Author's Notes:

Sorry for the shorty this time; school started kicking in and I decided to dedicate a lot of my free time to working on an update for another fic of mine, as well as completely rewriting a third. Normally this would be fine but, in accords to my own self-enforced rules, "At least one chapter must be posted a week and be between 1K and 3K words long. No more, no less. In doing this I will improve as a writer," stupidly said I...

... Oh well! I'll just have to do better next time!

Enjoy the surprise plot advancement this week ^_^

“... Zzzzzz-snort! Uh... w-wha...? Huh? Um... Barb?”

“Zzzzzz…. Hmmm… yes, Dusk?” I ask aloud to the darkness, my eyes still firmly shut and unwilling to open and confirm for me whether or not it was morning yet.

“... Why are you in my bed?” inquires the stallion who, despite his question, is still snuggling me closely with his forelegs.

At first I reply to this by shifting around in his embrace in order to get more comfortable and to move my spines away from so as to not accidentally scratch him. In response to his question though I simply retort with “It was cold last night.”

“... Barb you’re a fire breathing reptile with an internal temperature that averages forty-nine point seventeen degrees celsius on ‘cold’ nights,” deadpans the pony.

Smacking my lips loudly, I curl up even tighter into a cozy ball on the bed. Through a yawn, I try to answer. “Never.... yawn... said that I was the cold one here, Dusk…”

“... Ah,” he responds after a time. “... Duly noted…” I then feel it through my scales as he lowers his head closer to mine and nuzzles me behind the green fins affectionately. “... Thanks, Barbara.”

I chuckle softly in response. This colt can be such a sweetheart when he feels like it. “Anytime.”

We stay like this for a moment longer, simply enjoying one another's warmth, before life kicked in and we both came to the realization that we need to get up. Dusk was trotting his way towards the bedroom door by the time I was up and stretching out my neck. All the hunching over I did last night did not do me any favors, it seems. It would have been worse in my old body, seeing as how it was both taller and older, but still… ow. “I’ll make us breakfast,” calls the stallion from the hallway as he heads off towards the kitchen.

“Oh my,” I answer good naturedly as I chase after him as speedily as my small legs can carry me. “Should I inform the fire pegasus brigade preemptively then?”

“Oh ha ha,” snarks back the young stallion. With a flare of his horn I soon find myself being deposited atop his back with the use of telekinesis; this allowed me to see the eyeroll he was giving me right as it was taking place. “I’ll have you know that that grease fire was a one time thing. I can cook just fine, missy.”

“Hehe, I know you can, Dusk.” I chuckle again, smiling. “I know. I’d let you do it more often too if it wasn’t… well... for the fact that you have a tendency to make things… hearty... that’s all!”

“... What’s wrong with hearty?” he counters quickly, raising an eyebrow. “It’s how dad always made it...”

My smile turns into a cheeky grin at this.

“Oh, that's right… Maybe that's why your BSBFF always ate out.”

Dusk stops moving. I try to hold in my laugh.

“... Gleaming did eat out quite a bit, didn’t she?”

I ultimately fail in the task.

“If by ‘quite a bit’ you mean ‘every single day we were home’, then… yeah! She sure did eat out quite a bit! Haha!”

“I always did think that was strange,” Dusk continues aloud, ignoring me; probably now lost in thought thanks to this revelation. “She did that before you came to live with the family too… You’d think a guard captain, especially one who was in training, would like a filling breakfast to start out their day with…”

“There’s a difference between ‘filling’ and ‘heart attack inducing’, Dusk,” I answer sagely.

“What?!” he squeaks hastily, turning his head to me once again. “T-there’s nothing wrong wit-”

“Greasy hay bacon strips?”

“... W-well…”

“High cholesterol egg yolks mixed in with the whites?”

“M, m-maybe…”

“A literal pound of hash browns, with the whole plate ‘garnished’ with a gallon of ketchup?”

“... There’s orange juice at least…”

For a third time I find myself simply chuckling in reply. “You’re going to get fat, Dusk,” I sang out cheekily in the way only a child can; high pitched and animatedly. He glares at first, giving me a well earned stink eye, but Dusk Shine eventually finds himself laughing as well.

We resume our journey to the kitchen in good spirits. “Fat but happy, Barb,” chortles Dusk as he trots along cheerily. “Fat, but happy!”

I can’t help but smile in the face of all this good cheer. “Guess I can’t argue,” I admit honestly. “... Been there, done that, after all," I add under my breath.

“What was that?” Dusk suddenly asks, catching me off guard.

“Oh! Um, j-just wondering out loud how the Prince would react if his number one student suddenly turned into a blimp, that’s all,” I save myself smoothly. “H-hehe!”

This halts Dusk in his tracks yet again, but he soon begins to move once more... though quite a bit more shakily this time.

“... I-I’m… I, I-I’m sure he wouldn’t care,” he mutters to himself under his breath, equally as shakily. Oh no, what have I done?! “H-he loves all of his subjects. S-s-so I’m sure that if I… I-I…”

Patting him gently on the head, I try to reassure the suddenly nervous stallion with as soft of a voice as I can muster. Must, avert, self-created, catastrophe! “I’m sure he wouldn’t care, Dusk. Not at all.” With a low sigh, I add as lovingly as I could “I’m just looking out for you, that’s all.”

“...”

Phew. That seems to have done the trick. After taking a deep breath, my pony friend slowly but surely puts himself back together. Eventually, with a snort and a laugh, he replies in what I can only assume was supposed to be good humor with “Heh, thanks mom,” before finally turning the corner and entering the kitchen.

My smile wavers for a brief second at this. Only briefly; so quickly that the stallion didn't notice it at all as he lifts me off of himself with his magic and sets me gently on my feet. With the shake of my head, I chase off my lingering thoughts and sudden melancholy feelings as I make my way towards the window’s blinds. With a pull of the cord, the curtains gave way…

… and the city of Canterlot came into full view.

From our spire atop Canterlot Castle, we were able to take in the sight of the capital of Equestria in all of its glory. The streets below and the skies above are currently abuzz with activity; ponies both winged and not fill my vision as I stare out over it all. Canterlot was busy, but this wasn’t anything new. Even with how important today was, this fact would always remain true.

“Yes…” I spoke to myself, turning my head towards the calendar on the wall beside me. A bright red X greets me when I look at today’s date. “... Big day today…”

“Huh?” grunts Dusk Shine from the ice box behind me, his eyes focusing on its contents. “Did you say something, Barb?”

“... No, Dusk,” I answer as I turn my head away from the calendar.

Away from the reminder that today was the one thousandth year of the Summer Sun Celebration.

“Nothing at all.”