The summer day was warm and bright. There was a sense of hope in the air, which along with the warmth, had done much to thaw the ponies of the isles hearts. Life went on in much the same way that it usually did, but a few ponies had gathered to sit and watch the renovations being done upon the ship now sitting drydocked at the castle.

Bucky had secured the ship with more boulders jammed underneath it and it was now quite steady. He and his herd were hard at work with the restoration of the ship. The holes were being repaired. The cabin was being turned into a home. He had made new glass windowpanes for the windows and they were being installed. Wooden steps were being built to allow access below decks.

The past few days had been quite busy.

The stallion looked all around him. Derpy was busy hauling various items up from the ground and placing them in the cabin. Rising Star and Sparkler were placing the new windows into frames. And Berry was banging away with a hammer working on the new stairs.

Berry in particular was intriguing and very distracting. She was standing on the decks at the moment, leaning down into the stairwell, her backside high up in the air. Bucky looked around, first one side, and then the other, trying to check his blind spot. Nopony was looking.

His horn flashed a blue green light and there was a smirk of mischief upon his face. His hooves became completely silent upon the wooden deck. He crept up on the raised and exposed backside. He moved slowly and cautiously. He paused and glanced around once again. Still nopony looking.

For everything that he had endured, for everything that he had become, Bucky was still an equine, something he finally embraced after so many years of repression. And right now he was doing something that was quite an equine thing to do. He jammed his snoot into a very delicate section of Berry Punch’s exposed backside and snorted, causing the mare to start and squeal in alarm.

Berry lept several feet straight into the air. She landed and whirled around, trying to discover her brazen assailant. She saw Bucky and a truly wicked grin spread over her face.

Bucky was already beating a hasty retreat. Berry moved to pursue.

Bucky realised that he was out of places to run already and winked down to the ground. His teleportation was different now. As he winked, he left behind a thick layer of frost in the place he departed and exploded into a cloud of snowflakes upon his reappearance. Using magic was cheating, but he had to escape.

Above him, he saw Berry leap over the edge. His heart lept into his throat. It had to be a good twenty foot drop from the deck to the ground. He thought he was going to have to catch Berry to keep her from getting hurt. But then he realised that she wouldn’t have made the jump if she wasn’t capable of the landing. He watched her soar through the air. She was beautiful. Not only was she intelligent, but her physical abilities were impressive.

She landed with a thud, and, conserving her momentum, bounced forward and continued for Bucky. The landing didn’t even slow her down for a moment.

Bucky turned to run. Even though his encounter with the ley line had done much to heal his body, his hind legs were still stiff and the damaged muscles didn’t want to work right. He winced, then grimaced, the pain shooting up both of his hind legs as he tried to run, and managed to get himself into a sort of limping gait that almost resembled a run.

The incensed mare was gaining and it was then that Bucky realised that she wasn’t running at full speed. She was letting him go. He knew that she was much faster. He cursed his now crippled legs but was determined to have a good time and make the most of the chase.

“Do you even know what part of me you snorted against?” Berry demanded as she ran Bucky down.

“Yes,” Bucky replied as he ran. “And it was intentional! I regret nothing!” He licked his lips to further taunt Berry.

“What is going on out here?” Derpy cried as she saw Berry running off in hot persuit of Bucky. She launched herself from the deck and took wing. She took off after the pair.

Sparkler and Rising Star appeared on the edge of the deck peering down over the ruined railing. The pair watched as their parent trio abandoned all pretense of work. Sparkler raised her eyebrow and looked at Rising Star.

“I don’t know what gets into them sometimes,” she muttered.

Bucky ran in a shambling gait. He ignored the pain and tightness in his hind legs. He could feel his heart thudding and he took deep gulping breaths. Berry was pacing him. She could overtake him at any moment that she chose. And he knew that Derpy was in the air. He was being hunted once again.

Thistle watched from where she sat, wishing that she could join in the chase as well, but there was no way that she could run in the condition she was in. She saw a shadow looming over her on the ground and as she tried to turn around to see what it was, she found herself airborne. She panicked and kicked a bit.

“Thistle, stop, I love you far too much to drop you,” Derpy whispered into Thistle’s ear.

Thistle ceased her struggle and she felt Derpy’s forelegs wrap even tighter around her. One was under her barrel, just behind her forelegs. The other was tucked under the curve of her belly, and she could feel something soft and warm brush up against her teats. She shivered. A little farther back and that soft and warm something would be brushing up against something else entirely. Thistle was terrified of being lifted up off the ground. She watched the earth drop away from her as they gained altitude and speed.

And then she realised, she was now a part of the chase. She let out a fillyish squeal of glee as she realised that Derpy was hauling her through the air and chasing after Bucky with her.

Bucky realised that there were a fair number of ponies watching him being chased. Fellow herdmates and islanders. He smiled and continued his run.

“He’s getting away,” Thistle shouted.

“Oh no he isn’t,” Derpy replied as she flapped her wings. Thistle, for all of her pregnant bulk, was still small and slight. Derpy’s mailbag weighed more than Thistle did. “Just like you aren’t getting away,” Derpy said in a low voice in Thistle’s ear.

Thistle felt a searing flash of arousal spike through her body at the mare’s words. Derpy was embracing her right now in much the same way that a stallion might, touching many of the same places. Thistle could feel the muscular pegasus mare pressed tightly against her back.

Thistle did not know that she associated intimacy with safety now. After her traumatic first experience with a stallion and the first few bumbling experiences of actual intimacy with Derpy, Berry, and Bucky, she experienced a bit of conditioning that shaped her budding sexuality. The fear melted away from her. She was afraid of heights, as most ground bound ponies were, but she felt completely safe in Derpy’s embrace. Her body associated the feeling of safety as pure arousal. She felt her teats go tight and hard from a combination of her own emotional reaction and the frantic movements of Derpy’s grip as the mare tore through the air. Her nethers felt like a fiery furnace. A rising tension began to build through her stomach muscles as her teats continued to be stimulated from all of the movement.

There were few places safer than the embrace of a pegasus.

“You might as well stop running and take what is coming to you,” Berry shouted.

“What are you planning?” Bucky asked in reply, his words panted out breathlessly.

“Stop and find out!” Berry hollered. She looked up and saw Derpy and Thistle. She almost did a double take. Thistle’s face looked… almost orgasmic. Berry nearly stumbled as she took in what she saw. She wondered where Derpy’s other hoof was and if Derpy realised that her flapping was probably shaking Thistle back and forth in her grip.

Berry’s smile broadened. Somepony was certainly enjoying the chase. She couldn’t wait to see Thistle in the throes of orgasm. For a moment, her mind wandered to the arrangement that Derpy had made with Thistle and she wondered if Thistle would actually be a part of this herd. Berry hoped so. She wanted quite badly to sample Thistle’s youthful enthusiasm and endurance.

The hot and tawdry thoughts spurred her onwards. Now she had even more reason to catch Bucky. Even if this chase led nowhere and they all went back to work, all Berry needed was a quick intimate moment with her mate. A chance to bond. Her mind flooded with thoughts of motherhood. Her earth pony nature was taking over. Her body was doing something physical, and now her mind was free to function, free to think big thoughts.

There were mixed reactions from the ponies watching these events. A few laughed, but for many, there was only a sense of confusion. As was local tradition and custom, usually stallions chased mares, or mares chased mares to run them down for a stallion. And chasing was done for very specific reasons with very a specific end in mind. More than a few watchers couldn’t understand what they were seeing, chasing recreationally, as though the adults running after one another were foals once again and learning about what would come later in life by imitating adult behaviours.

It was yet another moment of culture clash.

And as was so often the case of new culture being introduced, the new behaviour led to social contagion, spreading infectiously through the locals. A young cream coloured pegasus filly gave a young brown earth pony colt she had her eye on a predatory glare. Fearing for his life as most creatures tend to do when a pegasus gives them the look the colt took off at a run. The filly was on his heels in a moment. She clumsily took wing and doggedly pursued her prey.

What no pony understood as they watched the world shift and change around them was that they were witnessing a fundamental change in their way of life. The pegasus filly and the earth pony colt had just exchanged social roles, and the process of acculturation was taking hold as they absorbed some of the outside culture brought to the isles by Bucky’s herd.

The worst thing that any creature could do was run from a pegasus. It triggered the instinctual need that all pegasi had to dominate and subjugate, being the warlike and hostile creatures that they were. The earth pony colt did exactly as his biology told him to do when faced with an airborne predator. Run.

And now, a new social dynamic took fragile root as the two creatures followed through with their biological programming. The earth pony ran and the pegasus pursued.

And all of this took place by accident, a chance incident as was so often the cause when social paradigm shifts began their radical changes.

These same instincts were what drove Derpy Doo Hooves to be what she was. She held Thistle close to her and continued after Berry Punch and Bucky. Derpy did nothing to hold back her instinctual needs. She was fiercely protective but gentle, aggressive but loving, and even now as she flew, was fulfilling the role that nature had always intended for her. Her herd moved before her and she was their airborne guardian. She was short a few members, and on some deep level, it bothered her, but she was caught up in the chase.

Finally, Bucky could run no more. His hind legs burned as though they were on fire. He stumbled and took a tumble into the grass. He lay there gasping and he could feel his hind legs seizing.

Berry stopped and was at his side in an instant. “Bucky?” she said gently.

“I’m fine,” Bucky reassured.

Derpy gently set Thistle down and then landed near her husband. She felt a pang of regret. The wolves had taken something from her. She watched as Bucky writhed in the grass, his hind legs twitching and kicking uncontrollably. Hot fierce anger began to boil through her veins.

“I saw you limping, I shouldn’t have chased you, I feel awful,” Berry said in a low voice.

“But I wanted to be chased,” Bucky replied. “It was fun,” he mentioned.

“But now you are hurting,” Berry protested.

“So what,” Bucky said dismissively.

Thistle eased herself down into the grass at Bucky’s side. She didn’t say anything, but nuzzled the side of Bucky’s neck with her cheek. She pressed her side against Bucky’s spine as he lay on his side.

“If he runs, we chase him. That is how it is. We’ll deal with what comes after,” Derpy stated.

Berry turned to look at her fellow-wife. “I suppose you are right. Life goes on and all of that,” Berry sighed.

“Come Berry. Let’s leave those two to have a moment together,” the pegasus instructed.

Berry looked at Derpy and then over at Bucky and Thistle. The filly was trying to comfort Bucky, who was trying to act as though nothing was seriously wrong. She turned her gaze back to the grey mare.

“What?” Derpy asked, seeing the thoughtful expression on Berry’s face.

“I don’t know, I guess I am having a wife moment. I feel a lot of conflicting emotions. Not about Thistle… I just feel angry. Cheated. Those damn wolves took something from me. Seeing Bucky limp as he tried to run. And seeing him now,” Berry said. She fell silent and her ears swiveled forward aggressively.

Derpy nodded. “Our time is coming. We must continue to trust in whatever Bucky is planning. And when the time is right, we will have our own revenge,” the mare said in a low voice so she wouldn’t disturb Thistle and Bucky.

“I am going to carve a name into that ship,” Berry stated in a low grumble.

Derpy raised an eyebrow quizzically at Berry.

“The Scorned Mare,” Berry growled.

“The Scorned Mare?” Derpy asked, trying to understand Berry’s reasoning.

“Tartarus has no fury like that of a mare scorned,” Berry replied.

Derpy nodded in agreement and approval. She was the alpha of a whole group of scorned mares. A pegasus had a few strong deeply ingrained needs. A need for a flock, a need for family, and a need for battle. Derpy’s emotions were running at an all time high. For the first time in her life, she finally felt as though she had achieved some great pegasus ideal that had always been out of reach before. She had always been excluded because of her eyes. Now, not only did she have a flock of her own, she was the protective alpha, a matriarch among mares. She was pregnant and it flooded her body with hormones of all kinds. And she was preparing for war. She was a pegasus now truly within her element.

“Berry, I do believe it is high time that you and I got in touch with our inner bitch,” Derpy stated.

Author's Notes:

The last line turned out far more ominous than I intended. I don't know why. But it gave me shivers as I typed it. Been waiting to get to use that line for a while. You know something has gone horribly wrong when Derpy's sunny disposition is finally broken.

Usual line about typsos goes here.