Blitz walked inside his home, an unhappy expression on his face as he absorbed his surroundings.

“Firefly honey?” he called out.

“Yes, dearie?” Firefly answered. She wasn’t visibly anywhere, but Blitz knew her expression was just as tired as his was.

“Why are the kids duct taped to the floor?”

“I needed them to stop moving around the living room for an hour.

“They were fooling around again?”

“They’re two year olds, what do you expect?”

“I expected them to be in a crib, or at a daycare, or with a nanny, so we can work for this family in peace. I did not expect us to use more duct tape than a college engineer.”

“I didn’t use that much duct tape…”

“Honey, they look like they are about to burst from their tape cocoons to become beautiful pony-sized butterflies.”

“Well maybe they want to be butterflies, Blitz. Did you ever think of that?”

“…Honey, I left last Friday to help train some of the new royal guard recruits. Today is now Monday. That means I left for 72 hours. How many hours of sleep did you have?”

“About twelve. I think.”

“Dear, how long have you been awake today?”

“About eighteen, why?”

“Honey, it’s morning.”

“And I’ve been up since noon yesterday. Your point?”

“…Go to the bed; Take a nap for two hours, then get ready. We’re going to Scroll’s house to help you relax.”

“But I don’t wannaaaaaaa…”

“NO. We are GOING, and that’s FINAL!!!. Go take a nap. Now!”

“Blitsieeee…”

“Go to your bed right now, young lady! Or, rather, our bed, technically…”

“Do I have toooooo?...”

“Yes! Now go!” Blitz never let his eyes off of the two tape cocoons, but he could hear and imagine his wife slowly crawling up the stairs. “I swear, I share this house with three children,” he remarked.

“OH DON’T GET ME STARTED ON YOU BLITZ!” Firefly yelled from the stairs.

“GO TO SLEEP HONEY!” Blitz yelled back. He slowly trotted up to the cocoons, ready to save his children from the evil clutches of metamorphosis.

“Aww, and you had to use the extra-strength tape too!”

“Yup, the Terrible Twos. I remember those days as if they were yesterday…” Scrolls sighed distantly, as if he was recalling fond memories. He was sitting down on a lawn chair outside in the backyard of a yellow house.

“You had fond memories of Fluttershy when she was two?” Blitz asked Scrolls. He was lounging on another lawn chair opposite from Scrolls.

“Oh no, not at all. If she wasn’t crying up a storm she would be as silent as death, which I still can’t consider which was worse,” Scrolls’s wife was massaging the neck and upper back of Firefly, who had closed her eyes in utter bliss as she let herself be putty in the mare’s hooves.

“I would (*oh, right thereee…*) definitely take the silence, with what the racket our kids can come up with. They once somehow managed to get in the cupboards and pull out some of the pots and pans we use to cook. I got a complaint from the next-door neighbor asking why we were letting her grounded son use our house for his horrible rock band. Didn’t help that the colt later asked if the two could join the band,” Firefly said. The group laughed at the last sentence, imagining how a young high school aged colt going through an emo phase walked up to a most likely already tired and irritable Firefly and ask her if her two children were available as band members.

“Hey…remember our school days?” Blitz asked the group.

“Oh, yeah, I remember. You and Firefly used to hate each other. From elementary to flight school. How you two managed to agree to get married is beyond me,” the mare said.

“Well, we fought over who was the fastest pegasus alive. Then we just agreed that we both were the fastest pegasi alive. At that moment Blitz proposed; Weirdest proposal you would ever hear, in a stadium of all places!” Firefly laughed.

Blitz blushed. “You were going to leave for a whole month! It was then or never!”

“Enough you two. As long as you’re both happy, we’re happy with whatever madness led up to your marriage,” the mare smiled. She stopped massaging Firefly’s back and grabbed another chair to sit on.

“Thank you, Scoops. Don’t even get me started on the wedding. You know Blitz actually saw me in my dress before the ceremony?” Scrolls and Scoops gasped.

“It was an accident, really! Someone had ripped off the signs of which bathrooms were which, and I stumbled into the wrong one. I only saw the coat-tails, I swear it on my life!” Blitz tried to justify himself, but he stammered and almost fell out of his chair.

“That’s still bad luck, Blitz. Maybe that dragon baby is that bad luck, huh?” Scrolls suggested with a smirk.

“Never! Spike is an awesome son, I will never consider him to be anything negative to our family!” Blitz stood up and yelled more forcefully than necessary, leaving the other three to reel back in their chairs.

“Wow. Your husband really does love both children, Firefly. He’s definitely a lot better than most fathers I’ve had to work with. You’re respectable, Blitz,” Scoops stated with a smile.

Blitz leaned back into his chair with a huff and crossed forearms. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. Speaking of…” Blitz twisted his head around, scanning the area. “Where are the tykes anyway?”

“They’re upstairs, in little Fluttershy’s room. Also speaking of dragons, do you know what I read yesterday? I was assorting through the Cloudsdale Central library, and I came across this old scroll in the archives…

Fluttershy was horrified.

Two little intruders, both of them she didn’t know, were making a mess of her room. She knew that her mommy was not going to like the mess.

So she sat silent. Silence always brought her parents over, so why not with the two intruders?

Unfortunately, her room became more messy. Her clothes were on the floor, her bed’s sheets were ripped up, and her small bookshelf of books were strewn to anywhere that the two intruders could climb and explore.

She backed herself into a corner and cried. She didn’t want the intruders; She wanted mommy and daddy. She was so scared of the two that she tried to cry quietly, so she didn’t attract any attention.

Again, she failed.

One of the two, a baby that she could tell was not a pony like her mommy and daddy, slowly walked up to her with curious eyes. She tried to shy away into a corner with her pink hair covering her vision, but the heavy breathing told her the purple intruder was still there, looking at her. With a little shuffle of her hoof, she moved her hair in order to see the intruder.

“Um…h-hi?” Fluttershy could speak a few words, one of them a word that her mommy told her to say to ponies.

“Wah?” the intruder in front of her replied. He leaned in close to inspect her, and she leaned back in fear.

A small bang made Fluttershy squeaked in fear. The two looked to the source of the noise, where the other blue intruder was trying to pull out another book. The purple intruder crawled up and nuzzled the blue intruder, pointing to Fluttershy with a…well, Fluttershy couldn’t tell what was on his hoof. A claw? Was the intruder a kitty? It didn’t look like one, but why did it have claws like a-

Both intruders walked up to her corner and sat down, looking expectantly at her, while she shied back into her hair. Fluttershy didn’t know what to do. She could try to call for mommy, but she figured that if she didn’t come when she was quiet, she probably was at “work”, as mommy told her once.

She looked up to see the purple intruder walk up to her and wrap his arms around her. She froze. As far as she knew, only mommy and daddy would hug her. She never got close enough to other kids to be hugged.

The blue intruder cooed and walked over to Fluttershy, hugging her on the opposite side from the purple intruder. Both intruders laughed happily while Fluttershy only mewed in terror.

At some point, the blue one stopped laughing and looked up at a small desk. On the desk was a pink box that opened up to a small ballerina, who was jumping in mid-air. It was a wind-up box that mommy used to help Fluttershy go to sleep.

And the blue one wanted it.

Before the intruder could get there, Fluttershy, in a rare burst of emotion, shouted “No!” as she grabbed the box and put it behind her back. She pushed out with one hoof as the blue one tried to reach for it.

“WAHHH!” the blue one cried, as she struggled against Fluttershy’s arms. Fluttershy was scared before, but now she was angry, as she did not want the blue intruder to touch her pink box at all. The blue one stood back, furious that she did not get the coveted pink box, and lunged for it again, pushing harder into Fluttershy’s hoof.

Fluttershy held to the box tightly, and used all the strength she had to keep the blue intruder away. The two suddenly stopped when they heard another bang near them. They looked to see the purple intruder holding a book in front of the blue intruder.

Fluttershy recognized the book. It was a small picture book showing the Wonderbolts. It was a gift that her mommy recently gave her to try and start reading on her own. While she hadn’t been successful yet, that did not stop her from admiring the pictures inside.

The blue one immediately gave up on the pink box, focusing instead on the strange but interesting object that the purple one led away from Fluttershy. She considered following to take the book away from the blue intruder, but stayed back when she saw the purple one lay down the book farther away, letting the blue one inspect it and watch the pictures, cooing in awe at the sight of the Wonderbolts performing various stunts.

The purple one walked back to her and looked at her expectantly. She put the pink box back where she had it before, and looked back. She wondered what the purple intruder wanted when she felt a pair of arms around her. The purple one hugged her again, and she almost squeaked again before calming down.

The purple one helped her by showing the blue intruder a book and leading her away, keeping her pink box safe.

The purple one was a friend.

Fluttershy smiled, and she hugged back.

Author's Notes:

Let it be known that I CAN'T KEEP UP with simple little updates.

At least this is at a weekly schedule... (edit 09/03/2016: LOL NOPE I don't update frequently)

Thank you to SpikeSupreme13 for editing this chapter. I may also get another editor so as to have another opinion on some technical aspects of my writing.

Next up we'll have the duo at their first day of school!

*sniff* They grow up so fast...

Thank you Blueright for the artwork!