“There are no shops out this way, all of this area is the wealthiest district in Canterlot,” Twilight Sparkle said as she flew beside Rainbow Dash. “The nobles live here. My family lives right over there.”

“I wonder what she’s up to,” Rainbow Dash replied, looking puzzled.

“I don’t know,” Twilight said, sounding confused.

The two figures flew overhead, unnoticed, flying from cloudbank to cloudbank, swooping over palatial homes, homes with walls, fortifications, and even towers. Impressive homes made from old wealth, some of these homes were almost one thousand years old. Twilight Sparkle could actually see her home from here, a sprawling structure that did in fact have its own tower, because when it was constructed, towers were very fashionable and everypony had to have a taller tower than their neighbor.

The pair watched as Berry Punch approached a home that was shaped like a five sided star with a very tall tower rising up out of the center.

Berry Punch approached the door of the vast estate home of Bucky’s family. It was star shaped, sort of, or so she thought, with five wings protruding from a central tower in the middle. She trotted up the steps, took a deep breath, and then pulled the corded rope to ring the bell. She waited, and, after some time, the door opened.

“Madam?” a stately somewhat older stallion inquired.

“I have come with a message,” Berry Punch replied. “Buckminster Bitters has been injured and has been recovering. I come with news of his condition,” Berry said, not technically lying.

“One moment madam,” the butler said, excusing himself and closing the door.

The strangely calm earth pony stood waiting, breathing deeply, knowing full well what she must do. Old business had to be finished. What was once started had been put on hold, and the business had never been concluded. And it was time for this business to end. Berry Punch was a mare in love, and love made almost anything seem reasonable due to the drug like effects of various chemical agents flooding the brains of ponies in love.

The door finally opened and a very stern looking unicorn mare with her grey hair drawn into a bun emerged out onto the landing. She looked at Berry Punch, puzzled. “You have news of Buckminster?” she asked. The butler stood just behind her, looking thoroughly disgusted that there was an earth pony standing on the landing.

“Yeah, I have news of Buckminster,” Berry said, her voice becoming a heated growl.

The stuffy old unicorn looked even more confused.

“CLAN PICKLED CLAIMS HIM AS THEIR OWN!” Berry roared, rearing up on her hind legs and lashing out with a vicious slap that sent the unicorn mare sprawling backwards. Moving with impossible speed and grace, she landed on her front hooves, swiveled her body around, and kicked out with her hind hooves, sending the butler flying into the doorframe. He fell to the ground and did not move.

“Clan Pickled sends their regards. Consider that friendly slap across the cheek my invitation to war you heartless bitch,” Berry cried, her body still moving rapidly. She sent out another kick with her forelegs that sent Bucky’s mother skidding over the landing.

The older unicorn spat out several teeth as she lay on the ground, groaning.

Berry sent another punch downward and the splintering of bone could be heard as Berry drove her hoof into the unicorn’s leg.

“You, you broke the sacred trust that exists between a mother and her foals. OUR SACRED DUTY! OUR RIGHT! OUR PRIVILEGE! WHAT YOU DID WAS UNTHINKABLE! CURSE YOUR WOMB AND DAMN YOUR EYES!” Berry cried as she stood over the prone mare on the stoop. “You took a beautiful mind, a wonderful soul, and you left him twisted and broken. I should kill you for what you’ve done. You are a shame to mothers everywhere. What I am going to do is even worse though. You are going to live. Clan Pickled has taken what you have so carelessly destroyed and thrown away. Consider the peace broken!” Berry growled, gritting her teeth after she spoke.

Berry Punch moved around the prone mare, walking towards her back end. Looking over her shoulder, Berry carefully lined up her kick. She was no Apple, but she had earned her red ribbons for being a kicker. She raised up one rear hoof, tensed her considerable bunched up muscles, and lashed out with every ounce of her fury, connecting with the unicorn’s filly bits.

The older mare went skidding over the landing with a high pitched shrill scream, her guts on fire, her filly bits crushed under an earth pony’s brutally strong kick. Blood began to seep from her feminine places, pooling over the landing and covering her tail.

“I doubt you will ever have foals ever again, but I had to make sure,” Berry spat, turning around to look at the fallen mare clutching her groin. “This is war. Come near me, my family, or my foals, I WILL KILL YOU!” Berry promised. She spat on the prone mare and then took off, galloping away as fast as her legs would carry her.

A pair of ponies resting on a cloud, sat watching the scene below them. Berry Punch stood on the landing, waiting at the door. Somepony had answered and gone inside. Twilight Sparkle exchanged a glance with Rainbow Dash, Rainbow looking a bit confused.

A moment later, an older unicorn mare came out onto the landing at the top of the stairs, and exchanged a few words with Berry Punch, or so it seemed from their aerial vantage point. Then, there was a loud scream, and things happened.

The pair of ponies watched as Berry Punch moved with blinding speed, flooring the unicorn mare and subduing the butler. Twilight was so much in shock that she couldn’t even move to stop the events she watched playing out below. Rainbow Dash was clinging to her, trembling, the blue pegasus clearly troubled by these events.

They watched as Berry Punch savagely broke the unicorn’s leg, the shattered limb visible from their elevated view, and there was shouting about cursed wombs and damned eyes. It was difficult to make out.

Rainbow Dash let out a piercing scream when she saw the womb destroying kick delivered to the unicorn. Twilight Sparkle couldn’t scream. All she could do was shake violently and cling to Rainbow Dash, unsure of what she was looking at, the horrible display of pony on pony violence below her completely unnerving her. One pony was savagely attacking another pony, creating disharmony within the much larger herd structure. And Twilight Sparkle was flummoxed.

“That’s the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen Discord playing with himself,” Rainbow Dash whimpered, one hoof clutching down between her own legs, her hind legs clenched around her hoof.

“I think… I think that was Buckminster’s mother,” Twilight Sparkle said, her own hind legs clenched tightly together. “I can’t be sure, but I cannot imagine Berry Punch doing that to anypony else. I can’t imagine Berry Punch doing this at all. She’s a good pony and a pillar of our community.”

“We should go help,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Ponies already are,” Twilight responded, pointing downward. “We should go see Celestia,” she added. “Celestia needs to know what is going on.”

“Let’s go Twi’,” Rainbow Dash said, still clutching her filly bits.

It was done. She had done it. She had actually followed through with it. Berry Punch sat on the train in silence, the car was filled with other ponies, mostly pegasi and earth ponies, many of them females, all of them sitting around and talking gregariously with one another.

She took a deep breath and saw her reflection in the window. The mare staring back at her seemed to approve of her actions. Berry sighed, taking in and letting out one deep breath, trying to relax her quivering muscles.

Her kicking leg was still tense and just aching for more kicking.

When the first tear rolled down her cheek, Berry found herself in the company of strangers, a pegasus mare taking a seat beside her and offering a friendly hug, which Berry gratefully accepted. Another mare sat on the other side of her, an earth pony, and she too, offered up a hug to make Berry feel better.

Berry Punch quietly reflected that this is the way that it should be, but her eyes had been opened and she had seen for herself that some ponies had been broken, and this bond of herdship had been taken from them. Like Bucky. She resolved to hug the stuffing out of Bucky when she got home. She’d need Derpy to help. Because Berry also needed to be hugged. She lived in terrible fear for her future foals, haunted by stories from the past. Terrible stories of the clearances in the Shetland Isles.

The pegasus mare said nothing as Berry cried upon her shoulder, and the earth pony mare ran her hoof in a small circle over Berry’s back, making Berry feel just a little better.

“What’s wrong dear?” the earth pony asked.

“I am going to be married soon. I plan to be a mother,” Berry said, just blurting everything out without thinking about it.

“That’s an emotional place to be,” the earth pony agreed.

“I’m worried about my future foals,” Berry admitted.

“I just got married and I am worried about my future foals too. The world is a dangerous place. The best thing we can do is be empowered mares and take a strong stance on defending our young, as is our right,” the pegasus said, giving Berry a friendly squeeze.

“A mother should have a right to do anything she wants to protect her foals,” the earth pony agreed. “I am not sure about this new feminism talk going around, but I do agree that mares should have a right to protect their foals by any means necessary. It is what we do as mothers. Ponyville doesn’t even have a standing guard constabulary that we can call for help if something happens,” the earth pony added.

“We know how to raise our foals better than the Crown does,” the pegasus commented. “I think the new feminist ideals are valid. A mother’s rights are inviolate, provided the foal does not come to harm. But no good mother would harm her foal. I should have the right to kill somepony that might try to harm or otherwise molest my foals,” the pegasus stated.

“I dunno about killing, but beating them to within an inch of their life is fine with me, and I am a feminist,” Berry confessed. “A mare should have the right to determine how their foal is raised, and the government needs to keep their snoots out of our families, as long as nopony is being hurt. Like herd marriage. I should have the right to assemble with other like-minded mares and present a united front to raise my foals together with them, dividing the labour and making sure my foals are provided for at all hours of the day, and provided for if something ever happens to me,” Berry explained.

“And that is the feminist argument?” the earth pony asked.

“In a nutshell,” Berry replied.

“That seems reasonable,” the earth pony said thoughtfully.

“A herd would make foal care much easier. You could take shifts. Somepony could watch over them during the night while you slept. All of the hard work would be spread out over multiple mares. You could wake up refreshed and well rested and actually be a better mother,” the pegasus said, giving voice to her thoughts.

“Wait, why did we give that up?” the earth pony asked.

“Long story,” Berry replied. “There are plenty of books though.”

“I think I’ll do some reading,” the earth pony mare said, smiling broadly.

“A mare should have the right to assemble with like-minded mares and form a herd. Present a united front. Engage in collective bargaining. Have the right to assemble. We deserve the power of committee. We deserve to be able to divide our labour and lighten our loads. We have a right to have motherhood as a unified group effort because it takes a herd to raise a foal. We have a right to collect and assemble mares from different backgrounds together so our foals will grow up with the broadest possible knowledge base to work with. What I know is limited, what another mare knows might also be limited, but together, we can teach all of what we know to our foals and have them prosper, and then when they have foals, that collection of knowledge can be passed on to their foals, each generation starting off a little better than the one before. I have a right to be a good mother, and share my motherhood experience with my best friends, those I love, and my fellow herdmates within marriage. And nopony has the right to take that from me. Motherhood is sacred. It is the foundation of our society and the privilege of every mare to do her part, and she shouldn’t be forced to endure this task alone, bearing the heavy brunt of all this labour on her shoulders. We deserve to be empowered!” Berry ranted, feeling Berry empowered herself, having just delivered a good old fashioned Shetland Isles’ plot whipping.

“Yeah!” another earth pony agreed, listening to Berry’s impassioned pleas.

“Tell it sister!” a pegasus shouted, sitting several seats away.

“And when foals need to be punished, and some little foals do, it is better to be done by a calm mare who loves the foal, not the angry mare whom the foal is in trouble with. Punishment could be delivered swiftly and fairly, without anger, as it should be,” an older earth pony mare said, nodding her head as she spoke.

“Yeah!” Berry agreed.

“Yeah!” several ponies said in unison.

The door opened with a faint squeal, the hinges needing to be oiled. Berry Punch saw Bucky on the couch, sitting with Derpy, and Lyra was reading a book to everypony. Lyra fell silent when she saw Berry in the doorway.

Berry moved swiftly, crossing the room in a bound, and tackled Bucky and Derpy on the couch, savagely assaulting them both. She pulled them both in, nearly crushing poor Bucky, and went to work trying to encourage a three way kiss.

Sparkler covered two pairs of little eyes with her fetlocks, pulling Dinky and Piña close as there was a very passionate three way kiss being exchanged on the couch.

Barley, sitting in the overstuffed chair, raised an eyebrow and said nothing, patiently waiting for the passionate three way embrace to come to an end.

Berry finally pulled away and sat, her legs still around the pair of ponies that she loved, watching them both, her barrel heaving. “I might need for you to forgive me,” Berry said breathlessly, licking waxy residue from her lips.

“I would forgive you anything,” Bucky replied, adoration easily visible in his eyes, his face looking red and flustered as he realised everypony was staring at his embarrassing display of three way affection.

“Good, because I just gave your mother a piece of my mind and I started a war,” Berry replied, turning to look at Barley.

“Oh,” replied Bucky, strangely calm. “Oh my.”

“Aye, that’s my filly,” Barley said approvingly.

Author's Notes:

Well, that was immensely satisfying.

We got to see a Berry empowered Berry Punch. Or kick as the case may be. She did punch too.

Here we go folks, the Shetland Isles arc begins. Oh, and war. War between houses. The first war in about a thousand years or so.

Edit. I posted this at like 4 am. If I made any goofs, let me know, thanks. I couldn't sleep, I had to do something.