“Hey Rarity… Coco… Bucky, what are you doing here?” Twilight stood there in front of the door, looking perplexed, a natural state of affairs for Twilight. She stared. Bucky’s mane was tied up in ribbons. And he was wearing a gown.

“This is exactly what it looks like,” Bucky said. He grinned a wolfish grin and nodded.

Coco waved. “Hello Twilight.”

“Hello!” Rarity trotted over to Twilight, kissed one cheek, and then kissed the other. “Darling… you look… distressed.”

Saying nothing else, Rarity began shoving Twilight towards a velvet upholstered chaise lounge, ignoring Twilight’s protests.

“I can’t talk about this now…”

“Yes you can… share your secrets… we’re all mares here,” Bucky said in a high falsetto.

Snickering, Twilight fell over onto the chaise lounge.

“Yes, Twilight, it is just us girls.” Coco, turning pink, eyed the door and made certain her escape route was clear just in case it was needed.

“I made some mistakes. I’m fixing them. Everything is better now.” Twilight leaned on Rarity, who had sat down beside her. “Bucky… how do you say that you are sorry?”

“I dunno… I guess I just say it… why are you asking me?” Bucky replied.

“Well… you mess up a lot… I thought I’d draw upon your experience.” There was a teasing smile on Twilight’s muzzle.

“Hey!” One of Bucky’s eyes narrowed.

“More troubles at home, Twilight?” Rarity asked.

“Well, for a while. I’m fixing them.” Twilight sighed. She looked over at Rarity. “Rainbow Dash gave both me and Flash Sentry an earful. Then she kicked both of us out of the bedroom. I slept on the couch and Flash slept on the floor because he didn’t want to share the couch with me. I woke up miserable and so did Flash. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash had a bed full of foals and a dragon to keep her warm and happy.”

“Did you learn anything?” Rarity asked, her eyelashes batting.

“I learned that a night in the bed with a pony I was peeved with is better than one night alone on the couch.” Twilight reached back and rubbed her spine. She pressed against her backbone and it crackled.

“Well, I’m glad. This needed to be sorted out before our trip.” Rarity leaned back and cringed when she heard Twilight’s spine crackle.

“I can’t believe that Princess Celestia wants to take all of us.” Twilight began adjusting her neck, much to Rarity’s discomfort. There was another loud crackle.

“A trip on the royal yacht. For all of us. This is going to be fantastic. Coco and I will be able to go shopping in Tradewinds.” Rarity heaved a dramatic sigh.

“We’re going to be trapped on an airship with Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich.” Twilight looked at Rarity and then at Coco.

“Stuck on an airship… with you, Flash Sentry, and Rainbow Dash, while the three of you squabble.” Rarity looked at her friend with a teasing glint in her eye.

“We love one another!” Twilight’s eyes narrowed and she pressed her lips together for a moment. “I just get too hung up on how I think things should be and I don’t do enough to listen to others.”

“I’m stubborn.” Bucky lifted his head high. “It gets me into trouble. But it also gets me out.”

“I can be shallow and I focus on trivial details as a means of escape.” Rarity frowned a well cultured and well practiced frown.

Coco sighed. “I’m perfection in the form of an earth pony. I’m humble too.”

Thistle let out a faint whimper of concern as she watched Doctor Mawu sit on the floor with Sukari. Nothing had happened yet, but that didn’t stop Thistle from being tense with worry and concern.

“You say that Magpie found a pile of hoarded food under the crib?”

“Yes, yes she did, Doctor Mawu.”

“Please, just call me Mawu and do try to relax.”

“Okay.” Thistle turned around in a circle, chasing her own tail for a moment, and then sat down. “Bucky gives her treats… trying to win her over. She takes them. I thought she was eating them, but we cleaned out under there and found a few tidbits piled up.”

“She feels safe enough to leave stashes of food.”

“Oh no… and we took them!”

“Thistle… please, calm down.”

“I can’t calm down, I took my baby’s food from her after she felt safe…”

Doctor Mawu took a deep breath, hoping that Thistle would follow her lead. Looking down, she smiled at Sukari. “You’re adorable.”

Sukari’s eyes narrowed and she scooted a few steps backwards.

"You say she nurses?” Doctor Mawu asked.

Thistle nodded. “Yes. She is very careful of Bell Heather. Sukari holds on to her while they suckle together.”

“Hmm.” The zebra doctor looked down at the zebra foal. “So she is not food competitive. That’s a good sign.”

“She’ll share with Cadance too. But she doesn’t hold on to Cadance.”

“Thistle, I want you to try something… it will be heart breaking, but I have an idea.”

Whimpering, Thistle wasn’t sure she wanted to know what it was. She looked at Mawu. She felt a prickle of dread tickling her belly. Thistle wasn’t up to doing anything heart breaking.

“I want you to try ignoring Sukari. Just sit in the room and ignore her. Don’t look at her, don’t speak to her, do nothing to make contact with her. Force her to make contact with you if she wants attention.” Doctor Mawu brushed a bit of lint off of her blazer.

“Oh… that’s awful!” Thistle recoiled from the very idea.

“When she has worked for your attention, give it to her. Don’t keep ignoring her.”

The kelpie’s body slumped into a sulk. It sounded like a horrible idea, but Thistle supposed that she would try it, as awful as it sounded.

“You have a wonderful little mtoto here… She is strong, resilient, and still has some fight in her. She is not yet broken. One day, she will recover. She will grow to love you and trust you. She will call you mother. She may have some issues, but everypony has issues of some sort.”

The doctor’s words seemed reasonable and Thistle nodded. Something about what the doctor had said was comforting, even if Thistle could not say why it was so. “Thank you, doctor.”

“Derpy… you know how you whacked me across the backside for being a bad pony?”

The grey pegasus raised an eyebrow.

“I liked it. I liked it a lot. When I’m a bad pony, would you spank me?”

“No.”

“No?”

“No.” A pause. “Bad ponies don’t get spankings.”

“Then I’ll be a good pony.” Another pause. “You need to get Bucky to lick your hooves.”

“Eww, why?”

“Because he likes it. His sense of kink is coming right along.”

“I’ll let Bucky lick my hooves if you let Bucky tap your bung.”

“I dunno about that. He did that once.”

“That was an accident. Of course it hurt.”

“I’ll let you lick my hooves while Bucky is tapping my bung.”

“No… how about you lick my hooves while Bucky is tapping your bung… after I spank you and call you a bad pony?”

The earth pony and the pegasus began giggling.

Her talons trembling, Belisama drew the curved officer’s sabre from its sheath. The blade was oiled, sharp, and well cared for. The nicks in the blade were gone, Rising Star had seen to that. The blade was sharp enough to shave the fur off of her skin. She slid the blade back into the sheath and let out the breath she had been holding.

Reaching up, she gave her shawl a reassuring pat, glad to know that Bandua was safe.

“You look nervous, my queen.”

Belisama let out a terrified peep.

“My apologies.”

“Lugus, you scared me.” Belisama took a deep breath through her open beak and clutched her sword a little tighter.

“You have drawn steel six times in a row now. You pull it out, you stare at it for a moment, and then you slide it in.” Lugus sat down upon the floor. “Is something wrong, my queen?”

Belisama set the sabre down beside her and her talons lingered on the grip. She looked up at Lugus, thinking about how she no longer felt the need to avert her eyes when looking at him. Lugus was her friend. “Lugus, I was just thinking of my sister… I was missing her. And now I have a cub that bears her name so she can live on.”

“And you are feeling protective?” Lugus asked.

“I think I’m nesting. I’m very emotional right now.” Belisama clutched her shawl and wrapped her forelegs around Bandua. “There is something very comforting about the heft of that sword’s grip. Makes me feel… it makes me feel as though I’m as big as you are and nothing in the world would mess with me.”

“I am very large. I am very, very large. And things in this world feel the need to mess with me. The world is filled with stupid things that need to be put down.” Lugus began to drum on the floor with his talons. “You don’t need to be as big as me. You continue being as little as you and I will continue to look after you.”

“I think I got tired of being afraid all of the time, Lugus. After I got pregnant, I started to feel the same aggression that I felt when the battle over the griffon airbase happened and I had that rifle.” Belisama paused and shook her head. “No… not just aggression… rage. There is an empty place in my heart… I have a lot of hurt inside… and I’m angry. My sister deserved this life. We might have shared Bucky together… or she might have found her own mate… but I would have been willing to share. She deserved the happiness he would have given her… just like I deserve it. The things they did to her… and there was nothing I could do. I’m done being helpless.”

Leaning his head down, Lugus rubbed the side of his head against Belisama’s body, keeping the razor sharp edges of his beak away from her.

“I want to learn how to fight. How to shoot. I want to learn how to use that sword. I don’t want to be a useless queen that my Raptors have to protect… I want to be a queen that protects my Raptors and my subjects. I want my shadow to be every bit as long and fearsome as my husband’s. I want to protect my fellow-wives and our offspring.”

“When you are healed from birth we shall talk again, my queen.”

“Hey, hey, wait up!” Diamond Tiara broke into a canter even though she knew that there was no running indoors. She pulled up alongside Boadicea. “How was school?”

“Awful.”

“Aw… I’m sorry.” Diamond Tiara reached out and nudged the griffoness beside her.

“I was placed into remedial classes. There is much I do not know.” Boadicea stood there, not quite knowing what to do or what to say. “I feel ashamed.”

“Beak up, head high. But not too high. You don’t want others thinking you’re snobby, trust me.” Diamond Tiara nudged Boadicea again. “So you’ve got a little catching up to do. I can help you. Do you have to go get beat up today?”

“Probably.” Boadicea slumped. “I have hours of homework to do.”

“Tell you what. I’ll tell Lugus that you have too much homework to do anything else. I’ll use the power of my pinkness against him. We pink ponies have a magic all our own. And then you and I will sit down somewhere and I will help you sort through your homework. But I won’t do it for you. I have homework of my own.” Diamond Tiara frowned. “I took too many classes on. I have more homework than I know what to do with. But I am applying myself and getting through some of the advanced courses. You know… I bet once you get past this remedial stuff and have all the required basics, you could get into the advanced courses. You seem smart.”

“Why would you help me?” Boadicea asked. Her black eyes glittered with curiousity.

“Because silly… I took it upon myself to be that one pony that carries you through this rough patch.” Diamond Tiara began to giggle.

“But you said that Sentinel is carrying you.” Boadicea cocked her head, trying to understand what was going on.

“He can carry both of us… anyway, it is a figure of speech. Come on, we’ve got homework to do.” Diamond Tiara gave Boadicea a gentle shove towards the door. “Don’t worry… just repeat after me… pink pony power.”

Author's Notes:

Le sigh. I am le tired.

Writing is a disease, like a typo in the colon.