Author's Notes:

I feel I should apologize for the stream of half chapters lately. As you should know by now, TheCamel is the actual author of this story; I'm just his editor/muse/storyboard writer/special somepony... Anyway, with all the recent goings-on, we may be forced to take in further indefinite delays.

It was a strange week in Ponyville after Princess Luna and Discord had taken Specter and Nightshade away...

Things seemed to finally go back to normal.

The news that Cirro Stratus was a fugitive from the princesses left a void of power in the weather factory. After a tense few days in which no operations took place at all, the section leaders reluctantly filled in, opting to lead by committee. The first order of business was to restore the normal weather patterns for the places in Equestria affected by the CEO’s bizarre changes. Though the mysterious new majority owner of the factory had final say now in all such matters, there was no communication from them and thus their vote was nullified.

Thankfully, the situation was resolved before too much damage was caused to the farms growing autumn crops, so life returned to normal for most ponies. With the crisis averted, the pegasi prepared to bring the first snow of winter to Equestria. The chaos of the previous weeks left the water reserves low and so several cities across the country organized emergency water-syphoning teams to send water to Cloudsdale. The extra water drained from the lakes and reservoirs throughout the country would likely be felt in the future as droughts, which had the weather ponies working round the clock on plans to mitigate the damage.

Rainbow Dash, along with Fluttershy and Twilight had been gone for most of the week to discuss the plans. Finally the three returned, announcing that they had done the best they could under the circumstances. The next summer would be a rough one, but otherwise they were able to project normal operations from then on.

Meanwhile, Starshadow spent every waking moment at Sunset Flash’s bedside. Despite landing on a cloud, the pegasus still suffered a concussion and several superficial injuries from the fall. Sunset was upbeat and happy despite her condition whenever her friend was around, though Starshadow found herself constantly trying to keep her from talking too loudly about their past together or struggling to avoid letting the other pegasus mount her and have her way with her again... She thanked Celestia that Sunset’s room was at the end of the ward where there was less chance of somepony seeing or hearing something.

It was a few more days before the doctor was comfortable enough to release Starshadow and Sunset from the hospital. Starshadow was able to walk out on her own with no physical signs of trauma, but Sunset was still in rough shape and there was nothing more the doctor could do for her.

“I’m sorry, but not even the doctors in Canterlot have the ability to help her fly again.” Doctor Horse explained to Starshadow and Twilight as they waited for Sunset Flash to meet them in the waiting room. “If it was just one or two damaged primary feathers we could probably replicate some new ones and try a transplant, but even that has a slim chance of being completely successful. But this... I don’t think anypony can fix this. Not even Celestia could.”

Starshadow turned to Twilight, hoping that the princess had found some solution in one of her many books, but Twilight could only shake her head in failure. “I couldn’t find anything that would help either. Rainbow Dash came over to fill me in on the anatomy of pegasus wings since, well, I’m still relatively new to having them, but no unicorn has ever been successful in duplicating primary feathers capable of flight. Each pegasus pony is unique and shows different traits in their feathers, so a general spell is impossible. There’s just no research out there. Not even in Canterlot.” she said, visibly upset by her failure to find an answer.

Starshadow hugged her wings tightly against her body, shivering at the thought of the amount of pain Sunset must have felt when Cirro Stratus had ripped her feathers out. “S-so, there’s nothing we can do to help her? What if... what if Princess Twilight experiments on me for a cure? For a way to...” she started to say.

Twilight winced at the thought of using somepony she considered a friend as a guinea pig. “I can’t do that to anypony. Besides, like I said before, each pegasus’ wings are unique. What may fix your wings won’t work on Sunset Flash.”

Starshadow’s body drooped in depression at the news, but a familiar voice calling out caused her to perk back up.

“Starshadow!” Sunset Flash shouted out in excitement, running towards the three ponies grouped together. She leapt into the air and spread her wings to glide over to her old friend, but her lame wing immediately gave out and caused Sunset to go roughly tumbling back onto the floor.

“Oh my... Sunset!” Starshadow cried out as she rushed over to her friend. Doctor Horse rushed over as well but immediately stopped when Sunset surprisingly leapt back to her feet and tackled Starshadow to the floor once more, pulling the smaller pegasus into an affectionate and highly inappropriate kiss.

“Ah... yes, well... ahem, I don’t think this is the place for... that.” Doctor Horse said, blushing slightly as he glanced away. Suspecting Sunset had no intention on stopping, Twilight grabbed ahold of Sunset with her magic and lifted the fiery pegasus off of an intensely blushing Starshadow, gently bringing her over to where she was standing and allowing Starshadow to get back on her hooves.

Still surprised by Sunset’s enthusiasm and energy, Starshadow gently hugged her longtime friend, careful to avoid her injured wing. “I’m so happy you’re okay.” she said, unable to hold back a few tears. The two remained embraced for a few moments before Starshadow finally pulled back. “So, are you finally ready to head home with me?”

Sunset nodded eagerly. “Yes, please! I can’t wait to meet my new Master!” she said excitedly.

Starshadow’s heart still twisted as she heard Sunset so eagerly embracing the mindset that she herself had tried so hard to leave behind but forced a smile. “Come on, let’s go home.” she said.

After thanking Doctor Horse for his help, Sunset, Twilight, and Starshadow headed off back towards Sweet Apple Acres, Celestia’s sun shining brightly down on them. As soon as the doors to the hospital had closed, Doctor Horse ran as fast as he could back up to his office. He quickly barricaded himself inside and collapsed on his chair, exhausted from the chaos that had just wrapped up. “I definitely need a drink tonight.” he said to himself. He closed his eyes and started dozing off, his last thoughts before he fell asleep being what life was like just a few years ago. Things were so much simpler before Princess Twilight moved to Ponyville...

Starshadow couldn’t help but smile as she saw a familiar barn appear in front of her, and as the trio walked towards the Apple household the shrill cry of a certain trio of fillies rang out.

“Starshadow’s back! Starshadow’s back!”

The sound of the three fillies stampeding towards them caused Starshadow and company to pause, but before the small mares could reach their target they found themselves pulled back by Applejack, who had managed to round them up with her expertly tossed rope.

“Hey!” little Apple Bloom said in surprise as she was pulled back. However, there was good reason for Applejack to stop her sister and her two friends.

Big Mac was coming full speed.

Having heard his lover’s name being called out, Big Mac came thundering down the stairs and rushing out of the house to see if his guess was correct. His heart skipped a beat when he saw his beautiful special somepony walking towards him, causing him to lose sight of everything else except her.

“Oh boy...” Starshadow said as she saw the hulking red stallion rushing towards her. Looking beside her, she saw that Twilight had quickly retreated and had pulled Sunset Flash aside as well, leaving her alone out in the open. Looking back at Big Mac, she winced as he leapt forward, his two front hooves stretched out...

Bracing for the inevitable impact, Starshadow was surprised when a pair of hooves softly embraced her and pulled her tightly against her mate. However, the soft embrace was quickly followed by a sudden torrent of wet kisses from the big red stallion.

“H-hey! Cut it out! You saw me just last night!” Starshadow said with mock indignation, trying to suppress her laughter as Big Mac kissed her all over.

The other ponies could only grin at the show of affection except for the Cutie Mark Crusaders who made faces of disgust. “Well, At least he ain’t callin’ her ‘Schmoopy Doo’.” Apple Bloom sighed.

Applejack could only grin as she saw how happy her older brother was and couldn’t wait to reveal a surprise for Starshadow. “Hey Big Mac, try not ta’ smother her ‘fore she can say hi ta’ her other visitor.” she called out.

Wondering what Applejack was talking about, Starshadow managed to eventually glance over to the front porch where another pony had emerged from the house. Somepony Starshadow had been desperate to see...

“Starsong!”

It took Applejack a while to pry Starshadow free of Big Mac’s grip, but eventually everypony made their way into the main house to talk and catch up. Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy all stopped by briefly to welcome Starshadow home and Sunset Flash to Ponyville, though nopony was able to convince Pinkie Pie that Sunset wasn’t the long lost twin of some other pony she was somehow certain that they would meet soon.

By the time everypony had left for the night, Luna’s moon was already high in the dark night sky. Sunset, surprisingly, had managed to not cause a scene after meeting Big Mac, though the red stallion had been somewhat perturbed by having another mare calling him “Master” and his special somepony “Mistress”. Starshadow made a mental note to make it up to him later. She was somewhat surprised that Sunset had gotten along so well with the three young Cutie Mark Crusaders, though on more than one occasion she had had to step in before the older mare said or did something inappropriate to the intensely curious trio... In the end though, Sunset had been overwhelmed from meeting so many new faces and had went to bed earlier than anypony else, retiring to Apple Bloom’s room which currently housed Starsong while the filly shared a bed with her sister.

Starshadow was more than happy to retire to the bed she had missed for so long, and of course Big Mac joined her, though he was still hesitant to be intimate since his special somepony had just been released from the hospital that day. There was also the matter that Sunset and Starsong were asleep in the room next door and Big Mac didn’t want to wake either of them with the sounds of a certain activity.

“Aww, come on, please? I need this.” Starshadow whined in desperation, her tail softly grazing Big Mac’s crotch.

Big Mac bit his lower lip as his flaccid cock twitched slightly at her touch and the scent of her arousal that carried up to his nose from the movement, but he remained firm on his stance and shook his head. “Nnope.”

Starshadow sighed and turned away from him, feigning insult. She immediately felt her stallion wrap his hooves around her small body, holding her tightly and kiss her on the cheek. She couldn’t help but smile at his affection and relaxed in his embrace. “Fine, you win for now. But you owe me big time.” she reminded him, unable to help but fantasize of how roughly she would have him ravage her.

Big Mac nodded, imagining the same thing and being unable to help being slightly anxious for that moment to come. He had never imagined he could be so rough with such a small mare, but he was starting to enjoy his dominant role with her. However, he was still happy that Starshadow hadn’t pressured him into taking her tonight. He too was desperate to be intimate with his special somepony, but now was not the time. Not with two important ponies sleeping peacefully next door.

Well, he thought they were sleeping peacefully next door...