My eyes cracked open, first one and then the other. It was light outside, which I figured was a good thing. The sun hadn’t forgotten to rise or something. Another good thing was my apparent lack of dreaming… My dreams lately had been… well… resulting in things completely inappropriate for the filly sharing my bed.

She was still there, right? I shifted a bit and turned my head around so I could see slightly behind me. Yep, there she was, her red belly slowly rising and falling with each breath. Slowly, not wanting to wake her, I worked my way all the way around so my own stomach was facing her and I could watch her without breaking my neck.

She looked so peaceful. And it was a well deserved rest. No more worrying about slavers, no more having to get up too quickly for another way-too-long day of hiking. I moved my wing from my side and over her body, then used my feathers to carefully pet down her back between her breaths. The scars on her hide wouldn’t ever disappear, but I was hoping that, if she hadn’t been a slave for too long, maybe a few months here in town would help her return to the filly she’d been before she got captured.

Granted, having another filly in town that trusted me and would feed me information would be nice, too. High Times had authority over… everypony. And everypony listened to him. He was worth listening to. But there were too many equines here for him to be able to deal with all of them every single day by himself. So the foals themselves had to take some of the responsibility. And, rather quickly, we found out that colts were usually more comfortable talking to or getting help from other colts, while fillies were usually more comfortable talking to or getting help from other fillies. Sure, there were exceptions, but in general, it was true.

So, to be more effective, everything was basically split into two. The colts and the fillies. The oldest ones, me and Inkblot, were in charge of our own groups. Then the second oldest had their own duties and were second in command, then the third oldest had their duties and were third in command, and so on down the line. One of the important parts was that the two chains of command were completely separate. No filly, no matter how young, was forced to listen to anything a colt told her to do, no matter how old. Likewise, no colt had to listen to anything a filly told her to do, no matter what.

Usually it wasn’t an issue. Most of the foals knew that the older ones probably knew better, whether filly or colt, and should probably be listened to. That is unless they were just plain stupid, which did happen sometimes. But foals are often smart enough to tell who is just plain stupid, so that wasn’t too much of a problem, either. The real problem came from the troublemakers, and there were always a few, on both sides. They’d try to start fights between the fillies and the colts, or mess around in other ways… And ultimately it fell upon me and Inkblot to settle that kind of stuff.

In order to help us with that, we had spies. I had Sunny. Used to have another filly, too, but she… well she wasn’t around anymore. Inkblot had a couple of colts reporting on ‘the other side’ for her, Adagio and Cherry Cola. She knew I had Sunny, I knew she had those two. When problems start to come up, we’d use our contacts on the other side to help spread messages or smooth things over, and almost without fail whatever crises the troublemakers were trying to stir up got calmed right back down.

Speaking of Sunny, I had to go see her today. Tell her about Firestorm, since I was pretty sure the filly would eventually choose to stick around. Actually, I had a lot of things I had to do today. But… they could wait for later, right? I had a sleepy little unicorn in my bed.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Or… not.

“Featherbrain.”

It wasn’t a question. It didn’t even sound like a call for attention. It was just… there. I let out a long sigh. Guess it couldn’t wait for later. And I wasn’t about to keep Bottom Line waiting. That particular red filly was a lot more feisty than the sleepy red one in my bed.

I carefully slipped back then got up to my hooves, then stuck my head over the edge of the building and spoke down to Line, “What?”

“Need t’ talk t’ ya.”

I huffed softly. “Can it wait? I’mma bit busy…”

Bottom Line snorted. “With what?”

“Firestorm.”

“Who? Wait, don’ tell me ya brought home another featherbrain.”

“No,” I hissed down at her, “She’s not e-” I stopped short then looked back at my bed. Firestorm must’ve still been tired, because she was still asleep. I stepped off of the roof and glided down, landing next to Bottom Line. “She ain’t even a pegasus. She’s a unicorn. An’ she’s the new filly in town. Former slave, so don’ go callin’ her a featherbrain.”

Bottom Line snorted at me again, then looked back up towards the roof. She was silent for a bit, then glanced back at me. “She gonna stay with you?”

I gave a shrug with my wings. “No clue, it’s her first night. Figure she’ll want a place’a her own eventually, though.”

Line gave a slow nod. “I can get her a tent for you. Full set of welcoming gifts?”

I blinked, not sure whether she was offering or selling. Because that’d be expensive to buy. “Would you?”

Bottom Line gave another nod. “On the house.” She began to head for the door to the General Store. “Now c’mon.” She opened it then looked at me expectantly.

I gave her an odd look but for some reason did what she wanted. I followed after her, then walked past her into the General Store.

The moment I walked in, I could feel the air change around me. Gone was the pleasantness of the outside, and in its place was… tension so thick I could’ve caught the air with my rope and drug it around. Three ponies stood inside the General Store. Adding me and Bottom Line, who stepped in after me and closed the door behind her, made it five. The other three were Inkblot, High Times, and Grassy Knoll. And the first two were staring right at me.

Inkblot looked tired, like she didn’t sleep very well last night. Her mane was actually a bit of a mess and her eyes looked bad. High Times looked normal, but I could tell he was thinking very, very hard and didn’t have the answer yet. Grassy Knoll, however, looked incredibly uncomfortable. I looked the brown coated and green maned colt over for a few moments. What had him all tussled up? Bottom Line, however, ignored all of them and went behind her desk, pulled out a binder, and started to write something down.

I looked the three of them over and slowly walked towards them. “So uh… what’s… up, guys?”

High Times was the only one to speak. “We have a problem, Buck.”

I tilted my head a little bit and took two more steps before stopping. “Ya don’ say?”

High Times gave a slow nod. “We’re out of food.”

It took a second before my brain actually processed those words. “We’re outta- we’re WHAT?!” My eyes went wide and my wings instinctively flared out.

Grassy Knoll reached up and rubbed at his neck with a forehoof as High continued to speak. “During the trip here, Grassy did another food check. It was reported that you had only left us with two days of ration, even though your last repor-”

“Bull! Three weeks! I left three weeks of food in there!”

High lifted a hoof up, attempting to look sympathetic and help me calm down, but it wasn’t exactly working. “I know that’s what you counted. But isn’t possible that your count could be wrong?”

My head slowly tilted as I looked at him, wondering if that was even possibly a real question. “Are you… are ya… wha- Three weeks is like twenty days! How could I possibly screw up twenty with two?”

“You could’ve accidentally wrote a zero after the two on the board.”

“C’mon, High…”

Grassy put his hoof down and lifted his head back up. “We already know you were not thinking clearly, and forgetting stuff, and stuff like that ‘cause of all the coffee.”

Inkblot broke in, “Pfft, ha! No. The only proof of that you have is after I showed back up, which was twelve hours after he made that count. For all you know, Grassy, he was counting perfectly fine when he did that.”

Grassy worked his mouth a couple times before forming words, “I- it’s- it’s still possible he did mess it up. Maybe he was hallucinating or something, I don’t know. It’s just… I don’t think if he’s making mistakes that bad, because one way or another, either he lied or he made a mistake. I don’t think if he’s making mistakes or lying that bad that he should still be in charge.”

I slowly turned to look at Grassy, my gaze hardening as I got him in sight. “You what?”

Grassy seemed to flinch back a little from me, but High Times stuck out a hoof between us. “Buck, please.” I gave a short growl as I turned my eyes to look up at High, now giving him the same look. He didn’t seem phased by it, though. “Thank you. Now,” he looked to Grassy, “please, explain why you don’t think Buck should be in charge. He’s either made a mistake or he’s lying, and either one is very bad in this case. I’ve had to send four Crusader teams out to try and quickly get food. But at the same time, it’s only one mistake…”

Grassy gulped nervously then looked up at High, seeming to get a little more confident as he spoke, “Because it’s not just one time. He’s- he’s unreliable. And dangerous. He goes around scaring everyone for fun, and picking fights, he’s not a good influence on the younger foals, and he is just in it for the power trips, he doesn’t actually care about anyone else.”

My glare started to fade. For the moment I wasn’t even mad, I was shocked. Were my ears playing tricks, or was he really saying these things? I looked at him, then High, then to Ink. And why weren’t they defending me? Inkblot especially, she was avoiding looking at me at all. I didn’t know whether to feel betrayed or not.

High spoke with the same cool voice he had always used. “That is a lot of bad things,” he looked over at me for a moment then looked back to Grassy. “Maybe Buck shouldn’t be in charge anymore. But if not him, who should take his place?”

Grassy shifted uncomfortably on his hooves before answering, “Well… me. I’m second oldest. Second in line. I’d take his place.”

My ears pinned back flat against my head and I snapped around towards Grassy, “Is that your angle?! You just wanna get rid of me and take over for yourself?”

Grassy took a step back when I rounded on him. “No. No! It’s not- no! It’s just, you’re… you’re unfit. I don’t want to take over, but if you can’t do it, I have to.”

High stuck his hoof out again. “Let’s not get angry here, boys… Let’s just talk, alright?”

My tail started to twitch behind me as I looked back at High. “He is tryin’ t’ lie, an’ tryin’ t’ turn y’all against me, an’ tryin’ t’ kick me out an’ you want me to talk nicely?!”

Grassy shook his head, “I ain’t lying! It’s true! There were just two days of food there after you left!”

High kept his eyes locked on me. “Buck, please.”

I was fuming. Nearly every muscle in my body was tense, and they were all screaming at me to go buck that ferret-faced fink right in his ferret-face. But with High and Inkblot there, there was no way they’d let me do that. So all I could do was sit there and bite my tongue. Hard.

High let out a small sigh when I didn’t say anything more. “Thank you.” He turned back to Grassy. “Now, Grassy. If Buck isn’t fit, and you believe you would take his place, and if you aren’t lying… then maybe you could answer a question or two to confirm all of that?”

Grassy was now outright fidgeting in place. He looked away before looking back up at High when the stallion turned to him again. “Uh… yeah, yeah sure. Anything.”

“During our last headcount during yesterday, there were two foals missing. Both colts. Powder and Scout. Where are they?”

Grassy blinked rapidly. “Wha- what?” He shook his head then pointed at me, “Shouldn’t you be asking him that question? Knowing where everyone is, that’s the job of the colt in charge.”

High nodded. “Normally I would ask him. But both Powder and Scout were here at the time he left. That means they disappeared while you were in charge, Grassy. That means it’s your responsibility. So tell me, where are those two colts of yours?”

Grassy started to stutter, not able to come up with a response. I, however, was still capable of thinking, and suddenly I realized what was even more fishy. “Not only that, but Powder and Scout are your friends. They’re on yer Crusader team! Even if ya ain’t in charge, yer gonna know where those two went off to!”

Grassy looked at me and his eyes went wide. He started to look back and forth between myself and High, then he just froze. In that moment, the last thing I expected happened. Grassy burst into tears. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t, I didn’t mean to! It’s- it’s, they took the food! I didn’t want them to but they did it anyway!”

High Times let out a long, disappointed sigh. He kicked the counter softly behind him and moved over towards Grassy, putting a foreleg around the crying colt and pulling Grassy towards himself.

Inkblot finally made herself known again, blowing air out through her nostrils as she took a step away from the desk and towards me. “What about the bloodwings? It was your team that said they saw them, Grassy. Were there really bloodwings?”

Grassy pushed his head against High Times and shook it. “No! There weren’t! It- it- it was slavers!”

“What?!” High, Inky, and myself all spoke in perfect unison.

“We- we- we… We were off in a town a bunch of days south, and… I got to talking to a stallion in a bar. And I mentioned our town, and all the foals, and how it was mostly foals, and it was fine… nothing out of the ordinary! It just… When we met back up and started to leave town, we saw that stallion again outside of the walls, and… he was with a few other ponies, and then we saw the slaves. They… they were chained up by their hindlegs.”

Slavers, with slaves, chained up by their forelegs, south of here. No… couldn’t be…

Grassy had to pause to clear his nose of snot. “I got scared. I just… I didn’t want everyone to know I’d screwed up that bad. I told slavers where we lived! There’s no living that down! So… so… so when we got back, I said we saw bloodwings. I- I- I knew that would get us to move, so we would be safe from the slavers and they wouldn’t be a threat to us, and plus nobody would hate me forever because I gave up our town to slavers. I thought it was a perfect cover…”

I gave my wings a powerful flap. They were driven by my strongest muscles, so I actually could do that. I wanted to know more about those slavers, but there was a more immediate concern. “What’s that gotta do with this food bullcrap, Grass?”

Grassy turned to look at me through his tears. “Powder… Powder hates you. And after the other day, he got convinced that he’d never get a proper fight with you, that somebody would always step in to break it up. So he… he… he got a plan to get rid of you. He’d steal the food while we were moving, since it’d be easier to do, and we’d frame you for screwing it up so bad that you would get kicked out… or not be in charge… or something… then you wouldn’t be protected. I told him it was a bad idea, that I didn’t want to do it, but he went ahead and did it anyway. He said, he said if I tattled on him that he’d tell everyone the truth about the slavers… So… I just… I went along with it… I’m so sorry…”

I closed my eyes and pulled my head back, starting to rub over my face with my wing. “That little… moron is making everyone starve because he wants to beat me up. Hell, I’ll let him beat me up if it means that he’ll stop being su-”

“No you won’t.”

I pulled my wing from my face and looked at Inkblot. “Sure I will.”

Inkblot shook her head. “No. You won’t.”

“You don’t get t’ decide that.”

“Yes I do.”

I snorted at her. “Says who?”

“Says me.”

I wasn’t sure what threw me off more. The words, or that she said it like it was the most obvious, matter-of-fact thing in the world. “What?”

Inkblot snorted back at me. “If after this you go to let him beat you up, I’ll kill him myself before he gets a chance. Or, if I can’t, I’ll go tell Lily. And I know she can do it.”

I just stared at her, mouth agape. I didn’t know whether to be mad, or to be proud, or what. And she didn’t say anything more to help me out, either. She just gave a little shrug, like it was no big deal.

High, seemingly ignoring both of us, gave another long sigh and gently stroked Grassy’s back. “Well, now you’ve told us about the slavers yourself. Powder can’t get you in trouble for that anymore. So, do you know where Powder and Scout went with the food?”

Grassy shook his head a little. “I think… I think their plan was to take it to Market and sell it, then buy some nice things with all the caps… You know… three weeks’ of food for thirty people… lot of caps there…”

Bottom Line piped up from behind her counter for the first time since entering. She appeared to still be writing in her binder while sitting on her cushion. “Forty-one ponies, ration at five caps per meal with two meals per day for nineteen days, ‘bout seventy-eight hundred caps. Oh plus water ration, at what, eight caps per day for a bottle’s worth, forty-one ponies, nineteen days, ‘bout sixty-two hundred caps… So total of almost fourteen thousand caps.”

High turned slowly to look at Bottom Line, then sadly shook his head. “Lot of caps indeed…” He then looked at myself and Inkblot. “I already sent another Crusader team with another cart to go to Market to try and buy food if there is any. Presumably… they’ll make it there after Powder and Scout do. Or maybe since their cart is empty they’ll make it first. I’m not sure. But somebody with this news has got to go down there and help them all sort that mess out… I’m just not sure whether I should send you or ask Lily to go.”

I finally tore my eyes away from Inky when Bottom Line spoke up, then ended up looking at High when he turned to us as well. “I dunno… Like, I trust Scroll t’ run stuff fine while I’m gone instead’a Grassy. But Lily’ll be able to get there quicker. I mean, I could fly, but I don’t think you’d wanna send me alone. If I was alone an’ did run into Powder an’ Scout… Powder’d pummel me and leave me fer dead, prob’ly.”

High took a deep breath and nodded. “True. I’ll ask Lily to go. See if she doesn’t mind. It’ll be nice to have you two here to help bring some order back. Half the Crusaders being gone is… tough on a lot of the rest. Plus Grassy and Opal aren’t all that great at… motivating them. Plus… somebody needs to keep them calm until we actually have food again… I’ll have my fill trying to keep the adults from freaking out.”

Inkblot and I both nodded slowly, but she was the first to speak. “We’ll get right on that, High.” She turned and walked in front of me, her tail flicking my foreleg as she passed. “C’mon, Buck.”

I blinked and looked after her, then looked back at High. I started to say something, but then was interrupted by Inkblot repeating her request. I huffed, then turned and followed her out.

The instant the door to the General Store closed behind us Inkblot spun around towards me. “Before you get too mad at me, I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you last night, but High wanted to see your reaction to hearing it like that. He wanted to be sure you weren’t lying, so he made me promise not to tell you.”

I snorted and rolled my eyes. “Yeah, sure, fine, but what, didja believe all that other crap? Why didn’t ya say nothin’, huh? He was makin’ me out t’ be some sort-”

“Because it was part of High’s plan, Bucky. I couldn’t say anything. The plan was to let Grassy talk himself into a corner and get him to just confess it. And it worked!”

I took a slow breath then looked at her. “So you really didn’t believe none’a that stuff he was sayin’?” Inkblot just stood there, looking into my eyes. I gave another puff of air through my nostrils at her. “Ya can’t get away with sayin’ nothin’ ‘gain this time, Inky. Didja agree with him er not?”

She continued to just stand there for awhile. Suddenly she moved to the side, lifted her foreleg up to one side of my face to keep it steady, then leaned in to give a long kiss to the other side of my muzzle. My eyes went wide when I realized what she was doing, and that wasn’t the only reaction. My wings involuntarily left my sides and flared out above me! What the heck was THAT?! They were just… stuck like that!

After a few seconds Inkblot pulled away and let my head go, then raised an eyebrow when she spotted my wings. She still didn’t say a word, though, and just turned to trot back towards her building. “See you for lunch.”

I just stared after her, but eventually stopped trying to make words go from my stunned brain to my mouth, because that just wasn’t going to happen. I don’t actually know how long I stared, still frozen in shock. It was probably only a minute or two, but it felt like an eternity At some point after she entered her building, my wings began to relax and come back under my own control. I pulled one of my wings up and felt at the side of my muzzle where she’d kissed me.

She’d kissed me… And I had no idea what it meant… I was so doomed.

“Tri… Tri… Tripod…”

I blinked, then started to look around. Where was that coming from? I didn’t actually even see any other foals outside right now. Where was… oh… oh crap… I gave my wings a test flap and, once certain I could use them properly, I flew up to hover level with the rooftop of the General Store.

Sure enough, there was Firestorm. The little filly was standing in the middle of my bed, doing a strange little dance with her hindlegs.

“H-hey, Firestorm! Sleep well?”

She bit her lip hard. “I… I gotta poop…”

A trip to the latrine turned into a full tour of the town area. It started with said latrine, though it wasn’t even actually dug yet. Probably because half the Crusaders were out of town. From there we moved on to the storage buildings, the General Store, and the residential tents. I showed her around the tents and where ponies slept, and what she would get if she decided that she wanted to stay and wanted one of the tents. After that, however, Firestorm had a very good question.

“Um… what about food?”

I let out a little sigh and looked over some of the tents before looking back at Firestorm. “Well, food usually gets stored in one of th’ buildin’s I showed you earlier, the one that’s kinda empty right now. But, tell you what. You ‘member Inkblot?” Firestorm gave a nod. “Good! An’ you remember where her buildin’ was?” She nodded again. “Nice. Now, what you should do, is you should go there and ask her a question. Tell her that I sent you and that you wanna know when the first Crusader team is comin’ back in today. That’ll be when today’s breakfast is. Think ya can do that?”

Firestorm gulped, then nodded. “Tell her… you told me… to go ask when the team is coming back. I can do that, yeah.”

I smiled, then reached out with a wing to pat her back. “Good. I’ll be along in a bit. I gotta see somepony else here. Jus’... shout my name reaaaaaaaal loud if ya need me, ‘kay?”

Firestorm gave another nod, then looked around, then stepped away and moved off in the direction of Inkblot’s building. I moved a bit so I could keep track of her and make sure she was at least heading in the right direction.

“Don’t tell me you’re gonna replace me with the new girl.”

I jumped at the sudden voice behind me and spun around, just in time to see Sunny Sea slipping out from between two of the tents. The blue filly was giving me a mock look of disappointment.

I rolled my eyes. “Clearly yer job is super safe. You’ll always be my number one spy.”

Sunny’s fake look was gone in a flash and she let out a giggle as she ran up the rest of the way to me, leaping up to give me a hug. “I missed you, Tri! Your eye looks a lot better.”

I huffed, but leaned down to put my head against her withers and use my wing to return the hug. “Missed you too.” I gave her a squeeze with my chin and wing, then slowly let her go and pushed her back a little so I could look her in the face. “How much do ya know, Sunny?”

She gave a little sigh as the hug broke. “I know… we’re outta food. And…” She glanced around us, then turned and started to trot off. I looked around following her lead, then walked after her. She went a ways down the row of tents, then slipped into one, hers. I followed her in and laid down on the dirt while she hopped up onto her mattress and curled up, putting her head down on a pillow facing me, like she was getting ready for story time. “What do you need me for?”

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly as I ran over what I knew in my mind. “First off, it was Powder and Scout that stole our food. I’m… pretty sure they just ain’t gonna be allowed t’ come back after doin’ something like that. I dunno how they thought they’d do it without gettin’ caught, but… I dunno.”

Sunny’s eyes went wide. “Wooooow! Well Powder really isn’t the smartest one… Kind of has that big thick skull… that he uses to headbutt you with.”

“Ironic, that,” I said before smacking my lips. “Apparently th’ plan was t’ blame me fer not countin’ th’ food right, an’ gettin’ me kicked out fer it instead’a him.” Sunny just gave her head a little shake. “Also, big point, there were no bloodwings.” Her head tilted on top of her pillow. “Yeah, no bloodwings. Grassy accidentally told our location t’ a buncha slavers. But he didn’t wanna tell us he did something so stupid, so instead he told us there were bloodwings. Now… I need you t’ spread ‘round that we might need t’ move again. We prob’ly won’t. But just in case, ya know? Me and Inky, we saved Lily from slavers. An’ they passed right by where th’ town used t’ be, but they didn’t turn and follow it, they jus’ kept goin’ the same direction. So I’d bet they won’t come lookin’ again. ‘Specially not, what, two days off track from where th’ town was supposedly s’posed t’ be.”

Sunny nodded slowly, but then let out a little gasp. “You fought slavers?!”

I chuckled a bit but shook my head. “Didn’t fight, exactly. We sorta… scared ‘em off. Ya know what I do on Nightmare Night? I did that t’ them, too, just… with a cloud like a hundred times as big instead’a just one’a th’ little ones.”

“Woooow…”

I let out a laugh. “Yeah, it was loud. And bright… and awesome. But… yeah, didn’t fight ‘em. And, we also saved Firestorm along with Lily. That’s the red filly I was jus’ talkin’ to. She’s like… between eight an’ ten, I think. So yer age. But I dunno how long she was a slave. So… it’d be great if, ya know, ya helped her out a little bit. Maybe introduce her t’ some of th’ fillies, maybe introduce her to Beanie. They seem compatibly shy.”

Sunny rolled her eyes. “Two shy ponies don’t work all that well together, Tri. They end up not saying much at all.”

“That’s what yer for! You talk an’ get ‘em t’ find something they both think is fun, then get them going from there.”

“Pfft. I didn’t say I couldn’t do it. I said it don’t work well.”

I smiled and reached out with my wing to ruffle Sunny’s yellow mane. “That’s my girl.” I pulled my wing back and looked at the ground, then glanced at her out of the corner of my eye. “Can I ask somethin’ that you won’t ever tell nopony?”

Sunny almost looked offended. “Is that a serious question?”

“Yes, it is. Now… Does Inky like me?”

Her eyes narrowed and she stared at me like I was a complete idiot. “Is that a serious question?”

I blinked a couple of times before it hit me. “No! I mean, yes, it is. I mean… Yes, she likes me. But does she ‘like me’ like me? Ya know… like… special like?”

Sunny continued to look at me like I was stupid until what I meant finally got through to her. “Oh. Oooooh… you mean, you wanna know if she wants to have sleep-overs with you.” I hesitated, but then nodded. “Well…” Sunny looked down at her pillow. “I actually thought she only wanted to have sleepovers with fillies… But she hasn’t actually had a sleepover so I guess that’d be guessing…” She looked back up at me. “Why?”

I sighed and shook my head. That only made the whole ordeal more confusing. “Well, she kissed me.”

“She kissed you?! Where?”

I unfurled my wing and touched my feathers to the point on the side of my muzzled Inky had kissed. Almost was like I could still feel her doing it.

“Oh, that’s… Well she don’t want to sleep over. If she wanted that, she would’ve kissed you here, silly.” She reached out her hoof and poked my lips with it. “Which, if she don’t wanna sleep over with you, then she has got to only wanna sleep over with fillies. Can’t imagine any other reason she wouldn’t want to.”

I worked my mouth a little after Sunny poked it then let out a snort. “So I’m so awesome that th’ only reason a filly wouldn’t wanna be my fillyfriend is if they were gay?” Sunny nodded firmly. “Well then…”

I looked down at my forehoof, then tilted my head and looked back up at Sunny. “But that would mean that in a few years I’d have t’ worry ‘bout you chasin’ after me.” Sunny just gave me the biggest possible smile she could. I rolled my eyes. “Ugh. Yer impossible…” After giving my head a shake, I got up to my hooves and leaned over to nuzzle Sunny’s cheek. “I gotta go. See ya later, Sunny.”

Sunny just giggled and nuzzled back. “Bye, Tri!”

I turned and walked back out of her tent. That filly was going to be the death of me. No, wait. Fillies were going to be the death of me. All of them. All of them, everywhere, of all time. Or at least the four that were in my life. And half of those had already enjoyed screwing with my head today. It wasn’t even noon yet!

I turned and trotted across the tent area until I got towards the back of it. I had to go see her, so why not try to make it three out of four fillies that have tried to break my brain before noon? When I got to it, I simply slipped through the flap of Lily’s tent.

Lily was inside, currently on her bed, repacking her saddlebags. She stopped, though, when she saw me, and instantly smiled as she held a foreleg out, motioning for me to come to her. I smiled back and did as she wanted. She pulled me into a hug when I got close enough and nosed at the top of my head.

“I’m sorry, Buck, but I’m going to be heading back out again.”

I sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I know… I sorta… was there when that was decided.”

“Oh yeah?” She pulled her head back a bit to get a better look at me.

I nodded again. “Guess High already came an’ told ya? Anyway… we gotta stay, help maintain everything… plus if I ran into Powder out there he’d jus’ try t’ beat me up, an’ he’d win… So… yeah.”

Lily gave me a squeeze, then slid her hoof down and stroked my back. “Think of it this way. I can go farther in a day than any of you can, unless you were flyin’. Plus I’m not carrying a cart. Figure I’ll catch up to those two halfway to Market, long before they actually get there. Then I can take it, bring it back quick, then we can catch up and do stuff together. How’s that sound?” She nosed at the side of my head again, then looked down my body. Her hoof slid from my back, between my side and my wing, and pulled my wing a little from my side. “You need to preen. Your feathers are all over.”

I nodded slowly. Everything she said made sense… so it should work out. I grinned and nodded faster when she talked about getting back. “Yeah! An’ maybe you could stay fer a bit longer time than normal. Maybe.” I blinked and looked back at my wing when I felt her hoof there. “I uh… yeah. I do. Um… Sis…”

She pulled her hoof back and let my wing go back to normal. “Yeah?”

I bit my lip for a few seconds then turned my head all the way around to look at her. “Our mom was a pegasus, right?” She nodded. “So you know a bit ‘bout pegasuses, right?”

She nodded again. “Yeah… a bit. Why?”

“Well… what’s it mean when my wings do…” I slowly extended my wings out above me as far as they would go, “that?”

Lily didn’t seem to quite comprehend the question, but after taking a good look at my wings she cleared her throat a couple of times and leaned away from me a bit. “What happened right before your wings did that?”

I coughed. “Uh… I got… I got kissed.” I pulled my wing down again to show the spot of the kiss.

Lily immediately started to smirk. “It means… Okay, you know… Let’s see…” She paused for a bit to chew over her thoughts. “All parts that… extend… on a pegasus colt, work the same. If you know what I mean.”

My jaw dropped. “Ya mean stuff’s gonna start comin’ out my wings?!”

She burst into laughter, laughter I didn’t quite understand, because this seemed like a really bad thing to have happen! “No! No, just… your wings get excited when… you know. Exciting stuff happens.” She leaned back over quickly and gave me another hug. “Nothing’ll come out your wings. I promise. It’ll always be the same like when you got kissed. But… who kissed ya?”

Well, at least finding that bit out made it… not as bad. I fidgeted some when Lily hugged me again. “It was Inky…”

“Ooooh! Told you!”

“But she ain’t my fillyfriend! An’ Sunny said she don’t even like colts! An’ I don’t really think she likes me like that, she was just… I don’t know.”

Lily let me go again and leaned back to look at me. “Then ask her.”

“Ask her. Her. I won’t get nothin’ outta her, you know that.”

Lily’s smirk came back instantly. “I’m going to let you in on a little secret.” Now she had my attention. “Maybe not today, or tomorrow… but ask her about it right as she, or both of you, are about to go to sleep. She’ll tell you. Promise.”

Now it was my turn to look at somepony like they were stupid. “What, she’ll tell me just ‘cause… what, she wants t’ get t’ sleep quicker?”

Lily laughed and shook her head. “No, nooo… it’s… more complicated. But trust me, okay? She’ll tell you.”

I let out a sigh. “Alright… okay. I… guess I might as well try it.”

She gave me a nudge, then got up to her hooves and put a few last things into her saddlebags. “You won’t regret it. Unless you don’t like the answer you get. In that case you might regret it a little. But hey, getting an answer you don’t like is better than not knowing. I can promise you that, too.”

I shook my head. “Maybe. You know what I think?”

“What’s that?”

“I think y’all are all workin’ together t’ confuse me an’ make my life complicated.”

Lily snickered, then leaned down and kissed the top of my head. “Not this time.”

I gave a shrug, then blinked. “Wait, this time?”

Lily slid her saddlebags on then moved for the tent exit. “You heard me. See you later, Buck! I’ll try to be back within two days!”

“Wait, you, I-” I stuck my wing out to stop her, but she was already halfway through the tent flap then gone a second later. I gave an aggravated yell, ran my wing over my face, and rolled over onto my back on my sister’s mattress.

Yep. I was right. Three for four. I would put a large sum of caps on the notion that if I got off of this mattress and went to find Firestorm that she would manage to find some way to make my brain hurt worse than it already was.

Screw today. I was staying right here on this bed for the rest of it.

Or… not.

I had spent what felt like hours feverishly going over scenarios in my mind. Who was right, Lily or Sunny? If either of them were right, what did it mean? What if both of them were wrong? Did Inky actually mean anything by it, or was she just messing with me to mess with me?

Right about time I was nearing the meaning of life in general question, I heard a loud cheer come up from the direction of the center of town. I started to ignore it, but, that wasn’t something I could ignore. A cheer? Could mean anything.

With a sigh followed by a grunt I rolled over and go to my hooves. Time to throw myself back into the lion’s den. Or would that be the filly’s den? Either way. I stepped out of the tent and trotted back towards town.

I didn’t expect to see what I saw. Every single foal and adult had come outside to the courtyard to welcome back the first returning Crusader team. And the first team had returned with a serious catch. Several bloatprites, two hogs, and something else I couldn’t exactly identify. I let out a cheer of my own, which was quickly followed by a groan. I had to get to work.

I gave my head a quick shake and cleared my throat. Time to focus.

“Alright!” I spoke up so everyone could hear me as I trotted towards the returning team. “Good work! Now, let’s get a fire started! You guys,” I pointed out a group of three with one wing, “you do that.” I looked back to the Crusader team. “Cut up th’ bloastsprites first. They’ll cook quicker an’ they’re easier t’ cut. Get those t’ th’ hungriest. After they got food, start cuttin’ up th’ hogs. There’s more meat there, but it’ll take longer t’ get ready, so let’s fix th’ quick hunger then focus on feedin’ th’ rest after. Let’s go, let’s go!”

The foals parted as I trotted up, then broke off to do as I’d ordered. The three went to the storage building to get materials for a fire, and another group of foals went to help the Crusader team start working on the bloatsprites, getting the pieces ready to be put onto the fire.

It might be meat, but at least they hadn’t gone hungry for more than a day.

Author's Notes:

Big thanks to Kibu, No One, and Scrap Metal for helping with grammar, spelling, and plot thus far.