The burnt orange glyph of Rising Star’s and Aileris’ combined magic deposited them onto their front lawn. Directly in front of them was not their house but a cloud of ephemera that had once been part of their cottage’s roof.

“Wow, I thought that would already ‘ave disappeared,” Aileris said. “Guess I forgot how long it usually takes for big solid things.”

“Aye, but it looks like it’s going t’crumble any seco—”

A burst of telekinesis blew a hole through the remains of the roof, and a unicorn who usually resembled Rising, but shorter and with a blue mane, strode through the cloud. Guiding Star shot the two of them a glare, and his shoulder sagged as he sighed. “You had better have a good explanation for what the hay is going on here. Son?”

“Well, Dad, ye see…”

She trailed off as Guiding blinked hard, and Aileris picked up where Rising had left off. “Things got complicated.”

He looked between them. “Aileris’ magic flare up again?”

“Aye.” He nodded.

“You ended up looking like one another?”

“More like we ended up being one another,” Rising said, cringing.

“Guiding, what’s taking so long out there?” asked a mare from inside the house.

“We’ll be right in, Squall,” Guiding called back over his shoulder. Then he turned back to face them. “Any idea how long this is going to last?”

Aileris shrugged. “Another minute, another day or two, who can tell?”

He stood staring at them for a few more moments before sighing. “Your mother’s going to love this.”

“You think she will?” Rising asked, tilting her head.

Aileris giggled as he started towards the house. “Oh aye! She’s finally getting the daughter she always wanted!”

Rising’s jaw dropped and her eyes went wide as Aileris and Guiding walked back towards the house. Shaking her head, she disappeared in a blaze of light before reappearing at Aileris’ side.

He looked over to her and smiled. “See? You just had t’want to teleport here, and my magic did the rest, right?”

“Aye. But ye think my mother will want t’pretty me up? She never seemed like that type.”

Guiding stopped in the doorway as they reached the porch. “Rising, remember how your mother brought Aileris out to get groomed once a week for three months after she mentioned once how she likes to be brushed? She’s not that type because she doesn’t have a daughter. Or, well…”

He shrugged and shook his head as he entered their house, Aileris following behind him. As he, too, passed through the doorway, Star felt a stray thought streak through Aileris’ mind.

“Rising,” he called back, “brace!”

She tilted her head as she walked through the door, then realization dawned as an orange and blue blur hurtled towards her.

“Mommy!”

Rising stumbled back a step as Hyper Nova wrapped his hooves around her neck in a flying tackle and proceeded to nuzzle her, buzzing his wings to stay latched on.

“I love ye too, Hyper” she said as she pried him off herself to give him a hug. “Now, go give yer mothe— yer da’ a hug too.”

Rising tossed Nova with an underhoof motion towards Aileris, and the colt used the boost to cross the gap between them, kicking his little legs as if it would help him remain aloft. But he bumped into Aileris’ chest with his nose and bounced back, landing on the tile on his rump. Not a second later, he sprung up and tried to wrap his forelegs around Aileris’ neck, but it was wider than he could reach. Aileris placed a hoof beneath Nova for support and rubbed noses with him as Squall Line walked into the room, Guiding Star beside her.

She looked from Rising Star to Aileris and back to her husband, her wings flaring out, and a grin spread across her face. “So they are really switched!”

With a single flap, she crossed the room and gathered Rising into her hooves. “Why, you’re just the gift that keeps on giving!”

Rising motioned with her head to Aileris, who was still playing with Nova, letting him climb onto his head like a little mountain climber.

Squall put a hoof to her mouth. “Oops. This’ll take a bit of getting used to.”

She placed Rising back on the ground and went over to Aileris while Guiding moved to stand beside his temporary daughter. They smiled, watching as Nova hopped from Aileris’ head to Squall’s slightly higher one, laughing his little head off.

Guiding tilted his head towards Rising and spoke out the side of his mouth. “Don’t think I didn’t notice that the bottom of your tail is gone. Please tell me that you were just… having fun and not in any danger.”

She flushed and started stammering.

Putting a foreleg over her Guiding bent to nuzzle Rising and whispered, “Son, when that smoking debris landed on the lawn and not you… Well, I sent your mother and Nova into the other room. If anything had happened to you, they would’ve been inconsolable. I would have been… You were already late, and you’re always so punctual that I—”

Rising blinked a few times then returned the embrace, nuzzling back. “Sorry, Dad, I didn’t think about how that would look from the other side.”

“Just don’t scare me like that again, or I’ll kill ya.”

“Love you too, Dad.”

“Damn well better.”

Nova zipped across the room and squeezed between their legs to poke Star’s barrel with a wingtip, making her giggle. He kept tickling her with a pinion, asking, “Secrets?”

“Aye, here’s a secret for you,” she said, picking him up in her hooves. Leaning close to him, she whispered, “I love you lots, but don’t tell anypony, right? Our little secret. Shhh.”

He gasped then nodded, eyes sparkling. “Shhh.”

“And,” Star added, “I also love doing this!”

She bent down to blow a raspberry on Nova’s belly, but stopped before she did, instead tickling him with her other forehoof. He squirmed and burst out laughing, flailing his legs and wings. Across the room, Aileris and Squall also giggled, watching the show, and even Guiding cracked a smile.

Nova squirmed from Rising’s loose hold and dropped to the floor, his hooves clacking against the tile, and he lay there, holding his sides as he fought for breath. Barely a few moments later, he stood up and pointed.

“Mommy’s tail’s all flat!”

With a flap, he scooted under Rising and between her legs and stopped beneath her tail, the shorn-off hair rustling as his ears rubbed through it. Rising had just turned her head to stare back at Nova when he flipped over to his back and put his hooves up on the cut surface.

“Like a table!”

Guiding looked over to Squall and Aileris, and they shared a shrug as Rising said, “Now, Hyper Nova, you’re not supposed to play with other ponies’ tails; it’s rude.”

She flicked her tail, but Nova let out a whoop, and he stayed attached to the end of it as it swished up.

Almost as one, Rising and Guiding Star tilted their heads to the left, staring at the colt, who swayed back and forth like Rising’s tail was some sort of pendulum.

“Well,” Rising said at length, “that is an interesting application of pegasus magic. Anypony see that before? I would attribute it to Wild Infant Magic Syndrome, but he’s three.”

Three sets of eyes turned towards Squall Line.

She looked between them. “What? It’s new to me too! Though…” she looked up at the ceiling then down to her husband “… it does seem like it could be fun. I’ll have to see if I can learn that.”

She put a hoof to her chin and hummed softly to herself, eyeing the ceiling and rustling her wings, shooting the occasional glance at Guiding, who coughed and looked away.

“Well then,” Aileris said, “it must just be his natural chaos affecting his pegasus magic like mine does to me unicorn magic.”

Her guess was met with a nod from Guiding, a shrug from Squall, and a “That sounds about right,” from Rising.

Nova kept swinging from Star’s tail, causing her hips to shake back and forth, and at the top of each swing, he pointed at his open mouth with a hoof.

“Looks like it’s somepony’s snack time,” Guiding said.

“Yay!” Nova flipped off Star’s tail and flung himself towards Guiding, who caught the haphazard tangle of limbs in his sea blue magic and then placed Nova on his back.

Aileris headed off to the kitchen with them while Star said, “I think I ought to, um, wash up.”

“Oh!” Squall’s hoof dropped to the floor, the clack making Star’s ears twitch. “That sounds exactly like what you should do — and what I should help you with!”

Star drew in a breath then let it out slowly. “Yes, Mom.”

Squall clapped her forehooves together, flaring out her wings for balance. Star sighed quietly to herself as she climbed the stairs with Squall right behind her. The two mares passed through the hall into the master bedroom, and Star entered the bathroom.

Standing in the doorway, Squall watched as Star first washed her face then started to brush her teeth. “I see you like to practice good oral hygiene.” She sketched a pair of quotes in the air with her wings for emphasis.

Star nearly choked on the toothbrush and blushed almost as red as Aileris’ coat currently was. “Mom!”

“I always thought you’d take after me if you were a mare. I never guessed you would that much.”

“Mom! I swear to Luna, if you don’t stop that, I’m going to put myself deaf. I’ll do it!”

She put up a hoof. “Okay, okay, but you were super obvious about it. It took you a lot longer to get back than usual, and then you didn’t seem to want to touch Nova with your muzzle. And,” she said, drawing it out, “you picked up Aileris’ accent, which you usually do after Linking, and I know you love doing that afte—”

Star didn’t hear anything else; a coppery glow sprang up around her ears, leaving her in silence save for the sound of brushing her teeth. As she tried to put everything else out of her mind, her mental bond with Aileris grew, allowing her to just barely feel that somepony — she assumed it was Nova — was tugging on his mane.

Downstairs, their foal stood on the table, making him just tall enough to pull at Aileris’ mane, asking for another section of orange. He broke off a wedge with his magic and asked, “What do ye say?”

“Please, Daddy! Orange!”

“Aye, that’s right,” he said, passing it to Nova, who crammed it into his mouth.

Guiding stood off to the side silently, watching parent and foal, when the doorbell rang. Aileris glanced over to him, and he nodded, walking out. A few moments later, he came back and tapped Aileris’ shoulder.

“It’s a package. They say they need Rising Star to sign for it.”

“Well, just go get… Right. Well then.” He shook his head and changed the aura surrounding the orange, inviting Guiding to take it. “Be a good lil colt, now,” Aileris said before walking out and to the front door.

On the way, he called upstairs through their connection. [Star, that gem dust ye ordered is ‘ere. I need t’sign for it.]

[Right. Well then, let’s see. I’ll help you like you did for me. Just let yourself feel how I do it.] She started tracing out “Rising Star” on the mirror with the toothbrush.

Opening the door, Aileris saw a fidgeting pegasus. “‘Ello, Wind Dance.”

“Hello, mister Star! Package from the city, a small one this time.” She dug around in her left saddlebag and pulled out a small pouch. “Feels like sand to me, but what do I know? I’m just a courier; they don’t tell me anything.”

Aileris leaned towards her. “It’s gem dust for a little something I’ve got going.”

She looked at the pouch on her hoof again. “Oh, wow! That explains why the city needs you to sign this form.” She held dug out a page that read ‘City Enchanter Materials Requisition Form (Personal Use)’ across the top and hoofed it to Aileris.

He took it in his magic and conjured a quill and ink, trying to pay more attention to how Rising was still signing it upstairs, trying to put the motion into some sort of shared procedural memory. Aileris nodded and, barely looking at the paper, signed on the dotted line.

Inspecting it, he found it looked nothing like his typical hornwriting. [Thanks for the ‘elp, Star. I didn’t want t’talk my way out of signing for this nice filly,] he thought to her while passing back the paper and taking the pouch.

[Filly? If it’s Wind Dance, you’d better tip her. Mom would be upset if you didn’t.]

“Wind Dance, wait!” Aileris called out as she turned and spread her wings.

“Yes?” Dance turned back to see Aileris’ horn glowing and a small pile of bits floating down the hall towards them.

Her eyes lit up as he floated them to her. “Oh, thank you!”

“Thank Squall Line… me mom. She sees something in ye.”

“I— Wow. I don’t know what to say.” Dance shrugged her shoulders a little as she dropped the bits in a bit purse.

Aileris smiled. “Just make something of yerself.”

“I’ll finally be able to afford renting out that venue I’ve been eying!” She reared and pirouetted then took to the air. “I’m going to be late for my next delivery, but who cares? Bye, and thank you so much!”

Grinning as he walked back down the hall, Aileris thought to Star, [Well, she seemed really happy with that tip. I was just hoping that couriers’ tips weren’t that much higher than restaurants’.]

There were a few moments of mental silence before Star responded. [‘Leris, did you tip at twenty percent on something that cost two hundred bits?]

He paused in the doorway, shuffling a hoof on the floor. [Um, aye…]

[My mom is going to love this. I usually only give her three or four.]

Rising looked in the mirror and saw Squall standing there, her ears down and her wings tucked limply at her sides. At the sight, Star’s ears flopped back too, and the spell around them dissolved. She turned around, looking down, and half-raised a forehoof.

“Look, Mom—”

“No,” Squall said, cupping Star’s cheek with a hoof, “I’m sorry. I get overenthusiastic and overcompensate. When you were young—” she laughed “— younger, at any rate, I built sex up to more than I should have, and it hurt you. I tried to swing it back the other way, make it into a lighthearted thing to joke about, and that’s hurting you too. Everything I try ends up hurting you…”

At the quaver in Squall’s voice, Star looked up to see her eyes watering.

“Mom? Mom, please, relax. It’s not that bad, really,” she said, smiling. “We both know that I didn’t get my melodramatic streak from Dad… Okay, maybe I got my worrying from him, but you’re making this bigger than it is. I would just appreciate if you left what’s between myself and Aileris alone, and I really don’t want to hear about your sex life.”

Star’s eyes went wide and her head shot back as if struck, the implications of what had set her off dawning. “Oh Celestia, is that why I’m an only child?”

“About half of why…” Squall mumbled, rubbing her forelegs together.

Star spluttered for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and holding it. When she let it back out, she said, “Anyway! You’ll be glad to know that Aileris gave Wind Dance about forty bits as a tip.”

“Oh?” she asked, wings ruffling. “Oh, that’s fantastic! She’ll finally be able to afford that venue down by the bay that’s she’s been eying! And I’ll have to give Aileris a big hug — you could learn a thing or two from her about generosity… What?”

Raising an eyebrow, Star said, “I didn’t think you really knew Dance.”

“I don’t, but I know about her.”

“Yeah… I’m trying really hard right now to remember that you’re not a stalker. It’s not going well.”

Squall laughed and clapped a hoof on Star’s back, nearly knocking her off her hooves. “Oh, you are so cute when you’re conflicted!”

She gasped, and her wings flared out. “I just had the best idea!” Grabbing Star, she lifted her off the ground, carried her back out of the bathroom, and placed her on the bed.

“Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”

With a flap that rustled Star’s mane, Squall Line took off down the hall. Tilting her head to the side, Star only managed to say, “O-kay…”

Shaking her head, she thought to Aileris, [Heads up, Mom is on a mission.]

[Thank ye. Oh, there she is n—]

Squall skidded to a halt in the kitchen and wrapped Aileris up in a wing-hug in the same instant. “Oh, thank you for helping out Wind Dance. Now,” she said, pulling back, “ribbon!”

“Welcome, Squall, but ribbon?”

“You know, rolls of cloth that make things pretty. About this wide,” she said, holding her forehooves apart a bit. She smiled when Nova jumped up and latched onto a foreleg.

“Up on back!”

As Squall placed Nova between her broad withers, Aileris shrugged. “What color ribbon do ye want?”

“Blue, the color of Ailer— your… body’s eyes.” She coughed and looked away. “Still getting used to that.”

“Eh, don’t worry about it. It’s not going t’last too long anyhow. And ye know,” she said, her horn glowing and a roll of ribbon popping into existence, “Rising could ‘ave done this too.”

Squall took it from Aileris’ magical grasp. “Oh yes, it must have slipped my mind since I’m not really… um…” As Nova scampered up to the top of her head, she looked over to Guiding, who sighed and rolled his eyes.

“You know it doesn’t bother me, Squall.” He turned. “Aileris, she’s not really used to living with a unicorn who can make things out of nothing. There’s a reason Rising went to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns and I didn’t.”

“Gramma, Gramma, go fast!” Nova said, tugging at Squall’s ears.

“Hyper, be a good lil colt now.”

“No, no, it’s okay, dear.” Squall waved a hoof then looked up to Nova, who was leaning so far over her head that he almost fell over. “You want to go fast? Hold on!”

She spread her wings and shot out of the room, zipping up the stairs to the shrieks and giggles of Nova.

“She spoils him,” Guiding said as they left.

“Aye, but then, she spoils everypony.”

Guiding nodded and glanced outside. “It’s getting to be about time to head down to the docks and close up. See if anypony has any pressing concerns I need to address. Come with me?”

“Um, aye, of course,” Aileris said, tilting his head to the side.

[Star, I’m going out with yer dad to the Dancing Leaf.]

[Have fun. I know I sure will,] she thought back as Nova leapt from Squall’s head and flew across the room towards her.

He almost made it but undershot, his muzzle bumping into the side of the mattress. He flopped back to the floor and shook his head, then Star wrapped him up in her magic and placed him on the bed beside her.

“Let’s see what Grandma has planned for us, Hyper.”

He nodded then latched onto her right foreleg as Squall showed the ribbon that fit neatly inside her broad hoof.

“I’m going to braid it through your tail! Won’t that look pretty?” she asked, wings flapping at her sides.

An icy weight settled in Star’s chest, and outside in the street, Aileris stumbled over nothing.

[Oh Luna, Aileris, what do I do? She wants to braid my tail! If I say no, she’d just ask why, and you know I can’t answer that!]

[Star, calm down, hun. Just tell ‘er that ye want yer mane braided instead. She’s going t’say it’s cute, I promise.]

Aileris found Guiding staring at him when she looked up, and he asked, “What was that? Rising need something?”

“Aye,” Aileris said, following him again, “he had a problem with Squall’s plan.”

Guiding hummed to himself as they walked through the streets of the outskirts of Baltimare. “Ribbon… and suddenly a daughter… and Rising had an issue with it. She wanted to braid it through his… her tail, didn’t she?”

Aileris blinked at him then looked away and bit her lip.

“Oh, I’ve known about my son’s… fascination since he was about fourteen. Honestly, did you think that Rising could hide something like that from me?”

“Well, when ye put it that way, no.” Aileris giggled then put a hoof to his mouth.

“So,” Guiding asked as they continued, “what did you end up saying?”

“I told Rising to just ‘ave Squall to braid the ribbon into his, er, her mane.”

“That ought to work.” He chuckled a few times. “She’ll think it’s cute.”

“That’s exactly what I thought!”

As they passed a confectionery shop, The Sweet Tooth, Guiding lowered his voice. “Yes, and that thinking between you two is very useful. Not only does it let you just talk to one another from far away, it even lets you forge a signature without starting a changeling hunt. And we wouldn’t want that, would we?”

Aileris’ eyes widened. “I ‘adn’t thought of that.”

Back in their home, Star’s eyes also widened, and she sat up straighter. Squall pulled back from the braid she was working on and watched Star’s ear twitch as if she had heard something.

“Dear, what is it? Nothing bad, I hope.”

“Hm? No, no, everything should be fine. Dad just pointed out that if it hadn’t been for our mental bond, we might have started a changeling hunt with that signature for the delivery,” Star said then relaxed back into Squall’s reach; she was really enjoying having her mane played with.

“Oh dear, that would be awful.” She frowned as she resumed weaving the ribbon through Star’s mane.

Nova hopped up and down, wings flailing at the air. “Play changelings! Play changelings!”

“Hush, Hyper. It’s not playtime now.”

He settled to the floor, face scrunched up into a scowl. Star sighed and conjured some wooden blocks in front of him. Nova just glared at them until she picked them up with her magic and floated them around his head. He lunged for them as Squall continued to work the ribbon through Star’s mane, both mares smiling as they watched his antics.

Only another two pleats were done when Nova stopped paying attention to the whirling blocks. “Want play changelings!” he said, stomping a tiny hind hoof loudly enough to make Star wince.

“Now, Hyper Nova, we don’t stomp in the house.”

The color of his coat shifted towards red, and smoke began wafting off his wings. “Want! Play! Changelings!”

Behind her, Star heard Squall sigh. Two spells immediately came to mind, and she cast one first, hoping not to need the second. A wave rolled down her body, turning her coat a deep purple.

“Look! I’m purple! Isn’t that silly?”

Nova pouted as his primaries caught fire, and he sat down, crossing his forelegs across his chest.

As the fire raced across his body, Star’s second spell covered the room in a glistening sheen, protecting it from the heat. She mentally reset a days-without-incident calendar from four to zero days as Nova burned on the floor.

“Well,” Squall said, “at least he’ll probably sleep alright tonight. That usually leaves him pretty burnt out.”

Star put a hoof to her mouth to stifle the giggles that sprang up. “Mom, we’re not trying to encourage this.”

“True, but just look at him. He looks so adorable like that. I could just cuddle the little guy so much… you know, if it wouldn’t give me third-degree burns.”

Watching as Nova burned, pouting, on the floor, the corners of Star’s mouth turned up. At first, she couldn’t quite tell why, but then she realized that below the flames the chaos magic that fueled them roiled — and it reminded her of Aileris. It occurred to Star that the chance of any other unicorn finding chaos magic relaxing, even beautiful, was very likely zero.

As he stepped onto the docks, Aileris smiled too, and Guiding raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, Rising’s just thinking I’m beautiful again.”

“Funny you should mention that,” Guiding said as the Dancing Leaf came into view. “I’m going to have to ask you to make sure that we’re actually, really in private.”

Aileris sighed and began to narrow the flow of thoughts between himself and Rising as they continued walking. By the time they reached the ship, it was a trickle, barely more than a sense of direction and mood.

They stopped in front of the ship, and Guiding looked up at it silently. Aileris stood beside him, his tail flicking occasionally as he waited for whatever was coming.

“You see the figurehead on the prow?”

Aileris nodded. It was a pegasus mare — a quite beautiful one, he realized — whose coat and feathers were carved like leaves.

“She was made by earth ponies and pegasi to haul heavy freight as quickly as the wind could carry it. And then, it was captained by a unicorn — will be till the day I die.”

He turned to Aileris and sighed. “Let’s go to my cabin. We don’t want anypony hearing much of this.”

Nodding, Aileris extended a leyline to touch Guiding and another up to the deck of the ship. With a burst of energy, he pulled them both through the arching path, disappearing and reappearing with a flash.

“You didn’t have to teleport us, you know. We could have used the gangplank like normal ponies.”

Aileris stared at him, raising an eyebrow.

“Point taken,” he said, opening the door to his cabin and letting Aileris in.

There was no furniture in the room beyond the map table and the bunk at the far end, a bunk that was large enough for two ponies even if one was very large. Aileris noted this with a smile as he remembered how often Squall accompanied her husband out to sea, precisely every time he went.

He went to stand beside the table as Guiding closed the door behind them. “Alright,” Aileris said, “what’s so important that ye don’t want Rising t’listen in? We planning a surprise party this time?”

Guiding snorted. “No, it’s just, well… This ship, everything I do, I try to stick to my morals. Not just everypony but everyone deserves to be given a fair chance. StarLine Shipping Co. hires more griffons and zebras than the rest of Equestria’s eastern seaboard, you know. I was the first in my family for generations to marry a non-unicorn, and I made damn sure to instill those same morals into Rising from the day he was born.

“And then there was you. When he told us what you are, I thought that the stress of working for the Princess had snapped him. But no, you’re honest to Celestia chaos incarnate — though you do a fantastic job of controlling yourself for the most part.”

“Guiding…” Aileris shook his head and started again. “Dad, please, ye know I do what I can t’stop this stuff from ‘appening, but there’s only so much I can do.”

With a sigh, Guiding put a hoof on Aileris’ shoulder. “For my sake, thank you. But for my son’s… Aileris, I just wanted him to have a happy, normal life. But now, I don’t think he could ever be happy with just normal. Look at yourself, your situation, your friends, your son! That makes him happy; the sort of things that make my brain hurt to even consider are the things he thrives in.

“What do I understand? I run a company. I captain a ship. I’m simple, plain, an old seadog who can’t learn any new tricks. But he—” His voice broke. “Rising understands how to mold time itself to his will, travel to a world of his own making, can send the Princesses a letter if he wants and actually get a real response. What am I to that?”

Aileris sighed and put a foreleg around the smaller stallion. “Yer his father. Yer the one who made ‘im who he is. Everything he does is because ye put ‘im on that path from the beginning. Who else could’ve raised a colt into a stallion who would love something that could do this?” he asked, gesturing at his body.

Guiding laid his head against Aileris’ neck and sighed. “Thanks. You’re too kind, you know. I just… I feel like a hypocrite, sometimes, when things like this happen. I say that I’m okay with it because I need to support him, but it just hurts my head. And despite that… I need you to do it more often.”

“More?” Aileris drew back and stared at him.

Guiding sighed. “Yes, more. You don’t know what it was like, watching him grow up. He would befriend anyone. He had two griffon friends when he was eight in addition to pretty much his entire class. I don’t know how he kept track of it all in that marvelous head of his. When we sent him off to Canterlot when he was ten, he took to it like a fish to water.”

Guiding swallowed, and Aileris put his head down, his ears going flat already.

“But then his fifth year rolled around, and… you know. It changed him. He was like a completely different pony, reclusive, lost every friend he had. Before the Princess snatched him up, he was planning a solo trip around the world to study the global thaumologic gradient. Probably only a few hundred ponies even know what that means, and he was going to toss away any chance at companionship for it.”

Turning away, he slowly shook his head. “Seeing him like that killed me, Aileris.”

Aileris walked to the other side of the table and stood in front of him. “And then I came along, his mare in a tattered cloak, come t’steal his ‘eart away.”

That got a single laugh. “Well, that’s one way to put it. But yes, you gave Squall and me back our son… and then swapped bodies with him.”

Giggling, Aileris said, “Aye, and if that’s the sort of thing ye want me t’do even though it makes ye uncomfortable, it shows ‘ow good a father ye are.”

Guiding reached up and hugged Aileris’ neck with a foreleg. “Thank you, really. Now, I actually do have business to do, so you just head back home. I’ll see you tomorrow, probably.”

After returning the hug, Aileris headed for the door but stopped before opening it. He looked back. “You know, Rising is going to hear this whole conversation sooner or later.”

“I know.” He shook his head and shrugged.

Aileris waved, opened the door, and disappeared in a flash, letting the mental bond open wide once more. [I’m headed home! You’d better have dinner ready, wifey.]

A good deal of mental spluttering came from Rising before anything intelligible made it through. [I cook just as often as you! When I’m not in the middle of a project… or putting together a new spell… Okay, fine.]

Trotting through the city, Aileris giggled like a fool. [Maybe ye could cook it on Hyper. He still burning?]

[He fell asleep, kind of just smoldering now. I could see about grilling some peppers on his back if you want.]

[Sounds delicious! I’ll be there soon!]

He continued on, humming to himself and listening to the phantom sounds of tiny snores and sizzling. With his now longer stride, Aileris found that he was actually passing some of the other ponies making their way home, and that was just at a walk. He grinned then broke into an easy trot and found himself passing almost everypony. The speed came easily, and soon the wind whipped through his mane as he galloped through the streets for no reason other than he could.

[I’m glad you’re having as much fun in me as I usually have in you,] Rising thought to him, remembering some choice times for effect.

After a few moments, Aileris responded. [That’s not fair! I’m out in public!]

[Never stopped you before,] she thought, swishing her tail deliberately while setting out a couple bowls and filling them with steaming peppers and kale.

[And everypony thinks that I’m ye.]

Rising stopped and blinked before letting the memories go. [You make a remarkably good point.]

Then, Squall walked into the kitchen and passed Rising the oven mitts. “Hyper’s all tucked in and sleeping like a log. You two can probably have a nice dinner date tonight,” she said, tracing quotes in the air with her wings.

Rising coughed and blushed. “Uh, thanks, Mom. You have a good night, too. Love you.”

Squall stooped down and placed a kiss on her forehead. “You too, my very little Star.”

They went to the door together, and Rising waved as Squall took off for home. Then, she walked upstairs to Nova’s room and leaned on the doorframe, looking in. A smile came to her face as she watched the little colt’s barrel rise and fall, his hind legs and wings twitching in his sleep.

Star felt a warm rush of emotion overtaking her as she watched him sleep. It burst through in a giggle, and her eyes went wide.

“Oh no…”

Their mental link thundered open once more, blazing a line of light between them. With a lurch, Rising found himself skidding around a corner at a gallop.

Head met wall, and wall won.

He rose, groaning, and put a hoof to his head, checking his horn. He sighed. “Well, that could have ended badly. Oww…”

At the stares of everypony around him, he shrugged. “Some things you just have to wonder about.”

With that said, he teleported away.

When he arrived home a few minutes later, Aileris was waiting for him at the door. “Ye sure yer alright? I was running so fast, and—”

A final teleport brought their lips together. After a few delicious moments, Rising pulled back and whispered, “I really am okay, see?”

“Aye, except for that nasty bruise. It looks like yeh’ve got another horn growing out of yer forehead!”

“Yeah, well… it looks like your mane is the prettiest thing in Equestria. So there. Ha.”

Aileris giggled and tossed her head, motioning inside. “Ye flatterer. Come on. We’ll get ye some ice and ‘ave ourselves a nice dinner date.”

Rising smiled as he followed her inside.

That sounded wonderful.

Author's Note

To those who stuck around, thank you for reading!

This song ought to provide a slight hint towards what the next story will be.
Radiarc - Preparing for the Night

Finally, thanks to my editors: SaiKimura, Cynewulf, Feather Scratch, and especially Midnight Spark.