It was Friday afternoon and the one pony she wanted to be around, the one pony she wanted to see, he was with someone else. Left with no other alternative, Nighttide went to the one place she did not want to go, the one place she really, really hated being; she went home.

She hated the old house.

It was especially bad because ‘he’ was there.

“Hello Nighttide,” the white earth pony said through a toothy grin on his face, one that spoke with nothing but condescension.

“You can leave Timespire, he’s not here.”

“Oh, I thought your objective was to bring him.”

“Yeah, well he’s not coming today.”

“So you failed?”

“No! He’s not coming today, he’ll meet with everyone this weekend.”

“That wasn’t part of the plan.”

“Yeah, well plans change. Deal with it.”

The smile left the earth pony’s face. “You’re a cocky little shit, aren’t you?”

Nighttide had enough. She walked right up to his face. “Buck you, Timespire.”

That made him laugh. “Oh how I’ve missed our conversations. Still, your father won’t be happy.”

“Like I care what that asshole thinks.”

“I’ll tell him you said that.”

“Be my guest.”

The laughter stopped. Timespire glared down at the young mare, power began radiating off him in waves. The shattered splinters of wood that were all that remained of the furniture in the house began decaying. Years, decades, and then centuries were added to their lifespans in the blink of an eye. In a matter of seconds, the entire house was hundreds of years older. The walls began creaking, the ceiling bowed in under the weight of itself, weight that the wood could no longer support.

Even with that casual display of power, Nighttide did not retreat. She hated this pony; she hated him more than anything else in the entire world. “I’m not scared of you,” she really was, however, her anger would not let her back down.

“I’m not the one you need to be afraid of; you know what your father can do. He may tolerate your failure, your excuses, because you’re his daughter, but his patience is wearing thin. You said he was ready, you said he had the ability, and you were told to bring him to us.”

“And I will, just not today.”

“When?”

“Tomorrow.”

Timespire grinned, “That should be sufficient,” his form started dissolving, fading into the shadows of the house, a house that was even now caving in on itself. “Understand Nighttide, we will implement the plan based on what you said. Fail to deliver and his patience with you will reach its end.”

Nighttide glared at him as his form completely dissolved into the shadows. Her anger was palatable at the condescending ass. Even as the house crumbled around her, even as her own powers blocked the roof from falling on her, she never took her eyes off the spot where he had disappeared.

When the last bit of the roof fell in and the dust settled, Nighttide heard a lone voice call out to her from the past, a voice that the house seemed to have stored away and with its destruction, could no longer keep to itself.

”Is it really worth you having to break your own heart?”

A wet feeling on her face stole her anger from her. She reached a hoof up to wipe off whatever water had managed to fall on her face from the collapsing roof. Her surprise overtook her; it was not water at all. It was a tear.

More tears started falling from her face as Nighttide faded into the shadows. Ponies would have noticed the old house crumbling; they would be arriving soon to make sure no one was hurt. It would not be wise to be caught here when that happened.

She would miss the old house.

…………………………………

“Are we there yet?”

“Nope.”

“How about now?”

“Nope.”

“How about… now?”

“Still no,” Radiant grinned as Blaze started in. They seemed to play the same game every time they would go anywhere. Blaze would know when they arrived by the train coming to a stop. A little tidbit Radiant did not know if Blaze forgot, or if he just enjoyed playing the game.

He suspected the former, but hoped for the latter.

“Hey bro, you think Rainbow will be impressed by how much we’ve improved?” Flash asked.

“I don’t know; mom did just whoop your flank in that race yesterday. So how much can you say you've really improved?”

“Hardy har har, I’m still faster than you,” personally, Flash would say he did pretty good, considering how long it took his mom to catch him.

“In your dreams.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright you two, enough.” Radiant raised a shield around Flash before they could start in on something more serious.

“Dad, that’s not fair!” Flash yelled as he tried to break out of it.

“Yeah, well who said life is fair?”

Flash pouted, Blaze stuck out his tongue in triumph at his brother getting in trouble and not him, and Radiant just sighed, again. He wished more than anything that Firestar or Cadance could have come along. They were much, much better at dealing with these two than he was.

Sadly, both of them had an excuse for not being able to make it. In truth, he suspected it was collaboration on their part to make him suffer. He did not know what he did to deserve such punishment, but he had a funny feeling that he did deserve it.

Over the years he had come to accept that when it came to him, his mom, and his wife, he was the one in the wrong.

He did not mind, he was used to his mom always being in the right, and besides, Firestar more than made it up to him.

Thinking about her just brought back his melancholy. He and the boys would be gone for the weekend, which meant he would be away from Firestar for the weekend.

He turned back to his boys to try and distract himself from that thought. “So what are you two going to do tonight?”

They each stared at him with a questioning expression on their faces. “What do you mean? We got training with Rainbow,” Flash asked.

“I doubt she’ll be able to train you two today. Besides, by the time we arrive it will be way too late for that anyway.”

“I didn’t think of that,” Blaze ran a hoof under his chin. Radiant almost laughed at that comment.

“Well, luckily I did. There’s a fair starting today and going through the weekend, why don’t you two go to that?”

“Really?”

“Really, you two could probably get with Starlight, Ana, and Taz and go as one big group.”

“Will she be there?” Flash asked with a look of disgust on his face. All three stallions knew who ‘she’ was. Last time they had a family get-together, Vela and Flash got into a fight, and a bad one at that. By even the most conservative standards of measurement, Flash did not win.

Blaze began laughing at his brother, again. Flash just glared at him. “It’s not funny.”

“It kind of is,” the smile on his face agreed with his words.

Flash sighed, Blaze tended to laugh at everything. He personally did not find anything humorous with getting his front teeth knocked out by a hippogriff with a bad attitude.

Vela had a tendency to be honest, always, about everything, regardless of the situation, often brutally. When she had started in on Ana about her always wanting to hang out with Taz, Flash could not just sit by. He jumped to the unicorn’s defense without a second thought.

The problem was that not only was Vela a jerk at times, she had the strength to back it up, and her father’s legendary temper to boot.

Twilight was the one who separated the two; she fixed his injuries and grounded Vela for a week straight, a punishment that Aurora continued for two months after they made it back home. He smiled as he remembered the conversation he had with his father afterward.

“What happened?”

“She was picking on Ana, calling her names. Dad, Ana, she… she was crying.”

“That’s why you jumped in?”

“Yeah, I told her she could shove her opinions up her ass.”

“One last question, if it happened again, if you were faced with the exact same situation, what would you do different?”

“Duck, her right cross hurts.”

Radiant placed a hoof on his son’s shoulder. “That’s my boy,” the smile on his dad’s face told Flash all he needed to know.

Of course, his mom had not been as approving of his behavior as his dad was.

To this day, Flash cannot remember another time Radiant stood up to Firestar like he did on that day. It is also the only time he could remember his dad winning a fight with his mom.

The feeling of lurching slightly forward broke him free from his memories. The train was coming to a stop.

“I highly doubt it, son. Vela should be down in the Griffin Empire for the length of our visit,” Radiant answered his son’s question.

“Are we there yet?” Blaze asked, again.

“Yep, we’re there.”

“Sweet!” Blaze jumped up, a little too fast as the train had yet to come to a complete stop. He fell down as soon as the train’s forward momentum was completely cut, laughing as he did so.

Flash and Radiant just shook their heads at his antics. They could only watch as the pegasus flew off the train, totally forgetting his bag on the way. Radiant just smiled and grabbed it for him.

Flash almost laughed as he finally saw it. All the ‘jokes’ Vela would make about them being dumb. After his stunt yesterday, he saw his brother and even himself in a different light. They really were dumb.

“Sweetie, you’re not dumb. Just a little gullible is all.”

His mom’s words came back, unbidden to his mind. He smiled at that memory. So what if they were a little gullible? They were both happy, they had fun, and they had the most awesome family they could ask for. In the end, that’s what really mattered.

Starlight and Vela might be right more often than they were wrong, but neither of them really seemed happy.

The old saying is true; ignorance is bliss.

Flash and Radiant both picked up their bags and left the train. “By the way, I just wanted to say that you’re a good brother.”

“What do you mean?”

“Not ratting your brother out yesterday.”

“Oh, that,” It had been Blaze’s dare to shave their grandma’s fur. However, Flash knew he was the one that ultimately did it. Besides, he’d never rat out a friend, or a family member for that matter. “No big deal, it was my doing, I was the one who deserved the blame.”

Radiant ran a hoof across his son’s neck and brought him in for a hug, “You know what they say right? Big brothers are born first so they can take care of their siblings.”

“Dad, I’m only like a minute older than Blaze.”

“That still makes you the big brother.”

Flash smiled, but said nothing.

Blaze flew back to them from the other side of the train station, panic on his face. “I forgot my bag!”

“Got it right here,” Radiant levitated his son’s bag to him; Blaze took it and sighed.

“Oh good, I was worried I might need to buy more whip cream.”

“Wait, what?” Radiant glared at him. A nagging suspicion that he should have checked their bags before leaving came back to his mind. Something Firestar told him to do.

“Oh nothing,” Blaze lied.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Radiant opened his son’s bag with his magic; sure enough, it was full to the brim with cans of whip cream. From the looks of it, Blaze had emptied the entire stockpile of it from the Crystal Palace before leaving. “I don’t think so,” Radiant proceeded to simply toss the entire suitcase in a nearby trash receptacle.

“Dad!”

“Tough, let’s get going.”

“Party pooper,” Blaze said with a pout as he walked beside his family, head downcast.

‘Wait until you have your own kids.’ Radiant found himself both excited and disturbed by that thought at the same time. Excited because it meant he would have grandkids that he could spoil rotten. Disturbed because that meant Blaze actually managed to reproduce. He knew as a father he should not have such thoughts, but he did.

He shook that thought free from his head and led the way to Celestia’s Palace with his two sons following close behind. “Hey Flash, you think Taz will be able to come with us to the fair?”

“Of course, after all he did promise he’d hang out with us next time we came to town, and we’ll be way too busy to do anything the next two days,” training with Rainbow left little time for anything else on the best of days, and neither of the boys wanted anything less than the worst she could dish out.

After all, by last count they were tied for who could last the longest before passing out, this weekend would be the tiebreaker.

“Oh yeah, and Taz always keeps his promises,” Blaze found the spring in his step when he remembered that tidbit.

………………

Ana and Taz made their way to the fairgrounds. The pair could easily make out the fair in the distance. Large rides and attractions loomed overhead. None of them were operating, yet. However, that would soon change. It would open up in the hour and lines of ponies would begin forming for the coasters, food courts, and various attractions.

A rumbling sound came from his left. Taz turned his head to look at Ana. She merely smiled meekly as her stomach made itself known. “Hungry?” Taz asked the rhetorical question.

“I… I didn’t eat much for breakfast.”

“Much? I barely remember you touching your plate.”

“There was a lot going on.”

Taz laughed at that, there was always ‘a lot going on’ at the palace. It was sort of the reason why it existed. “Why didn’t you say anything? I would’ve gotten you something at the movies.”

“I… I was saving my bits for the arcade.”

He nodded at that; she must have used a month’s allowance at that game today. He was about to comment that it would have been his treat when his stomach joined Ana’s in complaining. “Let’s get something to eat, my treat.”

Ana just smiled and lead the way to the nearest fast food palace. A Hay Burger restaurant loomed across the street.

Taz motioned for Ana to find them seats as he went to the counter to order their food. The unicorn working the register was a little old to have such a job, but Taz did not pay it any mind.

“Welcome to Hay Burger, home of the hay burger, what can I get you?”

“Let’s get two hay burgers, two large fries and two drinks.”

“Anything else?”

“Oh, no onions on one of them,” Taz almost forgot that Ana hated onions.

“That’ll be eight bits.”

He sighed as he pulled out the bits. He had asked his mom once why they had to pay for anything; they were the rulers after all. Her response was long and quite boring. Something about ‘not abusing power or forcing their will on the ponies they ruled over’. Frankly, if there was no benefit to being a prince, he really did not see the point of being one.

We can’t control what we’re born as, but we can control what we do.

He sighed at that; despite his mom’s words there was so much that he could not control, including his feelings for a certain pony.

“Taz, over here!” Ana shouted from across the restaurant. He took his number and went to join her. Placing it at the edge of the table he joined his cousin for their meal. “Did you remember no onions?”

“Yep.”

“You’re the greatest!”

“Thanks,” Taz said with a smile. He glanced out the window as something caught his eye; in the distance he could make out the fair starting up in earnest. Looking at the time he noticed that they were a little late to catch the opening. ‘That’s ok, I don’t really like to be in a huge mass of ponies anyway.’ He could not help but laugh, “I think I might come back with Nighttide tomorrow.”

That killed Ana’s smile. A weight came crashing back on her; she could not hold it in any longer, the question that had been nagging her for what felt like forever. “Um, Taz?”

He turned his head back at the mare, noting that she seemed to be focused on a spot on the table rather than him. That worried him, it meant she had something to ask, something important. “Ana, you don’t have to ask me permission to ask a question. I’ve told you this before.”

“I know, but….”

“But what?”

“I… I wanted to ask why… why you….”

“Ana,” Taz stopped her from talking, he reached across the table and rose her head with a hoof; to his shock her mane was hiding a tear that was falling from her eye.

“Why her?” Ana finally asked the question that had been crushing her for two days now. Ever since she found out that Taz would bring Nighttide when he went to Ponyville and not her.

Taz sat back, downcast. He knew this question would come, eventually. It did not mean he was ready for it though. He did not even need to ask what she was referring to; or who for that matter. He thought of the lie, the one he had concocted when he was on the train with Nighttide to Ponyville.

‘He says to bring your best friend, not your super-best friend.’

It sounded good in his head, that is to say, it did sound good in his head. He knew she would believe it, whatever he said, she would take it as fact, Ana would not even consider that he might lie.

Somehow, that knowledge just made the prospect of actually doing it worse. When he looked at her face, when he saw the tears that he was once again reasonable for, he could not do it. He could not lie to her like that.

She deserved better than that. She deserved the truth.

“Ana, I-“

“Here you kids go, enjoy!” the pony from the counter dropped of their food.

“Yeah, thanks,” looking at it, Taz realized he was not hungry anymore.

“Forget I asked,” Ana looked down at her food, “I didn’t mean to ruin our day out,” she sniffled. “Let’s just forget the whole thing; after all, I’m supposed to be cheering you up. Not the other way around.”

The faux smile she had on her face just made him feel worse, not better.

“No.”

“No?”

“No, you deserve to know the truth. Ana, we’ve been friends forever. I honestly can’t remember a time I did not know you. I use to watch you, when you slept you know. You would always be curled up to Ataxia with a big smile on your face,” Taz smiled as he recalled those memories. Growing up, Ana and Ataxia were attached at the hip. In a lot of ways that was still true. Although it seemed to be reversing on who needed whom the older Ana got.

“I… I… I asked Nighttide to go with me because…” he really did not want to say it.

“Because what?” Ana looked up, “Please tell me, I need to know. Even if it’s bad, please tell me.”

“Because…” he looked down again, “if it didn’t work I wanted someone who was strong. I wanted someone who could pick me up, not someone who would break down with me.”

For anypony, regardless of age, it is hard to admit your own weaknesses.

Part of Ana wanted to be mad; it wanted to yell at him for calling her weak, for insinuating that she could not be strong for him. That part died as soon as she looked at his face. She realized the truth; he was not calling her weak, he was calling himself weak. “Taz, I-”

“I’m sorry,” Taz was crying now, “I’m weak and a coward. I wanted to invite you, I did, but I… I was afraid of what would happen. I didn’t mean it.”

She moved to the other side of the table and pressed his muzzle against her coat, cooing softly into his ear. “Taz, you’re not weak.”

“Yes I am,” he sobbed, “I’m... I'm pathetic.”

“Taz.”

“Everypony else has something special, everypony else has some claim to fame. My sisters, my moms, you guys, even my late brother was special. I’m… I’m just Prince Blank Flank,” the wall he built up around his emotions, the emotions he locked away behind a new brick wall of self-denial, crumbled.

It had all been a lie, a facade, everything he told his friends and family, all of it. He was anything but over it, he was anything but strong, he was weak, a coward. This latest development, it only added to it, to everything, it was just one more thing that everyone else had that he did not.

“I have no wings, no magic, and I can’t even grow crops to save my life. I’m a nothing, a nobody. I can’t even call myself a blank flank. I’m a blank pony.”

“Taz, look at me.”

He looked up; as soon as he did he was expecting to see a look of compassion, expecting to see a look of sympathy filled with tears.

What he got was a slap upside the head.

“What?” Taz rubbed his sore muzzle with a hoof.

Ana started crying again, “How dare you, how dare you think so little of yourself! You think you’re a nobody, a nothing? I… I can’t even….” This was the side of Ana no one else saw, the side of her that only came out around Taz.

“Ana, I-”

“No, you listen to me Taz. You are the son of Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle. You are the brother of Shimmering Night and Aurora Flash. That alone makes you hooves down more special than any other pony in Canterlot. Yet you are even more special than that. You can cancel magic, in the history of Equestria no pony else has ever been able to do that.”

Each word the mare said was like a dagger into his heart. Regardless how many times you are told otherwise, it is so easy to discount your own self-worth, to think that what little you can do does not matter, that it is somehow not special. When slapped in the face with the arrogance of that belief, it is a lot harder to ignore.

“You don’t see your own self value. You… you… you devalue yourself that much, despite everything. We all look to you Taz, we’re all inspired by you; we’re all motivated by the example you set for us all. When you kick yourself, you’re kicking all of us too.”

“I’m no leader, that’s Starlight.”

“My sister’s a tool that spends way too much time seeking her grandma’s approval.”

Taz’s jaw dropped at that. He had never heard Ana speak so frankly about her sister like that. Heck, he had never heard her speak about anyone like that.

“Yeah, you’re right. We all have special talents. Starlight and I can use magic. As such Twilight goes out of her way to train us, to help make us the best we can be. Blaze and Flash can fly, so they get special flight training from Rainbow every second they’re down here. Vela, well she’s a bitch just like her dad.”

Taz almost choked when he heard her use such language.

“You… you have none of that, you have none of the advantages that the rest of us do, yet somehow, you persist. You made your own path. You took the nothing you had to work with and made something out of it," Ana paused to wipe a tear from her eye.

"It’s easy to build something when you have the tools; the real test is to do it with nothing but your hooves,” she grabbed his hoof, “Taz, you’re the strongest of us all. It’s insulting that you can’t see it.”

After that Taz was left speechless. He had no idea what to say, no idea what he could say. He did notice that everyone else in the restaurant had turned their eyes to his table. Ana noticed it too. “Excuse me; I've got to go to the little filly’s room.”

He watched her get up and leave. Her immediate departure, what she said; it felt like a huge weight was suddenly dropped in his stomach. With some dismay, he let her leave the table.

Something he immediately regretted when she suddenly ran left, right out of the Hay Burger’s front door.

“Dammit,” Taz got out of the booth and ran after her.

“What about your food?” the pony behind the counter called out.

“Buck it!”

He heard several cries of alarm as he said the words. It did not matter to him, not right now. He had to catch Ana, he had to apologize. He could not lose her too, not like he did with Sunshine. It was just too painful.

Ana ran, she ran as fast as she could. She had not meant to say all of that; she did not mean to say it. She had to get away, to get away from him. Her mind was far too chaotic right now to try and teleport, she could not focus on the simplest spell, she could only run, run until her legs burned.

So she ran, she ran away from the fairgrounds, away from the stallion she loved, the one she went off on, the one she… she hit.

A weight tackled her to the ground, the two ponies spun end over end in the dirt. Until, they both came to a stop at the end of the street. Several onlookers paused to watch what was happening. Ana did not even rise from where she fell; she simply laid there, crying.

A hoof made contact with her own. It belonged to a night-black pony, a pony she recognized but wanted to leave her alone.

“I’m sorry,” Taz closed his eyes as he said the words, “What you said is the truth, all of it. I’ve just been blind, you know. Blind to what I had, blind to all I’ve done. I’m sorry I made you mad at me. You’re my best friend Ana. I mean that. You always have been and you always will be. Please, please don’t be mad at me.”

She looked up, “Taz,” there were tears falling from her eyes.

“Eyes as beautiful as yours should never have tears in them,” he helped her to her hooves and wiped the tears from her eyes.

Ana grabbed him and hugged the stallion for all his worth. Taz returned the hug with all the strength he could muster. That action earned him a small ‘eep’ from the mare for his trouble.

Taz found himself with the oddest reaction at a time like this, he actually found himself giggling at that sound. Something that even Ana started doing.

When they broke apart, she was smiling, sincerely. “You want to go back to the palace?” he asked.

She shook her head.

He smiled, “What do you want to do?”

“I want to go to the fair with my favorite uncle.”

“You know what; I’d love to take you there too.”

The two started walking back, covered in dirt from the impromptu tackle. Taz laughed as he looked at the two of them. Together they made quite the pair.

“Hey Taz?”

“What’s up?”

“I’m… I’m sorry I hit you,” Ana looked forward at that, she had never hit another pony in her entire life. Not once.

“I’m not.”

She looked at him, “What?”

“I said I’m not. I needed that; I need someone to slap the stupid out of me every once in a while. Otherwise I might end up like the twins,” they both chuckled at that. It was not meant as an insult, they were simply poking fun.

“Still, it was wrong of me to do that.”

“Ana, will you promise me something?”

“Pinkie promise.”

“Whenever I need something like that, I want you to be the one to do it.”

“Wait, what?”

“You heard me, I want you to always slap me when I’m being dumb,” there was a serious expression on his face, one that told Ana he really wanted her to do this for him.

“Ok, I pinkie promise I’ll slap you when you're being dumb.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Taz said with a smile.

The two managed to move past the event from the restaurant together. They had each said things they did not meant too but needed to say, that purging, while not intentional, did cause some relief; relief for finally letting it go, for getting that weight removed from their shoulders.

“What do you want to go on first?” Ana asked as Taz paid for the tickets.

He thought about it, “Perhaps we should go on one of the bigger rides first.”

Ana looked around, the bigger rides looked… scary for lack of a better term. With the exception of one, “You mean like the Ferris wheel?” She asked, hopefully.

He laughed, “Oh no, I’m talking about the Enterprise.” Taz gestured with a hoof to a large ride that looked somewhat like a Ferris wheel, yet that is where the similarities ended. The ponies got into their own separate compartments in small groups and then were spun around from centrifugal force. At full speed you were almost completely vertical off the ground.

“Or the Windseeker!” he gestured at a ride on the other side of the fair. In this one ponies would get in swings in teams of two, the ride would lift them all off the ground, and spin them around at an insane speed.

Ana felt her knees go weak at being in any of these rides. She was legitimately scared at the prospect of being on one. However, she remembered what Taz said in the restaurant, about being strong, about needing someone who could be strong for him.

‘Nighttide would do it.’

“Ok,” she hoped her voice did not give away her fear.

It did.

Taz looked at her. “I know they might be intimidating to look at, but I figured it would be best to do the big rides first, we didn’t exactly eat before. After we do, these are the rides that will make us throw up. If you don’t want to, we don’t have to.”

“It’s ok. I want to, really.”

“Really?”

“Really, as long as you’re by my side the entire time.”

“It’s a promise. Now come on, lets go hit the Windseeker!” He took off running, showing all the enthusiasm that Ana did not feel.

While Taz could not wait to put one hoof in front of the other, for Ana, every step was an endurance test. She had to force it. “You coming slowpoke?!” Taz shouted.

“Yeah, I’m coming,” Ana said back.

When Taz could not hear her, he stopped and started laughing at his stupid mistake. He had gotten too far ahead, Ana was going back, back to the way she was when he was not around. He started walking back.

Ana felt herself growing smaller and smaller in the crowd, despite not getting there at opening, the crowd was not letting up, in fact it only seemed to be increasing in size. With Taz no longer by her side, it was bad for the young unicorn, really bad.

As if by magic, she suddenly felt better. The crowed did not seem like that big of a deal, she felt more confident, more sure of herself. She did not even need to look for the reason why. The coat pressed against her own told her that much. “Thank you.”

“No need,” said Taz, “I shouldn’t have run off like that, sorry.”

She rested her head on his shoulders at they walked. It did not matter that she was scared of some of these rides, or that she had not eaten since breakfast. All that mattered was that Taz was by her side. As long as that was true, she could take on the world.

“Hey Taz!”

They paused, unsure if they heard that correctly. Taz looked over, his suspicion confirmed. “Blaze, Flash! What are you two numbskulls doing here?!”

The pegasus twins flew to the two young ponies. The looks on their faces spoke of no good, at least not to Ana’s eyes. “Oh, we’re being punished.”

“Yeah, totally.”

“You guys do know the definition of the world ‘punished’ right?” Taz asked, a grin on his face. Even at their worst, these two were always fun to be around.

Blaze snickered and Flash just sighed, he got the joke, his brother did not. Not that Blaze needed a reason to laugh at something. “Anyway,” started Flash, “Dad was a little tired, he said we could come here for the day before our training started in earnest with Rainbow tomorrow. We asked Starlight if she wanted to come but she made up some excuse about studying a new spell.”

“Give your old man a break, he’s pushing sixty after all.”

“Yeah-yeah, anyway. Lets hit the fair up together. We’re going to be way to busy to do it over the next two days and we have to head back after the weekend’s over.”

“I…” Taz paused, he did promise to hang out with them next time they were in town, but he also promised to spend the day with Ana.

“I’m sorry, Ana. I gotta keep my promise, my first promise. You can come with if you want.”

Ana looked at him, her eyes wide, “But... but, it was just supposed to be just me and you,” her voice was barely a whimper.

“Speak up girl, you’re not a mouse,” Blaze said with a laugh, Flash punched him in the shoulder.

“I know, but I promised them last month, I’m sorry, but I gotta honor that. If you don’t want to hang out as a group, we can come back tomorrow, just the two of us, if you want.”

The world was growing bigger and bigger, while there were only three sets of eyes on her, to Ana, it felt like a million. She started shaking, thoughts ran a mile-a-minute in her head.

“Okay,” she barely managed to squeak the words out.

“Thanks Ana, you’re the best,” Taz placed a hoof on her shoulder before turning around to join the twins on a fun night out.

He failed to notice that the young unicorn started to cry.

Author's Notes:

Never compare promises, when they are mutuality exclusive, always keep your first promise.