Berry Punch sat at the table and quietly drank her coffee, not at all concerned that there was a princess at her breakfast table. There had been a prince with morning wood in her bed earlier, so she wasn’t overly concerned about these sorts of things. She was happy to see Fluttershy again and hoped they could start knitting together soon. Berry needed to do something physical to really get her mind going, and knitting was a good way to engage her body so her mind could function. She needed to sort out everything that had taken place. She looked over at Derpy who was eating sauerkraut and drinking black coffee for breakfast.

Pregnant mares had a right to eat whatever it was they wanted. Even if it did cause explosive flatulence later on, the sorts of farts that might wreck a less faithful and devoted marriage. Thankfully, Derpy had nothing to worry about. Bucky loved her and the proof was on his backside.

Reaching down and stroking her own belly, Berry was thankful to be home and that she and her foals were healthy. She took the hoof she was rubbing her belly with, reached out, grabbed her coffee, and took a gulp. She looked over at Bon Bon, who was just starting to fry some eggs and tomatoes in a skillet.

The stove was a problem. The four burners would never be enough to cook all the food needed to feed a group of ponies this size. There was one oven. Berry quietly reflected upon all of this and wondered what to do about it. She didn’t know if she had a bank account left after the economic collapse. She took another drink of coffee and peered around the kitchen.

The sounds of foals running around crazily made the house feel like home for Berry. Dinky and Piña both had mouthfulls of water and were running all over the house squirting one another. Berry sighed, feeling happy. She heard Barley talking quietly to Sentinel in the living room. She couldn’t make out what was being said, but it warmed to heart to know that the two of them were getting along.

“Newspaper takes a while to get delivered this far out. And we get six of them!” Sparkler announced as she waltzed through the kitchen. She pranced around the table dropping off the different newspapers and then took off out the door and down the back hall towards the back of the house.

“She’s always in a better mood after a proper shag,” Loch Skimmer observed.

Twilight Sparkle turned a darker shade of purple and Fluttershy allowed her mane to fall down and cover her face. The sounds of Fluttershy’s panicked wheezes filled the kitchen, which made Bon Bon step away from the stove to stroke her and make the panicked pegasus calm down.

From the living room, there was a loud cry as Harper began to squall. Lyra, hearing Harper cry and realising that Berry hadn’t eaten yet, excused herself from the table to go feed Harper, who was probably hungry.

Rising Star stumbled into the kitchen a few moments later and sat down where Lyra had been sitting. He blinked a few times, yawned, and then looked around.

“This is Fluttershy. Fluttershy, this is Rising Star. I nominated him for the Stable of Representatives,” Twilight said, introducing the pair and giving Rising Star a wink.

“You did that?” Rising Star mumbled.

“I sure did. Well, I am one of many… I’ve been very impressed with you Rising Star,” Twilight replied.

“Thanks,” Rising Star grumbled.

“Rising Star… you should have showered… you stink like mare musk,” Loch Skimmer announced after sipping her tea. She failed to notice the horrified expressions of Twilight and Fluttershy, or the wide grin on Berry Punch’s face. She was completely oblivious to the clatter of the spatula in the cast iron pan after Bon Bon dropped it.

“Loch Skimmer… how are you even awake and so chipper… I mean… it was about three in the bloody morning when you finally let Sparky and I go to sleep,” Rising Star said with a bleary expression upon his face.

“The dawn is too pretty to miss. I’ll nap later,” Loch replied. “Oh! Food!”

Bon Bon kissed Loch Skimmer on the ear as she set down a plate of fried eggs and tomatoes and then moved back to the stove. She patted Rising Star as she moved past. “Want something?”

Rising Star nodded but said nothing.

“Playing Twister last night sure was fun,” Loch Skimmer said. “I love learning new games!”

“Nothing like a one in the morning game of Twister,” Rising Star mumbled.

“I’ve learned to never try to play Twister with pegasi,” Twilight said with a soft smile. “They’re too flexible and the close physical contact isn’t at all embarrassing for them.”

Nodding, Rising Star silently agreed and then he looked at Loch Skimmer.

“Oh I don’t like twister,” Fluttershy murmured. “It is um… I just don’t like it. All the touching.”

“BARLEY!”

“PINKAMENA DIANE PIE!”

“Oh no… Pinkie showed up and got past the guards…” Twilight said as she slapped herself in the face with her hoof and grunted. “Pinkie and Barley…”

“Oh… my…” Fluttershy said in a panicked voice. “I should be going!”

Sentinel felt dizzy as the room whirled around him. He was being held in the forelegs of one Pinkamena Diane Pie as she danced around on her hind legs and spun him around the living room, prancing and leaping about on two legs with as much balance as Ripple had.

This was undignified.

“OHMYGOSHYOU’RETHEMOSTADORABLEFOALEVER!” Pinkie shouted.

Feeling kind of nauseous, Sentinel hoped that Pinkie would stop spinning around soon. Round and round she spun, lifting up up and swinging him up and down. And then, as suddenly as it started, it was over and Sentinel found himself on the sofa.

“My Pinkie sense tells me a foal is going to be sick… I wonder where the sick foal is?” Pinkie muttered as she took off through the house to go looking. “There is going to be a sick foal!” she cried out in warning.

Heaving, Sentinel tried to make the room stop spinning. He closed his eyes and covered his mouth with his front hooves. He was suddenly in no mood for breakfast. He felt his gorge rising. He wasn’t sure if he ever wanted to try and fly again. Living with his hooves on the ground seemed like a brilliant idea.

Pinkie Pie had somehow managed to give a lunar pegasus, who by their very biological design, were physically adapted and evolved for erratic flight patterns that were impossible for feather winged pegasi, a severe case of motion sickness. By all known scientific and medical accounts, lunar pegasi were immune to dizziness and vertigo due to their unusual physiology.

Twilight Sparkle covered her eyes with her fetlocks and sighed. Now, there was two of them. Loch Skimmer and Pinkie Pie were nattering on with one another and acting if they had known each other their whole lives. They giggle-snorted together and filled the kitchen with laughter. Fluttershy had fled the kitchen and Twilight considered the option to escape as well.

It was too early in the morning for Pinkie Pie.

Barley was quietly drinking coffee and eating a breakfast of fried eggs and tomatoes while reading the newspaper. He didn’t know that eating his breakfast and reading the newspaper caused all manner of internal strife for Twilight Sparkle, who had nightmares about Barley’s big bushy eyebrows being raised in a menacing fashion.

Barley had the enviable ability to completely tune out Pinkie Pie.

Dinky and Piña were eating granola and milk, chewing down big mouthfuls so they could run off and play once they were finished. They said very little as they shoveled down their food.

Ripple was drinking coffee, much to Bon Bon’s vexation. The timer had been set and soon the Ripple-bomb would go off. Thankfully, there was a wide expanse of countryside all around the house for her to gallop off her excess energy before it turned into coffee fueled mayhem.

“There’s gonna be a mob o’ earth ponies showing up here later. They’ll stay away from the house to give ye privacy, but they agreed to work the garden in exchange for some of the produce. They’re refugees and they’ve had a rough go. Be kind to them and don’t run them off,” Barley announced.

“Speaking of earth ponies, I want to see Diamond Tiara,” Dinky said with her mouth full.

“Maybe later today,” Berry said.

“Well?” Bucky asked, looking at Sparkler with a raised eyebrow.

“There is a massive lump of black basalt under the field here. Down a ways. I can feel it. It sings to me,” Sparkler replied.

“Can you shape it?” Bucky inquired.

“Not by myself. I would need your help I think. Tap into a ley line and supercharge me. I can shape little rocks and even a medium sized rock, but I don’t have the energy for something this big,” Sparkler answered.

“And you can shape rocks without any heat? I mean, we had to melt rock the last time we made a tower,” Bucky said to his daughter in a low voice as they stood in the field some distance from the house .

“No heat. The rock will just move like clay for me,” Sparkler said.

“I need to construct a vault. And as an archmage, I deserve a proper tower. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but a tall black tower appeals to me,” Bucky stated.

“I think I could leave behind a shell of black basalt and when I hollow out the space below ground, everything that made up the solid mass can be lifted above ground to make a tower. You’d have a massive space under the tower that you could turn into a vault. You’d have your tower. You should keep your office as Headmaster in the top of the tower,” Sparkler said.

“Hmm, good idea,” Bucky muttered.

Sparkler sat down. She only had a couple of minor tremors and her condition wasn’t bothering her as bad as it had been. She was able to smile without her face jerking and twitching.

“When we shape it Sparky, I want little nooks along the outside walls. Little comfortable places for pegasi to roost so they can nap in the sun. Or out of the sun depending on which side of the tower they roost on,” Bucky suggested.

“I will do as you ask… but it will cost you,” Sparkler said as she looked at Bucky.

“Name your price,” Bucky sighed. “Can’t do something for somepony just because they’re family, right?”

Sparkler giggled for a bit and then got herself together. “I want a room in this tower. For my own studies. I’ll share it with Rising Star. But I want us to work together on projects. A family of unicorns all working together.”

“Fine, but you have to make a private room for Lyra,” Bucky said.

Entering the back door of the house, Bucky suddenly found himself snoot to snoot with a pink pony that he somehow knew without actually having been introduced to directly. She pressed her snoot into his and stared at him eye to eye.

“You look a little bit like Sombra,” Pinkie Pie announced.

“Maybe just a little,” Bucky said, finding it impossible to back away for some reason.

“The eye thing is really creepy,” Pinkie stated.

Starting to feel sweaty, nervousness took over Bucky. He liked earth ponies a great deal. And Pinkie Pie was rather attractive as far as earth ponies went. She was pudgy in all of the right places and jiggled enticingly when she moved.

“Your horn is really long. Are you trying to compensate for something?” Pinkie asked.

A sharp intake of breath was all Bucky could manage. He was sensitive about how short a certain part of him was… but he wasn’t trying to compensate with his horn… was he?

“I bet it is because you are really short and stubby!” Pinkie Pie chirped. “You’re the same size as me and I am kinda short!”

Exhaling suddenly with relief, Bucky wished that he could somehow pull his snoot away from Pinkie Pie, but an invisible force held him in place.

“Sombra was really big and tall. And kinda handsome in a spooky way. I bet the ghosties giggle when they see you… you’re scary!” Pinkie said and then went pronking off, leaving Bucky alone.

Bucky stood there, pondering what Pinkie Pie meant when she said that the ghosties giggled when they saw him. It was probably random Pinkie Pie nonsense and he dismissed it as he continued down the hall towards the kitchen.

Author's Notes:

The Pink Menace strikes again!

And so do typos.