“Bucky, no… stop… we might be discovered...”

Ignoring Derpy’s gasped warning, Bucky continued to snuffle and kiss Derpy along the back of her neck, teasing his way up to her ear with slow deliberate little pecks. He squeezed a little tighter, pulling her closer, and felt her wings brushing up against him. “I had a hard day… I was dragged all over Canterlot,” he said, breathing into Derpy’s ear with a heated whisper.

“If you stop now I’ll smoosh you…”

That sounded intriguing. Bucky felt Derpy’s foreleg wrap around his neck. “Promise?”

“I had a hard day too, but I can’t remember what went wrong…”

Bucky decided that innuendo was in order . “Sorry about your hard day love… let me give you a hard time to make it up to you.” As he spoke, he ran his right hoof down Derpy’s neck and stroked her withers.

For Bucky’s efforts, he was rewarded with a low whickering from the grey mare he so loved. He felt one wing wrap around him and the other began to tickle his side. Closing his eyes, Bucky’s lips found Derpy’s. Together, their lips began a slow familiar dance.

“There you are! I’ve been looking all over for you.”

With a groan, Bucky pulled away from Derpy when he heard the dulcet sounds of Lyra’s melodic voice. Under normal sounds, Bucky loved the sounds of Lyra’s voice, but the moment he felt somewhat annoyed.

Derpy, now flustered, fanned herself with a wing as her nostrils flared. She felt a nudge from Bucky and wondered what he was up to. Knowing Bucky as well as she did, she suspected that Bucky was up to trouble.

“Dinner is going to be in just a little bit. I was sent to come find you and… waahay—”

Lyra let out a startled utterance when Bucky grabbed her in his magic and hauled her to the small sofa where he and Derpy were canoodling with one another. Ignoring Lyra’s protests, he stuffed the unicorn mare in between Derpy and himself. Once he had Lyra situated, he resumed his embrace with Derpy, with Lyra sandwiched in the middle.

Using his lips, Bucky gave Lyra’s ear a nibble and felt her gasp.

“Oh this… this is not going according to plan,” Lyra said as she felt her resolve weakening. Lyra closed her eyes and let the moment take her. She could feel herself being kissed from both sides. Derpy had a case of wandering hooves and Lyra could feel one working it’s way down her barrel towards her stomach in slow teasing circles.

“Here you go Derpy… I brought you dinner. I dunno about you, but I’m in the mood for unicorn.” Bucky breathed his words into Lyra’s ear and took a perverse delight in watching Lyra’s ear twitch as the mare squirmed.

Derpy let out a low rumbling whicker followed by a chuckle. “So am I.”

“Oh no… I’m done for… I hope somepony sends help,” Lyra said. “Help help!”

As he let out a low growl, Bucky could feel Lyra shiver. He felt the muscles on her neck quivering and her body was warming from the intimate embrace. “If help comes we’ll gobble them too.”

“Oh no, not my Bon Bon—”

“Especially your Bon Bon,” Bucky whispered as he watched Lyra close her eyes. The mare was still trembling and Bucky marveled at her trust. He could smell her fear; it was something that was both arousing and worrying. He made the choice to play it down just a bit and relaxed his hold. He gave Derpy a little nudge and hoped that Derpy would pick up on the hint.

While Bucky was kissing Lyra on the corner of her mouth, he heard a squeaky giggle.

Well, Bucky thought to himself. At least Tourmaline had a good meal. He groaned and pulled away from Lyra. Tourmaline was peering around the corner into the secluded alcove, her white teeth stood out in sharp contrast to her jet black pelt. The filly was smiling and her eyes were large and owlish behind the thick lenses in her glasses.

“Mama sent me to find you,” Tourmaline said.

Grinning a knowing grin, Bucky suspected it was all too easy for Tourmaline to find them. He heard a deep shuddering breath from beside him and felt Lyra relax beside him, her body slumping over against his own.

“Is it dinner time?” Derpy asked.

Tourmaline nodded. “Yes.” The foal paused for a moment and flashed a smile. “I’m glad you didn’t gobble me.”

Bucky was forced to bite down upon his own lip to keep his laughter from escaping. All that came out was a loud snort and a sharp exhale. He could feel Lyra suppressing her giggles beside him. Tourmaline’s words about being gobbled were funny in an unintentional sort of way.

A broad sheepish grin spread over Derpy’s muzzle. “I guess you overheard some stuff while you were watching us… nopony was actually going to be eaten.”

All too aware of what Tourmaline was, Bucky began to worry that Tourmaline might pick up on Lyra’s fear and not understand what was going on. The foal seemed happy enough, but it was difficult to read Tourmaline at times. He looked over at Lyra and Derpy, down at Tourmaline, and then took a deep breath.

“Come on, we’re missing dinner,” Tourmaline said as she turned around and trotted off.

Dinner was not as bad as Bucky feared. He had worried that dinner would be served at a long endless table. Instead, the dining room was filled with many smaller round tables that were low to the floor and each table had four cushions to sit on placed around them.

It was a set up Bucky liked. One could sit or lay down on the cushion to eat.

There was no order to the sitting arrangements; everypony and everybirdy seemed free to sit wherever. Belisama was sitting at a table with Tannis, Agnetha, and Bon Bon. Berry Punch was sitting with Twilight Sparkle, Flash Sentry, and Glass Slipper. Celestia was sitting with Dinky, Piña, and Sentinel.

There was a brief moment of worry and Bucky’s eyes lingered upon the table where Celestia was sitting. All three of Bucky’s foals were boisterous eaters and Sentinel in particular had spectacular pegasus manners, second only to Sparkler.

Sparkler, who was sitting at a table with Luna, Loch Skimmer, and now Lyra, with Lyra sitting down as Bucky watched. That was going to be an interesting table. Loch Skimmer was already tittering and leaning over to say something to Lyra. Bucky could only imagine what it might be.

Bucky eased himself down upon a cushion at a table where Scootaloo, Barley, and Tourmaline were sitting. He watched Derpy sit down at a table with Spike, Shining Armor’s projection, and Rainbow Dash. Rising Star was off with Bittersweet, Thistle, and Ripple.

Sniffing, Bucky wondered what was for dinner.

Celestia looked at each of the foals sharing her table in turn. She would never admit it, but she prefered eating with foals. It was a chance to relax and not be quite so formal. Dinky and Piña seemed a little nervous, but Sentinel had his face buried in his bowl of salad greens and had already scarfed down most of it.

Saying nothing, Celestia leaned her head down, ignored the crick in her long neck, and began to devour her salad. She matched Sentinel’s reckless abandon. She heard a worried nervous snort from behind her and knew that Twilight Sparkle was over-reacting to something.

There was a belch and a grunt from across the table. Lifting her head, she saw that Sentinel was already finished. There was a bit of dandelion green sticking to his snoot and the colt was licking his chops. Celestia saw his orange tongue flick out and clean his nose, making the bit of green disappear.

“You like salad?” Celestia asked, trying to get a bit of conversation going.

“I can eat almost anything,” Sentinel replied.

Still chewing and smacking her lips, Piña said, “I’m starting to believe that there is nothing my brother wouldn’t eat.”

Sentinel’s ears pinned back. “I won’t eat anything that talks. Everything else is food.”

“Bittersweet doesn’t talk,” Dinky said around a mouthful of food.

Piña leaned over and swatted Dinky with her hoof. “Hey, don’t tease Sentinel. You know he’s sensitive about this. He’s very insecure about what he eats around us.”

There was a moment of silence and then Dinky’s ears drooped down to the sides of her face as she replied, “You’re right Piña. Sorry Sentinel.” Dinky offered an apologetic glance to her brother and then with a morose sigh, stuffed her snoot down into her salad bowl.

It was a heartwarming moment and Celestia marveled at how close the siblings were with one another. She looked at Sentinel, then Piña, and then over at Dinky, who had fallen silent while grazing upon her salad. “The three of you are good to one another. I am sure many parents would wish to have siblings so well behaved.”

Wiping her muzzle with her fetlock, Piña belched and then cleared her throat a bit. “Whenever we squabble, it usually doesn’t take long for one of us to remember what it was like on the Shetlands. With the wolves and all of the bad stuff. After that, well, whatever we were fighting about doesn’t seem so important.”

“I love my sisters. They tease me but I know I can count on them,” Sentinel said.

“Tell me, do you think it will be different for your younger siblings when they come along? You have all faced a terrible danger together. Your younger siblings will probably know nothing but peace and relative serenity. Do you think they might bicker more often because of this?” Celestia asked.

As she lifted her head from her salad bowl, Dinky looked over at Sentinel and then at Piña. Dinky shrugged and then looked up at Celestia. After a moment of quizzical befuddlement, she returned to eating.

Pushing his bowl away, Sentinel looked around the room for a moment before his gaze returned to Celestia. “I don’t know. That is actually a very good question. We’ve gone through a crisis together. I have a lot of questions about all of this… like is this the reason why my parents don’t fight… a lot of ponies my own age have parents that fight and there is a lot of screaming and hollering and I hear a lot of stories.”

Piña nodded. “Sentinel brings up a good point. Our parents really don’t fight. That’s kinda weird now that I think about it.”

“I think…” Celestia paused for a moment and gave careful consideration to her words. “I think that the extraordinary circumstances that you all had to endure along with other factors make your parents very close to one another.”

“Factors?” Piña asked.

Her brow furrowing, Celestia tried to think of the best way to explain this to a foal, albeit a very intelligent foal. “Bon Bon is a very stabilising presence in your herd I think. From what I know and from what I have observed, when things are difficult she is very level headed. Bucky… Bucky is very strong willed and stubborn, but he knows when it is wise to submit. Bucky listens to others and takes into consideration what others have to say. Derpy keeps everypony and everybirdy motivated and on their best behaviour… nopony or nobirdy steps out of line for fear of disappointing her. Berry Punch is good at spotting problems before they happen and has solutions on how to deal with them already thought out.”

“Sentinel reminds us that we are all weird and I think that helps. I know it reminds me to laugh at the funny stuff my family does,” Piña said.

Celestia nodded. “Yes, it is important to never take yourselves too seriously.”

Lifting her head and wiping her muzzle, Dinky swallowed and then looked around the room and then at Celestia. “Did you ever get that weird feeling that a picture upon the wall is watching everything you do? It’s kinda creepy. It feels like the eyes are following you.”

Glancing over at the portrait of Princess Platinum, Celestia nodded. The portrait’s eyes weren’t on Dinky though, but on another, and Celestia knew who had Platinum’s undivided attention. Celestia’s gaze moved to Belisama and then back to Princess Platinum.

Author's Notes:

Things should be returning to usual very soon. I was able to kick out a chapter during my down time. This afternoon I'm going to be busy as heck later.

Let me know if I missed anything. I'm getting better at exterminating adverbs from the story with the exception of dialogue. Conversations feel a lot smoother and the transitions feel better. I think it still needs some work though.

Tell me what you think.