Yawning, Bon Bon had herself a look around. She had slept in and that had been pleasant. The house was quiet and it was the start of the weekend. There would be no candy store today, she had left it in Helia and Golden Harvest’s capable hooves.

The scent of cinnamon buns was in the air, which answered what Bon Bon would be having for breakfast. The aroma of coffee somehow made the smell of the cinnamon buns even more enticing. Bon Bon stepped through the nursery, it was empty. She stood in the middle of it and wondered where the little ones that she loved were and what they might be doing.

Turning her head to glance through the door that led into the bedroom, Bon Bon caught a glimpse of Derpy and Lyra in the bed, spooning with one another. Bon Bon felt her heart warm just a little.

Passing through the nursery door into the hallway, Bon Bon smiled. She heard the sounds of ponies in the living room and the kitchen. Yawning once more, she picked up her pace, glad to have a house and family.

Coffee and a cinnamon bun. Maybe a few cinnamon buns. Bon Bon was feeling a bit hungrier than usual, but she refused to get her hopes up. She was a big burly earth pony, and sometimes she just got hungry.

There was laughter from the living room.

Lazy days like this were perfect and Bon Bon wished that there could be more of them. No pressing issues, no panic, no town on fire, no monsters coming out of the Everfree, no one thousand year old evils just waking up and spoiling for a fight for breakfast, today was just another day, but it was lazy.

Something brushed up against Bon Bon’s hind hoof. She looked down and saw blue eyes peering up at her. Smiling, Bon Bon set down her coffee and the fork she had been eating her cinnamon bun with.

“Hi Sukari,” Bon Bon said as she reached down to pick up the zebra filly. Bon Bon was slow, cautious, and worried about startling the foal. One had to handle Sukari with care. Bon Bon heard a whimper and felt a moment of worry.

Without incident, Bon Bon lifted Sukari to her barrel and held the foal close.

“Hi there. Did you come in here for a bit more breakfast? I can feel the bulge in your belly… are you still hungry? Want a little more?” Bon Bon asked.

“More, yes,” Sukari replied.

“Oh my gosh, you’re so sweet..” Bon Bon leaned down her head and kissed Sukari between her ears. Somepony had tied a yellow ribbon to Sukari’s tail and another ribbon had been tied into her mane.

Reaching out, Bon Bon pulled a chair closer and sat Sukari down in the chair. “Don’t fall.” Bon Bon patted Sukari on the side and made sure the foal was secure in the chair.

“Sukari, who tied these ribbons in your mane?” Bon Bon asked as she began cutting the remains of her cinnamon roll into tiny bite sized pieces.

“Baba.” Sukari had a hopeful expression as she looked up at Bon Bon.

“Oh, baba did this, did he? Well, baba loves you… and you look so very pretty.” Using her fork, Bon Bon slipped a bit of cinnamon roll into Sukari’s mouth.

“Ach, crivens, that’s enough to stop an old stallion’s heart, will ye look at that,” Barley said as he stood in the doorway. “I’m done… I’m dying… my wee zebra niece has been my undoin’ and now it’s the end!”

Rolling her eyes, Bon Bon began to giggle.

“There it is… Dapple Apple’s gorge.” Bucky stopped walking and took in the sight before him. Quite a number of ponies were here, both foals and adults. Many sleds could be seen in the snow. “Sentinel, thank you for pulling our toboggan.”

“It was no trouble at all,” Sentinel replied.

“Mama said I couldn’t come here, it was too dangerous,” Dinky said as she looked at the hill ahead with foalish awe.

“Your mother was asleep when we left the house, I don’t recall her saying anything.” Bucky reached out and patted Dinky on the head. Grinning, he looked at Piña. “How was your special astronomy class last night?”

Piña, who felt a heated blush in her cheeks and ears, let out a nervous squeak and looked at her daddy. “It was fine. Everything was fine. Fine fine fine.”

“So… uh, how high are we going up the side of the gorge?” Sentinel asked. He looked. About one third of the way up, there was a rock outcropping where most sledders took off from. A little higher up there was a smaller shelf where a brave few dared to launch from.

“Up there,” Bucky said, pointing with his talons.

Gulping, Sentinel looked. There was a tiny shelf that protruded about halfway up, right about the point where the gorge became a sheer cliff face that went straight up and down. For a moment, Sentinel wondered if perhaps he had some homework that he should be doing.

“This is gonna be fun!” Piña began bouncing up and down, pronking in the snow.

“How are we gonna get up there?” Sentinel asked.

“I was thinking about turning myself into a roc… a giant eagle.” Bucky studied the far off destination. “I could carry the toboggan and Piña and you could fly up there with Dinky.”

There was a lot that Sentinel wanted to say. He wanted to say, “Father, maybe we should reconsider.” He wanted to say, “Perhaps we should stick to where other families were sledding.” Sentinel wanted to say, “Father, perhaps we should pick a saner course of action.”

But Sentinel said none of these things. What Sentinel did say after a moment of internal debating was, “Father, I will carry Dinky up there.” Sentinel, who realised that he might die, took satisfaction in knowing that he was an obedient colt that listened to his father.

“Buckminster… what brings you here?”

Hearing Discord’s voice, Bucky smiled. He turned to greet the draconequus. “Hey, how have you been?”

“Bloated and craving chocolate. You?” Discord raised his eyebrow.

“And there is a vision of beauty… hello Fluttershy,” Bucky said.

“Hello… we came to watch the foals go sledding… it seems so dangerous.” Fluttershy looked around, a distressed expression upon her face.

“Care to join us? We have a long toboggan… I think we could all fit.” Bucky grinned and looked up at Discord.

“Oh I don’t know if pregnant ponies should do this,” Fluttershy replied.

“Oh nonsense. You are not a pregnant pony.” Discord reached out patted Fluttershy. “I am pretty sure that a pregnant draconequus should be doing this. The baby needs a little chaos for good development.”

“Oh.” Fluttershy looked fearful and she stared down at her large round belly. “Well, for the baby… I suppose I can be brave.”

“Attagirl!” Discord clapped his talons his paw together. “Besides. We’re immortals. It isn’t like we can die.”

Once more, Sentinel gulped.

“Well, we should be going. Come on, let’s go have fun.” Bucky gave an impatient tug on Sentinel’s ear with his talons. “We’re not immortals, so we don’t have time to wait all day.”

Peering over the edge of the precipice, Fluttershy let out a demure meep of fear. She backed away, bumped into Discord, and then squeaked in alarm. The sunny yellow almost but not quite a pegasus, who was bundled up in a spring green knitted cap, scarf, and a dark green coat, looked up at her husband with wide fearful eyes.

“Now now my dearest Fluttershy, we’ll be fine,” Discord said as he picked up the almost but not quite a pegasus that he loved so much. “I am certain the rest of you are going to die though.”

“Discord!” Fluttershy reached out a wing and gave Discord a light slap.

“I’m certain we’ll be fine,” Sentinel said in a shaky voice.

“This is gonna be great.” Dinky looked over the edge and then looked up at Sentinel. “It is almost a straight drop for at least fifty feet!”

Sentinel nodded. “I noticed.”

“The ponies down there look like ants.” Piña grinned and bounced with excitement.

“I’ve modified the toboggan.” Bucky glanced at the edge of the shelf they stood on. “I placed a spell on the bottom that will make it super slick, like waxing the wood, but better. The reduced friction should help us go faster.”

On the inside, Sentinel felt like Fluttershy looked like on the outside. He started to think of the many things he could be doing. Building a wooden ship model. Homework. Writing. Napping. Spending time with Harper. Trying to teach Harper more words. Maybe writing love letters to Diamond Tiara and then stuffing them into his secret hiding space.

“I think we’re ready. I’ll get in the front. Piña, you’re behind me. Dinky, behind Piña. Sentinel, hold on to your sisters. Fluttershy, hold on to Sentinel. Discord, you’re in the rear.” Bucky stepped onto the toboggan and sat down.

“Yay!” Piña pronked in place and grabbed her father.

Dinky climbed aboard, smiling at Sentinel as she got seated. Sentinel, hesitant, got onto the toboggan and wrapped his forelegs around Dinky. He closed his eyes and he felt Fluttershy cling to him. And then, Discord climbed on to the back of the toboggan.

“Give us a shove, Discord,” Bucky said as he grabbed the toboggan’s front grip with his talons.

Piña squealed as Discord gave a good shove with his tail.

The toboggan pitched forward over the lip of the stone shelf, and then shot down the cliff. There was instant acceleration, Bucky could feel his lips being peeled back from his teeth. Behind him, he heard screams.

The toboggan was fast. It shot through the snow like a possessed thing and Bucky realised, much to his horror, that something was wrong. They were going down the incline at an angle, heading towards the trees and not towards the cleared area that was straight down beneath him.

“Oh bugger!” Bucky shouted, not knowing what to do as the toboggan continued to accelerate to insane speeds. The low friction spell might have been a bad idea. The trees loomed larger as the toboggan careened ahead.

Sentinel, too terrified to do anything, obeyed his father’s last command and clung to his sisters He closed his eyes and waited for the end.

“Get out of our way!” Discord cried as he waved at the trees, trying to make himself heard over Fluttershy’s petite screams of feminine terror.

As Bucky watched, the trees uprooted themselves and ran away, their roots moving like many scurrying legs, and the toboggan plunged through the panicking, fleeing trees that waved their branches in terror.

“Move! Move! Stop winter napping and vamos! GET OUT OF THE WAY!” Discord bellowed as he waved his forelegs around.

More and more trees uprooted themselves, ran away, and then lept back into the earth, plunging their roots down into the soil as the toboggan whooshed through the trees.

Dinky shrieked as she saw branches just inches away from her, the trees were moving as fast as trees could move, but it was a close call. She had trouble breathing and realised that Sentinel was about to crush both her and Piña.

Still the toboggan picked up speed as they continued down the hill. Everything was a blur now. With a wail of terror from the sunny yellow sort of but not quite a pegasus, they cleared the trees and picked up even more speed as they shot down the hill.

“That was close!” Discord cried. “This is exciting!”

“Yes it is!” Piña replied in a squeaky shout.

The toboggan banked, riding along a graceful curve, and then began to head down the hill, towards the bottom, where many ponies were watching with wide eyes and open mouths.

Bucky realised they were going too fast to stop any time soon. They weren’t speeding, they were flying too low. The crowd ahead began to understand that the toboggan wasn’t slowing down anytime soon and screams went through the crowd.

In seconds, the toboggan was shooting through the fleeing crowd and Bucky saw one mare that was frozen in terror, her eyes wide, and she wasn’t moving. With a reflexive burst of telekinesis, Bucky grabbed the mare and stuffed her down onto the toboggan, just behind Discord.

“Hello Red Gala!” Fluttershy said, her voice a strange discordant mix of manic glee and mortal terror. “Fancy meeting you here!”

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Red Gala replied as she clung to Discord.

“Look out!” a pony cried as the toboggan hit a snow bank.

Looking down upon the earth, Bucky spat in contempt. He was flying and he didn’t need no stinking alicorn wings. He watched as the toboggan flew away from him, streaking off to wherever it was that the toboggan needed to go. Airborne, he waved at Piña, who waved back.

Sentinel popped his head up out of the snow and blinked. Not too far away, he saw Dinky’s head sticking up out of the snow. She was laughing. Sentinel shook the snow from his face. He climbed out of the snow, or tried to. He was in loose powder.

“That was great!” Piña popped up out of the snow. “I wanna do that again!”

“Is everypony okay?” Bucky asked.

Sitting in the snow together, Fluttershy and Discord were kissing, and not too far away from them Red Gala was trying to climb out of the loose powdery fluff.

“Daddy, where is our toboggan?” Dinky asked.

Author's Notes:

My sides hurt.