Rising Star felt that he had handled himself rather well when he had become aware that his mares were in heat. The idea of getting together as a newly married couple was now on hold, and once again, he was waiting. Even with protection spells, engaging with Sparkler and Loch Skimmer would be dangerous. Heats had a way of ignoring protection spells.

He was now sitting alone, meditating on top of a jutting outcropping of rock near the loch near the castle. He had winked up here, something he had done easily, where it had been so difficult to do before. Theoretically, all unicorns were capable of winking, or teleportation as the more scholarly types liked to call it. Most never did, lacking focus and drive.

Magic was coming easier and easier now since the change. Magic he struggled with before now came to him almost effortlessly. Rising Star drew a deep breath, focused his will, and thought about fire. Specifically, he thought about making shadow wolves burn.

With every step she took, Sparkler’s understanding that something had changed grew deeper and deeper. When her hooves touched the earth, she could feel a hum now. She could feel the stones and rocks around her. She could feel the soil, the soft loam and how it compressed beneath her hooves as she wandered between the trees in the copse of woods.

She felt drowsy but awake, and she could feel a faint second heartbeat in her nethers. She had endured several heats, but this was different, and even with the spell to ease the sensation, she felt peculiar. She felt as though the earth itself was telling her it was time to plant seeds, and she wondered if earth ponies felt something similar.

As she walked, she reveled in secret knowledge. Beneath her, she could sense water. It was down there, deep beneath her hooves, and something in her horn tingled telling her that she could call it to her if she wanted. She also knew that there was iron beneath her, and somewhere close by there was a vein of coal. Copper was abundant and she could hear the faint siren song of gold calling to her from the hidden depths beneath the jagged looking mountains in the distance.

Rising Star was on fire, but it did not burn him. His mane and tail were gone, replaced by flames, and his body flickered with flames. Shimmering heat rose from him. He was also suffering from the strongest feeling of arousal that he had ever experienced in his young life, and the quiet saner parts of his mind now screamed at him that he should be panicking.

It wasn’t every day that you had a throbbing erection that was on fire.

He sat atop the rock burning calmly. He lifted a hoof and looked at it, studying the flames wafting from its hard surfaces. He put his hoof down and looked down between his front legs. He was sitting on his haunches and he could feel the rock growing ever warmer against his balls. The flames that burned his colthood felt like little kisses, little pecks from an attentive lover. Rising Star gasped as a surge of magic enveloped his body and the flames burned hotter and brighter.

The understanding came to him that sexual release was near and he let the flames consume him. Pyromancy was more than a fancy word, it was a state of being, and Rising Star was learning all to well what it meant to romance the flames. His horny hormone driven adolescent mind caused his fire to burn like nothing else would. Raw passion fueled the flames.

Sparkler emerged from the woods near the lake. She made her way to the waterline and walked along the shore, enjoying the quiet and thinking about her place as matriarch of her own little herd. More than anything, she wanted to be the matriarch they deserved.

It was not a common thought for most fillies her age, and Sparkler appreciated the absurdity of it all. She felt that she was handling the responsibility quite well. She was doing a lot of things a filly her age would never do, at least not back at home on the mainland. Settling in to start a family, exploring the new depths of her powers, and preparing for war.

She worried that when she finally went home, she would never be able to adjust. Movies, dating, talking with the few filly friends that she had, those things seemed like such shallow and trivial things now. Idle chatter in the schoolyard. She would never be able to take part in those sorts of things again without feeling some sense of contempt.

She sat down near the water’s edge and peered into the water. Her mane was longer now, and unkept. She still looked like the filly she had been, but at the same time, she wasn’t. A powerful wellspring of emotion flooded up from deep within her, and she felt the first sting of tears. She couldn’t even understand why she was crying, only that she was lamenting the loss of something that she could no longer feel.

Bucky watched his littlest foals with a sense of pride. He was sitting on his haunches, even though sitting this way for too long now made his hind legs go to sleep. Thistle and Berry Punch were sprawled out together nearby, Sentinel was laying beside him, while Dinky and Piña played with Wheatberry.

A feeling of worry lingered over his sense of pride like a dark cloud and he wondered if perhaps he should have insisted on going with Keg Smasher. He didn’t know what was wrong, but Bucky was certain that he could have helped if there was a bad situation.

Then again, Keg Smasher was trusting him with one of his foals. Bucky supposed that he was doing his part, Keg Smasher could at least put his mind at ease about Wheatberry being safe.

He heard the flapping of wings behind him and he turned his head, on guard for any kind of threat. He saw no threat, only a grey mare that he loved and two charcoal grey fillies, whom he also loved as well.

Derpy approached him on the side he could see from and sat down beside him as Ripple and Loch Skimmer flopped out breathlessly in the grass, both of them yawning.

“You look a bit like a picture I saw in a book of a lion,” Derpy announced. “I think it is the sideburns that are starting to grow in. Or maybe just your mane.”

“I am the scrawniest lion ever,” Bucky replied, returning his gaze to his foals.

“We never did get you into shape,” Derpy said, thinking back to words she had said long ago when she and Bucky had first met.

“You’re getting delightfully pudgy in a few spots. Please don’t kill me,” Bucky said.

“I guess I am packing on a few pounds early on in pregnancy and I take it that you like it,” Derpy said regretfully.

“Very much so,” Bucky said agreeably.

“If you weren’t so skinny and boney I wouldn’t need this extra pudge to accommodate you,” Derpy teased.

Bucky sighed. At least she didn’t say anything about how short he was. He felt two lips press against his cheek just below his remaining eye. “If I am a lion, that makes you my lioness,” Bucky stated, feeling a warm tingly feeling from the kiss.

“I will protect our young,” Derpy replied, her voice surprisingly forceful. “How is Sentinel?” she asked, her voice softening.

“I am not asleep,” Sentinel said drowsily.

“Oh,” Derpy replied. “How are you?”

“Full of fish,” Sentinel muttered.

“Are you in much pain?” Derpy asked in a motherly tone that was pregnant with worry. She turned her head and peered at the colt that was sprawled at Bucky’s blind side.

“It hurts,” Sentinel replied in a soft confession. “But it is no worse than father endured,” he added.

“Loch and Ripple look worn out,” Bucky observed.

“I wore them out,” Derpy said. “Dealing with the heat when you are that young is difficult. It helps a pegasus filly out to get physical and tire herself out.”

“When we get home, do you think we will need to send them to flight camp?” asked Bucky in a low voice.

Derpy shrugged. “I dunno,” she answered. “Ripple is still weak from not eating right, but she is getting better. Loch is a quick study.”

“We want them to have good lives,” Bucky stated. “If they ever want to join the weather patrols they are going to have to pass so many tests,” he said, voicing his concern.

“Getting their basic flight permit shouldn’t be too hard,” Derpy said as she pursed her lips together. “Both of them are so different. Loch is like me. She isn’t made for speed. Once she develops, she will be a strong flier. Ripple was made for speed. Hard to see it now, but she is. I am kind of envious of her,” Derpy admitted. The grey pegasus fluffed out her feathers and tucked her head around to begin to preen her wings.

Bucky prodded the pegasus mare beside him with a hoof. “You know, you should teach me how to help you with that,” he suggested.

Rising Star sat upon his rock, cooling off in the aftermath of his magical surge. The rock was scorched and black. The colt looked like himself again, because he wasn’t currently on fire. His mind whirled with thoughts but his body felt relaxed. He had a dopey look on his face, the dopey look that one tended to have after a much needed sexual release.

He winked from the rock and headed for the lake, thinking that a cooling dip would do him good. Plus, he needed to clean up. He felt sticky after his release.

His thinking felt much clearer now and he broke into a gallop, his hooves thudding on the ground as he picked up speed, his mane and tail streaming out behind him.

Sparkler slowly composed herself as she sat at the water’s edge. She felt better after a good cry, but she still did not understand why she felt such a sense of loss. She prodded the water with her hoof and watched the ripples. Each touch created more ripples and some ripples collided with other ripples as they traveled.

There was some kind of meaningful analogy about life in the ripples, but Sparkler wasn’t sure she was in the mood to ponder it.

As she stared into the water, she remembered all the time she had spent staring into the mirror and wishing that she was a pegasus. That phase of her life seemed over. Now, she wished that she was the sort of mare that her mothers were. Not just Derpy, something had changed, but there were parts of Berry Punch that she longed to emulate as well, like her courage. She prodded the water again. There was Bon Bon’s honesty. Lyra’s curiousity. Thistle’s generousity.

It felt funny thinking of Thistle as her mother, but as she thought about it, she realised that Derpy wasn’t that much older than her. When Sparkler had entered her teenage years, Derpy had still been a teenager herself, but approaching the end of her teenage youth.

“Are you okay Sparkler?”

Sparkler jumped at the sounds of Rising Star’s voice and nearly fell into the water.

“Sorry if I scared you. I saw you… you are a very distinctive shade of purple-pink,” Rising Star stated. “I thought I’d come over and check on you. Do you need to be alone?”

Sparkler wiped her eyes with her foreleg. “I’m fine. I think. No, I don’t want to be alone. I was just thinking about a lot of stuff,” she explained. She sniffed. “You smell funny. And kinda good,” she said as her gaze lingered on Rising Star.

Rising Star looked embarrassed and then threw himself into water.

“Hey, come back, let me sniff you,” Sparkler said as she stood up.

“Sparkler, I… you… uh, I don’t even know how to begin,” Rising Star stammered as he swam away.

“But there is something about you,” Sparkler said as she stood at the water’s edge.

“Look, Sparkler, I just had something of controlled magic surge, I was on fire, my dangly bits were on blazing with flames, I just had the best orgasm I’ve ever had in my young pathetic life, and you are a filly in heat that can smell what I have to offer you,” Rising Star said from the deep water were he swam.

“Oooooh!” Sparkler said knowingly. She plunged into the cool water and swam for Rising Star.

Rising Star eyed the filly warily as he treaded water. “No mischief Sparky… I mean, right now, all I can think about is taking you in the grass over there and having my way with you and that would be bad, because even with protective spells, there is still a chance of something happening,” he warned.

“I suppose you are right,” Sparkler admitted. “So it felt good? Letting the magic out?” she asked.

“Yes,” Rising Star replied sheepishly.

“So, uh, did you have to, uh, play with anything?” Sparkler inquired.

“No,” Rising Star said. “I just sat there and it sort of happened,” he admitted.

“I hope they let Dinky know about orgasms soon… if she has a big magic release it will be confusing for her,” Sparkler said as she floated near Rising Star.

“This is very awkward Sparkler,” Rising Star stated.

“Orgasm,” Sparkler said, looking directly at Rising Star. “We all have them. I had my first really good one when I was thinking about the first time you kissed me and I was giving myself a good workover in the shower. You nibbled my lip,” she stated bluntly.

“You mean you’ve thought about me when…” Rising Star said in astonishment.

Sparkler nodded. “Ever think of me?” she asked.

Rising Star was still for several moments while floating in the water, but finally nodded his head slowly. “And I think my mother heard me,” he said in a strained slightly squeaky voice.

“Oh my,” Sparkler said, her words punctuated by a giggle.

“That night at dinner, my mother started talking to my father about how I was growing up and I wasn’t their little colt any more, and I wanted to die,” Rising Star said, his voice still rather squeaky.

“So what set you off?” Sparkler asked.

“Oh, it’s stupid,” Rising Star said.

“Was it my tight little backside?” Sparkler asked.

“No,” Rising Star answered.

“Well, what was it? I told you, this isn’t fair,” Sparkler said as she treaded water.

Rising Star took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “The way your mane clings to the side of your neck,” he murmured.

Sparkler giggled. “What?” she asked.

“Don’t make me explain it!” Rising Star snapped. “We should head back and find the others before we get ourselves into trouble,” he grumbled.

“Yeah we should,” Sparkler agreed. “You know Rising, you can tell me these things. I mean, someday very very soon you are probably going to be on my back panting into my ear. What is a little embarrassing and funny story compared to that?” the filly inquired.

Rising Star did not reply, but made his way for the shore, hoping to get himself away from the filly before he lost his resolve.

Author's Notes:

See typos? let me know!

This chapter was about growth and change, and a much needed peek into Sparkler and Rising Star's relationship.