Rainbow Dash had been in awkward situations before, whether it was the gentle teasing only a mother could get away with, or that time Fluttershy walked in on her and Gilda having a tea party. But few really seemed to compare to this.

It wasn’t that it was the same intense embarrassment that came from those sorts of incidents, but there was something remarkably off-putting about sitting in the den, across from her wife, with the two of them trying their best not to acknowledge the fact that they were sitting across from one another. When Rainbow had opened the door and let Twilight into her mother’s house, she had fully expected the mare to get in her face, but as soon as the door opened up, Twilight took one glance at her and seemed to deflate, with a meek ‘can I come in?’ As angry as Rainbow might have been, it was a bit difficult to say no to her when she looked so vulnerable like that. She had probably been taking lessons from Fluttershy or something.

So she had stood aside, gestured for Twilight to sit down, and then the two of them had proceeded to not say another word to one another for what felt like at least an hour, but probably was no more than a few minutes.

Of course, part of the awkwardness had to do with the fact that this was the first time Twilight had ever actually been to her mother’s home. Twilight had slowly gotten less meek looking, and Rainbow kept catching her making sidelong glances around the room, mostly at the pictures on the mantle and walls. None of them were recent, and the majority of them were just Rainbow and her mother, although now that Rainbow looked, she couldn’t help but notice Bifrost showed up in more than a few of them as well. Of course, Twilight probably knew—at least in a vague sense—who her mother was, but it was something of an unspoken rule in their herd that they very rarely discussed their parental herds.

Having met Star Sparkle, Rainbow wasn’t really sure if she could blame Twilight for not being too enthused to talk about her, and Rainbow had always gotten the impression that Lyra’s Masters and teachers had been more of a family to her than anypony else. As for Lero, well, Lero didn’t really have a family. At least not one he wanted to be reminded of, though not for the same reasons his herdmates avoided talking about their families.

That thought set the fires off in her belly again, and Rainbow bit her lip. How could Twilight not get that she’s hurting Lero? They were all he had. Sure, none of their herds were perfect, but none of them were truly alone in the world, not like their stallion. Carefully, Rainbow let out a calming breath and tried to think of how she was going to broach this conversation, since it was clear her herdmate wasn’t about to make the first move.

“So…” Her voice carried an edge in it that she really hadn’t intended, but some small part of her took pleasure in the way Twilight flinched at the sound of it.

Twilight twitched her ears and snapped her gaze from the pictures on the wall to stare back at her—for a moment, Rainbow wondered if the egghead had managed to forget she was there altogether. Then she let out a slow sigh and ran her hoof through her mane. “Right.”

Rainbow opened her mouth to say something further, but it was difficult to maintain the same sort of heat in her voice that the situation warranted when Twilight wasn’t exactly fighting back. After a moment she found herself dropping her gaze with Twilight and staring at the coffee table, which looked like it hadn’t been used in a long while. It was only now that Rainbow was realizing the room was, more or less, a bit on the dusty side. Well, as dusty as clouds ever got, anyway.

“Um,” Twilight said, beginning again, “It’s… a lovely house, Rainbow.”

“Uh, yeah,” Rainbow agreed, wondering briefly if they were about to start talking about the weather. Not that she had much to say on the subject of her job at the moment, of course. “It’s my mom’s.”

“I… know,” Twilight said, then suddenly looked uncomfortable. “I-I mean, because this is where you live. Lived.”

“Right.” Rainbow shrugged. Where else would she be living? “Fluttershy tell you where I was?”

Twilight opened her mouth, and Rainbow had the impression she was in for a long story, then she seemed to think better of it and just nodded once. “I’ve come to…” Twilight’s voice trailed off, and she seemed to look at something over Rainbow’s shoulder as if she needed to gather her thoughts. “I’ve come to ask you to come home, Rainbow. We’re all worried about you. Especially Lero.”

“Uh huh,” Rainbow grunted, feeling momentarily disgusted at both her wife and herself. It was a low blow to bring up Lero being worried about her, but of course it didn’t mean it wasn’t true. She should have done more than leaving him a note, but even so… it wasn’t like she needed Twilight to remind her of that. “I was going to come back tomorrow.”

“Oh,” Twilight said, sounding somewhere between disappointed and relieved. “Good.”

“Did you tell Lero?” Rainbow found herself saying, without really thinking about it. Twilight grimaced and for a moment, Rainbow felt a brief, rage filled surge. Of course she hadn’t told him. Why would she? clearly, Twilight didn’t love Lero at all—she was just using him and—

“Yes.” Twilight shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “It was a bit difficult to explain where you had gone, without explaining what we were fighting about.”

“You did?” Rainbow hadn’t expected that. If anything, she was expecting she was going to have to explain it to Lero herself, when she got home. “That’s… good? How did he…?”

“Confused, mostly,” Twilight said with a sigh. “He wasn’t—I don’t think he’s ever really considered that possibility.”

“He’s not mad?” Rainbow couldn’t help the suspicious tone in her voice.

“I didn’t say that.” Twilight said quickly, breaking eye contact with Rainbow and looking down at the floor. Rainbow waited for her to continue, but she didn’t. For a moment, she wondered if she should go over and hug the mare, but some cruel part of her stopped her.

Still, the last thing she wanted was for the two of them to stop talking for another half hour. At the very least, Rainbow was starting to get hungry, and it seemed a bit rude if she just got up and started making herself something. So, Rainbow licked her lips and sighed. “So, now what?”

“Come home?” Twilight said, sounding hesitant. “And… and then I guess we talk about all this.”

“Right.” Rainbow agreed, if half-heartedly. It didn’t strike her as a particularly appealing thought; there was no doubt in her mind that Lero should have been included, should always be included, but it struck her that it would be particularly awkward to explain to her stallion why they might want another stallion in the herd. It was just the sort of thing ponies knew growing up, and it was difficult enough to explain these sorts of things without him looking hurt or acting upset. But it would probably come down to her; who else would he turn to?

“And then… I don’t know,” Twilight admitted with a shake of her head, “This was all just supposed to be hypothetical.”

“Are you going to admit you’re being selfish?” The words slipped out of her mouth before she had a chance to think about them. It wasn’t that it wasn’t a relevant question, and Rainbow Dash didn’t mind speaking her mind, but it was a bit harder to be so blunt when Twilight looked so tired and defeated. Between her expression on her muzzle and her drooping wings, Twilight looked an awful lot like Fluttershy, and Rainbow had always had a difficult time being mean to her, even when she might deserve it or needed a good kick in the flank.

Twilight’s eyes grew wide for a moment as she met her wife’s eyes, before she dropped her gaze to the floor and said nothing. The silence was deafening, and after a few seconds, however sad or sorry she might look, Rainbow could feel her ire rising again. Oh, of course she’d never admit she was wrong or selfish or—

“Is it selfish?” Twilight asked finally, straightening up and facing her like a mare. Part of Rainbow had almost expected her to be crying, but Twilight’s gaze remained steady. Rainbow opened her mouth to respond, but Twilight cut her off. “You keep saying this, Rainbow, but I just don’t see it.” Twilight continued, “Why is this selfish? Why is it selfish to want foals?”

“Because you’re not thinking about Lero!” For a smart pony, Twilight sure could be dumb sometimes.

“How so? Do you think he’s only capable of loving us? Or that we should be exclusively interested in him alone?” Twilight asked, poking her hoof in Rainbow’s direction. “Lyra and I spend a lot of time together, and I’m not afraid to say that I love her. Or you, for that matter— are you telling me I’m selfish for loving somepony—someone—other than Lero?”

“But Lero is human,” Rainbow said, feeling a bit dismayed as her voice took on a bit of a pleading tone. If Lero was another pony, then of course Twilight wouldn’t be in the wrong, but Lero wasn’t—he was a special case. Wasn’t he?

“If he’s so human that he can’t accept the herd life, perhaps Lyra and I should leave the herd?” Twilight asked, in a strangely toneless voice. Her face had grown stoney, as if she was trying to keep from growling at her. “Is that what you want?”

“What?” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “No, of course not. Do… do you?”

Twilight stared at her for a moment, before sighing and shaking her head. “No, Dashie, of course I don’t. And neither does Lyra. But I don’t want to choose between Lero and having children. We’re supposed to be a herd, and I think I’ve got enough love in me that I could love Lero and some other stallion just the same.”

“I… I guess,” Rainbow frowned at Twilight, feeling uncertain what to say.

“I don’t want to fight anymore,” Twilight added, getting to her hooves and taking a half-step around the coffee table. “I never wanted to hurt anypony, I just want… I don’t know, Rainbow. But I know I don’t want this.” Twilight’s wing half opened into a downward apologetic angle to match the expression on her face. She probably didn’t even know she was doing it.

“It’s okay, Twi, I forgive you,” Rainbow pulled her wife into a hug and was happy to have it returned. She couldn’t help but notice she had mentioned nothing about challenging her for the role of leadmare, although—not that she could be considered any sort of expert on the matter—she doubted apologizing to junior members of the herd was the sort of thing a leadmare was supposed to do. At least, not in Rainbow’s experience, it wasn’t.

But Twilight was right. She didn’t want to fight anymore, and there was always time in the future, when they all sat down and discussed it, to figure out where they were to go from there. It felt so weird to fight with her, especially after all they had been through. Weird and wrong. Rainbow would much rather they just put it all behind them and move on with their lives.

After a moment, the two of them parted, only to look at each other awkwardly and run their hooves through their respective manes. However flawed Twilight’s apology might have been, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but feel a lot better, as if a huge weight had been lifted off her back.

“Well, I suppose I ought to be going,” Twilight said sounding weary. Now that she wasn’t so busy trying to stay mad at Twilight, Rainbow could see the mare looked quite tired. Had she slept at all last night? Probably not. And teleporting this sort of distance probably wasn’t an easy feat either. Nor was she was in much better shape. The weight on her back might be gone, but it seemed the tension had been the only thing keeping her from feeling her own fatigue.

“What? What are you, silly?” Rainbow said, shaking her head. “Stay here. At the rate you’re going, you’ll probably end up falling asleep on the flight back and crashing into a cloud or something.”

“Heh,” Twilight laughed tiredly, “You’re probably right, but I don’t want to—”

Before Twilight could complete her thought, the front door popped open, and Rainbow’s mother trotted in, looking pleased with herself and rather excited. Cadmium wasn’t, however, alone. In line with her, and following her into the house, was Updraft. The leadmare was much as Rainbow Dash had remembered her: a pale sort of blue coat with dark mane, highlighted with streaks of silver. Of course, the silver might have been slightly more grey, and her face might be more lined with age, but it only served to make her look much more severe.

It didn’t help that the mare looked at Rainbow like she wasn’t particularly happy to see her.

“Rainbow, I’m home!” Cadmium exclaimed, her wings twitching with excitement. Obviously she had the impression she was deeper in the house, most likely because she was apparently in mid-conversation with Updraft. “I’ve got great news!” Cadmium finally glanced in Rainbow’s direction, and her muzzle split with a huge grin. “There you are! Listen, I’ve…”

The smile on Cadmium’s face melted slightly, as her gaze moved from Rainbow’s face to Twilight’s. Updraft, perhaps naturally, had noticed Twilight as well, although it didn’t do much to soften her expression.

For a brief moment, no pony said anything, and then Cadmium and Updraft bowed down, lowering themselves to the floor. It took Rainbow a moment to figure out what was going on—of course, Twilight was a Princess now. Despite attending her coronation and seeing her crown and knowing how she fretted over trying to rule ponies, seeing her own mother bowing to Twilight like she was Celestia or something was, if nothing else, beyond weird—not to mention extremely awkward. She had always seen Twilight as her equal, crown or not, and being reminded that she really wasn’t, in a lot of ways, was, if not painful, bizarre.

“Princess Twilight!” Cadmium and Updraft gasped.

“I didn’t know you were going to be here!” Cadmium continued, as Updraft twitched her wings uncomfortably.

Glancing sidelong at Twilight, Rainbow thought that she too was taken by surprise, if her open mouth was any indication. How she managed to forget she was a princess, Rainbow didn’t know. It’d be like forgetting how awesome she was, for herself. Still, it wouldn’t be a good thing to have her mother walking around with her nose buried in the floor, so Rainbow gave Twilight a nudge.

Twilight flinched and shook herself which she managed to turn into a stately shake of her head. “There’s no need for that, Miss Dash. Really! I’m not here as a princess, and even if I were, I’m still your daughter-in-law.” Rainbow noticed Updraft glancing at Cadmium, as if she was questioning Twi’s statement. Her mother probably had left out the whole marriage thing. “So, please, no bowing. No titles. I’m just plain old Twilight Sparkle.”

There was a brief moment of hesitation, before the two mares got back to their hooves, and Rainbow shook herself.

“Mom, this is Twilight,” Rainbow said, although it wasn’t exactly necessary or called for. Still, it seemed like the right thing to do. “Twilight, this is my mom, Cadmium Dash, and my…” She was careful to keep the venom out of her voice. “My mother’s lead mare from our former herd, Updraft. But you can call her Drafty.” Updraft hated that name, but Rainbow doubted she’d try to correct a princess, if Twilight started using it.

Unfortunately, Twilight was apparently too smart for that. “Pleased to meet you, Updraft, and you, Cadmium Dash.”

“Cadmium’s fine, your highness,” Rainbow’s mom said, sounding somewhat faint. “Err, I mean—”

“It’s alright.” Twilight smiled, although Rainbow thought it looked a bit strained. “Should I leave the three of you alone?”

“What for?” Rainbow asked, feeling confused, and slightly irritated. She didn’t want to spend time with Updraft!

“Well, your Mother did say she had something important to tell you,” Twilight pointed out.

“Oh, right.”

“I’m sure it’s alright if you hear this too,” Updraft said, speaking in this tone of voice she liked to use when she had something important—to her, if not anypony else—to tell everypony. “As you know, Rainbow, your mother has been talking with our herd for sometime now—” Rainbow didn’t bother to tell her that, as a matter of fact, she hadn’t known until a few hours ago, “—and I’ve decided, provisionally, to accept her back into our herd. And yourself, of course.”

Rainbow couldn’t help but notice her eyes shifting to Twilight as she said that. Perhaps she thought that her being family would mean she could get some Royal favors out of Twilight, or something. She doubted she could—if there was any pony to follow the rules, it was Twilight. She hoped Updraft wouldn’t hurt her mother when it turned out she couldn’t take advantage of Rainbow’s marriage to Twilight.

Still, Cadmium didn’t seem to be worried. “Isn’t that great, Rainbow?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed half heartedly. “That’s great.” She did her best to put on a happy looking smile for her mother’s sake, if nopony else’s.

“Perhaps you and your herd should come visit us in Ponyville!” Twilight exclaimed. “I’m sure we can make room for you all, I know Lyra and Lero would be excited to see Rainbow’s family.”

“That sounds great!” Cadmium said, nodding. “But look at me—is there anything I can get you, Prin— Twilight? Something to eat? Drink?”

“I think,” Twilight paused and yawned widely, and Rainbow Dash had to do her best to stop from getting drawn into a yawn herself. She was really too tired to be dealing which this nonsense right now. They had just gotten over once crisis, it’d be nice to just relax for a few hours before trying to tackle her mother and Updraft. “I think I might like to just lie down, to be truthful, I haven’t had the most restful of night and… Obviously I don’t want to impose anymore than I already have, but…”

“You can sleep in my room, Twi,” Rainbow offered. “I think I’ll join you, I’m not feeling so hot myself.”

“Are you sure?” Updraft said, sounding slightly disappointed, even while Cadmium nodded. “I can cook, if you’d rather—”

“That’s quite alright, Miss Updraft,” Twilight said, with a sidelong glance at Rainbow—apparently this time she had picked up on it too. They’d have to talk about this soon, Rainbow supposed. “It has been a long trip here, and it’ll be a long one getting back to Ponyville too. We’ll join you for supper, of course.”

It still took them several minutes to convince the two mares to let them go and take a nap, partly because Updraft seemed mortified that Twilight was right there and she wasn’t getting much of a chance to talk to her, and partly because Cadmium was more than a little bit upset that she had Royalty in the house and hadn’t had a chance to clean or anything. It was all nonsensical to Rainbow, although she did feel a bit put out that her mother wanted to clean her room for Twilight, but not for her own daughter.

Still, freshly cleaned or not, it only took the two of them a moment to fall asleep once their heads hit the pillows on Rainbow’s far-to-small bed. Still, they had to talk to Lero about all this, and however tired she might have been, Rainbow couldn’t help but feel a little bit worried about that prospect.

**

After the fifteenth time Rainbow Dash had doubled back and looped around her like a carefree filly, all while making ‘encouraging’ remarks, Twilight suspected her wife knew exactly what she was doing, and was doing it to purposefully annoy her. Of course, the question remained—at least in Twilight’s mind—as to whether or not it was supposed to be annoying because Rainbow was still angry, or if it was just Dashie being Dashie. The former was troubling, while the later, as annoying as the behaviour was, was more reassuring. However reassuring it might be, it wasn’t making the flight back to Ponyville much easier for Twilight.

Rainbow Dash had insisted quite stridently that they fly back, rather than using a teleportation spell to send them back. If there was one thing Dashie loved more—or at least, as much—as she loved Lero, it was flying. While she might have insisted, Twilight hadn’t really put up much in the way of a fight against the suggestion; pegasi were common enough outside of Cloudsdale, but within Cloudsdale unicorns were almost unknown, as was the sort of magic Twilight could do. Only a hoofful of ponies had noticed her as anypony other than another pegasi, but she knew if she started throwing magic around, they certainly would. It wasn’t an official visit of any sort, and the last thing she needed were for nasty rumors to start popping up all over the place.

Not to mention she was still very tired from the last teleport she had pulled off.

But now, as Twilight tried to keep her wings straight and flat as she glided, she kind of wished she had fought harder. Between becoming an alicorn and dealing with the fallout from being crowned, she hadn’t really had the time or energy to invest in learning to fly well enough for these long-term endurance flying situations. She wasn’t falling out of the sky, yet, but Twilight could tell from the way her back and chest muscles were tightening that she was probably going to be very sore over the next few days.

Plus, she was nowhere nearly as graceful as Rainbow Dash was. It was a particularly cloudy day, and Twilight was nowhere nearly confident enough to go barreling through the clouds like her herdmate did—she still had trouble feeling confident enough to walk on them!—so her only option was to try and fly around them. It wasn’t hard, but often times she felt like she was over- or under-correcting and generally making herself look very silly.

“Come on slow-poke!” Rainbow Dash cried as she twisted her loop into a corkscrew, flying back along the path Twilight had just flown, leaving trails of rainbows all around her. How Rainbow Dash did that, Twilight still didn’t know. For some reason she had always just assumed it was something the more showy pegasi did, but now that she had wings, it was clear there was some sort of magic involved. “I don’t know why you’re taking so long.” Rainbow added, in a smug sounding voice.

“Do you want me to be as fast as you?” Twilight queried as she twisted the edges of her wings to take her on a lazy arc around the next cloudbank. “Or faster?”

Rainbow Dash flew up beside her—well, floated up beside her, on her back, making the whole thing look effortless while she laughed. “Faster than me? I don’t think so!”

Twilight grumbled something incoherent and eyed the next set of clouds. It wasn’t the largest cloudbank she had seen that day, but it was rather wide and deep, much like a model of an iceberg Twilight had once seen. She’d have to go over it. Or through it, given the trajectory she was currently on. Which really wasn’t an option.

Taking a deep breath, Twilight tucked her legs up against her body and flapped, trying to gain a little bit of height so she could go over the cloud. However, as she flapped, the several hours long flight had clearly taken it’s toll: most of the flight, Twilight had focused on only moving her wings minimally to save energy—in theory—but now her muscles decided they were going to seize up.

She almost made it. She really did. For a second, Twilight thought she had—then her belly caught against an outcrop of cloud matter, and the next thing she knew, she had tumbled through the air, rolling on the surface of the cloud before coming to a messy stop with her face buried in the cool cloud and her rump undignifiedly over her head. Celestia only knew what shape her wings were in.

“Whoa!” Twilight didn’t bother looking up as Rainbow dropped onto the cloud by her head. “That was awesome!”

For a moment, Twilight just breathed through the cloud, feeling her body ache, before she sighed and got her hooves back under her. “I’m glad you enjoyed it,” she grumbled, as she gave her body a once over. She wasn’t really hurting that badly; partly, she imagined, because of her new body. But of all the surfaces she might have collided with, cloud was a good one. It had probably saved her from more injuries.

“Pff,” Rainbow said—Twilight could hear her rolling her eyes. “Little tumble like that? That’s nothing! We’ll make a stunt pony out of you yet!”

“Right.” Twilight ignored the substance of her herdmate’s statements and shook her head to clear it, while she rotated her wings. Hopefully the muscle seizure was just a temporary setback. “Can we rest for a moment?”

Rainbow looked like she was going to object, before closing her mouth and just shrugging. “Sure, we’re pretty much home as it is.”

“Huh?” Twilight’s head shot up. By her estimation, they should only be halfway to Ponyville by now. “You must be mistaken, Rainbow, we didn’t fly that fast.”

“Well sure,” Rainbow waved her hoof airly through the air as she smiled smugly, “if you’re a normal pony, maybe. But I know all the tricks! Like flying in the East Cloudsdale Jetstream.”

“The East Cloudsdale Jetstream?” Twilight repeated, feeling a sense of alarm, although Rainbow apparently took her rhetorical question for a real one.

“You know, the wind-thinger that delivers clouds to the eastern parts of Equestria,” Rainbow explained. That would, of course, explain why it seemed so utterly cloudy throughout the trip.

“Isn’t that kind of dangerous?”

“Nah,” Rainbow Dash laughed dismissively. “But, anyway, we’re here. Ponyville should be right down there.” The mare pointed her wing towards the far side of the cloud, and after taking a moment to frown at her, Twilight sighed and walked—not flew—over to the edge, taking care not to trip.

If Ponyville was indeed just over the edge, perhaps she could glide down gently and just walk the rest of the way. Although, to her displeasure, she couldn’t help but notice that her legs seemed fairly weak from disuse as well. Hopefully she wouldn’t be out of commission for too long, but she’d probably be lucky if she wasn’t dead-tired for a week. How Rainbow managed to stay so upbeat, Twilight didn’t know. Though, she was a semi-professional athlete.

“See?” Rainbow asked as Twilight stopped at the edge of the cloud and peered over, down to where Rainbow thought Ponyville ought to be. If it was there, Twilight couldn’t tell. There was a thick layer of clouds— fog, really, although from a distance it looked more like a thunderstorm that had forgotten to stay in the sky—laying below them, covering the ground for a good distance.

“Not really,” Twilight told her, before glancing to her left—sure enough, in the distance, Twilight could make out Canterlot Mountain, if not the city herself. Which reminded her that she better send a letter off to Celestia, explaining everything before rumors of her mysteriously turning up in Cloudsdale reached her. However, the presence of the mountain just confirmed what Rainbow was telling her.

“Huh?” Rainbow Dash sounded confused, and as she flapped over to land beside Twilight. Seeing what she was seeing, the confusion turned to anger, before settling down into exasperation. “Oh come on!”

“I take it this wasn’t planned,” Twilight teased gently.

“I’m gone one day, one bucking day, and it’s all gone to hell down there!” Rainbow groaned, rubbing her face with her hoof. “I should have known! Ugh!” Rainbow rolled her eyes. “I’m going to kick the flank of whoever screwed this up this badly, I swear!”

“Well, it’s not like you told anypony where you were going, Rainbow.” Twilight pointed out gently; she didn’t exactly want to push the point, but it was true nevertheless. “Besides, I’m sure you can clean this up no problem. Five seconds flat, right?”

Rainbow gave her a look like she had suddenly grown a second horn. “Sure, for clouds, this is some sort of super-fog. It’s going to be a pain to clean up.”

“Oh.” Pausing, Twilight wondered if she should offer to help; friends did help one another, of course. Yet, at the thought, her wings gave an uncomfortable twitch, reminding her she’d be much better off on the ground. “Do you want to… go home first?”

As confident as Rainbow appeared, Twilight could tell the mask slipped a bit as she contemplated seeing the rest of the herd again. Twilight wasn’t really looking forward to it herself, even if she hoped Lero had calmed down since she had left the day before.

“I guess I better,” Rainbow admitted at last, “but I really can’t stay long.”

“I know.” Twilight nodded. “We’ll hold off talking about anything really important until you can join us, at least.”

Much to Twilight’s embarrassment, getting down from the cloud was much harder than she anticipated. Neither of them wanted to waste too much time sitting around, and despite Twilight’s exercises, when she took to the air again, it was obvious that she wasn’t very stable. Stretched out, her wings twitched and trembled, and on top of that fact, her muscles were protesting quite loudly too. It was doubtful she had done any permanent damage, but after a few seconds of trying to hover, she fell back to the surface of the cloud in a heap. Much to Rainbow’s amusement. Her other option, of course, was to teleport down, but being not completely sure where the streets were, or how far up they were, the notion was at best foolish, and at worst extremely dangerous.

Finally, Rainbow Dash came up with a solution that involved crafting what Lero had called ‘water-wings’ and helped her control her descent. All the while poking fun at her. By the time they had made it through the cloud far enough that they could start to see the sides of buildings, Twilight had decided she’d rather just risk trying to float down on her own.

Naturally, as soon as she pushed her herdmate away, her wings gave out again and she fell the rest of the way to the street below.

Years of magical mishaps had made Twilight far more resilient than she looked, and her ascension had only added to her natural strength, but neither of that was particularly comforting when she fell right into a cart of apples that somepony had left in the middle of the street. As Rainbow Dash giggled herself out of the sky, Twilight had the unpleasant job of extracting herself from the apples—many of which were now pulped and coating her body—and stumbling out onto the street.

“I suppose that’s one way to get down,” Rainbow said, as she apparently made an effort to stop laughing. Whether it was because the humor had worn out, or because the dirty look Twilight was giving her was sinking in, Rainbow finally glanced away and looked at the streets around them. “Where do you think we are, exactly?”

Pausing her attempt to pull an apple off her horn so she could clean herself properly, she gave the street a once-over and tried to think. In recent years, Ponyville had grown, but Twilight had lived in the town long enough that she knew where everything was; Rainbow was probably better at it than she was, but for her Ponyville was a series of roofs, not streets. It only took her a moment to find her bearings. “I think i know where we are—come on. The sooner we get home, the sooner you can get this mess cleaned up.”

It was a silent walk, and somewhat eerie. As Twilight walked, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread building in the pit of her stomach, and Rainbow wasn’t looking too happy either. It didn’t help that the fog around them made everything dark, like being in the Everfree forest, and sounds were muffled to the point where Twilight wasn’t even sure there were any other ponies out on the street besides themselves. Probably not, if they could avoid it.

All too quickly, at least for the fearful part of her psyche, the Library’s trunk emerged silently from the fog. She glanced at her wife, and slowed the pace of her steps, since it seemed like a good idea to let Rainbow Dash go first; but as she slowed down, so too did Rainbow, and it was obvious Dashie was just as nervous as she was. So, taking a deep breath and focusing on the idea that everything would work out eventually, Twilight trotted over to the door and pushed it open.

Not surprisingly, the library was as empty as the streets, and very, very clean. She had discovered some years ago that Spike had a tendency to clean when he was nervous, and the thought that she had been, more or less, the source of that anxiety didn’t exactly help her to feel much better.

Rainbow followed her, and seemed to glance around the room nervously. “No pony’s home?”

“They’re just in the back,” Twilight said confidently. Spike would probably still be there, at least, and she doubted Lyra would be out trying to meditate in this pea-soup of a day; and where else would Lero be?

Sure enough, as soon as the door closed, Twilight could hear someone approaching from deeper inside the structure, only for it to open and reveal Lyra.

“Welcome to—” Lyra pulled up short and paused, before smiling at the two of them. “Oh! You’re back!”

“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed as Twilight nodded. “Is Lero around? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s kind of a mess outside.”

“You can thank Applejack for that, I’m afraid,” Lyra’s smile slipped ever so slightly at the mention of Lero, and Twilight wondered if he had been stomping around the house for the past day and a half or something. “Lero’s… he’s in the bedroom.”

Rainbow frowned, and nodded slowly. “Alright, I’d better go see him… I guess.”

“I should go too,” Twilight added, although it felt like she had to force the words out more than she wanted to admit. Lero was scary when he was angry, and while she might have held her ground against him last time, she wasn’t exactly looking forward to doing so again.

“We’ll all go,” Lyra said with a nod, before catching Twilight’s eye and inclining her head ever so slightly; obviously, she understood the two of them were going to need her support, more so than they might otherwise be letting on. Twilight couldn’t help but be reminded that Lyra had probably been enduring the full brunt of their stallion’s anger for the past day and a half. She’d have to make it up to the mare at some point.

As the three of them trotted through the living spaces of the library, she couldn’t help but be reminded unpleasantly of the first time she and her friends—although she hadn’t known they were at the time—had ventured into the Everfree Forest to defeat Nightmare Moon. There was a certain stillness in the air, and the shadows seemed darker and more substantial than they really ought to be. It wasn’t merely quiet, somehow, it was as if each little noise she or her herdmates made while walking through the room was stifled and silenced before it’s time.

It seemed to take forever—and at the same time, no time at all—to reach their bedroom door, and the three of them stopped just outside of it. Even without looking, Twilight could tell Rainbow was just as tense as she was, although it was somewhat obvious from the way her wife kept opening and closing her wings as if she’d like to fly away. Although, why Rainbow was so nervous Twilight had no idea—it wasn’t likely Lero was going to be mad at her.

As much as she would have prefered to just stand there, or let somepony else do it, Twilight squared her shoulders and, after running her hoof through her mane just to smooth it out, she pushed the door open with her hoof.

Lero was sitting in what he called an ‘easy’ chair, apparently reading a book. While the rest of the house had a certain air of disuse to it, the bedroom she shared with her herd was brightly lit, and—if Twilight was being honest with herself—quite obviously used. It wasn’t quite a mess, exactly, but having spent many a night caught up in whirlwind study sessions, she recognized the feel of the room. There was a certain disorder to the way the bedsheets weren’t folded, or the unneatness of the book stack beside Lero’s chair that suggested to her that her husband, her stallion, had spread most of the past day and a half in the room. Perhaps trying to distract himself.

Twilight wasn’t too proud to admit that it hurt when he didn’t look up.

“Lero,” Twilight said softly after a moment, “Lero it’s me, I’m back with—”

Before she could finish the thought, Rainbow lept into the air and half flew, half dove at Lero as he looked up from his book at last, reacting in time to catch Rainbow mid-jump in his arms and hugging her the way only Lero seemed to be capable of.

She wasn’t too proud to admit that hurt a bit too.

“Rainbow!” Lero exclaimed, his voice somewhat muffled by Rainbow’s mane. “You’re back!”

“Uh, yeah! Of course I’m back, you big lug,” Rainbow said, her voice sounding somewhat strained. “You can’t get rid of me that easily!”

Lero didn’t say anything to that, and the embrace continued in silence, while Twilight and Lyra stood by the bedroom door. What was she supposed to do? She knew full well Lero wasn’t happy with her—and probably not with Lyra either, so it wasn’t as if she could expect the same warm treatment from Lero as he was giving Rainbow. But, on the other hoof, Twilight couldn’t leave either.

“Hey Big Guy, I heard you got all mushy on me,” Rainbow pulled back as her voice flooded with relief and a bit of her usual bravado, “while I was away?”

“You did leave without saying goodbye,” Lero said softly. It would be cliche to say that Twilight could see tears in Lero’s eyes, and he wasn’t the sort of stallion to cry to begin with, but there was relief there too. “Suddenly, in the middle of the night, and—”

“Ah, ha, yeah…” Rainbow laughed nervously and looked embarrassed. “We just had a fight, is all, it…. It happens. I guess I lost my head and all. I’m sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry about, Rainbow—really.” Lero reached out and pulled the hovering pegasus into a hug, and this time glanced at Twilight over Rainbow’s shoulder. It wasn’t quite a glare, but the message was clear, nevertheless.

“Listen, Lero,” Rainbow said, pulling back again with a goofy smile on her lips. “Celestia knows I’d love to stay, but I don’t know if you’ve looked outside lately…”

“I tried, but there was some fog in the way.” Lero’s eyes twinkled with amusement. “I assume that’s not intentional?”

“No,” Rainbow agreed with a long, drawn out, sigh, “and somepony has to fix it.”

“And that somepony is you, right?” Lero nodded. “It’s okay Rainbow, I’m sure you’ll get it cleared up lickitysplit, and we can have all the time we want to ourselves again.” He glanced at Twilight, and it took all her willpower not to step backwards involuntarily. “Besides, I want to talk to Twilight.”

Rainbow paused and glanced at Twilight, giving her a surprisingly sympathetic look, before turning back to Lero and nodding. “Okay, I’ll be back as soon as I can!”

Before anypony could reply, Rainbow flipped over in the air in one of her impossible moves that Twilight could never hope to master, and shot out of the bedroom like an arrow. How she could move so fast after such a long flight was beyond Twilight, but it really wasn’t something she had time to ponder, not right now. Certainly not now.

“Well,” Lyra spoke up, as Rainbow’s after-image trail started to fade into nothingness. “I’ll, uh, leave you two… I’ll go check on Spike, I guess.” Lyra shifted on her hooves uneasily for a moment, before turning and heading out into the hall, closing the door behind her and leaving Twilight alone with Lero—although Twilight couldn’t help but notice that Lyra’s hoofbeats stopped just short of the first set of stairs. Just within hearing range. Part of her felt a spike of irritation towards her wife: it wasn’t as if she wouldn’t find out what they said, eventually.

But, if she was honest with herself, that irritation was driven more by fear than anything else.

“So,” Lero said, leaning back heavily in his chair. Twilight had to resist the temptation to reply with the nursery rhyme Twilight Velvet had often spouted off when Twilight had begun a conversation that way—it was a strange, maniacal urge, that the analytical and detached part of her pinned down on her nerves.

“So,” Twilight repeated after a moment.

“What… happened?”

Not a simple question by any stretch of the imagination.

“We… we talked. I asked her to come home. And we did,” Twilight said, feeling more than a little bit foolish for her summary. They hadn’t resolved anything, really; Rainbow’s running away was an overreaction, of course, but in some ways, so too was going after her like she had. With a clearer head, it seemed incredibly absurd to assume that Rainbow wouldn’t come home. An absurd and baseless worry. Aside from giving herself an unnecessary workout, had she really accomplished anything at all?

“And what did you decide?” Lero asked, as he fiddled with his beard. Maybe it was her imagination, but it seemed to be far more wild than she remembered it.

Twilight bit back a sigh of frustration. “We haven’t decided anything, not really. I never intended to fix everything, I just wanted to bring Rainbow home.”

“Did you apologize?” Lero’s tone seemed to carry a tone of warning, which for reasons Twilight just couldn’t place, irritated her. “About trying to take being the lead mare away from her?”

“No,” Twilight said shortly, feeling as if it took far too much willpower to keep from snapping at Lero. “It didn’t come up.”

“Well, what of it then? Are you going to apologize, and give it back to her?”

For a moment, Twilight just stared and frowned at Lero, trying to figure out how to answer him; would she apologize? Twilight wasn’t sure. Challenging Rainbow on the issue… it had hurt both of them to do it, that much was obvious to her, but she doubted that she was really that upset over it. Although, in fairness, it wasn’t as if they had actually discussed it. Moreover, it was clear that Lyra supported her and agreed, at least on some level, with Twilight. And…

And she was sure she wasn’t going to apologize. What would she be apologizing for? Trying to look after the herd? The herd should be led by a mare who had the best interests of the herd as a whole in heart. It wasn’t that Rainbow was a bad mare, but perhaps she just wasn’t meant to look after the herd as a whole.

“No,” Twilight said finally, taking a deep breath and forcing her wings to lay flat on her back. “No, I won’t.”

“But—” Lero began, but Twilight held up her hoof to cut him off.

“Lero, I love Rainbow dearly, both as a friend and as a herdmate. And as my wife,” whether that meant as much to Lero as it did to her, Twilight had no idea. In a world of fairly transient relationships, marriage was something special. “But sometimes… sometimes, she doesn’t always consider me or Lyra, to think of us, or try to act in everypony—everyone’s—best interests. Being a lead mare is supposed to mean something. It’s power, but it comes with responsibilities too.”

“And what, you’re Peter Parker?” Lero asked sarcastically, causing Twilight to feel momentarily confused. Peter Parker? It sounded like something out of one of Spike’s comic books… Did humans have comic books? She had never asked, really. Perhaps Lero saw her confusion and took pity on her: “You think you can live up the responsibilities that come with the power of being a lead mare?”

“I don’t know.” An honest answer, if one that somewhat hedged. “I won’t know until I’ve tried. I could be a disaster. Or not.”

“Then how do you know Rainbow couldn’t be just as much of a lead mare as you can?” Lero asked pointedly, which only made Twilight’s eye twitch in frustration. Sometimes Lero could just be so blind.

Still, yelling at him wouldn’t resolve anything. At least nothing productive.

“As I said, a lead mare has to consider the whole herd, and it’s interests, not just h—” Twilight grimaced. “Not just the interests of certain individuals in the herd. Rainbow hasn’t always done that. She needs to be able to make hard decisions sometimes, even those decisions that might hurt some of the members.”

“Like expanding the herd?”

“Like considering it, even if she knows some members might be unhappy with it.” Twilight paused and sighed. “If it’s for the good of the herd.”

“Still…”

“Still, it was mean of me. And maybe a little bit wrong too,” Twilight finished—or perhaps inserted—for him. She was beginning to think that’s really what he wanted to hear from her, at the end of the day. “I’m sorry I hurt Rainbow by Challenging her, really, and I’ll tell her so… but I’m not sorry for Challenging her.” Twilight bit her lip.

“I see,” Lero said, then let out a heavy sigh and rubbed his forehead. He still looked angry, but there was confusion there too, and worry. It was enough to make Twilight’s anger and frustration with the whole situation melt, however slightly. Yet, she wasn’t sure he would appreciate her trying to comfort him right now. “Lyra said that friends sometimes hurt one another…”

Twilight opened her mouth before closing it and frowning. Something of a non sequitur, and she wasn’t sure it wasn’t rhetorical. But she still felt compelled to answer, “But it doesn’t mean we’re not still friends—or lovers. It’s not the easiest friendship lesson I’ve had to learn, but…”

Lero said nothing, instead he flopped back into the chair’s cushioned surface and slapped his hands against the armrests, staring at a point above and beyond Twilight’s head. For a moment, Twilight thought perhaps they were done, but before the silence could get stifling, Lero let out a long sigh and turned to her.

“I’m going to want to talk to Rainbow, when she gets back,” Lero said finally, rubbing his forehead. “Will you tell her when you see her?”

Somehow, Twilight doubted she could keep the mare away from Lero, and somehow she suspected she’d probably be spending the night in her old bedroom, with Spike, again. but she tried not to let any of her frustration show as she nodded. After a moment, it was clear neither of them had much more to say to each other, so Twilight turned and left Lero to… stew.

As expected, Lyra was standing just at the end of the hallway with her ears pricked up, and while she didn’t come up to Twilight, she did pull her into a hug as she reached her.

“I think that went well,” Lyra whispered as she pulled back, to which Twilight just glared at her incredulously. “Given the circumstances…”

“I guess,” Twilight said with a sigh. “I’m going to go… lie down or something. Tell Rainbow that Lero wants to see her when she’s done?”

“Of course.”

Twilight gave Lyra a kiss, and felt slightly better, slightly calmer, for it.

“Twilight,” Lyra said as she walked away. She turned to look at her. “Time heals all wounds, don’t forget that.”

“Thanks, Lyra.” Twilight tried her best to sound sincere, but ultimately she suspected she had failed. Still, it wasn’t bad advice, and, with time, perhaps this whole situation would be put behind them. Of course, they still had to resolve the issue that led to all this. At least, Twilight thought they did. But right now, that wasn’t a problem she really wanted to try and tackle. One thing at a time, as it were…

***

Lyra considered the string of her harp for a moment, before plucking it—and wincing at the discordant note that sprang to life from it. Her harp was badly out of tune, which only meant more work for her. In many ways, though, it was a bit welcome. Even if she couldn’t help but feel like the world was mocking her ever so slightly by putting her harp out of tune.

Plucking the string carefully, Lyra listened to the note—which was a C that decided it wanted to be too much of a step towards a D—and adjusted the tension on the string until she was satisfied. Then she moved on.

The real reason, of course, that her harp was out of tune had much more to do with the chaotic weather Ponyville had experienced over the past week than any sort of malicious irony on the part of the universe. Humidity always did such horrible things to Lyra’s instruments, but usually the weather was much better managed and controlled here in Ponyville. Not that she blamed Rainbow for it, of course. True to her word, Rainbow had done her best to remove the heavy fog that had formed, and for the most part the air was now quite clear, although there was still a haze on the horizon, if you looked.

There wasn’t much she could do about it, at least not quickly; according to her, the ‘meteorological doohickies’ were ‘out of whack’ and the ‘free floating lazy precipitation’ could only be drawn out of the air so fast. Somehow, Lyra suspected those weren’t the proper terms for any of the work Rainbow actually did or the problems she was encountering, but Lyra had faith that Rainbow would, eventually, set things right. Hopefully sooner, rather than later.

In the same fashion, Lyra had faith that her herd would return to its former, healthy and happy self. Although, admittedly, she was beginning to suspect that she was losing some of that faith.

The past few days had been… unpleasant, in many ways, around the house, although the terrible weather meant going outside wasn’t much of a prospect. They were all more than a bit tense, and more often than not the words out of their mouths were unusually and unnecessarily sharp. For the most part, Rainbow and Twilight seemed to get along relatively okay, although Lyra wasn’t fooling herself into believing that everything was a-okay. Perhaps Rainbow was just ashamed that she had essentially run away, and was hoping to smooth things over—although Lyra couldn’t be certain. Twilight, on the other hoof, seemed to be almost laughably transparent about trying to smooth things over.

In truth, although Lyra felt somewhat guilty in thinking such, much of the tension seemed to come from Lero. Or rather, Lero and Twilight.

Twilight hadn’t apologized to Rainbow for Challenging her, as Lyra gathered Lero wanted, and it was turning into something of a grudge. Whenever Twilight would make some sort of effort to resolve things, it would just fall apart. The latest example had come just last night.

As promised, Twilight had the whole herd meet so they could discuss the idea of expanding the herd with another stallion. They had, after supper, all sat down in the living room, Lero included, just as Rainbow wanted, and talked about it; or, more accurately, Twilight talked.

At first, it had gone well, at least in Lyra’s mind. Granted, Twilight often seemed to venture more into the mode of lecturing them as she presented the dead end that her research had produced—the dead end she suspected it would always produce. In many ways it was rather boring. Once she had laid out the problem and the proposed solution, and looked around the room hopefully, it had all gone to Tartarus in a handbasket.

Before either Rainbow or Lyra could say anything, Lero had asked, in not too kind words, if Twilight was ever going to apologize to Rainbow over what she had done, and before Twilight could formulate any sort of reply, he had walked out.

Lyra couldn’t say Twilight burst into tears or anything so melodramatic, but it had been a great blow to her; Rainbow, for her part, had looked torn, but ultimately had taken off after Lero, leaving Lyra to try and comfort Twilight.

Perhaps, on whole, Twilight shouldn’t have stated her position as baldly as she had done the first day back. Honesty might be the best policy, and key to friendship, but there were ways of being honest that weren’t necessarily so brutal. Yet, just as truthfully, Lyra wasn’t really sure Twilight could apologize. You can’t take back a challenge to a lead mare’s authority. If a herd supported the challenger, then the balance of power would shift, if not, depending on how badly the herd sided against her, it might indicate that that mare wasn’t a good fit for the herd, or perhaps all the members in the herd weren’t compatible.

She wasn’t sure Lero really understood that, and she wasn’t sure if he could learn it while he was so angry. It was impossible to teach an angry student, her senpai had taught her, like building a dam while the river was still flowing.

It was, in a word, a mess, and Lyra didn’t know what to do. Bonbon had no insights, and she suspected Twilight’s friends were at just as much of a loss to help her, too. Fluttershy was too passive to put herself into the sort of position Twilight was in. Applejack, she gathered, was somewhat neutral about the whole thing, while Pinkie Pie had never been in a relationship with another pony or herd longer than a month, and Lyra deeply doubted double-frosted cakes would solve anything. Rarity tried to give advice, but at the same time, from what Lyra had overheard of her comments, she was too preoccupied with the upcoming Hearts and Hooves day, and her own herd, to really be all that helpful. Perhaps after…

Lyra took a moment to frown, letting the string she had been absentmindedly trying to tune fall silent. Hearts and Hooves’ day… wasn’t that today? It wouldn’t be the first time that Lyra had forgotten the day of the week, or a holiday like this. Suddenly Twilight’s insistence that they sit down the night prior and discuss the issue made all the more sense. Lyra doubted that it was out of a desire to add some stallion as she had suggested before, but rather because she had hoped—and failed—to resolve the conflict so they could enjoy the day and move forward.

With all the fighting, days were, apparently, starting to blur together.

Ah, well… Lyra thought to herself as she sighed to herself, suddenly feeling very lonely and regretful. Truthfully, missing one Hearts and Hooves day with Lero wouldn’t mean much, but it did seem to painfully remind her of all the years she had spent the day alone and—

Before she had a chance to really consider the depressing thought, however, it was disrupted by a sudden knocking at the door.

It was faint by virtue of being the front door of the library, and for a moment, Lyra just sat frozen, only to give herself a good shake when she heard the knocking a second time. While Spike would probably answer the door eventually, it struck her as particularly strange that anypony would knock on the door of an open, public, library rather than just entering. If nothing else, it would at least distract her from her dark thoughts for a little while.

Plus, ever since the fight, Spike had been particularly moody and protective of Twilight, to the point where he might just neglect his duties to comfort her.

The mysterious door knocker was just knocking for a third time when Lyra reached the door. She paused for a brief moment to run her hoof through her mane, before putting her best customer service smile on and opening the door. Which slipped off almost immediately.

Standing on the library’s front step was a grey pegasus stallion, one who Lyra had never met before or seen—which was strange, given how small of a community Ponyville was in the grand scheme of things. More curious, however, was the fact that he seemed to be clutching a small flower bouquet, all of which, Lyra couldn’t help but notice, matched the colour of the stallion’s coat. He had a frustrated, disappointed look on his muzzle, although as soon as Lyra pulled the door open, he replaced it with a wide, somewhat nervous smile.

“Um, hello,” he said.

“Hello.” Lyra tried not to frown at the strange turn of events. “Can I help—?”

Before she could finish her query, the stallion cut her off, blurting out, “Is Rainbow Dash home?”

“Rainbow Dash…?” Lyra found herself echoing. If she didn’t know better, she’d think this pony was here for a date—but this was the first Lyra was hearing about it, if that was the case.

“Or Bell-Bellerophon?” He quirked his smile up a little bit more, which made him look a little bit overeager—if somewhat adorable for it.

“Who are you?” Lyra asked finally, and only partly because she hoped asking would give her time to think.

Truthfully, Lyra wasn’t completely sure where Rainbow Dash or Lero were, although Twilight was, as far as she knew, up in her old bedroom with Spike. If she had to hazard a guess, she’d assume Rainbow was out working to fix the weather, and Lero might be doing some job here or there…

Unless, of course, the two of them were off enjoying the day without Twilight or herself. Lyra bit her lip and forced the thought out of her head. They wouldn’t do that, not to them—Rainbow certainly wouldn’t do that… No, it was much more likely Rainbow was off trying to distract herself with work, while Lero was out helping Applejack put hinges on apples or whatever it was he did.

“I-” the stallion’s smile shrank and dimmed, and Lyra found herself missing it. Whoever this pony was, he certainly looked better smiling, and she had a suspicion he didn’t smile too often. “She didn’t— I’m— My name is Dust Tempest. I… I was supposed to go on a date with Rainbow. And Bellerophon.” Dust let out a frown and looked down at the flowers in his hoof, which Lyra couldn’t help but notice were slightly crumpled, as if they had been stuffed into a saddlebag for a long while. “Or I thought I was.”

Lyra couldn’t help but cock her eyebrow at him, before she took pity on him. “Okay, Dust, come inside. Rainbow’s out working, but I’m sure she’ll be home soon—and the same with Lero.”

“I… oh!” Dust brightened immediately, and trotted into the library’s main room, looking ecstatic. “But working? On Hearts and Hooves day? Isn’t it a holiday in Ponyville?”

“It is,” Lyra agreed slowly, “but… when Rainbow was away earlier, I’m afraid the weather got a bit… out of control. She’s been working hard to fix it ever since.”

“Ah!” Dust Tempest nodded wisely as he gazed around the room, looking at the shelves and artifacts that Twilight had collected, organized, and displayed over the years. “So it’s not always this muggy? Junior Weatherponies, eh? If they’re not slacking off they’re sending your stratiforms into the cumuluses and making a right mess of things.”

“...Right,” Lyra said hesitantly, although she really wasn’t sure what he was talking about. Rainbow might be a weatherpony, and a good one, but she never talked like Twilight when she was talking about her work.

Although, she supposed the idea of incompetent underlings was somewhat more universal.

“So…” Dust said, drawing out the word as the two of them lapsed into silence. “Uh, so, you’re… Lyra?”

“That’s me,” Lyra nodded, and wondered if it would be appropriate to invite Dust into one of the main living areas to sit. On the one hoof, she supposed he was her guest, even if he was a complete stranger; but, on the other hoof, she didn’t want to seem too friendly towards him, although she supposed there wouldn’t be anything really wrong with that. Yet there was something fundamentally unusual about a pony—a stallion, no less— showing up on your doorstep, claiming he’s supposed to go on a date with your wife, and you’ve never heard of him or the date before.

Plus, a small, slightly amused sounding voice pointed out to her, the place was a real mess.

“I don’t know a whole lot about you,” Dust’s voice drew her out of her thoughts and it took her a moment to realize he sounded somewhat apologetic.

“Huh?”

“Well, you know, compared to… Lero and Twilight—Princess Twilight… or even Rainbow Dash—she’s pretty famous among us pegasi.” He explained, all while smiling in a ‘not-to-offend-you’ sort of way. She’d be lying if she didn’t feel somewhat… conflicted; it wasn’t as if she had never accomplished anything with her life. But it was hardly his fault.

“I’ve heard— I mean…” Dust shook his head. “You’re a musician, right?”

Well well, perhaps he had heard of her.

“Mhmm,” Lyra smiled, “I might not be famous like Sapphire Shores, of course, but I get by.”

His eyes paused for a moment on her behind—well, her cutie mark more likely—and she had to resist the urge to preen, however slightly. She was hardly a teenaged filly, fresh out of her first heat, for goodness’ sake. Still, there was something about Dust checking her out—intentional or not—that Lyra didn’t mind. Perhaps it was to do with the approaching estrous or—perhaps more likely and more insidious—the fact that Lero hadn’t been exactly affectionate towards her the past week. He might not have been outrightly angry with her as he seemed to be with Twilight, but she had supported her, and still found herself in the position of supporting her. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that she hadn’t been around a friendly stallion in a while.

Or maybe she really was no better than a teenaged filly.

“It’s… a harp?” Dust guessed, as he shuffled his wings and glanced out the window over Lyra’s shoulder.

“No, it’s a clairseach,” Lyra corrected, smiling at him, “it’s a stringed instrument from Scoltland. one of my grand-herdmothers is from there, and it’s the first instrument I ever had a chance to play.

“Isn’t a clairseach a sort of harp, though?” Dust asked, sounding puzzled.

“Well,” Lyra began, then paused to consider what she’d say next. They were different instruments, of course, but how to explain the differences and—

Lyra’s line of thought died faster than a Sport of Seats character when the front door was suddenly pushed open and Rainbow Dash buzzed in, followed closely by Lero. Rainbow, of course, looked happy and fulfilled, and Lero was smiling as well—but the thought that the two of them had been out together, apparently alone and spending time together—without even mentioning the possibility to her or—she assumed—Twilight, made Lyra’s heart sputter rather painfully. It wasn’t the first time the two of them had gone off on their own, and Celestia knew sometimes they could be inconsiderate, yet in this particular instance, this particular case, it was just… difficult. Maybe they hadn’t been out on some date or brunch or whatever, maybe Rainbow really had been working,and the same was true of Lero…

Or…

Rainbow was the first to spot them, or rather, she spotted Lyra first. “Lyra!” a small part of Lyra felt somewhat relieved that the mare didn’t sound particularly guilty or upset at being ‘caught’, perhaps her fears were unfounded. On the other hoof, as Lero spotted her, she couldn’t help but notice his smile became more shallow, less genuine with the sight of her. “How’s it going? I finally got that fog cleaned up and I—”

“Hi!” Dust smiled brightly and widely as Rainbow Dash finally noticed he was there, Lero’s eyes snapped to the new stallion at the sound of his voice, and Lyra couldn’t help but agree with his look of confusion. “Rainbow, it’s me!”

For her part, Rainbow managed to skid to a stop mid air, before dropping onto her hooves with a look of pure astonishment on her face. After a moment she glanced over at Lyra, who, for her part, just shrugged. How was she supposed to know what was going on?

“Dust? Dust Tempest?” Rainbow asked, which really only confirmed the fact that she knew the stallion. “What are you…?”

“We… we have a… a date,” Dust replied, looking deeply confused and slightly hurt. It must be difficult, to be surrounded by so many ponies—not to mention Lero; who, Lyra noticed, was looking rather thunderstruck in the doorway—who, while not openly hostile, weren’t particularly friendly. Especially for such an occasion.

“Um…” Rainbow stalled as she glanced from Lyra to Lero and back to Dust, looking for all the world that she’d very much like to jump into the air and high tail it out of there as fast as her wings could carry her.

However, before anyone could react, the door at the top of the stairs that led to Twilight’s first bedroom, creaked open, and Twilight emerged. At the very least, Lyra supposed, it was comforting to know that she wasn’t completely losing her ability to keep track of ponies, or guess where they might be.

Twilight’s eyes were still somewhat red and puffy, but she probably hadn’t been crying too recently, especially since her messed mane pointed towards her distracting herself with a book of one sort or another. Lyra could sympathize with that desire. Still, however broken up she might have been, Twilight scanned the scene below her in what Lyra felt was a very calm manner.

“Oh, uh, hello, Your Highness,” Dust Tempest said, half tripping over himself to bow deeply in her direction.

She ignored him as her eyes focused on Rainbow—and flicked to Lyra and Lero. “What’s going on here?”

“Uh, Uh,” Rainbow’s wings twitched and she half hovered an inch above the ground as she rubbed her hooves in little circles around one another, the very model of a filly caught with her horn in the cookie jar.

“Excuse us,” Twilight said, momentarily addressing the still-prone Dust Tempest, and fluttered down to them, jerking her head towards the far corner; her meaning couldn’t be clearer: herd meeting, now. As she passed him, Lyra gave him an awkward pat on his withers, to hopefully reassure him, before joining the others.

Lero, of course, had to sit down against the wall, and he looked somewhat dismayed; Rainbow Dash’s wings kept flicking nervously, half unfolding before she could settle them again. Twilight’s only emotion was a certain twitching eyelid, which Lyra had only seen before when her wife had been extremely frustrated and doing her darndest to hold it back. Lyra could guess why, but she really wanted to hear Rainbow’s side of the story first, before condemning anyone.

“Rainbow, what’s going on here? Who is this stallion?” Twilight asked in a blunt, if hushed, tone.

Rainbow pawed the floor with her hoof and half-smiled, half grimaced awkwardly. “His name is Dust Tempest. And uh…”

“He told me he’s supposed to go on a date with you,” Lyra filled in for her, while trying not to take pleasure in Rainbow’s flinching. “and Lero…”

“Is this true?” Lero asked, but before he could say anymore, Twilight cut across him with an exasperated, “Really?”

“You—you throw a big—” Twilight continued, sputtering slightly, although from Rainbow’s reaction, she understood every word perfectly. “And then, then… this?!”

Seeing fresh tears in Twilight’s eyes, Lyra leaned up against her—though if she noticed, she didn’t show it.

“It’s not like that, Twilight,” Rainbow exclaimed with a certain air of desperation. “I swear it’s not, Lero—Lyra! It… It was kind of an accident.”

“How do you accidentally get a date?” Lero asked; there was, of course, a certain measure of anger in his voice—but also a not unnoticable amount of humour, which only irritated Lyra to a degree. She doubted he’d be so amused if Twilight or herself had come home with an ‘accidental’ date.

“I… I just… I wasn’t really thinking straight— he was asking if we could have lunch sometime and I said I wanted to take you too and—” Lyra could tell the mare was only digging the hole deeper for herself, and after a moment Twilight shoved her hoof into Rainbow’s mouth.

“Just… Just... “ Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before rubbing the tears out of her eyes and continuing in a far calmer tone of voice. “What are we going to do now?”

“We should go on the date,” Lyra said, surprising herself and causing the rest of the herd to turn to her with varying degrees of surprise and anger. Thankfully, her years of meditation and deep thought prevented her from becoming flustered—that, and the fact that her mouth was running away with her. “I mean, look at him, the poor thing has his heart set on it—besides, it’s not like Rainbow promised him any more than this—” Lyra quickly glanced at Rainbow. “...right?”

“Of course not,” Rainbow mumbled quickly, with a blush.

“You might want to, I don’t know, catch him then,” Lero said, in a tone of voice that sounded almost too neutral to be real, as he pointed lazily towards the doorway.

Lyra craned her neck to look behind them, only to see the last of the stallion’s dusty-yellow tail slip through the open doorway. Twilight swore, and it took Lyra a moment to remember what Rainbow was so fond of reminding them of: pegasi had excellent hearing. Before she could so much as take a step towards the retreating pony, Rainbow jumped into the air and sped after him, leaving behind a multicoloured contrail for the three of them to follow.

Thankfully, as Lyra stepped out into the now-clear sunlight, it was clear Dust Tempest hadn’t made it very far before Rainbow had caught up with him, hovering in front of the stallion, blocking his path.

“Where are you going, Dust?” Rainbow asked, then let herself fall back onto her hooves—perhaps realizing she was being needlessly aggressive.

“It’s alright. You don’t want me or… anything,” Dust said listlessly. In fact, every inch of the stallion seemed woebegone, and she couldn’t help but wonder how much store he had been putting in this date. “An accident.” The last word carried a dark sort of bitterness in it. And she wasn’t the only one who noticed—Rainbow looked distinctly uncomfortable and Lero, whom Lyra could see out of the corner of her eye, frowned.

“I shouldn’t have—” Rainbow began, but cut Twilight cut her off, stepping up between Lyra and their stallion.

“This hasn’t been the best time for us… Dust Tempest, was it?” Twilight’s voice was surprisingly friendly, and composed, although she still seemed to be slightly angry looking, given the way she kept twitching her wings.

“So I heard,” Dust grunted, flicking his wings as if he was about to take off—and Rainbow’s unconsciously mirroring him. Then, he seemed to realize who he was talking to, and looked slightly abashed. “I mean, I… know, Your Majesty.”

Twilight’s eye twitched, and for a moment Lyra thought she might snap at him, before she let out a long breath and calmly said. “Yes, well, I know it might not be what you’re expecting, but if you’re still interested on taking us for lunch, I don’t think any of us have any objections.” Twilight glanced sidelong at Lero, whose eyes narrowed slightly before he purposely looked away from Twilight. “And call me Twilight—there’s no need to be formal.”

Dust looked uncertain, pawing the ground with his hoof. “Is there really any point though? I mean, you’ve already said that you’re not interested.”

“But only because we were caught off guard, really,” Lyra said, half-lying. If they were happy and healthy as a herd, and actively seeking somepony, she really couldn’t see why Dust Tempest wouldn’t maybe make a possible candidate for herd membership; on the other hoof, she didn’t really know him either—and from the sound of things, Rainbow didn’t really know much about him either. He wasn’t familiar like a pony like Big Mac or Caramel might have been. Meeting new ponies wasn’t a bad thing, of course, but Lyra would have prefered not to be blindsided. On the other, other hoof, it was only a first date—and as good of a time as any for them to get familiar with him. Plus, it helped that he wasn’t too hard on the eyes either. He had a similar build to Rainbow—although obviously more muscled and firmed up in all the right places, so it wasn’t as if he was unattractive, at least physically. “There’s no point in double guessing ourselves here,” she added, more so for her own benefit. “After all, there’s no guarantee it would have worked out between us anyway… right?”

“Lyra’s right,” Lero said, his voice unusually gruff, although she suspected it was more that he spoke up at all that startled Dust than the unwelcoming nature of his voice. “There’s no point in counting your chickens before they hatch—” Lero ignored all their blank stares, “—so, if you still want to go on a date—” Lyra couldn’t help but notice his voice seemed to be a bit dry here. “—I guess we better get about it.”

Lyra wished he hadn’t made it sound like it was an unpleasant chore that needed doing.

Dust, for his part, stared at Lero for a moment, before smiling, and turning towards him with his hoof outstretched. “you’re right, of course, I… I was being silly. Let’s start over, I’m Dust Tempest, and you must be… Bellerophon?”

Lero paused for a moment, before taking the offered hoof and shaking it. It wasn’t a terribly good shake, since Lyra suspected Dust had only ever read about the idea, rather than having done it himself, being much more common among griffins than ponies. “Call me Lero, please.”

“So… where were you thinking of taking us?” Rainbow said quickly, presumably so they didn’t have to introduce one another all over again.

For a second, it looked as if Dust hadn’t heard her, as he was still smiling up at Lero. But then he shook his head as if to clear it, withdrew his hoof, and looked around at them, “Where—? Oh, well, I was thinking of Le Bon Foin, since, uh,” Dust giggled nervously and glanced at Twilight, before shrugging. “Oh, I’ve forgotten the flowers!”

Lyra saw Twilight sigh briefly, and wondered why, before being distracted by Dust pulling the bouquet of flowers out from under his wing and passing one to her. It looked even more crumbled than it had earlier, but after a moment’s thought, she slipped the flower into her mane, and turned to watch Lero receive his. It had been, of course, a very long time since any of them had been on any sort of date, but he didn’t hesitate to put it behind his ear—although Lyra couldn’t help but notice his red hair seemed to swallow the little bit of grey up, especially with his hair not tied back.

It wasn’t until they were moving through the streets that Lyra found herself wondering how the other ponies in town would react. The streets of Ponyville were naturally quite crowded even on an average day, and, with today being a holiday, the crowds were even thicker than normal. It wasn’t that the town was shut down, obviously, but it seemed far more concentrated than normal. This wasn’t unexpected; what was unexpected were the glances and (sometimes) surprised reactions on the ponies’ faces as they trotted past. Some ponies, like Dust, were from out-of-town, so Lyra supposed she could understand their surprise at Lero; yet, even familiar faces seemed to be surprised as they headed to Le Bon Foin. Perhaps it was merely that their herd had formed—more or less—so quickly that most ponies had never seen them go on many dates, and she doubted very much that any of them had seen a Princess go on a date before—newly crowned or not.

Yet part of her wondered if her fellow townfolk—ponies she’d like to think were her friends—were really that comfortable with the idea of Lero being in a herd with them. Intellectually, they may have accepted Lero into their community and understood him to be in a relationship with ponies, but perhaps they hadn’t quite gotten as used to it as Lyra had thought.

The looks didn’t really bother her all that much, and a glance at Twilight suggested the mare wasn’t bothered by it either, unless she was keeping her concerns in check. Rainbow looked vaguely uncomfortable, and so did Lero, but whether that was from the looks or because of the sudden date, Lyra had no idea. The only one of them who didn’t seem to have noticed was Dust Tempest, who, for his part, seemed more concerned as to whether he ought to be leading them to the restaurant or following them to the restaurant, given how he kept surging ahead, then pulling back. Part of her wished she knew what to say to him, especially since he always seemed to be a little bit sad that the rest of them weren’t as eager to get there as he was; but, then, none of them were really talking, and the silence was, to a degree, stifling.

Thankfully, the restaurant wasn’t that far from the library.

The restaurant, Le Bon Foin, Lyra couldn’t help but notice, was the very same one that the three of them plus Rarity had dined at the week prior; the meal that had started off, in some sense, this whole mess. There was, Lyra couldn’t help but think again, a certain sort of irony to the world. Despite the crowded nature of the restaurant, it only took them a moment or two to be seated, although the waitress seemed to nearly have a heart attack when Dust informed the poor mare that his reservation for ‘three’ had nearly doubled in size.

“So,” Lyra said a few moments after they had sat down and ordered their appetizers. Besides speaking to the waitress, none of them seemed willing to break the awkward silence between them, leaving it to her. She had thought, perhaps, Rainbow would be more talkative, but the mare seemed to be relatively subdued than anything else. “Dust, what… do you do?”

“I’m a weatherpony specializing in particle cloud manipulation,” Dust said, sounding as if he was speaking a memorized line—possibly because he was so used to saying it.

“Really?” Twilight said, before Lyra could ask him to elaborate. To her surprise, she actually sounded somewhat interested. “I’ve heard dust cloud manipulation is one of the harder branches of weather science.”

Dust blushed slightly. “Sort of? I wouldn’t call it that difficult, really.” There was a certain sense of pride in his voice mixed with what Lyra could only describe as an earnest humbleness, as if he didn’t want to brag but actually really did want to brag. “Most, uh, most ponies probably just have trouble with it because they don’t have a chance to practice.”

“I supposed they’re not easy to generate in Cloudsdale.” Twilight nodded.

“Sorry,” Lero interrupted, looking confused and slightly put off, although Lyra wasn’t sure why. “What do you do? I don’t quite understand.”

“Sorry,” whatever pride might have been in Dust’s voice evaporated, leaving him sounding ever so slightly worried. “I— that is to say, ponies in my field of work—we control dust storms, or sandstorms and similar. Anything with a lot of physical particles in it.”

“Oh,” Lero said with a frown. “To what end though? I mean, rain is good if you’re growing a farm or whatever, but what good is making dust storms?”

“I, well—uh,” Dust stammered, looking horribly flustered and confused, “I… I mean, I mostly just break them up, stop them from happening… so they….” his voice trailed off, although Lyra could have sworn she had heard something about saving ponies lives.

“They can do a lot of damage,” Twilight pointed out, looking at Lero with a slightly disgruntled look. “Just like any storm—and they’re particularly dangerous in the badlands to the south, where the Princesses are colonizing.”

“Y-yeah, exactly,” Dust agreed, looking somewhat relieved. “Sometimes I go out to the southern islands and bring back volcanic ashes too.” He paused. “For farms.”

“Plus, there’s all that lightning you can generate,” Rainbow added, with an excited grin as she gestured wildly. “I looked it up when I got home! One of Commander Hurricane’s best warriors could do that—apparently, this one time, she went and—”

“But you can make lightning too, Rainbow,” Lero interjected before Rainbow could go off on her tangent.

“Well, sure,” Rainbow agreed, either missing or ignoring his tone. “But not like this, dry lightning is wild!”

“It’s not something I’ve ever done,” Dust said with a shake of his head. “No need to.”

“Really?” Lyra asked, unable to stop herself. “Not even for fun?” Weatherponies, in her experience, tended to be fairly playful even if they were otherwise very serious.

Dust’s face reddened. “N-nope.”

Before she had a chance to tease him over the lie, however, the appetizers came. While, to some degree, she wasn’t completely sure they were all that hungry—especially if her suspicions about Rainbow and Lero were true—having something to put in their mouths did, after all, occupy their time somewhat effectively without being awkward. Still, now that the ice was broken, Lyra wasn’t sure she wanted to let it reform.

“Well, you know what I do,” Lyra said after swallowing, “and I assume you know what Rainbow does.”

“Yes,” Dust agreed, nodding and glancing at Twilight. “And there’s no need to ask what you do, Princ— Twilight.”

“I think I’d rather be a librarian, somedays,” Twilight said drily with a snort, “but yes.”

“Right,” Dust said slowly, before glancing at Lero. “What…. what do you do, Lero? I’ve never really heard…”

Lero paused to take a drink, and Lyra frowned. It was as if he was trying to avoid answering the question. “I do odds and ends, really. I’m something of a handyman around town—and I also work at the spa.”

“‘Handyman’?” Dust echoed, looking mystified.

“Odd jobs,” Lero sighed, “like, plumbing, or rebuilding a roof. I don’t really do anything too steady, I just help out where I can.

“Oh,” Dust said, sounding, if anything, disappointed. Perhaps he thought Lero’s work was much more glamourous than that. Whether it was because he thought the only human in Equestria might get a better deal, or because it seemed all the mares he had surrounded himself with were more professional. “Oh, I see.”

“There’s no need to sound so disappointed,” Lero said, his voice taking on an ever so slightly hard edge to it.

“No! No, of course not!” Dust said quickly, “I didn’t mean to insult you, Lero!”

And, like that, an awkward silence wrapped itself around the table and its occupants. Fortunately, before it really became an issue, their main course arrived, providing a good reason for none of them to really spend too much time addressing one another at any length. Still, there was a sort of tension hovering over the table; perhaps, once the meal was finished, they’d be able to get back to talking on more friendly terms…

**

Twilight’s fork hovered over the complex looking hay-pasta dish that she had so foolishly ordered, and absentmindedly toyed with it, as she tried to avoid stealing glances at the other’s plates around the table. While she didn’t want to admit it, she wasn’t particularly hungry or interested in eating. Spike had always been something of a nervous eater, eating more when he was upset or distraught, and he had a tendency to offer the same sorts of comforts to her when he was looking after her. It wasn’t as if she was eating buckets of ice cream while locked in her room, but as she forced down a bite or two of the meal, she had to admit that nibbling all day was a good way to ruin an appetite. Just one more mistake, it seemed.

In fact, of the five of them, only Lyra and Dust seemed to be making much headway into their meals. Lyra, Twilight suspected, had skipped breakfast once again; she had been doing so fairly often this past week or so, and Twilight couldn’t blame her, given she hadn’t been the most social pony lately, either. Dust, unless Twilight was very much off her mark, had flown to Ponyville just this morning, which of course explained his appetite. Not that it really bothered her, that much. Keeping his eyes on the plate and his focus on his meal would likely keep the fact that he was the only one really into the date from him, if only for a little while longer.

The thought caused Twilight’s grip on her utensil to tighten slightly, although nopony but another unicorn would have noticed. It was bad enough that Rainbow Dash had freaked out, and ran away like a foal over the very suggestion that they might go out and look into expanding the herd with another stallion. She made a huge deal out of it, she blew everything out of proportion, and then, and then she had the gall—the arrogance!—to set up a date with this pegasus.

The hypocrisy of it all made her feel like she ought to break something. Like a plate. Over Rainbow’s head.

Truthfully, Twilight suspect part of her frustration was to do with the fact that, somehow, Rainbow had managed to pick up a stallion that she actually liked to some degree. Under his shy, cautious, exterior, she couldn’t help but suspect there was a bright pony that she might actually be able to talk to on her level. Not to mention, his body wasn’t too bad either.

‘Accident’ her butt, how does somepony accidentally ask another pony out? Some small, cruel part of herself laughed, and pointed out that, if there was such an oblivious pony, it would have to be Rainbow Dash. Who else but her could accidentally get a date with a stallion, and then forget to mention it to the rest of her herd? What an idiot.

The thought, although perhaps excusable given what she had been through the past week or so, shocked her more than she really cared to admit. Almost immediately, she felt a surge of shame. How could she think such a thought about her herdmate—her wife?

Twilight let out a long sigh. If anything, Dust’s presence here suggested to her that, perhaps, Rainbow wasn’t nearly as firm on her position of expanding the herd as she might openly voice; It was her desire to be loyal to Lero that had caused the objection more than anything: a desire not to see him get hurt. Not that Twilight wanted to see him get hurt either. But Lero was just as loyal to Rainbow—perhaps so loyal that he didn’t seem to realize that, whatever issue they might have, Rainbow wasn’t too upset about being ousted from her position as lead mare. Whether it was because she really didn’t care, or because she had bigger things on her mind...

With a grunt, Twilight noticed Dust was nearly done, and let her fork drop onto her plate before pushing it away.

**

Having never been made to feel guilty by a meal before, this whole experience was really quite novel to Rainbow Dash. Of course, it wasn’t really the meal that was making her feel guilty, it was the fact that she simply didn’t want to eat it, despite ordering it. Her lack of interest in it just reminded her that perhaps, perhaps she and Lero shouldn’t have gone ‘out’ together. It wasn’t a date or anything, not in the usual sense, but rather she had spotted Lero walking home after she had finally fixed the darn weather around Ponyville, and the two of them had gone to get a bite to eat. It was hardly a fancy meal, but it felt so good to just go and do something without the tension of the past week hanging over them.

Rainbow really had no idea what to do about it, either. Lero was quite upset about the whole thing, and, in her opinion, he had every right to be. Yet, at the same time, Twilight was—in her own, eggheaded way—trying to make up for it. Calling the meeting the night prior was perfect, even if she did lecture… and Lero had kind of blown up on her.

Part of her wondered if she should just put her hoof down and tell Lero to stop being so mean to Twilight, but that didn’t seem like the sort of thing that would help, and she didn’t want to make her stallion feel like he was isolated or his opinion didn’t matter.

Of course, she suspected the two of them were going to have to talk, once Dust left. It really was an accident, as nice as he might be, but Rainbow had to admit it was pretty bad of her too—looking at another stallion, when she had Lero? What was wrong with her? Sure, it had been him who had asked her out, but still. It had hurt him, she was sure, and it had certainly hurt Twilight too.

Did some small part of her want to hurt Twilight? Punish her for thinking about expanding the herd, or for Challenging her? The thought left Rainbow feeling cold and made her feelings of guilt only intensify.

Rainbow glanced up to look at her wife, only to see Twilight push away her half-eaten plate of food. It seemed she wasn’t the only pony without an appetite today.

**

Lero tried not to grumble as he shifted in his seat, and covered his discomfort with a long draw from his glass of wine that had come with the meal. He wasn’t much of a drinker, especially not of what passed for alcohol in Equestria, which was often more sweet than dry and lacked a certain sort of bite that he could remember from Earth. Or… at least, he thought it did. Sometimes it felt like his life before coming to Equestria was nothing more than a dream—one that was fading daily. There were times when, if he was thinking back, he struggled to remember the faces of his friends or family. The here and now felt so much more real to him, and certainly, he had much more of a life here (although he was loath to admit it to himself) than he had ever had on Earth.

Yet, just as often, Lero found himself reminded unpleasantly that for all his efforts and work, he was still in many ways an outsider to Equestria, one that would, in all likelihood, never fit in, and never be more than a stranger at best to the people—the ponies—around him. They might do their best to try and make him feel welcome, for the most part, but…

The Maitre d’, for example, had seemed to be completely floored when Lero had entered the building, coming up behind the rest of the herd and ducking to enter. It wasn’t, Lero suspected, that she didn’t have any idea who he was—indeed, he was famous enough, and that was ignoring the fact that Twilight was as Princess—but her face when he walked in seemed to betray a certain sort of unmitigated surprise on her part. She had recovered quickly enough, of course, producing a seat out of one of the back rooms for Lero to sit on, but that momentary lapse, that small crack in her otherwise professional mask was enough to remind Lero that he was welcome, but not necessarily a part of Equestrian life.

It didn’t help that the chair the Maitre d’ had produced for him wasn’t terribly comfortable. Not because it was a particularly bad chair or that it wasn’t intended for comfort, but rather it was designed for a Minotaur and didn’t work particularly well with Lero’s body. He didn’t blame her, it was certainly a mistake that Lero had experienced before over his years of living in Equestria, but it was just one more reminder that he was an outsider here.

Although, Lero thought somewhat bitterly, it probably wasn’t the real source of discomfort here.

It was hard to not notice the stallion sitting across from him, and as he replaced his wine glass, Dust Tempest caught his eye and smiled back at him shyly. He tried his best to return the friendly smile, but he suspected it came off as more of a grimace than anything else, especially given how Dust’s own smile crumpled ever so slightly and he glanced away—first to Rainbow, and then back to his own plate, looking slightly less happy than he had been a few moments ago.

Lero caught himself before he could sigh, and gave Rainbow a very sidelong glance himself, before returning to his own meal, such as it was. Neither of them, Lero knew, was particularly hungry, since he had insisted on taking her out for a meal when the two of them had met up on the way home from their respective jobs. It had been nice to get away from the toxic-feeling atmosphere of their home and just sit and have a meal, although part of him wondered if he ought not feel guilty for thinking that way. Oh, part of him certainly felt somewhat bad, especially for Lyra, but at the same time, Twilight was certainly in the wrong and she needed to apologize for it.

And yet, here they were on a date with a stallion that Rainbow had set up. If only by accident. He was more than willing to believe Rainbow’s explanation that she had done so, although he wasn’t completely certain how one could accidentally set up a date.

Of course, if he was being honest with himself, he’d note that the two of them had, in a sense, fallen for each other accidentally, so perhaps it wasn’t too farfetched.

He shifted again in his seat and did his best to eat a few bites of the meal. Admittedly, it wasn’t bad, although like so much of Equestrian food, there was a certain hay taste under whatever spices or sauces they might add. He half-wished he had ordered the fish, but he didn’t feel particularly good about taking advantage of Dust Tempest, however much he might dislike him.

And he wasn’t really sure how much he did dislike him.

“Should we… order dessert?” Dust Tempest asked, speaking up and pulling Lero out of his tangled web of thoughts. In the intervening time, it seemed that stallion had finished his own meal—with Lyra being a close second. The rest of them had, at best, eaten no more than half of their own meals, and there was a certain disappointment etched on Dust’s face. He of course had no means of knowing that most of them had already eaten, and if he had to guess, Lero would guess that Dust felt the lack of interest in the food was a lack of interest in the date.

Which probably wasn’t too far from the truth.

“I’m… I don’t think so, Dust,” Twilight replied in an even tone that she adopted whenever she was hiding her own feelings. “It was lovely, but I’m just not terribly hungry at the moment—I’m afraid I had a big, er, breakfast.”

“Oh.” Dust’s voice held disappointment to match his face now. “I understand.” But how much did he really understand, Lero wondered. “Well, I suppose we could just talk?”

“Sure,” Twilight agreed with a nod, as did Lyra; but, then, an uncomfortable silence fell around them, and none of them opened their mouths to talk. It didn’t really surprise Lero—after all, they had only just met, and it wasn’t as if conversation would flow freely from such uninspired starts.

And Dust Tempest seemed to be more than aware of that fact, given the way he kept glancing around the table, as if hoping somepony else would start talking and he could just join in or listen.

“Well, uh,” he said after a long moment and he looked at Lero and licked his lips. “How… how did all of you meet, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I’m sure you know,” Lero said, surprised and more than a little bit miffed at how gruff his voice sounded. “Fluttershy, one of Rainbow’s friends—” out of the corner of his eye, Lero noticed Twilight flinch “—found me outside of the Everfree Forest.”

“Yes… yes I heard.” Dust nodded and looked somewhat concerned. “And that’s how you met Rainbow?”

“Yup,” Rainbow chimed in with a grin. “We all pitched in, ‘course, but after he got out of Fluttershy’s and started living with Twilight, we started hanging out, and one thing led to another.”

“I’m probably something of the odd pony out, I’m sure,” Lyra agreed, “but it wasn’t as if he wasn’t well known around town.”

Lero couldn’t help but notice she left out that she had been tasked with trailing him by her mistresses.

“And there’s not a whole lot else to say, really.” Lero added, before anyone else could speak. He doubted that this pony didn’t already know all this before—god only knows how much the Equestrian Media had jumped on his appearance and courtship of the mares; regardless, he wasn’t sure he really wanted to talk to him about it.

“Oh,” clearly Dust had picked up on the irritation in Lero’s voice, whether he intended it or not. “Uh, well.” There was a pause and the stallion rubbed circles in the table cloth. “Well,” he repeated. “How are… you liking it here, in Equestria, Lero?”

A small flare of anger that erupted in Lero’s belly, and before he had a moment to think, he heard himself snap: “It’s not as if I’m here by choice.” Even as he said it, the mares around the table flinched or looked uncomfortable—whether it was from his tone or Dust Tempest’s question, he didn’t know.

“N-no!” The pegasus’s wings flared with alarm, “Of course not! No, I—I didn’t mean it that way, Lero! I just meant—”

Whatever he meant, Lero wasn’t prepared to hear him out. The little flame of anger in his belly grew, feeding on his discomfort and his already simmering anger with his wife; before he had time to think, he had pushed his chair back and stood up. “I think we’re done here,” Lero said, before he turned towards the doorway, ignoring the shocked—and in all likelihood, frightened—looks on the other patron’s faces. Before anypony could stop him, including his wives, Lero was gone.

**

It was a disaster, and perhaps, then, it was only natural that Twilight be the one to clean it up—although with some help from Lyra, admittedly.

As Lero had stomped off, Dust had, naturally, burst into tears, and Rainbow had taken one look at the distraught stallion and sped off after Lero. Some small, naive part of her held out faint hope that Rainbow might actually be going to confront her husband about his actions, but given her record of late, she suspected that might be foolishness to the point of absurdity.

Lyra, on the other hoof, had glanced between where Lero had exited the restaurant and Dust, and then went to comfort him, leaving Twilight to deal with what she could only call the political fallout. As much as she loathed to admit it, it hardly looked good for her or her herd to be presiding over Dust crying even if it wasn’t her or any of her wives’ faults; of course, Twilight had learned from an early age that there was a certain need to, for lack of a better word, control how the media talked about you, and she wanted to assure the patrons that it wasn’t as if Twilight (or Lyra, or Rainbow) had purposely made Dust Tempest cry, or somehow been overly mean or cruel to him. The very thought twisted her guts, but she knew full well that a less-than-scrupulous reporter might get her hooves on the ‘story’ and spin it in that way.

It would, after all, reflect poorly on the Crowns of Equestria if there was an implication that her herd was going around abusing stallions. Not that it made Twilight feel particularly better about the blatant manipulation inherent to what she was doing. It wasn’t really a lie, of course, to suggest that the date had just gone badly, but Twilight couldn’t help but feel like it wasn’t exactly the truth. Oh, it wasn’t perfect, but she had felt that she was rather warming to Dust; whatever faults he might have, he certainly seemed genuine and interesting. Of course, she couldn’t exactly blame the whole situation on Lero publically, either.

Still, however dirty it might make her feel, it was better than trying to assure Dust that it wasn’t his fault and comfort him. She suspected she wasn’t exactly as warm and fuzzy as she might need to be in order to be a comforting presence, not to mention it might be difficult for him to accept her as such, if he saw more of her crown and station than of her as a pony.

Plus, there was something deeply indecent about seeing a stallion cry, and the very thought made Twilight more than a little uncomfortable. She suspected most of the mares in the restaurant were glad when he calmed down and his sobs subsided.

Her discomfort, however, only served to fuel her anger, and by the time Lyra and herself were headed back home—Twilight had put Dust up at one of Ponyville’s small inns as a way of apology—she felt the best way to describe herself might be furious. It was bad enough that Rainbow had gone and set up a date, after she had made such a big deal out of it, but she was tired of Lero’s attitude. If he hadn’t wanted to go on the date, he should have just said so, and as insensitive as Dust’s question might have been, you’d have to be willfully ignorant to assume he was being maliciously insensitive.

“Twilight,” Lyra said, sounding slightly annoyed and more than a little bit concerned. “Twilight?”

Twilight bit back a sharp retort, since, she had a sneaking suspicion that Lyra had been trying to talk to her for sometime, and paused mid stride to look at her. “What is it, Lyra?” She hadn’t meant for her voice to come out so… cold, but it had, and twisted her heart slightly to see Lyra flinch.

“Twilight, I know you’re angry, but…” Lyra broke eye contact and glanced down the street towards the library door. “I think you need to end this, and soon.”

“I agree,” Twilight said shortly with a nod. This had gone on too long, and it was time somepony—herself, it seemed—sorted this out. “Can… can I count on your support?”

Lyra looked at her, before pawing the ground with her hoof. “Yes, I suppose, but... “

“But?” Twilight echoed.

“Don’t… just be gentle, okay?” Lyra asked, looking all the world that she had wanted to say much more but didn’t have the energy or guts to argue the point.

“I’ll be however gentle,” Twilight said as she started towards her home again, “or hard as I need to be, Lyra.”

“I—”

The interior of the library was much like they had left it, but Twilight ignored everything—including a confused and dismayed Spike—as she stomped into their main living area. It didn’t really surprise her to any degree to find Lero slumped back into his chair with Rainbow floating beside him, talking to him; what it was that they were talking about, however, it cut off as Twilight barged in with Lyra right behind her. Twilight ignored that too—and the question on Rainbow’s lips—and got right down to it.

“Do you mind telling me what the hell that was all about?” Twilight snarled; some distant part of her felt some sort of alarm at her tone, but she ignored that just the same. “What the hay do you think you were doing?”

“Twilight, wai—” Rainbow began to speak for Lero, but Twilight cut her off.

“You left Dust crying—crying!—back there, Lero! What do you think you were doing?”

“He shouldn’t have said that, Twi!” Rainbow began, but Twilight jabbed a hoof in her direction.

“You don’t get to tell me that, Rainbow! Not after you complained and threw a temper tantrum and ran the fuck away like a filly,” Twilight snapped, “Only to go out and get a date with some stallion, the very thing you were running away from!”

“Don’t you talk to her like that!” Lero said, while Rainbow let out an indignant, “hey!”

“Oh yes,” Twilight was startled by the mocking tone in her voice, the cruel barb in it, but she couldn’t stop herself. “Now you talk, to defend her, why am I not surprised?!”

Not surprisingly, there was an eruption, with Rainbow and Lero and herself all shouting at each other, trying to get words in and trying, trying very hard to hurt one another with their words, if not their hooves. Upon reflection, Twilight wasn’t really sure she could remember anything she had actually said, or anything that had actually been said to her, but the anger and lashing out at Rainbow and her stallion was clear enough. There was something horribly satisfying about seeing the hurt on their faces, making them feel in some small measure the same sort of pain that she herself had been feeling. Not, of course, that she was completely immune and between the two of them, they were giving as good as they got.

“ALL OF YOU, SHUT UP!” Lyra’s voice rose above the din in the living room, cutting through their casual cruelty and thoughtless attempts to hurt one another, and the three of them turned to look at the green unicorn in question.

Intellectually, Twilight knew Lyra had followed her into the living room, but she hadn’t said anything—which didn’t quite explain why the mare was breathing as if she had run from Canterlot and back. The glare she gave back gave them all pause, and reminded Twilight unnervingly that Lyra was, at the end of the day, a Still Way Grandmaster, and whether she had intended to or not, she had assumed a rather angry stance.

“Did our vows mean nothing?” Lyra voice was calm, almost unnaturally so, especially after the rage that had filled it just a few moments before. “Look at you, standing here yelling at each other like foals on a playground. I thought we were supposed to love each other—to look after each other and care for one another! If somepony had told me I’d come upon my herd fighting like this, I would have laughed in her face, but now…!”

Twilight could feel the anger burning out in her—perhaps not burning out, but the rage that filled her left, and she could almost feel herself physically deflating as she looked away, ashamed, from the one pony in her herd that apparently had any common sense at all. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Rainbow reacting much the same way, and Lero himself slumped back into his chair. Now, it seemed, Lyra’s earlier warning was sinking in, if rather too late.

Still, her own words echoed in her head just as clearly, and she knew full well backing down wasn’t an option.

“Lero,” Twilight chose her words and tone carefully as she addressed her stallion. “Can you explain what happened back there?”

“Dust shouldn’t have asked that question,” Rainbow cut in resolutely, although she shrunk a little bit under the look Twilight gave her.

“I’m asking Lero, Rainbow.” Calmly, calmly! “Well?”

“I… I don’t know,” Lero said, his voice sounding heavy and tired. And slightly shocked, as if the admission surprised him. “It… It really wasn’t the question, I guess, I just... “

“Then what was it, Lero?” Twilight asked.

Lero leaned back, deeper into his chair, but didn’t answer.

“Was it the date?” Lyra asked softly. “If you didn’t want to go, you should have…”

“I… I guess,” Lero frowned and stared off into the ceiling, studying it as if he was hoping there was some sort of answer up there among the rafters. There was a pause, and no pony said anything at all for a moment.

“Look, I’ve said I’m sorry and I mean it,” Rainbow began, her voice taking a certain pleading tone to it as she dropped down onto her hooves and her wings flicked inconsequently. “He just… I don’t know! He said I was… he asked me out! Like I was hot or something.”

“Rainbow,” Lero said gently, frowning slightly, “you are hot, and pretty. You know this—you should know this.”

“I don’t know why you’re surprised,” Lyra said, also frowning. “I mean, we—me and Twilight wouldn’t be here if we didn’t think you weren’t, well, sexy.” Lyra glanced at Lero’s face but didn’t add anything like ‘not to mention Lero here’.

“You didn’t have to say yes,” Twilight added, and suppressed the urge to flinch at her own cool sounding voice.

“No… I… I know, I messed up, I’m sorry,” Rainbow said, pawing the floor with her hoof.

“Apology accepted,” Twilight said, or at least, she started to say, before Lero opened his own mouth and cut her off.

“Am I really that awful?” Lero asked, his voice sounding more than a bit strained. “I mean, you all want to get someone… somepony new and at the drop of a hat—”

Twilight frowned, and realized that the date probably had hurt Lero must more than he cared to admit. Perhaps it wasn’t so shocking that he had gotten mad and stormed out over a meaningless, harmless question. Yet, the fundamentals of what he was saying made no sense either.

“Lero, nopony wants to replace you, and you’re not awful,” Twilight tried to make her voice warm as possible, and she suspected she only partly succeeded. “Not me, not Lyra, and—” she left out ‘certainly’ “—not Rainbow. We… we love you. You know that, right?”

“But what can I really offer you?” Lero asked. “Other than being, well, human, what am I good for, really? I’m not even particularly good at what I do.”

“That’s not true!” Lyra exclaimed, as Rainbow gasped. “I’ve never felt a pony give such a good massage before!”

“And you’re always helping out around town,” Rainbow added, “doing stuff no other pony could do.”

“It’s only because you haven’t got anyone to compare me with,” Lero let out a long sigh, as if the admission had cost him something dearly.

Twilight stopped herself from frowning at his words, and shook herself. “None of that matters, though,” She said, and waited to catch his eye when he looked up at her. “You could be a pauper or an idiot and we’d still love you, Lero. And we still care for you. Yes, maybe you’re not special back on Earth, or maybe you’re not that special here—” Rainbow looked as if she was going to snap at her, but Twilight hurried on “—but you’re special to us and that’s what matters. I don’t want to replace you, Lero, nor does Lyra, nor does Rainbow. I’d like to think I have a heart big enough for all of you—and maybe more.”

“When I joined the herd, you didn’t stop loving Rainbow or Twilight, right?” Lyra added, jumping in before Twilight could add more. “And they didn’t stop loving you, right?”

Lero didn’t answer, but did let out a long sigh, and after a moment, he spread his arms invitingly. “Come here.”

Perhaps it was the draining nature of the day or the weeks leading up to it, but Twilight didn’t think twice about letting her anger go and climbing up onto the chair with her stallion, alongside Rainbow and Lyra. It wasn’t terribly comfortable, and the chair creaked rather ominously, but for the first time, it felt… it was like… maybe not over, but certainly Twilight could feel like it was a good first ste—

“What about the whole leadership thing, Twilight?” Lero’s voice asked, sounding somewhat muffled, considering it was probably buried in somepony else’s mane. “Are you going to apologize to Rainbow?”

Twilight’s heart froze, then skipped a few beats, and a small spark of frustration snapped back into existence in her mind; but before she could say anything, a weary, disgruntled sounding Lyra answered first: “Rainbow, do you even give a fuck who’s lead mare?”

There was a pause.

“I guess not,” Rainbow replied. “It wasn’t very cool of you to Challenge me, though, Twilight.”

“I… I know,” Twilight agreed, biting back an apology, before deciding maybe she might as well take the risk. “And… I’m sorry. I think you needed it, and I think you know that, but…” Twilight sighed. “I never meant to hurt you, Rainbow.”

“Okay,” Rainbow said, and Twilight felt Lero’s arms squeeze them all a bit tighter. A first step indeed; oh, she wasn’t naive, she knew it would take longer for the wounds to heal, but Twilight suspected, strongly, that they would heal, and maybe in the future they might find someone like Dust. Maybe they could get him to go on another—better planned date and one day she’d be a mother or—

Twilight’s train of thought was derailed as the chair broke and the lot of them were thrown onto the floor.

Author's Note

That chair was only two days from retirement!