“Do you think it is safe to go into town?” Bon Bon asked.

“It’s safe enough,” Barley replied.

“Worried about hoof rot,” Bon Bon stated.

“Aye, I worry as well. Avoid muddy places, wet places, and try to wash your hooves in clean water any chance you get,” Barley said after taking a swallow of coffee.

“I plan to go into town today. Check on my shop and my old apartment. I bet the fridge is a nightmare. Gonna need to to get a wagon and move everything out,” Bon Bon said in a sad voice. She slumped at the table, holding a spoon with her hoof and stirring her coffee endlessly.

“Why so glum Bonnie?” Barley asked.

“My business… I don’t know what to do about it. It is so far away now. Lyra and I do most of the cooking around here. I am not sure what to do. Making candies made me so happy… but now I have responsibilities. I feel so conflicted,” Bon Bon confessed.

“Go back to work if it makes you happy. There are a lot of ponies here, if need be, we’ll hire a cook, but you have a right to be happy. The walk will keep you fit ye pretty lass,” Barley said, looking Bon Bon in the eye.

“I dunno if I wanna go,” Lyra said in a low voice. “I dunno if I can face the crowds. The ponies looking at me. Staring at me.”

Looking at Lyra, Bon Bon felt smidge of worry. Lyra certainly seemed happier out here on the farm. It made everything all the more conflicting. She reached up and scratched at her ear nervously with her right front hoof. She needed to be making candies again.

“If’n ye go, take Loch Skimmer with ye, she’s a gabber, she’ll help ye deal with the crowd,” Barley suggested, his lilt becoming noticeably thicker after taking a few drinks of coffee.

“I don’t have a problem with the crowds so much, I just don’t want to be mobbed and asked a million questions,” Bon Bon muttered, her muzzle scrunching up as she lifted her coffee cup and took a sniff. “Bucky makes coffee too strong. This is sludge.”

“Aye, ‘tis proper coffee,” Barley amicably agreed. He chortled when he saw Bon Bon roll her eyes at him and slapped the table with his hoof. He smiled a lopsided grin of affection at the earth pony sitting across from him at the table and tried to get his old ears to stand up straight.

At his age, it was getting difficult to get anything to stand up at attention.

A low slung figure moved slowly through the tall grass. It moved carefully, each move made with consideration towards the end goal. All four knees were kept bent to keep the figure’s profile low. It moved silently towards its prey… freezing in place every few moments in the seemingly jerky movements of a practiced hunter.

A restless tail swished as the hunter moved towards its acquired target, and a low growl could be heard, a faint almost imperceptible sound. Ultrasonic sounds tracked distance and calculated effective ranges for pouncing through a highly advanced system of echolocation.

There were few finer hunter-killers to be found in nature.

Three fillies hugged one another in the mid-morning sun. Dinky and Piña both squeezed Diamond Tiara, embracing in a three way squeeze. They all giggled, happy to see one another. Summer was drawing to a close and days to be spent in play were running out.

“We should have a sleepover,” Dinky suggested.

“I’ll ask my dad,” Diamond Tiara replied.

“We can have a tea party,” Piña gushed.

“What is it with you and tea parties?” Dinky asked.

“I like tea. And I like parties. And I really love those little cucumber sandwiches with spicy brown mustard that Berry makes,” Piña answered, licking her lips after she spoke.

The world suddenly became a very confusing place as a sooty brown blur came soaring out of the grass and crashed into Diamond Tiara. The earth pony filly shrieked and fell over, going limp as something plowed into her and bowled her over. Dinky and Piña both screamed and shouted, panicking, unable to make sense of the situation. Dinky’s horn flashed with a truly dazzling brilliance.

And then, things made sense again.

Sentinel was sitting on top of Diamond Tiara, smiling an almost non existent smile, the corners of his mouth only almost turned upwards. The colt looked very pleased with himself. And, after a long profound silence, Diamond Tiara, pinned beneath him, started to laugh.

Dinky, realising what had happened, began to laugh as well, but then fell silent when she saw her daddy and Mister Rich on the porch. Her daddy looked worried. Afraid. Frightened. But then she saw his face soften and slowly break into a laugh. Mister Rich still looked confused. Beside her, Piña was beside herself with laughter, guffawing and rolling on the ground.

“I thought I’d be friendly,” Sentinel explained.

Dinky watched her daddy lean over and whisper something to Mister Rich, and then Mister Rich looked better, his own face and body relaxing a bit and even offering up a bit of a laugh.

“You tackled me,” Diamond Tiara said, looking up at Sentinel with wide eyes.

“No, I pounced you. I wanted you to know there was no hard feelings after what happened. This is how my kind show that we like somepony,” Sentinel replied.

The two stallions on the porch were heading back inside and Dinky took a deep breath. She had nearly let go with a tremendous amount of magic. Her mind went back to the night where she rode on her mother’s back shooting bolts of telekinetic death down upon her enemies. For a moment, she could hear the sounds. Yelps of pain. Whimpers. Cries. The smell of blood thick in the air. The sounds of violence filling the air and making it impossible to hear anything else. She remembered in vivid detail the bombing run, dropping dozens of spell jars filled with death down upon her enemies far below her. The way her mother banked and descended slowly, giving Dinky time to line up her targets for another strafing run. The furious howls of her mother and the spitted curses, the terrible things her mother had said, her gentle loving mother’s ferocious snarls and growls as the pair of them worked together to rain down death and dismemberment from above.

“Dinky?”

Snapping to attention, Dinky looked around.

“Dinky, you were talking to yourself… are you okay?” Piña asked.

“What was I saying?” Dinky questioned in reply.

“I dunno, I couldn’t make it out,” Piña said in a worried voice. “You don’t look well.”

“You know, I suddenly don’t feel well,” Dinky admitted.

Sentinel scooted away from Diamond Tiara and went to Dinky’s side, giving her a hug and wrapping his wings around her. He felt confused. Just a moment ago, she had seemed so happy, but he could feel the hitching of her barrel and the wetness of the tears now starting to fall. He held her close and tried to comfort her, feeling worried for his sister.

Feeling more than a little concern because of her Shivers, Sparkler worried about making a good first impression. She had to meet the hopeful first recruits of the Ponyville Police Department today. She trotted down the road, moving with mindful purpose, off to the location in which they would all be meeting. Twilight had reassured her that these were good ponies and her Shivers shouldn’t be a problem.

She hoped more than anything that this was true.

As each day passed, she was feeling more and more self conscious about her condition. Even the looks of concern from those who loved her made her feel awkward and sometimes infuriated her, filling her with rage even though she had no good reason to be angry.

Pushing these thoughts from her mind, Sparkler focused instead on just how sexy Rising Star had become quite literally overnight. He was taller, seemed to be more muscular, but she couldn’t quite be sure, and there was something impossible to resist about him.

Flicking her tail, Sparkler went down the road with a smile upon her face.

“Where is my squire?”

The closet under the stairs was empty. Bucky stood there for a moment at a loss. He was having some trouble thinking. He was distracted and out of sorts. He looked at Mister Rich and then looked around the hallway. His eyes glanced over the door to the nursery and he saw Bittersweet on the floor with Harper and Peekaboo. A contented feeling slipped over him, easing some of his sense of worry.

“I have lost my squire,” Bucky announced. “I’ll be upstairs. Sorry about the cold Mister Rich, I really am.”

Before Mister Rich could ask why Bucky was sorry, Bucky exploded into a cloud of snowflakes, covering the walls in frost and leaving behind a patch of ice on the floor. Mister Rich shivered violently, the cold biting in deep into his thin pelt. He still had his summer coat and it offered no protection.

Upstairs, Bucky nosed around, checking doors. Sentinel was not in his room. There was stuff on his desk, papers, pencils, indicators that Sentinel had been there. Usually, he kept his desk tidy, so he must have left in a hurry.

Curious, he pushed open the door to Dinky and Piña’s room.

He found Sentinel. The fillies were gathered around a small short table, and Sentinel was with them. They seemed to be having a tea party. Sentinel was certainly a pretty colt, with his hair braided into two pigtails and tied off with pretty pink and yellow ribbons. A white flower was tucked over one ear. All of the fillies were gussied up and looked extra pretty for the tea party.

Bucky saw his son looking at him pleadingly.

“Father… they foalnapped me from my desk and drug me in here. Dinky used her magic,” Sentinel whimpered. “They said it was because I pounced their friend.”

“Well, I was going to have to have you join Mister Rich and I for a talk, but I can see you are previously engaged,” Bucky said, struggling to keep a straight face. “It is very important that you keep your sisters happy. Be on your best manners. And look after our guest Diamond Tiara. Be a good squire.”

“Yes… sir,” Sentinel squeaked.

Closing the door, Bucky bit down on his lip to keep from exploding with laughter. Only a supreme act of will kept him from losing it completely. He backed away from the door, snorting a few times as he beat a hasty retreat.

Rising Star

First off, welcome to the family. Celestia will be talking to you soon. There are a lot of things you should know, and I should have spent some time telling you things, but it was a stressful time for both of us and you were scared out of your mind.

Truth be told, so was I.

You’ve probably noticed the lingering smell of brimstone. That is because we are fey. There is difference between fey and fae. The differences are minor, but major, meaningless, and of vital importance. All fey are part of the fae, but not all fae are fey. We are the otherworlders. We are extra dimensional beings. Don’t worry, this will all get explained.

Anyway, after Celestia and I talked, I’ve been volunteered to be your uncle. If you need advice, you send a letter. If you need help, you send a letter. If you are in life threatening trouble, you call out “Uncle Scorch” and reach down deep into the fire within. Yeah yeah, I know, I’m a demon, but I am not one of those sorts of demons. I am free to walk through the gate at any time and frequently do. So don’t feel bad about calling me if you are in trouble.

All of your foals, all of your future offspring, they will be like us. In time, the blood will fade and only the occasional cloven hoof will show up, but expect some interesting foals in the near future. I’ll be glad to be their Godfather. Been a while since I’ve done that job.

Be careful about deals you make. Be careful about giving your word. We tend to geas ourselves, quite often without even realising it. Be wary of foals or other cute innocent little baby critters. We tend to become rampaging behemoths in protection of the young. Well, some of us. We’re all a little different, these are just general warnings kid. Watch out for primordial ice elementals. We don’t get along well. Most importantly, be careful with your magic. You are going to notice that you are a lot more powerful now. Don’t worry too much. Fire will obey you now and bend to your whim, where as before, you had to exert mastery over it. Fire is now your slave.

I will be in touch, your friend, Scorch.

Looking at the letter, Rising Star felt an odd emotion bubbling through him. He was part of something larger now, some larger part of the world that he had no idea existed. He rubbed his aching head. Having letters exploding out of his horn was unpleasant but practical.

He heaved a sigh, feeling a little better about everything that had happened.

Author's Notes:

I really liked the middle of this chapter.

Sorry about typos.