“So it was me! It was all me!” I held a big, goofy grin as I came to the conclusion of retelling the story to Inkblot.

She gave me a look. “All you? So… not your sister for saving you, or High for saving you both, or them taking care of everything for years…”

I snorted and nodded firmly. “Well yeah. I mean, if I didn’t get saved, then none’a it woulda ever happened. ‘Sides, like I told ‘em, I pretty much run th’ place now anyway.”

Inky responded back with a snort of her own. “You pretty much let the place run itself then just do what you have to do or step in when needed to take care of an issue.”

“Ain’t that what I’m s’posed t’ do?”

She paused for a few moments. “Well… yes… But it’s not like you set it up to run in the first place and then it continued on. They did, then it ran itself, and you just maintain it.”

I furrowed my brow. “An’ th’ difference is…?”

Inky opened her mouth but then closed it again, and instead slowly looked over my face for several seconds. Eventually she gave her head a shake. “I guess nothing. Guess I was just expecting you to actually maybe have learnt a lesson or two rather than… you know…” She got up to her hooves off of her sleeping pad and walked over to her saddlebags on the other side of her tent.

My ears pinned back as I followed her with my eyes. “What’s that s’posed t’ mean?”

“Are you really asking that question?”

“Yeah…” She turned and looked over her shoulder at me. “Maybe…”

Inky sighed then ducked her head down into her saddlebags. She rummaged for a moment before pulling out a box of cereal. Transferring the cereal box from her mouth to her magic, she stepped back over and laid down on her sleeping pad and looked to me, as I was just off the pad on the ground next to her. “Here, I’ll help you out a little… When a strange pony comes up to you and asks for help miles away from anyone else, what do you do?”

I blinked a few times at her then scoffed. “Really? C’mon, Inky… ya think I don’t know th’ answer t’ that?”

“Apparently you don’t.”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s just that he said High told him t’ come get me… an’ I didn’t think ‘bout goin’ an’ askin’ High myself… He’d spent the whole d-”

“Yes, Buck, but then you come back and it’s all about how you’re totally awesome.”

“Well th’ story’s more fun that way…”

Inky looked away and opened the box of cereal, then snorted softly and looked back to me. “You sound like your sister.”

That raised my eyebrow quickly. “Do what?”

“Really? ‘Don’t tell the real story, tell the one that’s exciting and fun!’ Sound familiar?”

I started to protest, but the words caught in my mouth. This was different… my story was at least true.

Inky started to nod slowly. “That’s what I thought. Humor me. What do you do next time that happens?”

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, chewing over my tongue for a few moments before I answered. “Assume that it might be my insane slaving father who is hellbent on kidnappin’ me an’ turnin’ me inta a breedin’ stud, so I should really go check with High first t’ make sure it ain’t that.”

She tilted her head a little. “Not quite the tone I was hoping for, but yeah, that’s an improvement. Now what about that thing with Scout?”

“What ‘bout what thing with Scout?”

“Did you really tell him you weren’t going to forgive him?”

I spent a couple moments trying to figure out if that was a trick question or not, but quickly gave up. “Yeah, I did…”

Inky squinted her eyes a little, “But you were willing to… crush your balls or die in order to help him out?”

I pulled my head back and my wings half-flared on reflex, “What was I s’posed t’ do? Jus’ let him sit there an’ get beat ‘cause he was holdin’ out fer his friend?”

“Don’t get defensive, Bucky-”

“Well stop gettin’ off… fense… ive, whatever the opposite of defensive is.”

Inky cracked a smile for a moment, “Aggressive. But I’m not, I’m just making a point. Normally you only stand up for… like two ponies. Ever. Scout is definitely not on that list.”

I blew out a puff of air and slowly relaxed, my wings falling back down and starting to tuck back in at my sides. “Well… I guess ya just had t’ be there.”

Inkblot took a bite of her cereal, then did a doubletake as she looked back at me. She chewed and swallowed before speaking, though. “I didn’t mean it as a bad thing, Bucky. I meant it as a good thing. You need to do more of that.”

“More of what?”

“Standing up for more than just the same two ponies.”

“What, ya want me t’ get beat up more?”

Inky snorted and laughed then shook her head. “No… if you stand up for more ponies, you’ll get beat up less, actually. Anyway... standing up for ponies is how you’ll end up running this place for real instead of just maintaining it.”

My eyebrow began to raise again as she spoke. “Ya still never did explain th’ difference…” Inkblot fell silent and looked as if she was contemplating something. I wasn’t sure if I liked that look… it was familiar… I blinked and quickly held up my wing to her neck, making sure she didn’t lean towards me, “An’ ya ain’t gettin’ outta this by suddenly decidin’ t’ kiss me again, so don’t even try it.”

Inkblot looked surprised at first, then she leaned away from me. “What, you don’t want me to kiss you again?”

“Of course not!” I snorted, then did a doubletake of my own when I realized what I’d said. “I mean… not… in that… because… Oh you know what I mean.”

Inkblot giggled and returned to her normal posture, my wing falling limp again and not managing to keep her pushed away at all. “Well if that’s what you want… I promise I’ll never, ever kiss you again, ever.”

“No! That’s not what I want!”

She started to smile. “Oh, so you do want me to kiss you.”

“What? No! I mean… ugh!” I let my head drop down to the ground and covered my face with my wings. “Can we please just go back t’ th’ other stupid thing, whatever it was?”

Inkblot broke out into a full laugh. “Sure! But I’m so telling Sunny about this.”

“Please don’t…”

“Sorry, Bucky. Anyway… the difference is basically… You know how colts listen to you because they’re supposed to? For usually good reason. But you can’t really do anything if they don’t? But… everyone listens to High, and he can do something if they don’t? That’s the difference.”

I kept my head under my wings for the time being. It was better that way. “So basically ya mean it’s power.”

“Well… in a way… yes.”

“Right…”

“More it’s authority, knowledge, leadership, looking out for ponies… I actually have a book about it if-”

“No.”

I heard her let out a sigh. “Really? It’s not even a boring b-”

“No.”

“I could read it to you, then you wouldn’t even have to read it yourself.”

“No!”

Inky snorted. “Well now you just sound like Firestorm when she gets stubborn.”

My eyes opened again under my wings. “Am not.”

“Yes, yes you so are.” After a couple of moments I felt her magic start to form around my wings, which then gently forced them away from my head. Once my face was exposed, she leaned her head down closer to mine. “I promise I’ll drop the book thing if you come back out and see me.”

My mouth twisted up a little and I let out a small snort before lifting my head back up slowly. “Fine.” I folded my wings back in and looked over at Inkblot. Really, I didn’t even know which part of the last five minutes I was supposed to be thinking about. Her teasing me? The book thing? The running stuff thing?

Meanwhile, she just sat there with half of a goofy smile on her face. Then I could see her mind switch trains of thought and it started to fade. “Can you give a serious answer?”

I blinked, caught off guard by the odd question, but then nodded. “Yeah, sure.”

Inky shifted her position a little before asking, “Were you scared?”

“Scared? Um… whaddya mean?”

She gave me a look like that was a dumb question. “Like you were scared. When you got caught, then taken off… and Firestorm too. Then you got put up with the other slaves… Were you scared?”

Was I scared? I never really thought about it. “I guess… not. No… I mean, I was too busy bein’... mad. An’ tryin’ t’ make sure Stormy was okay… an’ tryin’ t’ think if there was a way t’ escape. I didn’t… have time t’ be scared. I guess. I mean, I guess I was, just… other stuff was more important.”

She bit her lip then looked back down at her box of cereal, quickly using her magic to get a bite of it and put it into her mouth. “Oh.”

I raised my brow at her odd reaction. “Oh? Why?”

She gave her head a shake, looking back at me after finishing her bite of food. “When we figured out you really were missing, and it wasn’t just that we didn’t know where you were… I didn’t think about how we were going to get you back.”

That’s… odd. “What did ya think about?”

She shrugged. “I sort of just started… getting scared and started coming up with all the scenarios about how you were probably already dead.”

“Oh…” After a couple of seconds I started to smile a little. “Oh. Aw…” I leaned over and softly nosed at the side of her muzzle. “Ya really would be sad if I was dead, wouldn’t ya.”

Inkblot snorted and lifted a forehoof up to push my head away from hers after I spoke. “Oh shut up. It’s just… everyone else started running around coming up with plans, and I just sat there.”

I chuckled as my head got pushed away, but I didn’t let her push me far. “If it makes ya feel any better, Stormy didn’t make no plans either… She sorta just sat there an’ cried most’a th’ time. Then th’ rest just sat there acceptin’ her fate.”

Inky made a sour face. “No, that doesn’t really make me feel better.”

“Well it’s all I got.” I gave a little shrug, then gave Inky a quick lookover. At first I didn’t think it was a big deal, but she actually looked pretty upset about it. That’s no good… I started to chew my lip over as I thought, then coughed to clear my throat, “Why’s it uh… why’s it… bad? I mean like why’s it make you feel bad?”

She frowned and was quiet for a little bit. Her first motion was to slowly roll over onto her side and put her back up against my left side. “It’s my job to think about how to fix things. It’s…” She stopped and let out a sigh, then tilted her head a bit so that she could see up to my face, “Look, can we just be serious for a second?”

My brow furrowed at her change of mood. Okay… well I can’t say no. I licked my lips and extended my wing out to sort of hug at her barrel and nodded. “Yeah… are you okay?”

“I’m fine, it’s just-” she snorted softly, “You remember the other day when I said I was busy with a group counselling thing? That one day where I blew you off?”

I nodded again. “Yeah… what ‘bout it?”

“I’ve been thinking… maybe my cutie mark means more than I thought it did. Maybe it’s tied into my name.”

I paused and glanced around her tent before looking back at her face, “I’m sorry, what?”

“Stitching. Thread, Buck. It’s thread. Used for stitching. Which you do to sew things back together. To fix them. But what if it isn’t just about sewing things back together.”

I eyebrow raised. “What else do you sew back together?”

She let out a little snort, “Well I sewed you back together. But… like, minds. And stuff. Like helping ponies’ minds.” Her horn started to glow softly and she used it to open her saddlebags again. This time a book came floating out, which she brought over and levitated just in front of my face. ‘A Brief History of Psychology’, it read. “Back before the war they had one of these tests, it used inkblots.”

I looked over the cover of the book, at least until she mentioned the inkblots. I let out a little laugh and looked back at her, “I’m pretty sure yer name’s just from yer butt, Inky.”

She rolled her eyes, “But what if it isn’t? What if?”

“Well… uh…”

“If it isn’t, I need to figure that out, right? Anyway… point is… I started doing like… counselling stuff. Trying to help some of the foals, mostly the shy ones, or the ones who didn’t want to talk about certain things.” She huffed then smiled a little, “And it’s nice, it really is, they talk to me and they feel a little bit better, but then…” her smile faded, “If I can’t even figure out what to do to go save my best friend, how am I supposed to think that I can actually give them advice on stuff?”

I just laid there. Stunned. “Wow… this… took a really serious turn alla’ th’ sudden…”

There was silence for a few moments before Inky spoke up, “Just, forget it. Sorry” She sighed and laid her head back down.

“What? No, I’m thinkin’, just hang on a sec.” I tightened my wing around her barrel some, giving her a little squeeze. There had to be… “Oh! Oh oh, hey, look at me.”

“Why?”

I snorted and bent my head down closer to hers. I nipped at her ear, then gave it a couple of solid tugs, speaking with the tip of it in my mouth, “Look. at. me.”

She pulled her head away and tried to bat me off with her forehoof. Once she got me off of her ear, she turned her head to see me again. “What?”

I just smiled down at her, “Ya said you were counsellin’, right? ‘Cause they needed advice, er someone t’ talk to. Right?”

She blinked blankly at me. “Yes…”

“Well who’s t’ say that a counsellor don’t ever need any counsellin’?”

Inky gave me a look of confusion. “I don’t… know? But I’m the only one here doing it…”

I snorted a puff of air at her face, “What am I, chopped liver?”

“You haven’t even read the book!”

“Who says I gotta read th’ book t’ do it? Why can’t I be yer counsellor without readin’ th’ book? Or does th’ book say ya gotta read th’ book to do it?”

Inky went to speak, but stopped herself and started to think. It took a minute, which only made me start to smile again, before she said, “Well… no. There’s nothing that says you’ve had to read the book to do it. There’s… nothing that says you couldn’t…”

I chuckled, “See? There, it’s settled. You can counsel everyone else, and I’ll counsel you. Now, as my first act as your counsellor, I’m going to say this. You,” I picked up my forehoof and poked her cheek, “need to relax. Ya said th’ foals that talked t’ ya were feelin’ better. So obviously ya ain’t screwin’ everything up, right? Right. Ya might be able t’ help ‘em, but that don’t mean that ya don’t ever need help yerself, ‘cause sometimes ya won’t know what t’ do, just like them. An’ when that happens, ya gotta get help from whoever does know what t’ do er how t’ help. An’ then everything works out right.”

Inkblot just stared at me for what felt like a very long time, but probably wasn’t all that long. Maybe. Possibly. “Bucky… sometimes… you can be really smart for being so stupid.”

I grinned at her. “It’s a gift. … Wait, what?” I wasn’t stupid…

She wriggled against me, rolling over onto her back beside me, then reached up and wrapped her forelegs around my neck and pulled med my head down for a hug.

I totally deserved it, but I still wasn’t stupid. I laid my neck over hers as she pulled me down, and returned the hug with my wing that was still over her belly. “Yer really weird, ya know that, right?”

Inky gave me a quick nuzzle and a squeeze then pushed my head back up and away from her again. “Yeah yeah. You’re weirder, so it’s fine.”

“What? I ain’t th’ one who thinks a thing’a thread is s’posed t’ symbolize tryin’ t’ help ponies’ minds.”

She reached her forehoof up and gave me a swift glancing kick to my chin. A little jarring, but not painful. “I said be serious about it!”

I worked my jaw back and forth trying to get it to feel right again. “Sorry, sorry. Thought we were done with that portion.”

“No, I mean be serious about that for like… the rest of ever.”

“Aw… I can’t ever make fun’a it?”

“No, you can’t.”

“Dangit…” I gave my head a little shake then let out a sigh. I’d have to make sure I didn’t make fun of that. Couldn’t forget. She’d be really, really mad if I ever forgot… My eyes started to wander as it got quiet again. Inky had started to relax once more and now had her head on the ground again, only this time it was the back of her head since she was still laying belly-up. I glanced past her and saw her box of cereal. Still only half eaten…

Actually I was kinda hungry. I hadn’t eaten in… awhile. Was weird, normally I’d notice how hungry I was long before now. Whatever. I leaned forward to reach for the box, but then turned my head around when I heard steps behind me, towards the entrance to the tent.

“Inkblot?” That was… wait, that was Kari’s voice.

Inky’s eyes went wide and her head snapped around as she looked off towards the voice as well. “Oh, uh, hey! Uh… what’s up?”

Kari leaned down, pulled the tent flap to the side with a talon, then poked his head through. He started to speak, but paused and blinked at me a few times when he saw me next to her. “Hey, Buck. Uh, anyway,” he looked back to Inky, “You’d said you’d wanted to go flying, well, it’s nice out right now, and we should go before it gets dark if you want to.”

Inky started to shift her weight to her hooves, but stopped before she got up. She turned her head around to look at me, “Hey, um, do you… want to meet up again later?”

My brow had furrowed. Hard. I looked back to Inky and shook my head, “You? Flyin’? I thought ya hated it.”

“I um…” She bit her lip and looked past me at the dresser in the corner of her tent, then gave a little shrug and started to get up. My wing fell off of her back and went limp as she stood. “It won’t be too long. I’ll see you later.” She worked a smile up on her face and flicked her tail at my hip, then turned and started quickly for the exit of the tent. I just blinked as I watched her walk.

When Kari came into my view, he gave me a quick smirk. “Guess she just feels safer with me.” He gave a chuckle, and I could’ve sworn that I saw his muscles flexing even while he was just simply standing there.

My mouth opened, but before I could think of anything to say, both had ducked out of the tent and were walking away. Um… what? When I took her flying, she just about choked me and couldn’t stand to open her eyes. Now… she was willingly going flying with him? What in the world had happened while I was gone?

I gave my head a slow shake then rubbed my wing over my face before finally refurling it against my side. I guess I never could get all the fillies in my life to act normal and nice all at the same time, could I?

I guess technically I didn’t even have even one of them doing that. Even Lily was… what, getting High to get her booze? That’s no good… I sighed then turned my attention back towards my stomach. It was still hungry. And the box of cereal was still right there. I leaned my head down to grab it with my mouth, but I stopped again once I had ahold of it. Only this time it wasn’t what I heard that stopped me, it was what I saw.

Beneath Inky’s sleeping mat, there was a feather. With just the tip poking out. I dropped the cereal and used my wing to lift up the edge of the mat, then fished out the feather with my nose. Once it was out, I could get a good look at it. It wasn’t one of my feathers. No, it was a sort of orangey-reddish… brownish… wait. Wait… this was one of Kari’s feathers.

I turned to check the entrance of the tent to make sure nobody was there, then looked back at the feather. Kari’s feather. Under Inky’s bed. How’d it even get there? It had to have come from him. Well, obviously. But, that meant he had to have been in here. Was it… when he had asked her about flying? I started to chew on my lip as I thought about all the possible scenarios. But wait. To get under the bed, it had to have been shoved under there. Or his wing have to have been under there at some point… or his upper body right next to it. That meant he had to be on the bed. That also meant Inky knew where the feather was and I had to put it back.

I lifted up the edge of the mat again, then started to move the feather back. Only this time, I caught a whiff of the smell on it when I put my nose to it. It smelled… funny. Like it had been wet. Actually, it felt a little damp, too. Wait, that smell…

I gasped and jumped to my hooves, again looking back at the entrance of the tent. Nobody there, good. But, that smell! Wet, and Kari had been on her bed. And Inky felt safer with him? They’d slept together!

I closed my eyes and shook my head. No, no they didn’t. They couldn’t have. She hated him. She yelled at him so much. But… if she really did hate him, why was he in her tent? And why was she going flying with him? I opened my eyes again and quickly went about returning the feather to its spot underneath the sleeping mat. They couldn’t know that I knew.

Oh Goddesses… This was big. What was I gonna do? No clue. I needed to get away from here, though.

I turned and dashed out of the tent, hitting near full speed quickly.

Crash!

There was just one problem. High Times was walking down the little street just outside of the tent, and I ran full bore into him. Both of us let out a shout and tumbled to the ground. After a couple of rolls I came to a stop on my back, then had the air knocked out of my as a large bottle of some sort of dark liquid landed square on my stomach.

High Times was the first to get back to his hooves, as I was sort of busy being stunned by the bottle that made it difficult to breath. “You okay, Buck?”

I tried to speak, but it sort of came out as a gasp, so instead I just nodded.

“Good.” He let out a sigh of relief, then walked over and picked the bottle up off of me and set it down on the ground. “What’s the rush?”

I took a few moments to finally get my breath back, then cleared my throat and rolled halfway over. “Uh… it’s uh… it’s… nothin’. Um…”

High snorted softly. “If you don’t want to tell me, just say you don’t want to tell me.”

I gulped and shook my head. “N-no! It’s nothin’ bad! It’s just… just… uh… it’s uh… I have t’… food. Hungry.”

High simply nodded. “Right. Okay then. I’d help you out, but I think you know better than anyone else where the food is.”

I nodded rapidly, then stopped abruptly. “What’s that s’posed t’ mean?”

He laughed then moved over behind me. “Let’s get you up.” He leaned down and helped me get back up to my hooves. “It means you’re lazy. But your body has a lot of growing to do right now, so it needs a lot of sleep to get the energy to do the growing, so it is what it is.”

I gave my wings a bit of a flap to straighten them out after I got back up to my hooves. “Hey! I’m not lazy.”

“Sure you aren’t.” He just smiled then leaned down again to get the bottle of… well actually it was some sort of alcohol. Which… was for Lily. Right…

I bit at my lip then cleared my throat, “Um… hey, High?”

He paused what he was doing and looked up at me. “Yeah?”

I started to chew at my lip thinking of a way to say the newest thing that had come to my mind, but I couldn’t find any subtle way of saying it. “Lily ain’t drinkin’ ‘cause’a me… right?”

High Times tilted his head and looked confused, until he glanced at the bottle of booze next to him and my question seemed to click. “Oh, Buck. No… no, she’s not. And remember, drinks like these are bad for foals. But for adults… in small, safe amounts, it can help a little. It’s like a massage, can help you unwind some.”

I tried hard to not roll my eyes some at his little spiel about alcohol. “Yeah, yeah, but… still. Why’s she gotta have it?”

“Do you really not see how the last couple of days have been very stressful for her?”

That time I actually did roll my eyes. “Course I do… but that’d also make it ‘cause’a me.”

High let out a sigh. “No. You didn’t stress her out. The situation did. And the fact that she had to save you from her own father… and kill him, did. His death might just be like any other to you, but to her it’s not.”

I started to chew at my lip again. “Right…”

High picked up the bottle again and stepped over towards me. “You should ask her about it, maybe tomorrow or in a couple of days. You’d probably learn a bit more. I know you’d like that.”

I shook my head. “But she don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Buck, trust me. Something like this may seem to be a thing that a pony wouldn’t want to talk about, but deep down, they want to be able to get it off their chest. At least ask her if she’s willing to talk about it? If nothing else, you can help show her that you’ll be there for her like she’s there for you.”

My nose wrinkled up a bit as I tilted my head to look at High, “Didja haveta put it all philosophically?”

High laughed softly and smiled. “I’m not good at many things. I have to take advantage of the ones I am.”

I gave a little snort then looked away. “Right. I guess I’ll… talk t’ her t’morrow, then. Maybe. I dunno.”

High nodded, then gave me a pat on the shoulder. “If you need any help thinking of something to say to her, come ask me. I’d be glad to help you out. For the moment, I have to go help her out, though.” With that, he turned and continued walking off in his original direction, towards Lily’s tent.

I took a deep breath, then glanced down at my stomach when I felt it rumble again. And there was the hunger pain coming back. Right. Food. I glanced around the area, saw nobody else was near, so I darted back into Inky’s tent, grabbed the box of cereal, then left quickly and flew back to my place over the General Store. I had to eat before I passed out or something stupid like that.

The cereal was… well actually I just sorta inhaled it. So not much tasting actually happened. It was probably good, though. But I wasn’t thinking about taste. Or even cereal. Or even the pretty cool view I had from my perch on top of the store. There was only one thing on my mind. Well… two.

How could she do that without telling me? Like, I thought we were close. Well we were close. But… She didn’t tell me. That’s big news! And… she was still being all… Was she being flirty? I guess. Would I even be able to tell the difference between flirty and not flirty? Probably. Maybe. Or did I just want to think she was flirty.

I don’t know! She liked colts. I liked fillies. We were best friends. Why not? I know exactly why not. What did all the old ponies in the bars in towns have to say about relationships? That’s right. That once people got into them, everything was different. You saw stuff differently, liked different stuff or found things annoying that you didn’t before. Then when you separate because it wasn’t working, you hardly ever see them again and sure aren’t friends like you used to be. That’s why.

We’re best friends. What’s the sense in ruining that? Things are fine the way they are, even if it does make my brain hurt, my stomach knotty, and other parts hard. Changing something could ruin everything.

But I couldn’t just sit back and let her and Kari do… things… There’s no way she really liked him. The only possible way she might be tolerating him is because of his… muscles. Which, they were pretty awesome muscles. And his body has a nice curve, and his tail- Gah. The point is, she must just like how he looks, and that’s it. But how to snap her out of it? How do I-

SPLAT!

I pulled my head back and sputtered after a rather large ball of mud slammed into my face. “What th’ hell?!” I reached up with a wing and started to scrape the mud off.

“That’s what I’m sayin’!” Oh… it was Sunny. “I been calling your name for like five minutes!”

I finished flinging off the mud and finally looked down at her. Part of me was glad to see her, the rest of me just wanted her to bugger off. “Sorry. Mind’s busy. Ya need somethin’?”

Sunny nodded. “Yeah! You!”

“Huh?”

She stomped a hoof on the ground, “You get kidnapped, and taken away, and you get rescued, and come back, and you don’t even say hi to me?!”

I blinked a couple of times then cursed under my breath. I’d… forgotten to do that. That was really bad, actually. “I’m sorry.” I slowly got up to my hooves, then spread my wings and glided down to the ground next to her. I worked up a little smile as I landed. “I’m here now, though?”

Sunny turned and reared up to wrap her forelegs around my neck after I came to a stop and squeezed as tight as she could. “Don’t do it again.”

I gave a quiet nod, then turned and nuzzled at her shoulder as I slipped a wing around her back, returning the hug. “Promise.” I kept the hug up for as long as she wanted, which actually ended up being a couple of minutes.

After that time had passed, she started to loosen her grip, then slowly slid back and down to all fours. When she did, I pulled my wing back. “You never let me hug you for that long before.”

I gave her a little smile, then started to flap my wings and lift myself just an inch off of the ground. “Here.” I stuck my forehoof out, indicating for her to get on it. Once she did, I lifted her and carried her up to the rooftop with me. I set her down on my bed, then landed and laid down on it next to her. “Sorry I never let ya hug that long before.”

Sunny gave her body a shake once I set her down, then she plopped down on the mattress next to me. “It’s fine… it’s just weird.”

I chewed over my lip as I considered that. “Well, I guess Inky was right… Guess I did learn somethin’ over th’ past couple’a days.”

She turned and looked up at me, her head tilting. “Huh? What’d you learn?”

I looked back at her, then leaned over and nosed at her cheek before responding. “High had told me somethin’ a long time ago. But I’d never paid any attention t’ it. But then last couple’a days with Firestorm I kinda just… did it without thinkin’. Then… just a minute ago, I actually did think about it an’ made sure I did it.”

“Well what was it? Tell me already.”

I snickered then said, “He told me that when somepony hugged me, I should never let go first. ‘Cause I never know how long they might need t’ get hugged for. I sorta… hugged Stormy a lot while we were out.”

Sunny seemed to understand, but then she let out a snort. “Yeah, that’s because she’s all weak.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Uh huh. An’ what ‘bout you?” I motioned down to where we’d just spent two minutes hugging on the ground below us.

She looked down when I motioned, then looked back at me. “Well that’s different.”

I just nodded. “Of course it is.”

“It is!” She huffed then pointed a hoof at me, “And besides, what were you so busy staring off at nothing about, anyway?”

I licked at my lips. On the one hoof, I could tell her. She might have something interesting to say. On the other hoof, it was a pretty private matter, and I probably shouldn’t be telling her. Then again… “Can I trust ya t’ keep a secret?”

Sunny practically looked offended. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

I snorted. “It means yer job is literally t’ tell me everyone else’s secrets ‘round here. How am I s’posed t’ know ya don’t do the same fer somepony else?”

“Aw, c’mon, Tri.”

“You spread a rumor that I had kissed Paper Scroll!”

Sunny started to giggle. “Sheesh, Tri, that wasn’t anything big.”

“Uh huh… little miss rumor-spreader.”

She started to pout, but it didn’t last for long. “I promise not to tell anyone. Ever. At all. Anything.”

I chewed on my lips again. She’d figure it out for herself eventually. She was too smart to not catch the signs or the movements if they kept at it. So the news would get out at some point. So it wouldn’t do much harm to tell her. But this way I could also make sure if she was keeping promises to me.

I took a deep breath then said quietly, “Kari and Inky are sleeping together.”

Sunny blinked and then gasped. “You mean… sleep overs or… or… or…”

“The second.”

She gasped again. “That’s… huge!”

I hissed then looked around. Okay, the nearest foals were still on the other side of town. I looked back at Sunny and whacked her hindquarters softly with my wing, “Secret, remember? Don’t yell it.”

She ducked her head a little and curled in on herself slightly. “Sorry. How’d you find out?”

“Just… I did. How ain’t important. What is important is how we’re gonna stop it.”

“Wait, what? Why’re we gonna stop it?”

I blinked at Sunny. “Oh please. You don’t need me t’ tell ya that Inky hates him.”

“Well…” She lifted a hoof up and pointed at the side of my neck, where my big gash was healing, and incidentally where the stitches still were. Those needed to be taken out. “She got real mad at him for that, both times. But they’ve been spending a bit of time together. He was in her building with her for like… hours a couple of days ago… the same day you disappeared.”

“Seriously?”

Sunny nodded. “Yeah. Not sure what they were doing, but they got along with each other for at least that long, ‘cause they both seemed pretty good when they finally came back out. Kari was kinda red... puffy eyed, though.”

I bit at my lip again. That was bad. Red eyes was weird. Or maybe that was just a thing that happened after you had sex... If they kept spending more time together, it was gonna be harder to get her to come back to her senses. “Okay, well, maybe they can tolerate each other, but that don’t mean they’re, like, made fer each other ‘r nothin’. Kari’s so new, we don’t even know that much about him yet. An’ Inky… she just likes the way he looks, but she thinks he’s a bad influence.”

Sunny’s muzzle scrunched up a little bit as she started to think. “So you really want to make sure they don’t like… get together again?”

I nodded. “That’s th’ idea.”

She sighed and looked down for a minute, but slowly a faint, goofy smile started to spread across her face. “I think… I might have an idea.”

“Well?”

Sunny looked back up at me, smile still intact, “I know how you can break them up.”

“Ya gonna tell me ‘r not?”

“You need to hit on Kari.”

I blinked and deadpanned at Sunny. “I need t’ do what?”

“It’ll make Inkblot jealous. And it’ll make Kari start paying attention to you instead of her. So both of them end up thinking about you instead of each other. It’s perfect.”

My mouth fell open upon finally hearing the full plan. I shook my head slowly and turned to look back out at the view off of my roof. That was… that was so… stupid. But it was the only way I could do it without them knowing that I knew about them. Maybe it was so stupid that it just might work… And even then it was better than the ideas I’d come up with. Which was because I’d come up with… absolutely nothing.

Still. Something, even if it was bad, was better than nothing. I couldn’t let Inky make a mistake like that.

I gave my head another slow shake. “I’m gonna haveta hit on Kari…”

Sunny nodded. “Yep!”

This day was not turning out like I thought it would. Should probably start with the tail...

Author's Notes:

Big thanks to Kibu, Scrap Metal, and No One for help with grammar, spelling, plot, so on and so forth and editing thingymabobs.