The woods were dark and kind of scary. Bucky moved around cautiously, his small foal body easily slipping through trees. His wings fluttered at his sides. He could not help but wonder what sort of horror was going to come and ambush him next. He was getting pretty good at recognising when he was having one of those sorts of dreams, and this had all the signs of being a bad one. The woods looked just like the Everfree Forest. Black vines were everywhere and he could see scary glowing eyes in the distance.

Owls hooted in the darkness and bats flew overhead. Unseen things chittered in the deep dark, unpleasant gurgles and growls reached his ears. Bucky cowered, the small stunted alicorn foal of war was a rather pathetic sight all things considered. Bucky heard a rustling in the bushes. He turned his head, his Taint filled eyes trying to focus on whatever was there.

He saw a zebra and cocked his head to the side, now puzzled. What was a zebra doing here, he wondered. He studied the zebra for a moment and was curious about what he could to do defend himself if this turned into something horrible, and he was sure that it would.

“You have no need to fear us, we love you, little one,” the zebra said kindly.

An earth pony stepped out from the thicket and looked at Bucky with a gentle face. “We thought we’d drop in on you now that you are one of us. See how you are settling in to this new life and all that comes with it.”

“We are glad to know that you are better. For a time, we were worried,” a unicorn said as she stepped out behind the earth pony.

“We worried for our brother,” the zebra said, her voice gentle and sweet.

Suddenly, Bucky remembered everything. “I know you. I made a deal with you… and I know your father…”

“Father,” the earth pony said.

“Mother,” the unicorn stated.

“Creator,” the zebra added. “It is all the same, brother.”

“Don’t bother asking for our names,” the earth pony said as she saw Bucky opening his mouth. “You have suffered enough without knowing those.”

An owl flew overhead and Bucky jumped. A second later, he found himself embraced by the earth pony, who was sitting with him and holding him close, one leg around him squeezing him to her barrel. He felt her lips kiss the top of his head.

“Are you Celestia and Luna’s sisters?” Bucky asked.

“Yes,” the zebra answered.

“No,” the unicorn replied.

“Half,” the earth pony explained as she gave Bucky a loving squeeze.

“I don’t understand,” Bucky said, shaking his head as he did so.

“They were born. In time, when they had proven worthy, they were given the divine sparks of Light and Darkness, who had already been born long before Celestia and Luna. The Royal Pony Sisters became avatars, bodies for Light and Darkness. We sprang directly from our creator’s mind and we took on bodies over time,” the unicorn explained.

“We are the Fates,” the zebra stated.

“And we are at war with our father,” the earth pony said.

“We have gone against her will,” the unicorn added. “She wishes to bring about the end of all things. It amuses him that we strive against him. Our mother does little to stop our intrusions. He does not believe that we are powerful enough to thwart her plans,” the unicorn mare explained.

Bucky felt dizzy. The gender pronouns were as confusing as Harper’s insistence of all things female.

“You are the end of all things,” the zebra said rather accusingly.

“I don’t want to be,” Bucky whined in a squeaky foal voice.

“We don’t want you to be either,” the earth pony said. She gave Bucky another motherly squeeze and kissed him once more. “Oh my you are adorable you little alicorn foal of war you,” she gushed in between kisses. She showered Bucky with every ounce of earth pony foal affection she could muster.

“So… I guess my reward for our bargain was me living through the death spell,” Bucky said as he tried to put the pieces together as he endured the earth pony mare’s endless affections and physical adoration.

“No,” the unicorn replied. “Your reward is forthcoming. Soon.”

“We know that you will be happy with it,” the zebra said in a cheerful voice.

“I guess you can’t tell me what it is… since you can’t do that, tell me, why does Celestia believe my ascension is a good idea?” Bucky inquired.

“She can see some of the bigger picture, but not all of the bigger picture, and father has whispered into her ear,” the earth pony replied. “Mother told only half truths to our half sister. Celestia is too virtuous to question the divine will of our creator. She would blindly obey and bring about the end of all things because she is a devoted foal to our parent. It is her best and worst quality, her strength and her weakness. She loves. Sometimes blindly.”

“Can’t you tell her?” Bucky asked.

“She is not on speaking terms with us. We have rebelled against our mother’s will,” the zebra said in a sad voice. “We cannot convince her to see reason. We’ve tried so hard.”

“We still love our half sister a great deal,” the unicorn said. “But she is too assured of her own goodness and the idea that she is inherently right. She does make mistakes. When father stops speaking to her for a while, she begins to flounder from a lack of direction. She looks for signs, portents, messages in the stars and occasionally, she sees something that is not there. She becomes frantic when mother goes silent.”

“So where do I fit in with all of this? I mean, what now? What can I do to help? How can I help make things better and try to make sure that life goes on?” Bucky questioned.

“You would help us? Even after everything you have already done? All you have endured?” the earth pony replied, squeezing Bucky yet again.

“Of course. Not only do I love my wives, but I love my foals. And I will love their foals. And those foals that will come after. I would do anything for them,” Bucky vowed.

“If you will help us willingly, we will owe you one favour,” the zebra said, scratching her side with her one brown hoof. “A favour between family members.”

The unicorn’s horn flashed brightly and the dark woods faded away.

The group stood in a crystal cave and it was full of light. Bucky saw a tree, and it was unlike any other tree he had seen. It was made of crystal, or appeared to be, and parts of it twinkled. He gasped from its beauty and he slipped free from the earth pony’s fond embrace to move closer. He saw the cutie marks of Celestia and Luna upon on the trunk, he saw Twilight Sparkle’s cutie mark a little higher up, and he saw the elements of harmony.

“We planted this tree,” the unicorn announced.

“This was the beginning of our rebellion,” the zebra said.

“This is where we defied our creator and started to take our stand,” the earth pony explained in a solemn voice. “We robbed a smidge of our creator’s divine essence. We stole a single speck of star dust from her mane and we brought it here as this planet was dying.”

“We planted it, and like a seed, it grew over time,” the unicorn said as she drew near Bucky. “For a time, the harmony it brings was used to resolve conflicts. Now, the elements have been restored to the tree to aid our half sisters in balancing the cosmos. It has made their task a little easier. It was Twilight Sparkle who reunited the sisters and restored the elements.”

“So what is my part in all of this?” Bucky inquired.

“Aside from destroying everything?” the zebra replied.

“Come… see,” the unicorn said. She pointed at the tree with her hoof. “Do you see?”

Bucky looked at the tree and the ground around it. He studied everything carefully, trying to look for whatever it was he was supposed to be seeing. He searched the trunk. He searched the ground. He reached out and touched Celestia’s mark and Luna’s mark. “I don’t see anything related to me,” he finally admitted. He stared at his three big sisters and waited for some kind of help from them.

“Look closer,” the unicorn urged.

Feeling frustrated, Bucky circled the tree a few times and tried to figure out what he was supposed to see. There was nothing. He stepped in and out of the light and the darkness as he circled the tree and could find nothing. Finally, he sat down and flapped his wings in frustration. “No hops plant anywhere.”

The zebra and the unicorn laughed while the earth pony looked on with gentle affection. She approached Bucky slowly, touched him gently, and then sat down beside him. Kissing him softly once more, she remained close after the kiss and whispered into his ear. “The tree casts a shadow. The shadow is just as much a part of harmony as the light. One defines the other. The tree’s shadow has many meanings. For some, it is dismissed as darkness. For others, it is a shaded place of comfort out of the sun for them to rest. But the shadow of the tree serves a purpose, just as much as the tree does. You exist within the shadow.”

Bucky sat in dumbfounded silence and could not form the words to make a response. He leaned against the tree and felt it thrum against his skin. Something about the faint vibration was soothing. He closed his eyes and pressed his ear against the tree. He found that he could hear things, the vibration forming sounds as it pulsed into his head. The sounds of a crying foal. Laughter. The swearing of an oath of duty, the details quickly slipping away as Bucky heard them. Kind generous words of encouragement. The heady crackle of strong magic. He heard Luna’s voice singing a soft lullaby. He heard his own words to his great grandfather, his last defiant shout as he let go with all the dark magic he could muster. He heard the lewd squishy sounds of two ponies enjoying the act of making foals a great deal, including vows of true love spoken in the heat of the moment, perhaps the most honest of all words between two ponies madly in love, the heavy breathing, and the soft giggles as they approached nature’s reward for continuing the species, the orgasm.

He heard Celestia saying that she loved him.

He pulled his head away from the tree, feeling dizzy. He had trouble sitting up. He felt as though he had entirely too much to drink. He started to fall over and he felt a leg catch him. The cave whirled around him, and there was nothing he could do to regain his senses. He saw strange lights and their brightness dazzled his eyes as they danced all around him. He was blinded by their flashes as they pulsed. They were cutie marks, destiny marks, but he could not make out what they were. There were many, and they all flashed as they swirled around his head.

He felt himself being lowered down and his head resting on something warm and soft, but he couldn’t see well enough to figure out what it was. The sounds of the cosmos were echoing in his head now, a steady vibration inside of his skull. Something protruded at his mouth, pressing in on his lips. He felt his mouth open and something slipped in, pressing against his tongue.

A moment later, his mouth was flooded with milk and he was forced to swallow to keep from choking. The milk was both bitter and sweet. Salty and sour. It was everything and nothing all at once and he felt his heart thudding inside of his barrel as more and more of it flooded down his throat. He had trouble keeping up with the torrent raging from the teat. He could feel his heart beating inside of his ears. He struggled for air but there was none to be had. There was only the milk, and it was life giving. So long as he kept swallowing, the need for air remained a painful need and not a necessity.

Somehow, he knew that he was sucking at the teats of the earth pony. There was a dull roaring in his ears, but it grew louder and louder. Soon, it was all he could hear. His mind slowly went blank, all conscious thought slowly slipping away from him. There was only warmth and comfort.

Suddenly, the roaring in his ears went silent and the world went still. The milk continued to flow into his mouth and down this throat. There was no longer any frantic need to breathe. He was content now, happy, not worried about death at all.

“Go forth brother… and know we love you,” three voices said in unison.

Author's Notes:

So... what happens next...

Typos?