Even though she had just woke up, Berry Punch felt exhausted. Yesterday, during a trip to Canterlot, she had watched a pony breathe his last. All day afterwards, she had been out of sorts. Berry Punch hoped that Piña had learned something from the experience, along with Dinky and Sentinel as well.

The wooden kitchen chair was a bit too hard on her plot. It was getting harder and harder to sit down on anything firm. Semillon was humming to herself as she prepared breakfast for the adults that were just now getting out of bed. For Berry, it was a pleasant, pleasing sound, something that Berry associated with normality. The earth pony yawned and then reached down to scratch the tight skin below her navel with her left front hoof.

There was nothing quite like a good scratch of too tight skin. Berry found it satisfying, almost orgasmic. She let out little happy half awake grunts as she moved her hoof in a circle. Itches had to be scratched. That was the nature of the universe. Come spring, when the earth woke back up, Berry planned to spend a lot of time rolling in the grass.

Sighing, satisfied, Berry Punch took a sip of coffee. She shuddered, let out a “Wuh-wuh-wuh-woo!” sound, and remembered that her coffee needed sugar. She armed herself with a spoon, stabbed it into the sugar bowl, and dumped a few spoonfuls of sugar into her coffee. She then added a bit more cream for good measure. She heard bubbling laughter from Semillon behind her and Berry smiled without realising it, glad to have made somepony happy.

Nopony else was in the kitchen yet. She knew that the others were awake, Lyra and Bon Bon were helping Derpy in the bathroom. Thistle was having a morning snuggle with Bell Heather and Sukari. Berry Punch wiggled her legs, trying to keep the blood flowing, worried about feeling pins and needles in her hind frogs.

The coffee, made at Bucky-strength, made for a fine cup of mud. Berry Punch started to feel a bit more awake. She took another sip, made a face like she was drinking one hundred and sixty proof corn squeezings, and then wondered how Sentinel managed to drink this stuff black. In the back of her mind, Berry Punch wondered what the black goo in the coffee cup was doing to the foals in her belly.

Feeling a bit more awake, Berry Punch pulled the newspaper from its protective sleeve. As she did so, Bon Bon came into the kitchen and sat down at the table. Berry, a polite sort, mumbled out, “Morning.”

“Hey Berry,” Bon Bon replied as a cup of coffee was set down in front of her.

Yawning, Berry Punch opened up her paper and had a look. What she saw startled her. It took several seconds of intense staring to make out what she was seeing. She gasped as she made out of the details of the grey scale photo in the paper. She saw Bucky, the Taint was leaking from his left eye and his right eye was turned away from the camera. His teeth were bared, revealing the jagged nightmarish teeth made for rending flesh that went all the way to the back of his jaw. His talons were wrapped around the neck of a pegasus and Bucky’s right rear hoof was snapping the pegasus’ wing. The picture was snapped mid act; the wing had not yet hit the ground, but it had snapped and formed sharp angles around Bucky’s hoof. It made Berry’s groin clench and tingle just to look at it. She saw Belisama and one of Belisama’s revolvers was smashing into the pegasus’ skull. A jet of shiny silver was erupting from the place where the revolver’s grip had impacted. Berry realised that the silver stream was blood, a copious amount of it. A third figure that Berry Punch could not make out had their hooves inches away from the pegasus’ ribs. Somepony was about to get the kicking of their life. Only the back half of the kicker was in the photo, and the figure was blurry.

Stunned, Berry Punch read the print below the image.

As shocking as this image might be, I ask all of you to take the following into consideration. Moments before this photo was taken, the pegasus, one of the generals of our enemy, spat upon our beloved Princess Celestia and soiled her perfect white pelt. This pony, the Lord of Winter, is feared by many. But in this moment captured on film, we see a pony defending not just his Princess, but his beloved aunt, who was disrespected. We see a pony that is fanatically loyal to our beloved Monarch. We see one of Princess Celestia’s most devoted protectors, one of her most worshipful servants. We see the dutiful apprentice of Princess Luna. We see a devoted patriot that has pledged his entire existence to serving the Royal Pony Sisters, the rightful Diarchs of Equestria. My fellow ponies, I ask you, is this how we thank our most dedicated defenders? By smearing their names in the paper and creating campaigns of fear mongering? Now I ask you, what do you see when you look at this photograph? A terrifying psychopath or a loving nephew protecting his aunt?

Berry Punch’s jaw fell open. Below the paragraph of fine text, she saw a bolded statement that was underlined.

My fellow Equestrians, who are you to insult our beloved Princess Celestia and say that her cherished nephew is a monstrous terror that is a danger to the nation that he strives to protect?

The paper fell out of Berry Punch’s hooves and fluttered down to the table. She sat there, her eyes wide, staring at the large image of Bucky in the paper once it had gone still.

Leaning over the table, Bon Bon craned her head to have a look. Her eyes narrowed. “Bucky is scary when he’s angry… look at him… and Belisama… she’s giving that pegasus a skull fracture I think.” The earth pony mare winced and shook her head. “That looks like it hurts.”

“I wonder who the kicker is?” Berry Punch asked, recovering just a little.

Bon Bon picked up the paper, turned it right side up, and studied the photograph. Her lips pressed together in concentration and her ears pitched forwards. “It’s blurry but there is three somethings on the kicker’s hips.” Bon Bon moved her head closer to the paper, her snoot almost touching the paper. “Oh crap! That’s Applejack! Those are three apples and you can see the ribbon she keeps tied around the end of her tail!” She began to read the caption beneath the picture.

“Oh snot!” Berry watched as Bon Bon set down the paper and shuddered.

“Oh, I bet that hurt bunches… Applejack is a born kicker and she’s about to applebuck that poor pegasus… oh, that’s ugly, I can’t look at that,” Bon Bon said as she turned away from the paper. The earth pony’s face contorted into a grimace. “That pegasus is having a bad day. He picked the wrong Princess to spit on.”

“You can see the bones in his wing are snapped already… just imagine the mess when Bucky’s hoof smashed that wing into the deck planks.” Berry Punch tapped on the paper with her hoof. “And ponies say that what I did was brutal.”

“I can’t get over sweet little Belisama… she looks so vicious. Her little beak is open and you can see murder in her eyes. I’ve never, ever seen her look so angry.” Bon Bon, looking worried, shook her head. “Berry, you and I are going to have a real mess to clean up when these two get home.”

Nodding in agreement, Berry Punch looked Bon Bon in the eye. “I suppose so.”

“At least we’ve won the battle of Fromme du Lac.” Bon Bon sat back in her chair.

“That’s good news,” Semillon said as she set down a platter of cheese and garlic biscuits. She paused and looked at the photo of Bucky in the paper. “You know, somepony should cut that out and frame it. Stick it over the mantle in the living room.”

“The entire world is going to look at this picture and they are going to learn that you don’t spit on Bucky’s auntie.” Berry Punch lifted her coffee mug in salute.

As Celestia looked down, Bucky cowered like a kicked foal. Her eyes narrowed. “I am still very, very angry with you… what came over you?” Towering over Bucky, Celestia could see a very foalish expression upon his face.

“It’s like a day later and you’re still angry,” Bucky said as his ears drooped down to the sides of his face.

“YES!” Celestia’s wings sprang out from her sides and she saw Bucky cringe. She took a deep breath and folded her wings back against her sides and then took a step backwards.

“What possessed you to do what you did?” Celestia demanded.

“He spat on you… I don’t need a reason!” Bucky’s voice was a nervous squeak.

“I can’t even imagine what the reporters are going to say about you… and all of the photos that were snapped… so many photos of you doing the violence that you do so well.” Celestia closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. “Bucky, you have image issues as it is and now there are going to be pictures of you on the front page of every newspaper in the world beating a pony to within an inch of his death—”

“I had help,” Bucky said in a faint, foalish voice.

“It was just spit, Bucky… spit cleans off!” Celestia lowered her head, took a few steps forward, and came snoot to snoot with Bucky. She snorted and peered down her muzzle at him. He trembled “Bucky, they are going to use those photos to make you into a monster. They are going to say awful things about you… don’t you understand that?”

“I don’t care!” Bucky let out a wordless whimper after speaking. Nervous, Bucky licked his lips. “He spit on you…”

“Stop saying that! That is not an excuse!” Celestia shouted.

“It’s all the excuse I need,” Bucky replied.

Closing her eyes, Celestia growled in frustration and then took a step backwards. After standing still for a moment, she then turned around and stomped away. “You are impossibly foalish! I don’t know what to do with you at times! I can’t even think straight right now!”

The hair along Bucky’s spine stood up. Celestia was using contractions, indicating that she had gone beyond a reasonable state.

“I can’t even stay angry with you because part of me is flattered that you delivered such a horrific beatdown to preserve my honour, like the knights of old! I hate you so much right now because I know I need to scold you for what you’ve done but part of me wants to hug you and tell you how much I appreciate your gesture of affection… EVEN IF IT WAS INCREDIBLY MISGUIDED! BAD! BAD NEPHEW!”

Cowering, Bucky let out another whimper as he stared down at the floor. He worried that in Celestia’s current state of irate anger that she would start wing slapping him. She might… she seemed almost in a blind rage. Her current emotional state made her unpredictable.

“The Element of Honesty delivered a savage beating to a captured enemy general. I can’t even begin to imagine how much damage this is going to cause to Twilight’s efforts towards global harmonisation… when you grabbed him by the throat Applejack just… just… she just—”

“Gave him a much needed lesson in manners?” Bucky said, trying to be helpful.

“NO!” Celestia whirled around and glared at Bucky once more. “After capturing him, there was a golden opportunity to show the world that we can be kind, fair, merciful, and just to our enemies. We had a chance to show the world that we can be just as capable of being gentle as we are brutal. This was supposed to show the world that you didn’t have to kill our enemies, that you could bring them back alive and that we could be merciful! If we can just get some to surrender this might be over faster! We might get them to see reason! This was supposed to help you, you pudding headed, mare mounting, kelpie fondling, griffoness groping idiot!”

“Auntie—”

“SHUT UP!” Celestia squinted at Bucky. She stomped her hoof once, then twice, and then a third time. “What am I going to do with you? I want the public to love you like I love you… why must you make it so hard?”

Looking at Celestia’s now tear stained face, Bucky felt like crawling down into a hole somewhere and dying.

“Why must you be so much like him?” Celestia asked in a voice that was almost a sob.

That was the unkindest cut of all. Bucky felt as though his guts were being pulled out through his backside. Real physical pain writhed inside of his body and his stomach clenched in an agonising manner. He felt as though he was going to be sick at any moment. He coughed, cleared his throat, and blinked away a few tears.

“You’re so beautiful and perfect… and he spit on you…”

Author's Notes:

There is a lesson to be learned...

Edit: Oh look, another 3 am posting... yay...