tried to fit inasmuch as he could.”

All she could do was shake her head.

“This is really something you need to talk to Lero about, and your herd, Dashie.” Fluttershy said softly, ever so subtly glancing up at the ceiling where her herd was waiting for her.

“Twilight wanted to discuss it with us mares first,” Rainbow said, feeling all the more disgusted. “I don’t think she even wants to ask what Lero thinks.”

“Well, um, maybe she’s worried what she’ll hear?” Fluttershy yawned and tried to stifle it before it really grew into anything. “I mean, maybe she’s worried about the same sorts of stuff you are.”

“If she’s worried about Lero, why did she bring it up then? It was her idea, she’s the one who pressed it!” Rainbow snarled.

Rainbow got to her hooves and started to pace, causing her friend to look slightly alarmed. She didn’t mean to upset Fluttershy by walking around with her wings flexing and her tail whipping, but what else could she do? Staying still, in one spot just wasn’t working for her. The anger she had felt earlier was slowly returning, in spite of talking to her best friend.

Fluttershy bit her lip and looked indecisive, and maybe a little bit frightened, and Rainbow did her best to fold her wings back against her barrel and calm down a bit more.

“Look, I was hoping you might let me borrow a couch to crash on, at least for tonight,” Rainbow said, since she didn’t seem to be getting anywhere explaining the situation to her friend. She wanted a sympathetic ear to listen to her, of course, but mostly she had shown up in the hope she could have someplace to stay.

“Oh,” Fluttershy sounded reluctant, and Rainbow’s heart sank a bit. “I’m not, um, sure that’s the best idea, Dashie.”

“Okay,” Rainbow crushed a new sense of anger that arose in her before she could snap at her friend. It wasn’t like she was asking a lot, but Rainbow could only assume that was just too bucking much apparently.

“It’s just… um, Cheerilee wanted us to, uh, spend the weekend together… a-alone. Y-you, y-you know.” Fluttershy’s face retreated behind her curtain of a mane.

“Oh, right,” Rainbow felt like kicking herself. Of course they wouldn’t want her there… It wasn’t like she hadn’t intruded enough already. Whatever frustration she felt with Fluttershy evaporated like dew; if anypony deserved to spend some quality time with her herd, it was Fluttershy. “I… guess I’ll have to see if there’s a room in the Inn. Or something.”

“Have… have you considered, um, going to Cloudsdale?” Fluttershy asked, peeking out cautiously. “And, v-visiting your parent herd?”

Rainbow was so surprised that Fluttershy, of all ponies, had brought up her birthherd—when she knew full well what sort of touchy topic that was—that she forgot to be angry or pissed off that it had been brought up.

“I haven’t talked to them in years,” Rainbow said flatly.

“I-I know, but, uh, you need to talk to ponies who’ve got experience with, um, herding. I think.” Fluttershy said, “and your parents—”

“My folks hate me, Fluttershy, you know that.”

“N-no! No they don’t!” Fluttershy actually hopped out of her seat and half stepped towards her. “They love you, Rainbow, I know they do.”

It took all of Rainbow’s willpower not to snort dismissively. Fluttershy had always thought the best of everypony, she was just that sort of filly. But Rainbow knew full well her so-called birth herd didn’t care for her, the child of a disgraced mare and some stranger—or so her siblings had always told her. She hadn’t spoken to them since before she had moved to Ponyville, and certainly not since she had started courting Lero. If they hadn’t disowned her before, they would have by now.

Fluttershy pawed the floor with her hoof, not meeting Rainbow’s eyes. “I… you could at least talk to your mom.”

That was true, her mother had always been there for her—although part of Rainbow wondered if that wasn’t because she had nopony else to look after, or who would look after her. She hadn’t seen her in ages, either… and suddenly Rainbow wished she had written more.

“I guess.” Rainbow ran her hoof through her mane, and wondered how quickly she could get to Cloudsdale. Could she do it in a night?

Who was she kidding, she was Rainbow bucking Dash! Of course she could!

“Thanks for the advice, Flutters, and, uh, sorry about…” Rainbow blushed and let her voice trail off, suddenly feeling awkward again. “You know…”

“It’s okay Dashie, you’re not the first of my friends to walk in on… um… me,” Rainbow’s blush was nothing compared to Fluttershy’s, who had long since mastered the art of being totally embarassed.

“Really?” Rainbow almost sat back down and wondered if she could get Flutters to tell her the story—it ought to be worth a laugh or two, and Rainbow felt she could used a few laughs right about now.

“Oh yes, Angel can be… uh, quite…” Fluttershy blushed harder, and looked away while Rainbow rolled her eyes. Then Rainbow hugged her.

“Thanks for everything, Flutters, if Lero comes by, tell him I’ve gone to Cloudsdale and everything is going to be fine, okay?” Rainbow asked as she buried her muzzle in Fluttershy’s mane. Her mane was normally scented lightly with the smell of strawberries, but tonight it smelled a bit more like AJ’s mane.

Rainbow tried not to think too hard on that one—last thing she needed was distractions while she was trying to fly.

“Okay, Dashie. I hope your trip goes okay,” Fluttershy smiled in her small little way. “And I hope everything works out with your herd. They love you. And say hi to your mom for me, please.”

“Yeah yeah,” Rainbow shook her head and tried to keep her voice light as she trotted to the door, undid the locks and glanced around to see if she could spot her saddlebags on the grass. “See ya, Flutters. Have fun now!” Then, for the second time that night, Rainbow launched herself into the night air.

At least now she knew where she was going.

Despite her speed, by the time Rainbow had made it to the outer layers of Cloudsdale, it was already well past sunrise, which was something of a disappointment to her. Twilight could have Canterlot, and Applejack could gush all she wanted about her orchard, there was just nothing—nothing!—quite like Cloudsdale at dawn.

Cloudsdale was beautiful in its own right; every building was crafted from the finest clouds Pegasi could create, and there was no simple utilitarianism with any of it. Everything was functional whether it was to house sick ponies or simply serve as a roost, but all of them were works of art. Pegasi might be better known for their violent past, but they had always been artists without peer as well, and that was one tradition they were more than proud to carry on into the modern day. Even Rainbow Dash tried to make her home as beautiful as possible, although she’d deny it if anypony asked about it.

But Cloudsdale, at dawn, was something else altogether. Because of their altitude and the fact that nearly everything was made out of clouds, the clouds tended to grow slightly with every evening. The extra cloudstuff, cloud frost, was delicate and easily broken, and as the sun rose and warmed the clouds, it tended to burn off like dew. It shrunk the clouds back to their normal size, of course, but it always had the effect of filling the air with thousands of tiny little rainbows—not true ones, but refractions of light. For about an hour after dawn, it was like living in a multihued dream.

Rainbow would like to bring Lero here, and show him the beauty of her hometown, but it just wasn’t possible. It had been difficult enough to get her friends up to the city in the sky, and they had very nearly lost Rarity. That wasn’t a risk Rainbow would ever want to repeat, certainly not with somepony—someone—as important to her as her stallion. Maybe she could take pictures.

Of course, the other problem was that Cloudsdale so rarely got visitors, most of the pegasi tended to be a bit skittish around ponies who were different. Ponyville had never seen a zebra before Zecora, but Rainbow doubted most of them had ever seen an earth pony before her friends visited for the young flyer competition. Her stallion had enough trouble fitting in at home, there was no point in upsetting him more so by bringing him here.

Rainbow took a few minutes to rest on a cloud at the very edge of the city, and caught her breath. While she had, theoretically, had a great deal of time to think on the way to Cloudsdale, she had put most of her thoughts out of her mind, and she hadn’t really thought of what to say to her mother.

It had been so long since she had seen her, and there was little doubt in her mind that the reunion was going to be an awkward one. It didn’t help that Rainbow hadn’t really kept in touch these long years, and she had no idea if her mother was still living alone. Perhaps she had found somepony—she deserved it. Either way, Rainbow was going to knock this time.

Still, how was she going to explain her absence for so long? It wasn’t that she didn’t care for her mother, she still sent her letters and received them back, but to say that neither of them were eggheads would be something of an understatement. Rainbow could never remember her cracking a book open, except for when she had read to her as a filly, and both their letters tended to be short, to the point, and void of extra information or flavour.

Of course, that wouldn’t really explain why she hadn’t visited her that one time she had been in town, but if Rainbow was going to be truthful with herself, that had more to do with her friends than anything. Other than Fluttershy, none of them knew of her family, not even Twilight or Lyra, and she had only divulged the barest of facts to Lero when he had asked. She didn’t talk about her mother, or her birthherd, and she wasn’t about to explain to her friends why her mother had raised her alone on a merger salary at the Weather Factory.

Once she was sure that she wasn’t going to fall out of the sky—or worse, end up on her mother’s doorstep trying to catch her breath—Rainbow Dash took to the skies again. Flying in Cloudsdale was different too, mostly because she was used to being the only pegasi in the air in Ponyville, and even Rainbow would admit that she had a tendency to crash into ponies if she wasn’t careful. So she made sure to pay extra attention to her surroundings as she flew up vertical thermal streets and across cloudscapes.

Finally, she was home.

Because clouds tended to be a very cheap building material, and because of the difficulty in selling homes to a tribe of ponies who could literally clap their hooves together and make a bed out of excess moisture in the air, Rainbow’s mom had her own house. It was a small house of course, only really room for her and her mother and maybe another pony. The herd-stead was far larger, although Rainbow had stopped visiting it voluntarily when she had grown smart enough to realize that her so-called herd siblings were badmouthing her mother. And her.

For the life of her, though, she couldn’t remember it being this small. It made her slightly uneasy to realize that the house she had built in Ponyville—the one she had before moving in with Lero and forming a herd—was bigger than her mother’s. Perhaps she should have invited her mom to move in with her, or something.

She landed easily and lightly, and knocked on the door before her mind had time to raise objections or worries and cause her to stall out. If she was nervous, the best thing she could do was to dive headlong into it and just not give herself the time to be nervous!

The plan came apart rather quickly when no pony answered the door. Not on the first knock. Not on the second knock, and not on the third knock. Rainbow pounded the door for the fourth time, all the while wondering if her mother was even home. It was, after all, midmorning, and her mother might well be at work, doing overtime or something similar.

It made her guilty, thinking about how much her mother had worked overtime when Rainbow was a foal.

Rainbow was just about to turn away, the the door finally opened to reveal a very bedraggled looking mare. Her coat was a pale sort of blue that bordered on being completely white, and her mane was multi-toned streak of reds. She was yawning as she opened the door, so it took her a moment to look Rainbow in the face. To say that she was surprised, was a bit of an understatement. Her eyes grew wide with shock, and she almost took a half-step back as her wings flared out.

“Hi mom,” Rainbow said gently with a shy smile on her face. Obviously she had been sleeping in.

“R-Rainbow?” Her Mother’s look of astonishment quickly transformed into a look of glee. “RAINBOW!” Before Rainbow could react, her mother grabbed her by her shoulders and pulled her into the fierce sort of hug that only a mother could give her filly.

“Hi mom,” Rainbow repeated herself as she returned the hug just as warmly. She had forgotten what it was like, and she can’t believe she hadn’t returned sooner. “How’s life?”

“Come in! Come in!” Rainbow’s mother released her and stepped aside to welcome her into the den. It hadn’t changed that much since Rainbow had left, indeed, it looked almost as if it was barely used. But she supposed her mother didn’t really have much use for boardgames and, unless something had changed, she didn’t exactly have that many friends to entertain either. Which only made Rainbow feel a bit more guilty. “I haven’t had anything to eat yet, do you want something?”

That was a no-brainer, given she hadn’t eaten since she had left home. “Yeah, that would be awesome!”

“Not my cooking, dear, but it’s the thought that counts,” Her mom said with a self-deprecating laugh as she led Rainbow to the kitchen.

Unlike the den, it was obvious that the kitchen still saw regular use, if only from the piles of unwashed dishes and pans that had been left out, waiting for some lazy afternoon to get cleaned. From the amount of them, it probably would have been today, and her mother blushed rather deeply as she rushed around throwing the dishes in the sink. As if she was some guest or something.

“I’ll do that, Mom,” It wasn’t that Rainbow had flown all the way to help her mom with her housework—Celestia knew, as did the rest of her herd—how much she hated house work. But… it felt good, for some reason, to just help her out. “Did I wake you?”

“Mhmm, time for me to haul my flank out of bed anyway,” Her mom said with a snort. She watched Rainbow attack the mess for a moment before pulling out a pan and the ingredients for an omelet. It was almost like old times, although Rainbow couldn’t help but notice, as she flew over to the cabinet to put some of the clean dishes away, that one thing that had certainly changed about the kitchen was the fact that the fridge and the cabinets were covered in newspaper clippings, almost all of them of her or her friends doing stuff.

Rainbow had never really followed the news, and while she wasn’t surprised to find articles mentioning how they defeated Nightmare Moon or Discord, it was a bit of a surprise how many times Rarity had given interviews and mentioned her, or how many articles about their personal lives there were. Nothing was particularly yellow, of course, but it was still a bit embarrassing.

As discomforting as it was, Rainbow could almost feel the unasked questions start to make the air between them tense, although her mom never stopped her happy little humming or smiling at her everytime Rainbow glanced her way.

“So, uh, how’ve you been,” Rainbow forced herself to ask. Normally she wouldn’t mind being the one to strike up a conversation, but this was getting more awkward by the minute.

“Same old, same old,” her mother said dismissively, before grabbing two plates and setting them on the counter beside the stove. “Can’t complain.”

“Still working at the Weather Factory?” Rainbow felt an involuntary chuckle arise in her. She had come all this way to talk about the weather with her mom.

“Yup, got a promotion too, just the other week.” Her mom dropped the plate in front of Rainbow. Despite what she said, Rainbow didn’t think anypony made an omelette like her mom—they were the best. “Cadmium Dash, Assistant Underdirector for Subarctic and Transoceanic Wild Weather Systems.”

“Wow,” Rainbow grinned, “Congratulations! What do you do?”

“Darned if I know, they give me more money but I seem to be doing all the same paperwork,” Cadmium said with an eyeroll and shrug. “No where near as exciting as the stuff you’ve gotten up to.” She added as she waved airly to the newspaper clippings that papered the walls.

“Uh.. hehheh, yeah, I guess,” Rainbow blushed and buried herself in the food. “It’s quiet, really, most of the time.”

“Mhmm,” Cadmium frowned herself, although Rainbow only saw it out of the corner of her eye. Obviously she owed her mom a bit more than that.

“Mom, I’m sorry.” Rainbow apologized, “I didn’t mean to… you know… uh…”

“Cut me out of your life? Forget about me?” Cadmium’s voice was light, but Rainbow could tell there was more than a little bit of hurt in it.

“I didn’t mean to, and I never forgot about you!” Rainbow exclaimed. “I just… I just…”

“It’s okay, Rainbow, I understand. I think every filly is embarrassed by their mother.” Cadmium forced a smile as she patted Rainbow’s fetlock. “And it’s not like you haven’t been writing.”

There was a pause.

“How’s Bellerophon?” Cadmium asked with a smile. Rainbow had never discussed her relationship with Lero face to face with her mother, although she had explained it to her in a letter. It had probably been the longest letter Rainbow had ever written, and looking back on it, probably more of her gushing about Lero, than anything substantial. Still, there was no hint of reproach on her mother’s face, which Rainbow took to be a good sign.

“He’s great, as always,” Rainbow felt a goofy little smile creep onto her face, and try as she might, she couldn’t quite get it off. “I wish I could bring him here, show him Cloudsdale, but, well, he’s as helpless as an Earth Pony with all these clouds.”

“Bit strange looking, these humans,” Cadmium said causally, and Rainbow felt herself tense up. Here it comes, here’s her mother to tell her she shouldn’t be in love with Lero… “I never took you for the sort to go for a stallion with face hair.”

“I—” Rainbow’s intended defense of her stallion died on her lips. Of all the criticisms she had expected, this wasn’t one of them. “What?”

“His face, dear, his face! I don’t think I’ve seen such a bushy beard,” Cadmium said, gesturing vaguely to her own face and making it look like Lero had enough hair to be a unicorn mage. “Doesn’t it get all scratchy when he goes down—”

“MOM!” Rainbow could feel her cheeks burning, even if she couldn’t help but smile a little bit.

“Oh Rainbow, you’re too easy!” Cadmium smirked and stuck her tongue out at Rainbow.

It felt good to laugh with her mom again.

“And speaking of which,” Cadmium said as they got their giggles under control. “I was more than a bit surprised to hear you’ve added a bunch of mares to the herd!”

“Why?” Rainbow asked as she shoveled another forkful of omelett into her mouth.

Cadmium looked askance at her.

“Oh, right,” Rainbow shuffled in her seat. She had told her mother that she just wasn’t into fillies years ago, around the time mother had started asked her why she wasn’t out with her peers dating or similar. “It’s different, with them… uh… and Lero likes them, so…”

“Mhmm,” Cadmium murmured knowingly. “Honestly, for a while, I was starting to think you’d never let another mare near your—”

Rainbow cut her off with a glare. Her mother gave her a cheeky smirk.

“What about you, mom? Got anypony special in your life now?” Rainbow asked, hoping to get her off her case.

“Well, you know, a few mares here and there. I was dating a lovely herd the other month… Bifrost has been asking around too.” Cadmium added the last part casually, perhaps hoping Rainbow wouldn’t pick up on it.

“Mom! You can’t go back to that herd!” Rainbow said, feeling more than a bit angry. Bifrost was—or at least, the last Rainbow had heard—Rainbow’s birthherd’s stallion. The same herd that had kicked Cadmium—and her—out.

“I didn’t say I was,” Cadmium shook her head. “Just that he’s been… nice. He’s always been nice, you know that.”

‘Mom… they’re scumbags, you don’t need them.” Rainbow grunted and stabbed her food with unnecessary force. Felt good though.

Cadmium didn’t say anything. Part of Rainbow suspected that her mother still had feelings for the herd, despite everything they had put her through. How could her mom be so utterly thick, or loyal to a bunch of ponies who weren’t loyal back.

“So, I see Twilight’s become a Princess.” Cadmium said finally, before the silence between them could get too thick and heavy. “That must have been exciting.”

“I guess,” Rainbow sighed despondently as she poked the last remains of her meal.

“Right,” Cadmium paused and seemed thoughtful, before continuing. “So, what brings my little filly home at this hour?”

“I can’t visit my mom without reason?” Rainbow teased, as she tried to avoid the question. She didn’t really want to talk about it anymore. She just wanted to forget.

Cadmium gave her a look that said ‘I know you better than that.’

“Fine fine, if you must know, I got into a fight with my herd,” Rainbow muttered finally. “Happy?”

“No! Of course not!” Cadmium sounded shocked and she trotted around the table before wrapping Rainbow into a big, warm wing hug. “What happened? Tell me everything.”

“I just… I…” Rainbow bit her lip. “We’ve been wanting to have foals, for a while now—well, Twilight and Lyra at least, I’m waiting—but Lero isn’t…”

“Right,” Cadmium said with a nod that Rainbow felt rather than saw.

“Twilight’s been trying to figure it out for a while now, but she comes to us last night, and says it can’t be done,” Rainbow swallowed and let out a long sigh. “And that she wanted to add another stallion to the herd, so we could have foals.”

“Okay,” Cadmium sounded a bit puzzled, much like Fluttershy had. “And…” Cadmium’s voice trailed off; Rainbow could almost hear the gears grinding away in her head. “You three can’t decide who to court?”

“What? No! I said no!” Rainbow snapped and pulled away slightly. She paced around the kitchen flexing her wings, trying to get the cramps out of them as her mother watched with a bemused expression on her face.

“Really? After all that porn I found under your bed, I’d think you’d want another male in your herd.” Cadmium shook her head.

“I don’t need another stallion, I have Lero!” Rainbow’s tail flicked with frustration and anger. How could her mother make light of this? “He’s not a pony, mom, he’s going to be hurt by this!”

“Have you actually asked him, if he would?” Cadmium asked gently, making Rainbow’s angry canter falter midstep. “I mean, he said he’s monogamous, but he’s obviously okay with Lyra and Twilight in your herd…”

“I… I don’t— how the hell do you know Lero’s monogamous?” Rainbow asked, glancing at her mother.

Her mother shrugged, “Since you never visit, I’m afraid I’ve had to take up book reading to know what’s going on with you and that little town of yours, my little rainbow.”

“Seriously?”

“Very seriously.”

“Well, Twilight never asked him, she wanted to talk to us mares first,” Rainbow drew a circle in the cloud floor with her hoof.

“That’s not an unusual request—I know when I was in your birth herd, we mares would meet all the time to discuss things,” Cadmium said with a shrug as she played with her fork. “I mean, it’s not like stallions really understand mare issues.”

“What does that mean?” Rainbow’s wings twitched in irritation. She hadn’t forgotten that much of Equestria wasn’t as forward thinking as Ponyville, but it was still frustrating to hear coming out of her mother’s mouth.

“Oh, Rainbow,” Cadmium chuckled and shook her head. “Do you really think Lero—or any stallion—could understand what it’s like to go into season? Or decide to bare a foal? And let’s not discuss birth—”

“That doesn’t mean you should exclude them!” Rainbow snorted heavily and accidentally dented the cloud floor with her hoof. “Besides, expanding the herd isn’t something a pony—mare or stallion—should discuss behind the backs of the others!”

“I… suppose,” Cadmium bit her lip and didn’t look convinced at all.

Rainbow couldn’t help but feel a surge of anger. Oh no, of course her mother wouldn’t understand the problem. Why did she expect her to?

“I don’t know why I thought you, of all ponies, would be good to talk to about this,” as soon as the words left her mouth, Rainbow wanted to take them back. She didn’t mean to say that to her mother, she shouldn’t even be thinking like that at all. What was wrong with her?

Cadmium’s face fell, and for a horrifying moment, as she looked away, Rainbow thought her mother was going to burst into tears. However, her mother surprised her by taking a deep, steadying breath, slowly meeting Rainbow’s eyes. There was hurt there, and Rainbow froze. “What do you mean by that, Rainbow?”

“I… I didn’t mean—it’s just that—” Rainbow flinched again and tried to refrain from hitting herself. It seemed she just couldn’t help herself. “You got kicked out of the herd for sleeping around, Mom. You’re not exactly the most loyal pony out there.”

“I see,” Cadmium said with the barest touch of coldness in her voice. “I didn’t realize you had taken those… stories… to heart, Rainbow.”

“I…”

“Is that what you think of me, Rainbow? That your mother is some sort of slut?”

“I-I-I don’t know what to think!” Rainbow exclaimed, her frustration with her inability to have a conversation with somepony without hurting them boiling to the surface. “Everypony tells me what’s what happened, and that’s why you got kicked out…”

“So, everypony says it, it must be true?” Cadmium wiped her eye with the back of her fetlock. “Is that it?”

Rainbow kicked her hooves out, more in frustration with herself than anything else, and let out a long sigh. “I’m sorry, mom, I didn’t mean— I’m sorry. I mean it.”

“It’s okay Rainbow, I forgive you.” Cadmium got up out of her seat and trotted over to hug Rainbow warmly. Rainbow just hoped she really did forgive her, she hated hurting her mother. “I can’t say I’m proud what some of the things I did back then, but I never meant to hurt you—or my herd.”

“Mom, who’s my father?” Rainbow blurted out suddenly, before blushing and pulling away. “I… er…”

“Your father? Bifrost.” Cadmium said promptly with a shake of her head. “I wish you two spent more time together.”

“B-Bifrost?” Rainbow frowned. She had always been under the impression that her father had been some Earth Pony her mother had picked up one day. “But…”

“Rainbow, please—give me a little credit.” Cadmium rolled her eyes. “I always made sure I was with my herd’s stallions when the need arose.”

“Then why did we get kicked out of the herd?” Rainbow felt herself ask. In retrospect, it made a lot of sense that Bifrost was her father—both of them had the same sort of rainbow mane that Rainbow had always been so proud of. And, of all the members of her birthherd, Bifrost had always tried to be the most friendly and closest to her… Rainbow closed her eyes and sighed heavily. What must he think of her now…

“It… was complicated, Rainbow. It’s true I was a bit freer with my affections that I should have been, I guess,” Cadmium let out a heavy, barely controlled sigh. “But there was also a lot of friction in the herd too. We didn’t all get along, and sometimes I think it was just easier for them to boot me out.”

“Oh.” Rainbow rubbed the side of her head. And she thought her herd had problems, yikes! As angry as she was with Twilight—and Lyra—Rainbow couldn’t imagine kicking them out of the herd. Not that it was up to her anymore, as it happened, but still. “So… what do you think I should do about this fight?”

“If it really bothers you, you could always ask Lero directly,” Cadmium points out. “I know you’re not happy Twilight brought it up behind his back, but it’s not like you’ve done anything as of yet, right?”

“I… suppose,” Rainbow agreed reluctantly. Maybe the first thing she ought to have done was to have woken Lero up, rather than losing her cool over him not being there. But they had discussed things before without Lero being in the room. Rainbow just… never saw them as nearly as important, she guessed.

“You might also want to apologize to your herd,” Cadmium continued.

“Apologize? For what?” Rainbow snapped, glaring at her mother.

“Do they know where you are? From the early hour and the fact that you had a fight, I’m assuming you stormed out of the house and didn’t tell anypony where you were off too.”

“Uh,” Rainbow’s wings twitched uneasily. “I guess…”

“They’re probably worried sick. Not to mention your stallion.” Cadmium added, making Rainbow squirm in her seat a bit.

“I told Fluttershy to, uh, tell Lero...if he asked…” Rainbow rubbed her eyes.

“Mhmm,” Cadmium murmured. “I take it you’ll be flying back tomorrow?”

Rainbow really hadn’t considered her plans post getting to Cloudsdale and talking to her mother. She really needed to think these things through more often. Experimentally, Rainbow flexed her wings to their full length, only to wince as muscle cramps sprang into existence up and down the limbs. Even she had limits, apparently. “I guess so.”

“Okay, well, I’ll go throw something on the guest—your bed, if you want to lay down now. Unless you have other plans while you’re in town?” Her mother was already on her hooves, heading down the hall towards the linen closet.

“We could, uh, go shopping?” Rainbow suggested. She felt tired, it was true, but laying down now just seemed… strange. There was a certain amount of energy in her, which she usually expended on bashing clouds apart before napping.

“Sure,” Cadmium’s voice was muffled slightly, presumably by the bedsheets and such. Why her mother bothered with them, Rainbow had no idea—she’d just kick them off anyway, as she had always prefered the bare texture of a cloud. “If you’re still looking for advice, though, you should go visit the herd.”

“Ugh, no thank you,” Rainbow shook her head vigorously, and wondered why everypony wanted her go and see those ponies.

“Just think about it, Rainbow. Please?” Cadmium stuck her head back into the kitchen with a sad, hopeful little smile on her muzzle. “For me?”

“I’ll think about it…” Rainbow said reluctantly, but putting on a brave face a small smile of her own. “Is that Sports Memorabilia shop still open?” Despite their fame, even in Ponyville and Canterlot, it wasn’t always easy to get everything Rainbow would want related to the Wonderbolts. She could always use another ball-cap or bobble-head.

“The Eighty Eight Miles per Hour place?” Cadmium snorted and shook her head. “Absolutely. Although, I don’t want to spend all day in it like when you were a filly. I swear, if they sold junk food, you would have never left it!”

“You always say that,” Rainbow laughed. That had been years ago, when she had finally started earning a little cash on the side, doing minor cloud shaping after school in the Weather Factory. Looking back on it, it was more than a little bit embarrassing to think how much money she wasted, in those days when she was young and money seemed so easy to come by. “Well, where would you like to go? Someplace nice to eat?”

Cadmium’s grin grew slightly sinister looking, and Rainbow knew her mother was up to no good. “Oh, I’ve got the perfect place in mind, my dear…”

“Um…” There seemed to be little else for Rainbow to say, although ‘help’ or ‘I’m outta here’ sprang to mind. She loved her mother, she really did, but sometimes shes suspected the mare just liked to torment her for her own pleasure.

“Well, what about this one?” Cadmium lifted a second garment up to Rainbow’s nose with the tip of her wing. It was obviously designed as a full body piece, and just as obviously, it wasn’t made of too much fabric. “You have to pick something.”

“I… do?” Rainbow asked, feeling at a loss. “Mom, I don’t even have that many bits with me.” That was true enough—she hadn’t really taken a great deal with her, so most of her money was still in Ponyville.

“Honey, you’ve used that line about six times already,” Cadmium shook her head, but at least she lowered her wing and replaced it on the rack. “I’ve already said I’ll pay. Think of it as a birthday present from me.”

“I don’t think most moms take their fillies out to the lingerie store, mom,” Rainbow took half a step back and let her eyes wander around the interior of The Pleasurable Pegasus Palace. It wasn’t that she was exactly a newbie at this sort of stuff; Rarity had a number of similar items for sale in her store, although she kept them mostly locked away unless somepony requested them. Hay, she even owned a few choice items—mostly for her herd’s benefit, for Lero—and, naturally, she owned a cooler. Yet there seemed to be something especially awkward about shopping at such a place with her mom.

Probably because she was at a sex shop with her mom.

It wasn’t the first time she had been to the shop; when she was old enough, her mother had brought her to get her a ‘trainer’ cooler, an experience that Rainbow still found incredibly embarrassing years later. The only reason she was here now was because her mother had insisted she’d need something to apologize to Lero with, and since the human didn’t like flowers, ‘this was the only option’. Now, Rainbow was wondering if she couldn’t just get him a box of chocolates or something. Probably not—Lero always said Equestrian chocolate tasted weird.

“This is cute,” Cadmium said as she pulled another garment off the rack. This one seemed to be nothing but straps and plant leather. Rainbow had difficulty figuring out how it was supposed to work, since it would probably pin a pegasus’s wings to her side, if she wore it. Although, maybe that was the intention… “I might just buy this for myself, mmm.”

“Uh, yeah…”

“Rainbow, dear, at least look. I’m sure there’s something here that’ll catch your eye,” Cadmium peaked out from behind the rack with a smirk on her face. “Or, at least something that’ll catch your herd’s eyes, yes? You must have some idea what they like.”

“I guess,” Rainbow huffed and gingerly pulled something from the rack with her wing tip. It looked liked a fairly standard saddle, but the extra straps, from what Rainbow could tell, would prevent a mare’s tail from really lowering, keeping it up and out of the way so she couldn’t hide anything… Rainbow blushed and put it back and moved on, away from her mother.

Cadmium gave her some space, and once she was away from her, Rainbow found it easier—and strangely less traumatizing—to look through the array of clothing. Her mother was right, she did know what her herd liked, although she wasn’t going to buy something for them, only for Lero. Twilight and Lyra still owed her an apology—owed Lero an apology—and she wasn’t about to reward them until they came to their senses.

The dress that eventually caught Rainbow’s eye was a whole lot of lace and well placed straps, which were placed in ways she was sure both of them could enjoy, even if she wasn’t about to try it on in public. Dressing room or no, she wasn’t going to strap it on until she was back in the privacy of her own home. Hopefully it would fit, cause it’d be a bit of a trip to return it.

“Where do you want to go now?” Cadmium asked as they finally stepped out of the store together, and started walking in a random direction through the downtown. Here, unlike most of Cloudsdale, there were enough clouds that a pegasus could get around without flying—useful if you had a couple of bags full of goods. The small discrete bag Rainbow was carrying in her mouth was hardly enough to impede her flying, of course, although the number her mom was carrying might prove to be a challenge.

“We… could get something to eat?” Rainbow hated to suggest it, since her mother had already spent an extraordinary amount of bits on her already. Maybe she could buy the lunch, though.

“Err,” Cadmium hesitated, and glanced over at a nearby clock as they passed by it. “I suppose we could…”

“What’s the matter, mom? Got somewhere else to be?” Rainbow teased her mother gently with a smirk.

“Well, actually, I was planning on having lunch with Updraft,” Cadmium said, trying to sound casual and failing.

Rainbow’s eyes narrowed as she glared at her mother. Updraft was her birthherd’s leadmare, and to say that she had a strong will would be like saying that Celestia was tall compared to other ponies. It wasn’t wrong but it didn’t quite capture the true scope of it. When she made a decision, she expected the herd to follow it—at least, that’s the impression Rainbow had always gotten when she had visited her birth herd. Perhaps that’s why she had always tried to be relatively loose in the way that she governed her herd—although in retrospect, that’s probably why Twilight hadn’t listened to her the one time she had put her hoof down. Still, Rainbow didn’t really want to rule over anypony, that just wasn’t her. Not really.

And that gave Rainbow good reason to feel both a bit skeptical, and a bit worried. She didn’t want her mother getting hurt by these ponies, not again.

“Mom,” Rainbow began cautiously, but her mother cut her off before she could say anymore.

“I know what you’re thinking, Rainbow,” Cadmium leaned over and nuzzled Rainbow’s cheek. “But I know what I’m doing—not to mention I’m the one who should be looking out for you, not the other way around, dear.”

“I…” Rainbow wanted to say something along the lines of ‘I wasn’t going to say that’ but her heart just wasn’t in the lie. “Mom, how serious is this thing anyway?” When her mother had mentioned Bifrost was sniffing around, Rainbow had just assumed it was something distant and unformed, with the potential for a relationship in the future. Yet, if her mother was meeting with the herd’s leadmare…

“I don’t know,” Cadmium said with a sigh. “I remember when I first courted the herd, everything was so easy and simple, but now I’ve got this…”

“History with them,” Rainbow shook her head. This was a bad idea, surely her mother could see that? Maybe she couldn’t, not if she still had feelings for them.

“Right,” Cadmium chuckled and ruffled Rainbow’s mane with her wing tip. “But I’m a big filly, I can handle it.”

“I know you will,” Rainbow smiled.

“Do you want to come along?” Cadmium asked, with a hint of curiosity in her voice—and hopefulness. Rainbow suddenly wondered if her fame had allowed her mother to reconnect with the herd. Between saving Equestria several times and Lero—and now Twilight—Rainbow was a minor celebrity in some respects, and she could only assume that if her birthherd could claim her as a legitimate daughter again, it might somehow boost their own prestige.

On the other hoof, her mom might just want her there for support.

“I’d rather not,” Rainbow said with a shrug. Most of her memories of Updraft involved Rainbow rebelling against the mare, in the small ways that she could. Now that she was full grown, Rainbow could only assume she’d end up getting in a fight with the mare. “Besides,” Rainbow added as she stretched out her neck and plucked the bags her mother was carrying out of her grasp. “Somepony needs to deliver these home, yeah?”

“Good idea,” Cadmium nodded and gave herself a quick look in the reflective service of a shop window. “How do I look?”

“You look fine,” Rainbow said, or at least, that’s what she tried to say. It came out rather mumbly and incoherent now that she had a mouth full of bag straps. And her mother complained she bought too much stuff from the sports store.

“I’ll see you at home then,” Cadmium gave her a quick hug, before flapping her wings and taking off to wherever she was supposed to meet Updraft.

Rainbow watched her go for a minute, before turning and trying to remember how to get back to her mother’s home. Part of her was ashamed to admit that, after so many years of living basically on the ground—by pegasus standards at least—navigating Cloudsdale was a bit confusing, even though she had grown up in the multi-layered city. Luckily, it wasn’t that hard, and after a couple of seconds, Rainbow flexed her wings, then flapped them hard to take off, heading in the opposite direction.

As far as trips went, Rainbow had a number of options as to how to get home, and since she doubted she’d be spending too much more time in Cloudsdale, it seemed to her that she ought to take advantage of her time there as much as possible. Clearly she should visit more—especially if her mother was going to jump back in bed with that herd—but it wouldn’t be easy getting away from her own herd. She had barely been gone twelve hours, and she was already starting to feel homesick. But being back in her hometown was making her realize how much she had missed Cloudsdale. So she was determined to see as much of the city as possible before arriving home.

Her flight pattern wasn’t exactly the most graceful thing, but it looped up and around various layers of the city, past her old schools, old haunts… so much had changed. Oh, it was still familiar, of course, but there were hundreds of tiny little things that had changed. For example, she couldn’t remember her old school having that cloud playset, and her favorite sundae bar had apparently expanded their menu at some point in recent years to include things like pizza… they weren’t recent changes, but it seemed no matter where she looked, she was playing catch up.

It made her feel out of place.

Finally, Rainbow’s wings decided they weren’t in the mood to continue with this nonsense anymore, and really started to ache. Even Rainbow had her limits, although she was always looking to improve them and push her limitations. After all, she’d never become a Wonderbolt if she didn’t. Still, a lifetime of flying accidents and crashes had taught her a smattering of wisdom, so as soon as she spotted somewhere to land, Rainbow dropped out of the sky and let her wings have a bit of rest.

As it happened, Rainbow had landed outside of one of the numerous cloud-parks that dotted the cloudscape. Unlike Ponyville, there wasn’t much in the way of trees or stuff like that, certainly no grass—stuff like that was too hard to grow up in the clouds. No, the main attraction was the large, open, cloud-covered space with different elevations. It was one of the few places in Cloudsdale that young, non-flight-capable pegasi could try out their wings without fear of plummeting to the ground. Thus, it wasn’t particularly surprising that there were a whole flock of little fillies and colts, running around playing whatever games they could think of while their parents kept a weather eye on them from the benches. Rainbow didn’t have any foals, obviously, but the benches were no less inviting.

She heaved a large, heavy sigh as she stretched her wings out and slowly rotated them through a series of exercises while her mind wandered. If her mom did get back with the herd, what would she do? Obviously her mother would want to move right in, so if Rainbow wanted to visit her, there would be no avoiding her birthherd. Would her mother expect her to forgive them? Forget how mean they were to her? Rainbow twitched her ears and started to focus on relaxing each muscle group in her wings, one by one, like Lyra had sorta taught her.

Whatever would happen, she’d have to be there for her mom. That much was certain.

With some considerable effort, Rainbow put the thoughts of her mother’s pending reunification with the herd out of her mind and idly watched the foals playing on the cloud. There was a mix of ages, some of them who had cutie marks, but many who didn’t. The games hadn’t changed much since she was a foal, really. Lots of running and shouting. Those who could fly were, trying to get their other, grounded friends to fly as well. Maybe it would be fun having foals… her mother always said it was rewarding, although how, Rainbow had no idea.

Slowly, though, the small smile on her face morphed into a frown as she spotted a familiar, but unwelcome sight; around the base of one of the circus hills, there was a small colt, surrounded by a number of other colts and fillies, who were obviously giving the young pony a hard time. He had been reading a book, and now he was trying to retrieve it. Unsuccessfully. Rainbow’s wings twitched with anger, and despite the fact that she wasn’t related to the colt at all, she was about ready to leap off the bench and give those little buckers a piece of her mind, when another pony jumped in, presumably a parent.

As the angry looking mare dealt with the bullies, Rainbow allowed herself to relax and sink back into her seat, but whatever pleasure she had gotten from watching the foals play was gone. All she could think of was how her foals might be treated. Rainbow knew full well that being different on the playground meant taking a lot of horseapples right to the face, especially if that difference wasn’t something positive, like being the first to get your cutie mark or the last to get it. She had seen it enough times with Fluttershy when the two of them had been fillies, and her friend had left the park in tears more times than Rainbow really felt comfortable remembering. She hated to sing her own praises, but Rainbow didn’t want to think what might have happened to Flutters if she hadn’t been there.

What if her foals ended up like that? The butt of teasing from gangs of mean-spirited little ponies? She knew from observation that Ponyville was not so different in that respect, although Scoots wouldn’t thank her if she tried to fight her battles for her. If her foal was fathered by Lero, would the others tease her or him? Or worse? Even if she didn’t look any different, it wouldn’t matter to those ponies, and Rainbow couldn’t protect her for the rest of her life.

Rainbow rubbed her hoof through her mane and heaved a heavy sigh. Now she was thinking like Twilight: all possibilities and things that hadn’t happened yet. Nevermind the fact that she’d probably never have a child, if what Twilight was saying was true. Was some small part of her imagining what it would be like, to have a normal—no, just a non-human—stallion in the herd? A twinge of guilt made her grimace. What was she supposed to do? Or think? Now it seemed part of her doubted it would be a good idea if she had Lero’s kid, even if they were compatible. Squeezing the side of her head, Rainbow wished the whole thing would just go away.

“If you don’t mind me saying, Miss, you’re far too pretty of a mare to be sitting alone looking glum.” Rainbow’s head jerked halfheartedly as she located the source of the voice: somehow, a stallion had managed to sneak up on her without her hearing his approach—although in fairness, she hadn’t really been paying attention.

“What do you want?” Rainbow snapped, causing the pegasus to flinch.

“I don’t want… I mean…” The grey stallion shrugged, and ran his hoof through his dusty yellow mane. “I was hoping I could sit here… if that’s okay with you?”

“I guess,” Rainbow shifted her bags and hips, although she didn’t really feel like sharing the bench—or conversation—with the stranger. He certainly seemed to be the sort to talk a lot.

The stallion settled in to the seat with a flap of his wings, perhaps laying a bit closer to Rainbow’s flank than was strictly proper, but Rainbow wasn’t in the mood to do much more than stare off into the sky and think. Of course, he was only quiet for a few minutes before he spoke up again.

“Any of them yours?” He asked softly.

“Them what?” Rainbow asked, sparing a hasty glance at her bags to make sure the stallion hadn’t spotted something he wasn’t supposed to see.

“Foals?” The grey stallion gestured vaguely to the park in front of them, and Rainbow felt rather stupid.

“Oh,” Rainbow sighed again and shook her head, even though her companion wasn’t looking at her directly. “No, not at all.” There was a pause, but it seemed like it was only polite to ask: “What about you?” She didn’t really want to talk to a stranger, and she certainly couldn’t pour her problems into a conversation with him, but it would probably be more effective than staring off into space, worrying.

“Maybe one day, if I meet the right mare.” The stallion shot her a quick grin. It wasn’t just a grin, though, there was something else underlying it. Rainbow couldn’t place it, but she knew she had seen it before.

Rainbow covered her confusion with a snort. “That can’t be that hard, I’m sure you’ve got mares throwing themselves at you left and right.”

“Mhmm,” He shrugged. “Name’s Dust Tempest, by the way.”

“Weather pony?” Rainbow guessed, as she glanced at his cutie mark—it occurred to her that he was rather close to her—it was a couple of brown, swirled clouds over laying a sun.

“Of a sort, I guess,” Dust said with a shrug of his shoulders. “Specializing in particle cloud manipulation.”

“Uh…” Rainbow tried to remember what exactly that meant. She made her bits controlling the weather in Ponyville, but she had never been particularly strong with the theory or technical aspects of it. She just went out and did it.

“Means I’m good with dust storms,” Dust said with a half-hearted smile. “Make’em, break’em. What about you?” Dust added as his eyes wandered down to Rainbow’s own cutie mark. And rested there a bit longer than Rainbow thought was necessary, like he was trying to puzzle out her cutie mark. Or… something?

“Well, I’m trying to join the Wonderbolts.” Rainbow felt her face flush slightly. She sounded like a foal—every little pegasus probably wanted to join the Wonderbolts, and here she was, an adult pony with childish fantasies. At least, that’s surely how he’d see it. “But when I’m not doing that, I’m the Weather Manager for Ponyville.”

“Oh yeah?” Dust met Rainbow’s eyes again, with that same look as before. Was that… lust? “I thought Ponyville’s Weathermare was Rainbow Dash?”

“You’re talkin’ to her dude,” Rainbow tried to sound casual, but she couldn’t help but feel more than a little bit lost. How could he— no pony— It wasn’t that Rainbow had never seen a stallion lust after her—after all, Lero wasn’t the first she had been with—but she had always been familiar with those ponies, and they had never, never, approached her.

“Wow, I saw you do that rainbow thinger at the Young Flyer competition,” Dust said, giving her a smile, which only made Rainbow feel confused and uncertain. “It was really cool! Can you do that all the time?”

“It takes some work, but yeah…” Rainbow glanced away and forced herself to laugh, “I hope you’re not going to ask me to do it now.”

“No! I mean—no.” Dust blushed and let out a small, nervous sounding laugh. “I was just curious.”

“Well, always nice to meet a… fan.” Rainbow wasn’t sure what to say next. She was feeling more awkward by the minute—maybe she’d best be getting home.

“Is… is it true that…” Dust looked down at his hooves and didn’t meet Rainbow’s eyes; she had to strain to hear the next part: “that you’re herded with that human… Bellypawn or something?”

“Yes,” Rainbow said through gritted through suddenly clenched teeth. Of course—it was foolish of her to think he’d be interested in her at all. It was probably just acting so he could hurt her more. “His name is Bellerophon, and I love him very much.”

“I… I’m sorry, Miss Rainbow Dash,” Dust stammered, looking alarmed and flustered. “I didn’t mean to offend…”

“Uh huh, if you didn’t want to offend me, why’d you ask?” Rainbow jabbed her hoof at Dust’s chest.

“Because I was curious? I’ve never met a human before.” Dust sounded hapless, and Rainbow’s anger abated a bit. There was a pause where Rainbow didn’t look at him, before he finally got to his hooves. “Perhaps I ought to go.”

“I guess.” Rainbow made herself look at him, only to catch him checking her out briefly—this time the stallion knew he had been caught at, and blushed a bright crimson. Rainbow found her own face heating up too, although her head was starting to feel like it usually did after she ran into something hard. “It was nice meeting you, Dust Tempest.”

“It was nice meeting you too, miss Rainbow Dash!” Dust smiled at her through his embarrassment, and turned to go.

Maybe it was because he had been so obvious with his interest, or maybe it was because Rainbow was just a bit horny, considering everything that had happened thus far today, but Rainbow couldn’t help but let her eyes follow the lines of the stallion’s body. He was no Big Mac, but he was a bit more muscular than most stallions Rainbow met. Nothing too much or over done, and he certainly had nice wings… among other parts of his body.

Of course, he just happened to glance back at her. His eyes grew a bit wider, but then he grinned a bit haphazardly as both of them blushed. Again. Good grief.

“I.. I was wondering, um...” Dust shuffled his hooves slightly and flicked his wings nervously. “I’m going to be in Ponyville in a week or so, would… I mean… maybe we could have lunch together?”

“What?” Rainbow felt her jaw drop slightly. Was he asking her out? Her? Nevermind the fact that stallions never asked mares out, it was her.

“I—I… it’s okay if you say no, I just thought… It’d be nice.” Dust smiled nervously and broke eye contact.

“Why are you going to be in Ponyville?” Rainbow asked, acting as if she was on autopilot or something.

“Wha— Oh. I’m on my way down to Appleloosa,” Dust said with a shrug, “I travel back and forth. There’s never enough work down there for me to live there, you see, but it’s pretty much the only place that needs my skills at the moment.”

“Oh.” Rainbow looked down at her hooves. “I-I suppose.” It seemed rude to just turn him down out of the blue, but she wasn’t really sure how what to make of the proposal. On the other hoof, maybe he just meant it as friends? A friendly lunch—not a date. “Would it be okay if I bring Bellerophon?”

Dust’s face brightened up. “Of course! I’ll see you in a week, then!”

It was only as he was flying away that Rainbow realized she had basically told the stallion she was bringing her herd’s stallion to meet this newbie. It was hard not to groan and press her face into her hooves in frustration. Now he was probably thinking she wanted to introduce the two stallions to make sure they were compatible or whatever it was that leadmares were supposed to do in situations like this.

That was it, Rainbow was out of there. Now seemed like a really good time to go home, dig a hole in the clouds and hide in it until it was time to go back to Ponyville. She wasn’t scared, and she’d buck the face of anypony who said so, but she was very frustrated and confused and really in need of some downtime.

Gathering up her bags, Rainbow took the shortest and quickest route back to her mother’s house, careful to avoid other pegasi and walls. It only took her a few minutes, and before she knew it she was slamming the door behind her and throwing the bags on the floor next to the couch. She’d have to pack up her garment soon, before tomorrow came, so she didn’t have to worry about it. The last thing she wanted to do was to be in a rush tomorrow morning, although thankfully the flight back to Ponyville was almost a straight glide—unless she chose to dive and rush back. Maybe she would, for the thrill of it.

Right now though, Rainbow wanted nothing more than to just flop onto the couch and ignore the world. So, naturally, no soon had she flopped than there was a rapping at the front door. Rainbow half jerked up, as if she was about to gallop to the door to answer it. But then she remembered it wasn’t her house. Whoever it was, would be looking for her mother, not her.

Or so she thought.

“Rainbow Dash, I know you’re in there,” Twilight’s voice rang loud and clear from the other side of the door, but thankfully she wasn’t using her Canterlot Royal Voice. Yet. “Open up.”

Rainbow slammed her head against the couch cushion. She had forgotten Twilight could fly now.

Lyra's Soul

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Dawn was a magical time of the day, a time of change, of rebirth and newness. As the sun rose over the horizon, guided by Celestia’s gentle touch, nothing really changed: and yet everything changed. The world woke up from its nightly slumber, and there was new, untapped potential in every day. That was part of why Lyra always woke up early to greet the dawn. Of course, it was also partly out of habit. Her own teachers had insisted she wake up early, and it had been so ingrained in her that even years later, when she could sleep in, her body wouldn’t let her.

Truthfully, in recent years it had become something of a burden. When she was living alone, she never gave a second thought to getting up in the pre-dawn hour, heading outside to some quiet corner of Ponyville. She would meditate, go through basic stretches, and find her inner peace to get her through the day. But now that she had her herd, Lero and Twilight and Rainbow Dash, she couldn’t help but feel a bit short changed. She wished she could wake up with the others, just to be with them. Even if she returned to bed after completing her meditations, there was something fundamentally different about it. Part of Lyra wanted to wake up next to her herd, and, well, do the sort of things one might do in that situation. But part of the fun—at least as Twilight or Rainbow told it—was the spontaneousness of waking up next to a loved one, and there was nothing spontaneous about crawling back into bed once you were already awake.

Not that, Lyra suspected, there was going to be any of that today. For once, Lyra was privately glad that she had a solid excuse not to be home in the morning.

But that same reason wasn’t exactly making her meditations particularly easy. Usually, by this time of the morning—long before the sun was peaking over the horizon—Lyra had already found the sort of peace she had come to expect. It wasn’t happening for her today. It didn’t really surprise her.

It wasn’t the first time the rest of her life had interfered with Still Way—she could remember the first few weeks of dating the herd, for example, when she was so love-sick she had difficulty focusing. That had been frustrating, if not particularly bad. Now… Now…

Lyra hadn’t felt this unhappy, she suspected, since she had been a teenager, before she had found Still Way. The martial art had given her the peace she needed and craved, and it had shaped her life more than anything up until she had met Lero. Yet now, when she needed that sort of peace and calmness more than anything, she couldn’t find it. She couldn’t let go of her dark thoughts and worries. She dwelled on them, and they dwelled on her.

This was all her fault, the thought would whisper in her ears everytime she came close to reaching her goal. You’ve caused this disharmony.

It was difficult to deny, no matter how hard she tried to.

It had seemed so simple, so obvious at the time, and it made sense to Lyra, both then and now. But for all the logic of it, for all the cool reason behind it, Lyra wished she hadn’t agreed with Twilight. Or did she? Lyra let out a sigh. Perhaps that was what was really disturbing her… she had hurt her herdmate, her friend and lover… and if she was in the same situation, she’d do the exact same thing again.

Giving herself a shake, Lyra unfolded her legs and did a couple of stretches to relieve the greater-than-normal stiffness from her muscles, before moving into the standard muscle relaxation techniques. Even if she couldn’t find inner peace, at least she could relax her body to a degree. Celestia knew she needed it.

For some time, Lyra had suspected that Rainbow wasn’t the strongest lead mare she could be. Even though she admired—and fully supported—Rainbow’s insistence that Lero be included in the decision making process, more often than not, it seemed that Rainbow relied almost too heavily on what her herdmates thought and said. She very rarely made decisions on her own. It wasn’t that she couldn’t be decisive, or strong-willed, it was just that, when put into an uncertain or unclear situation, Rainbow dithered or took a third way out—usually by doing nothing or just following what her herdmates were saying. Whether Rainbow realized it or not, Twilight had been making decisions for the herd beyond her position for years.

On one hoof, Lyra suspected it was wrong of her to cast her vote in such a way that formalized what she had known for a while, but, at the same time, Lyra was certain that the confrontation would have happened sooner or later. Yet, at the other same time, she agreed with Twilight, she honestly did. She wasn’t an academic, of course, but she was willing to trust Twilight if the mare said there wasn’t any way around it—and there was no reason for the herd not to expand, nor were Rainbow’s objections particularly convincing. Lero, no matter how beloved, was only one pony. One human. Nor was anypony expecting him to fall in love with whomever they might add, or to make love to him either.

It might be a bit unusual, but heterosexual stallions were more common than mares like Rainbow, and they were able to handle dealing with a partner they weren’t attracted to.

And she wanted foals. There was that.

Yet, she hadn’t foreseen Rainbow being so utterly upset. Or running off.

Which was a big part of why, when Lyra got to her hooves, she decided not to head directly home. Given that the sun had been up in the sky for a while now, she suspected Twilight and Lero would just be waking up, and Lero would no doubt notice Rainbow was missing. Lyra had no desire to fight with Lero. She just wasn’t in the right frame of mind for such a confrontation now.

Apparently she was a bit of a coward.

So, instead, she went for a walk. It was still pretty early in the morning, but Ponyville had always been a town that woke up fairly early, probably due to the large earth pony population and work ethic. It was somewhat relaxing to walk through the town and watch ponies—her friends or acquaintances, or just ponies she knew on sight—going around their happy, normal lives. They had no burdens like she did, nothing to weigh them down or cause them to doubt themselves.

Lyra snorted and rolled her eyes. Oh, of course they did. Everypony had problems, personal and otherwise. She could probably pick any one of the ponies out of the crowds here, and find they had just the same sorts of problems in their lives too. Self-pity wasn’t going to help her out of this mess. No. It wouldn’t.

On the other hoof, a box of candies might just help smooth things over. Plus she was sort of hungry herself and had no desire to go home for waffles smothered in angry looks and syrup.

Bonbon’s shop wasn’t open yet, since her best friend was probably one of the laziest earth ponies Lyra ever had the pleasure to meet and befriend. Luckily, Lyra knew exactly where her friend kept the spare keys—under a rock that looked nothing like a rock. It only took a couple of moments to open the door and slip inside. She was careful to make sure nopony saw her enter, however; Bonbon would never forgive her if the town got it into their heads that her store was going to be open before lunch.

It was strange, the store with the lights off. It felt almost painfully lonely and a bit eerie. Adding to that impression was the fact that many of the shelves were empty, or partly empty, only the unsold candies from the day before were still sitting on the trays. Still good, of course, but they looked a bit sad, sitting there by their lonesome. Lyra smiled and hauled out a box. Don’t worry little friends, I’ll give you a good home.

“I’ve told you before, Lyra, it’s creepy when you talk to the candy.”

Lyra very nearly leapt out of her skin as she whipped around to reveal a tired-looking and bathrobe-dressed Bonbon. The mare’s mane was out of place, as if she had just rolled out of bed, which she probably had, but she had an amused looking smirk on her lips as she watched Lyra from the door that led to the backroom. When Lyra had moved out to be with her herd, Bonbon had taken up residence in the loft over her candy shop. She wondered if Bonbon was ever unhappy about that.

“I still get nightmares about that time I found you singing to them,” Bonbon shook her head in amusement.

“That wasn’t me, that was Harmony,” Lyra protested, finally finding her voice. Goodness, she must really be out of it if her friend could sneak up on her and get a few jabs in.

“Yes, well, I wish you had been singing a love song to me, not to my candy,” Bonbon ran her hoof through her mane and let out a huff. “So, is there some reason you’re burgling my store, Lyra?”

“I am not,” Lyra said indignantly as she felt her cheeks redden. She’d never steal. Well, she hadn’t since she had been a teenager. She certainly wasn’t going to start now. “I was going to leave some bits.”

“With no bit bag?”

“Okay, so I would have come back with them,” Lyra sighed and put the half-full box on the counter. Most of the candies were of the non-chocolate variety, since Lero hated it for some reason. More for her and the girls, she supposed. “I didn’t think you’d be awake.”

“I wasn’t,” Bonbon confirmed, before hiding a jaw cracking yawn behind a hoof. “So, what brings you to my store so early.”

Lyra opened her mouth, then paused, briefly considering what to say. She hated lying, but, at the same time, she didn’t want to blab her herd’s secrets and dirty laundry all over the place, even to her best friend. Perhaps the basic truth would be the best. “Herd had a bit of a fight last night,” Lyra said with a sigh, shrugging. “And I doubt it’s over.”

“Ah, the ‘please forgive me’ sorter,” Bonbon said with a knowing nod. “Half of my business, not that I’m telling.” Bonbon’s jovial attitude slipped slightly as she smiled sadly at Lyra. “Do you want some fresh stuff? It wouldn’t take too long to make.”

“No, it’s fine,” Lyra said, shaking her head. She had never understood why some ponies thought fresher candy was better—it all tasted the same to her.

“Come on,” Bonbon beckoned with her hoof as she bumped the door open with her rump. She didn’t wait for Lyra to come, but slipped into the backroom expecting Lyra to follow. So she did.

Besides the stairs leading up, the back room was dominated by the kitchen that Bonbon used for most of her candy-making needs. There were all manner of tools and specialized knives and mixers Bonbon had acquired over the years, most of which Lyra had no idea how to use. After her experience with setting the sameself kitchen on fire in an attempt to help her friend, she could honestly say she had no desire to find out. Bonbon gave her another smile and started up some of the machines, along with the oven and pulling out some pots and what not.

“So, you want to talk about it?” Bonbon asked as she grabbed a bag of sugar with her teeth and started pulling it up onto the counter. Lyra lit her horn and hoisted the bag for her friend. That much, at least, she could do.

“Not really,” Lyra shuffled her hooves nervously and avoided her friend’s gaze. Talking about that sort of thing with non-herd members wasn’t done, and she didn’t want to start any rumours about Rainbow either. She had already hurt her enough.

“It’s just,” Bonbon said with a grunt as she poured the bag, “I don’t think I’ve even heard of you girls fighting before. Even with Lero in your herd.”

“Sometimes I think Lero’s better at being harmonious than we are,” Lyra said with a chuckle. It wasn’t true, really, but for someone who had been born and raised in such as violent and chaotic world, Lero had a gentle soul.

“Uh huh,” Bonbon pushed the bowl onto the burner and started mixing it. Lyra couldn’t help but wrinkle her nose at the smell. She loved candy, but the smell of cooking sugar made her want to vomit. “You know I won’t tell anypony, right?”

Lyra bit her lip. That was true. If she couldn’t trust her best friend not to spread nasty stories around about her and her herd, who could she trust? So Lyra let out a sigh, and she told her.

Bonbon listened attentively, although she didn’t say anything or move much beyond what she needed to do to make her morning’s candy. Slowly, however, Bonbon’s face grew a frown.

“So, Rainbow didn’t want to expand the herd?” Bonbon asked as Lyra’s voice trailed off.

“Not really.” Lyra poured herself a glass of water and took a sip a she studied her friend.

“So I guess there’s no chance I might be able to join?” Bonbon said with a sudden grin and chuckle.

“I didn’t… think you liked Lero. Like that?” Lyra asked, feeling a bit put off. Her friend had certainly never expressed such. Of course, she was probably just kidding around, although sometimes it was difficult to tell. That was part of the reason Lyra liked the mare so. She wasn’t easy to read.

“I don’t...” Bonbon’s grin vanished in a heavy sigh. “I just see how happy you are, and I guess I can’t help but be a bit jealous.” Bonbon’s knowing smirk returned. “‘Sides, I should think an earth pony like me could teach you mares a trick or two.”

Lyra just snorted and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, she seemed offended by the idea that we might expand the herd to include another stallion.”

“Hrmp, well, I’m not really sure what to tell you, Lyra,” Bonbon said between bites of the half-melted candy, probably testing to see if the recipe was right. “She’s always been sort of shy though.”

“Rainbow? Shy?” Lyra wondered if all that candy fumes her friend had been inhaling had alded her brain. “Are we talking about the same pony?”

“Mhmm, I’ve known Rainbow a bit longer than you, and I can tell you right now, that filly is shy,” Bonbon frowned and tapped her hoof on the side of the heating pot. “Well, not exactly shy… but not confident.”

“Again, are we talking about the same mare here?” Lyra asked, as she stole a cooling candy from a tray. Bonbon glared at her and Lyra gave her a winning smile. She hadn’t had breakfast yet!

“Have you ever known Rainbow to talk about stallions?” Bonbon turned back to the pot and turned down the heat. Judging from the look, it was carmel. “Give me a hoof with this, would you? Or, have you ever heard of her dating anypony before Lero?”

“Uh, no...” Lyra lit her horn and lifted the pot for her friend, hovering the pot over to the heated candy table and pouring it out for stretching. She wasn’t sure what her friend was driving at, but she was willing to humor her. “I guess not.”

“And you don’t think that’s a bit odd? I mean, you’ve had dates before, haven’t you?” Bonbon knew full well Lyra had dated before. “I’ve dated—hay, even Twilight dated a herd when she was in university.”

“Oh yeah,” Lyra still thought it was sort of amusing that Twilight, the textbook case of a bookworm, had been so involved with a herd like that.

“So, why hasn’t Rainbow?”

“She’s… had some bad experiences,” Lyra said slowly and reluctantly. She had a feeling Bonbon already knew about that, but Rainbow had told her in confidence, and she didn’t want to betray her friend like that.

“Right, exactly,” Bonbon declared with the air of a philosopher who had just refuted a fellow philosopher’s position.

“I don’t…” Lyra paused and let her thoughts catch up with the rest of her mind. “You’re saying that… what, Lero’s the first good experience she’s had with a stallion?”

“Mhmm.” Bonbon started to stretch the carmel out on the table with a couple of specialized tools. “She doesn’t want to lose that, and she’s probably worried she will.”

“But she wouldn’t?” Lyra felt like she was starting to understand why Rainbow had objected so strongly. Maybe it wasn’t just that they weren’t including Lero in it, or that she was worried about hurting him. Or, rather, she was worried she’d hurt him so badly he’d leave. And they had basically forced it onto her.

“The heart thinks with the soul and blood,” Bonbon said with a chuckle, causing Lyra to blink. Did Bonbon just quote Still Way? To her? That was her thing! “And the Mind thinks with truths and lies.”

Lyra frowned and didn’t say anything for a moment. “I think I ought to go find her.”

“Any idea where she went?” Bonbon asked, to which Lyra shook her head sadly. She knew Twilight had stayed up most of the night keeping vigil, hoping Rainbow would come home, but obviously that hadn’t happened during the night, given that Rainbow wasn’t home and Twilight’s cheeks had been matted with dried tears when Lyra had woken up.

“Well, good luck,” Bonbon said, before reaching under the counter and passing Lyra a box. “For Rainbow, if you find her.” Lyra hadn’t even seen the mare put the box together. Sometimes she thought Bonbon was some sort of sugar witch. Before Lyra could take the box, Bonbon leaned in and kissed her on her cheek. “And chin up, Lyra, you’ll get through this, I know you will. You and your herd.”

For the first time that morning, Lyra found her inner peace. Now, if only she could find Rainbow Dash…

In the past few years, and especially in the past few months, Ponyville had grown, and there was no denying that. So far however, the sleepy earth pony town hadn’t lost its small town charm that had attracted Lyra to move there in the first place. Everypony seemed to know every other pony, even if only a few, like Pinkie Pie, really did. So when Lyra set out to find Rainbow Dash, she sort of imagined it would be easy. The hard part, Lyra had assumed, would be convincing the mare to come home, or getting her to talk. Rainbow was relatively well known around Ponyville even before she had become an element bearer or herded with Lero. Nor was she particularly stealthy.

Yet, no matter who she asked, Lyra couldn’t get a useful answer out of anypony. It wasn’t that they were being deliberately obstructive, it was just that no pony had seen Rainbow since yesterday evening. She was, apparently, hiding, and hiding well. For the first time in her life, Lyra wished she had wings, if only to make searching easier. It wasn’t frustrating enough to get Lyra worked up, but after the second time around the town, carrying a box of chocolates which Lyra strongly suspected were starting to melt in the heat, she was starting to feel rather stupid.

In fact… wasn’t it supposed to be raining today?

Lyra came to a stop in the middle of the street and found herself frowning as she looked up at the cloudless sky. There weren’t even the beginnings of a rain storm, which suggested that somepony wasn’t doing her job—namely Rainbow Dash. On an ordinary day, it wouldn’t have troubled Lyra very much, since Rainbow was notorious for leaving work to the absolute last minute, relying on her speed and skills to allow her to do the work in a fraction of the time. Yet, the fact that Lyra couldn’t find her herd mate, nor had anypony seen her, was making her feel more than a little bit concerned that there might be more going on that she had originally suspected.

Had RD done something foolish, like try and sleep in the Everfree? Ever since Twilight and Rainbow had done whatever they had done to save Equestria—again—back a month ago, the two mares had been increasingly casual about entering that dark place. Lyra worried—although she didn’t try to badger them about it—that they were vastly underestimating how dangerous the Forest was for ponies, even ponies as strong and skilled as her herdmates. What if something had gotten her?

Before she got overwhelmed by her own panicky thoughts, Lyra took a couple of deep breaths and returned to her center, allowing her fears to recede. She didn’t suppress them, or make them go away, but she wouldn’t allow fear to rule her like a filly, nor would she be so foolish as to ignore them altogether. They were her tools, ones she drew on now to motivate her mind to work sharply and quickly. Hopefully, she’d be able to find Rainbow soon.

However, Lyra was more than willing to admit she probably could use some help. She might have told Bonbon what was going on, but she’d rather not draw too many more outsiders into her herd’s private affairs, so that left only Twilight to turn to. And Lero. If Lyra was lucky, they’d have fought it out by now, and there’d be very little in the way of yelling. She hated it when ponies who loved one another yelled at each other. Still, she could only imagine the look of dread on her herdmates’ faces when she told them she couldn’t find Rainbow Dash. It was, however, the best and most logical solution, so after one last glance up at the sky, Lyra turned towards the library and her home.

Even if she had given up, she wasn’t about to stop keeping a careful eye out for the mare’s rainbow mane and strong flanks. And her ears. The first thing they taught a pony in basic Guard training was how to keep their senses open, looking for trouble, so they could step in and stop it before it got out of hoof. Thankfully, for all the trouble Ponyville experienced, they were a relatively crimeless town in many ways.

“Miss Heartstrings! Miss Heartstrings!” Lyra paused mid stride and glanced over her shoulder—it didn’t surprise her greatly to see the Cutie Mark Crusaders come barreling around the corner. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom were in a wagon being pulled by the third of the group, Scootaloo, and as usual, the orange filly was going too fast for her to really control. Lyra waited until the last possible second to step aside and grab the wagon with her magic so they didn’t hurt themselves.

“Yes, what is it?” Lyra asked, feeling a bit surprised at how strained and unhappy her voice sounded. It wasn’t quite a snap, but it was far too close to one for Lyra’s comfort. She took a deep breath.

“Uh,” Clearly the three fillies had picked up on it, and Lyra instantly felt bad.

“I’m sorry, you three,” This time, her voice was much calmer, “I’m afraid I’m just having a trying day so far. What can I do for you?”

“We were wondering if you’ve seen Rainbow Dash,” Scootaloo piped up, recovering the quickest from Lyra’s unintended rebuke. “We’ve looked everywhere and she’s supposed to give me some flying lessons today.”

Lyra’s felt her ocean of worry grow a few leagues deeper. That didn’t sound like Rainbow Dash at all. “And you haven’t seen her at all?”

“No!” Applebloom spoke up, “My sister’s right mad too, Rainbow was supposed to meet with her over today’s rain, too!”

“What rain?” Sweetie Belle craned her head back and squinted at the sky.

“Today’s rain!”

“But there isn’t a cloud in the sky,” Sweetie Belle shot back, with the air of somepony who expected to win the argument. Privately, Lyra suspected Sweetie Belle was right and there really wouldn’t be any rain today.

“Well, I don’t know!” Applebloom grouched, throwing her hooves up in the air. “My sister’s been grumpy ever since she caught Twili and Lero scratchin’ each other’s itch! Says she needs to have words with Rainbow over somethin’!”

Lyra felt her cheeks start to heat up slightly.

“What’s wrong with scratching another pony’s itch?” Scootaloo asked, sounding completely mystified. “We scratch each other’s itches all the time!”

“Yes, well,” Lyra coughed delicately to cut the three fillies off. “I’m afraid I haven’t seen Rainbow either.”

“You’re looking for Rainbow Dash?” Lyra’s ears sprung up as she turned to face a bemused looking Cheerilee. The mare was carrying a picnic basket and saddle bags—Fluttershy’s saddlebags, if the butterfly clasp was anything to go on. Lyra couldn’t help but smile slightly at the sight. And the possible clue.

“Yes, we are,” Lyra said before the Crusaders could jump into the conversation and derail it. “You wouldn’t happen to know where she is, would you?”

“Do you know where she is, Miss Cheerilee?” Scoots asked sounding hope, as the other two fillies nodded.

“Hello, girls.” Cheerilee’s bemused look turned into a frown. “Why aren’t you at school?”

“Uh, well,” Applebloom drew the word out, “You said you weren’t gonna’ be in for a few days, so school’s cancelled, right?”

“Nevermind that, Cheerilee: do you know where Rainbow is? She’s missing,” Lyra interjected before the school teacher could get on the wayward fillies case.

“What? Is she?” Cheerilee shook her head. “I can’t tell you where she is, but if anypony knows, it’s Fluttershy. That filly—” Lyra assumed Cheerilee was talking about Rainbow, from the tone of her voice “—walked in on us, last night, right when we were in the middle… of…” Cheerilee’s voice trailed off as her eyes darted to the three little ponies standing beside Lyra. “A big jigsaw puzzle. Took us forever to get back to it. Anyway, Fluttershy and that mare talked for a while before Rainbow left.”

“Then I’d better go talk to her,” Lyra said at once. She really hoped Fluttershy hadn’t promised not to tell or some foolish thing like that. Lyra knew full well she could lean on the mare and get everything out of her if she had to, but Lyra hated doing that even with ponies she disliked, and Fluttershy was just too nice and kind to think about using those techniques on. “Do you know where she is?”

“You know, this is supposed to be ‘us’ time,” Cheerilee said sharply, sounding like Lyra was in risk of getting added to whatever list Cheerilee had put Rainbow’s name on.

“I know, and it won’t take more than a second or two,” Lyra said, shifting her weight uneasily. If Rainbow had talked to Fluttershy, it wasn’t likely she had done something stupid like sleeping in the Everfree—unless she told her to spend the night at Zecora’s. Either way, Lyra wanted to get this mystery solved.

Cheerilee considered it for a moment, before sighing. “She’s at her cottage with Big Mac right now. Try to be discreet, please.”

“Of course.” Lyra turned tail and started into a canter as she went back the way she was walking towards Fluttershy’s cottage. A gallop wouldn’t do, and besides, if Fluttershy was anything like her and Lero, she wouldn’t be interrupting anything if Lyra took her time getting there. But not too much time.

“Miss Cheerilee,” Applebloom’s voice came from behind Lyra before she got out of earshot. “Why were you doin’ a jigsaw puzzle with Miss Fluttershy and my brother? I thought date night was for makin’ love.”

Lyra half stumbled, half snorted, and almost stopped so she could hear the rest of the exchange, but she was sure she’d hear about it later, when she met Cheerilee again. Or the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

Since it was located mostly outside Ponyville’s township, Fluttershy’s cottage tended to be one of the most idyllic and beautiful spots in the whole village. Somehow, even the Everfree forest looked less menacing here, all due to the work Fluttershy had put in. The knowledge that it was unlikely to change, even with development rush currently affecting Ponyville, due to Fluttershy owning most of the land in the area, made Lyra feel happy. She just wished Fluttershy lived closer so she could come out here for her morning meditations.

It was, however, unusually quiet as Lyra crossed the bridge that went over the small creek and trotted up to Fluttershy’s door. After a second she realized that, far from the usual horde of animals, Fluttershy’s yard and fields were completely empty of animal life, something that replaced Lyra’s happiness and eagerness with a sense of dread, however briefly. Then it occurred to Lyra that the mare might have just asked her animal friends for some alone time, and she doubted any of them—except Angel, perhaps—would begrudge her the time and space to spend with her herd.

Still, it seemed like every hoofbeat was a clap of thunder as she slowed to a walk as she approached the door. Lyra paused for a moment, running her hoof through her mane and taking a few good, deep breaths, and listening. She couldn’t hear anything that would suggest Fluttershy was otherwise occupied, but then, she suspected the mare would be on the quiet side.

Unless she had a tendency to scream like Twilight did.

Lyra chuckled to herself as she tapped the door, knocking lightly, but firmly, exactly six times. The number of harmony.

To her surprise, the door opened at once, to reveal a tired, mussed-but-pleased looking Fluttershy. The mare looked like she had been up all night, but not in a bad way. There was a tiny little smile on her lips, and she looked far more relaxed that Lyra could ever remember seeing her. It took her a moment to focus on Lyra’s face, and an expression of disappointment flashed very briefly before a look of understanding came over the mare’s face. If she had to guess, Lyra suspected Fluttershy had been waiting for Cheerilee to come back; if her own experience with stallions was any indication, Big Mac was probably sleeping it off, meaning until Cheerilee got home, there wasn’t much for Fluttershy to do.

She also guessed Fluttershy knew exactly why Lyra was there.

Lyra opened her mouth to greet the mare, only for her to notice she wasn’t the only pony there—she would have expected Big Mac, but to her surprise, Lero was sitting in his chair at the back of the room, eyeing Lyra carefully. The skin around his eyes was unpleasantly red and puffy, and he looked extremely miserable. If it wasn’t for the hint of anger appearing on his face, Lyra would have probably shoved Fluttershy aside to comfort her stallion. From the looks of things, Lero had only arrived a few minutes before Lyra had, and Fluttershy had been trying to comfort him with tea. She shifted uneasily, feeling rather awkward. She’d hadn’t really had the time to prepare, to figure out what she might say to him.

“Hello, Lyra,” Fluttershy said in her usual soft voice as her wings fluttered ever so slightly at her sides. “Are you looking for Rainbow, too?”

“Do you know where she is, Fluttershy? I’ve looked all over town,” Lyra jumped right into it, forcing herself to look at her, rather than Lero. She didn’t feel like beating around in the bush anymore than she had to.

“You haven’t found her?” Lero asked, sounding dismayed. He must have come right here, rather than trying to look for Rainbow himself, Lyra thought, Maybe he thought Rainbow would be staying with Fluttershy… Or perhaps he just wanted somepony to talk to. It wasn’t that he didn’t have friends, but over the time she had watched Lero, Lyra knew full well most ponies had difficult treating him as just another pony. Even good hearted ponies like Applejack would be a bit wary around him, and Fluttershy was probably one of the few who wouldn’t. Lyra suspected that was because on some level the mare saw Lero as just another of her animal friends.

“I heard she came here, last night,” Lyra decided to gloss over the nature of the visit, for Fluttershy’s sake. Perhaps one day they’d all look back at this and laugh, but Lyra wasn’t seeing the humour in it right now.

“She did?” Lero glanced at Fluttershy with a suspicious look on his face.

“Um, yes?” Fluttershy shuffled her hindhooves nervously, and stepped aside with a gesture to Lyra to follow her inside. “Would you, um, like some tea?”

“No, thank you.” Lyra shook her head and gave the room a sweep. She was hardly a detective, but all Guard ponies, auxiliary or not, received training in how to size up a room and look for clues. If Rainbow had been there long, though, Lyra couldn’t tell.

“Fluttershy,” Lero said gently, “Where is she? From what Twilight’s told me—” Lero gave Lyra a sidelong glance and made her feel skittish “—she was very upset last night. I want to talk to her.”

Fluttershy slowly turned around and her eyes darted between Lero and Lyra nervously. There was a pause, and Lyra opened her mouth to prompt the mare again, before she suddenly responded.

“Please don’t be mad,” Fluttershy begged, sounding very stressed out. Had Rainbow asked her to keep it a secret? “She’s in Cloudsdale, visiting her mom.”

“Cloudsdale?” Lero and Lyra echoed. Lyra knew Rainbow was upset, but to fly all the way to Cloudsdale? In one night? That was insane.

“Why?” Lero said, getting the question out before Lyra could ask the very same thing.

“I, um, thought it would be a… good idea,” Fluttershy’s wings twitched nervously and she avoided both of their gazes. Lyra suspected that Fluttershy had a good idea what was going on, but from the confused and frustrated look on Lero’s face, Twilight hadn’t explained what the fight was about to him yet. Lyra wasn’t sure if that was for the best, but one crisis at a time. Small steps, those were the key to any problem, and the first step would be getting Rainbow back. “She hasn’t seen her mother in a long time, or her birthherd, and um,” Fluttershy’s eyes darted back and forth and she pulled back in on herself, like a turtle, “Please don’t be mad.”

“I’m not,” Lero said gently, but Lyra could hear the frustration in his voice. Knowing him, he probably wanted to go and comfort Rainbow in person, but of all the places in Equestria, Cloudsdale was the one place Lero couldn’t go. Neither could Lyra, not without spells to help her walk, and unlike Twilight, who could teleport, Lyra would be nearly helpless. Twilight could fly now too, so she’d probably be right at home there now. “I’m glad she’s with family, at least.”

“Thank you, Fluttershy,” Lyra added, walking over and giving the curled up pony a hug as best she could. Poor Fluttershy. “We’d better be going now,” she added, patting her on her back and turning towards the door. “Enjoy the rest of your day, and sorry for all the interruptions.” Lyra sighed and glanced at Lero, “Come on, Fingers.”

It wasn’t until Lyra was halfway out the door that she realized Lero hadn’t gotten up from his chair. Lyra glanced back at him, and met his eyes, if only for a moment. She could see the anger in him, and it was unlike anything she had ever seen. It only reminded Lyra that Lero was from a whole other world, and for the first time, that scared her a bit. “Please?” Lyra added. It wasn’t like she was being intentionally rude.

Lero stared at her for a moment longer, before sighing and getting to his feet. “I’ll be along in a moment,” Lero said, before he half pushed her out the door and shut it.

To say Lyra was shocked would be a bit of an understatement. Lero never handled her—or any of his herdmates—like that. But she recovered quickly and just sat down by the door. She needed a few moments to figure out where to go from here anyway. Obviously, Lero was still in the dark, and Twilight had purposefully kept him that way. Lyra wasn’t sure how to feel about that, and she wasn’t sure what exactly to do. It wasn’t like she wanted to tell him, not when he was like this, and more over if Twilight didn’t want to tell him, then surely it wasn’t her place to go against her wishes… right?

Was Twilight the lead mare now? Or Rainbow Dash? Lyra wasn’t sure. But she also wasn’t sure it mattered. Not in her heart. Lero deserved to know.

“Let’s go,” Lero said, interrupting Lyra’s train of thought as he stepped out and closed the door behind him. Lyra hoped Fluttershy would be okay.

Together, the two of them walked down the path and across the bridge into Ponyville in silence. It wasn’t exactly a comfortable one either. Rather, Lyra could almost feel the tension in the air, as if somepony was wrapping her aura around her and picking her up. That was nearly as frightening, as what she was about to do…

“I’m guessing nopony has told you what we were fighting about,” Lyra said, stopping mid-stride right before they passed the first few buildings on this side of Ponyville. Lero stopped a moment later, turning back to look at her. He seemed a bit surprised, as if he had been expecting her to stonewall him too.

“Twilight wouldn’t say,” Lero confirmed after a moment, “And Fluttershy… said it wasn’t her place to talk to me about this.” Her stallion’s face grew slightly mortified, and Lyra wondered how aggressively he had questioned Fluttershy. When this was all over, they’d have to take the poor mare out to dinner or something, to make up for everything. “Is Rainbow Dash… leaving us?”

Lyra blinked for a moment, both at the absurdity of the suggestion, and the naked fear in Lero’s voice. Suddenly, he wasn’t this scary human, standing over her so tall and angry, he was like a little colt, afraid of the dark and trying to fight it with his anger. It must be so confusing for him, to wake up one morning and find his best friend missing, and his herd in the aftermath of a fight. Had he ever experienced something like that? She doubted it.

Most herds did their best not to fight, but when the mares did have an argument, it was the sort of thing they dealt with internally. It wasn’t proper for their problems to leak out and affect the herd’s stallion or foals, and most did their best to keep it… if not secret, at least controlled. That was the ideal, of course, and one Lyra knew full well was a load of horseshit—to use Lero’s amusingly accurate curse. But as a herd, Lyra couldn’t remember the last time they had such an explosive fight.

Perhaps they just never had much reason to be at each others throats.

There was, of course, only one response; Lyra reached up and hugged Lero as hard as she could. Lero stiffened for a moment, and then returned the hug, rubbing along her mane and between where her wings would be, if she was a pegasus. He always did seem to forget that part didn’t mean as much to her as it did to Rainbow. Or Twilight, now.

“Rainbow isn’t going to leave you,” Lyra said, trying to sound as reassuring as possible. If anyone ended up leaving, it would probably be Twilight and herself… not a thought she particularly wanted to dwell on. “That wasn’t what we were fighting about.”

“Then what?” Lero asked. “Please tell me.”

“It’s… complicated,” Lyra said, feeling herself frown. That much was true, and she wasn’t sure she could really explain the political shift that had occurred in the herd with Twilight forcing the vote. Nor was she really sure she understood it. Instinctively, she could tell things had changed, but how could she put that into words? Lyra didn’t know. “We wanted to expand the herd, and… Rainbow disagreed. Things got heated.”

“Expand the herd?” Lero echoed. Lyra could feel his fingers curl up against her back. “I don’t understand. Who were you thinking of asking?”

“Nopony,” Lyra said, suddenly feeling self-conscious. It wasn’t like they were doing anything kinky, but Lyra couldn’t help but feel a bit exposed with her body stretched out like this. That’s part of the reason she prefered to meditate in private. “It was… more of an idea, than anything.”

“I see,” Lero said in a tone of voice that suggested that he really didn’t. Maybe it was the coldness in his voice, but Lyra suddenly felt more than a little bit self-conscious and uncertain, and her position wasn’t helping any. “This isn’t the whole story, is it?”

“I did say it was complicated,” Lyra said, pulling back and dropping down on her hooves again. Part of her was disappointed Lero didn’t resist, try and hold on to her. But you can’t have everything. “The important part, Lero…” Lyra paused and licked her lips, looking up at Lero so she met his eyes. “The important part, Fingers, is that Rainbow loves you and she isn’t going to leave you. None of us are.”

Lero looked ill for a moment, before relaxing and giving Lyra a lopsided smile and a half. “I’m glad. Let’s go see Twilight, then.”

Lyra nodded, and the two of them set out to towards the library. After a moment, Lero’s hand came to rest on the back of her neck—which Lyra tried not to feel too good about. They still had a long road ahead of them.

To an outsider, there was nothing unusual or unhappy about the way Lyra’s home looked as she and Lero approached it. While Twilight’s Library tree only made up a small part of their home, at least in terms of usage, the structure dominated their house in size and appearance. Of course, most of the space wasn’t exactly usable, given that it was a public library, but it was still the most prominent part of their house. This was ignoring the fact that the house that Lero had built, and then expanded over his time with the herd, was nearly twice as big as most normal pony dwellings. But as normal as it looked from the outside, and despite the fact that Twilight—or perhaps Spike—had opened the library to the public, if the sign was anything to go by, Lyra couldn’t help but feel a growing sense of dread with every step she took towards the towering tree.

The sense of dread was at odds with Lyra’s normal emotional state, and she couldn’t help but feel a bit put off by the fact that, despite Lero walking beside her, his presence didn’t seem to do much to comfort her in anyway. Even her best calming techniques didn’t seem to do much for her.

Even though the library was open, and it was somewhere between mid morning and noon, it didn’t really surprise Lyra to find the library deserted as she held open the door for Lero. It might have been a public library, but attendance had always been somewhat low—many of the tomes were more oriented towards research or obscure studies, and because Twilight was so interested in lending a helping hoof to ponies, if you wanted a specific book, you could usually get in and out within a few minutes. Ever since Twilight had become a Princess, however, the meager attendance that usually filled the room had dropped off; presumably because ponies that didn’t know her only saw the crown on her head, not the eager, happy-to-help mare under it.

Twilight said it didn’t bother her, but Lyra knew better than to believe her.

As they slipped inside, however, Spike tumbled down the steps from the upper levels, with an eager “Coming!” Lyra hadn’t had a chance—or the desire—to ask what had happened when Lero had awoken, but given how tense he had been, and the unease edge in Spike’s voice, Lyra suspected it had been a rather yell-y response.

“How can I—” Spike’s voice and put on smile faltered as he caught sight of the two of them standing in the doorway. Lero shut the door quietly behind them, and Lyra tried not to look worried as she smiled at the baby dragon. “Oh, it’s you.”

“It’s us,” Lyra confirmed unnecessarily as she shuffled her hooves. The longer Spike looked at the two of them, the darker his expression became. Although she doubted the drake had any clue as to what was going on, at least in concrete terms, it was equally doubtful that he had somehow missed the fact that the four of them were fighting. And, while Lyra liked to count Spike as something like a brother or close friend, she knew full well that if push come to shove he’d defend his surrogate mother to the end. “Do you know where Twilight is?”

“What are you going to do, yell at her some more?” Spike wagged his claw at the two of them, looking disgruntled.

“Of course not,” Lyra said at the same time as Lero said, “I wouldn’t rule it out.”

“Lero!” Lyra added, giving the human a hard glare as Spike’s eyes narrowed. “Yelling isn’t going to help anypony, least of all Rainbow.”

“Twilight’s—” Lyra could hear the lie on Spike’s lips before he had even gotten to the second word. But there was no need to call him out on it, as Twilight herself appeared on the upstairs landing.

“I’m right here,” Twilight interrupted Spike, causing him to look a bit sheepish. Lyra met her eyes and tried to figure out what the mare was feeling; her voice was cold, or at least cool, and even from the distance Lyra could see the streaks of tears crusting the fur under her eyes. But other than her disheveled appearance, Twilight looked as if she was completely in control. Twilight stared back at her for a moment, before her eyes flicked to Lero, then back to Lyra and finally down to Spike. “Why don’t you take the rest of the day off, Spike?”

“Take the day off?” Spike echoed, sounding both interested and unhappy; he might be a baby in terms of age by draconic reckoning, but he wasn’t so easily fooled as a foal might be. “I can stay here, Twi, I don’t mind.”

“I think Twilight’s right,” Lero said, earning a dirty look from the drake. If Lero saw it, he gave no sign. “Why don’t you, uh, go play with the Cutie Mark Crusaders or have something at Sugar Cube Corner?”

“You guys are just trying to get rid of me!” Spike grumbled, throwing his arms up in an expression that was remarkably human. As a herd they might have adopted many of Lero’s unusual mannerisms, like these continual references to ‘hell’, but of their herd, Lyra suspected it was really Spike who had picked up the most from having Lero living with them. After all, Lero was the only other critter in Ponyville who walked on two legs and had hands. More nimble and longer than Spike’s certainly, but far closer than hooves were.

“Of course not,” Lyra began—lies to children, if only her sensei could see her now—but Twilight interrupted her.

“Yes, I am.” Twilight said, sounding grim. Spike—and everypony else—looked at her in shock, before her expression softened and she sighed. “I’m sorry, Spike. I love you, and you’ll always be my number one assistant, but this… is between Lero and me.”

“But Twilight!”

“Spike, please,” Twilight’s voice took on a begging tone, and Spike’s expression fell. Clearly he knew a foregone conclusion when he saw one.

“Alright, alright!” Spike said, before spinned and hopping down the steps he had just climbed, sputtering and grumbling the whole while. He only spared Lyra a grumpy glare as she tried to say goodbye to him, before he yanked open the door and disappeared into Ponyville with an angry slam of the door.

Twilight stared down at them from the landing for a moment longer as the echo of the door slam died down, before spreading her wings and gliding down to a fairly smooth landing in front of them. Up close, Lyra could tell the mare—her lead mare?—was still very much upset, despite the calm tone of her voice. Her lower lip was quivering, and her ears kept flattening themselves against the sides of her head, although Lyra suspected the mare was doing her best to suppress that reaction. Still, Twilight only spared her a glance before turning to look at Lero.

“Did… you find her?” Twilight asked finally, after a long, awkward stretch of silence in which Lero just stared at Twilight. While he was clearly upset, Lyra could tell there was far more anger directed at Twilight than there had been at her, and in spite of the situation, part of Lyra couldn’t help but admire the fact that Twilight was meeting their stallion’s glare unflinchingly. Well, for the most part.

“No,” Lero said. Lyra waited for him to continue, but he just left the word hanging, ominously in the air. Twilight flinched and her tail flicked uneasily—it wasn’t lost on Lyra that the news was alarming Twilight, and she doubted Lero didn’t know that too. It was unusually cruel, for Lero to say that and imply that Rainbow wasn’t around or missing; maybe some part of her felt they—or at least Twilight, since she was the only pony not in the know—deserved it, but it seemed petty to her more than anything. Twilight loved Rainbow Dash just as much as she did Lero, even if Rainbow wasn’t always on the same wavelength. It had hurt her too, to see Rainbow storm out of their home last night.

“She’s in Cloudsdale,” Lyra added in Lero’s place, avoiding Lero’s gaze as she did. Punishment wasn’t going to resolve this conflict, certainly not now. “She’s visiting her mother, according to Fluttershy.”

“Cloudsdale?” Twilight asked, sounding shocked. After a moment the shock and alarm on her face morphed into grim determination. “If I go now, I think I can make it by lunch.”

“Wait, really?” It was Lyra’s turn to feel alarmed. While it was a bit surprising to hear that Rainbow had flown to Cloudsdale in a single night, it wasn’t really that big of a surprise when Lyra thought about it. After all, Rainbow’s whole thing was flying faster than any other pony, and it wasn’t unusual for her to clear the sky in a few seconds—the work of dozens of pegasi, work that would take them several hours to do. But Twilight never struck Lyra as particularly fast, and some days Lyra was amazed the mare didn’t crack her horn, with all the crashing she did. There wasn’t that many hours left in the day either. Of course, Twilight might just be overestimating her abilities, but that didn’t sound much like her either. She had always been modest, perhaps unnecessarily so.

“I can teleport most of the way,” Twilight explained with a nod. Then she grimaced. “I think. I’m sure I can get there before nightfall, at least.”

“What makes you think you should?” Lero asked, with a hard edge in his voice. “Whatever you’ve done, you’ve hurt her badly. I’m not sure she’d want you there, Twilight.”

Twilight flinched as if she had been slapped, and she stared at Lero for a moment, before breaking eye contact and staring at the floor, as her wings drooped to drag on the wooden floor, making her look utterly defeated. It was an unusually vulnerable look, and certainly not the sort of thing Lyra might have expected to see on a Princess.

Lyra gave herself a mental shake. Princess? How could she think of Twilight like that? It wasn’t that Lyra didn’t think Twilight was a princess, or shouldn’t be, but first and foremost, Twilight was her friend, lover, and herdmate. She was a pony like any other, one who had feelings and wants and wholly normally problems and complaints. Twilight wasn’t some aloof, distant pony living in a Castle somewhere, seemingly untouchable by the affairs of mere mortal ponies. She was isolated enough, without her friends doing the exact same thing to her.

Of course she looked weak. Of course she looked vulnerable and hurt; why wouldn’t she? She was a mare like any other, and her stallion had just said something cruel to her.

Ignoring the surprised, slightly grim look Lero was giving her, Lyra trotted over and wiggled under Twilight’s wing, giving her a hug. After a moment the weak, limp limb returned the gesture, and Twilight smiled at her, in a very small and quiet way. Lyra returned it, and leaned in to nuzzle Twilight’s ear ever so lightly, hoping to give her some small measure of comfort. Especially given what she was about to suggest.

Shifting slightly, Lyra stepped between Twilight and Lero—not in the way that made it obvious that she was doing so, but enough that Twilight was forced to focus on her, more than the angry looks Lero was giving them. She couldn’t say exactly when she had made up her mind, but perhaps she just didn’t see what good secrets were going to do anypony at this point. They were like dirt in a wound, it might be painful to clean it out, to get the secrets out into the open, but it was only then that they could begin to heal and move past this.

“Twilight, I think we should tell him,” Lyra whispered, pitching her voice low enough that only Twilight could hear her. “Before you go chasing after Rainbow.”

Lyra was expected Twilight to flinch, or gasp and outright refuse, but Twilight did neither of those things, rather, she adopted a resigned look and let out a sigh that had probably been hiding inside her for ages.

“I was thinking the same thing, before you guys came back,” Twilight admitted, and for some reason the confession made Lyra’s heart soar. Maybe they had been in the wrong, but at least they knew they were wrong, and were willing to fix it. Twilight gave Lyra a small peck on her cheek, before stepping sideways and around Lyra so she could see their stallion again. Lyra turned to follow her gaze. “Lero, I’m sorry. I’m sure you want to know what’s going on.”

“You want to expand the herd,” Lero said, nodding to Lyra. “She already told me… just not why it upset Rainbow so much.”

“You…” Twilight glanced at Lyra with her mouth open, looking as if she was going to go off on a tangent, when she shook her head and returned to looking Lero in the eye. “Yes, we were talking—only talking!—about adding another pony to the herd.”

Lero stared at Twilight for a moment, his expression softening, if you could call it that, to something more or less unreadable. “Are you going to tell me the whole story, or just bits and pieces?”

“Lero, please try to understand,” Twilight said, her voice taking on a plaintive tone. “I wanted to include you, and get your opinion, but… usually this is the sort of thing you talk to other mares with, first and foremost. And it wasn’t all that pressing either.”

“‘Other mares,’” Lero echoed, sounding ever so slightly disgusted, “Why? Because I’m—”

“No!” Twilight cut him off with a vigorous shake of her head. Then she looked confused. “Or… I don’t know. Maybe. I know Rainbow and I talked about Lyra a lot—” Twilight gave her a glance and Lyra returned it with a supportive nod and an encouraging smile “—before we brought her into the herd.”

“Twilight,” Lyra added as Lero opened her mouth to retort. “I think you’re getting ahead of yourself here.”

“Yes, you’re right,” Twilight said with a frustrated look on her face. “We were talking about expanding the herd with another guy—a stallion.”

Lero’s grim expression turned shocked, looking for all the world as if he had never considered the possibility. And perhaps he hadn’t. Even if a herd with multiple mares and stallions was considered the ideal sort of herd, they weren’t exactly common. Other than Twilight’s birth herd, Lyra couldn’t say for certain if Lero had ever met a larger herd; and, with Twilight’s birth herd, she suspected the issues with those ponies kept Lero focused elsewhere. Like on Twilight’s wellbeing.

“Why?” Lero asked, and for some reason the tone of surprise irritated Lyra. But she quickly and quietly crushed the toxic emotion under hoof before she could express it, seeking and finding the inner calm that so far today had been tested to its breaking point. It was as if he couldn’t understand or think of why they might be interested in more stallions than just him. Lyra loved him dearly, and he was like no one else, but… Lyra forced herself to shake her head

“Foals, Lero. Children.” Twilight said, her voice coming out extremely tiredly. “I’ve been trying to find a way, any way, that we could have children, but…”

“You’re saying I’m never going to be a father,” Lero said quietly. Lyra couldn’t tell if he was angry or upset, it just wasn’t easy to tell.

“I… I guess… I didn’t mean to be so...” Twilight swallowed in what looked like a painful fashion, and Lyra lit her horn and gently stroked Twilight’s cheek with her magic. “So blunt, I’m sorry.” Lyra suspected the mare hadn’t even considered that Lero might find that particular tidbit of information upsetting, not because she was uncaring, of course, but because it had gotten lost in the shuffle.

Perhaps it was time she stepped up.

“You shouldn’t think like that, Lero,” Lyra said gently, glancing at Twilight before letting her magic go and trotting over to Lero and rub up against him. “Our foals, no matter who their biological sire is, are your foals too.”

Lero began to say something, but Twilight seemed to take comfort from Lyra’s words more than Lero did, and nodded in agreement. “Lyra’s right. My own mother is a good example of that: she might have foaled me, but in many ways, she’s never really been my…” Twilight’s voice didn’t quite break, but it did seem to grow a bit strained “...mom. Twilight Velvet’s always been there for me, more than her.”

“I…” Lero said, but didn’t finish, letting his voice trail off and then die as he frowned. But it wasn’t an angry sort of frown, but rather a thoughtful, interested one. Or maybe Lyra was just being hopeful and projecting. “I’m not sure I understand why Rainbow ran off, though. Why was she so upset?”

Twilight glanced at Lyra with an expression that made Lyra suspect her wife wished they wouldn’t have to go into this, but there was no escaping it. It was what it was, and what was done was done. They couldn’t put the yoke back in the egg. Lyra just shook her head, hopefully communicating that point to the mare.

“It’s… complicated,” Twilight said meekly, making Lyra flinch. Lero stiffened beside her, but thankfully Twilight didn’t leave it at that. “I’m… not really sure why Rainbow was so upset. I think… I don’t know, Lero, I wish I could explain it to you. I know part of it was because you weren’t there, but she just seemed so upset in general.” Twilight’s face grew slightly pale, and she swallowed hard. “But I think part of why she ran away was because… no, I’m certain it’s because I Challenged her.”

Lyra heard the capital C, but glancing up at Lero, she could tell the human wasn’t quite certain what Twilight meant. It was part of why she was reluctant to explain it to Lero. So much of it was—in Twilight’s terms, no doubt—ingrained and instinctive in nature, Thankfully, Twilight picked up on Lero’s confusion and, if there was one thing the alicorn loved more than her books, magic and herdmates, it was explaining.

“What I mean is, I challenged her position as lead mare,” Twilight said, sounding—in Lyra’s slightly bemused opinion—somewhat comforted. “I… cast doubt on her leadership, I guess you could say.”

“So…” Lero’s voice was filled with anger again, “you basically told her she was a shit leader, and now you’re the lead mare?”

“No, not exactly.” Lyra wanted to groan—Twilight apparently hadn’t picked up on the fact that Lero was getting angry. “I can give you the sociological references, if you’d like, but I’m not really the lead mare of the herd, unless we put it to a vote. However, as Well Cited notes in her research, such challenges tend to erode the Challenged mare’s power base—I use the term lightly, and it’s more appropriate for a larger herd with blocs and similar—unless she successfully wins the challenge by persuading the other mares to follow her. Now—”

“You told her she was a crappy mare.” The anger was unmistakable and it was enough that it cut Twilight off mid-sentence. It wasn’t that what she was saying wasn’t true, but when Twilight laid it out like that, in such a clinical and brutal fashion, it seemed far more harsh than it was. It could be brutal and hard, it was true, but in the herds Lyra had known over the years, the power shift tended to be far more subtle and gentle, and usually every pony settled into their positions naturally. Even in this case, Lyra suspected Rainbow Dash would come to be okay with Twilight being in charge, if that’s how it ended up. “And you don’t understand why she ran away?”

Twilight opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again; “I never wanted to Challenge Rainbow, Lero, please believe me.”

“Then why did you?” Lero snapped, pulling away from Lyra’s flank. Lero was smart enough that he probably knew Lyra’s own vote had been a deciding factor in the fact that Twilight’s Challenge had succeeded.

For a moment, Twilight just stood and stared at Lero, her lips quivering, before she took a deep breath—something Lyra recognized as a technique Cadance had taught her for calming her nerves.

“Because, Lero, I want foals. I want to raise children and have a family… and I didn’t want to have to choose between that dream, and you. Or Lyra. Or Rainbow. I love you all so much, and there’s no reason—no reason at all—that I can’t love you and have children with another stallion. If that’s what it comes down to.”

Lero opened his mouth and jabbed his finger in Twilight’s direction, but Twilight shook her head with all the dignity and poise of a Princess. “That’s all there is to it, Lero. I’m sorry.” Twilight turned to Lyra, and she caught a glimpse of a pony who was not nearly a strong as she was trying to act, before she shook her head. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go find my wife.”

“Take this,” Lyra said, pulling the box of chocolates off her back and passing it to Twilight. Hopefully the cold breeze from flying would harden the chocolates that had gone soft. “It’s for Rainbow.” She paused, then trotted over to Twilight and kissed her. A bit of affection was something the two of them probably could use right about now. A reminder. Lyra suddenly felt a strange sort of panic rise up in her throat, and it made her next words come out strained sounding. “Tell her I’m sorry, won’t you? And that I still love her?”

“Of course, Lyra.” Twilight smiled lopsidedly at her as she took a moment to stretch her wings as she looked at Lero.

Their stallion’s—their human’s—face was dark and grim, like a thundercloud, and Twilight took a hesitant half-step towards him, then stopped and shook her head, as if she was deciding she probably wasn’t going to get a kiss or a farewell from him. The pain was still too fresh and raw for that just yet. Twilight stared at him, bit her lip, and turned away with a sigh. Then she walked slowly to the door—pausing every couple of steps to glance back at Lero, as if she was hoping he’d stop her or forgive her or something.

There was a sharp snap of wings unfolding, and then Twilight was gone.

Lyra waited for a moment, and then she closed the door behind her herdmate and let out a heavy sigh. Then she steeled herself and turned back to Lero.

“I’m sorry too, Lero.” Lyra shuffled her hoof against the ground. “Neither of us meant to hurt her, I hope you know that.”

“But you did,” Lero growled, “and you call her your friend.”

“Friends can hurt one another, just as surely as an enemy can, Lero—I’m sure it’s like that where you come from too.” Sometimes, Lyra suspected Lero had an unreasonable expectation of ponies like herself or Twilight. It’s true they did their best to be good and kind to one another, and live in harmony, but that didn’t make them infallible.

Lero said nothing, just stared at her for a moment before looking off at one of the shelves. Obviously he wasn’t actually looking at it, of course, but…

The silence stretched and grew between the two of them, a pony and a human in a big house meant for twice their number and several times more positive feelings than Lyra was feeling right about now.

“Do… do you want to talk about it?” Lyra asked, breaking the silence before it came unbearable and completely oppressive. Lero started, then shook his head.

“Not right now,” Lero turned and headed towards the door that led to the rest of the house. “I think I want to talk to Rainbow more than anything. Or anyone else.” Lyra tried not to flinch. “And I need some time to think.” Lero added, before he disappeared as well.

Lyra shut her eyes and took a deep breath, reaching for that inner peace again. It was gone, and that wasn’t at all unexpected.

Herd's Stallion

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Rainbow Dash had been in awkward situations before, whether it was the gentle teasing only a mother could get away with, or that time Fluttershy walked in on her and Gilda having a tea party. But few really seemed to compare to this.

It wasn’t that it was the same intense embarrassment that came from those sorts of incidents, but there was something remarkably off-putting about sitting in the den, across from her wife, with the two of them trying their best not to acknowledge the fact that they were sitting across from one another. When Rainbow had opened the door and let Twilight into her mother’s house, she had fully expected the mare to get in her face, but as soon as the door opened up, Twilight took one glance at her and seemed to deflate, with a meek ‘can I come in?’ As angry as Rainbow might have been, it was a bit difficult to say no to her when she looked so vulnerable like that. She had probably been taking lessons from Fluttershy or something.

So she had stood aside, gestured for Twilight to sit down, and then the two of them had proceeded to not say another word to one another for what felt like at least an hour, but probably was no more than a few minutes.

Of course, part of the awkwardness had to do with the fact that this was the first time Twilight had ever actually been to her mother’s home. Twilight had slowly gotten less meek looking, and Rainbow kept catching her making sidelong glances around the room, mostly at the pictures on the mantle and walls. None of them were recent, and the majority of them were just Rainbow and her mother, although now that Rainbow looked, she couldn’t help but notice Bifrost showed up in more than a few of them as well. Of course, Twilight probably knew—at least in a vague sense—who her mother was, but it was something of an unspoken rule in their herd that they very rarely discussed their parental herds.

Having met Star Sparkle, Rainbow wasn’t really sure if she could blame Twilight for not being too enthused to talk about her, and Rainbow had always gotten the impression that Lyra’s Masters and teachers had been more of a family to her than anypony else. As for Lero, well, Lero didn’t really have a family. At least not one he wanted to be reminded of, though not for the same reasons his herdmates avoided talking about their families.

That thought set the fires off in her belly again, and Rainbow bit her lip. How could Twilight not get that she’s hurting Lero? They were all he had. Sure, none of their herds were perfect, but none of them were truly alone in the world, not like their stallion. Carefully, Rainbow let out a calming breath and tried to think of how she was going to broach this conversation, since it was clear her herdmate wasn’t about to make the first move.

“So…” Her voice carried an edge in it that she really hadn’t intended, but some small part of her took pleasure in the way Twilight flinched at the sound of it.

Twilight twitched her ears and snapped her gaze from the pictures on the wall to stare back at her—for a moment, Rainbow wondered if the egghead had managed to forget she was there altogether. Then she let out a slow sigh and ran her hoof through her mane. “Right.”

Rainbow opened her mouth to say something further, but it was difficult to maintain the same sort of heat in her voice that the situation warranted when Twilight wasn’t exactly fighting back. After a moment she found herself dropping her gaze with Twilight and staring at the coffee table, which looked like it hadn’t been used in a long while. It was only now that Rainbow was realizing the room was, more or less, a bit on the dusty side. Well, as dusty as clouds ever got, anyway.

“Um,” Twilight said, beginning again, “It’s… a lovely house, Rainbow.”

“Uh, yeah,” Rainbow agreed, wondering briefly if they were about to start talking about the weather. Not that she had much to say on the subject of her job at the moment, of course. “It’s my mom’s.”

“I… know,” Twilight said, then suddenly looked uncomfortable. “I-I mean, because this is where you live. Lived.”

“Right.” Rainbow shrugged. Where else would she be living? “Fluttershy tell you where I was?”

Twilight opened her mouth, and Rainbow had the impression she was in for a long story, then she seemed to think better of it and just nodded once. “I’ve come to…” Twilight’s voice trailed off, and she seemed to look at something over Rainbow’s shoulder as if she needed to gather her thoughts. “I’ve come to ask you to come home, Rainbow. We’re all worried about you. Especially Lero.”

“Uh huh,” Rainbow grunted, feeling momentarily disgusted at both her wife and herself. It was a low blow to bring up Lero being worried about her, but of course it didn’t mean it wasn’t true. She should have done more than leaving him a note, but even so… it wasn’t like she needed Twilight to remind her of that. “I was going to come back tomorrow.”

“Oh,” Twilight said, sounding somewhere between disappointed and relieved. “Good.”

“Did you tell Lero?” Rainbow found herself saying, without really thinking about it. Twilight grimaced and for a moment, Rainbow felt a brief, rage filled surge. Of course she hadn’t told him. Why would she? clearly, Twilight didn’t love Lero at all—she was just using him and—

“Yes.” Twilight shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “It was a bit difficult to explain where you had gone, without explaining what we were fighting about.”

“You did?” Rainbow hadn’t expected that. If anything, she was expecting she was going to have to explain it to Lero herself, when she got home. “That’s… good? How did he…?”

“Confused, mostly,” Twilight said with a sigh. “He wasn’t—I don’t think he’s ever really considered that possibility.”

“He’s not mad?” Rainbow couldn’t help the suspicious tone in her voice.

“I didn’t say that.” Twilight said quickly, breaking eye contact with Rainbow and looking down at the floor. Rainbow waited for her to continue, but she didn’t. For a moment, she wondered if she should go over and hug the mare, but some cruel part of her stopped her.

Still, the last thing she wanted was for the two of them to stop talking for another half hour. At the very least, Rainbow was starting to get hungry, and it seemed a bit rude if she just got up and started making herself something. So, Rainbow licked her lips and sighed. “So, now what?”

“Come home?” Twilight said, sounding hesitant. “And… and then I guess we talk about all this.”

“Right.” Rainbow agreed, if half-heartedly. It didn’t strike her as a particularly appealing thought; there was no doubt in her mind that Lero should have been included, should always be included, but it struck her that it would be particularly awkward to explain to her stallion why they might want another stallion in the herd. It was just the sort of thing ponies knew growing up, and it was difficult enough to explain these sorts of things without him looking hurt or acting upset. But it would probably come down to her; who else would he turn to?

“And then… I don’t know,” Twilight admitted with a shake of her head, “This was all just supposed to be hypothetical.”

“Are you going to admit you’re being selfish?” The words slipped out of her mouth before she had a chance to think about them. It wasn’t that it wasn’t a relevant question, and Rainbow Dash didn’t mind speaking her mind, but it was a bit harder to be so blunt when Twilight looked so tired and defeated. Between her expression on her muzzle and her drooping wings, Twilight looked an awful lot like Fluttershy, and Rainbow had always had a difficult time being mean to her, even when she might deserve it or needed a good kick in the flank.

Twilight’s eyes grew wide for a moment as she met her wife’s eyes, before she dropped her gaze to the floor and said nothing. The silence was deafening, and after a few seconds, however sad or sorry she might look, Rainbow could feel her ire rising again. Oh, of course she’d never admit she was wrong or selfish or—

“Is it selfish?” Twilight asked finally, straightening up and facing her like a mare. Part of Rainbow had almost expected her to be crying, but Twilight’s gaze remained steady. Rainbow opened her mouth to respond, but Twilight cut her off. “You keep saying this, Rainbow, but I just don’t see it.” Twilight continued, “Why is this selfish? Why is it selfish to want foals?”

“Because you’re not thinking about Lero!” For a smart pony, Twilight sure could be dumb sometimes.

“How so? Do you think he’s only capable of loving us? Or that we should be exclusively interested in him alone?” Twilight asked, poking her hoof in Rainbow’s direction. “Lyra and I spend a lot of time together, and I’m not afraid to say that I love her. Or you, for that matter— are you telling me I’m selfish for loving somepony—someone—other than Lero?”

“But Lero is human,” Rainbow said, feeling a bit dismayed as her voice took on a bit of a pleading tone. If Lero was another pony, then of course Twilight wouldn’t be in the wrong, but Lero wasn’t—he was a special case. Wasn’t he?

“If he’s so human that he can’t accept the herd life, perhaps Lyra and I should leave the herd?” Twilight asked, in a strangely toneless voice. Her face had grown stoney, as if she was trying to keep from growling at her. “Is that what you want?”

“What?” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “No, of course not. Do… do you?”

Twilight stared at her for a moment, before sighing and shaking her head. “No, Dashie, of course I don’t. And neither does Lyra. But I don’t want to choose between Lero and having children. We’re supposed to be a herd, and I think I’ve got enough love in me that I could love Lero and some other stallion just the same.”

“I… I guess,” Rainbow frowned at Twilight, feeling uncertain what to say.

“I don’t want to fight anymore,” Twilight added, getting to her hooves and taking a half-step around the coffee table. “I never wanted to hurt anypony, I just want… I don’t know, Rainbow. But I know I don’t want this.” Twilight’s wing half opened into a downward apologetic angle to match the expression on her face. She probably didn’t even know she was doing it.

“It’s okay, Twi, I forgive you,” Rainbow pulled her wife into a hug and was happy to have it returned. She couldn’t help but notice she had mentioned nothing about challenging her for the role of leadmare, although—not that she could be considered any sort of expert on the matter—she doubted apologizing to junior members of the herd was the sort of thing a leadmare was supposed to do. At least, not in Rainbow’s experience, it wasn’t.

But Twilight was right. She didn’t want to fight anymore, and there was always time in the future, when they all sat down and discussed it, to figure out where they were to go from there. It felt so weird to fight with her, especially after all they had been through. Weird and wrong. Rainbow would much rather they just put it all behind them and move on with their lives.

After a moment, the two of them parted, only to look at each other awkwardly and run their hooves through their respective manes. However flawed Twilight’s apology might have been, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but feel a lot better, as if a huge weight had been lifted off her back.

“Well, I suppose I ought to be going,” Twilight said sounding weary. Now that she wasn’t so busy trying to stay mad at Twilight, Rainbow could see the mare looked quite tired. Had she slept at all last night? Probably not. And teleporting this sort of distance probably wasn’t an easy feat either. Nor was she was in much better shape. The weight on her back might be gone, but it seemed the tension had been the only thing keeping her from feeling her own fatigue.

“What? What are you, silly?” Rainbow said, shaking her head. “Stay here. At the rate you’re going, you’ll probably end up falling asleep on the flight back and crashing into a cloud or something.”

“Heh,” Twilight laughed tiredly, “You’re probably right, but I don’t want to—”

Before Twilight could complete her thought, the front door popped open, and Rainbow’s mother trotted in, looking pleased with herself and rather excited. Cadmium wasn’t, however, alone. In line with her, and following her into the house, was Updraft. The leadmare was much as Rainbow Dash had remembered her: a pale sort of blue coat with dark mane, highlighted with streaks of silver. Of course, the silver might have been slightly more grey, and her face might be more lined with age, but it only served to make her look much more severe.

It didn’t help that the mare looked at Rainbow like she wasn’t particularly happy to see her.

“Rainbow, I’m home!” Cadmium exclaimed, her wings twitching with excitement. Obviously she had the impression she was deeper in the house, most likely because she was apparently in mid-conversation with Updraft. “I’ve got great news!” Cadmium finally glanced in Rainbow’s direction, and her muzzle split with a huge grin. “There you are! Listen, I’ve…”

The smile on Cadmium’s face melted slightly, as her gaze moved from Rainbow’s face to Twilight’s. Updraft, perhaps naturally, had noticed Twilight as well, although it didn’t do much to soften her expression.

For a brief moment, no pony said anything, and then Cadmium and Updraft bowed down, lowering themselves to the floor. It took Rainbow a moment to figure out what was going on—of course, Twilight was a Princess now. Despite attending her coronation and seeing her crown and knowing how she fretted over trying to rule ponies, seeing her own mother bowing to Twilight like she was Celestia or something was, if nothing else, beyond weird—not to mention extremely awkward. She had always seen Twilight as her equal, crown or not, and being reminded that she really wasn’t, in a lot of ways, was, if not painful, bizarre.

“Princess Twilight!” Cadmium and Updraft gasped.

“I didn’t know you were going to be here!” Cadmium continued, as Updraft twitched her wings uncomfortably.

Glancing sidelong at Twilight, Rainbow thought that she too was taken by surprise, if her open mouth was any indication. How she managed to forget she was a princess, Rainbow didn’t know. It’d be like forgetting how awesome she was, for herself. Still, it wouldn’t be a good thing to have her mother walking around with her nose buried in the floor, so Rainbow gave Twilight a nudge.

Twilight flinched and shook herself which she managed to turn into a stately shake of her head. “There’s no need for that, Miss Dash. Really! I’m not here as a princess, and even if I were, I’m still your daughter-in-law.” Rainbow noticed Updraft glancing at Cadmium, as if she was questioning Twi’s statement. Her mother probably had left out the whole marriage thing. “So, please, no bowing. No titles. I’m just plain old Twilight Sparkle.”

There was a brief moment of hesitation, before the two mares got back to their hooves, and Rainbow shook herself.

“Mom, this is Twilight,” Rainbow said, although it wasn’t exactly necessary or called for. Still, it seemed like the right thing to do. “Twilight, this is my mom, Cadmium Dash, and my…” She was careful to keep the venom out of her voice. “My mother’s lead mare from our former herd, Updraft. But you can call her Drafty.” Updraft hated that name, but Rainbow doubted she’d try to correct a princess, if Twilight started using it.

Unfortunately, Twilight was apparently too smart for that. “Pleased to meet you, Updraft, and you, Cadmium Dash.”

“Cadmium’s fine, your highness,” Rainbow’s mom said, sounding somewhat faint. “Err, I mean—”

“It’s alright.” Twilight smiled, although Rainbow thought it looked a bit strained. “Should I leave the three of you alone?”

“What for?” Rainbow asked, feeling confused, and slightly irritated. She didn’t want to spend time with Updraft!

“Well, your Mother did say she had something important to tell you,” Twilight pointed out.

“Oh, right.”

“I’m sure it’s alright if you hear this too,” Updraft said, speaking in this tone of voice she liked to use when she had something important—to her, if not anypony else—to tell everypony. “As you know, Rainbow, your mother has been talking with our herd for sometime now—” Rainbow didn’t bother to tell her that, as a matter of fact, she hadn’t known until a few hours ago, “—and I’ve decided, provisionally, to accept her back into our herd. And yourself, of course.”

Rainbow couldn’t help but notice her eyes shifting to Twilight as she said that. Perhaps she thought that her being family would mean she could get some Royal favors out of Twilight, or something. She doubted she could—if there was any pony to follow the rules, it was Twilight. She hoped Updraft wouldn’t hurt her mother when it turned out she couldn’t take advantage of Rainbow’s marriage to Twilight.

Still, Cadmium didn’t seem to be worried. “Isn’t that great, Rainbow?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed half heartedly. “That’s great.” She did her best to put on a happy looking smile for her mother’s sake, if nopony else’s.

“Perhaps you and your herd should come visit us in Ponyville!” Twilight exclaimed. “I’m sure we can make room for you all, I know Lyra and Lero would be excited to see Rainbow’s family.”

“That sounds great!” Cadmium said, nodding. “But look at me—is there anything I can get you, Prin— Twilight? Something to eat? Drink?”

“I think,” Twilight paused and yawned widely, and Rainbow Dash had to do her best to stop from getting drawn into a yawn herself. She was really too tired to be dealing which this nonsense right now. They had just gotten over once crisis, it’d be nice to just relax for a few hours before trying to tackle her mother and Updraft. “I think I might like to just lie down, to be truthful, I haven’t had the most restful of night and… Obviously I don’t want to impose anymore than I already have, but…”

“You can sleep in my room, Twi,” Rainbow offered. “I think I’ll join you, I’m not feeling so hot myself.”

“Are you sure?” Updraft said, sounding slightly disappointed, even while Cadmium nodded. “I can cook, if you’d rather—”

“That’s quite alright, Miss Updraft,” Twilight said, with a sidelong glance at Rainbow—apparently this time she had picked up on it too. They’d have to talk about this soon, Rainbow supposed. “It has been a long trip here, and it’ll be a long one getting back to Ponyville too. We’ll join you for supper, of course.”

It still took them several minutes to convince the two mares to let them go and take a nap, partly because Updraft seemed mortified that Twilight was right there and she wasn’t getting much of a chance to talk to her, and partly because Cadmium was more than a little bit upset that she had Royalty in the house and hadn’t had a chance to clean or anything. It was all nonsensical to Rainbow, although she did feel a bit put out that her mother wanted to clean her room for Twilight, but not for her own daughter.

Still, freshly cleaned or not, it only took the two of them a moment to fall asleep once their heads hit the pillows on Rainbow’s far-to-small bed. Still, they had to talk to Lero about all this, and however tired she might have been, Rainbow couldn’t help but feel a little bit worried about that prospect.

After the fifteenth time Rainbow Dash had doubled back and looped around her like a carefree filly, all while making ‘encouraging’ remarks, Twilight suspected her wife knew exactly what she was doing, and was doing it to purposefully annoy her. Of course, the question remained—at least in Twilight’s mind—as to whether or not it was supposed to be annoying because Rainbow was still angry, or if it was just Dashie being Dashie. The former was troubling, while the later, as annoying as the behaviour was, was more reassuring. However reassuring it might be, it wasn’t making the flight back to Ponyville much easier for Twilight.

Rainbow Dash had insisted quite stridently that they fly back, rather than using a teleportation spell to send them back. If there was one thing Dashie loved more—or at least, as much—as she loved Lero, it was flying. While she might have insisted, Twilight hadn’t really put up much in the way of a fight against the suggestion; pegasi were common enough outside of Cloudsdale, but within Cloudsdale unicorns were almost unknown, as was the sort of magic Twilight could do. Only a hoofful of ponies had noticed her as anypony other than another pegasi, but she knew if she started throwing magic around, they certainly would. It wasn’t an official visit of any sort, and the last thing she needed were for nasty rumors to start popping up all over the place.

Not to mention she was still very tired from the last teleport she had pulled off.

But now, as Twilight tried to keep her wings straight and flat as she glided, she kind of wished she had fought harder. Between becoming an alicorn and dealing with the fallout from being crowned, she hadn’t really had the time or energy to invest in learning to fly well enough for these long-term endurance flying situations. She wasn’t falling out of the sky, yet, but Twilight could tell from the way her back and chest muscles were tightening that she was probably going to be very sore over the next few days.

Plus, she was nowhere nearly as graceful as Rainbow Dash was. It was a particularly cloudy day, and Twilight was nowhere nearly confident enough to go barreling through the clouds like her herdmate did—she still had trouble feeling confident enough to walk on them!—so her only option was to try and fly around them. It wasn’t hard, but often times she felt like she was over- or under-correcting and generally making herself look very silly.

“Come on slow-poke!” Rainbow Dash cried as she twisted her loop into a corkscrew, flying back along the path Twilight had just flown, leaving trails of rainbows all around her. How Rainbow Dash did that, Twilight still didn’t know. For some reason she had always just assumed it was something the more showy pegasi did, but now that she had wings, it was clear there was some sort of magic involved. “I don’t know why you’re taking so long.” Rainbow added, in a smug sounding voice.

“Do you want me to be as fast as you?” Twilight queried as she twisted the edges of her wings to take her on a lazy arc around the next cloudbank. “Or faster?”

Rainbow Dash flew up beside her—well, floated up beside her, on her back, making the whole thing look effortless while she laughed. “Faster than me? I don’t think so!”

Twilight grumbled something incoherent and eyed the next set of clouds. It wasn’t the largest cloudbank she had seen that day, but it was rather wide and deep, much like a model of an iceberg Twilight had once seen. She’d have to go over it. Or through it, given the trajectory she was currently on. Which really wasn’t an option.

Taking a deep breath, Twilight tucked her legs up against her body and flapped, trying to gain a little bit of height so she could go over the cloud. However, as she flapped, the several hours long flight had clearly taken it’s toll: most of the flight, Twilight had focused on only moving her wings minimally to save energy—in theory—but now her muscles decided they were going to seize up.

She almost made it. She really did. For a second, Twilight thought she had—then her belly caught against an outcrop of cloud matter, and the next thing she knew, she had tumbled through the air, rolling on the surface of the cloud before coming to a messy stop with her face buried in the cool cloud and her rump undignifiedly over her head. Celestia only knew what shape her wings were in.

“Whoa!” Twilight didn’t bother looking up as Rainbow dropped onto the cloud by her head. “That was awesome!”

For a moment, Twilight just breathed through the cloud, feeling her body ache, before she sighed and got her hooves back under her. “I’m glad you enjoyed it,” she grumbled, as she gave her body a once over. She wasn’t really hurting that badly; partly, she imagined, because of her new body. But of all the surfaces she might have collided with, cloud was a good one. It had probably saved her from more injuries.

“Pff,” Rainbow said—Twilight could hear her rolling her eyes. “Little tumble like that? That’s nothing! We’ll make a stunt pony out of you yet!”

“Right.” Twilight ignored the substance of her herdmate’s statements and shook her head to clear it, while she rotated her wings. Hopefully the muscle seizure was just a temporary setback. “Can we rest for a moment?”

Rainbow looked like she was going to object, before closing her mouth and just shrugging. “Sure, we’re pretty much home as it is.”

“Huh?” Twilight’s head shot up. By her estimation, they should only be halfway to Ponyville by now. “You must be mistaken, Rainbow, we didn’t fly that fast.”

“Well sure,” Rainbow waved her hoof airly through the air as she smiled smugly, “if you’re a normal pony, maybe. But I know all the tricks! Like flying in the East Cloudsdale Jetstream.”

“The East Cloudsdale Jetstream?” Twilight repeated, feeling a sense of alarm, although Rainbow apparently took her rhetorical question for a real one.

“You know, the wind-thinger that delivers clouds to the eastern parts of Equestria,” Rainbow explained. That would, of course, explain why it seemed so utterly cloudy throughout the trip.

“Isn’t that kind of dangerous?”

“Nah,” Rainbow Dash laughed dismissively. “But, anyway, we’re here. Ponyville should be right down there.” The mare pointed her wing towards the far side of the cloud, and after taking a moment to frown at her, Twilight sighed and walked—not flew—over to the edge, taking care not to trip.

If Ponyville was indeed just over the edge, perhaps she could glide down gently and just walk the rest of the way. Although, to her displeasure, she couldn’t help but notice that her legs seemed fairly weak from disuse as well. Hopefully she wouldn’t be out of commission for too long, but she’d probably be lucky if she wasn’t dead-tired for a week. How Rainbow managed to stay so upbeat, Twilight didn’t know. Though, she was a semi-professional athlete.

“See?” Rainbow asked as Twilight stopped at the edge of the cloud and peered over, down to where Rainbow thought Ponyville ought to be. If it was there, Twilight couldn’t tell. There was a thick layer of clouds— fog, really, although from a distance it looked more like a thunderstorm that had forgotten to stay in the sky—laying below them, covering the ground for a good distance.

“Not really,” Twilight told her, before glancing to her left—sure enough, in the distance, Twilight could make out Canterlot Mountain, if not the city herself. Which reminded her that she better send a letter off to Celestia, explaining everything before rumors of her mysteriously turning up in Cloudsdale reached her. However, the presence of the mountain just confirmed what Rainbow was telling her.

“Huh?” Rainbow Dash sounded confused, and as she flapped over to land beside Twilight. Seeing what she was seeing, the confusion turned to anger, before settling down into exasperation. “Oh come on!”

“I take it this wasn’t planned,” Twilight teased gently.

“I’m gone one day, one bucking day, and it’s all gone to hell down there!” Rainbow groaned, rubbing her face with her hoof. “I should have known! Ugh!” Rainbow rolled her eyes. “I’m going to kick the flank of whoever screwed this up this badly, I swear!”

“Well, it’s not like you told anypony where you were going, Rainbow.” Twilight pointed out gently; she didn’t exactly want to push the point, but it was true nevertheless. “Besides, I’m sure you can clean this up no problem. Five seconds flat, right?”

Rainbow gave her a look like she had suddenly grown a second horn. “Sure, for clouds, this is some sort of super-fog. It’s going to be a pain to clean up.”

“Oh.” Pausing, Twilight wondered if she should offer to help; friends did help one another, of course. Yet, at the thought, her wings gave an uncomfortable twitch, reminding her she’d be much better off on the ground. “Do you want to… go home first?”

As confident as Rainbow appeared, Twilight could tell the mask slipped a bit as she contemplated seeing the rest of the herd again. Twilight wasn’t really looking forward to it herself, even if she hoped Lero had calmed down since she had left the day before.

“I guess I better,” Rainbow admitted at last, “but I really can’t stay long.”

“I know.” Twilight nodded. “We’ll hold off talking about anything really important until you can join us, at least.”

Much to Twilight’s embarrassment, getting down from the cloud was much harder than she anticipated. Neither of them wanted to waste too much time sitting around, and despite Twilight’s exercises, when she took to the air again, it was obvious that she wasn’t very stable. Stretched out, her wings twitched and trembled, and on top of that fact, her muscles were protesting quite loudly too. It was doubtful she had done any permanent damage, but after a few seconds of trying to hover, she fell back to the surface of the cloud in a heap. Much to Rainbow’s amusement. Her other option, of course, was to teleport down, but being not completely sure where the streets were, or how far up they were, the notion was at best foolish, and at worst extremely dangerous.

Finally, Rainbow Dash came up with a solution that involved crafting what Lero had called ‘water-wings’ and helped her control her descent. All the while poking fun at her. By the time they had made it through the cloud far enough that they could start to see the sides of buildings, Twilight had decided she’d rather just risk trying to float down on her own.

Naturally, as soon as she pushed her herdmate away, her wings gave out again and she fell the rest of the way to the street below.

Years of magical mishaps had made Twilight far more resilient than she looked, and her ascension had only added to her natural strength, but neither of that was particularly comforting when she fell right into a cart of apples that somepony had left in the middle of the street. As Rainbow Dash giggled herself out of the sky, Twilight had the unpleasant job of extracting herself from the apples—many of which were now pulped and coating her body—and stumbling out onto the street.

“I suppose that’s one way to get down,” Rainbow said, as she apparently made an effort to stop laughing. Whether it was because the humor had worn out, or because the dirty look Twilight was giving her was sinking in, Rainbow finally glanced away and looked at the streets around them. “Where do you think we are, exactly?”

Pausing her attempt to pull an apple off her horn so she could clean herself properly, she gave the street a once-over and tried to think. In recent years, Ponyville had grown, but Twilight had lived in the town long enough that she knew where everything was; Rainbow was probably better at it than she was, but for her Ponyville was a series of roofs, not streets. It only took her a moment to find her bearings. “I think i know where we are—come on. The sooner we get home, the sooner you can get this mess cleaned up.”

It was a silent walk, and somewhat eerie. As Twilight walked, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread building in the pit of her stomach, and Rainbow wasn’t looking too happy either. It didn’t help that the fog around them made everything dark, like being in the Everfree forest, and sounds were muffled to the point where Twilight wasn’t even sure there were any other ponies out on the street besides themselves. Probably not, if they could avoid it.

All too quickly, at least for the fearful part of her psyche, the Library’s trunk emerged silently from the fog. She glanced at her wife, and slowed the pace of her steps, since it seemed like a good idea to let Rainbow Dash go first; but as she slowed down, so too did Rainbow, and it was obvious Dashie was just as nervous as she was. So, taking a deep breath and focusing on the idea that everything would work out eventually, Twilight trotted over to the door and pushed it open.

Not surprisingly, the library was as empty as the streets, and very, very clean. She had discovered some years ago that Spike had a tendency to clean when he was nervous, and the thought that she had been, more or less, the source of that anxiety didn’t exactly help her to feel much better.

Rainbow followed her, and seemed to glance around the room nervously. “No pony’s home?”

“They’re just in the back,” Twilight said confidently. Spike would probably still be there, at least, and she doubted Lyra would be out trying to meditate in this pea-soup of a day; and where else would Lero be?

Sure enough, as soon as the door closed, Twilight could hear someone approaching from deeper inside the structure, only for it to open and reveal Lyra.

“Welcome to—” Lyra pulled up short and paused, before smiling at the two of them. “Oh! You’re back!”

“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed as Twilight nodded. “Is Lero around? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s kind of a mess outside.”

“You can thank Applejack for that, I’m afraid,” Lyra’s smile slipped ever so slightly at the mention of Lero, and Twilight wondered if he had been stomping around the house for the past day and a half or something. “Lero’s… he’s in the bedroom.”

Rainbow frowned, and nodded slowly. “Alright, I’d better go see him… I guess.”

“I should go too,” Twilight added, although it felt like she had to force the words out more than she wanted to admit. Lero was scary when he was angry, and while she might have held her ground against him last time, she wasn’t exactly looking forward to doing so again.

“We’ll all go,” Lyra said with a nod, before catching Twilight’s eye and inclining her head ever so slightly; obviously, she understood the two of them were going to need her support, more so than they might otherwise be letting on. Twilight couldn’t help but be reminded that Lyra had probably been enduring the full brunt of their stallion’s anger for the past day and a half. She’d have to make it up to the mare at some point.

As the three of them trotted through the living spaces of the library, she couldn’t help but be reminded unpleasantly of the first time she and her friends—although she hadn’t known they were at the time—had ventured into the Everfree Forest to defeat Nightmare Moon. There was a certain stillness in the air, and the shadows seemed darker and more substantial than they really ought to be. It wasn’t merely quiet, somehow, it was as if each little noise she or her herdmates made while walking through the room was stifled and silenced before it’s time.

It seemed to take forever—and at the same time, no time at all—to reach their bedroom door, and the three of them stopped just outside of it. Even without looking, Twilight could tell Rainbow was just as tense as she was, although it was somewhat obvious from the way her wife kept opening and closing her wings as if she’d like to fly away. Although, why Rainbow was so nervous Twilight had no idea—it wasn’t likely Lero was going to be mad at her.

As much as she would have prefered to just stand there, or let somepony else do it, Twilight squared her shoulders and, after running her hoof through her mane just to smooth it out, she pushed the door open with her hoof.

Lero was sitting in what he called an ‘easy’ chair, apparently reading a book. While the rest of the house had a certain air of disuse to it, the bedroom she shared with her herd was brightly lit, and—if Twilight was being honest with herself—quite obviously used. It wasn’t quite a mess, exactly, but having spent many a night caught up in whirlwind study sessions, she recognized the feel of the room. There was a certain disorder to the way the bedsheets weren’t folded, or the unneatness of the book stack beside Lero’s chair that suggested to her that her husband, her stallion, had spread most of the past day and a half in the room. Perhaps trying to distract himself.

Twilight wasn’t too proud to admit that it hurt when he didn’t look up.

“Lero,” Twilight said softly after a moment, “Lero it’s me, I’m back with—”

Before she could finish the thought, Rainbow lept into the air and half flew, half dove at Lero as he looked up from his book at last, reacting in time to catch Rainbow mid-jump in his arms and hugging her the way only Lero seemed to be capable of.

She wasn’t too proud to admit that hurt a bit too.

“Rainbow!” Lero exclaimed, his voice somewhat muffled by Rainbow’s mane. “You’re back!”

“Uh, yeah! Of course I’m back, you big lug,” Rainbow said, her voice sounding somewhat strained. “You can’t get rid of me that easily!”

Lero didn’t say anything to that, and the embrace continued in silence, while Twilight and Lyra stood by the bedroom door. What was she supposed to do? She knew full well Lero wasn’t happy with her—and probably not with Lyra either, so it wasn’t as if she could expect the same warm treatment from Lero as he was giving Rainbow. But, on the other hoof, Twilight couldn’t leave either.

“Hey Big Guy, I heard you got all mushy on me,” Rainbow pulled back as her voice flooded with relief and a bit of her usual bravado, “while I was away?”

“You did leave without saying goodbye,” Lero said softly. It would be cliche to say that Twilight could see tears in Lero’s eyes, and he wasn’t the sort of stallion to cry to begin with, but there was relief there too. “Suddenly, in the middle of the night, and—”

“Ah, ha, yeah…” Rainbow laughed nervously and looked embarrassed. “We just had a fight, is all, it…. It happens. I guess I lost my head and all. I’m sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry about, Rainbow—really.” Lero reached out and pulled the hovering pegasus into a hug, and this time glanced at Twilight over Rainbow’s shoulder. It wasn’t quite a glare, but the message was clear, nevertheless.

“Listen, Lero,” Rainbow said, pulling back again with a goofy smile on her lips. “Celestia knows I’d love to stay, but I don’t know if you’ve looked outside lately…”

“I tried, but there was some fog in the way.” Lero’s eyes twinkled with amusement. “I assume that’s not intentional?”

“No,” Rainbow agreed with a long, drawn out, sigh, “and somepony has to fix it.”

“And that somepony is you, right?” Lero nodded. “It’s okay Rainbow, I’m sure you’ll get it cleared up lickitysplit, and we can have all the time we want to ourselves again.” He glanced at Twilight, and it took all her willpower not to step backwards involuntarily. “Besides, I want to talk to Twilight.”

Rainbow paused and glanced at Twilight, giving her a surprisingly sympathetic look, before turning back to Lero and nodding. “Okay, I’ll be back as soon as I can!”

Before anypony could reply, Rainbow flipped over in the air in one of her impossible moves that Twilight could never hope to master, and shot out of the bedroom like an arrow. How she could move so fast after such a long flight was beyond Twilight, but it really wasn’t something she had time to ponder, not right now. Certainly not now.

“Well,” Lyra spoke up, as Rainbow’s after-image trail started to fade into nothingness. “I’ll, uh, leave you two… I’ll go check on Spike, I guess.” Lyra shifted on her hooves uneasily for a moment, before turning and heading out into the hall, closing the door behind her and leaving Twilight alone with Lero—although Twilight couldn’t help but notice that Lyra’s hoofbeats stopped just short of the first set of stairs. Just within hearing range. Part of her felt a spike of irritation towards her wife: it wasn’t as if she wouldn’t find out what they said, eventually.

But, if she was honest with herself, that irritation was driven more by fear than anything else.

“So,” Lero said, leaning back heavily in his chair. Twilight had to resist the temptation to reply with the nursery rhyme Twilight Velvet had often spouted off when Twilight had begun a conversation that way—it was a strange, maniacal urge, that the analytical and detached part of her pinned down on her nerves.

“So,” Twilight repeated after a moment.

“What… happened?”

Not a simple question by any stretch of the imagination.

“We… we talked. I asked her to come home. And we did,” Twilight said, feeling more than a little bit foolish for her summary. They hadn’t resolved anything, really; Rainbow’s running away was an overreaction, of course, but in some ways, so too was going after her like she had. With a clearer head, it seemed incredibly absurd to assume that Rainbow wouldn’t come home. An absurd and baseless worry. Aside from giving herself an unnecessary workout, had she really accomplished anything at all?

“And what did you decide?” Lero asked, as he fiddled with his beard. Maybe it was her imagination, but it seemed to be far more wild than she remembered it.

Twilight bit back a sigh of frustration. “We haven’t decided anything, not really. I never intended to fix everything, I just wanted to bring Rainbow home.”

“Did you apologize?” Lero’s tone seemed to carry a tone of warning, which for reasons Twilight just couldn’t place, irritated her. “About trying to take being the lead mare away from her?”

“No,” Twilight said shortly, feeling as if it took far too much willpower to keep from snapping at Lero. “It didn’t come up.”

“Well, what of it then? Are you going to apologize, and give it back to her?”

For a moment, Twilight just stared and frowned at Lero, trying to figure out how to answer him; would she apologize? Twilight wasn’t sure. Challenging Rainbow on the issue… it had hurt both of them to do it, that much was obvious to her, but she doubted that she was really that upset over it. Although, in fairness, it wasn’t as if they had actually discussed it. Moreover, it was clear that Lyra supported her and agreed, at least on some level, with Twilight. And…

And she was sure she wasn’t going to apologize. What would she be apologizing for? Trying to look after the herd? The herd should be led by a mare who had the best interests of the herd as a whole in heart. It wasn’t that Rainbow was a bad mare, but perhaps she just wasn’t meant to look after the herd as a whole.

“No,” Twilight said finally, taking a deep breath and forcing her wings to lay flat on her back. “No, I won’t.”

“But—” Lero began, but Twilight held up her hoof to cut him off.

“Lero, I love Rainbow dearly, both as a friend and as a herdmate. And as my wife,” whether that meant as much to Lero as it did to her, Twilight had no idea. In a world of fairly transient relationships, marriage was something special. “But sometimes… sometimes, she doesn’t always consider me or Lyra, to think of us, or try to act in everypony—everyone’s—best interests. Being a lead mare is supposed to mean something. It’s power, but it comes with responsibilities too.”

“And what, you’re Peter Parker?” Lero asked sarcastically, causing Twilight to feel momentarily confused. Peter Parker? It sounded like something out of one of Spike’s comic books… Did humans have comic books? She had never asked, really. Perhaps Lero saw her confusion and took pity on her: “You think you can live up the responsibilities that come with the power of being a lead mare?”

“I don’t know.” An honest answer, if one that somewhat hedged. “I won’t know until I’ve tried. I could be a disaster. Or not.”

“Then how do you know Rainbow couldn’t be just as much of a lead mare as you can?” Lero asked pointedly, which only made Twilight’s eye twitch in frustration. Sometimes Lero could just be so blind.

Still, yelling at him wouldn’t resolve anything. At least nothing productive.

“As I said, a lead mare has to consider the whole herd, and it’s interests, not just h—” Twilight grimaced. “Not just the interests of certain individuals in the herd. Rainbow hasn’t always done that. She needs to be able to make hard decisions sometimes, even those decisions that might hurt some of the members.”

“Like expanding the herd?”

“Like considering it, even if she knows some members might be unhappy with it.” Twilight paused and sighed. “If it’s for the good of the herd.”

“Still…”

“Still, it was mean of me. And maybe a little bit wrong too,” Twilight finished—or perhaps inserted—for him. She was beginning to think that’s really what he wanted to hear from her, at the end of the day. “I’m sorry I hurt Rainbow by Challenging her, really, and I’ll tell her so… but I’m not sorry for Challenging her.” Twilight bit her lip.

“I see,” Lero said, then let out a heavy sigh and rubbed his forehead. He still looked angry, but there was confusion there too, and worry. It was enough to make Twilight’s anger and frustration with the whole situation melt, however slightly. Yet, she wasn’t sure he would appreciate her trying to comfort him right now. “Lyra said that friends sometimes hurt one another…”

Twilight opened her mouth before closing it and frowning. Something of a non sequitur, and she wasn’t sure it wasn’t rhetorical. But she still felt compelled to answer, “But it doesn’t mean we’re not still friends—or lovers. It’s not the easiest friendship lesson I’ve had to learn, but…”

Lero said nothing, instead he flopped back into the chair’s cushioned surface and slapped his hands against the armrests, staring at a point above and beyond Twilight’s head. For a moment, Twilight thought perhaps they were done, but before the silence could get stifling, Lero let out a long sigh and turned to her.

“I’m going to want to talk to Rainbow, when she gets back,” Lero said finally, rubbing his forehead. “Will you tell her when you see her?”

Somehow, Twilight doubted she could keep the mare away from Lero, and somehow she suspected she’d probably be spending the night in her old bedroom, with Spike, again. but she tried not to let any of her frustration show as she nodded. After a moment, it was clear neither of them had much more to say to each other, so Twilight turned and left Lero to… stew.

As expected, Lyra was standing just at the end of the hallway with her ears pricked up, and while she didn’t come up to Twilight, she did pull her into a hug as she reached her.

“I think that went well,” Lyra whispered as she pulled back, to which Twilight just glared at her incredulously. “Given the circumstances…”

“I guess,” Twilight said with a sigh. “I’m going to go… lie down or something. Tell Rainbow that Lero wants to see her when she’s done?”

“Of course.”

Twilight gave Lyra a kiss, and felt slightly better, slightly calmer, for it.

“Twilight,” Lyra said as she walked away. She turned to look at her. “Time heals all wounds, don’t forget that.”

“Thanks, Lyra.” Twilight tried her best to sound sincere, but ultimately she suspected she had failed. Still, it wasn’t bad advice, and, with time, perhaps this whole situation would be put behind them. Of course, they still had to resolve the issue that led to all this. At least, Twilight thought they did. But right now, that wasn’t a problem she really wanted to try and tackle. One thing at a time, as it were…

***

Lyra considered the string of her harp for a moment, before plucking it—and wincing at the discordant note that sprang to life from it. Her harp was badly out of tune, which only meant more work for her. In many ways, though, it was a bit welcome. Even if she couldn’t help but feel like the world was mocking her ever so slightly by putting her harp out of tune.

Plucking the string carefully, Lyra listened to the note—which was a C that decided it wanted to be too much of a step towards a D—and adjusted the tension on the string until she was satisfied. Then she moved on.

The real reason, of course, that her harp was out of tune had much more to do with the chaotic weather Ponyville had experienced over the past week than any sort of malicious irony on the part of the universe. Humidity always did such horrible things to Lyra’s instruments, but usually the weather was much better managed and controlled here in Ponyville. Not that she blamed Rainbow for it, of course. True to her word, Rainbow had done her best to remove the heavy fog that had formed, and for the most part the air was now quite clear, although there was still a haze on the horizon, if you looked.

There wasn’t much she could do about it, at least not quickly; according to her, the ‘meteorological doohickies’ were ‘out of whack’ and the ‘free floating lazy precipitation’ could only be drawn out of the air so fast. Somehow, Lyra suspected those weren’t the proper terms for any of the work Rainbow actually did or the problems she was encountering, but Lyra had faith that Rainbow would, eventually, set things right. Hopefully sooner, rather than later.

In the same fashion, Lyra had faith that her herd would return to its former, healthy and happy self. Although, admittedly, she was beginning to suspect that she was losing some of that faith.

The past few days had been… unpleasant, in many ways, around the house, although the terrible weather meant going outside wasn’t much of a prospect. They were all more than a bit tense, and more often than not the words out of their mouths were unusually and unnecessarily sharp. For the most part, Rainbow and Twilight seemed to get along relatively okay, although Lyra wasn’t fooling herself into believing that everything was a-okay. Perhaps Rainbow was just ashamed that she had essentially run away, and was hoping to smooth things over—although Lyra couldn’t be certain. Twilight, on the other hoof, seemed to be almost laughably transparent about trying to smooth things over.

In truth, although Lyra felt somewhat guilty in thinking such, much of the tension seemed to come from Lero. Or rather, Lero and Twilight.

Twilight hadn’t apologized to Rainbow for Challenging her, as Lyra gathered Lero wanted, and it was turning into something of a grudge. Whenever Twilight would make some sort of effort to resolve things, it would just fall apart. The latest example had come just last night.

As promised, Twilight had the whole herd meet so they could discuss the idea of expanding the herd with another stallion. They had, after supper, all sat down in the living room, Lero included, just as Rainbow wanted, and talked about it; or, more accurately, Twilight talked.

At first, it had gone well, at least in Lyra’s mind. Granted, Twilight often seemed to venture more into the mode of lecturing them as she presented the dead end that her research had produced—the dead end she suspected it would always produce. In many ways it was rather boring. Once she had laid out the problem and the proposed solution, and looked around the room hopefully, it had all gone to Tartarus in a handbasket.

Before either Rainbow or Lyra could say anything, Lero had asked, in not too kind words, if Twilight was ever going to apologize to Rainbow over what she had done, and before Twilight could formulate any sort of reply, he had walked out.

Lyra couldn’t say Twilight burst into tears or anything so melodramatic, but it had been a great blow to her; Rainbow, for her part, had looked torn, but ultimately had taken off after Lero, leaving Lyra to try and comfort Twilight.

Perhaps, on whole, Twilight shouldn’t have stated her position as baldly as she had done the first day back. Honesty might be the best policy, and key to friendship, but there were ways of being honest that weren’t necessarily so brutal. Yet, just as truthfully, Lyra wasn’t really sure Twilight could apologize. You can’t take back a challenge to a lead mare’s authority. If a herd supported the challenger, then the balance of power would shift, if not, depending on how badly the herd sided against her, it might indicate that that mare wasn’t a good fit for the herd, or perhaps all the members in the herd weren’t compatible.

She wasn’t sure Lero really understood that, and she wasn’t sure if he could learn it while he was so angry. It was impossible to teach an angry student, her senpai had taught her, like building a dam while the river was still flowing.

It was, in a word, a mess, and Lyra didn’t know what to do. Bonbon had no insights, and she suspected Twilight’s friends were at just as much of a loss to help her, too. Fluttershy was too passive to put herself into the sort of position Twilight was in. Applejack, she gathered, was somewhat neutral about the whole thing, while Pinkie Pie had never been in a relationship with another pony or herd longer than a month, and Lyra deeply doubted double-frosted cakes would solve anything. Rarity tried to give advice, but at the same time, from what Lyra had overheard of her comments, she was too preoccupied with the upcoming Hearts and Hooves day, and her own herd, to really be all that helpful. Perhaps after…

Lyra took a moment to frown, letting the string she had been absentmindedly trying to tune fall silent. Hearts and Hooves’ day… wasn’t that today? It wouldn’t be the first time that Lyra had forgotten the day of the week, or a holiday like this. Suddenly Twilight’s insistence that they sit down the night prior and discuss the issue made all the more sense. Lyra doubted that it was out of a desire to add some stallion as she had suggested before, but rather because she had hoped—and failed—to resolve the conflict so they could enjoy the day and move forward.

With all the fighting, days were, apparently, starting to blur together.

Ah, well… Lyra thought to herself as she sighed to herself, suddenly feeling very lonely and regretful. Truthfully, missing one Hearts and Hooves day with Lero wouldn’t mean much, but it did seem to painfully remind her of all the years she had spent the day alone and—

Before she had a chance to really consider the depressing thought, however, it was disrupted by a sudden knocking at the door.

It was faint by virtue of being the front door of the library, and for a moment, Lyra just sat frozen, only to give herself a good shake when she heard the knocking a second time. While Spike would probably answer the door eventually, it struck her as particularly strange that anypony would knock on the door of an open, public, library rather than just entering. If nothing else, it would at least distract her from her dark thoughts for a little while.

Plus, ever since the fight, Spike had been particularly moody and protective of Twilight, to the point where he might just neglect his duties to comfort her.

The mysterious door knocker was just knocking for a third time when Lyra reached the door. She paused for a brief moment to run her hoof through her mane, before putting her best customer service smile on and opening the door. Which slipped off almost immediately.

Standing on the library’s front step was a grey pegasus stallion, one who Lyra had never met before or seen—which was strange, given how small of a community Ponyville was in the grand scheme of things. More curious, however, was the fact that he seemed to be clutching a small flower bouquet, all of which, Lyra couldn’t help but notice, matched the colour of the stallion’s coat. He had a frustrated, disappointed look on his muzzle, although as soon as Lyra pulled the door open, he replaced it with a wide, somewhat nervous smile.

“Um, hello,” he said.

“Hello.” Lyra tried not to frown at the strange turn of events. “Can I help—?”

Before she could finish her query, the stallion cut her off, blurting out, “Is Rainbow Dash home?”

“Rainbow Dash…?” Lyra found herself echoing. If she didn’t know better, she’d think this pony was here for a date—but this was the first Lyra was hearing about it, if that was the case.

“Or Bell-Bellerophon?” He quirked his smile up a little bit more, which made him look a little bit overeager—if somewhat adorable for it.

“Who are you?” Lyra asked finally, and only partly because she hoped asking would give her time to think.

Truthfully, Lyra wasn’t completely sure where Rainbow Dash or Lero were, although Twilight was, as far as she knew, up in her old bedroom with Spike. If she had to hazard a guess, she’d assume Rainbow was out working to fix the weather, and Lero might be doing some job here or there…

Unless, of course, the two of them were off enjoying the day without Twilight or herself. Lyra bit her lip and forced the thought out of her head. They wouldn’t do that, not to them—Rainbow certainly wouldn’t do that… No, it was much more likely Rainbow was off trying to distract herself with work, while Lero was out helping Applejack put hinges on apples or whatever it was he did.

“I-” the stallion’s smile shrank and dimmed, and Lyra found herself missing it. Whoever this pony was, he certainly looked better smiling, and she had a suspicion he didn’t smile too often. “She didn’t— I’m— My name is Dust Tempest. I… I was supposed to go on a date with Rainbow. And Bellerophon.” Dust let out a frown and looked down at the flowers in his hoof, which Lyra couldn’t help but notice were slightly crumpled, as if they had been stuffed into a saddlebag for a long while. “Or I thought I was.”

Lyra couldn’t help but cock her eyebrow at him, before she took pity on him. “Okay, Dust, come inside. Rainbow’s out working, but I’m sure she’ll be home soon—and the same with Lero.”

“I… oh!” Dust brightened immediately, and trotted into the library’s main room, looking ecstatic. “But working? On Hearts and Hooves day? Isn’t it a holiday in Ponyville?”

“It is,” Lyra agreed slowly, “but… when Rainbow was away earlier, I’m afraid the weather got a bit… out of control. She’s been working hard to fix it ever since.”

“Ah!” Dust Tempest nodded wisely as he gazed around the room, looking at the shelves and artifacts that Twilight had collected, organized, and displayed over the years. “So it’s not always this muggy? Junior Weatherponies, eh? If they’re not slacking off they’re sending your stratiforms into the cumuluses and making a right mess of things.”

“...Right,” Lyra said hesitantly, although she really wasn’t sure what he was talking about. Rainbow might be a weatherpony, and a good one, but she never talked like Twilight when she was talking about her work.

Although, she supposed the idea of incompetent underlings was somewhat more universal.

“So…” Dust said, drawing out the word as the two of them lapsed into silence. “Uh, so, you’re… Lyra?”

“That’s me,” Lyra nodded, and wondered if it would be appropriate to invite Dust into one of the main living areas to sit. On the one hoof, she supposed he was her guest, even if he was a complete stranger; but, on the other hoof, she didn’t want to seem too friendly towards him, although she supposed there wouldn’t be anything really wrong with that. Yet there was something fundamentally unusual about a pony—a stallion, no less— showing up on your doorstep, claiming he’s supposed to go on a date with your wife, and you’ve never heard of him or the date before.

Plus, a small, slightly amused sounding voice pointed out to her, the place was a real mess.

“I don’t know a whole lot about you,” Dust’s voice drew her out of her thoughts and it took her a moment to realize he sounded somewhat apologetic.

“Huh?”

“Well, you know, compared to… Lero and Twilight—Princess Twilight… or even Rainbow Dash—she’s pretty famous among us pegasi.” He explained, all while smiling in a ‘not-to-offend-you’ sort of way. She’d be lying if she didn’t feel somewhat… conflicted; it wasn’t as if she had never accomplished anything with her life. But it was hardly his fault.

“I’ve heard— I mean…” Dust shook his head. “You’re a musician, right?”

Well well, perhaps he had heard of her.

“Mhmm,” Lyra smiled, “I might not be famous like Sapphire Shores, of course, but I get by.”

His eyes paused for a moment on her behind—well, her cutie mark more likely—and she had to resist the urge to preen, however slightly. She was hardly a teenaged filly, fresh out of her first heat, for goodness’ sake. Still, there was something about Dust checking her out—intentional or not—that Lyra didn’t mind. Perhaps it was to do with the approaching estrous or—perhaps more likely and more insidious—the fact that Lero hadn’t been exactly affectionate towards her the past week. He might not have been outrightly angry with her as he seemed to be with Twilight, but she had supported her, and still found herself in the position of supporting her. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that she hadn’t been around a friendly stallion in a while.

Or maybe she really was no better than a teenaged filly.

“It’s… a harp?” Dust guessed, as he shuffled his wings and glanced out the window over Lyra’s shoulder.

“No, it’s a clairseach,” Lyra corrected, smiling at him, “it’s a stringed instrument from Scoltland. one of my grand-herdmothers is from there, and it’s the first instrument I ever had a chance to play.

“Isn’t a clairseach a sort of harp, though?” Dust asked, sounding puzzled.

“Well,” Lyra began, then paused to consider what she’d say next. They were different instruments, of course, but how to explain the differences and—

Lyra’s line of thought died faster than a Sport of Seats character when the front door was suddenly pushed open and Rainbow Dash buzzed in, followed closely by Lero. Rainbow, of course, looked happy and fulfilled, and Lero was smiling as well—but the thought that the two of them had been out together, apparently alone and spending time together—without even mentioning the possibility to her or—she assumed—Twilight, made Lyra’s heart sputter rather painfully. It wasn’t the first time the two of them had gone off on their own, and Celestia knew sometimes they could be inconsiderate, yet in this particular instance, this particular case, it was just… difficult. Maybe they hadn’t been out on some date or brunch or whatever, maybe Rainbow really had been working,and the same was true of Lero…

Or…

Rainbow was the first to spot them, or rather, she spotted Lyra first. “Lyra!” a small part of Lyra felt somewhat relieved that the mare didn’t sound particularly guilty or upset at being ‘caught’, perhaps her fears were unfounded. On the other hoof, as Lero spotted her, she couldn’t help but notice his smile became more shallow, less genuine with the sight of her. “How’s it going? I finally got that fog cleaned up and I—”

“Hi!” Dust smiled brightly and widely as Rainbow Dash finally noticed he was there, Lero’s eyes snapped to the new stallion at the sound of his voice, and Lyra couldn’t help but agree with his look of confusion. “Rainbow, it’s me!”

For her part, Rainbow managed to skid to a stop mid air, before dropping onto her hooves with a look of pure astonishment on her face. After a moment she glanced over at Lyra, who, for her part, just shrugged. How was she supposed to know what was going on?

“Dust? Dust Tempest?” Rainbow asked, which really only confirmed the fact that she knew the stallion. “What are you…?”

“We… we have a… a date,” Dust replied, looking deeply confused and slightly hurt. It must be difficult, to be surrounded by so many ponies—not to mention Lero; who, Lyra noticed, was looking rather thunderstruck in the doorway—who, while not openly hostile, weren’t particularly friendly. Especially for such an occasion.

“Um…” Rainbow stalled as she glanced from Lyra to Lero and back to Dust, looking for all the world that she’d very much like to jump into the air and high tail it out of there as fast as her wings could carry her.

However, before anyone could react, the door at the top of the stairs that led to Twilight’s first bedroom, creaked open, and Twilight emerged. At the very least, Lyra supposed, it was comforting to know that she wasn’t completely losing her ability to keep track of ponies, or guess where they might be.

Twilight’s eyes were still somewhat red and puffy, but she probably hadn’t been crying too recently, especially since her messed mane pointed towards her distracting herself with a book of one sort or another. Lyra could sympathize with that desire. Still, however broken up she might have been, Twilight scanned the scene below her in what Lyra felt was a very calm manner.

“Oh, uh, hello, Your Highness,” Dust Tempest said, half tripping over himself to bow deeply in her direction.

She ignored him as her eyes focused on Rainbow—and flicked to Lyra and Lero. “What’s going on here?”

“Uh, Uh,” Rainbow’s wings twitched and she half hovered an inch above the ground as she rubbed her hooves in little circles around one another, the very model of a filly caught with her horn in the cookie jar.

“Excuse us,” Twilight said, momentarily addressing the still-prone Dust Tempest, and fluttered down to them, jerking her head towards the far corner; her meaning couldn’t be clearer: herd meeting, now. As she passed him, Lyra gave him an awkward pat on his withers, to hopefully reassure him, before joining the others.

Lero, of course, had to sit down against the wall, and he looked somewhat dismayed; Rainbow Dash’s wings kept flicking nervously, half unfolding before she could settle them again. Twilight’s only emotion was a certain twitching eyelid, which Lyra had only seen before when her wife had been extremely frustrated and doing her darndest to hold it back. Lyra could guess why, but she really wanted to hear Rainbow’s side of the story first, before condemning anyone.

“Rainbow, what’s going on here? Who is this stallion?” Twilight asked in a blunt, if hushed, tone.

Rainbow pawed the floor with her hoof and half-smiled, half grimaced awkwardly. “His name is Dust Tempest. And uh…”

“He told me he’s supposed to go on a date with you,” Lyra filled in for her, while trying not to take pleasure in Rainbow’s flinching. “and Lero…”

“Is this true?” Lero asked, but before he could say anymore, Twilight cut across him with an exasperated, “Really?”

“You—you throw a big—” Twilight continued, sputtering slightly, although from Rainbow’s reaction, she understood every word perfectly. “And then, then… this?!”

Seeing fresh tears in Twilight’s eyes, Lyra leaned up against her—though if she noticed, she didn’t show it.

“It’s not like that, Twilight,” Rainbow exclaimed with a certain air of desperation. “I swear it’s not, Lero—Lyra! It… It was kind of an accident.”

“How do you accidentally get a date?” Lero asked; there was, of course, a certain measure of anger in his voice—but also a not unnoticable amount of humour, which only irritated Lyra to a degree. She doubted he’d be so amused if Twilight or herself had come home with an ‘accidental’ date.

“I… I just… I wasn’t really thinking straight— he was asking if we could have lunch sometime and I said I wanted to take you too and—” Lyra could tell the mare was only digging the hole deeper for herself, and after a moment Twilight shoved her hoof into Rainbow’s mouth.

“Just… Just... “ Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before rubbing the tears out of her eyes and continuing in a far calmer tone of voice. “What are we going to do now?”

“We should go on the date,” Lyra said, surprising herself and causing the rest of the herd to turn to her with varying degrees of surprise and anger. Thankfully, her years of meditation and deep thought prevented her from becoming flustered—that, and the fact that her mouth was running away with her. “I mean, look at him, the poor thing has his heart set on it—besides, it’s not like Rainbow promised him any more than this—” Lyra quickly glanced at Rainbow. “...right?”

“Of course not,” Rainbow mumbled quickly, with a blush.

“You might want to, I don’t know, catch him then,” Lero said, in a tone of voice that sounded almost too neutral to be real, as he pointed lazily towards the doorway.

Lyra craned her neck to look behind them, only to see the last of the stallion’s dusty-yellow tail slip through the open doorway. Twilight swore, and it took Lyra a moment to remember what Rainbow was so fond of reminding them of: pegasi had excellent hearing. Before she could so much as take a step towards the retreating pony, Rainbow jumped into the air and sped after him, leaving behind a multicoloured contrail for the three of them to follow.

Thankfully, as Lyra stepped out into the now-clear sunlight, it was clear Dust Tempest hadn’t made it very far before Rainbow had caught up with him, hovering in front of the stallion, blocking his path.

“Where are you going, Dust?” Rainbow asked, then let herself fall back onto her hooves—perhaps realizing she was being needlessly aggressive.

“It’s alright. You don’t want me or… anything,” Dust said listlessly. In fact, every inch of the stallion seemed woebegone, and she couldn’t help but wonder how much store he had been putting in this date. “An accident.” The last word carried a dark sort of bitterness in it. And she wasn’t the only one who noticed—Rainbow looked distinctly uncomfortable and Lero, whom Lyra could see out of the corner of her eye, frowned.

“I shouldn’t have—” Rainbow began, but cut Twilight cut her off, stepping up between Lyra and their stallion.

“This hasn’t been the best time for us… Dust Tempest, was it?” Twilight’s voice was surprisingly friendly, and composed, although she still seemed to be slightly angry looking, given the way she kept twitching her wings.

“So I heard,” Dust grunted, flicking his wings as if he was about to take off—and Rainbow’s unconsciously mirroring him. Then, he seemed to realize who he was talking to, and looked slightly abashed. “I mean, I… know, Your Majesty.”

Twilight’s eye twitched, and for a moment Lyra thought she might snap at him, before she let out a long breath and calmly said. “Yes, well, I know it might not be what you’re expecting, but if you’re still interested on taking us for lunch, I don’t think any of us have any objections.” Twilight glanced sidelong at Lero, whose eyes narrowed slightly before he purposely looked away from Twilight. “And call me Twilight—there’s no need to be formal.”

Dust looked uncertain, pawing the ground with his hoof. “Is there really any point though? I mean, you’ve already said that you’re not interested.”

“But only because we were caught off guard, really,” Lyra said, half-lying. If they were happy and healthy as a herd, and actively seeking somepony, she really couldn’t see why Dust Tempest wouldn’t maybe make a possible candidate for herd membership; on the other hoof, she didn’t really know him either—and from the sound of things, Rainbow didn’t really know much about him either. He wasn’t familiar like a pony like Big Mac or Caramel might have been. Meeting new ponies wasn’t a bad thing, of course, but Lyra would have prefered not to be blindsided. On the other, other hoof, it was only a first date—and as good of a time as any for them to get familiar with him. Plus, it helped that he wasn’t too hard on the eyes either. He had a similar build to Rainbow—although obviously more muscled and firmed up in all the right places, so it wasn’t as if he was unattractive, at least physically. “There’s no point in double guessing ourselves here,” she added, more so for her own benefit. “After all, there’s no guarantee it would have worked out between us anyway… right?”

“Lyra’s right,” Lero said, his voice unusually gruff, although she suspected it was more that he spoke up at all that startled Dust than the unwelcoming nature of his voice. “There’s no point in counting your chickens before they hatch—” Lero ignored all their blank stares, “—so, if you still want to go on a date—” Lyra couldn’t help but notice his voice seemed to be a bit dry here. “—I guess we better get about it.”

Lyra wished he hadn’t made it sound like it was an unpleasant chore that needed doing.

Dust, for his part, stared at Lero for a moment, before smiling, and turning towards him with his hoof outstretched. “you’re right, of course, I… I was being silly. Let’s start over, I’m Dust Tempest, and you must be… Bellerophon?”

Lero paused for a moment, before taking the offered hoof and shaking it. It wasn’t a terribly good shake, since Lyra suspected Dust had only ever read about the idea, rather than having done it himself, being much more common among griffins than ponies. “Call me Lero, please.”

“So… where were you thinking of taking us?” Rainbow said quickly, presumably so they didn’t have to introduce one another all over again.

For a second, it looked as if Dust hadn’t heard her, as he was still smiling up at Lero. But then he shook his head as if to clear it, withdrew his hoof, and looked around at them, “Where—? Oh, well, I was thinking of Le Bon Foin, since, uh,” Dust giggled nervously and glanced at Twilight, before shrugging. “Oh, I’ve forgotten the flowers!”

Lyra saw Twilight sigh briefly, and wondered why, before being distracted by Dust pulling the bouquet of flowers out from under his wing and passing one to her. It looked even more crumbled than it had earlier, but after a moment’s thought, she slipped the flower into her mane, and turned to watch Lero receive his. It had been, of course, a very long time since any of them had been on any sort of date, but he didn’t hesitate to put it behind his ear—although Lyra couldn’t help but notice his red hair seemed to swallow the little bit of grey up, especially with his hair not tied back.

It wasn’t until they were moving through the streets that Lyra found herself wondering how the other ponies in town would react. The streets of Ponyville were naturally quite crowded even on an average day, and, with today being a holiday, the crowds were even thicker than normal. It wasn’t that the town was shut down, obviously, but it seemed far more concentrated than normal. This wasn’t unexpected; what was unexpected were the glances and (sometimes) surprised reactions on the ponies’ faces as they trotted past. Some ponies, like Dust, were from out-of-town, so Lyra supposed she could understand their surprise at Lero; yet, even familiar faces seemed to be surprised as they headed to Le Bon Foin. Perhaps it was merely that their herd had formed—more or less—so quickly that most ponies had never seen them go on many dates, and she doubted very much that any of them had seen a Princess go on a date before—newly crowned or not.

Yet part of her wondered if her fellow townfolk—ponies she’d like to think were her friends—were really that comfortable with the idea of Lero being in a herd with them. Intellectually, they may have accepted Lero into their community and understood him to be in a relationship with ponies, but perhaps they hadn’t quite gotten as used to it as Lyra had thought.

The looks didn’t really bother her all that much, and a glance at Twilight suggested the mare wasn’t bothered by it either, unless she was keeping her concerns in check. Rainbow looked vaguely uncomfortable, and so did Lero, but whether that was from the looks or because of the sudden date, Lyra had no idea. The only one of them who didn’t seem to have noticed was Dust Tempest, who, for his part, seemed more concerned as to whether he ought to be leading them to the restaurant or following them to the restaurant, given how he kept surging ahead, then pulling back. Part of her wished she knew what to say to him, especially since he always seemed to be a little bit sad that the rest of them weren’t as eager to get there as he was; but, then, none of them were really talking, and the silence was, to a degree, stifling.

Thankfully, the restaurant wasn’t that far from the library.

The restaurant, Le Bon Foin, Lyra couldn’t help but notice, was the very same one that the three of them plus Rarity had dined at the week prior; the meal that had started off, in some sense, this whole mess. There was, Lyra couldn’t help but think again, a certain sort of irony to the world. Despite the crowded nature of the restaurant, it only took them a moment or two to be seated, although the waitress seemed to nearly have a heart attack when Dust informed the poor mare that his reservation for ‘three’ had nearly doubled in size.

“So,” Lyra said a few moments after they had sat down and ordered their appetizers. Besides speaking to the waitress, none of them seemed willing to break the awkward silence between them, leaving it to her. She had thought, perhaps, Rainbow would be more talkative, but the mare seemed to be relatively subdued than anything else. “Dust, what… do you do?”

“I’m a weatherpony specializing in particle cloud manipulation,” Dust said, sounding as if he was speaking a memorized line—possibly because he was so used to saying it.

“Really?” Twilight said, before Lyra could ask him to elaborate. To her surprise, she actually sounded somewhat interested. “I’ve heard dust cloud manipulation is one of the harder branches of weather science.”

Dust blushed slightly. “Sort of? I wouldn’t call it that difficult, really.” There was a certain sense of pride in his voice mixed with what Lyra could only describe as an earnest humbleness, as if he didn’t want to brag but actually really did want to brag. “Most, uh, most ponies probably just have trouble with it because they don’t have a chance to practice.”

“I supposed they’re not easy to generate in Cloudsdale.” Twilight nodded.

“Sorry,” Lero interrupted, looking confused and slightly put off, although Lyra wasn’t sure why. “What do you do? I don’t quite understand.”

“Sorry,” whatever pride might have been in Dust’s voice evaporated, leaving him sounding ever so slightly worried. “I— that is to say, ponies in my field of work—we control dust storms, or sandstorms and similar. Anything with a lot of physical particles in it.”

“Oh,” Lero said with a frown. “To what end though? I mean, rain is good if you’re growing a farm or whatever, but what good is making dust storms?”

“I, well—uh,” Dust stammered, looking horribly flustered and confused, “I… I mean, I mostly just break them up, stop them from happening… so they….” his voice trailed off, although Lyra could have sworn she had heard something about saving ponies lives.

“They can do a lot of damage,” Twilight pointed out, looking at Lero with a slightly disgruntled look. “Just like any storm—and they’re particularly dangerous in the badlands to the south, where the Princesses are colonizing.”

“Y-yeah, exactly,” Dust agreed, looking somewhat relieved. “Sometimes I go out to the southern islands and bring back volcanic ashes too.” He paused. “For farms.”

“Plus, there’s all that lightning you can generate,” Rainbow added, with an excited grin as she gestured wildly. “I looked it up when I got home! One of Commander Hurricane’s best warriors could do that—apparently, this one time, she went and—”

“But you can make lightning too, Rainbow,” Lero interjected before Rainbow could go off on her tangent.

“Well, sure,” Rainbow agreed, either missing or ignoring his tone. “But not like this, dry lightning is wild!”

“It’s not something I’ve ever done,” Dust said with a shake of his head. “No need to.”

“Really?” Lyra asked, unable to stop herself. “Not even for fun?” Weatherponies, in her experience, tended to be fairly playful even if they were otherwise very serious.

Dust’s face reddened. “N-nope.”

Before she had a chance to tease him over the lie, however, the appetizers came. While, to some degree, she wasn’t completely sure they were all that hungry—especially if her suspicions about Rainbow and Lero were true—having something to put in their mouths did, after all, occupy their time somewhat effectively without being awkward. Still, now that the ice was broken, Lyra wasn’t sure she wanted to let it reform.

“Well, you know what I do,” Lyra said after swallowing, “and I assume you know what Rainbow does.”

“Yes,” Dust agreed, nodding and glancing at Twilight. “And there’s no need to ask what you do, Princ— Twilight.”

“I think I’d rather be a librarian, somedays,” Twilight said drily with a snort, “but yes.”

“Right,” Dust said slowly, before glancing at Lero. “What…. what do you do, Lero? I’ve never really heard…”

Lero paused to take a drink, and Lyra frowned. It was as if he was trying to avoid answering the question. “I do odds and ends, really. I’m something of a handyman around town—and I also work at the spa.”

“‘Handyman’?” Dust echoed, looking mystified.

“Odd jobs,” Lero sighed, “like, plumbing, or rebuilding a roof. I don’t really do anything too steady, I just help out where I can.

“Oh,” Dust said, sounding, if anything, disappointed. Perhaps he thought Lero’s work was much more glamourous than that. Whether it was because he thought the only human in Equestria might get a better deal, or because it seemed all the mares he had surrounded himself with were more professional. “Oh, I see.”

“There’s no need to sound so disappointed,” Lero said, his voice taking on an ever so slightly hard edge to it.

“No! No, of course not!” Dust said quickly, “I didn’t mean to insult you, Lero!”

And, like that, an awkward silence wrapped itself around the table and its occupants. Fortunately, before it really became an issue, their main course arrived, providing a good reason for none of them to really spend too much time addressing one another at any length. Still, there was a sort of tension hovering over the table; perhaps, once the meal was finished, they’d be able to get back to talking on more friendly terms…

Twilight’s fork hovered over the complex looking hay-pasta dish that she had so foolishly ordered, and absentmindedly toyed with it, as she tried to avoid stealing glances at the other’s plates around the table. While she didn’t want to admit it, she wasn’t particularly hungry or interested in eating. Spike had always been something of a nervous eater, eating more when he was upset or distraught, and he had a tendency to offer the same sorts of comforts to her when he was looking after her. It wasn’t as if she was eating buckets of ice cream while locked in her room, but as she forced down a bite or two of the meal, she had to admit that nibbling all day was a good way to ruin an appetite. Just one more mistake, it seemed.

In fact, of the five of them, only Lyra and Dust seemed to be making much headway into their meals. Lyra, Twilight suspected, had skipped breakfast once again; she had been doing so fairly often this past week or so, and Twilight couldn’t blame her, given she hadn’t been the most social pony lately, either. Dust, unless Twilight was very much off her mark, had flown to Ponyville just this morning, which of course explained his appetite. Not that it really bothered her, that much. Keeping his eyes on the plate and his focus on his meal would likely keep the fact that he was the only one really into the date from him, if only for a little while longer.

The thought caused Twilight’s grip on her utensil to tighten slightly, although nopony but another unicorn would have noticed. It was bad enough that Rainbow Dash had freaked out, and ran away like a foal over the very suggestion that they might go out and look into expanding the herd with another stallion. She made a huge deal out of it, she blew everything out of proportion, and then, and then she had the gall—the arrogance!—to set up a date with this pegasus.

The hypocrisy of it all made her feel like she ought to break something. Like a plate. Over Rainbow’s head.

Truthfully, Twilight suspect part of her frustration was to do with the fact that, somehow, Rainbow had managed to pick up a stallion that she actually liked to some degree. Under his shy, cautious, exterior, she couldn’t help but suspect there was a bright pony that she might actually be able to talk to on her level. Not to mention, his body wasn’t too bad either.

‘Accident’ her butt, how does somepony accidentally ask another pony out? Some small, cruel part of herself laughed, and pointed out that, if there was such an oblivious pony, it would have to be Rainbow Dash. Who else but her could accidentally get a date with a stallion, and then forget to mention it to the rest of her herd? What an idiot.

The thought, although perhaps excusable given what she had been through the past week or so, shocked her more than she really cared to admit. Almost immediately, she felt a surge of shame. How could she think such a thought about her herdmate—her wife?

Twilight let out a long sigh. If anything, Dust’s presence here suggested to her that, perhaps, Rainbow wasn’t nearly as firm on her position of expanding the herd as she might openly voice; It was her desire to be loyal to Lero that had caused the objection more than anything: a desire not to see him get hurt. Not that Twilight wanted to see him get hurt either. But Lero was just as loyal to Rainbow—perhaps so loyal that he didn’t seem to realize that, whatever issue they might have, Rainbow wasn’t too upset about being ousted from her position as lead mare. Whether it was because she really didn’t care, or because she had bigger things on her mind...

With a grunt, Twilight noticed Dust was nearly done, and let her fork drop onto her plate before pushing it away.

Having never been made to feel guilty by a meal before, this whole experience was really quite novel to Rainbow Dash. Of course, it wasn’t really the meal that was making her feel guilty, it was the fact that she simply didn’t want to eat it, despite ordering it. Her lack of interest in it just reminded her that perhaps, perhaps she and Lero shouldn’t have gone ‘out’ together. It wasn’t a date or anything, not in the usual sense, but rather she had spotted Lero walking home after she had finally fixed the darn weather around Ponyville, and the two of them had gone to get a bite to eat. It was hardly a fancy meal, but it felt so good to just go and do something without the tension of the past week hanging over them.

Rainbow really had no idea what to do about it, either. Lero was quite upset about the whole thing, and, in her opinion, he had every right to be. Yet, at the same time, Twilight was—in her own, eggheaded way—trying to make up for it. Calling the meeting the night prior was perfect, even if she did lecture… and Lero had kind of blown up on her.

Part of her wondered if she should just put her hoof down and tell Lero to stop being so mean to Twilight, but that didn’t seem like the sort of thing that would help, and she didn’t want to make her stallion feel like he was isolated or his opinion didn’t matter.

Of course, she suspected the two of them were going to have to talk, once Dust left. It really was an accident, as nice as he might be, but Rainbow had to admit it was pretty bad of her too—looking at another stallion, when she had Lero? What was wrong with her? Sure, it had been him who had asked her out, but still. It had hurt him, she was sure, and it had certainly hurt Twilight too.

Did some small part of her want to hurt Twilight? Punish her for thinking about expanding the herd, or for Challenging her? The thought left Rainbow feeling cold and made her feelings of guilt only intensify.

Rainbow glanced up to look at her wife, only to see Twilight push away her half-eaten plate of food. It seemed she wasn’t the only pony without an appetite today.

Lero tried not to grumble as he shifted in his seat, and covered his discomfort with a long draw from his glass of wine that had come with the meal. He wasn’t much of a drinker, especially not of what passed for alcohol in Equestria, which was often more sweet than dry and lacked a certain sort of bite that he could remember from Earth. Or… at least, he thought it did. Sometimes it felt like his life before coming to Equestria was nothing more than a dream—one that was fading daily. There were times when, if he was thinking back, he struggled to remember the faces of his friends or family. The here and now felt so much more real to him, and certainly, he had much more of a life here (although he was loath to admit it to himself) than he had ever had on Earth.

Yet, just as often, Lero found himself reminded unpleasantly that for all his efforts and work, he was still in many ways an outsider to Equestria, one that would, in all likelihood, never fit in, and never be more than a stranger at best to the people—the ponies—around him. They might do their best to try and make him feel welcome, for the most part, but…

The Maitre d’, for example, had seemed to be completely floored when Lero had entered the building, coming up behind the rest of the herd and ducking to enter. It wasn’t, Lero suspected, that she didn’t have any idea who he was—indeed, he was famous enough, and that was ignoring the fact that Twilight was as Princess—but her face when he walked in seemed to betray a certain sort of unmitigated surprise on her part. She had recovered quickly enough, of course, producing a seat out of one of the back rooms for Lero to sit on, but that momentary lapse, that small crack in her otherwise professional mask was enough to remind Lero that he was welcome, but not necessarily a part of Equestrian life.

It didn’t help that the chair the Maitre d’ had produced for him wasn’t terribly comfortable. Not because it was a particularly bad chair or that it wasn’t intended for comfort, but rather it was designed for a Minotaur and didn’t work particularly well with Lero’s body. He didn’t blame her, it was certainly a mistake that Lero had experienced before over his years of living in Equestria, but it was just one more reminder that he was an outsider here.

Although, Lero thought somewhat bitterly, it probably wasn’t the real source of discomfort here.

It was hard to not notice the stallion sitting across from him, and as he replaced his wine glass, Dust Tempest caught his eye and smiled back at him shyly. He tried his best to return the friendly smile, but he suspected it came off as more of a grimace than anything else, especially given how Dust’s own smile crumpled ever so slightly and he glanced away—first to Rainbow, and then back to his own plate, looking slightly less happy than he had been a few moments ago.

Lero caught himself before he could sigh, and gave Rainbow a very sidelong glance himself, before returning to his own meal, such as it was. Neither of them, Lero knew, was particularly hungry, since he had insisted on taking her out for a meal when the two of them had met up on the way home from their respective jobs. It had been nice to get away from the toxic-feeling atmosphere of their home and just sit and have a meal, although part of him wondered if he ought not feel guilty for thinking that way. Oh, part of him certainly felt somewhat bad, especially for Lyra, but at the same time, Twilight was certainly in the wrong and she needed to apologize for it.

And yet, here they were on a date with a stallion that Rainbow had set up. If only by accident. He was more than willing to believe Rainbow’s explanation that she had done so, although he wasn’t completely certain how one could accidentally set up a date.

Of course, if he was being honest with himself, he’d note that the two of them had, in a sense, fallen for each other accidentally, so perhaps it wasn’t too farfetched.

He shifted again in his seat and did his best to eat a few bites of the meal. Admittedly, it wasn’t bad, although like so much of Equestrian food, there was a certain hay taste under whatever spices or sauces they might add. He half-wished he had ordered the fish, but he didn’t feel particularly good about taking advantage of Dust Tempest, however much he might dislike him.

And he wasn’t really sure how much he did dislike him.

“Should we… order dessert?” Dust Tempest asked, speaking up and pulling Lero out of his tangled web of thoughts. In the intervening time, it seemed that stallion had finished his own meal—with Lyra being a close second. The rest of them had, at best, eaten no more than half of their own meals, and there was a certain disappointment etched on Dust’s face. He of course had no means of knowing that most of them had already eaten, and if he had to guess, Lero would guess that Dust felt the lack of interest in the food was a lack of interest in the date.

Which probably wasn’t too far from the truth.

“I’m… I don’t think so, Dust,” Twilight replied in an even tone that she adopted whenever she was hiding her own feelings. “It was lovely, but I’m just not terribly hungry at the moment—I’m afraid I had a big, er, breakfast.”

“Oh.” Dust’s voice held disappointment to match his face now. “I understand.” But how much did he really understand, Lero wondered. “Well, I suppose we could just talk?”

“Sure,” Twilight agreed with a nod, as did Lyra; but, then, an uncomfortable silence fell around them, and none of them opened their mouths to talk. It didn’t really surprise Lero—after all, they had only just met, and it wasn’t as if conversation would flow freely from such uninspired starts.

And Dust Tempest seemed to be more than aware of that fact, given the way he kept glancing around the table, as if hoping somepony else would start talking and he could just join in or listen.

“Well, uh,” he said after a long moment and he looked at Lero and licked his lips. “How… how did all of you meet, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I’m sure you know,” Lero said, surprised and more than a little bit miffed at how gruff his voice sounded. “Fluttershy, one of Rainbow’s friends—” out of the corner of his eye, Lero noticed Twilight flinch “—found me outside of the Everfree Forest.”

“Yes… yes I heard.” Dust nodded and looked somewhat concerned. “And that’s how you met Rainbow?”

“Yup,” Rainbow chimed in with a grin. “We all pitched in, ‘course, but after he got out of Fluttershy’s and started living with Twilight, we started hanging out, and one thing led to another.”

“I’m probably something of the odd pony out, I’m sure,” Lyra agreed, “but it wasn’t as if he wasn’t well known around town.”

Lero couldn’t help but notice she left out that she had been tasked with trailing him by her mistresses.

“And there’s not a whole lot else to say, really.” Lero added, before anyone else could speak. He doubted that this pony didn’t already know all this before—god only knows how much the Equestrian Media had jumped on his appearance and courtship of the mares; regardless, he wasn’t sure he really wanted to talk to him about it.

“Oh,” clearly Dust had picked up on the irritation in Lero’s voice, whether he intended it or not. “Uh, well.” There was a pause and the stallion rubbed circles in the table cloth. “Well,” he repeated. “How are… you liking it here, in Equestria, Lero?”

A small flare of anger that erupted in Lero’s belly, and before he had a moment to think, he heard himself snap: “It’s not as if I’m here by choice.” Even as he said it, the mares around the table flinched or looked uncomfortable—whether it was from his tone or Dust Tempest’s question, he didn’t know.

“N-no!” The pegasus’s wings flared with alarm, “Of course not! No, I—I didn’t mean it that way, Lero! I just meant—”

Whatever he meant, Lero wasn’t prepared to hear him out. The little flame of anger in his belly grew, feeding on his discomfort and his already simmering anger with his wife; before he had time to think, he had pushed his chair back and stood up. “I think we’re done here,” Lero said, before he turned towards the doorway, ignoring the shocked—and in all likelihood, frightened—looks on the other patron’s faces. Before anypony could stop him, including his wives, Lero was gone.

It was a disaster, and perhaps, then, it was only natural that Twilight be the one to clean it up—although with some help from Lyra, admittedly.

As Lero had stomped off, Dust had, naturally, burst into tears, and Rainbow had taken one look at the distraught stallion and sped off after Lero. Some small, naive part of her held out faint hope that Rainbow might actually be going to confront her husband about his actions, but given her record of late, she suspected that might be foolishness to the point of absurdity.

Lyra, on the other hoof, had glanced between where Lero had exited the restaurant and Dust, and then went to comfort him, leaving Twilight to deal with what she could only call the political fallout. As much as she loathed to admit it, it hardly looked good for her or her herd to be presiding over Dust crying even if it wasn’t her or any of her wives’ faults; of course, Twilight had learned from an early age that there was a certain need to, for lack of a better word, control how the media talked about you, and she wanted to assure the patrons that it wasn’t as if Twilight (or Lyra, or Rainbow) had purposely made Dust Tempest cry, or somehow been overly mean or cruel to him. The very thought twisted her guts, but she knew full well that a less-than-scrupulous reporter might get her hooves on the ‘story’ and spin it in that way.

It would, after all, reflect poorly on the Crowns of Equestria if there was an implication that her herd was going around abusing stallions. Not that it made Twilight feel particularly better about the blatant manipulation inherent to what she was doing. It wasn’t really a lie, of course, to suggest that the date had just gone badly, but Twilight couldn’t help but feel like it wasn’t exactly the truth. Oh, it wasn’t perfect, but she had felt that she was rather warming to Dust; whatever faults he might have, he certainly seemed genuine and interesting. Of course, she couldn’t exactly blame the whole situation on Lero publically, either.

Still, however dirty it might make her feel, it was better than trying to assure Dust that it wasn’t his fault and comfort him. She suspected she wasn’t exactly as warm and fuzzy as she might need to be in order to be a comforting presence, not to mention it might be difficult for him to accept her as such, if he saw more of her crown and station than of her as a pony.

Plus, there was something deeply indecent about seeing a stallion cry, and the very thought made Twilight more than a little uncomfortable. She suspected most of the mares in the restaurant were glad when he calmed down and his sobs subsided.

Her discomfort, however, only served to fuel her anger, and by the time Lyra and herself were headed back home—Twilight had put Dust up at one of Ponyville’s small inns as a way of apology—she felt the best way to describe herself might be furious. It was bad enough that Rainbow had gone and set up a date, after she had made such a big deal out of it, but she was tired of Lero’s attitude. If he hadn’t wanted to go on the date, he should have just said so, and as insensitive as Dust’s question might have been, you’d have to be willfully ignorant to assume he was being maliciously insensitive.

“Twilight,” Lyra said, sounding slightly annoyed and more than a little bit concerned. “Twilight?”

Twilight bit back a sharp retort, since, she had a sneaking suspicion that Lyra had been trying to talk to her for sometime, and paused mid stride to look at her. “What is it, Lyra?” She hadn’t meant for her voice to come out so… cold, but it had, and twisted her heart slightly to see Lyra flinch.

“Twilight, I know you’re angry, but…” Lyra broke eye contact and glanced down the street towards the library door. “I think you need to end this, and soon.”

“I agree,” Twilight said shortly with a nod. This had gone on too long, and it was time somepony—herself, it seemed—sorted this out. “Can… can I count on your support?”

Lyra looked at her, before pawing the ground with her hoof. “Yes, I suppose, but... “

“But?” Twilight echoed.

“Don’t… just be gentle, okay?” Lyra asked, looking all the world that she had wanted to say much more but didn’t have the energy or guts to argue the point.

“I’ll be however gentle,” Twilight said as she started towards her home again, “or hard as I need to be, Lyra.”

“I—”

The interior of the library was much like they had left it, but Twilight ignored everything—including a confused and dismayed Spike—as she stomped into their main living area. It didn’t really surprise her to any degree to find Lero slumped back into his chair with Rainbow floating beside him, talking to him; what it was that they were talking about, however, it cut off as Twilight barged in with Lyra right behind her. Twilight ignored that too—and the question on Rainbow’s lips—and got right down to it.

“Do you mind telling me what the hell that was all about?” Twilight snarled; some distant part of her felt some sort of alarm at her tone, but she ignored that just the same. “What the hay do you think you were doing?”

“Twilight, wai—” Rainbow began to speak for Lero, but Twilight cut her off.

“You left Dust crying—crying!—back there, Lero! What do you think you were doing?”

“He shouldn’t have said that, Twi!” Rainbow began, but Twilight jabbed a hoof in her direction.

“You don’t get to tell me that, Rainbow! Not after you complained and threw a temper tantrum and ran the fuck away like a filly,” Twilight snapped, “Only to go out and get a date with some stallion, the very thing you were running away from!”

“Don’t you talk to her like that!” Lero said, while Rainbow let out an indignant, “hey!”

“Oh yes,” Twilight was startled by the mocking tone in her voice, the cruel barb in it, but she couldn’t stop herself. “Now you talk, to defend her, why am I not surprised?!”

Not surprisingly, there was an eruption, with Rainbow and Lero and herself all shouting at each other, trying to get words in and trying, trying very hard to hurt one another with their words, if not their hooves. Upon reflection, Twilight wasn’t really sure she could remember anything she had actually said, or anything that had actually been said to her, but the anger and lashing out at Rainbow and her stallion was clear enough. There was something horribly satisfying about seeing the hurt on their faces, making them feel in some small measure the same sort of pain that she herself had been feeling. Not, of course, that she was completely immune and between the two of them, they were giving as good as they got.

“ALL OF YOU, SHUT UP!” Lyra’s voice rose above the din in the living room, cutting through their casual cruelty and thoughtless attempts to hurt one another, and the three of them turned to look at the green unicorn in question.

Intellectually, Twilight knew Lyra had followed her into the living room, but she hadn’t said anything—which didn’t quite explain why the mare was breathing as if she had run from Canterlot and back. The glare she gave back gave them all pause, and reminded Twilight unnervingly that Lyra was, at the end of the day, a Still Way Grandmaster, and whether she had intended to or not, she had assumed a rather angry stance.

“Did our vows mean nothing?” Lyra voice was calm, almost unnaturally so, especially after the rage that had filled it just a few moments before. “Look at you, standing here yelling at each other like foals on a playground. I thought we were supposed to love each other—to look after each other and care for one another! If somepony had told me I’d come upon my herd fighting like this, I would have laughed in her face, but now…!”

Twilight could feel the anger burning out in her—perhaps not burning out, but the rage that filled her left, and she could almost feel herself physically deflating as she looked away, ashamed, from the one pony in her herd that apparently had any common sense at all. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Rainbow reacting much the same way, and Lero himself slumped back into his chair. Now, it seemed, Lyra’s earlier warning was sinking in, if rather too late.

Still, her own words echoed in her head just as clearly, and she knew full well backing down wasn’t an option.

“Lero,” Twilight chose her words and tone carefully as she addressed her stallion. “Can you explain what happened back there?”

“Dust shouldn’t have asked that question,” Rainbow cut in resolutely, although she shrunk a little bit under the look Twilight gave her.

“I’m asking Lero, Rainbow.” Calmly, calmly! “Well?”

“I… I don’t know,” Lero said, his voice sounding heavy and tired. And slightly shocked, as if the admission surprised him. “It… It really wasn’t the question, I guess, I just... “

“Then what was it, Lero?” Twilight asked.

Lero leaned back, deeper into his chair, but didn’t answer.

“Was it the date?” Lyra asked softly. “If you didn’t want to go, you should have…”

“I… I guess,” Lero frowned and stared off into the ceiling, studying it as if he was hoping there was some sort of answer up there among the rafters. There was a pause, and no pony said anything at all for a moment.

“Look, I’ve said I’m sorry and I mean it,” Rainbow began, her voice taking a certain pleading tone to it as she dropped down onto her hooves and her wings flicked inconsequently. “He just… I don’t know! He said I was… he asked me out! Like I was hot or something.”

“Rainbow,” Lero said gently, frowning slightly, “you are hot, and pretty. You know this—you should know this.”

“I don’t know why you’re surprised,” Lyra said, also frowning. “I mean, we—me and Twilight wouldn’t be here if we didn’t think you weren’t, well, sexy.” Lyra glanced at Lero’s face but didn’t add anything like ‘not to mention Lero here’.

“You didn’t have to say yes,” Twilight added, and suppressed the urge to flinch at her own cool sounding voice.

“No… I… I know, I messed up, I’m sorry,” Rainbow said, pawing the floor with her hoof.

“Apology accepted,” Twilight said, or at least, she started to say, before Lero opened his own mouth and cut her off.

“Am I really that awful?” Lero asked, his voice sounding more than a bit strained. “I mean, you all want to get someone… somepony new and at the drop of a hat—”

Twilight frowned, and realized that the date probably had hurt Lero must more than he cared to admit. Perhaps it wasn’t so shocking that he had gotten mad and stormed out over a meaningless, harmless question. Yet, the fundamentals of what he was saying made no sense either.

“Lero, nopony wants to replace you, and you’re not awful,” Twilight tried to make her voice warm as possible, and she suspected she only partly succeeded. “Not me, not Lyra, and—” she left out ‘certainly’ “—not Rainbow. We… we love you. You know that, right?”

“But what can I really offer you?” Lero asked. “Other than being, well, human, what am I good for, really? I’m not even particularly good at what I do.”

“That’s not true!” Lyra exclaimed, as Rainbow gasped. “I’ve never felt a pony give such a good massage before!”

“And you’re always helping out around town,” Rainbow added, “doing stuff no other pony could do.”

“It’s only because you haven’t got anyone to compare me with,” Lero let out a long sigh, as if the admission had cost him something dearly.

Twilight stopped herself from frowning at his words, and shook herself. “None of that matters, though,” She said, and waited to catch his eye when he looked up at her. “You could be a pauper or an idiot and we’d still love you, Lero. And we still care for you. Yes, maybe you’re not special back on Earth, or maybe you’re not that special here—” Rainbow looked as if she was going to snap at her, but Twilight hurried on “—but you’re special to us and that’s what matters. I don’t want to replace you, Lero, nor does Lyra, nor does Rainbow. I’d like to think I have a heart big enough for all of you—and maybe more.”

“When I joined the herd, you didn’t stop loving Rainbow or Twilight, right?” Lyra added, jumping in before Twilight could add more. “And they didn’t stop loving you, right?”

Lero didn’t answer, but did let out a long sigh, and after a moment, he spread his arms invitingly. “Come here.”

Perhaps it was the draining nature of the day or the weeks leading up to it, but Twilight didn’t think twice about letting her anger go and climbing up onto the chair with her stallion, alongside Rainbow and Lyra. It wasn’t terribly comfortable, and the chair creaked rather ominously, but for the first time, it felt… it was like… maybe not over, but certainly Twilight could feel like it was a good first ste—

“What about the whole leadership thing, Twilight?” Lero’s voice asked, sounding somewhat muffled, considering it was probably buried in somepony else’s mane. “Are you going to apologize to Rainbow?”

Twilight’s heart froze, then skipped a few beats, and a small spark of frustration snapped back into existence in her mind; but before she could say anything, a weary, disgruntled sounding Lyra answered first: “Rainbow, do you even give a fuck who’s lead mare?”

There was a pause.

“I guess not,” Rainbow replied. “It wasn’t very cool of you to Challenge me, though, Twilight.”

“I… I know,” Twilight agreed, biting back an apology, before deciding maybe she might as well take the risk. “And… I’m sorry. I think you needed it, and I think you know that, but…” Twilight sighed. “I never meant to hurt you, Rainbow.”

“Okay,” Rainbow said, and Twilight felt Lero’s arms squeeze them all a bit tighter. A first step indeed; oh, she wasn’t naive, she knew it would take longer for the wounds to heal, but Twilight suspected, strongly, that they would heal, and maybe in the future they might find someone like Dust. Maybe they could get him to go on another—better planned date and one day she’d be a mother or—

Twilight’s train of thought was derailed as the chair broke and the lot of them were thrown onto the floor.

Love of the Herd

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Of course, a group hug, nice as it was, couldn’t solve everything. Neither could make up sex. Truthfully, Lero wasn’t really sure it had actually solved anything.

Oh, it wasn’t that he feared they were going to wake up and go back to fighting or the same sort of uneasy tension that that been floating around the combined house for the past week or so would pop back up. Yet, at the same time, and in spite of the mares currently curled up around (and on) him, he wasn’t completely happy, either. It wasn’t the sort of egg shells tension that had filled the air and conversations before; the contented way his three wives were sleeping told him that, but something had changed. Perhaps only for him.

Intellectually, ever since Rainbow had explained the notion of the herd as a family unit to him, Lero had known that herds could contain more than one stallion. Indeed, over the years he had met more than a few such herds, such as Twilight’s, which reinforced that. The notion wasn’t foreign to him, and he also understood that a lot of stallions in the herd were just friends, best friends perhaps, but there was no obligation there to engage in sex. Yet, he suppose he just assumed it would never be something he’d have to deal with.

Perhaps the fact that he never thought he’d have to deal with the sex lives of colourful intelligent aliens in another dimension that looked very similar to horses, should have tipped him off to the fact that he should have expected he’d have to deal with the unexpected. He hadn’t though, not if Lero was being honest with himself, and that bothered him, on more than one level.

The idea of adding another stallion to his family, someone who’d be sleeping with his wives… it bothered him, and there was no pretending it didn’t, although he knew it was selfish and a little bit sexist of him to be okay with his wives sleeping with one another and him, yet unwilling to share with another. There was more to it, though, than just that.

Sitting down at the table with Dust Tempest just made him realize just how… inadequate he surely was. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe Twilight when she said that he was special to them—she never really struck him as the sort that was capable of such duplicity; yet, she didn’t see the way her eyes lit up when Dust started talking about weather manipulation, and he could tell Rainbow was just as interested. For different reasons, of course, but still.

Was he holding them back? Lero had done odd jobs around the town since he was strong enough—and accepted enough—to do so, yet it had only been in the past week that he had really sat down and reflected on it, on his choices. Who was he, really, compared to these mares?

Lero sighed and ran his down down Rainbow’s back, stroking along her spine, down towards her dock, once or twice. He didn’t want to wake her, or any of them. True, he had woken early—the sun was only just now peaking over the horizon—but he knew his mares needed their rest. It was only his restless mind that prevented him from getting any sleep, after all. He wasn’t about to deny them that, if they had been able to find the peace of mind to rest.

He stroked down her spine again, and couldn’t stop himself at smiling at her adorable murmuring as she shifted on his naked body and snuggled a bit closer. Rainbow would never admit to being anything less than cool, but he—and Twilight and Lyra—knew better.

That was part of the problem, though. She was on her way to being a Wonderbolt, Lyra was already a world-renown master of Still Way, and Twilight… well, Twilight was literally a Princess. And what was he? What was he really? He had no real job, and it seemed the odds of him ever starting a family were long, if not outright impossible.

Lero wasn’t even sure he could really call himself a good husband anymore, because he was pretty sure Lucent or Shining Armor wouldn’t be upset or jealous if their wives took another lover. Well, Lucent to be certain, at least.

What’s worse, he knew full well that it wasn’t just his dreams of having children that he had destroyed; he had probably done serious damage to any hope his wives might have of having kids too. Including Rainbow’s, for all her protests and desire to want to side with him. He could have lived with his own infertility, but it felt wrong to force these ponies to never have children because of him.

His sigh was heavy as he slammed his head back against the pillow with unnecessary force—eliciting a sleepy murmur from the mares on either side of him.

Slowly, the band of sunlight coming in through the window moved, drawing a sharp line across the rafters. No thoughts came to him, no amazing solutions or plans for how to… how to not be him anymore. How to fix the relationship that Lero was becoming increasingly certain was broken in a fundamental way, under its skin.

The stillness of thought and softness of the ponies breathing and sleeping around him lulled him, though—the lack of thoughts in his head slowed and stilled and he could feel himself drifting, perhaps not towards sleep, but not towards full wakefulness either.

In the twilight between sleep and wakefulness, Lero become vaguely aware of movement down stairs. The sound of somepony moving about—most likely Spike—although it was very unusual that he’d be up so early. Then there was a muffled thumping; someone on the far side of the house was knocking on their door and it was only a testament to how quiet the room was, how peaceful it was in Ponyville, that he was able to hear it at all.

Then the sound of a door opening. Talking.

Lero felt himself drifting.

Then he became aware of the sounds of somepony trotting up the stairs of the house, hooves clicking on the wooden floors; he jerked slightly, unsettling and, for the first time, waking everypony in the bed at least part of the way up.

Somepony was in–

Before he could finish the thought, the door was thrown open with a bang, revealing a somewhat harried looking Princess Cadance framed by the early morning light streaming in behind her. The light flooded into the room so it fell on everypony and Lero. “I came as quickly as I coul—oh.” She cut herself off, apparently realizing that most of the ponies in the room were asleep—although they were stirring now. Her eyes flicked around the room, taking it all in before meeting Lero’s and her stern expression softened slightly as her lips twitched.

Lero stared at the mare—he knew Cadance on one level or another, although he couldn’t say he knew her very well, considering they lived a country apart and Twilight had yet to invent the internet. Of course, one normally didn’t expect to see an alicorn princess barging into your bedroom so early in the morning. Well, at least not an alicorn princess you weren’t normally sleeping with.

Which, of course, meant the whole situation was rather unusual. The lack of sleep was making Lero’s mind foggy, and before Lero could say anything Rainbow Dash yawned and stretched, pulling his attention back to the mare using his chest as a bed.

“Whaah?” Rainbow half moaned, half said. A surprisingly coherent sentence for this time of day for his wife, especially after the night (and day) they had had prior. She wasn’t the only one, as Twilight turned her head to blink beadily at the mare in the doorway while Lyra’s eyes opened in a way that suggested she hadn’t been sleeping at all.

“Ca–” Twilight’s thought was cut off by her own jaw breaking yawn. “Cadance? What—what are you doing here?”

Cadance’s amused grin dropped back into the stern frown she had worn when she first kicked their door open. “Spike sent me a letter a few days ago, and I came as fast as I could.”

“Spike?” Twilight repeated. “He sent you a letter? Why?”

“Because he was worried about you,” Cadance shook her head. “All of you. And frankly so am I.”

Rainbow shifted, turning her head to frown at the princess, her ears half splayed against her head as she gave her tail an unhappy flick. A flick that dragged the fine hairs of his wife’s skirt across his bare thighs and bare dick, reminding him rather pointedly that he was in fact, completely naked, in front of someone who was more or less a stranger.

Perhaps the intelligent reaction would’ve been to not call attention to that fact, but Lero’s immediate reaction was to yelp and trying and use his wife to shield himself from Cadance’s sharp eyes—much to Rainbow’s unamusement. It didn’t help that his reaction didn’t go unnoticed, and Cadance’s frown briefly flickered into a smirk.

“Nothing I haven’t seen before, I assure you, Lero,” Cadance said softly, which only made Lero’s cheeks burn hotter. She had seen!

“Yes, but... “ Twilight said, yawning and ignoring the pantless drama unfolding beside her. “I know Spike must have sent you the letter a while ago, but we kind of… worked things out last night. Everything’s fine, now.”

He couldn’t help noticing the barest hint of desperation in his wife’s voice, a certain denial that they might not be back to normal. He could sympathize, of course, he knew exactly how his wife must be feeling.

Of course, Cadance must have picked up on the desperation in Twilight’s voice, from the way she frowned somewhat skeptically for a moment, fixing Twilight in a stare that reminded Lero uncomfortably for multiple reasons—several of which had to do with the fact that he was using one of his wives to shield himself from this mare—of his mother, when she knew he wasn’t telling the whole truth.

“Really?” Cadance said after a moment, although her tone remained light. “Well, that’s good to hear... “ she paused, looking as if she was inviting Twilight—or any of them, actually—to elaborate on the claim. “I’m sure you haven't seen this yet,” She said, lighting her horn and pulling out from her saddle bags—which Lero hadn’t noticed—a newspaper, passing it to Twilight.

The top headline wasn’t accompanied by any photographs, thankfully, but Lero only had to glance at it sideways to guess the article was about the scene they had made—that he had made—in the restaurant the day prior. On Earth, the idea of a man crying might be cause for embarrassment for those around him, but only because such open displays of emotion weren’t really culturally acceptable. He supposed the same was true here, but mostly—or at least, so Rainbow had explained to him once—because a crying stallion suggested something was seriously wrong, given mares were supposed to protect and look after them. It suggested they were abusing him, and in truth, Lero wasn’t sure how far off that was. Although it was less of them and much more of him, doing the abuse.

“Ah,” Twilight said in a reluctant tone of voice. “Yes, well…”

“I’m not really sure what possessed you to go on a date,” Cadance said calmly, although there was a hint of disappointment in her voice that made Rainbow’s delicately placed tail twitch. “But I’m guessing there’s more to it than that. To be honest, I’m a bit disappointed you didn’t contact me outright, Twilight. You know I would be more than willing to help you—help all of you.” Cadance swept the lot of them with a gaze.

“You’re probably right,” Lyra admitted, speaking for the first time since they had woken up. “There’s nothing wrong with asking for help, I suppose. I’m… I don’t think any of us were really thinking straight.”

“It does seem like a bit of a distance to go to ask for help, too,” Lero said. “After all, it isn’t like you’re just around the corner.”

“True enough.” Cadance nodded. “But I am a licensed relationship counselor, you know. Twilight ought to know that, at least.”

“Yes, well,” Twilight said with just a hint of frustration in her voice as she slid off the bed onto her hooves. “We’re fine now. I can’t say I’m terribly excited that the media’s got wind of the whole incident that happened yesterday, but it’ll blow over and… we’ll make it up to Dust.”

Beside him Lyra nodded, and privately Lero agreed, although he wasn’t sure he really felt he could apologize to the stallion just yet, even though he knew intellectually that the pegasus had done nothing wrong.

Indeed, of the lot of them, Dust was probably the only one who was truly innocent.

“I’m not sure I believe that,” Cadance said slowly, although her voice was void of any accusation, only understanding. “I’m sure if it’s true, you won’t have any trouble sitting down with me and discussing it, now will you?”

“Thank you for the offer, Cadance,” Twilight turned away and nipped at a wayward feather on her wing, pushing it back into position with what Lero suspected was unnecessary vigor. “But no, we’re fine. I’m sorry you made the trip out here for nothing.”

“Twilight…” Lyra said, with just a hint of pleading.

Twilight gave her a disapproving look, and Rainbow’s ears wilted slightly even though she hadn’t said anything herself. Without seeing Rainbow’s face, it was a bit hard to tell what she was actually feeling, but Lero couldn’t help feeling a bit put off himself. After all, he wasn’t really sure they were back together. Sure, time might heal those wounds, but surely a bit of help couldn’t do any harm, right?

Cadance sat down onto her butt with a sigh, before taking a deep breath and mimicking a motion of letting it out with her hoof—something Lero had seen Twilight do many times before. After a second she dropped her gaze back down to them again.

“Twilight,” she said slowly, and with an air of caution, and perhaps enforced patience. She may have been addressing Twilight explicitly, but even Lero, who by all accounts was a bit oblivious to equine body language, could tell she was implicitly addressing the lot of them. “I realize our culture promotes a certain… well, taboo, about seeking outside help for our problems within our herd, but you and I both know that’s foolishness.”

“It isn’t that at all,” Twilight said with a frown. “Look, I’ll be… well, perhaps not happy, but I’m willing to sit down and tell you all about it—I’m assuming Spike was bare on the details—but I just don’t see the point in hashing it out. Again. We need healing, now.”

“I know.” Cadance nodded. “You’re a smart pony—you all are, in your own ways.”

Twilight smiled at that.

“And I hate to be so blunt, and to say this to you, Twilight, but…” Cadance took a deep breath. “I’m just don’t want to see you make the same sorts of mistakes that your mother did.”

His wife openly flinched at that, her expression going from disbelief to horror to anger to what Rainbow Dash tended to call her ‘Applejack’ face.

“I am not my mother.” Twilight’s voice booked no argument, but there was a certain hint on her face that she was horrified at the thought.

“I know you’re not,” Cadance said softly. “But I think you’re more like her than you’d care to admit. I know your mother, I know your natal herd, Twilight—probably better than you do, truthfully, because I’m older and, let’s be honest, privy to the sorts of things your herd made certain weren’t seen in front of somepony as young as you.” She paused, as Twilight’s expression grew more and more grim with every passing word. “But it isn’t a secret to anyone in this room that your natal herd is a mess. Please, don’t let that happen to your herd.”

“I’m not,” Twilight repeated, scowling at the mare.

“Twilight, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea,” Rainbow said, with a hint of… perhaps not fear, but a certain reluctance in her voice to go against Twilight. Whether it was her attempt to respect or acknowledge Twilight’s new position within the herd, Lero really couldn’t say. He had never known his wife, his first love, to be particularly skillful when it came to delicate social situations, but it wouldn’t be the first time she had surprised him in the past.

“None of us really wants to have another fight, Twilight,” Lero said softly and slowly. “And… I don’t think it’ll happen, but at the same time, can it really hurt? To at least ask somepony else’s advice? You’re always telling us about how much you respect Cadance…”

Lero let himself trail off. Twilight didn’t often talk about her family, none of his wives really did, and they had all been a bit surprised when it turned out that she had a brother—well, many brothers, as it was, but a close brother—or knew Cadance. However, once the secret, if they wanted to call it such, was out in the open, Twilight had no problem talking about her new sister-in-law either.

Indeed, they were probably more like sisters than just sisters-in-law, at least in Lero’s mind. Of course, he sometimes caught himself thinking the same thing about Twilight and Rainbow’s—and his, he supposed—friends. Perhaps it was just one of those things that was different for ponies.

Twilight turned to Lero, and there was no mistaking the pained look etched on her face. She had wanted to put it behind them, to hug and kiss and fuck and pretend it was all over and resolved, and yet Cadance’s words, blunt and perhaps inconsiderate they might be, had drawn out the fears that the lot of them had been trying to bury, to force down deep within themselves. That never worked back on earth, at least not in Lero’s opinion, and it surely wouldn’t work here.

Ponies were alien. Nothing about this whole misadventure could remind Lero moreso of that fact. Oh, perhaps biologically they weren’t so different from mammals on earth, but culturally? There was no doubt they were alien on many levels. Yet, they were also very human, very human in the way they thought at times, the way they acted or wanted. Or didn’t want. They ran and hid from their problems just like humans, and in that, Lero supposed they weren’t so different after all.

Between his legs, in his arms, he could feel the tension in Rainbow’s sides, and Lyra’s unusual silence told him a story much the same as he was seeing on Twilight’s face.

They wanted to move past this, but they were afraid of what was going to happen if they didn’t, or couldn’t.

That’s alright, Lero was pretty damn afraid too. What was he really? He wasn’t famous or powerful. He wasn’t a very good husband or stallion. At best, he could be thought of as unique, but in Equestria more so than earth, unique was not so unique in a world where everyone’s talent was openly branded onto their ass and one could be neighbours with a baby dragon and a zebra. He didn’t want to lose this.

For all her fear, Twilight was still Twilight, though, and after a second, the fire fled from her muscles, and from her voice, as she sighed heavily and looked down at her hooves, avoiding everypony’s gazes. “Alright. I suppose there’s no harm in… in at least talking about everything with you, Cadance.”

Lero didn’t bother looking at the other alicorn, the relief flooding her voice was confirmation enough. “Thank you, Twilight. I promise you, I’ll do my utmost to help you, all of you, however I can.”

“What if we can’t fix things, though?” Lyra said softly, her voice dead and flat.

Cadance didn’t answer.

Once Cadance had left the room, Lero wasted no time replacing his wayward pants, much to Rainbow Dash’s amusement—amusement tampered with a bit of annoyance that suggested that he was probably in for a prank in the future involving Rainbow hiding all of his clothing and suggesting herself as a suitable replacement.

He loved Rainbow, and her carefree attitude and her prankster spirit, just as he loved Lyra for her strange spiritualism, and Twilight for her unusual lines of thought. He just wished they would stop rubbing off on Rainbow, because her pranks were becoming truly bizarre.

Still, her laugher and general high spirits dragged everypony out of the glum that had prevailed their bedroom ever since Cadance had thrown open their door and thrown the problems they didn’t want to confront back into their faces. By the time the four of them were stomping down to the kitchen, they were laughing and smiling, their attitudes mostly having bounced back.

Which was wonderful, considering the week or so leading up to Hearts and Hooves day, and the general dark atmosphere that had hung over their home.

Not that it was completely gone, of course. It was there, in the little things. The hesitations, the tightness of smiles. The frowns ponies had when they didn’t think the others were looking.

Hopefully things would work out. It was a hope Lero suspected they had to cling to.

To their surprise, they found Cadance in the kitchen with Spike, cooking. For Lero’s part, he had difficulty imagining any princess, any alicorn, sitting in front of a stove flipping flapjacks in a frying pan. It simply didn’t fit his image of royalty of any sort, and certainly not the sort of royalty who literally could move the heavens with their mind.

Plus, the one princess Lero was familiar with was an amazingly bad cook.

“Cadance?” Twilight said, halting just inside the doorway. “You never cook, you’re a princess!”

“Haven’t heard that one before,” Lyra quipped as she hopping into her seat with a yawn.

Twilight gave her a dirty look.

“Oh I learned ages ago,” Cadance said with a laugh before sticking her tongue out at Spike, who was looking her cooking over with a very skeptical eye. “Despite what certain baby dragons might think.” She flipped the pan in her magic dramatically and caught it with ease, showing off.

Lero wasn’t sure he could do that sort of thing himself.

“If you must know, your brother and I like to cook together,” Cadance continued, her voice growing a bit wistful as she slid the cake onto a plate and passed it over in front of Lyra, along with already completed pancakes for the rest of them. “It makes meals more intimate.”

“I tried baking with Lero once,” Rainbow spoke up, even as she shoved a mouthful of the pancake into her mouth, muffling her words. “It… it uh didn’t go so well,” she summarized as she swallowed hard and blushed.

Lero felt his own face heat up. That had been a long time ago, just after he and Rainbow had confessed their feelings for one another; unfortunately, that had led to them distracting one another at critical moments, leading to a batter that was far too runny and a cake that ended up being a lopsided piece of charcoal. At least they had enjoyed themselves.

“Yes, well,” Cadance said with a smirk, “It’s usually a good idea to exercise some restraint when working with an oven.”

Lero dug into his own pancakes, which were surprisingly good, tasting shockingly close to the sort of pancakes his mother used to make for him when he was a little child—which she always claimed were made with a secret ingredient: love. The taste brought back the memory of it so suddenly and so unexpectedly, he actually stopped and stared at the breakfast, only to glance up at Cadance with a bit of a surprised look on his face. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Spike’s cooking—or his wives' for that matter—but they never managed to make pancakes this good before.

Cadance caught his eye and smiled sheepishly, before turning back to the oven.

Made with love, indeed, Lero thought with a frown.

“I feel like I ought to ground you, Spike,” Twilight said suddenly; a glance at her showed that the mare apparently had no appetite this early in the morning, as she gave the dragon a grim look indeed. “I’m not very happy with you.”

“Don’t be like that, Twilight,” Spike said, looking down at his plate and shoving the pancakes around. “I just… I couldn’t stand seeing you hurting like that. I just thought, maybe… Cadance could give you some advice. Or something.”

“Twilight,” Lyra said sternly. “You know Spike was only trying to help, right? I know you’re not very happy with him airing the dirty laundry to somepony else, but, come on, Cadance is practically family—hay, she is family, in every way that counts.”

“Yes, I know,” Twilight side, her fork levitating around the plate’s edge, shoving and pushing the perfectly golden and flat pancakes around absent mindedly, but not eating. Her frown deepened for a moment. “I’m sorry, Spike. I’m still unhappy with you, but… I’m sorry.”

“Right.” Spike sighed heavily, undoubtedly feeling like he had, in fact, done the wrong thing despite everypony’s assurances. Lero reached across the table and patted him on the back awkwardly.

“You know,” Lyra added hesitantly, “I’m not actually sure we had the ingredients to make pancakes, now that I think about it. We’ve been, uh, kind of lax these past few days.”

Twilight’s head shot up and she frowned at Cadance. “You were planning on cooking breakfast for us all along, weren't you? No matter what we said?”

“Guilty,” Cadance agreed with a swish of her tail as she hummed to herself, serving herself a pancake or two and returning to the table. There weren’t any places for her to sit, so she ended up standing and hovering the plate beside her. “I thought it might help break the ice, so to speak. Auntie always said the way to a herd’s heart was through their stomachs.”

Lero snorted. He hadn’t expected that staying to transfer over here.

“Or their—well, you know.”

“Cadance!”

“Oh hush, Twilight, you know it’s true.”

“Princess Celestia said that?” Rainbow asked, her laughter muffled by even more pancake shoved in her mouth. “Really? Celestia?”

“I can’t believe Princess Celestia would say such a thing,” Twilight continued.

Cadance smiled at the pegasus and nodded. “Oh yes, although I’ll admit she prefers to keep that side of herself firmly under wraps out, at least with the public. She has quite a dirty mind, though.”

Twilight groaned and held her head.

“Oh don’t be like that, Twilight,” Cadance continued, shaking her head. “I know full well she gave you the talk too.”

“She just– she just,” Twilight’s face was turning a rather alarming shade of beet. “It was all very clinical, I’ll have you know.”

“Oh.” Cadance frowned thoughtfully. Apparently she hadn’t expected that answer from Twilight. Then she shrugged. “Different strokes for different ponies, I suppose.”

Lyra nudged Twilight with a bit of a laugh, while Lero shifted in his seat uneasily. As amusing as it was to watch Twilight get hopelessly embarrassed over sex, all Cadance was really reminding him of just who he was talking to. Cadance was, in some weird way, Celestia’s niece. With Twilight at least, he could believe that their relationship was more of that of teacher and student—a fabrication, perhaps, but one he often clung to when Twilight talked about Celestia. Cadance was family, though, and that only made Lero feel more than a little bit uncomfortable. Celestia always did.

“Ugh!” Twilight groaned and planned her face in the uneaten pancakes.

“Now now, Twilight,” Cadance chuckled. “You’re a grown mare, and grown mares don’t play with their food.” She glanced at Lero and gave him a winning smile that somehow managed to set Lero’s discomfort aside. “She was like this as a foal, too, you know. Why, I remember one time with a quesadilla that–”

“Alright, alright,” Twilight snapped, cutting Cadance off and starting to shovel the breakfast into her mouth without pausing to accent it with syrup or anything else, apparently wanting for the meal to just be over.

“I suppose it goes without saying that we’re all a bit surprised to see you here, Cadance,” Lyra said. “Just last week you were too sick to visit…”

Cadance didn’t say anything for a second, looking down at her breakfast with a bit of a disgusted glare after the first bite, before setting them side with a shake of her head. “I still am, I’m afraid.” She glanced at Twilight. “Let me tell you, morning sickness and trains do not mix.”

“You’re pregnant!?” Lyra, Spike and Rainbow said together.

“Congratulations, Princess,” Lero added, a moment later in a quieter tone of voice. Perhaps this was why it had been at the forefront of Twilight’s mind.

“You didn’t tell them?” Cadance asked of Twilight.

“You said to keep it a secret, Cadance.” For the first time that morning, Twilight’s voice was filled with something other than frustration or anger; a sort of amused confusion. “So I did.”

“Well, yes,” Cadance said with a laugh that sounded rather bitter. “I didn’t necessarily mean from your herd, though. I was thinking more of, well, to be honest, Pinkie Pie. She’s a sweetie, to be sure, but I’m not sure she’s capable of keeping a secret and…” something dark crossed in front of her face. “I’d rather this news didn’t get out just yet.”

“Why not?” Rainbow said, grinning in a way Lero had difficulty reconciling with the mare he had married. He had never known his wife to get that excited about babies. Perhaps she just hid it well. “That’s amazing. ‘Bout time, too—did Shiny keep missing or something?”

“Rainbow!” This time Twilight’s horrified voice was joined by Lero’s, while Lyra just laughed.

“No.” Cadance said coolly. “The truth is, this isn’t the first time I’ve been pregnant, Rainbow. It’s just the first time I’ve been able to… not lose her. So far.” Cadance sighed heavily and shook her head. “Which is why I’m trying to keep it secret, for now.”

“Oh, Cadance,” Twilight said sadly, as she got up and pulled the larger alicorn into a hug. “I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, I’m… I’m sorry too,” Rainbow added, slipping away from Lero’s side and shyly approaching Cadance before wrapping her into a hug as well. Lyra followed suit, even if neither of them knew her as well as Twilight presumably did.

Lero wondered if he ought to hug the mare too. Of the lot of them, he certainly knew her the least, having only met her a few times—it wasn’t easy traveling to the Crystal Empire, as a human. And, of course, the subject matter did nothing to make him feel less awkward. Perhaps it was the female led nature of the society that made Cadance more open about that sort of thing—certainly being nude all the time had done a number on what Lero might consider modesty. On the other hand, he wasn’t completely sure it wasn’t something Cadance was sharing because of the closen bond she had with Twilight either.

Spike, too, looked uncomfortable, so at least he wasn’t the only one.

“Yes, thank you girls,” Cadance said after a moment, pulling away from the impromptu pony pile. “I appreciate it, and well… there’s nothing we can really do other than hope and wish, you know? Shining and I have high hopes.”

“Me too,” Twilight said.

“However,” the bitterness in Cadance’s smile fell away as she turned more teasing. “Next time, don’t keep secrets from your herd, Twilight!”

“Uh huh.”

“Anyway,” Cadance continued. “I suppose we ought to get down to it, if you’re all more or less done with breakfast. I’m sure you’re wondering what I’m looking to do, today.”

Twilight’s comforting expression grew stony, and Lyra and Rainbow looked away as the bubble of normality—or what passed for such in a household of a ponies, one dragon and a human, anyway—popped and they were brought back into the cold reality of it all.

“I was thinking it’d probably be best if we sat down somewhere and you told me, exactly, from the beginning, what’s been happening,” Cadance nodded to Spike over the shoulder of Lyra. The dragon looked somewhat uncomfortable. “Spike’s letter was bare on the details, I’m afraid, so I’ve only got a faint sense of what’s going on… but even if I didn’t, I’d still want to hear it from the lot of you, if you don’t mind.”

“Then what?” Twilight asked with a frown, looking guilty herself.

“Well, then… we’ll see, I suppose,” Cadance shook her head. “This isn’t like math, I’m afraid, Twilight, there’s no one set path that we’re going to take, I’ll have to play it partly by ear.”

Twilight didn’t look particularly happy at that.

Lero looked down at his half eaten breakfast, then at the mostly clear—save for Twilight’s—plates, and pushed his aside. There was little point in delaying it, so they might as well get to it. “Alright, Princess–”

“Please, Lero, call me Cadance,” Cadance interrupted. “Any member of my sister’s herd is a member of mine, to say the least, and,” she paused and gestured to her head. “I’m not here as a princess, today, but as a councillor. That’s why I’m not wearing my regalia.”

He honestly hadn’t noticed. For him, a horn plus wings was all the regalia any alicorn ever needed, and he suspected it was true of others as well.

“Alright, Cadance,” Lero said finally, as he stood up and stretched a bit. He had made the chairs himself, but it turned out there was more to making a comfortable chair than four legs, a back and a place to put one’s bottom. “I think the den probably has enough seats for all of us, right, girls?”

The rest of his herd nodded, with Lyra turning to Spike, “Spike, why don’t you go over to Applejack’s for the day. Just tell her you’re going to be hanging out with her for a while.”

“Okay,” Spike said, sounding reluctant as he slid out of his chair onto the floor. And headed for the kitchen door.

“Try not to let the CMC catch you this time, either!” Rainbow added to his retreating back. There was humor in her voice, but it sounded hollow and weak; no pony laughed, nor did Spike, who only gave a half hearted shrug as he closed the door. Whatever good feelings might have been generated by having somepony make the breakfast, the cold reality was setting in, and they were about to go back into the trenches, so to speak.

There was a great deal of reluctance as they led Cadance into their home’s den, but Cadance, at least, maintained an air of cheerfulness as they all settled into seats with Cadance more or less across from them. It didn’t escape Lero that Twilight chose to sit right beside him, nor that rainbow sat on his other side while Lyra chose to forgo a seat all together and curl up at his feet. He appreciated the gesture, and judging by Cadance’s expression, a mixture of amusement and happiness, she hadn’t missed it either.

They still wanted him as their stallion, it would seem, whatever their differences. Lero allowed himself to relax.

“Alright,” Cadance said as she wiggling in her seat. It was a lumpy sort of reclining chair, one of his earlier works, and certainly not fit for such a rarefied rear as Cadance’s. “Let’s start at the beginning…”

It was hard at first; Rainbow jumped in, but faltered quickly, Twilight picked up the reins of the story, giving in precise detail the nature of the conversation that had led to her ‘discovery’—Lero wondered what Rarity would think, if she knew how much trouble her casual remark had caused. In truth, it was interesting to hear the whole story, in a whole piece, whereas before he had only received drips and drabs. It was all very logical, until she got to the night before Rainbow had disappeared.

Lyra tried to pick it up, but then Rainbow jumped in, apparently determined to regale the room with a story of sorts—until a stern look from Cadance caused her to drop back into something Lero thought was much closer to reality, although Lyra had to prompt her to talk about disrupting Fluttershy’s evening.

Lero could just imagine Fluttershy’s blushing face, if she knew they knew all about that.

Lyra took up the story next, then Rainbow haltingly explained who exactly Dust Tempest was to her, and then Twilight again, swapping in and out of one another’s stories as Lero knew they were approaching the tale’s nadir.

Throughout all this, Cadance remained mostly silent, as did Lero, although he suspected for different reasons. Cadance was listening, and so was he, but truthfully the more they talked, the more it became clear to Lero that the story really wasn’t one he was overly involved in. He may have been the reason Rainbow had insisted against the idea of opening the herd—for which he was grateful, but hearing Twilight and Lyra tell it, Lero wasn’t so sure they meant to hurt him, or even meant to deceive him maliciously.

“And then we had a bit of a fight,” Twilight said with a hint of sharpness in her voice, breaking Lero out of his thoughts and pulling him back to reality. “And said we were sorry and kissed and made up and then you barged into our bedroom! I hope you didn’t damage anything!”

“Nonsense,” Cadance said, shifting in her seat, moving out of the position she must have been more or less holding for some forty minutes with a sigh. “I was rated very good at preventing extraneous damage during dramatic princess entrances at Auntie’s Princess Academy. I’m sure everything’s fine.”

None of them were completely sure if that was supposed to be a joke or not.

If the lack of laugher disturbed her, Cadance didn’t show it. “Now,” she said, “I couldn’t help but notice that you weren’t saying very much, Lero. Why is that?”

“I don’t think I have anything to really contribute,” Lero said with a shrug. “I mean… I guess the whole restaurant scene was my fault, really but–”

“This isn’t about blaming somepony, Lero—or, somehuman,” Cadance interrupted. “And I don’t agree, I’m deeply interested in your thoughts.”

“About…?” Lero wasn’t sure what she could possibly be getting at, after all, his three wives had already explained most everything.

“Well, for example, how did you feel when you woke up and found Rainbow Dash gone, and your other herd members angry with one another?” Cadance pressed, returning Lero’s thoughts to that very first day.

“I… I felt bad, obviously,” Lero began, uncertainly, glancing at Rainbow Dash beside him, who reached over and pawed at his chest with her hoof as she looked up at him with a regretful, apologetic face. “Worried. I didn’t know what was going on, and Twilight and Lyra—sorry—weren’t very helpful, either.”

“If you’d like, we can talk alone,” Cadance offered.

He shook his head. That wasn’t necessary.

“But it was just a mess in general, I suppose. Mistakes were made…” he continued, shaking his head a bit more.

“I see.” Cadance looked as if she wanted to make notes, but then frowned at her empty hooves. A second later, Twilight sighed heavily and popped a scroll and quill into existence for Cadance. “Thank you, Twilight.” She nibbled on the end of the quill, thinking for a second. “Please, continue, Lero.”

“Why?”

“Because your thoughts and feelings matter, of course.”

“I guess, but not as much, right? Or they shouldn’t?” Lero frowned. “I mean, if I was any other man—well, any other stallion, I suppose, this wouldn’t even have happened. Either I would’ve been able to give them children myself or I would have been perfectly fine with another stallion coming into the herd…”

“Lero…”

“No, Dashie, it’s true.” Lero shook his head. “Don’t get me wrong, Cadance, I don’t blame myself for… well, I can’t blame myself for things I didn’t do—I didn’t cause Twilight to make a big deal out of it, I didn’t cause Rainbow to run away, but…” Lero fixed his gaze steadily on Cadance, steadily avoiding the eyes of his three wives, all of whom were tried to catch it.

“Mhmm…” Cadance scribbled something onto the scroll and looked thoughtful, then frowned. “Girls, I think I’d like to talk to Lero alone.”

“Alone?” Twilight asked, sounding hollow.

“Yes.” Cadance nodded. “I’ll probably talk to each of you, actually, but I think I’d like to speak with Lero first.”

“I dunno,” Rainbow said, her wing wrapping around Lero’s chest protectively. “I mean…”

“Rainbow, I’ll be fine,” Lero said with a smile, patting her on the back. “I can’t say I’ve ever been to a marriage counselor before, but I imagine this is pretty standard. Go on, I’ll be fine.”

One by one the mares reluctantly got up off of the couch Lero was sitting on and filed out of the room; unlike an actual office, the den didn’t have a door separating it, so between the Lero and Cadance, the two of them sat listening to them trot down the hallway until they couldn’t hear them anymore.

And then Cadance lit her horn and cast what Lero assumed was some sort of shield spell.

“Well, now,” Cadance said, turning back to Lero with a professional looking smile. “I suppose I’m curious about why you think your feelings don’t necessarily matter, Lero, but I think we should put a pin in that for now. I wanted to tell you something, and make you understand something right here and now.”

“Oh?” Lero half grunted.

“You seem to have the impression that this sort of thing is easy for every stallion out there—it isn’t. There are many herds out there just like yours who have a stallion, just like you, who isn’t comfortable with the idea of their herd adding another stallion,” Cadance said gently, in a motherly tone of voice. “Obviously it isn’t something that we openly talk about, but… Lero, the number of herds I’ve seen over the years—this is probably one of the top complications that shows up, in my opinion.”

Lero frowned at that. It may well be the case that other stallions found adjusting to a changing situation in the bedroom difficult, that had the air of truth about it, but he doubted they struggled in the same way or for the same reasons as he did and had.

“I don’t think they make scenes like I did, though,” Lero said finally, frowning down at the newspaper that had somehow managed to wind up on the coffee table of the den, staring at the incriminating headline.

“Oh, it’s more common than you think,” Cadance said dismissively, although her professional, polite smile grew a bit more wan. “Admittedly, though, it is rarely so public.”

“It’s still… I don’t know, childish, on my part.”

“Is it? I suppose one could see it as such, Lero, but… at the same time, no one ever said love—or just relationships of any sort—were easy, my dear.” Cadance sighed and shook her head. “I’m sure this is true here as it is back where you come from.

Lero nodded slowly.

“So, I don’t think you should feel overly bad about being upset about the herd wanting to expand,” Cadance continued. “I think that’s natural. It’s… change, and it’s change to some of the closest, most intimate relationships a pony—or human—can have.”

“Okay.” Lero agreed, if only because he wasn’t sure what else to say. Yes, all of this might be true, but he wasn’t sure that really made things better, in his mind. Being jealous of a sibling winning praise might be a perfectly normal reaction, but it didn’t mean it wasn’t an ugly one. He didn’t really need reassurances that it was okay to feel bad, really, although perhaps it did help knowing he wasn’t completely alone in the world, when it came to having difficulties with the idea of an expanding herd. “How do they get over it, though?” He asked, finally.

“Well, I suppose it depends on the herd,” Cadance said thoughtfully, slowly and with an air of choosing her words with great care, like a chess player placing her pieces. “For some herds, it’s merely a matter of reminding the mares that their stallion has feelings too. Most of the time they know this, but they can get lost in the tiny problems of day to day life and…” Cadance chuckled. “I must confess, new relationships can sometimes get very exciting and it’s easy to neglect your old ones.”

“What about others?”

“Well, sometimes it isn’t so simple, I’ll admit.” Cadance sighed. “I do my best, and nothing warms my heart more than seeing ponies reconnect and work through their differences in a relationship to a mutually stronger bond between them… but sometimes that just doesn’t work out. Sometimes I find ponies in the herd are monogamous, despite whatever they might say in public, and the relationship they’ve tried to build just doesn’t work.”

“Like me,” Lero said softly, with an air of dread in the words. Saying them out loud made them more right. But they were hard words, toxic words, words that he felt could destroy everything he had and might ever have just saying them outloud. “I’m not really much of… that sort, am I?”

Cadance’s mouth shut and she sat watching him think, not interrupting, just encouraging him to think it through.

“I mean, back home,” Lero continued, bolstered by the lack of judgement in the mare’s face. “Everyone is monogamous. Or is supposed to be, at least. We have ponies—good god, I mean people!—we have people who cheat on their significant others. I imagine that must happen here, too.”

“Infrequently, but yes,” Cadance said encouragingly.

“But usually they’re frowned upon. Having more than one girlfriend at once? That’s just... “ Lero shook his head. Part of him thought it was worth completing the thought, he had the impression Cadance wouldn’t hate him for it, but… he might hate himself, for it. “So I suppose I am monogamous at the end of the day.”

Cadance hummed noncommittally and scribbled something onto her notes.

“Which, I suppose means I’m the problem.” Lero said finally, sighing heavily and looking down at his hands. “It’s me. Not them.”

“Now, I said at the start of all this that this isn’t the time or place for recriminations or assigning blame,” Cadance said disapprovingly, like a mother might say to their child who did just what they had told them not to do. “That isn’t why I’m here, I assure you. And even if I was… this isn’t your fault, not really—well, perhaps blowing up at Dust Tempest–” Cadance added with a giggle, inclining her head towards the newspaper on the table between them. “But no, it isn’t your fault.”

“I think it is,” Lero said softly. “I mean, I… I’m not happy that Twilight or Lyra thought it was appropriate to talk about this behind my back, but I do kind of get it, sometimes women want to talk among themselves…”

Cadance tilted her head rather adorably, and it took him a moment to realize she probably didn’t know what a woman was. He let it slide.

“At the end of the day, though, the only reason Rainbow was so eager to defend me is because of me—because she knows I have no interest in other stallions.”

“I won’t deny it’s common, certainly, Lero, but it isn’t like it’s required,” Cadance pointed out. “That, I will add, is another common reason ponies approach me for advice. I’m not sure if it’s different for humans, but some stallions just can’t handle their lover’s co–”

“I don’t wanna know!” Lero exclaimed, cutting the mare off, who smiled sheepishly.

“Right.” Cadance wrote something else down, chuckling, and then sighed. “So… you feel guilty for being attracted to Twilight and Lyra?”

“Yes,” Lero said, then corrected himself: “No, not really. Not exactly. I don’t feel like I’m really hurting Rainbow, if that’s what you mean, but some part of me just feels it’s wrong… at first it just felt wrong, enjoying myself with–” Lero paused, blushing but Cadance only smiled encouragingly. “With, well, Twilight, because it felt like I was betraying Dash… but I don’t really feel that anymore these days, not exactly.”

“I see.”

“Sometimes I just feel like… I do love them, you know? I don’t know why or how, and I feel…” Lero sighed and looked up at the ceiling, trying to gather his thoughts from the nebula in his mind. “Just wrong, in general.”

“Mhmm.”

“How do I… not?” Lero said finally, dropping his gaze back down to Cadance fixing her with a stare.

“How do you not what, Lero?” Cadance asked politely, although he suspected she already knew what he was going to say.

“How can I move past this? How can I get over this?” Lero groaned, cupping his face with his hands as he leaned forward. “I love them—you understand that, right?”

There was a note of wry amusement in Cadance’s voice. “I think I have some idea what that’s like.”

“But, I’m not a princess or grand master or a Wonderbolt—I’m not really amazing in any way.”

“I think your herd might disagree with you, Lero.”

Lero’s fingers parted as he glared at the pony princess trying to provide them with help. “Can you even really say I’m a good husband, Cadance? Really? I can’t even give them children, I can’t accept their culture, I guess, I can’t…”

“Now, I think that’s part of your problem,” Cadance said, getting out of her chair and walking over to the couch, wrapping her wing around him as she sat down. “‘I can’t’ is never a productive start to anything.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “I want to be better. If… if they want to expand the herd, don’t you think I should be okay with that? How can I be?”

“I think you can only ever be okay with what you’re okay with, my friend,” Lero felt the mare’s head lean against his shoulder. “And I do think you’re good, Lero. If you weren’t, these things wouldn’t tear you up.”

“What do I do, though?” He asked, looking at the alicorn princess currently hugging him and holding his hand in… whatever weird way ponies could hold things with their hooves. She met his gaze and held it for a moment, looking thoughtfully.

“I have a few ideas, I’ll admit, but I’d like to talk to the others, first. Do you think you could send Lyra and Twilight in, dear?”

Twilight wasn’t really sure what to expect, when Lero stepped out of the den and walked up to the trio of them.

The wait had been rather awkward to say the least. They obviously didn’t want to listen in, that was rude—perhaps not as rude as knocking in one’s bedroom door and demanding you become involved in another herd’s personal problems, but even so. On the other hoof, they also hadn’t wanted to not listen in. Or at the very least, they wanted to be near Lero, as far as they might otherwise be allowed.

So the three of them had returned to the kitchen and proceeded to sit, more or less in silence, as they waited for something to happen. It was a bit difficult, in Twilight’s mind, not feeling a bit like a schoolfilly waiting outside of the principal's office, waiting to be called in after a big fight. Well, in her imagination at least. She, of course, had never been the sort of filly to get herself involved in that sort of nonsense when she was going to school, and after being accepted into Celestia’s school and as her personal student, there weren’t many ponies who would even think of trying to engage her in that way.

Nevertheless, all her readings and reflections on the matter suggested the feeling must be very simple. Apt, perhaps, given Cadance’s old-than-them age and the general position of authority she had occupied in her young life, as foalsitter and—if she was being honest—older sister.

Still, Twilight wasn’t sure what to expect when the three of them heard Lero approaching. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw her herdsisters turn to look at the doorway as the footsteps approached, but Twilight remained seated, staring at a small burn mark on the table that she suspected she must have caused at some point—it wasn’t like Lyra had the strength to do so, and Rainbow certainly had no magic of that sort to call her own (unless she was hiding a horn from them). She didn’t remember ever putting the spot on the table, accidental though it certainly was, of course. Perhaps a repair spell would–

Twilight took a deep breath and let it out. She was rambling. Her thoughts were rambling. She hadn’t felt this confused and out of sorts since… well, last week, actually, now that she thought on it.

She looked up just as Lero entered the room. He looked both better and worse than she was imagining and fearing. His eyes weren’t red, he hadn’t been crying—nor did it look like he was going to, although even after all this time she still had trouble reading human expressions at time. It was… stormy. He looked frustrated, sad, certainly, but as if he wasn’t sure he had liked what he had heard. Or perhaps that wasn’t it either, perhaps it was just a more open expression of the turmoil she felt in herself. She wasn’t sure.

“Twilight,” Lero’s voice was soft, but firm, perhaps with an edge that Twilight couldn’t place either. Not something Lero often put into his voice. He tried being so gentle with all of them, much of the time. “And Lyra… Cadance wants to talk to you.”

Lyra glanced at Twilight with a carefully neutral expression on her muzzle, and Twilight shared the look, before glancing sidelong at Rainbow, who was frowning rather thoughtfully.

They shrugged, and got up, trotting side by side down the hall with their flanks and shoulders brushing together. A sense of familiarity, and strength, Twilight thought, given it felt very much like they were walking into the lion’s den.

But why? They had resolved the problems, hadn’t they? Perhaps it was the nature of the beast.

Cadance… she had always looked up to the mare, and yet here she was, acting very much… Twilight wasn’t sure what her feelings were on it.

“Twilight, Lyra,” Cadance said, looking up from her wing, which she was apparently preening, of all things. “Sit down.”

“Okay,” Lyra said, before jumping unceremoniously onto the couch and setting the whole structure a-wiggle. Twilight followed her up and sat on the edge of it in a far more dignified fashion. She admired Lyra and Rainbow for being so carefree at times, but this wasn’t the time for it.

“What did you want to speak with us about, Princess?” Twilight asked in a carefully neutral and distinct tone of voice. “Did the talk with Lero go well?”

“It did, I think,” Cadance said, frowning a bit at her. “‘Princess’?” she echoed with a bit of a quizzical look. “I don’t think you’ve ever called me that, Twilight, even–” Cadance’s frown turned into a smirk. “When it probably would have been appropriate for your to do so, now that I think about it.”

“Well, I’m not sure where we stand, really,” Twilight said a bit more shortly than she intended. “I mean, you practically barged into our room—not even a knock, mind you—and, and this!’ Twilight gestured with her hoof to the den around them, sparing a baleful glare at the paper on the coffee table. “It isn’t like I don’t admit we all made mistakes, myself included, Cadance, but we have—we can–” that cost her something dear indeed. “–we will work through them. I know we can.”

“And you will,” Cadance said, surprisingly Twilight by inclining her head, agreeing with her. “I never said you couldn’t. It’s only… you understand, Twilight, I love you. I’ve loved you ever since I set my eyes upon you as a little filly—and you as well, Lyra, although I hope you won’t begrudge me if I said I was perhaps closer with Twilight than yourself.”

“Of course not, Cadance,” Lyra said, sounding amused. “I mean, you are sleeping with her blood brother.”

“Lyra!” Twilight hissed. The mare’s jovial tone annoyed and frustrated her to no end. This was serious! This was terrible and wrong and it should be met with equal and complete vigor!

Cadance chuckled. “Yes, well.” The princess shook her head, making a note on the scroll Twilight had given her. “I never said you couldn’t work through them, Twilight. You’re a smart girl, you always have been. But… surely you understand that there’s no shame in asking for a bit of help, every now and again? I seem to recall one or two of your friendship letters being about just such a topic, actually.”

“You–” Twilight shook her head. She was starting to get the impression everyone in Canterlot had read those blasted letters. Luna, she could understand, but Cadance? And, oh of course, perhaps her brother as well. Why not? “That’s not important.” Twilight paused, letting her thoughts still for a moment. She… she wasn’t wrong, was she? “I agree with the principle of the thing, Cadance, but you and I know it just isn’t done with herds.”

“Would you feel better if you made me a herdsister?” Cadance said, with just a hint of teasing amusement in her voice. “I can’t imagine the scandal that would happen—brother and sister in the same herd, no less.”

“Cadance.” Twilight said sternly.

“I’m sorry, Twilight, you’re so easy to tease sometimes… and… well, I know you love rules and order.” Cadance sighed heavily. “And I realize I’m intruding here, but I really do want to help.”

“I don’t have a problem with it,” Lyra said, interrupting the two way conversation between the alicorns in the room. She shrugged. “I mean, she is the princess of love, isn’t she, Twilight? If I had a friendship problem, wouldn’t I come to you?”

“I– yes, well, I–” Twilight’s train of thought derailed temporarily. It was easy, for Lyra, to say such. She treated rules more like suggestions, in a way. Not outright breaking them, exactly, but it was like they didn’t affect her, she’s just glide through them, untouched. “I said you could help, Cadance. I just wish you hadn’t been so…”

“I understand.” Cadance nodded. “Let’s continue, though, on more… pertinent topics, shall we? I take it from Lero that you’re wanting to have a foal.” Cadance paused, a pained look of longing passing over her face. “I know you’ve been looking into it for some time, Twilight… I take it that fell through?”

For a moment, Twilight felt confused. Of course it had fallen through. That should have been abundantly clear when she had explained everything to her no more than half an hour prior. Then it occurred to her that perhaps she was just trying to find a place to start.

“Yes, it’s true. I suppose I could still pursue the topic of, enchanting Lero or something so we could have foals,” Twilight said with a frown, followed by a sigh and rubbing the side of her head. “Maybe I will, I just don’t have much hope. It’s pretty clear that everypony else in history has just been… well, finding less magical workarounds.”

“It's easier, then,” Cadance summarized. “To just expand the herd, I mean.”

She wanted to say yes, but stopped herself, and said with a smirk; “I’m not sure one would consider love ‘easy’, Cadance.”

“Too true.” Cadance laughed. “But easier, I think, in terms of trying to bring about the result you want.”

“I suppose so, yes.”

“I’m curious, the Twilight Sparkle I knew wouldn’t give up or–”

“Cadance,” Twilight said with a weary sigh. “I agree, I’ve never been one to give up on things, to just say something can’t be done, but at the same time I know full well that certain things can’t be done either. You ought to know this too. There’s elementary aspects to magic, immutable, unchangeable, things beyond you or I.”

“You’re forgetting, Twilight, that I wasn’t born an alicorn, or even a unicorn,” Cadance chuckled. “I suppose rules and ideas that have been drilled into you two since you were fillies.”

“I’m not sure I like the implication here, Cadance,” Lyra spoke up. Twilight glanced at her herd sister and wife, who was frowning deeply at their guest. “I’m not a scholar like Twilight is, but you seem to be suggesting that this is all because Twilight’s just giving up on this idea. I don’t see why she should keep bashing her head against a wall if there’s no reasonable hope of it working.”

Twilight and Cadance flinched at the violent imagery. Something, unfortunately, Lyra had picked up from Lero, she imagined. Or perhaps a griffon, goodness knows Lyra had unusual tastes in friends.

“I don’t mean to.” Cadance shook her head. “I was, actually, just trying to ask Twilight how that made her feel… I know in the past you haven’t taken anything less than perfection well, Twilight.” She explained, turning her ear towards Twilight even though she continued to look at Lyra with a bit of puzzled and interested expression on her face.

“Well I can’t say it made me feel good,” Twilight grunted, thinking back to that first night after their lunch with Rarity, when she realized just how big of a mistake she had made, the oversight. She had desperately tried to find an answer that wasn’t the answer she knew must be true, that singular inescapable truth. “I was… more worried how Rainbow would take it. She’s loyal, very loyal, you know—”

“Almost like she’s the bearer of the Element of Loyalty, right, Twilight?” Lyra asked as she jabbed Twilight’s side with her hoof.

Twilight rolled her eyes.

“So you didn’t think Rainbow would take it well.”

“I know she wouldn’t. She’s always been protective of Lero—not to say the rest of us aren’t, of course” Twilight added hastily. Cadance made a note on her scroll and nodded. “I just… Lero’s come so far, you know? It isn’t like I didn’t imagine accepting a new stallion into a herd would be difficult or hard, but… I mean, come on. It isn’t like he doesn’t have friends who are stallions, right? What if it was Big Mac?”

“Applejack’s brother,” Lyra added, in response to Cadance's questioning look.

“Ah,” Cadance nodded and smirked. “Caught your eye, has he?”

“He’s Fluttershy’s stallion,” Twilight snorted. “I just meant as an example, really.”

“I see.”

“I believe Lero could adapt, can adapt,” Twilight explained, “He’s adapted so much, you know? I’m sure he could get used to the idea…”

“I sense an ‘and’ there.”

“And I think, as lead mares, we have to think of the good of the herd in general.” Twilight said evening, even though she felt a bit annoyed her sister-in-law had forced her to go on. “I love Lero very much, but he’s only one pony, even if he isn’t a pony.”

“I take it you think sometimes members of the herd don’t always get their way, then. Even stallions?” Cadance’s voice was neutral, but not in a bad way.

“I think sometimes that’s just what happens.”

“I see.” Cadance made a note, then paused, frowning at it, before scribbling it out. “What about you, Lyra, what do you think?”

Twilight turned to her herd sister, as did Cadance, but if the combined weight of half the nation’s alicorns unnerved her, Lyra didn’t show it. She met there gaze evenly, although she wore an expression that suggested she was thinking very hard over it. Not unusual, for the mare, and Twilight couldn’t help but remember how she looked that night when Rainbow ran.

“Well…” Lyra began, stopped, then shook her head. “I supported Twilight, and I continue to do so. I think she’s right… but it isn’t that Rainbow is wrong, either. The bond she has with Lero is… intense. Sometimes it’s like imagining the bond between Celestia and her sun.”

Lyra licked her lips, looking nervous. “Too intense, sometimes, and it blinds her and–” Lyra paused, suddenly looking uncomfortable. “I suppose we should have asked, this is confidential, yes?”

“It is,” Cadance confirmed, her face holding a whisper of disappointment. “And it isn’t. I won’t tell anypony or anyhuman anything you don’t want me too, Lyra—we can even ask Twilight to leave, if you wish, but, at the same time, holding things back from your wives? From your herdmates? That’s not healthy either.”

“Like you’ve never held anything back from Shining,” Twilight grumbled. She, of course, wasn’t privy to any sort of detail of that sort, but it must be true.

“I have,” Cadance confirmed, looking sad. “Oh, I don’t mean the little things like what he might expect to find under the Hearth on Hearth’s Warming, but… big things. Damaging things.” Cadance looked haunted for a moment.

“What… what do you mean, Cadance?” Twilight asked, wondering if she even should. Unbidden, she found her hooves under her and walked across the room to hug Cadance.

“It’s… personal. I don’t mind sharing, but this isn’t the time or place.” Cadance shook her head, even as she returned the hug as warmly as Twilight could ever remember. “But I was wrong to do so, regardless. I urge you not to keep secrets from your herd, Lyra. I know it’s hard.”

“I know the value of truth telling,” Lyra said shaking her head. “It isn’t that, though. It’s just that, well, I stood with Twilight because I feel like the herd does need leadership. Rainbow is a wonderful pony, I’m proud and grateful everyday that she’s part of my life, part of our lives… but she isn’t a leader. She’s been stuck in a rut—I suppose—and we’ve been stuck too. I mean look at this house. If Twilight hadn’t put her hoof down, we’d probably have Rainbow’s cloudhouse attached onto the roof, even though most of the herd can’t use it.”

“And getting everypony in the same house was a bit of work in and of itself, too,” Lyra shook her head. “I don’t like the idea of forcing the herd to go along with things, either, though.”

“Of course,” Cadance agreed. “Any relationship, herd or not, is about communication and compromise, in one way or another. We, as ponies, add consensus to that.”

“What is it you think we ought to do, then, Cadance?” Twilight said finally. “I don’t really know where the herd stands, myself, but I know I want to have foals one day, I know Lyra does too—and whether or not Rainbow is going to openly admit it, I’ve seen that gleam in her eye when we talk about it. Lero can’t provide them, and the only way we’re ever going to get pregnant is if we expand our herd.” Twilight grimaced. “Or, I guess, hire a–a stud.”

Cadance frowned at that and shook her head. “I don’t think that’d be necessary.”

“I’m guessing you’d like to talk to Rainbow, next,” Lyra mused. “If there’s nothing else.”

“I do, yes. Then all of you together, again.” Cadance agreed, scribbling something on the scroll. “If you could?”

Twilight waited for Lyra to walk through the door and down the hall, her hoofsteps fading. She paused, and Twilight knew she was looking back at her, but she waved her to go on. She… didn’t need Lyra to hear this. It took a moment before she started walking away again, and Twilight could just imagine her wife standing there, looking over her shoulder at the part of Twilight sticking out of the doorway, with a puzzled expression on her face. Then one of understanding. Maybe she didn’t want her to overhear, but Lyra was nothing if not perceptive, and she probably… knew.

It took Cadance a moment to notice Twilight hadn’t let left the room with her herdsister, so intent she was on scribbling. Twilight was tempted to look over her shoulder at what she was writing so intently and so vigorous, but she knew that was very much a no-no, even if it was notes on herself and Lyra. If, indeed, she even wanted to see them.

Cadance looked up, surprised. “Twilight?”

“Do you… do you really think I’m like my mother, Cadance?” Twilight’s voice was soft and fearful, those words giving form to the sense of shell-shocked horror she had felt most of the morning at her core. Part of her kept whispering that what she had done was exactly what her mother would have done, but she kept trying to remind herself that she hadn’t done anything purposefully harmful. Not to mention she felt deep remorse over it all… her mother, on the other hoof, Twilight was sure, had no regrets.

Cadance’s expression was a frightfully neutral mask, reminding Twilight uncomfortably and terrifyingly of Celestia. It was the sort of expression she wore when she didn’t want to say something, but knew what she had to say would upset Twilight anyway… and yet wasn’t willing to lie about it.

“No.” Cadance said finally, with a sigh. “And yes.”

Twilight’s heart sank and she fell onto her rump as she gaped at the mare.

“That isn’t a bad thing, Twilight, please understand. Star Sparkle…” Cadance looked distant for a moment. “She’s perhaps one of the most forceful and strong ponies I know, and yes, that includes Princess Celestia. She has a strong will, a willingness to fight for things she wants. Your mother had dreams, goals—and she reached for them.” Cadance paused, put aside her notes and pulled Twilight into the room with her magic, and into her waiting wings and legs. “None of which, is a bad thing, Twilight. You possess these qualities too, and that isn’t bad.”

“My mother–” Twilight’s voice was dangerously close to a sob, but she was stronger than that, even here, with her foalsitter and sister.

“Made mistakes, and is too strong headed and too strong willed to admit them,” Cadance said softly. “But you do, Twilight. You’re like your mother, and sometimes, like your mother, you act too strongly and make mistakes… but you admit them, and try to do better. I assure you, if Star Sparkle had been the one Auntie had sent to Ponyville years ago, she’s still be on the very first lesson of friendship.”

“But you said–”

“I know what I said, and what I said is true.” Cadance paused, and Twilight could hear her heart beating in her chest. “Your mother was prone to stubbornness, and I was worried that you, like her, wouldn’t accept my help because you didn’t believe you need it."

“Of course I need your help,” Twilight whined. It was if she was a filly again. “I… I’m hopeless. I should just give it back to Rainbow…”

“I didn’t say that, and I certainly don’t think it. You are a Princess, Twilight, you know how to lead.” Cadance nuzzled Twilight, nosing her ears gently, just like she used to do. “And I think you can, if that’s truly what you think his herd needs. Lyra supports you, after all.”

Twilight sniffled—not that she had been crying or feeling sorry for herself! After all, she had all these other ponies to worry about. Her wives, her husband… Spike. I should go apologize to him, she thought to herself, and the warmth enveloping her pulled back.

“I know something that’ll cheer you up,” Cadance said with a smirk. “We didn’t do it earlier, I didn’t think it was really appropriate for a serious discussion… however…” Cadance’s smirk turned into a grin, which Twilight found herself returning, catching on to what Cadance was saying.

Simultaneously, they started bouncing on their hooves as they chanted; “Sunshine, Sunshine…”

Rainbow paused at the doorway of the den, smirking like she had just caught Twilight going to town on herself as Twilight and Cadance spun on the spot and shook her rumps at one another.

“And do a little shake!” The two mares said at the same time, laugher barely contained in their voices, for all of five nanoseconds before they broke down laughing and holding one another. Rainbow figured that was her cue.

“Really, Twilight?” Rainbow said as she stepped fully into the room with a laugh. “Still? Aren’t you a grown mare?”

“Oh-oh hush, Dashie,” Twilight said breathlessly as she blushed, even as she grinned sheepishly at Rainbow.

Cadance didn’t seemed fazed by the idea that she was still acting like a silly filly, just smiling happily at Twilight, before turning to Rainbow with a chuckle. “Oh I don’t know, Rainbow, would you like to try it?”

“Ha,” Rainbow mimed laughing as she shook her head. “Come on, Cadance, I’m far too cool for that.”

“Oh, indeed?” Cadance chuckled, as she reached out and placed her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Go on Twilight, I’ve got to talk to Rainbow now… are you feeling better?”

“A bit,” Twilight said, her good mood fading slightly, with her ears drooping and her face falling. “I think I’m going to go find Spike and give him a hug, though. Sometimes I don’t know where I’d be without him… he deserves better than me.”

“Sounds like a plan. Good luck—try not to give him too much ice cream, though.” Cadance giggled at Twilight’s expression, which shouted ‘do you think I’m an idiot’. Then she settled back into her seat, gesturing for Rainbow to do the same.

Rainbow needed no further prompting, stretching out on the loafy, lumpy furniture and giving Cadance a smile… that faded into something more serious as the situation caught up with her. The silence stretched between them like a canyon, and Rainbow found herself uncomfortably reminded of Twilight and her having a conversation over this very topic in her mother’s home. Save, perhaps, that the alicorn princess across from her was somewhat bigger and wearing a pleasantly neutral smile as she waited.

“Twilight tells me that you’re pretty close to making it into the Wonderbolts,” Cadance commented eventually, when it was clear Rainbow wasn’t going to be suckered into the first move. “That’s pretty impressive.”

“Oh yeah!” Rainbow grinned, her distrust of the pink mare temporarily placed aside. “I mean, I’m already one of the best fliers in Equestria, you know. It’s really just a matter of making it official, see. I’ve got a test coming up in a few months and once I ace that, I’ll be in the reserves.” Rainbow beamed, a familiar sense of pride and excitement bubbling up inside of her chest. “I’ve waited so long for this and…”

Rainbow’s glee faded as she realized who she was talking to, and why. “You’re not really here to listen to me talk about the Wonderbolts, though, are you Princess?”

“Cadance is fine,” she said with a wink, apparently not noticing the unamused tone in Rainbow’s voice or grumpy expression. “I suppose that’s true enough, but I do like hearing about your exploits, you know. Twilight writes pretty frequently to me, and Lyra does every now and again, but you…” Cadance smiled just as warmly as before, which only served to remind Rainbow of the guilt she felt over never writing her own mother, let alone her sister-in-law. Not that she had ever bothered to contact any of Twilight’s actual sisters or brothers, but perhaps that was normal, given the nature of Twilight’s natal herd.

The less that was said of her own natal herd and Lyra’s… the better.

“I’ll admit I do my best to keep abreast of such developments—after all, I am a princess of Equestria and requesting reports being sent to myself, is perfectly normal, but…” Cadance paused and licked her lips, grinning. “I daresay such dry reading hardly catches the blow by blow of them, right?”

“Okay, fine, sure.” Rainbow crossed her forelegs over her chest and frowned at the mare, resisting the urge to flare her wings and try and frighten her off. She didn’t belong here, family or not. “It’s great. I’ll be a Wonderbolt sooner rather than later. I’m Rainbow Dash, awesome. I’m not buying it.”

“Not buying what, Rainbow?” Cadance said calmly. Maddeningly calmly.

“That you care!” Rainbow snapped, keeping herself from yelling, just barely by the tips of her feathers. “It isn’t even why you’re here, there’s no point in denying it! You wanna talk about Lero and the herd and foals and junk.”

Cadance’s smile slipped slightly, and she sighed. “Yes, it’s true. But that doesn’t mean I don’t care and—let’s be honest—I rather think we needed an ice breaker.”

“Fine,” Rainbow grumped. She doubted she could really intimidate the princess even if she tried. “Talk, then.”

“Alright.” Cadance paused and tapped her nose with the quill’s tip, apparently thinking, until she gave a tiny, adorable sneeze and blushed. “Right. Well, I suppose what I’m most curious about is why you thought going on a date with Dust Tempest was a good idea?”

“Ugh!” Rainbow groaned, throwing herself back against the couch with vigor. “I told you, I told Twilight and Lero and everypony that it was an accident.”

“An accident,” Cadance echoed in a tone of voice that Rainbow hated. She doubted her. She thought she was lying. “I see.”

“Oh don’t say that!” Rainbow snapped.

“Say what?”

“‘I see’!” Rainbow said, shaking her head. “Therapists like you always say that and it always means something bad.”

Cadance opened her mouth to say something before closing it, apparently thinking better of whatever she was about to say. Then, a moment later: “You’ve been to therapists before, I take it.”

Rainbow remained silent, resolutely not looking at Cadance, which she supposed was answer enough for the alicorn.

“I don’t mean anything by it, Rainbow, certainly nothing bad,” Cadance’s smile was somewhat wan. “It’s only to get you to talk more. Often, with this, the only person who can really help somepony is themselves-I’m just a sounding board.”

“Whatever.”

“Now, you say it’s an accident, but, Rainbow—and please, I’m not accusing you of anything!—I can’t help but feel a bit skeptical of that claim. After all, picking somepony up is usually not so easy,” Cadance said gently, in a motherly tone of voice.

“Yeah, well.” Rainbow’s ears folded back against her head, although her anger was more at herself than Cadance or anypony else. Certainly not at Dust Tempest. “I just.. I didn’t realize until after what I had agreed to, really. I just thought he wanted to hang out.”

“On Hearts and Hooves Day,” Cadance said neutrally.

“Oh come on!” Rainbow said, throwing herself out of her seat and into a hover so she could freely gesture. “Look, I’ll admit it looks bad and all, but come on, how was I supposed to know! I’ve never been hit on in my life! Why would they, I’m not exactly you, Cadance.”

“What do you mean by that?” Cadance said, sounding taken back, which was just the sort of reaction Rainbow wanted. It emboldened her.

“I mean like, look at you! You’ve got the body of an alicorn–” Rainbow blushed slightly as she realized the stupidity of the statement “–all flank and hips and tail and neck. I’ve certainly not got any of that!” Rainbow slapped her thigh for empathize, drawing Cadance’s eye to her flat behind. Ordinarily, Rainbow would feel rather uncomfortable knowing a mare was looking her bare bottom—probably mocking her—but the moment had her caught up. Here, with her legs dangling loosely, her behind was particularly flat, and only served to accent the near total lack of body fat on her lithe form.

Rainbow turned back to Cadance, expecting, her to look either embarrassed, or understanding or at worst, with a mocking sneer across her muzzle. She hadn’t expected Cadance to look so… confused.

“I’m not sure I follow, Rainbow,” Cadance said finally, frowning at her. “I mean, thank you for thinking I’m… well, beautiful, but I’m not sure what that has anything to do with you, exactly?”

“I can’t believe Twilight idolizes you,” Rainbow said as she dropped back onto the couch with a roll of her eyes. “I’m not very good looking. Lots of ponies would call me ugly. No butt, no flanks—my tail’s always a mess, etc, etc.” Rainbow said tiredly, looking up at the ceiling and avoiding her gaze. Maybe she just liked drawing the answers out of ponies, taking sadistic pleasure in getting them to admit it.

Cadance didn’t say anything, and Rainbow didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of looking her in the face after admitting that hard truth. “So, when Dust asked me out on a date with me and my herd—I guess I just wasn’t expecting it and it caught me by surprise, is all.”

“Okay.” Cadance said finally, after a long moment of silence. Despite herself, Rainbow glanced at the alicorn, who seemed rather troubled by something, chewing the inside of her mouth thoughtfully, before closing her eyes and sighing. “It might be unprofessional of me to say, Rainbow, but I don’t think you’re ugly at all. Obviously you and I are very different ponies, but you’re also…” Cadance’s cheeks lit up. “Very hot. On your own. Maybe you’re not a fashion model, but there’s more than one way of being beautiful.”

“Uh huh.” Rainbow shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Look, I appreciate the thought, but I know you’re just saying that.”

“I’m not just saying it, though. That’s my point.” Cadance shook her head. “Before Shining and I made things official, I know he had a big crush on a mare who looked just like you. It takes all kinds. I don’t know why you think–”

“Look, I’ve had ponies tell it to my face enough times that it’s sunk it. Girls, a few stallions…” Rainbow said, cutting Cadance off. “I’m not stupid, and I don’t appreciate being lied to, Cadance. I know you’re trying to make me feel better, or whatever, but look, Princess, I’ve accepted this for years. It’s just the way things are.”

“I see,” Cadance said softly. Whereas before the word was more of her trying to prod her forward, this was more of an admission of defeat. Silence stretched between them for a long moment. “You know, when I first came to the palace—this was… oh gosh, must been fifteen years ago now… I didn’t know anypony, I guess that should be obvious. I wasn’t born into Royalty, just like Twilight wasn’t.”

“So I didn’t know anypony, I didn’t know my own body anymore—the whole magic thing, it was weird,” Cadance mused, smiling at the quill in her magic, as she rotated it. “But… I was pretty outgoing back then—I guess I still am—and Auntie encouraged me to find new friends… and, well, she introduced me to her personal student of the day, Sunset Shimmer.”

“She’s had other students?” Rainbow said with a tone of surprise.

“...of course she has.” Cadance shook her head, trying to return to her story. “Anyway, you’ve never met her—I’m not really sure what happened to her, actually—but she was a complete and total nag.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. first thing she said to me, when we were alone? Told me I was too pink. Offensively pink, I think were her exact words. And she told me I’d be lucky if I ever managed to have a kid with my belly like this–” Cadance gestured to her own tight belly “–without her coming out and wrecking my cutie mark into a thousand pieces.” Cadance barked a laugh and shook her head again. “She was, ah, witty, I’ll give her that.”

“What a jerk,” Rainbow commented, with a frown; in her head, she could only imagine Twilight as Celestia’s student, and it was difficult reconciling the image of her wife with the pony Cadance was describing. Obviously this Sunset Shimmer wasn’t the same as Twilight, but it was surprising that Princess Celestia would allow someone who was so unpleasant-sounding to learn from her, especially in a close, personal position. Rainbow found herself shaking her head: “What’s your point?”

“My point is that it crushed me, at least for a little while,” Cadance said, sighing and scrawling something into her notes. “I had a period of… oh, three or four years, growing up, where I’d wear dresses and makeup, trying to make myself less pink. A few unpleasant adventures with coat dye too, actually, until Auntie put her hoof down. It was just something someone said to me—someone I didn’t even know or care about, and it coloured my whole world.”

Cadance paused, giving Rainbow a very firm look. “I don’t know if Sunset was serious, or if she was just having a bad day or if she was just a natural nag, but I do know she wasn’t right. She was wrong, and she hurt me, deeply.” She looked as if she wanted to say more, but then closed her mouth.

Rainbow frowned at her, and then frowned deeper, at herself. It was difficult to believe that somepony like Cadance, a literal alicorn princess—and one of the more accessible ones, at that, could think she was anything less than, well, there’s a reason she was rapidly becoming a favored subject for artists and photographers. She hadn’t known Cadance well before her wedding, and truthfully she didn’t know her all that well now, either; she did know a number of ponies, including Rarity, who had expressed disappointment in learning she was getting married, especially with the implications overhanging it. It just didn’t fit. The mare was almost the literal living embodiment of beauty, at least in some quarters, and…

Of course, Twilight had had some… reservations about her appearance too, now that Rainbow thought about it, but she had always dismissed them as just Twilight being Twilight. Certainly, she was no Cadance—her coat was too dark for that, but…

“Well, let’s put that aside for the moment,” Cadance said, sounding as if she was pulling herself out of her own thoughts. “Tell me about Twilight; I see she’s lead mare—are you alright with that?”

“Sure,” Rainbow shrugged. “I mean, she is a Princess, after all—I guess she knows something about leading.”

“But you were still upset when she Challenged you.”

“Of course I was,” Rainbow snapped, “I mean, she just wanted to hurt Lero!”

“She did?” Cadance said, soundly neutrally surprised. “By not including him in the discussion?”

“Yeah!” Rainbow said, her wings flaring, stretching out against the couch as she frowned.

“Do you not believe Twilight loves Lero? Or you, for that matter?” Cadance asked, tilting her head slightly. “I’ll grant, though, that loving somepony—or someone—doesn’t exclude the possibility that you might hurt them, intentionally or unintentionally.”

“Well, sure.” Rainbow said after a long pause. “I mean, I know she does—I’m not stupid.”

“I never said you were,” Cadance pointed out. “And if you’re expecting judgement, Rainbow, you won’t find any from me. I consider you a friend, whatever else you might be to me, after all.”

“Alright,” Rainbow said, feeling as if a bit of the fight welling up inside her had been ripped away, making her feel deflated. A fight that she only now realized was brewing in her belly, now that it was gone. “Okay, look, I don’t mean that. I know Twilight loves Lero, and me, and Lyra, and whatever—and I know if she’s a bit inconsiderate sometimes, it’s just ‘cause she’s Twilight. It’s just, it’s Lero. He needs to be protected.”

“Let me ask you this,” Cadance said, pausing for a moment to gather her thoughts. “Suppose it really had ended there, that night—you told your herd no, you didn’t want to hear such talk, and they agreed. What would you have done then? Told Lero in the morning what had happened?”

“I don’t think so,” Rainbow said, feeling somewhat hypocritical. “There’d be no point in worrying him, right?”

“You tell me, Rainbow,” Cadance said softly. “I’m not judging you, remember, I only want to know; would you have told Twilight to keep researching, even though she knew there was no hope of ever finding a solution?”

Rainbow sat, her gaze fixed on Cadance’s neck without actually seeing anything at all. Eventually she sighed. “I don’t know. I guess we would have had to tell him, eventually… I don’t think we ought to keep lying to him.”

“I agree,” Cadance said with a nod. “Holding that back… that wouldn’t be healthy for any of your relationships.”

She waited for Cadance to say more, a certain empty, hollow feeling in her chest dragging her down, but Cadance let the silence drag on and on, as she scribbled something on her scroll with a bit of a frown—her tongue was even sticking out of her lips as she concentrated. Finally, she broke it: “Aren’t you going to ask me about expanding the herd?”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Cadance said, her eyes flicking to Rainbow in a way that told her that the princess had probably been hoping she’d be the one to bring it up, rather than Cadance forcing the topic.

“I assumed we would,” Rainbow grumbled, crossing her forelegs and frowning at the newspaper left on the coffee table.

“I think I understand that you’re concerned for your stallion—even if your stallion’s a human,” Cadance murmured. “I think, perhaps, you’re underestimating his strength, though. However, what I am curious about is this: you must know by now that Lero is, in his heart, a monogamous individual. Why did you insist on having a full bodied herd?”

“I didn’t want to be selfish,” Rainbow said simply, shrugging. Why else would a mare keep a stallion all to herself?

“I see,” Cadance said noncommittally

“I don’t expect you to understand, though.” The words just slipped out of Rainbow’s mouth. They would have been rude, even if she wasn’t talking to a Princess.

“Not understa–” Cadance’s confused expression turned to one of understanding. “You think I’m monogamous?”

“Everypony does.” Perhaps not everypony, but Cadance and Shining had never really been a proper herd—you needed somepony to share with, really, even if ponies often referred to young couples as herds. To make matters worse, the two of them had gotten married in the most public and loudest way possible. Now, several years on, the duo had never made so much as a hint that they were looking for somepony else. And they’ve been trying to get pregnant.

“I… suppose I could see why we might give the impression, yes,” Cadance said, sounding a bit frustrated and unhappy. “I assure you we’re not. It’s just…” Cadance took a deep breath and went through the breathing exercise that Rainbow was so familiar with Twilight doing. “If you really must know, Rainbow, after the changelings, it’s become very difficult for us to trust anypony, to have that sort of relationship that might bloom into a romantic one.”

“Oh.” Rainbow felt her face heat up. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine, Rainbow.” Cadance said with a bit of a frown, shaking her head. “So you didn’t want to be selfish. What did Lero make of it?”

“He was a bit surprised, I guess, I mean, back home—where he’s from—every human is monogamous.” Rainbow shrugged. “But he was okay with it.”

“What makes you think he couldn’t be okay with the herd including another stallion, then?” Cadance said, her voice gentle without any of the anger Rainbow had feared, given her response to her accusations. “He’s adapted greatly, right? Even including just Twilight would be unusual for him.”

“I guess, but… I don’t buy it, I know he’s been hurt by all this,” Rainbow shook her head, recalling the scene from the day before. “I mean, he’s so friendly all the time—hay, sometimes he’s more of a pony than we ponies are! And he lashed out at Dust Tempest, and, well. I mean you’ve heard all this.”

Cadance nodded, encouraging Rainbow to go on.

“He’s bent, like me—he’s only into mares—well, I suppose, uh, women too… um.” Rainbow frowned.

“I understand, yes. But—and I made this point to your husband—it isn’t as if he’d be required to do anything he wasn’t comfortable with, with this hypothetical stallion.” Cadance paused and wrote something else in her notes, although Rainbow couldn’t imagine what. “I can’t imagine Lyra or Twilight forcing you to have sex with them, if you didn’t really want it.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow said, sighing. “So, what? You think we ought to do it anyway?” It came out more accusing than she intended, but she didn’t really care. “Just start dating somepony and hope Lero adjusts?”

“Dating anyone new, bringing them into an existing relationship—or existing set of relationships, is always going to be difficult, and always going to require adjustment.” Cadance smiled slightly at her. “As, I’m sure, you know from experience. But no, I’m suggesting that perhaps you need to consider that it isn’t as insurmountable as you seem to believe, Rainbow.”

Rainbow frowned at that, disagreeing. Cadance didn’t know Lero like she did, and never would. He needed protection—her protection, she supposed, since she wasn’t sure if Twilight really would. With a sinking feeling, she found herself wondering whether she should have fought to keep control of her herd. She wasn’t a politician or skilled in the art of manipulating ponies, like Rarity. She knew she couldn’t control the herd from the rear, as much as she might like to, and what if Twilight decided to force the issue in a few months? What would she do then? Perhaps she’d have to take Lero and break herd.

You can’t do that! A voice in her head snapped at her, instantly making her feel guilty. They’re your friends! Your wives, no less! You’ve been through hell and back!

What about Lero? Rainbow thought back, not at all bothered by the notion she was talking to herself. What about him? He needs my protection, more so than they do! They’re big girls, they can look after themselves!

Maybe, but it’d break their hearts—and Lero’s, I imagine. The voice quieted for a moment. Where would we go? Would you run off and form another herd? Stay monogamous?

Oh shut up! Rainbow snapped.

Maybe you should try being a bit loyal to your herdmates, wives and husband, the voice whispered back. And trust them.

“Rainbow?” Cadance said, drawing Rainbow out of her thoughts. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, fine, sorry.” Rainbow shook her head. “I zoned out for a moment.”

“That’s fine,” Cadance said, scribbling something more onto the scroll. “I was just saying, I think you could call everypony back. I wanted to talk to everypony at once.”

“Oh.” Rainbow slid off her perch and onto the floor, then frowned at Cadance, who was now furiously scribbling away. “What the hell are you writing, anyway?”

“Oh, nothing,” Cadance said, a bit of a blush coming to her cheeks like a foal caught with her hoof in the cookie jar.

“Uh huh,” Rainbow said skeptically. “Can I see them, or is some sort of weird doctor mumbo jumbo about not sharing notes with the patient?”

Cadance laughed by way of an answer, and floated them over to Rainbow. They weren’t notes at all, but rather doodles. Of all manner. One featured a really awesome picture of herself, wings flared as someone—Lero, she thought—hid behind her. Another featured a outline of a stallion with a question mark on his rear. There were others, too: Rainbow’s eyes grew wide as she flicked took them all in, including a few of which that weren’t exactly… well, she had her magazines over the years, that was for sure.

“I don’t actually need to take notes, but I find drawing helps keep my focus,” Cadance said, apparently looking over Rainbow’s shoulder, having came up behind her. “I’m particularly fond of that one.” She added, pointing what appeared to be two stallions… fucking.

“Y-yeah.” Rainbow felt her cheeks heating up and her wings twitched. “I can see why—is… is that Twi’s brother?” Rainbow added, as she thought she recognized the… well, the bottom.

“Yes, yes it is.” Cadance tittered.

“Then who’s….”

“Oh, that’s me,” Cadance shook her head with a sly grin on her face. “It’s amazing what spells you can find if you really go looking.”

“That’s you?” Rainbow said, sidestepping away from Cadance to put some room between them. “He doesn’t look too,” she hesitated, looking for the proper word. “Comfortable.”

"We both learned something that day." Cadance giggled, a hint of a blush on her cheeks. "More lube.”

Rainbow stared at her for a moment, her blush intensifying as, uninvited, certain images pranced into her head. After a second she shook them off. “Uh, right. You… you probably shouldn’t tell Twilight that.” She broke her gaze and coughed. “I’ll be back with everypony in a few minutes.”

***

Twilight followed the herd into the room, somewhat ironically bringing up the rear, despite her supposed new position in the herd’s hierarchy. The idea vaguely amused her, for a moment, although after a second—partly due to her staring at Lero’s butt—she wondered if it might not be beneficial for her to write a book, for her husband. A sort of Xenophile’s Guide to Equestria. Perhaps it would help Lero if she sat down and explained things.

Cadance was seemingly right where they had left her, curling up in the chair opposite the couch, and as before the lot of them trotted over to it and on or next to it. Perhaps it was Twilight’s imagination, but there seemed to be almost a bit of a distance between Rainbow, Lyra and herself. And Lero, truth be told. What had Cadance talked to them about? Had it upset them so badly that they weren’t feeling as comfortable with one another anymore?

“So… what do you think, Cadance?” Lyra asked, drawing Twilight’s attention back to the den.

Cadance had lost her notes along the way, it seemed, although she was still twirling the quill in her magic as she frowned at it thoughtfully—she started, as if surprised by Lyra, and then smiled at them, a professional sort of smile, rather than the warmer sort Twilight was used to seeing on her lips.

“Well, I talked to each of you—more or less—individually, and I think I know where everypony—everyone, pardon—stands.” Cadance said slowly, her smile slipping slightly.

“Do you think we can fix this?” Twilight said, matching her frown with one of her own. They had to fix it. For Celestia’s sake, they were married!

“Perhaps,” Cadance said.

Twilight’s stomach felt like it was suddenly filled with lead. It wasn’t a ‘yes’, it wasn’t an ‘absolutely’, it was perhaps. A maybe. As if she didn’t know whether it could be saved or not, whether or not they could move beyond it.

Of course, that might not be the end of it; as she talked to Spike, she was reminded, strongly, of a thought she’d had years and years ago, about how she wanted to do better with her own herd, she didn’t want it to break apart like it had for her mother and father… they were still a herd, of course, but Twilight wasn’t so naive enough to think that they were truly a herd, on some levels. It seemed, really, only her father’s boundless capacity for love—and, admittedly, her mother’s iron will and lack of desire to bend—had held the herd together at all.

“I think it would be helpful for you, as a herd, to talk to a professional, at least semi regularly,” Cadance continued. “It could be me, or somepony else, who’s more local, but I understand that you’re all a bit reluctant to do so—and I thank you again for allowing me the opportunity to try and help.”

Her sister-in-law paused, frowning first at her quill, then at Lero. “Lero, keeping in mind you can say no, would you mind if I told them what you told me?”

There was a pause, and Twilight watched her husband’s face as it worked through a number of emotions, all too quickly and perhaps slightly too alien for Twilight to follow. Then he slowly shook his head.

Cadance looked mildly surprised, although she masked it well.

“No, I’d rather say it myself,” Lero said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. “Girls, look, I’m… I’m not a very good husband—I know you disagree, but when I look at you, and when I look at myself… there’s a world of difference, you know?” Lero shook his head. “Can you honestly say, if I was just a normal pony, that I’d be on your…‘level’?”

“That’s not really how it works, Lero.” Twilight frowned. “I mean, I wasn’t always a Princess, and I don’t think you’re saying that now that I’m ‘important’ that I ought to go and find other ponies to love and care about.”

“Yeah! Like, come on Big guy,” Rainbow punched Lero lightly in the shoulder. “You don’t need to be a Wonderbolt or whatever.”

“No, but look at me, I don’t excel at anything.” Lero shook his head. “I know you don’t like hearing it, but it’s true—I’m not even a good husband or herd stallion, by your standards, am I?”

“Lero,” Cadance said softly but firmly. “Remember what we talked about, about self recriminations?”

“I know, Cadance, I do.” Lero sighed heavily. “Girls, I want to be better. I’m not perfect, by a long shot, I want to work on my hang ups, and be the sort of pony—even if I’m human—that I ought to be.” Lero looked down at his hands. “That I ought to be for ponies as amazing as you three.”

Twilight crawled up onto the couch and hugged him firmly, joined by her herd sisters and beloved wives. He was stiff, for a moment, then relaxed under their bodies, his arms reaching out and encircling them all in the way only he could. Then he tensed up again.

“But…” Lero said slowly, and sadly. “I think it’s only fair to admit that I’m probably monogamous at heart. Twilight, Lyra. I’m sorry, but it’s the truth. I do love you, never doubt that, never doubt my commitment to you, but sometimes it makes things hard...and at the end of the day, I’d be perfectly happy with just one of you, and never want anything more.” Lero sighed. “So… with that in mind… if you feel this isn’t working, isn’t going to work, and you want to leave and find some other stallion and build the lives you deserve with them—you can do so. I won’t hold it against you.”

Against her side, Rainbow tensed.

She couldn’t imagine the element bearer of loyalty being too happy with them upping and leaving, but…

For a brief moment, Twilight entertained the thought. It would be easier, Lyra and her setting out on their own; Twilight turned her head and glanced at the mint green mass on the other side of Rainbow’s body, wondering what she was thinking. In truth, Rainbow and Lero had often been neglectful, which was partly what caused the whole fight to begin with, on some level. She knew they didn’t mean it maliciously, on purpose. But it still happened, and it still hurt. They could go, find some stallion—maybe even Dust, if he’d have them, and… build a life together.

But she had already built a life, here, with her herd, with her wives and husband who she loved. Twilight crushed the thought.

“Thank you, Lero,” Twilight said, gently, keeping her voice light and making sure no notes of horror could creep into it. “But… I think I speak for all of us when I say we’d like to at least fight for you. If you want to work on this, then I want to be there, to help you. I think you’re wonderful already, but... “ Twilight smiled sheepishly. “I can understand the drive to self improve, if nothing else.”

Lyra and Rainbow murmured in agreement, before adding their own comments, although Twilight didn’t really pay that close attention; she was looking over her shoulder at Cadance, who was openly grinning at the lot of them. Whether it was because of the scene they were making on the couch, or their words and promises. They were going to move forward together.

They weren’t healed, but they were healing.

***

Months went by, and with surprising quickness, the late winter turned to early spring, and the five of them—sometimes six, since Twilight wanted to ensure Spike was included too—continued to meet with Cadance regularly. Sometimes they met with her in their home, other times they took a weekend and headed out to the Crystal Empire. Princesses traveled free, after all, and while it might have been a bit of a hassle, it was, by general consensus, worth it. Not that it was always easy. There were tears and anger, ideas and misconceptions were broken down. They probably had more fights than they had ever had before, but, paradoxically, they felt closer together than before, too.

As a group, they met with, and made up, with Dust Tempest, although he was more than willing to move on. The media was less forgiving, but it wasn’t the first time Twilight had been in the media spotlight, and probably wouldn’t be the last; her herdmates, especially Lero, suffered more so than her. As for Dust, they wished him luck, and Twilight promised to write to him. There was no reason, they agreed—some of them more reluctantly than others, that they couldn’t be friends. Eventually he got a job teaching, oddly enough, in the Crystal Empire.

As the Springforward passed and summer days sprung up, so too did announcements of who had gotten pregnant. Normally a joyful time, and it still was, but when Rarity announced hers, it hurt. It hadn’t been the first time somepony they knew had announced a pregnancy, but it was particularly close to home, and Twilight found it a particularly bitter pill to swallow—and she wasn’t the only one. That sparked a fight, a bad one, and Twilight thought for sure they’d break up. But they didn’t. Cadance lost her foal that week, and it ended up that she was the one in need of their love and support, which, oddly, helped them with their own struggles.

That month had also brought a rather awkward and upsetting dinner with Rainbow Dash’s mother, and her herd. Twilight knew the mare was probably interested in her former-now-current herdmate’s daughter’s relationship with the Crowns of Equestria, and did her best not to make a scene. In the end, though, it had been Rainbow Dash who lost her head. There might have been a fight in that, too, had Rainbow’s mother not shown up at their hotel in tears. Updraft, it seemed, wasn’t the forgiving sort. A few weeks later, the whole herd exploded, a painful and cogent reminder of their own issues—at least in Twilight’s opinion. Both events put things into perspective, maybe. They healed a bit more, after them.

Over the summer, Lero decided he wanted to go back to school. It was a bit of a surprise, but they all supported him—not that he needed to ask. It was a bit odd, watching Cheerilee tutor him day after day, but eventually he moved beyond the basics of Equestrian education. He wanted to make something of himself, and in truth, Twilight wasn’t sure what that would be, especially when he had no magic of his own. It had taken some work, but she had managed to get him a private tutor, one that visited every other weekend, although lately Lero had been traveling to Canterlot to spend time with the tutor.. A year ago, Twilight wasn’t sure she could imagine her husband traveling anywhere on his own. It seemed healing and moving on had caused him to grow up, too.

Then, at summer’s end, they lost their home.

That hurt, too, perhaps Twilight herself more so than anypony else, because it was her home, the Golden Oaks, that had been mostly damaged in Tirek’s attack, and it had been somewhere with a lot of meaning for her. Of course, she gained a new place, and while nice, it didn’t feel quite like home—but having her herd there helped. Maybe one day it would feel like home again.

Life went on.

Twilight sighed as she stared at the peak of her tree house castle thing, only barely visible from her vantage point at the Le Bon Foin. Cloudsdale was rapidly approaching, she knew, and there was already a nip in the air; soon it’d be too uncomfortable to be sitting around outside. Across from her, glaring at a piece of cake as if it was committing some great personal offense to her, sat a rather heavily pregnant Rarity. Her friend was still some months away from actually giving birth, but one wouldn’t know, from the way she complained about it.

At her side, sat Lyra, who was uncharacteristically fidgeting, and Rainbow, who was looking more than a bit uncomfortable. There were only two seats open; they were waiting on Lero and somepony else. It had been nearly a year, and to their surprise, Lero had suggested somepony, a stallion he had apparently met, and asked them here. None of them knew what to think, really.

“I still can’t get over how rude those Crystal ponies were,” Rarity grumped, even as she took another bite of cake. Rarity had been hanging out with Twilight’s herd lately, and while it was a bit odd having an outsider so close to them, it was comforting too. For her part, Rarity, she suspected, was nesting—and with her own herd so far away and distant, they were a familiar and comforting presence. Twilight didn’t mind. She had accompanied them to the Crystal Empire on their most recent trip to see Cadance, and had overheard somepony suggesting she was a bit on the heavy side, these days.

And she had been going on about it non-stop, so Twilight nodded comfortingly as she forced herself to stop watching the road.

“Are you sure you three want me here, dears?” Rarity asked suddenly, apparently abandoning her urge to complain about their uncouth cousins to the north. “I know I’ve been imposing upon you all for a while now—for which I’m eternally grateful—but if you want privacy…”

“No, it’s fine, Rarity.” Lyra said, reaching over and patting the soon-to-be-mother on her hoof. “This isn’t really a date, to begin with. Just Lero introducing us to one of his new friends.”

Certainly not a date, no, but Lero had insisted they at least look at his friend as if he might be one. He had brought it up in the last meeting with Cadance, much to Cadance’s pleasure and their surprise—especially since he was being so mysterious over the friend’s identity. Months of counseling with Cadance had unfortunately rubbed off on her husband, and he had a bit of a flare for the dramatic romance now, it seemed.

She had also suggested they bring a friend, to provide a sort of buffer and keep the interaction less awkward.

A sidelong glance at Rarity made Twilight wonder if her friend was going to talk about her various aches and pains and intimate issues with being pregnant and make it awkward anyway.

Rarity caught her eye and grinned shyly, as if she could read Twilight’s mind, and opened it to say something—only to gasp in surprise. “Oh, well there’s Lero and—oh my!”

Twilight turned to look at the pair approaching up the street from behind much of the herd. Did he plan that? Perhaps… There was Lero, alright, catching her eye and waving at her. It took her a moment to glance at the stallion next to him—only to blink in surprise as she realized it wasn’t a pony, but rather a zebra—although still a stallion.

“Greetings,” the zebra said; his voice was deep and he spoke with a faintly rhythmic accent, although she hoped he didn’t rhyme all the time like Zecora did.

“Hey everypony,” Lero said, ruffling Rainbow’s hair and hugging Twilight awkwardly, given their difference in height. “This is my tutor, Eshb Akhdur.”

“Your tutor?” Twilight said, frowning, moreso at Lero than the new stallion, who looked faintly bemused by their expressions—something told her that Lero had been more upfront with him while keeping the rest of them in the dark. She had never met Lero’s tutor, for various reasons—mostly due to her own work and such. He had hired him on reputation, and so far hadn’t been disappointed.

“Not what you were expecting, sadiq?” Eshb Akhdur said with a throaty chuckle. “Perhaps I ought to bow and present for a Great Spirit of these Lands.”

Twilight’s face coloured. Oh, he was a zebra alright—they typically referred to alicorns as such rather than as Princesses. “No, no, that’s fine, I suppose I was just expecting… well, a pony named Green Grass.” That had been who she hired, after all.

“Ah, yes.” Eshb grinned. “A deception, I suppose, upon my shoulders; tis a translation of my name from tongue to tongue—many unicorns would not trust a zebra to teach, I wager, so I hide behind masks... “ he frowned slightly. “By the time it is revealed, my work speaks for itself. Usually.”

“Of course,” Twilight said, frowning slightly at the implication of prejudice, but shook herself. “Well, I’m glad to meet you, finally, Mr. Akhdur!”

“Yeah,” Rainbow said, hopping out of her chair and flaring her wings. “Lero talks a lot about you—well, what you’re teaching him, I guess. Don’t understand a word of it, but he seems happy,” Rainbow smiled in a way that suggested that anyone who made her stallion happy was okay in her books.

Twilight glanced at Lero, as Lyra and Rarity introduced themselves, and he caught her eye with a bit of a smirk.

“Do I know how to pick’em or what?”

Twilight giggled into her hoof, and prepared to order. Perhaps this wouldn’t go anywhere, perhaps this Eshb Akhdur would become just a friend. Yet, it was Lero who had made the effort here, trying, once more, to adapt and adopt their culture as if it was his own. Even if it all fell apart, Twilight could appreciate that. It just made her love him more.

Author's Notes:

Over a year ago, I said I'd make an attempt to write a new final chapter to fix--or try to fix, the underlying issues that people had with how the story ended-- reopening the story from complete to incomplete about a year after it had been published.

I wish I could say it took me a year to write this chapter, but truthfully I stalled and stalled hard. It wasn't that I didn't have some idea about what might happen, rather I struggled, greatly, to figure out how to put it in such a way that would allow the fic to move forward over a long period of them working on their issues, without being dragged down in the minutiae of people working on relationship issues like rational adults. However, I've been reading a lot of other fanfics, and a few, like 'The Pony who lived upstairs' helped shape my thinking on how to write this.

Of course, much of the motivation comes form Cogwheelbrain, although it's possible they might not find this ending as enjoyable. It's hard to believe most of this chapter didn't exist two weeks ago.

I'd also like to thank Alamais, and Archonix, for helping preread/edit it.

As I said, I'd rather the ending be somewhat open; what happens next, that's up to you. Maybe they the herd on whole takes a shine to this Zebra and ends up bringing him in. Maybe they have many stripey butted children--or maybe not. Maybe Lero finally admits he loves another guy and loses his butt-ginity to Eshb Akhbdur--or maybe that definitely happens .

In case you're wondering, yes, the name and inspiration is a reference to Georg's excellent, fantastical character Green Grass. Hopefully Georg won't hate me overly much for this.

Xenophilia: Hearts, Hooves and Herds

by CinnamonSwirltheBreaded

Twilight's Mind

Rainbow's Heart

Lyra's Soul

Herd's Stallion

Love of the Herd