It makes sense that Daddy Hooves would have his eyes on Cloudfire... but he was torn. What was motivating him wasn't anything bad -- stress, change... love for his daughter. He knew in his heart that the last pony Cloudfire would turn his strength on would be Derpy. It was because of that that he was going to trust him. Though there was a tiny part of him that was whispering "this is a bad idea" over and over ... he had to ignore it because the evidence was there to simply outweigh it.

Cloudfire and Derpy were both very quiet on the way home. She looked briefly back at him and smiled... that was it for most of the trip. After the time passed, she found herself gradually leaning towards him, until she found herself resting on his chest, listening to his heart beat... which started out fast, but then gradually slowed down the more relaxed she became.

Cloudfire had options to get help. He'd never attacked another pony who didn't first mean to do him harm... how could he convince either pony of that, though? He had a few options, and would be heading to the library without Derpy... to talk to a certain Unicorn over tea.

When the group got home, Cloudfire helped with the bags. Mrs. Hooves and Dinky were both eager to talk to all three of them -- about the day, about what they'd got, about another story... but were all turned away for surprisingly "no reason". Sufficing to say, they were confused to find all three relaxing quietly -- Daddy Hooves on his chair, the two in their room -- looking somber and not in the mood to talk until dinnertime, where they talked about a wonderful day... and, afterwards, Cloudfire read to the three before bed.

Up to dinner and even a bit after, they felt bad lying, but... what good would the truth really do any of them? For Daddy Hooves to say Cloudfire's no longer welcome in a place he probably never would go again seemed silly, pointless and contentious... but it felt like an elephant for a few hours. The older Unicorn was strong and simply shrugged it off... seeing no good solution that wouldn't just result in more hurt. Derpy was happy to still have Cloudfire, and just wanted to forget about what had happened. She curled with him for a few hours in their room... squeezing him tight. Cloudfire was happy to be home and surrounded by ponies that cared about him. That in itself felt pretty good.

Author's Notes:

Whew!

To those of you who've read this far thank you very much! I hope you've enjoyed as much as I've enjoyed writing :)

Part 4 was the single most difficult part I've written yet. Not only is there a lot going on in this one, it's Cloudfire-centric, a character which has held a bit of mystery so far, and full of ups and downs for that character which if a segment like this is done wrong it can totally suck the life out of a story. Instead of having a few giant issues to tackle, in this part we have a set up for the camping trip and catharsis for Cloudfire. He basically has a mini break down and normally the part would be over there, but they had more to tie up. A lot of smaller problems get resolved in this part, a few big ones, and we explore his character even more. Taking the audience to a city seemed really out of place, but I think it worked.. I tried to make it feel alien.

It appears there will be 2 more parts. They'll probably be shorter than this one and more focused :)

Thank you again! I'm gunna repeat myself before closing that this one was hard as heck to write O.o