Author's Note

This chapter starts off where I left the last one but then takes a sudden jump. It's nothing drastic, only a very tiny time skip, so don't worry; I'm not jumping years in advanced with this chapter, I just thought it needed to be done for the story to progress further. Anyway enough of my rambling, ENJOY!

Family Sticks Together

"Lyric..." The kind queen started as softly as she could, making him look up at her with a calming look, "You know what this means for you, don't you?" She asked only like a mother could to her child; loving and hopeful with a caring stare as she brushed her hoof over his head tenderly. "It means that you have... You have certain responsibilities you're going to need to adapt." Her face changed lightly into one of worry as she kissed his head and slowly rubbed it evenly. "You're going to have grow up very fast for somepony your age and it won't be happiness all the way, you know that, right?" She hopefully asked in her motherly tone.

He chuckled at her and held her hoof to his heart, "I grew up the moment I moment I found Philomena." He told her, causing her to be uplifted and brush his cheek. "I know what's in store for me, mom. I took care of Philomena the very second I felt her cracking open... Family sticks together and doesn't waver. I know what's important, mum." He said with a look to the door; peering through the hole and seeing a bright pink mane shoot down. "I'm pretty sure they know it too."

The door was shot open and Celestia ran with tears of joy flying through the air and dripping across the floor, leaving the boy to titter and smile. "You're okay... Oh by mother, you're really okay..." She sat at his bedside with a pouting look across her muzzle. "You saved us..." She nearly bawled into his sheets. "You fought somepony when you knew you couldn't win; you scared us so much when you yelled..."

His heart sunk at that and he sighed deeply. "I didn't want you two to see me... Like that" He said dejectedly, making Celestia look up and back at the little blue foal slowly making her way to into the room without a single word, climbing his bed and sitting in his lap. "Please don't say anything else..." He almost teared up as he saw Luna's sad looking face. "Please..." He pleaded.

She instantly laid down and crawled up so she could wrap her arms directly around his neck and nuzzle herself into the crook of his neck. "I love you so much, brother..." She told him in a hushed tone; never letting go for a second. "You said family sticks together... And we aren't going anywhere, right?" She asked the teary-eyed white alicorn with her chin resting beside his hand. She nuzzled it affectionately and tried to make him place it on her head.

His eyes were leaking but not a sound was let out of his mouth. He just sat there, raising his hand along her muzzle and stroking her mane slowly, wrapping an arm around the pony princess sitting on his chest and looked up at the parents; nothing but love showing in their bright eyes.

"As she said Lyric... Family sticks together; they don't get angry at each other. For love is the only reason you can feel anything bad towards them; you feel it inside that something made you counter it... But in the end-." Eternia pulled his wive beside him and smiled, "They only grow stronger." He said with a knowing smile.

Lyric's face was filled with every emotion all at once as his lips quivered, "Y-you... You are the most amazing family I could have ever asked for." The throne room was filled with quiet crying and cuddles that could have lasted forever if he so chose...

As the season grew colder and Eternia kept to his promise of letting the townspony know of his new decree; Lyric was unveiled to the world letting all who live inside their kingdom and even some who didn't, know of the child prince who walked straight into the hearts of everypony he met; there wasn't a pony or griffin around that didn't know the name of the crowned prince, a new addition to the entire world and a new addition to the family that keeps on growing. Time is a fickle thing and not everypony has as much as they wish; but to Lyric it was as if time flashed by, but always stayed still. In a way, Lyric was the luckiest boy in the world. For he could watch and remember every moment this world has to offer; past and present were his show of a lifetime. Only a few months had passed by since his unveiling, but to him it felt like a milisecond. He saw the world through a different lense than anypony else; and that meant he could do anything he wanted as long as he had his sisters at his side and love in his heart.

The Coming Winter...

The snow slowly fell upon the town's roofs like a blanket of pure white, the sun high in the sky and beating down warm and gently rays to the welcoming embrace of the first day of winter; the ponies of the small town all rushed and bustled about, trying to secure provisions in case this winter was a tough one and trotted around in the many streets of the marketplace, almost no room being passed for ponies to quickly run by.

It was a grand old time, one of celebration and and great love; Hearths Warming. The greatest time of year where any who knew it's name could easily tell stories about the last one they shared with friends and family. Even the more desperate of ponies seemed to be jumping in cheer and seeing the world through a snowy yet brighter mirror.

Everypony who was anypony knew of this time of year and the love it held; all but one...

" 'uick, 'Ia! 'all 'um!" The boy tried to say through his own little practice of the year.

"I told you it happens and what do you do?" Celestia told him irritatingly as she lit up her horn a faint rose color and sat beside her sister on the bench. "You do it anyways..."

" 'Ell it's 'ot 'ike I could 'ust 'eave it 'e!" He tried to reason as his tongue began to feel numb. She's never going to let me forget this, I know it... He thought as he looked at his tongue stuck to a lamp post and sighed, feeling the warm breath on his tongue. They were walking through town in their brand new scarves and small booties knitted by their chief expert; Soft Stitch, and had decided that maybe a few winter theories needed to be tested. The first of three happened to be that the first snowpony made of the year was the whitest and most pure snow; they debunked that myth as soon as Lyric created a snowpony out of the first snow he could find... Which happened to be the only spot left where the leaves weren't cleared... The second myth was that if you touched your tongue to a lamp pole in winter; it would be stuck there forever and you'd never get it back. That wasn't exactly the whole truth, but as far as they knew... It seemed as much for Lyric.

A small pony family walked passed the boy and gave a small greeting, "Why hello, prince Lyric!" The stallion said as the small foal went to his side. "I would very much like to thank you for the help you gave me last week; I don't think I would have been able to finish off those scrolls without your help." He said brightly, trying to sound as nice as he could for the time of year.

"Oh, 'on't 'ention it!" He said with a thumbs up to the family. "I 'ove 'ighting!" The stallion cocked his head and simply nodded a fast goodbye as he quickly rushed his child and wife to follow. " 'Obly 'ought I 'as 'essing 'ith em, 'ah 'ah 'ah." He tried to chuckle.

"I literally kept saying, 'Star Shine did the same thing last year and she was stuck there for over an hour until she was able to have somepony come by and see her' over and over again!" She fumed as she watched the family leave, quite annoyed but at the same time chilly. The younger of the princesses shivered and caught the attention of the older sibling. "Oh Luna, are you cold?" She nodded and stuffed her face into her dark and light blue checkered scarf, almost disappearing into it. "Haha, well then lets get you some coco. What do you say, hm?"

"Coco!" She exclaimed and hopped off the bench and into the snow, going straight down and popping her head out of it. "Oh come on!" She screamed and jumped out of the pile, shaking it off and stuffing her face even further into the soft wool. Celestia shook her head at her young sister.

" 'Ah 'ah 'ah 'ah." He tried to laugh as he witnessed Luna's small incident.

"Well then we better hurry now shouldn't we?" She asked rhetorically and earned a single nod from her little sister. She took her hoof with her own and chuckled at Lyric's unfortunate little predicament he got himself into. "Well, we'll see you later then Lyric." She grinned and began walking away before calling out, "Mother will send a guard, she sent back a green pulse!" And continued on their way towards where the coco vendor was boiling up some of her famous liquid chocolate gold.

" 'Oh is 'oy..." He said to himself as they vanished into the marketplace. He never enjoyed it when the guards were the ones to come to his rescue in situations like this; they seemed bored with him at every turn for doing things a child would do... Or at least what this child would do.

"Prince Lyric, you truly must stop this mischief some day or it will be the end of you." The guard told him as he appeared from the small walkways and steadily poured warm water from his cantine, gently prying the boy off the lamp post. "I mean really; a lamp post?" He said incredulously.

"Hahaha!" He stuck his tongue out and started wobbling it around, making wild slurping sounds, anything to feel his tongue. "Thanks a bunch, Tim!" The boy credited as he sped off to the hot coco booth down the way.

"My name is-!" He tried yelling at him but then tampered off and sighed. "I swear he thinks we really don't have names." He said to his fellow gaurdspony.

"Do you honestly want to be the one that tells him?" The chuckling guard asked his friend. " 'Cause I sure as heck don't want to answer the questions that kid can fire off." Saber Edge smiled at his own words and tapped his partners helmet with a hoof, "Lets get back to our post before they get stuck again."

"So you actually melt the marshmallows into the chocolate?!" Luna screamed loud enough for all of Ponyville to hear as she quickly downed the small sample cup of coco the amazing mare placed in front of them.

"You got it; it leaves a gooey and creamy feel to the coco before I add even more chocolate and milk. But I'll never tell you the recipe." She winked a the blue filly and got a small giggle in return.

"Hey!" A sudden voice called out, drawing all three of their attentions. "I knew you'd still be here..." He said as he got closer and slipped on a puddle of ice beneath the snow, sending him sliding and flying through the air into the snow right in front of the booth. Celestia chuckled and poured a small sample cup of coco onto the pile, turning it a chocolate brown and seeing it slowly fade away as lyric began munching away until his face was clear, "Oh my gosh!" He yelled absurdly loud. "This is the greatest thing I've ever tasted!"

"Haha, I see all the royals seem to like my coco." Coco Jelly said to the small prince. "Here, why don't you all have a full cup, it's my pleasure." She told them as she banged on her brass-wood contraption, pulling the lever and letting the creamy hot chocolate drain into three good sized paper cups. "Enjoy little ones!" She told them as they started walking away, thanking her immensely for the large helpings.

"So I take it the guards were nicer this time?" Celestia asked as she watched him take a sip and dip his tongue into the coco to defrost his partially numb muscle.

"Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah; but they still told me to knock it off." He smiled and took a large sip, the warm chocolate leaving a brown mustache across his upper lip. "Not like I can help it, everything's just so much fun around here!" He told his sisters as they walked through the village to find their waiting companions.

"Hehe, I think you should probably wipe you-" Luna tugged on her scarf and shook her head with an adorable little grin on her face. "-Nevermind." She quickly said and leaned in beside her sister to share a small giggle at his misfortune, earning a quizzical stare from their brother.

"Okaaaaaaaay then." He continued to sip and continued to gain a larger and thicker stache of chocolate to which the girls could almost nearly take if it wasn't for the constant stares of curiosity they received from him.

"Why good afternoon, prince Lyric." A passing pony offered as he gave a rather strange look at his face. One to which Lyric gave back and caused the stallion to chuckle as he trotted passed.

"Okay seriously, what is it?" He said with an almost half inch of chocolate mustache.

"Ahahahahahaha!" The girls toppled over to their left and fell to the snow, laughing as he looked between his nose, going cross-eyed as he saw the chocolate formation.

"You couldn't even feel it?!" The lunar princess cackled as she went to his side and grabbed his green and brown checkered scarf, flapping once as she jumped and wiped it off. "Therrrre ya go!" She smiled sweetly at him while Celestia let her giggles taper off and got back to her hooves.

"Sometimes I worry about you, Lyric." The celestial filly told him with a small shaking of her head.

"It's just way too good!" He tried to reason as he gulped down the rest of the chocolaty liquid and ran over to a trash bin, sliding back to them through the snow. "So where are they anyways? I thought we were meeting them at the hot chocolate booth?" He asked Celestia.

"Well Star said she might be running late and to go to the field if she wasn't there by the time we were... So I guess we're heading to the field." She declared as she started walking before either of them could argue with her.

"Hop on, sis." He said with a quick smirk to Luna as she readied up her jump; her whole body leaning down and tongue poking out the side of her mouth as she jumped and flapped once, gliding to her favorite position. "Gosh sis, you're getting dead on with it now!" He said excitedly.

"I know, I know!" She told him happily as she sat with her hind legs on his shoulders and forelegs over the top of his head; her face just barely reaching over the top of his small green toque. "Onward!" She said with a hoof pointing to Celestia.

"As my princess commands!" He yelled and began a small even pace to catch up with his other princess.

"Huzzah~!" The filly shout out for the first time, causing Lyric to laugh like a fool. Only she would ever do that... He thought with a brightening face.