“Sir, Princess Celestia has rescheduled the first day of winter to an earlier date. You will of course be required to bring winter to Equestria. You are to be prepared, the ceremony is set one week from now. Princess Celestia also wants to get a photo with all of the royals,” Violet Velvet said as she looked over her clipboard at Bucky.

Bucky, sitting in his chair, nodded.

“Look, I know you just returned yesterday, but there is much that needs to be done. There is a special case you need to deal with in Tall Tale. The specifics are inside of this folder here.” As Violet spoke she pushed a folder across the table and left it sitting by itself. “The report states that a foal performed an act of necromancy.”

Bucky sighed. “Oh dear… I suppose I am the best one to deal with this.”

Looking down at the folder, Violet continued to organise the rest of Bucky’s paperwork and files. “Twilight Sparkle wants Lyra involved as well. Also, Princess Luna will be going with you.”

“How is my school?” Bucky asked.

“All is well sir. The zebras are settled in. Doctor Mawu is setting up her office and will be ready to see student clients soon. We have more teachers that are seeking positions. There are many who believe in what you are doing. One of our current applicants is a teacher that was formerly employed by the Baltimare Academy of Magical Arts and Sciences. He is eager to work here. The students are settling in and they seem happy enough,” Violet replied.

“Very good.” Bucky paused for a moment, took a drink of his coffee, and then looked over at Violet. “I want the mead hall placed as a high priority. I’m not fooling around, I want it built as of yesterday. Come spring, I’ll need an apiary built… might be a good hobby for Dinky. I want musical instruments placed into the talons of any griffon that shows any sign of musical aptitude. I want instructors hired. Spare no expense. This is to be treated as a matter of life or death.”

Violet wrote down everything Bucky said. “Very well, I will make sure this is done.”

“Is Diamond Tiara happy?” Bucky asked.

Violet set down her clipboard, her pen, and then adjusted her glasses. “She moved in with Rarity and Coco. She was a little teary to leave but she seemed happy. I went with her to make sure that she settled in and that she was okay. Dirtbound was with us, he was helpful and kind.”

Bucky smiled. “Good… good, this makes me happy.”

Raising an eyebrow, Violet was a little hesitant when she said, “Sentinel took it hard. You were gone, he was already taking that hard… it took a while but I finally got him to talk over milk and cookies… Sentinel seemed to be convinced that you were going to die. You didn’t have your armor. Sentinel did not know your plan. Apparently, he has vivid memories about you being shot in the head. This has been very difficult on him.”

Bucky’s smile drooped into something not a smile. “That explains a lot. I guess I better have a talk with him. Poor little guy. Thanks for talking to him Violet.”

“Oh, I had help, I don’t think I could have got him to talk without Sparkler. She is really quite good at getting a pony to open up,” Violet replied as she carefully laid out several folders on the library table. “Which reminds me. When you get a chance, you need to talk to Little Slip. She has moved into the female dorm and much to my surprise, has received a good deal of acceptance. The dorm houseparent says that there has been a few issues, but the overall situation seems positive. I have spoken to her myself. I think this will be a good place for her to heal.”

Bucky took several gulps of coffee, swallowed, and then let out a low belch. “Noted. I will speak to her as soon as I have the chance. Any advice?”

Frowning, Violet shrugged. “She is fragile, timid, and has trust issues. If I had any advice at all, it would be to take one of your own daughters with you to show that you can be trusted. Maybe. I don’t know. This is not my area of expertise.”

There was a faint clatter when Bucky set down his coffee cup on top of the table beside his chair. “I suppose I can take Sparky along… might be a good idea. Maybe Loch Skimmer too. It is impossible to be afraid of Loch Skimmer. She is just too friendly.”

Violet nodded. “Sir, I agree. Loch Skimmer is charismatic and charming.”

“Sparky?”

“Yes Dinky?”

“I have a question.” Dinky’s face was pensive, the little foal looked curious and thoughtful.

Sparkler set down her brush and looked at her sister. “You know, we don’t spend as much time together as we used to. I’d love to hear your question.”

“Things happened I guess… we got sent off to an island full of wolves and a lich. You got married. Piña and I got closer. We came home and you got a job. I got involved in school,” Dinky said in a low voice. Heaving a sigh, Dinky’s ears drooped down to the sides of her face. “I suppose this is how life is.”

Shrugging, Sparkler felt as though there was a lot to say but she wasn’t sure how to say it. She picked Dinky up and set the foal on the bed. Pulling her close, Sparkler gave Dinky a hug and held her, trying to keep her muscles from convulsing. “So what is your question?”

“We can talk about anything right?” Dinky asked.

Putting on her most serious face, Sparkler replied, “Sure thing Dinky Doo.”

“Anything?”

“Anything.”

Dinky sighed. “Okay… here goes… how do fillies love one another?”

Almost choking, Sparkler inhaled sharply and then coughed. After taking a moment to get herself together, Sparkler managed to take a deep breath. “What?”

Dinky looked away from her sister and stared at the wall. “I figured out how colts might love one another… a… um… uh… it can be pushed into any hole I guess no matter how disgusting it might be. But fillies… there is nothing that can go into something else. I don’t understand.”

Still stunned, Sparkler made an effort to try to understand her sister. “What brought this up? I mean, uh, what made you think about all of this?”

Turning away from the wall, Dinky looked up at her sister. “Ripple and Bittersweet. They’re so in love with one another and watching them confuses me...” Dinky hesitated for a moment, frowned, and shook her head. “I don’t think what they are doing is wrong… don’t get the wrong idea. I just don’t understand how it works and I want to understand. I guess it is because of what happened.”

Sparkler’s thoughts turned to Dinky’s little moment of embarrassment brought about by magic and she pondered for a moment how difficult all of this must be for Dinky to take in. Dinky was growing up rapidly and there had been a lot to take in all at once as of late.

“Ripple just seems so happy. She is always smiling. I guess that is what it is like, being in love and all that,” Dinky said in a low voice.

“Bittersweet and Ripple haven’t actually done anything other than lots of kissing.” Sparkler thought about what to say next, how much to say, and how to say it. “There are ways for two fillies to do things to one another that make each other happy.”

“Do you and Loch Skimmer do those things?” Dinky asked.

Sparkler took a deep breath. “Here is where things get complicated… We have, but Loch Skimmer really isn’t into fillies like I am. She doesn’t mind being kissed a little bit, but she feels a bit weird if we do other things. She doesn’t mind if I do things to her, but she has some trouble doing things to me.”

Feeling embarrassed, Dinky closed her eyes. “So Loch Skimmer isn’t gay?”

“I’m not sure if it is about being gay… you see Dinky… it’s complicated. I’m not sure if I am gay… I just happen to enjoy both Loch Skimmer and Rising Star and find myself attracted to both of them,” Sparkler replied.

Scratching her chin, Dinky thought about her sister’s words. “I don’t think I understand.”

Feeling that honesty was the best way to answer, Sparkler chose to answer in the most direct way possible. “I am not sure I understand it either. I just know that I’m very much in love with Loch Skimmer, Rising Star, Ripple, and now, Bittersweet as well. What I love about them is on the inside I suppose, and interacting with the body allows me to touch them on the inside. The part of them that I care about, the part of them that I love, it is out of my reach. The best that I can do is just try to make them feel good. I guess what I am trying to say is, the physical parts don’t matter.”

Rolling her eyes, Dinky felt a growing sense of frustration. “But the physical parts do matter… I don’t understand how two fillies do anything.”

Sparker was certain she heard something in Dinky’s voice. “Are you upset about something?”

Dinky shook her head. “I’m just confused.”

Giving Dinky a reassuring squeeze, Sparkler made herself ready to interrogate her sister. “I’m your sister. Don’t lie to me. You can talk to me about anything and you know. Anything at all. I mean, I just got telling you a whole bunch of secret sister stuff and now it is your turn.”

Letting out a low whine, Dinky wiggled in her sister’s grasp, making a halfhearted attempt to get away. “I don’t know… it is very confusing.”

“What is confusing?” Sparkler asked in soft gentle whisper.

“Everything!” Dinky gasped. “Everything is confusing! Ever since my little accident everything has been confusing and I have weird dreams about my friends and I feel so dirty and ashamed and I’ve been doing creepy things.”

Leaning her head down, Sparkler kissed her sister just below Dinky’s ear. “Strange dreams? Creepy things?”

“Even before my little accident things were getting confusing I guess,” Dinky admitted.

Sparkler felt Dinky go limp in her embrace. She felt a growing sense of concern as she leaned in close to her sister’s ear and whispered, “It helps if you talk about it, I promise. But I can’t help you unless you tell me.”

“It is so embarrassing.” Dinky wiggled a bit and then turned her head to face Sparkler. She pressed her cheek against Sparkler’s neck. “When I think about what I’ve been doing it makes my stomach hurt and I feel sick. I get so worried. I just want to close my eyes and make the world go away because I feel so ashamed.”

“Dinky, why do you feel ashamed?” Sparkler asked.

Sighing, it took Dinky a moment before she could answer. “I don’t know… that is why I feel so confused I guess. I don’t know what is going on.”

Feeling the side of her face twitch, Sparkler was glad that Dinky couldn’t see it. She gritted her teeth for a moment and waited for the worst to pass. “So Dinky… do you want to tell me what is going on?”

Dinky took a deep breath and then let it out as she said, “I had a dream about Diamond Tiara… I told her she was pretty and then I kissed her and I felt so ashamed because she is my friend and I felt guilty because she is my brother Sentinel’s special somepony and I felt so bad because I feel like I betrayed Sentinel in my dream and I hope he never finds out…” Dinky inhaled once more and then continued to pour her heart out. “And then one day in class I was staring at Sweetie Belle and somehow I lost over fifteen minutes of time and I don’t know what happened but when the teacher called on me to ask me a question I couldn’t answer because I hadn’t heard a word…” Once more, Dinky sucked in a lungful of air so she could finish. “Staring is wrong and I know that from listening to adults that it is wrong to gawk at another pony and I was staring at Sweetie Belle and then the other day I found myself staring at Twist and the way she kept swishing her tail and I wanted to keep watching her tail swing from side to side because for some reason I was trying to look at Twist’s backside and I was violating her privacy and I am a horrible foal that violates the trust of my friends and my brother.”

“You like fillies,” Sparkler said.

“I don’t know… I’ve always thought colts were icky, but every little filly thinks colts are icky, right?” Dinky asked. Her brows furrowed. “Sentinel isn’t icky though. He’s my brother and he’s okay.”

“Dinky, liking other fillies isn’t anything to be ashamed of. What you are feeling is perfectly normal for a filly your age. You’re starting to notice other ponies… I was about eight or nine when I started to notice that something had changed about colts.” Sparkler let her words sink in and she planted a kiss on her sister’s head.

“What I am doing is wrong… I kissed Diamond Tiara in a dream… I keep looking at Sweetie Belle… and Twist. I don’t think Diamond Tiara likes fillies and she loves my brother. Sweetie Belle and Rumble are kind of a couple… sort of. That’s getting complicated… anyhow, I keep checking out fillies that I don’t think like other fillies and that just feels so wrong,” Dinky blurted out in one long pained confession.

Sparkler wasn’t sure what to do. “Dinky, it isn’t wrong. You can’t help who you dream about, so you can’t beat yourself up over that. You can’t help who you feel attracted to. The best you can do is be respectful about it. It is like when colts whistle at a filly and harass her, or when a filly might do that to a colt and they go about it all wrong. Feeling attracted to another pony is fine, honest it is. It is what we do with that attraction. Looking and being respectful is good. Looking and being a jerk about it is wrong.”

“Then why do I feel so ashamed?” Dinky asked.

Sighing, Sparkler wished that she knew. “I don’t know Dinks… I don’t know.”

“I wish this had never happened. Now things are all weird and I am scared I am going to lose my friends,” Dinky said.

Confusion descended upon Sparkler. “Why would you lose your friends?”

Once more, Dinky let out a low whine. “What if I tell them that I think they are pretty and how I am and they think I am weird and disgusting for looking at them that way and they don’t want me around?”

“That’s a tough one Dinky… I gotta admit, I don’t know how to answer that. I suppose if they respond like that, they probably weren’t your friends in a way that was very meaningful. I’d like to think that a real friend might feel flattered… or at least try to understand you… even if they didn’t feel that way in return and would just accept you for how you are… but I don’t think my point of view is very realistic,” Sparkler said as her brows furrowed and her muzzle crinkled.

Dinky began to sniffle. “Growing up makes life more and more complicated. I don’t like it.”

“I dunno Dinky, it’s not so bad, it gets better I guess. There are some rough awkward moments where it feels like you just want to die and you cringe a whole lot, but you get through those and then things are sort of okay… I guess. I don’t know.” Sparkler realised that her words were nowhere as reassuring as she hoped they would be.

“I feel kinda hot and sick to my stomach,” Dinky said in a low raspy voice.

“Want some ice cream? I know I could go for some ice cream… we could go downstairs and have ice cream,” Sparkler suggested.

“That’d be nice…”

Author's Notes:

This took forever to edit. It started off as a total mess with some really broken choppy dialogue and it took forever to clean up the conversation between Sparkler and Dinky. I ended up rewriting the Dinky and Sparkler conversation about four times and the last time I focused on dialogue enablers to try and make the conversation a bit more show and a little less tell.

I hope it came out okay.

So... ever find yourself attracted to a typo? There's an awkward moment of sexuality...