“Rising Star, do behave yourself this instant,” Sparkler insisted as she tried to stifle a giggle. Her tail flicked and the filly felt entirely too warm. She watched and waited rather impatiently as Lyra tried to recall a spell that would fix a certain problem.

Bon Bon was exhausted after a long night, but was far too awake and aware to go to sleep. A pressing need had arrived with the rising of the sun. She recalled feeling overheated after Bucky had kissed her, and how she had dismissed it as the room being too warm from the roaring fire.

Ripple fanned herself with her wing, she could feel a fine sheen of sweat building up over her pelt. She watched with silent amusement as her sister Loch Skimmer was giving Rising Star a nearly predatory gaze.

“How could you forget the words of a spell so simple yet so important?” Bon Bon demanded as she squirmed, kicking out one hind leg and hoping to get some air moving over certain places that felt as though they were on fire. The mare gnawed on her lip in frustration.

“Do you think Bucky would know?” Sparkler asked. “As embarrassing as it might be, we might have to go to him.”

“No,” Bon Bon protested. “If I came anywhere near Bucky right now, I would… I would…”

“You would have to wait your turn Bonnie,” Lyra interjected with a raised eyebrow.

“What makes you think you’d be first?” Bon Bon snapped.

“Because I can teleport faster than you can run,” Lyra muttered.

“Oooh you…” Bon Bon whined.

“Just calm down,” Berry Punch said in a soothing voice.

“Easy for you to say Berry, you’re already pregnant, your filly bits aren’t on fire right now,” Bon Bon whimpered.

Rising Star wiped his nose with his foreleg, shook his now overgrown mane from his eyes, and then planted a brief kiss on Sparkler. “I am going to show myself out,” he whispered in a strained voice. He backed out of the room, his gaze never leaving three fillies that he called his own.

“This one is a bad one, I am pregnant and even I can feel it,” Berry said. “I can’t help but wonder if this is how Celestia plans to combat the social instability in Equestria. Hard to riot or protest when you’re rutting,” she explained.

“Berry, how do you think of this stuff?” Lyra said as she turned her bleary golden eyes on the earth pony.

“Well, it just makes sense, think about it. After a mare gets knocked up, is she in the mood to fight? No, she wants to make a home. Especially pegasi. Look at Derpy and all of her nesting that she does right now. Family minded ponies will want to keep the peace, settle down, and focus on making a safe place for foaling,” Berry answered.

Lyra’s horn glowed and the unicorn murmured a few words. The effect was almost instant and a pleasant cooling sensation settled over the many female bodies. There were gasps of relief.

“Now I feel sleepy,” Sparkler said.

“Sorry love, side effect of the spell,” Lyra said with a yawn. The unicorn stumbled off to the bed, fell onto the bed, and did nothing to make herself comfortable. She fell asleep where she had fallen.

Bon Bon made her way to the bed, settled in beside Lyra, pulled the unicorn close, and, in moments, was also asleep as well.

“They’re so adorable together,” Derpy said as she approached the bed. She reached out and gently stroked her herdmates with her wing. She carefully lifted Lyra’s leg, which was hanging off of the edge of the mattress, and settled it on to the bed with a loving pat.

“That feels so much better,” Loch Skimmer murmured.

“No school today,” Sparkler said. “Today is going to be spent slacking off or soaking in the lake.”

“Ooh, perfect,” Dinky said excitedly. “Piña, grab our books.”

“Oh goody,” Piña replied in happy tones.

“Shouldn’t you be playing?” Berry said to the two filly foals.

Dinky looked up at Berry and conflicted eyes. “Magic is more interesting?” she said in a half-statement half-question.

“And reading about how to focus will has me wondering if I can make my earth pony senses do stuff,” Piña explained.

Berry sat down and gave Piña a puzzled glance.

Piña avoided her sister’s curious gaze. “Look, it is just an idea, I don’t know if it will work yet. Unicorns have horns, pegasi have wings and hooves, and we have hooves. There is magic in them,” Piña explained in an uncertain voice. “Pegasi can focus the magic through their wings and they can fly at great speed. Their hooves allow them to walk on clouds. Unicorns can actively channel magic through their horns. It stands to reason that earth ponies must have a means to actively channel magic somehow like the other two tribes, we just haven’t figured out how to do it yet,” the earth pony foal said nervously.

“But Piña believes a lot of earth ponies do it passively, not knowing that they are doing it,” Dinky said as she wrapped a foreleg around Piña. “It isn’t a crazy idea.”

“Piña, I want you to keep working on this,” Berry said in an encouraging voice. “And I want you to go to Bucky for help. You tell him everything you just told me,” Berry instructed as she looked intently at her sibling. Her concentration was interrupted as a flock of pegasi pushed their way out the door, led by Derpy. Berry looked at Sparkler and saw that the unicorn was now alone.

Sparkler, seeing that Berry was looking at her, smiled. “Mom is going to give some flying lessons to Loch and Ripple. I think I am going to find some quiet place where I will not be disturbed, and I am going to figure out how my stone form works,” Sparkler announced.

As Berry watched, Sparkler slipped out the door, leaving Berry with the two foals. “Okay you two, I don’t care if you are studying, I am going to spend some time with you,” Berry said to both of them.

Bucky could feel the subtle undercurrent of magic in the sun as it shone upon his horn. At first, he wondered if it was because of his new shadow nature that he still did not understand, but then he was able to discern the true nature of the magic that he could sense.

There was going to be a lot of new foals come spring.

He was not a mare, but the magic had an effect upon him all the same. The knowledge that it was there and the understanding of what it was doing filled his mind with countless thoughts.

Sentinel was with Berry Punch, Dinky, and Piña. Thistle had gone off to talk to Keg Smasher. And Bucky was by himself. His belly was full of fish and he felt strangely energised. Flesh gave a much higher return of energy for his magic, or so he was beginning to understand.

He set to work gathering up boulders for transmutation. The cabin on the The Scorned Mare needed creature comforts. There was a small private cabin for the adults, and several smaller cubbies for the foals. Below the cabin, a few more rooms had been added, all of them secure and soon to be well protected.

In no time at all there were several new mattresses, crude things, lumpy things, but they had done the job so far, covered in simple slip sheets. He teleported himself on board and set about placing the mattresses into the simple wooden bedframes. There was a larger one in the main room for him and his mares, one was placed in the room he intended for Rising Star and his herd, and several more were placed in the other rooms. While he had provided rooms for the foals to sleep in, he was certain that they would end up in the bed with the adults, and even if they didn’t, he was almost positive that Sentinel would leave the cubby intended for him and find his way into his sisters’ room.

If Keg Smasher and a group of his guard were going to make the long journey home, they would need a place to bunk and Bucky was already eyeing space belowdecks.

Before he made his armor, he planned to make a few metal objects. A stove would be needed on the ship. And some means of heat. He wasn’t certain how to heat the individual cubbies and rooms, but he planned to at least heat the common area of the cabin.

He transmuted several new sofas, a table, a few small comfortable chairs, and then inspected the bookshelf made by Berry Punch. The common room was beginning to look like home. The decorations probably left a lot to be desired by more fashionable minded ponies, but the dark grey suited Bucky.

He made his way into what would be the armory and looked around. There were already racks made for the spell jars. Berry Punch had been one very busy earth pony. With little more than a hoof held saw, a hammer, some nails, and a fair bit of lumber, she had done a fantastic job of creating a place that was fit to secure magical munitions.

The ship was seaworthy. One of the rare unicorns on the isle, a ship builder by trade, had come up from the harbour city to inspect the craft. Not that Bucky planned to put it in the water, but he had wanted to know. It never hurt to be too careful and there were always unknown emergencies.

He peered out of a window and saw surprisingly few ponies out and about. And he understood why. He worried briefly about Sparkler, Loch Skimmer, and Ripple, thinking fatherly thoughts about his fillies. He was certain that they were fine and that they had the means to endure the heat.

One day, Dinky and Piña Colada would experience their first heats. The thought filled Bucky’s mind and for reasons he could not explain, he felt sad. He also felt hopeful though, and his sadness turned into a sort of bittersweet happiness.

His thoughts took a darker turn as he remembered Dinky on the day of the want it need it spell. He gritted his teeth together and pushed it from his mind. He would have to guard himself around Dinky and Piña in the future. While he was their father, he was not their biological father, and as such, could be susceptible to pheromone reactions. He quietly made mental notes to prepare for this eventuality.

It was a difficult line of thought for him and he wondered how many fathers had come to the same conclusion. It was a humbling thought and it made Bucky feel better.

As an afterthought, he thought of Sparkler, Loch Skimmer, and Ripple. The need to guard his mind was already here and he wondered briefly if Rising Star had reached the same conclusion of sorts, to protect himself around other mares.

There were entirely too many ways to stumble and fall down as a sapient animal.

There was a loud thunk above him on deck and Bucky heard his name being called. He moved as quickly as he could, moving up the stairs swiftly. He emerged out on the deck and saw a frantic looking Keg Smasher, Thistle who stood nearby, and Wheatberry, who was on Thistle’s back.

“I need to go,” Keg Smasher said. The pegasus spread his wings and took to the air, leaving behind Thistle and Wheatberry.

Bucky felt alarmed as Keg Smasher joined several other pegasi in the air and the the group took off, flying in formation.

“A messenger came,” Thistle explained. “I don’t know what was said, but Keg Smasher was scared. He snatched me and Wheatberry up and then brought us here. He begged me to look after his foal.”

Bucky watched as the pegasi turned into tiny dots in the distance.

“Hi!” Wheatberry chirped. She squirmed on Thistle’s back, her wings flapping and one foreleg extended towards Bucky.

“Hello little one,” Bucky replied, still watching where the pegasi had vanished. “I wonder what happened,” he said as he felt cold prickle along his neck.

“Foal!” Wheatberry quipped as she patted Thistle’s sides.

“Yes, there is a foal in there,” Thistle said to the pegasus foal on her back.

“I suppose I should take Wheatberry to the others. They can play together,” Bucky suggested.

“I am worried Bucky,” Thistle stated in a trembling voice.

“So am I Thistle, but we don’t want to scare Wheatberry,” Bucky replied in a soothing low voice. “Come on Wheatberry, let’s find you some playmates.”

Author's Notes:

Mistakes? Let me know.

A somewhat shorter transitional chapter.