The Chronicles of Summer Rain, Vol. 10 -- Ariel Dawn

Chapters

Chapter 1, Trip to Canterlot
Chapter 2
Chapter 3, Tracing Devotion
Chapter 4, Rage's Wounds
Chapter 5, Leaning on the Wind
Chapter 6, Signs
Chapter 7, By The Moonlight
Chapter 8, Some Sweet Way
Chapter 9, Waiting
Chapter 10, Ariel Dawn
Chapter 11, New World
Chapter 12, Pegasus Family (looming clouds)
Chapter 14, Out of the Blue
Chapter 15, Old Pony 101
Chapter 16, Sweet Mare
Chapter 17, Change of Plans
Chapter 18, Remembering the Future
Chapter 20, Thankful for the Past
Chapter 21, Ariel's Story
Chapter 22, A Different World
Chapter 23, Signs
Chapter 24, My Dearest Ariel
Chapter 25, Thankful for the Past
Chapter 13, Ancient Pony Wisdom, Part 2
Chapter 19, Ariel Gone
Chapter 26, My Precious Annie

Chapter 1, Trip to Canterlot

Still the middle of Winter... But on the second warmish day in a row, Shysage and I decided to try and brave a trip to Canterlot, to see Cel (Princess Celestia) and Lu (Princess Luna), and to take the last maybe 1/3 of Future Perfect and get it locked up in the Time Vault in the Canterlot Library. These pages contain stuff about the future, and nopony should ever read it here, well now.

Shysage managed to just barely get those chapters printed out. The printer is a part of his 'scope' thing, which seems highly secret, I don't know. It does some really amazing things though. Shysage has never told me why it doesn't need a plug. There's no plugs here in Equestria! Anyway, he doubted his raspy old printer would ever print again. He said that is just as well. Nopony should really have a printer here in Equestria. That just wasn't fair, he said.

We got up earlier anyway, and Shysage was a people briefly to help me get my coat on. With our coats on, it was barely warm enough for us to eat breakfast in the meadow to the East next to our home. But at least it wasn't so freezing cold that we ran back to the nearest fireplace, not today, anyway.

It would have taken a lot longer for me to make something for us both to eat. My cooking is improving (slowly), but it still takes me a while. A trip to the meadow proved a lot faster.

We looked longingly at that little hill, where we often relax. It had been too cold for us to spend much time there. Today, we probably could have, but we didn't really have time for that.

Our next stop was Princess Twilight's Castle. Heading through town, we passed Dawn and Camille. Doing floral arrangements in the Winter, I don't know. Dawn had a huge basket on her back. Everything in there looked pretty dead to me, but I was sure she could and would make something amazing with it. That is her gift! I hugged them both, and managed to cry only a little. They were soon on their way to Dawn's, and we were off to the Castle.

Across the grass, up the steps, into the warmth of Princess Twilight's amazing Castle. We found Princess in the Library, buried reading some book, with Filia right next to her doing the same thing. The term kindred spirits comes easily to mind. Princess and Filia, they are alike in so many ways. Shysage and I had our coats off and Shysage put them on one of the reading tables, before Princess even realized we were there.

We bowed when she got up, and she had us up quickly. "I think the Canterlot Recorders may be busy in three weeks maybe, if that is ok" Princess said softly.

"Princess, we can hardly wait. You and your girls are all amazing! Shysage and I are really excited..." I said this, with a fair amount of excitement; I really felt that way. It's just... Well... The future would find... I stopped where I did, and then realized that I needed to do what Pinkie Pie said, and leave the future, well, there.

I just hugged Princess Twilight tightly, and wept softly.

"Princess, can you ask Cel if she can send an Air Coach for us this morning? Explain that we are interested in a few hours in Canterlot, since it seems the weather is not freezing cold today." Shysage asked Princess about this. That was our plan, our hope anyway. We would leave it up to Cel though, depending on her schedule. I was kind of looking forward...

Princess Twilight found Spike, and soon a message was sent off. I guess Princess really wanted to get back to her book. She tried, and sat down in front of her book again, only to have Spike burp up the answer from Princess Celestia right as Princess sat down at the table.

Princess read the message out loud. "Princess Twilight, thank you for your letter. Please let the Canterlot Recorders know that tomorrow will be a better day for such a trip. Please expect an Air Coach at the Castle in the middle of the morning tomorrow. Lovingly, Princess Celestia."

Princess Twilight must have known... "I'm sorry, will tomorrow work for you both?"

Shysage answered for us "Yes Princess, that will be fine. We don't want to bother Cel and Lu if their day is a busy one. They are Equestria's Princess too, after all.

Noting that Filia had not moved from her book, we hugged our Princess again, got our coats on, and headed outside. Princess was quickly back to her book too.

...

Well ok. It was a warmish day still, so... It was maybe the middle of the morning. Once we were back outside, we realized that the warm sunlight had taken the edge off the cold, barely. We still needed our coats, but between little to no breeze and direct sunlight, we were comfortable, anyway.

We wandered out to the little hill in the East meadow, and enjoyed some time together and alone there. I think we were just relaxing, enjoying our time together. We were on our bellies right next to each other to stay warm. Our heads together, looking off into the distance. We rubbed noses like that, too.

We were caught up on all of our Canterlot Recorder tasks. Up next:

Quests in Friendship -- A narration of the experiences of Princess Twilight Sparkle and her dear friends in Ponyville and all over Equestria -- Collected and edited by Princess Celestia of Canterlot -- Vol. 5

We would hopefully start to see material for that in the coming weeks. Shysage and I both felt doing that together would be amazingly fun. We couldn't wait!

I just sighed, thinking about that. "Whoa, girl" I thought to myself.

Shysage and I, we didn't talk a lot, and I have to wonder if emotionally, we were both still coming down from our amazing trip to the future. Our transition back to our present was very difficult. Well, the Keeper apologized for that ahead of time, actually.

I sighed again, and smiled.

An afternoon alone with Shysage; that was something to savor. We did, together. A few hours on that hill, we talked little, but hugged a lot. At maybe noon, we snacked some together, then were quickly back next to each other on that little hill. A few more hours of Shysage hugging me. Earlier, I would have rathered we visit Cel and Lu, but, maybe... Maybe he and I really needed this time. It was wonderful.

Still, at one point, Shysage said softly "Summer, I really don't like Winter, and it's too cold at the lake, but the first opportunity we get..." There were tears in his eyes as he stopped there. He didn't have to say any more. I know for a fact that taking care of me is one of Shysage's highest priorities, and it shows here, of all places. I am Shysage's princess, and when he could...

Later in the afternoon, Fluttershy and Shyna found us on that hill, and quickly joined us. I was about to ask her where her amazing Panther animal friends were... Well, she only had those in the future, but... I just thought... Two weeks ago, that would have been a valid question...

I managed to not ask though, and just battled crying instead as I got up and hugged my sister, well, both of them. It was too late, both Fluttershy and Shyna felt my question, and they were quickly crying too. I guess that was one aspect of the future that Fluttershy really enjoyed, huge Panther animal friends; they were bigger that she was, and she really missed them too. That just made me think of Rose...

Us three girls cried together...

After we calmed down, we were all on our bellies next to each other, faced away from Ponyville, staring off across the meadow. For a while, little was said.

Out of the Blue, Fluttershy asked this. "Summer, since I went with you to the future, does that mean the Portal... well... Will I always have to go with you both now?" Fluttershy wasn't crying as she asked this, but...

Us three girls were soon crying again. Shyna absolutely did NOT want Fluttershy to just disappear on her again. Fluttershy was just as concerned about leaving Shyna. I just wanted Rose, and I would never have... Fluttershy was why I even had Rose to fight at my side, to begin with. I think we were all a mess.

We did calm down though, and Shysage worked on answering Fluttershy's question. He was clearly aware that Shyna was with us, and he answered carefully and slowly.

"Fluttershy, like we have mentioned before, since you carry an Element of Harmony, Equestria has the right to call on you whenever you are needed.

"Remember too, that your amazing gifts were absolutely instrumental, well, crucial, during our trip to the future. We absolutely needed you and only you there. Equestria made that happen."

Shysage was clearly deep in thought at this point, and after a minute or two, he added this.

"I think Princess Twilight really feels it when you are gone. And with Volume 5 on the way... I honestly think your place will be here for a while.

"Besides, both Summer and I are hoping that we will stay here a while too, so we can record that together."

I think this helped my sister relax. "Thank you, Shysage, that really helps."

Fluttershy paused a minute, then started "I wonder if there are an--" Fluttershy wisely stopped here. I knew what she was asking.

I realized too, that I wasn't the only one having problems adjusting to being back in the present. Well, it was just hard. In the future, after everything came back to life, so much around us was the same then, as here and now. When we came back, a lot was the same, but so much was different. And we couldn't even say anything.

As the cold wind kicked up, we realized we couldn't stay in the meadow. Fluttershy had actually come to tell us that dinner was at the Castle tonight. That would be fun. Princess' girls really are amazing! The four of us got up and we slowly made our way there.

Walking past Dawn's Floral Arrangements, there was nopony outside. It was too cold! Still, thinking less that I should have... "Dawns really does need a p--" I stopped right there...

"Sis..." Fluttershy quickly said.

I just sighed. "When am I..." I thought to myself.

Fluttershy said quietly "We all just need some time..."

I thought to myself again "Yeah... about 35 years..."

I just sighed again.

...

Dinner was good, and laughing, crying, hugging with Princess Twilight and her girls... Being with our special friends; it's always a good time. And we all decided to spend the night together in the Library.

Shysage hugged me briefly, then told me to enjoy our slumber party together. Then he headed off to the Canterlot Recorder's home. I appreciated him doing that, letting all us girls spend a night together.

Part of me was sad though. I just sighed. Time at the lake... That would have to wait, I guess. It had been... I don't like Winter...

Us girls stayed up late and just enjoyed our time together.

When it was very late, Princess Twilight asked what part of my dream was the most important for each of us. I just cried; I don't think Princess wanted me to answer. Everypony else did, though. I understood the value of the question, but I think it was hard for all of us, in a good way, if that was possible.

We were all asleep together on the floor in the Library soon after that.

Waking up the next morning, next to my sister, and surrounded by Princess Twilight's girls. We were all laughing and talking together. It was a lot of fun. We kept that going through breakfast. It was still a little on the early side as we all hugged a bunch, said what we often say together, got our coats on, and headed out of the Castle to jump into our days. Princess Twilight evidently had a busy Princess schedule for the day.

It was cold outside; I suspected today would be colder than the last two days. Still no Air Coach outside the Castle yet, so I hugged Fluttershy and Shyna, then walked quickly home, as they headed for the Cottage.

I found Shysage sleeping on that amazing rug with my Cutie Mark on it, in front of a low fire. He woke up as soon as I was on my belly right next to him. He smiled, and we rubbed noses for a little while.

"How did you... Last night..." I knew I was having trouble asking him how he did while I was at the Castle for the slumber party.

He realized right away, and answered honestly "Better now."

While rubbing noses some more, I said quietly "Shysage, last night with Princess and her girls was a lot of fun, but I really missed you." This was not just words, I really felt that way. A few tears fell after I said that.

Shysage didn't need an explanation. "I know, amazing Mare. I missed you too. Times you are away just make me realize even more how much you mean to me."

Well, I couldn't not cry after this, but I guess Shysage cried too. Shysage hugged me tightly, and we cried together for a little while.

Shysage hugging me, our heads next to each other... We stayed like that facing the warmth of the fire for quite a while, over an hour easily. Neither of us wanted to move, and the fire was doing ok. And it wasn't like either of us were excited or anything. We both just desperately need each other, and to be together like that... I guess if contentment needed a picture, that would be my suggestion.

We might have stayed like that for a long time. Filia burst through the door, and ran straight for the fire to try to warm herself back up. She apologized, of course, then told us that the Air Coach was here. Once Filia was warm again, we took turns hugging her, then she ran out the door, and bolted off to the warmth of the Castle.

Shysage and I looked at each other. This trip would not be fun. Shysage turned into a people long enough to find his shoulder sack. He carefully placed the printed pages for the final chapters of Future Perfect inside, then he helped me get my coat on. He was back to a pony, then slipped his shoulder sack on, then his coat. He said later he was hoping his coat would prevent all those pages from blowing out of the sack, out of the Air Coach. That much worked, at least.

We walked quickly to the Castle. On the way inside, Shysage yelled we would be out shortly. We bowed to, then hugged Princess Twilight, and then were soon back outside climbing into the Air Coach.

In short, the trip was dreadful. It was very cold. And the Air Coaches have a lot of open space. Shysage explained once this is intended to help reduce the weight of the Air Coach to allow for more passengers. Shysage remarked today that we were riding in a Jeep with no doors. I don't even know what that means. I did realize that there were plenty of ways that the cold air could blast past us. Ordinarily we ignore that, but today...

I am sure Shysage broke a lot of rules, but part way to Canterlot, he kicked off his harness, and moved and sat in front of me, in order to block the bulk of the wind blowing past me. I really appreciated that, and just hoped my Stallion wouldn't freeze to death in the process.

I think the Air Coach stallions were very cold too. We landed fairly close to the Audience Hall, and the six of us, Shysage and I, and four huge Pegasi; we were quickly in the Audience Hall trying to get warm again.

Mildred found us immediately, and didn't even need an explanation, and let us stay in our coats until we were ready to take them off. Shysage said he would ordinarly try to warm me up, but he guessed he was probably colder than I was. It took over half an hour for Shysage and I to thaw out, Shysage said. Still, it beat walking or flying today. It was just hard.

I guess Mildred either knew one of the reasons we were here, or else she just has the ability to sense... She said Shysage and I should keep our coats on for now. We didn't mind. Being warm felt amazing.

Our Princess girls were done doing Princess stuff by around noon, and we hugged them briefly; as well as we could with coats on. Both realized what we brought, and the vault in the Canterlot Library was our next destination.

The four of us walked out the big Audience Hall doors, and almost ran to the Library. It was warm in there too; I am not sure how, but it didn't matter. We followed Cel and Lu through the Library to the restricted wing, and into a small room buried in the back. I had never been here, but neither had Shysage.

The only thing in this room was a box thing; it looked to me like it was made out of the White marble that also covered the Audience Hall. A bunch of wierd gizmos poked out the top. And it had a round window thing that swirled with all sorts of colors. Well, it looked magical anyway. And there was a small shelf below the swirling thing. That's where Cel put the printed pages for Future Perfect.

Lu asked "Dad, how long into the future should we set this?"

Shysage thought a minute. "I think 37 years to be safe."

Cel and Lu cast some magic together, and obviously did something, and the entire stack of pages simply vanished.

That was it. They were gone. Well, Shysage still had the words in a hidden folder on his compy, whatever that means. Maybe that box thing in the Library put them in a hidden folder there too, I don't know.

We walked quickly back to the Audience hall.

...

Cel and Lu led us up the steps, down the hall into Princess quarters. Cel immeditately broke down and cried. She said nothing, she was just crying.

Lu said quietly "Oh, sister..." then she hugged her sister and cried with her. Shysage and I, well, the four of us cried together. It wasn't gut-wrenching... And I don't think it was Princess pain; Shyasage and I, we knew how that sounded. But my mother's heart just knew... Something was bothering our girl. I was also pretty sure that Lu knew what it was.

The four of us cried together for an hour maybe. I was glad we could do that.

Mildred came in, and apologized. The weather was getting colder as the day progressed. Our return to Ponyville should be soon.

Well, it was. And leaving our girls like that was very hard. Shysage and I, we could only ask true friend...

The return trip was a repeat of our trip earlier. The wind was colder, but we were evidently going in the direction of the wind, so everything evened out, Shysage said. He still sat in front of me. Once we landed, Shysage and I quickly ran to the warmth of the Castle. The Air Coach immediately took to the air to return to Canterlot. A winter storm was on its way through Equestria.

With our coats still on, Shysage and I laid on our bellies on the rug in front of the Portal and worked on thawing out again. We didn't have a lot to tell Princess Twilight, except that flying in an Air Coach in the Winter was not fun. Well, we told her that the rest of Future Perfect was safely in the vault. And we told her about the storm coming, but she already just knew about that!

Princess had us eat dinner with she, Filia and Fiona. It was very nice, and we ate quite a bit. But it was starting to get dark, and freezing cold when we pretty much ran to the Canterlot Recorder's house. Well, we stopped at Dawn's, and let her know about the approaching storm.

Shysage turned into a people, helped me get my coat off, then brought in a bunch of firewood from the shed out back. We suspected that we would need it tonight!

We were soon on our bellies on our rug, right next to each other, facing the fire. After today, warm felt amazing. I was deep in thought, and worked on putting some words to a question. I didn't even need to ask.

"I don't know, Summer. But something is really bothering Cel" Shysage said quietly. Shysage had tears in his eyes.

I said what we both felt. "I don't like it when evil monsters bother our girls, and I guess I am here to help them if need be. But when something is bothering her, something inside... I feel so powerless..."

We both guessed that being a Princess wasn't easy.

Shysage and I, we talked to true friend some together, then hugged and cried ourselves to sleep.

Author's Note

This story builds heavily on both Follow the Equestrium and to a lesser extent on Dark Melvain. You might want to read Follow the Equestrium especially, first.

Chapter 2

Waking up next to Shysage, in our own home... It was still Winter, so we slept in front of the fireplace. We both really love doing that. Well, we don't like the cold, but since it has to be cold, this is about as good as it gets.

It didn't seem either early or late, and we both woke up at about the same time. It was cool in our home, so Shysage got up, changed into a people, and was going to put some more wood on the fire. He realized we had no wood left in the house, so he went out back long enough to grab more wood out of the shed along the back side of our home.

He didn't leave the back door open long when he did this; he opened the door just far enough to slip out, then back in. It was very cold outside. And he mentioned the storm last night had left maybe an inch of snow on the ground. I cringed... Shysage was a people, outside, without a sweatshirt on even... He was probably very cold.

And every time he opened the door, we heard what sounded like other ponies talking. Well, it was morning, we didn't pay any attention.

Shysage quickly loaded up the wood stack, and put two logs on the fire. Tending a fire is so much easier as a people, or as a Unicorn too, I guess. Shysage changed back into a pony, and we just hugged in front of the fire for a while. I knew he was cold though. We were on our bellies next to each other, and I tried to help warm him up.

It was so calm and peaceful...

With more wood, the fire grew, and our house warmed nicely. Shysage rolled over on his side, and I enthusiastically climbed up under his front legs, and he pulled me up to his chest and neck.

I just sighed a few times.

"Summer, I really love you..." he said quietly.

"Shysage, I could stay here all day..." I really felt that way.

I love my Stallion...

I was falling back asleep...

...

Bang...

A ponies' hoof was kicking our front door really hard, maybe breaking it, I don't know. It was loud...

Shysage and I were jarred awake quickly, and I rolled out from under his legs, and we got up at the same time.

I looked at Shysage, and he just shrugged.

Still, we both walked slowly to the door, and Shysage opened it.

Outside, we found twenty or more other ponies, mostly stallions, mostly Unicorns. They were carrying signs of various sizes. All the signs had the same thing, the crude picture of a ponies' hind-quarters, not a very nice gesture. And they were all painted sloppily in bright Red...

When Shysage and I walked out, the crowd was suddenly quiet, and just stared at us... And I saw the snow... And we were both freezing...

"Can I help you?" Shysage asked quietly.

They began yelling right away, well yelling together "No more... No more... No more..." That was loud too.

And a dreadfully familiar tune lept loudly into the background(1)... Monster music...

Shysage and I were both confused.

"Can we talk about this? Can somepony let me know what this is all about?" Shysage asked, again calmly.

The yelling just got louder... The ponies were crowding closer...

"So you are all mad at me, but you won't tell me why..." Shysage asked again, still calm.

I was outside too, now slowly backing away from everypony. Nopony needed to tell me...

"Ya, we will give you an answer!" One of the stallions said this, then brought his sign down hard and fast...

Shysage dodged just in time, then yelled "Summer, go get Princess Twilight..."

I was quickly in the air and flew fast. I doubted I could ever use my Phantom Alicorn powers against ordinary ponies... But I knew Shysage needed help...

It was very cold outside. Neither Shysage nor I had time to put our coats on... The blanket of snow that had settled over Ponyville sometime last night, it looked beautiful from above, but that didn't even matter... Still, my flight to the Castle was painful...

I was soon inside, but Princess Twilight wasn't in the Library. After hunting frantically, I found Filia, and she said she and Princess Twilight had stayed up late reading.

I knocked on Princess' bedroom door, and waited a few minutes...

I knocked on her door again and waited a few more minutes...

I was about to knock a third time, when Princess Twilight opened the door slowly, and then yawned.

"Oh, hi Summer, how can I help--" Princess said slowly.

"Princess, I'm sorry... An angry group of ponies is attacking Shysage..." I know I was crying as I said this.

Princess walked quickly to the hall leading to the front entrance to the Castle, and she used her magic to put her coat on as she walked past it.

Even inside the Castle, I could now hear the angry crowd. They were very close...

I followed Princess outside...

The yelling crowd was at the bottom of the stairs in front of the Castle... ...still yelling "No more..." over and over again...

And I quickly realized Shysage was curled up on that bottom step... He was covered with blood, as they continued to hit him with their signs...

Princess Twilight was furious...

"STOP THAT THIS INSTANT!" she yelled...

Well, they stopped hitting Shysage, anyway.

Princess wasn't done, and yelled again

"IS THIS THE KIND OF EQUESTRIA YOU REALLY WANT?"

...

It was instantly quiet.

I don't know what anypony in that angry crowd said...

...because at that exact moment, Equestria... Our present faded from view...

True friend, the Portal, and now maybe the Keeper... I have learned to trust that, when the Portal moved us, everything would work out fine. But, as I noticed our present fading away... I knew right away what was happening. And honestly, my first thought was that I would be outraged if Shysage was left there... ...If I had to leave Shysage... ...now of all times...

Author's Note

The tune is the BGM for the 'Outer Ra'Kaznar' level in Final Fantasy XI, and the music, the zone and the game are c2014 by Square Enix. It is 'The Serpentine Labyrinth' from the Forever Today addition to the Seekers of Adoulin OST.

Chapter 3, Tracing Devotion

I will never forget our first meeting in Cloudsdale. It was my parent's idea, and well, they said I had to, and even that seemed cloaked in an enigma. And I had been through so much lately, and so much was still going on for me. Still, I walked through the door of your house, just down the avenue from my parent's. It was pretty dark inside, and I had to stop and let my eyes adjust at first. But your soft-spoken manner, your kind and quiet explanation; I wasn't scared or apprehensive at all. As you told me your story, the details didn't seem too significant, except you were from that strange world I had just left. But your scope thing... You had watched us, you watched me, during some of the most harrowing hours of my life. I was impressed. And you were recording... me... I remember thinking why in Equestria would anypony want to do that... But the most important... I felt the deepening tug of a kindred spirit... My recent yet full committment to true friendship... I knew I had found another... I left, but guessed I might be back...

...

I will never forget hearing you call out my name that morning... Buried in an utterly strange world, millions of miles away from my Equestria, for all I knew. I also knew inside that I had been viciously and brutally abused, even though I remembered nothing. And I knew the monsters were now trying to kill me... I felt so horribly, so utterly alone... I felt completely abandoned; and in a way I can't explain, I was sure that what had happened to me would keep me abandoned forever. I was sure no stallion would ever want me, or even try to help me, and that right now, nopony even could. I knew I was doomed that morning, so hopelessly and terrifyingly on my own... Then you came... And the monsters ran quickly away... I also feared you at first, until I heard your voice... Wait... A kindred spirit? A true friend? Here? Now? How in Equestria? Head pounding, still I ran... Safe, I knew, in your strong arms... All I could do was cry... And I know now you spent years tirelessly working on that scope thing. I am pretty sure you never suspected it would be the singular means allowing you to be there when I needed you most. And I only found out later the steep and terrible price you had already paid that night, to even be able to be there, and snatch me away from death, it seemed. After such vicious abuse, I just could not understand your deepening committment to me...

...

I will never forget gliding along the freeway in your big, soft car. The monsters had taken me far away and done terrible things to me... You were driving me back home, back to my amazing new friends. I was so broken inside, you could have told me to do anything, and I would have done it. I was sure every stallion in Equestria would have only disgust for me now. But you... I had never felt so cherished as I did that day... You treated me like I was precious, like I was valuable. I so desparately needed that, on that day especially. Honestly, I was still oblivious to most of the hazards of this strange, new world. But you went so far out of your way to protect me, to care for me, to teach me... You provided for me... It was like your strong arms surrounded me and protected me that whole time. I really needed that... And you showed me I could write! I loved reading, but you gave me a small writing task, and I just soared with it. On that day, of all days, you showed me I could still fly. So much hurt, but you gave me hope...

...

I will never forget that morning, waking up after a terrible dream, with you quickly and lovingly at my side. I couldn't leave you, not now, not any more. That vivid dream showed what we surmised was the future of Equestria. The lessons were tough, and the condition of Equestria was tragic, even though we were mostly able to rebuild in my dream. But you were there... And I felt so acutely, wrapped up deep inside that dream, that I desparately needed you... In that dream, we were married, and that just made waking up hard. But I had seen... I had seen what life with you would be like. I would never want anything, anypony else... And the next week we spent together writing, almost around the clock... I wanted that to never end...

...

I will never forget the day I saw your pure, kind and loving heart, from the inside... My Twin and I both; the most amazing thing was so horribly twisted and abused. We were both so broken inside. We were sure we were cast off forever. Even with your increasing presence in my life, that nagging dread, it was consuming both of us. Through the Group Link, we saw... We saw deep inside you... We both saw how deeply and genuinely you cherished me... We simply could not deny what was before our very eyes. That dread was banished. We really could, still, be cherished. We could both live on...

...

I will never forget, and I still cry when I remember this... Less than two minutes after being thrust into Equestria Past... We had rescued our Princesses, as foals, from certain and immanent death, and we were quickly soaring high and away... Well, at first, all we knew is we had rescued two precious foals from hungry Cougars. You jumped so quickly into the task of caring for, and protecting all of us, our new family. You so quickly embraced me as your Mare. And as mothering grew rapidly inside me, your strong arms sheltered, cared for, and provided for the two most important foals in all Equestria, to us, right then. Your wise forethought kept us all safe and so comfortable. You always seemed to know the right, the best thing to do. And towards the end, we found out who our girls were, and that was both amazing and hard at the same time. And as I faced the blinding pain of having to give our girls away, you were right there, holding me close, and loving me every way you possibly could...

...

I will never forget the day I got you back. Well I was responsible for you forgetting everything, forgetting me... Coming back from the Past was hard enough, we both hurt so much, but I hurt the least next to you, and I know you felt the same way... We didn't ask for that Fury Boil, but we saw it in time because we were hurting so much, and out for a walk. And it seemed so unfair that you were the only one that got hurt, and that I did it... And I know it was an accident, but to lose the very one I needed and wanted so desparately; that was so very hard... I cried a lot. I ran away, and came back... I waited... I decided I would wait forever. And ALL this... Every passing moment shouted out how desparately I needed you... I cried out to true friend a lot because every day was it's own painful nightmare... But then, to hear your voice again... I... Pain... Love... I was just overwhelmed... I could have cried in your arms all day...

...

I will never forget our first night by the moonlight. Since I was younger, I wanted to feel like a princess, just like everypony else, I think. And I wonder if, deep inside, that was my only goal with the relationships I (rather unsuccessfully) pursued with other stallions. And I know a lot of other phillies told me stallions are only after one thing. Maybe that is true in a lot of cases. But you, my Stallion... What the monsters did to me, that erased my desires for years. You patiently waited for me. Even after I got my desires back, it was so clear that having a foal would not be a good idea, for one reason or another. You took care of me, even though there was really nothing in it for you... I still don't understand that... So many ponies in Equestria are just after a feeling they really like, and I guess, they are content to get it after 15 minutes maybe, then be on their way... You made me feel so cherished first; you loved me so deeply first... And yes, I really like that feeling, but only with you, and only because you so clearly put me first. I really am your Mare, but only because you have so completely become my frue friend above everything else. And the needs of other ponies... You quickly set our time aside for that as true friends should. I really enjoy our time at the lake. But I also enjoy waking up next to such a deep, true, loyal and loving friend...

...

I will never forget you rescuing me from that jail cell; well, the first time, I guess... Star Dusk wasn't very nice to me, and I kept telling her that I couldn't do what she wanted because I was your Mare. I guess this made her very mad, and she beat me up really bad with that heavy stick thing, then told me repeatedly that you wouldn't ever want me again. As bad as my head and face hurt when she was done, I knew she was right... And when you didn't come... I think, inside, I just collapsed, and gave up... I stopped eating, and didn't even move any more. I couldn't even cry any more either. I was pretty sure what Star Dusk said was right, that you would never come back, that you didn't care any more, that I had lost you... Death seemed welcome to me at that point, I just didn't care if I died... But then you came... I was so far gone, I really didn't even know you were right next to me, hugging me, at first. But I heard your name, and just started talking. It was very slow, but finally... I sensed your presence, I recognized your voice... I felt so weak inside, but I wanted you so bad. I fought hard to come back. We cried together a long time, and that still wasn't enough. I guess I was hurt pretty bad inside, but you stayed with me, you cried with me... You told me you would always want me. I think I really needed to hear that...

...

I will never forget you bringing me that book, up in Cloudsdale that day. Only I had no clue it was you, or who you even were. They have books in Cloudsdale, but the material used; those books need to be made a lot differently. Otherwise... Growing up, I spent a lot of time at the Cloudsdale Library. I loved reading... But why did some dumb Pegasus try to bring me an earth-bound book anyway? ...and on that day, of all days? I was so fed up... I had no friends; my abrasive self-centeredness had pretty much pushed everypony away, even my sister Fluttershy. That alone really hurt... Maybe it didn't show, not any more by then, but I loved my sister a lot, and running her off... Falling down, off the clouds, up-side-down... Well, it's very difficult for even a good flyer to get out of that. Such a fall was my plan, and I had no intention of preventing gravity from doing it's work. I wanted to curl up into a ball and just fall... Like I said, I was so fed up with, well, everything. Everything hurt. I was done. When you walked up behind me, I refused to give you the time of day, and hoped inside that you would quickly leave. But when you didn't... And when you started trying to work a large, earth-bound book from your sack... Boy that was dumb, I thought. You managed to get it out, but it fell quickly through the clouds and was gone. Well, I was hoping you would be too, but I simply could not ignore that falling book... I helped it survive the fall, then stared at it for a minute after I shrugged it off my back into the grass. I put it into my own book bag, then flew quickly back up to Cloudsdale. You were gone, just like I had hoped earlier. I flew lazily back down, found a nice spot in the meadow, laid down on my belly, and opened up my new book. Why would some dumb Pegasus want me to have this? I started reading... ...about my Princess, Princess Twilight, and the amazing things true friendship accomplished in she and her friend's lives. Wait... Thinking about others? Depending on and even helping others? Seriously? Putting others first? That was so vastly different than what my life had become. I could not stop reading. I desperately wanted what I was reading about... I was quickly crying... Because of that book... I would never be the same...

...

I will never forget waking up in your arms after that long, terrible night. The same two monsters took me... again... The first time, I didn't remember anything. I just drank that soda, then I quickly passed out. But not this time... They burst into the ladies' room at the Cakes. "We finally get our little cutie back!" they kept saying over and over again. One of them pointed a gun at me. I was very scared. "If you scream, I will kill you" he said. They tried to get me to drink some soda, but I knew what that would do. Most of it ended up all over me. Then I watched in horror through the mirror as the monster behind me lifted his arm high, and brought that gun down hard on my neck. I was sure I was dead. I started to scream, then everything went black... And when I woke up, I did scream... I kept screaming... It was very dark... And I felt someone else holding me -- I screamed louder. But you... You said the only thing that could have allowed me to make sense out of where I was right now... "Summer, please come back..." It was you... I knew right away; you are the only one who has ever said that to me... It was you... I knew I was safe, in your arms... Screaming changed to hysterical crying as I clung tightly to you. You had rescued me again. I cried buckets in your arms... I didn't ever want to leave your side...

...

I will never forget kicking you across 'our room' in the Audience Hall, buried deep in Equestria Past. I guess me losing my memory; well, the Portal, maybe true friend, I was pulled out from under that huge cube of obsidian and put back in Canterlot. Dark Melvain throught I was dead, but so did you. But somehow you found me, and put up with me having no recollection for weeks... But your hand under my wing... I know it was an accident, but I knew in my soul that only one stallion was ever allowed to do that. Well, that's why I remembered... Part-way through my kick I realized what I was doing, and froze my legs. That didn't stop you from flying across the small room though, and into the wall. I turned into a people right away, and ran to your side. I heard my sister Fluttershy begin to cry hysterically; she realized I had remembered. But I knelt next to you and pulled your head and shoulders into my lap while I quickly swam through the last few weeks, so amazed... I quickly realized Cel had set out on a hopeless mission to confront that beast alone, but you... I had to make sure you were ok first. I asked if anything was broken, you replied "not any more", then smiled... Your smile... I melted... We cried together... I hugged my sister, then we flew out to the Bastion and rescued Cel. But I will always be your mare, and yours alone...

...

I will never forget our last time at the lake by the moonlight in the future. Dreaming about the future is one thing, but to actually live that through... We helped Equestria get put back together, and a lot of amazing things happened. But, towards the end, everything was just slowly getting harder. We increasingly had less to do, and nowhere to go. We felt absolutely abandoned, after helping everypony else restart their lives. It was like we realized more and more that this was not our future, well not yet anyway. Auguring loss... You would think we would be used to that. That night, and it really was the night before we left the future, you played with me. We played together. Yes, we ended up on the far side of the lake, and that was just amazing. But running around Ponyville chasing each other, rolling around in the grass together, looking into your eyes... The inevitable was coming, but you helped me relax a few hours before it came crashing down.

...

This morning... I woke up... ...next to you... It was just one morning of many, but I relish each and every one. I have no idea where, or even when we are right now, but I am next to you. That is all that really matters to me. You are my home. You are my world.

I love you so much...

Chapter 4, Rage's Wounds

...Even inside the Castle, I could now hear the angry crowd. They were very close...

I followed Princess Twilight outside...

The angry, yelling crowd was at the bottom of the stairs in front of the Castle... ...still yelling "No more!" over and over again...

And I quickly realized Shysage was curled up on that bottom step... He was covered with blood, as they continued to hit him with their signs...

Princess Twilight was furious...

"STOP THAT THIS INSTANT!" she yelled...

Well, they stopped hitting Shysage, anyway.

Princess wasn't done, and yelled again

"IS THIS THE KIND OF EQUESTRIA YOU REALLY WANT?"

...

It was instantly quiet.

I don't know what anypony in that angry crowd said...

...because at that exact moment, Equestria... Our present faded from view...

As somewhere and sometime slowly came into view... I think I may have dropped some, but I ended up standing in the grass, facing Shysage... He was still curled up in a ball, bleeding all over, now in the grass, crying quietly. I... I will never leave my Stallion... "Shysage, I'm right here..." I said this quietly, a few times. I think, more than any time in his life, he needed me right now, and I knew it. I ran quickly to his side, and began to lick the blood from his body. I remembered my Twin having to do this to her Shysage recently... And the blood made my stomach sick, but I didn't care. And every so often, I would stop, and kiss my amazing Stallion. "Shysage, I love you so much" I said this a lot too. I felt it. I meant it. I was crying with him... For a while, he cried more, harder, then his crying began to slow. I didn't expect his crying to stop completely; he probably hurt all over. I didn't think anything was broken, or any permament damage was done, but he was clearly in a lot of pain. And this wasn't like the time the Portal guards, then Dark Melvain beat him up; Shysage was mostly unconscious, or just barely conscious most of that time. But now... I knew my Shysage keenly felt every wound...

...

Sometime later, a gentle rain pulled my attention away some from Shysage. The rain was WARM... And it quickly had most of the blood washed from Shysage's body as he lay there. I could now see that he had some pretty big bruises, and a lot of smaller ones... Lots of cuts too, some were still bleeding... But neither of us moved; we didn't even try to, we didn't even have to... Well, I snuggled up as close to Shysage as I could, and put my head right next to his. We just enjoyed the warm rain together. We heard some thunder off in the distance, but nothing close, nothing menacing. And there was no wind either. And it was a warm day, too. Compared to where we had just been; freezing cold, snow... This... here... It all felt absolutely amazing. I was quickly crying... My Shysage needed this... After an hour maybe, both our crying tapered off. It kept raining.

...

What appeared to be late afternoon, the clouds drifted slowly off, and the warm Sun... Warm... The Sun felt so amazing both Shysage and I sighed at the same time. And for the first time, I looked around and began to take stock of our surroundings. Well, it was very warm here. This alone made me suspect we were not in our present any longer.

...

And I noticed only now that a very calming tune(1) continued to waft slowly through the background. It was a welcomed replacement for the monster music that accompanied that angry crowd... It didn't matter, they weren't here now.

...

Shysage and I were in the middle of a large meadow. Well, the meadow was very large. A weather-worn, wind blown, scraggly but good-sized tree was near us. And I saw one or two other trees way off in the distance, dotting the horizon. Otherwise it was meadow as far as I could see.

...

I asked Shysage if he could walk, and he tried, and only slowly got up. I led him to the nearby tree, which was really a few trees blown together, and he flopped down beneath it's shade, and winced as he did. I laid on my belly right next to him. Together, we stared off into the distance, across the warm meadow, as a gentle, warm breeze blew past us, occasionally rustling the leaves in our tree. I made sure my head was right next to his. I love him so much...

...

After a dazzling sunset, the Blue sky was replaced by a brilliant canopy of millions of glittering stars. It really was beautiful, even if I gazed upwards only occasionally. I did everything I could to keep my head right next to Shysage's. He moved around quite a bit, and I knew he was trying to find a position for his body that hurt the least. I don't think he found that. Last time he hurt this bad, he gave up, rolled on his side, and just had me crawl up under his front legs, and he hugged me all night as I slept. I wasn't going to do that. "Shysage, I know you are in a lot of pain. I am going to stay awake all night with you if I need to." This brought tears to his eyes. Shysage ended up laying on his belly. I guessed it hurt as bad as anything else. I moved right next to him, and put my head down on one of his front legs. He put his head right next to mine. I knew that was comforting to him. Early in the morning, we both fell asleep, there under that tree. It stayed warm all night.

I guess we slept in; the Sun was pretty high in the sky when we finally woke up. Well, Shysage was already awake, but was still keeping his head next to mine. He put his head up as soon as I did. I really wanted to knock him over, and hug him tightly for hours. I also knew that would hurt him. "Shysage, I really love you" I said quietly as we looked off across the meadow together. He smiled a little, and touched my nose with his. I sighed, and he did too, much more quietly.

I asked him if he was hungry, and he didn't answer right away. I quickly asked if he felt he could get up. He put his head down, and slowly moved his head, side to side. I guess he wanted to stay right here. I asked if I could look around, close, for some food. I think he nodded. I was starved. The last thing in my stomach was blood. I didn't mind doing that, but I was pretty sure I needed to eat. I had not wandered far, when I realized most of the plants in this meadow were Oats. I turned into a people, and pulled a bunch of Oats up, and gathered them in my arms, stems and all. I carried them back to Shysage, of course, and that made him cry. I put them down in front of him, and he kept crying. I sat next to him, as a people, and wrapped both arms around his pony neck, and hugged him tightly. I was crying too. After a few minutes maybe, Shysage tried to stop crying, and I did too. He started eating, so I changed back into a pony, and wandered over to some Oats nearby, and I ate too.

...

It was while I was eating, that I began to sense the clouds of a gathering storm. It wasn't the weather here; it was warm and sunny outside today, just like yesterday, maybe around noon now. A nice breeze kept it from getting hot. It was a nice day. I had no idea where and when we were, but it was amazing here. We left the dead of Winter with an inch of snow on the ground. It felt glorious here.

Shysage had not spoken a single word since we came here yesterday... That was the gathering storm. I was right about what I thought yesterday. More than any other time in Shysage's life, he needed me. Inside, he was hurt, and hurt bad. I ate quickly, and just about ran back to my Stallion.

He was still eating the Oats I had brought him. I was a pony, and I laid on my belly right next to him. He briefly rubbed my nose with his, and he continued eating. I guessed he was hungry too. He ate everything. He ate until it was all gone, even the stems.

I honestly didn't know what to do, what to say. For years, it was Shysage who was the towering strength in my life. I was the Phantom Alicorn, and powerful, I guess. But Shysage and his strength is what kept me going, what guided me, what cared so amazingly for me. I was pretty sure that was broken now. He was broken. I don't know... I remember Shysage saying once that what we say comes from our heart; our words reveal what is in our heart. Shysage wasn't talking. That was a bad sign. Well, one thing was for sure. Looking around at our surroundings, I was pretty sure we were in no hurry. And I had no intention of leaving his side. If he was weak for some reason, then I would be his strength, just like he had done for me for years. Beyond that, I had no agenda, no carefully thought out plan. I really had no clue, even. I was in no hurry though. We spent the afternoon right next to each other like that. We sighed together a few times, too.

Later that night, those millions of twinkling stars overhead found Shysage and I in the same place under our tree. He was laying on his belly, and I was right next to him. Heads together, we gazed out across the meadow. I don't know where this came from, but I said it anyway. His head was up against mine, and I didn't even move. I just said this. "Shysage, I know you are hurting deeply inside. I... I don't know the cause of your pain, but I do know that I love you more than life itself even. I will help you any way I can. And I won't leave your side, except to gather food for you." By the time I was done saying this, Shysage was sobbing on my front legs. I just cried with him. The Fluttershy in my Stallion; he probably cries more than most stallions, because he feels so much. Still, for a stallion to cry like this... We cried together for hours. Later in the evening, Shysage's crying abruptly tapered off. He had fallen asleep. This meant the pain in his body was fading away. But inside... Crying for hours... He was hurt bad...

For the next hour or so, I talked to our true friend in the sky a lot. I knew I needed his help. Wounds on the outside are one thing, but this... Like I said, I had no clue even, and I told him so. I cried too, but tried to keep it quiet. Shysage needed his sleep. After I ran out of words, I fell asleep too.

I woke up the next morning. Something was itching my nose. I looked up quickly, then calmed down as I realized Shysage was right next to me. Then I started to cry... Shysage had collected a bunch of Oats and brought them to me; they were piled up in front of me, just like I had done for him yesterday. We cried together a little while. "Shysage, can we share these?" I asked quietly. We did. I guess we were both hungry. Whatever had happened inside my Stallion... I didn't think for a second it affected his love for me, and such a tender, caring gesture; this just confirmed he still loved me deeply. I wept on and off as we ate together. Shysage did too.

Still, this also meant Shysage could at least walk some distance. I didn't ask him, I just told him I was going to circle the tree in the air briefly to see if there was a lake nearby. He just nodded. Flying felt absolutely amazing, but I didn't stay up long. The meadow around our tree drifted lazily, but only slightly downhill to a lake, then drifted just as lazily up beyond the lake. The lake was pretty long, but not very wide. It didn't matter, we had water now, and that was important. I landed facing Shysage, and did my Pegasus mare curtsy, and he smiled. He really likes that. Shysage and I were soon walking slowly towards that lake. Shysage winced a few times at first, but was soon doing ok. And I told him that walking slow with him like that felt amazing. He stopped, and we cried together a few minutes, then we resumed our walk. And the water in the lake tasted amazing. Well, and Shysage was soon in the water up to his neck, laying on his belly. I guess the water felt very good on all his bruises and cuts. I sat on the edge of the lake and adored my Stallion, then realized I should be next to him. We spent the afternoon right next to each other in the water like that. I don't think anything else was on either of our minds. I was pretty sure Shysage was too busted up emotionally for that to work right now. I could wait for my Stallion. In the dim and distant past, he waited years for me. But I won't lie, my head right next to his, that felt wonderful. I love him so much...

I saw something else I decided I would need while we were at the lake, a few of those plants with very wide leaves. In the Past, we had used the leaves for paper, so we could teach Cel and Lu how to write. Having them here; that would come in handy. All we needed were berries... We snacked on Oats next to the lake, took another drink or two, then we walked slowly back up the slight hill to our tree. It was easy to see, even from the lake; it was the closest tree by far, for miles around. Even in a blizzard, we could probably... Bah, nevermind. I don't like Winter... It didn't really matter; another warm day, another warm evening, another warm night. Watching the occasional meteor race through the stars with my Stallion... And tonight, he hurt little enough that he hugged me with one of his front legs, most of the evening. That felt amazing! We cried together quite a bit too. The love, the devotion we shared... There was nothing for us right now except together and alone. Shysage listened as I talked to true friend some, then we both snuggled together and fell asleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I was instantly alarmed. I did not see or feel Shysage anywhere near. I looked around briefly, then quickly called out his name. "Shysage!" I was clearly alarmed, and started crying right away. Well, he was close, and quickly jumped onto his belly right next to me. He hugged me while I cried. I doubted I needed to tell him what had just happened. And, after a while, I was crying just from feeling him close. Maybe I would be a mess today. After I calmed down, Shysage got slowly up, and began walking slowly away, looking back at me. He wanted me to follow him, and of course I did. We didn't walk far, then he laid on his belly, and I was quickly down right next to him. Between two of the main trunks that was our tree, Shysage had built a wind screen of sorts. It was made mostly of stuff he found under these few trees; branches, sticks and bark. It looked fairly sturdy, and it blocked the wind nicely. And it was only then that I noticed it was a little cooler today. I started crying again, and Shysage was quickly hugging me... Shysage still had not said a word. But if, whatever was going on inside my Stallion had affected his amazing mind, his almost natural ability to think things through, and carefully plan accordingly... This absolutely necessary part of my Stallion was still very much alive... I cried for a while, realizing this... I said what I felt. "Shysage, I honestly think I would die without you..." I meant it.

After I calmed down again, Shysage and I walked slowly to the lake, ate breakfast and drank some. We both ended up in the water again, but we didn't stay long. I think Shysage just wanted to rinse off. And I think he was feeling a lot better. He had little fresh bleeding left. The bruises along his back looked terrible, but I think they hurt less. The first time an angry stallion kicked Shysage across the lobby at the Canterlot Library, Shysage said it was better him than me. Well, maybe, but I would feel so much at a loss if Shysage had gotten really hurt. I was pretty sure I would be useless. I was glad Shysage was not hurt worse this time, on the outside anyway.

It was warming up nicely, and maybe halfway back to our tree, Shysage flopped down on his belly in the grass, and I joined him of course. We rubbed noses a while too. Shysage was soon asleep, his pony head down on my front legs. For a while, I kept my head right next to his. And I also think, for the first time, since we came to this here and now, I relaxed. Shysage would be so much better at this, but I doubted he would help me understand what was going on inside him. But I knew my Stallion far better than most. I worked some on figuring it out. And I told true friend that I did not have my Stallion's brain; I would need true friend's help.

In case it mattered, Shysage's family in the Equestria Girls world was not very nice to him. He tried to do what was good, say what was good and best. And I am sure he understood the crucial aspects of raising foals, well kids. He found out only years later that so much stuff was going on behind his back. He got yelled at a lot. And, in general, he was basically treated with disdain no matter what he said. I doubted he was perfect, and he made mistakes too. But nothing... It seemed to me he was submarined, then shoved away. And if there was any yelling... He told me one he had to shut up in order to protect his kids from it... Yelling, anger... He would just stop saying anything. Hmm... I was pretty sure he had kept his mouth shut and swallowed everything down for years... I think he was so relieved when he left the Equestria Girls world, for good he thought, and came here to Equestria. But ponies here in Equestria evidently found reason to yell at him too. Maybe his talents put him in their sights, I don't know. He's a Fluttershy, but a stallion too, and he refused to back down from what is right and best as we wrote. I think that made some ponies mad... well, maybe enraged...

Hmm... Maybe... I doubt most other ponies understand this, but sensitive souls like my sister Fluttershy, we all process anger far differently... ...and rage especially. Those sign-wielding stallions that beat up Shysage... They could just as easily have ended up yelling at each other. It would not have made any difference to them; just another reason to yell, I guess. Us Fluttershys, we absolutely cannot do that. Anger, rage... We feel that intensely. We are so sensitive, we can't not feel what many other ponies can simply ignore. Well, it devastates us. Anger and rage just blast across us so painfully, we can't ignore it... and we usually can't escape it either. My stallion was getting beat up by maybe 20 furious stallions... His tender soul felt the rage from each one... He... He was just devastated inside... And he did... what he had done in the Equestria Girls world... He shut up... He knew no other way he could...

I was crying pretty hard by now. Those angry stallions... Their rage had hurt my sensitive Stallion far more than their signs ever could. They had silenced him with their rage, they had beat his tender, sensative soul into submission with their fury. That was so hideously, completely wrong...

Bullys and the bullied...

Rage's wounds on sensitive souls...

Shysage woke up... concerned...

I just pleaded...

"Shysage, the Fluttershys in Equestria need your voice... These thousands of sensitive souls scattered all around the realm, trampled more often than not; Shysage, you are their champion. They all need you to fight for them, to stand up and speak for them, to say what most of us are too timid to say. Shysage, they need, we need your voice... You can't let these angry stallions win... Shysage we all need you... Please..."

I don't know where these words came from, or if they were even right. I just voiced how I felt right then... I was crying when I started, and I burst into tears after I was done. Shysage did too. We hugged and cried together for a long time...

Hours later, I think we both were cried out. It was getting late in the day, and we walked back to the lake for dinner, then slowly back to our tree. A cool breeze, cool not cold; the wind picked up some as the Sun headed for the horizon. Behind Shysage's wind screen, we were very comfortable.

After a little while, Shysage sighed heavily.

"Summer, you are right. I won't give up..."

We cried ourselves to sleep that night.

Author's Note

The tune is track 5 of the Original Soundtrack of the Final Fantasy XI 'Seekers of Adoulin' expansion.

Chapter 5, Leaning on the Wind

Waking up the next morning...

The very first thing I heard...

"Hi beautiful!" It was Shysage, of course; he was right next to me. He said that slowly and quietly with his amazing low voice. I just melted. I was quickly crying. I needed him 'back'. I think he was. He rolled over onto his side, pulled me over, then up to his chest and neck. He hugged me tightly and this just made me cry more. I so needed this. I so need him... I cried as he hugged me. We didn't move for the longest time.

It was probably noon when we finally got up. Shysage said he was hungry. I was too! We walked slowly and together down to the lake. I had to work very hard to not keep crying. The last few days, with Shysage like he was; that was just scary. I think he understood. When I would cry pretty hard, he would stop, face me and hug me while I cried. I won't ever leave this stallion, but I just... Shysage almost effortlessly realizes what I need, and quickly and enthusiastically does just that. Maybe I take it for granted. The last few days showed me...

Shysage ate a lot, but I guess I did too. After we both drank our fill from the lake, we flopped down in the grass. We were near the edge of the lake, and we could see across and up the slight hill away from our tree. It was another amazing, warm day. Shysage and I were both on our bellies, right next to each other. For a while, nothing was said as we gazed out across endless meadow. Shysage would occasionally put his head up against mine and move his head up and down some. That was a Sue Hug; Shysage and Cel (Princess Celestia) came up with that on only our second day together, on our first road trip in the Past.

"Shysage, where do you think we are?" I asked this out of the blue, breaking the silence.

"Together and alone" he quickly answered, then he looked at me and smiled.

I smiled and blushed. We certainly were, and it was warm, and the lake was... Well, I had no intention of rushing my Stallion into that no matter how bad I wanted it. I would wait for him.

It was quiet a few minutes more. "Shysage, we haven't seen any other ponies..." My voice trialed off as I said this. It was neither a question nor a statement. We both knew this already.

It was quiet for a few more minutes. Shysage had been thinking, and that alone almost made me cry some more. "I think we are probably still somewhere in Equestria. I am just not sure when." He said this slowly. Well, neither of us knew much for sure, anyway.

A lone bird flew overhead, towards us, then past us, probably headed for our tree. Shysage and I both looked at each other and smiled. We were soon in the air. He agreed with me; flying felt absolutely wonderful. We were careful to keep tabs on our tree. This was pretty easy since it was the only tree nearby. Even flying large circles around our tree, the closest other tree was miles away. I asked Shysage to keep an eye out for berries. I wanted to use some of that broad-leafed plant to start doing some Canterlot Recording. He smiled and said "Of course." We did find a berry patch, it was at one end of the long, narrow lake. Shysage recognized the berries from the Equestria Girls world. We landed, turned into people, and Shysage picked some for me, and we ate them together. Well, he warned me about the thorns on the stems too. Anyway, they were very good. And Shysage said they would also make very good ink.

Then Shysage asked me when I wanted to start recording. I anwered quickly "Today? Before I start to forget!" We were still people. Shysage collected a bunch of berries and gave them to me, but mentioned they would easily stain our Equestria Girls clothes. Next, we walked around the lake to the broad-leaf plants, and Shysage found a few leaves that had fallen off, and were already dry. We carried our Canterlot Recording tools back to our tree. And mind, you, we were in no hurry, and easily took our time, and enjoyed just being together. Whether ponies or people, Shysage and I, we are just delighted to be able to be next to each other. I guess that has never worn off for us. I hope it never does.

Well, a bird headed for our tree earlier. Finding a cast off feather didn't take long. The feather was a beautiful blue, and worked perfectly as a pen, er quill. All I had to do was poke one of the little round things that made up the berries, then just write. This all worked out very well. And once I used up most of the ink in a berry, I just ate it. They tasted very good, and we had plenty. I jumped right in to writing, and Shysage sat next to me and watched, and helped when I asked. He laughed and said he missed his couch. Then he said more seriously that ponies seem to tolerate my writing better than his. I just sighed. Now was not the time...

Well, he was quickly crying. The first thing I did was write out my own recollections about some of the crucial times in Shysage and my relationship. I actually got this idea our second day here, wherever and whenever here was. I wanted Shysage to know how absolutely crucial he was, is to my life. Even after these last few days, I was intent on doing this anyway. And I cried too. It is just hard to fathom the twists and turns that wound our lives so closely, so tighly together. I couldn't leave him if I had to. That would just unravel the person that I have become. I'm pretty sure he feels the same way.

It took until almost sun-down to finish what I wanted to say, and we cried and hugged a lot as I wrote. I had to write small, but I got everything written down on two of the three leaves we had brought back. Still crying, we ate the rest of the berries, told true friend thank you, then cried in each other's arms until we were asleep. Still, compared to what things were like just a few days ago...

I don't often get the privilege of sleeping next to Shysage as a people. Even minor temperature changes; people have heaters and use blankets in the Equestria Girls world for that reason. Here in Equestria, being a pony is just a lot more convenient. But it was so warm all night, we both stayed comfortable. Fully clothed, we slept on our sides, as people, with Shysage's strong arms holding me close. We both sighed a lot. And, after all we had worked through the previous afternoon, staying close like that meant a lot to both of us. After I woke up, I rolled over to face Shysage and we kissed for a while. Staring into each others eyes... You would think we were newly-weds. Maybe we are! Maybe nopony told us we should get over that. I hope nopony ever does.

We were soon back to being ponies, walking slowly together down to the lake, and breakfast. Out of nowhere, I asked this. "Shysage, I wonder if we will miss Volume 5?"

Shysage thought a minute, then said quietly "I think the longest the Portal has ever kept us away is two weeks maybe. I doubt we will miss anything, including the rest of our winter..." That was an unhappy thought, and we both frowned. Oh well, we would deal with that as it came. I didn't say anything, but I already missed my sister Fluttershy. I was pretty sure Shysage suspected that. We both probably already missed, well, everypony. We had no control over that; we would return whenever we were done here. We just had no clue what we were here for...

After that leisurely walk down to the lake, we ate and drank. We both rinsed off again. It seemed like that was becoming a habit for us. The sores and bruises on Shysage's body looked a lot better. I think we both felt a lot better, too. We sat next to each other on the bank of the lake as we dried off, and gazed across the meadow. Except for the occasional bird, it was very quiet, with little to no breeze. We were soon up and walking slowly back to our tree.

I honestly don't know why; I... Something just hit me, I don't know. Without warning, I laid down in the grass, curled up into a little ball, and started crying softly. I had absolutely no clue what was going on... ...But I guess Shysage did. He was quickly down on his side facing me, and managed to curl himself around me, which just pulled us closer together. My head ended up on top of his as I cried, and our front legs were tangled around each other's necks. Of course, we both hugged each other, but I was still crying. After a few minutes, Shysage said quietly "I love my princess." I moved my head back some, looked into his eyes, and just melted. It was maybe mid-morning, but that didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Shysage took care of his Mare. He loved me, he cherished me. He made me feel like a princess. It was amazing. It was even more amazing to realize that my Stallion knew what I needed, even if I didn't. I guess that desire had slowly, or not so slowly built over the past few days. I needed my Stallion. He knew that, and took care of me. Shysage said quietly afterwards that he was recovering inside and still felt pretty beat up. But he so thorougly enjoyed giving me what I needed and wanted, and that was reward enough for him. I just don't understand that. We spent a bunch of the rest of that day laying on our sides, hugging, half in and half out of the lake. Our heads side by side, we just enjoyed being close together for a long time. We didn't talk; nothing really needed to be said. It was heavenly.

We might have dozed a while there, it was easily warm enough for that. And I think we were both so relaxed. Maybe late afternoon, we realized we should eat and drink, then head back to our tree. The moon was very small at night, and so it got very dark at night as a result. Finding our tree during daylight was wise.

We got back to our tree easily in time, but the Sun was already pretty low in the west. At one point, the wind picked up substantially. It was not a cold wind, but Shysage said he thought something called a front was blowing through. The wind wasn't in danger of knocking our trees or Shysage's wind break down, but it was pretty constant. And I am a Pegasus mare. And I guess I stand up on my hind legs a lot, far more than most other ponies. Well, I did that, then extended my wings. With a little experimentation, I found I could lean forward at about a 45 degree angle, and adjust my wings so that the lift from the wind counteracted the gravity trying to pull me down. For a long time, I was standing there mostly motionless, leaning on the constant flow of wind holding me up. Maybe this is another Pegasus thing, I don't know. I was leaning on the wind. And the main feeling I could sense was peace. I was soon weeping softly. As a Pegasus, we depend so much on the wind, the air. And I quickly made this connection, I don't know. The Portal had moved us around in Equestria quite a bit, and some trips were more difficult than others. But Shysage and I, we could always count on, well I don't know, true friend, the Portal, or the Keeper... Well, whatever, we could lean on them as we tried to do what we thought best. And between them, things always worked out fine. We could lean peacefully on them.

Trying to put these puzzle pieces together, I was startled by something touching my left wing. As a Pegasus, when you are flying, if anything touches your wing, that is very bad, and your wing getting injured, or worse, is usually the result. I looked immediately. It was Shysage. He was doing the same thing as I was, and had moved so he could touch my wing with his. This added such an amazing dimension to what we were doing; we were leaning on the wind together. Shysage said we were holding wings. I just laughed, but could have just as easily cried. My amazing Stallion... He had found another way we could share our lives. When the Sun was very low in the sky, it added a dazzling Orange hue to everything. Shysage said I looked amazing. Well, I looked over at him, and he looked amazing too. (opt:btm10a) We leaned on the wind together for over an hour, and watched the Sun set while holding wings. Once the Sun dipped below the horizon, the wind slowed, and my Stallion and I curled up together under our tree. We rubbed noses for a long time, watched the stars and meteors a while, then we fell asleep.

We had no clue where, when or why we were here. But every day seemed to be drawing Shysage and I ever closer together, if that is even possible. Neither of us were complaining. I love him so much...

The next day was another warm, summer day. Shysage smiled and said maybe this is our vacation. He explained it to me, then I laughed. I don't know, except that we have been through a lot, even recently. Still, I couldn't see Equestria moving the Phantom Alicorn here without some reason. I agreed with Shysage though, we would just need to wait and see. And we woke up the way we had fallen asleep. I was on my side, curled up, and Shysage had managed to curl himself around me. Well, I stayed comfortably warm all night. Sleeping with him like that seemed as much home for me as anything else.

After hugging, sighing and rubbing noses a while, we finally got up and made our way down to the lake. Well, it takes a little while to get there anyway, and we are usually in no hurry. We just enjoy the trip. We lean up next to each other, and walk in step, slowly. Whether people or ponies, we both really enjoy that. We ate some Oats together, and got a drink. We also rinsed off together again. Shysage made me blush when he told me I still look hot when I'm wet. The first time he told me that was one warm summer afternoon buried deep in the Past, while we were raising Cel and Lu. I blushed then, too. I asked Shysage about getting more berries and leaves. I said I still had plenty of Canterlot Recording to do, and he smiled. He loves my writing. He suggested a leisurely walk around the lake. We could have flown there much faster, but the walk sounded nice to both of us. We started off slowly around the lake, heading away from the end where we knew the berries were. We wanted to check out the other end. We had already seen the lake from the air, it wasn't huge. Our walk together was amazing...

...Until we heard a loud, angry growl behind is. Shysage and I, we both recognized the sound right away; it was a Cougar. They were natural predators of the Pony race. They were not nice. And we had run into Cougars both in the Past, and also in the future, so a Cougar here and now didn't tell us much. All we knew was that this Cougar thought one of us would be his lunch.

Almost instinctively, we both immediately took off at the same time. The Cougar ran and jumped, and almost got Shysage's leg, but he pulled it up just in time. I told Shysage to follow my lead, and I kept us on a low path, and flew directly away from our lake. We were low, so the Cougar followed us. That was my plan; I didn't want a smelly Cougar carcass anywhere near where we lived. When I thought the Cougar was tired of chasing us, I pulled straight up, changed into a people, and spun up my Cutie Mark, and hovered there directly above one confused Cougar. I quickly directed Shysage behind me. Motioning with my left hand, I coated him with electricity, and he couldn't move. Ten seconds later, I formed a large boulder with my left hand, then dropped it on his head, killing him instantly.

From behind me, I heard Shysage say softly "I love my Phantom Alicorn..." I unspun my Cutie Mark, but landed as a people. Shysage landed nearby, changed into a people himself, and we hugged and cried together. Our time here had turned amazing real fast. But this was a sobering wake-up call. We had to be careful. It didn't matter when or where we were right now. This endless meadow could hold danger, and we just had to be cautious and alert. And a Cougar could never win against me, but either Shysage or I could be seriously wounded in any such confrontation. Talking to true friend together, we cried there for a while. And I realized a Panther animal friend would be really helpful right about now. That thought just made me miss my sister Fluttershy even more...

A little more quickly, and a little more carefully, we got more paper leaves, and more berries, and headed back to our tree. Even though the wind break wasn't much, we somehow felt safer there. We actually flew from the dead Cougar to the paper plants, then walked to the berry bushes, then walked back to our tree. Maybe skitterish was a good word for us that afternoon. Still a people, I worked on Canterlot Recording some more. Here we were, probably somewhere in Equestria, but at an unknown time, and we were still working to get caught up on this. I guess we always would be...

Shysage didn't say much. He cried with me and hugged me when I cried, but he basically let me write. He was deep in thought; I could tell. When I put the quill down, I offered him some berries, and we shared what was left. I asked him what he had been thinking about. He sighed, and mentioned that he went through some options to add to our wind break. Some sort of enclosed area might be a little safer, he thought. He just wasn't sure how to do that. He also thought briefly about running some sort of fire all night, sort of a deterrent against night attacks. Shysage quickly ruled this idea out. Starting a fire would be easy enough, but the grass in the meadow would burn fiercely and quickly should our fire ever get away. And, somepony would need to stay up all night and tend to it anyway. Shysage was quiet briefly, then said that he felt the Cougar we had killed was some kind of scout. He pointed out what we both knew; we had seen no small animals besides birds in the days we had been here. There was clearly not enough around here to keep a Cougar fed. That was why Shysage felt the one we killed was a scout or something. Shysage felt it would be a while before we saw another one, but we still needed to be careful. And he actually suggested that we fly a generous perimeter each morning, and look for any animals here in this meadow. The nearest tree was probably miles away. There was simply no place for animals to hide in this endless field of Oats, and we would probably spot them easily; hopefully long before they walked up behind us.

It was quiet for a few minutes, then Shysage sighed. We were both people, and he moved and sat with his back up against one of the tree trunks, and I was quickly sitting in his lap. He wrapped both of his arms around me, and I rested my arms on top of his. Sitting like that, we both gazed quietly across the meadow, and enjoyed the warm breeze blowing through our tree. We could see for miles... The Sun was soon heading for the horizon, but we decided to stay put tonight. We didn't move, and just watched as shadows lengthened across our meadow as the Sun slowly set. Soon it was just stars and crickets; it was a beautiful, warm night. Shysage would occasionally hug me tightly and say "I love you, Summer". I would sigh, and pull his arms tighter with mine. Just as I was hoping to myself that our vacation never ended, Shysage said quietly "I hope our vacation isn't over yet..."

Chapter 6, Signs

Well, the next morning, we started a new habit.

The night before, we had stayed up until midnight maybe, as people, sitting and hugging, basically relaxing, leaning up against a tree. Then we both changed back to ponies, and Shysage curled up around me, and we both fell asleep. When we awoke (late) the next morning, we hugged and rubbed noses for a little while. Soon after, we were in the air, flying together. Flying felt absolutely amazing, and flying together... Still, I think we both felt homesick for other Pegasus friends flying with us. But this morning, we started something new. We would do this from now on while we were here, weather permitting. Starting at our tree, we flew up to maybe 200 feet. We wanted to be close enough to the ground so we could see any animals that might be down in this sea of Oats that was our meadow. But we also wanted to be high enough so that any animals below couldn't easily notice us. Starting at our tree, we flew a slow spiral, gradually flying further away from that tree. Our spirals were not perfect or uniform by any means, and that didn't even matter. It was so amazing, flying lazily in ever larger circles over the meadow. But, after the Cougar yesterday, we felt we had to. This was amazing Pegasus fun, but it was also necessary. We were working to protect ourselves. Our goal and hope was to find any more Cougars before they found us.

Keeping our tree(s) to our left, we just kept flying. It was good exercise, and amazing fun together. And we realized that, even though the closest other tree was miles away, finding our tree again would be easy. From the air, it was easy to see our tree, then a well worn and broad pathway through the Oats down to the long narrow lake. And we laughed because we could see the places we had laid down together in the grass. And Shysage had marked where we were when we came here, too. He shoved a pretty large branch into the ground at that spot. That was also easy to see. So, even if we had flown far away, we suspected that finding our tree again would be easy.

Our goal that first morning was to spiral out until we came to the closest tree. That tree was pretty far away, easily a few miles. By noon maybe we were flying huge circles, and could actually fly close to this nearet tree. It looked like our tree did; it was a bunch of scraggly trees blown together by the wind. Shysage led us in a circle around this new tree. Aside from some birds, we saw nothing else. Shysage suggested we land and check it out, so we did. A breather was welcome anyway; we had been in the air for hours by now. Shysage looked around some for a few minutes. As far as he could tell, this tree seemed to be directly West of our tree. It had no lake nearby, but was otherwise a lot like our tree. And I still don't know the details about how my Stallion can navigate like that, telling directions and such. Like I have said a lot; I really treasure his wisdom in a lot of practical areas. This tree was higher in elevation than our tree, and we could sit under this new tree, look East, and slightly down hill, and see our tree, miles off in the distance. We sat there a while, together and alone again, leaning up against each other. I just sighed a bunch. Being with Shysage, that was just home...

Well, there was no lake nearby, and it was a warm day, maybe the middle of the afternoon, and we were both thirsty. Shysage said we should do a fairly large circle around this tree, then head back to our lake. We were quickly in the air. Flying still felt so amazing, even though we had been flying all mornin--

"Summer, look..." Shysage said.

"Look at what?" I thought this. "Endless Oats? Dotted with small clumps of scraggly trees?" I really wasn't sure what Shysage even wanted me to look at. But he veered off, headed further to the West, as far as I could tell. I followed him, of course. The closer we got, the harder it was to miss. The trees we had seen, only sparsely dotting this meadow, were clumps of a few scraggly trees, wind blown together, and not more than maybe 35 feet high. But this...

We landed at the edge of the grass, and faced a green carpet of lush ferns...

...Surrounding a lone, majestic tree that was maybe 150 feet high...

For what seemed like a very long time, all we could do was sit and stare. We just sat there next to each other, awestruck at the view of something so big, and said nothing. We just looked in amazement at this huge tree, standing tall and alone, in the middle of an endless meadow full of pony food. Large birds occasionally flew into and away from some of the highest branches.

Shysage also said quietly that it was a Redwood. I just accepted that; I don't know trees like he does. But when he said quietly it was the same tree as the ring of trees where we met the Keeper of Equestria (in the future)...

I sighed right away; there was no dread here. Like the large circle of these trees we found in the future, we actually felt very calm, not apprehensive at all. Shysage said later it was from the tree, but the air smelled wonderful.

A few minutes later, I asked quietly "What is this place..."

Shysage didn't reply. Neither of us knew. For what seemed like hours we didn't move. We didn't even talk. We just waited, looked, well stared, and listened. Maybe we were waiting for the Keeper. I guess we really had no clue. Well, we really knew very little, really nothing about why we were even here, or even where or when we were.

But this tree... It seemed as out of place as we felt right now...

...

As the Sun headed towards the horizon further West, Shysage said we should head back to the closest tree, and spend the night there. He said he felt this was safer than spending the night right here, out in the open, even though both of us felt so at ease. We were soon in the air, and we landed at the closest scraggly tree as the Sun dipped out of sight, and it quickly got very dark. Like I mentioned, the Moon wasn't very big yet, so it got very dark at night. Shysage and I settled on the most protected side of this group of trees we could find, and were quickly on our bellies next to each other, looking out across the meadow, as the evening shadows grew darker.

A canopy of twinkling stars soon covered the sky as the crickets, and maybe some frogs sang the night away. For a while, Shysage said little. I knew he was deep in thought, so I asked him. He said he was watching the stars to get some idea about directions. He explained that, as we rested behind the wind break at our other tree, we were facing North. He could tell because of a star he called Polaris; all the other stars seemed to move around it. He had already found that star, now to our left. This meant we were facing East, and our tree was miles further East.

Well, I could never figure all that out! I just had to thank my Stallion again for his wisdom. I was sure I would be dead by now without him. I leaned lovingly up against him. "Shysage, I just want you to know--"

Shysage gasped, then said slowly "Summer look..."

Hmm... Was it something besides stars I was supposed to look at? Because right now, the only light around was from the stars. For a while, Shysage said nothing as I looked... searched...

Maybe what I was supposed to see was in plain sight all the time...

I finally gasped too...

The Equestrium...

A perfect triangle of stars, low to the horizon, off to the East...

Standing still, tall, as other stars moved along behind them...

It marked the home of the Pony Nation...

I guess our tree, well the other tree, it was low enough that we couldn't see the Equestrium. But here... There it was...

I started weeping softly...

The Portal had brought us to the dim reaches of Equestria's past, maybe even before it was Equestria... Maybe even before our previous, first visit here when we rescued Cel and Lu...

We were back...

The music drifting slowly and quietly in the background(1) since we arrived, that alone should have tipped me off... And I simply could not stop that torrent of memories... Shysage just held me as I cried. Well, we cried together. We cried ourselves to sleep, hours later...

It looked like mid-morning when we both woke up the next day. We were still on our bellies, right next to each other. Our realization that we were actually deep in the Past... Well, for the longest time, Shysage just hugged me some more, and little was said. I think we were reeling inside. The role we had played in Cel and Lu's lives, and the love we shared... We felt both honored and humbled by that. But the excruciating toll Dark Melvain had exacted over repeated trips back into the Past to help Cel... What was next? That was just a scary question.

Shysage did say slowly at one point "Summer, now we know the direction to Coptol, but I don't think we should go there until and unless we have a good reason."

Ok, so Coptol was, well now is, the capital city, the only city of the Pony Nation here in the Past. The three pony tribes, Earth, Pegasus and Unicorn, live in this city together. Well, they tolerate each other; this was probably more accurate. And they could not agree on a better name for their city. Still, Shysage was right. The further back into the Past we were, the more dangerous our time around other ponies became. I agreed with him, of course. Neither of us had any desire to head there. And I think we were hoping for more vacation.

But we were both hungry and thirsty. We took to the air, and flew back to our tree, then flew a few large circles around the lake, just to be careful. Then we landed, and ate. We were both very hungry, and ate a lot. We kept getting drinks too, then went back for more Oats.

I'm not quite sure why...

I stopped eating, and looked up. Shysage had been eating only a moment ago. I knew because we always stayed close to each other now. Shysage's head was raised high, and he slowly looked around us, looking here, then there. He even got up, turned around and looked some more. Well, if it was danger, Shysage would have said something right away. I just sat down and watched. It was clear he was deep in thought, and I have learned that the results are easily worth a little patience on my part. A few minutes later...

"Summer, can we fly across the lake?" he asked quietly.

I nodded, and he led me to the other side of our lake. Like I said, this lake is rather long, but not extremely wide. It probably formed from rain-water collecting in a low spot between two almost imperceptible hills. Flying across the lake didn't take long. After we landed, Shysage, still looking around, wandered briefly, then sat down, looking mostly in the direction of our tree. He didn't need to ask; I followed, and sat down right next to him and looked off across the meadow like he was.

"Summer, close your eyes" he said softly. Of course, I did, right away. And I know my Stallion; there was absolutely no fear in this at all. With my eyes closed, I felt his pony nose; Shysage gently kissed the side of my head. "I love my Mare" he said quietly. I just smiled with my eyes closed, and sighed. I have observed a number of times; it seems Shysage is always looking for new ways to show me he cares. He makes me feel so cherished...

"Summer, with your eyes closed, assume you are sitting in front of the fountain and small pool in front of the Town Hall in Ponyville. Then, look to where the steps at the front of Princess Twilight's Castle would be."

Of course, I kept my eyes closed and did this. I had flown over Ponyville a lot, and could usually know where everything was, based on where I was in town. Of course, I looked in the direction of Fluttershy's Cottage first. I missed my sister... But I quickly had my gaze on the entrance to Princess Twilight's amazing, magical Castle. I was remembering how beautiful it looked, especially at night. Magical lights--

"Now open your eyes" Shysage said softly.

I did right away, and just gasped...

I have already mentioned that a few days after Shysage and I had come here, Shysage turned into a people long enough to auger a large stick into the ground at the exact spot we had come here. That stick marked the spot, still slightly stained with Shysage's blood, where we first arrived. When I opened my eyes, I was staring right at that stick... And it didn't take long to compare our surroundings with Ponyville; the elevations were right, the contours were very close, the lake, even the meadow to the East...

We were in Ponyville...

There were no buildings here yet, of course. We had brought Cel and Lu here once on a flying trip while we raised them, and found basically this. And the founding of Ponyville around the Apple's farm was still centuries, well over a millenium in the future...

The Portal... We had not moved at all, we had just been moved back in time...

A long time...

And, for what it was worth, that group of trees that were our trees... They were within feet of where my tree was in our present, well, is... whatever...

Shysage was still sitting next to me. He put one of his front legs around me and hugged me. "Welcome home" he said quietly.

I just cried...

...

For an hour or two, we just sat there. We were in Ponyville before it was Ponyville, buried deep in the Past again, and the capitol of the tenuous Pony Nation was a few days travel to the East. Well, I think we were both still reeling emotionally. On our first trip to the Past, in less than five minutes we were flying high towards the Pony Nation with two precious foals on our backs. That pretty much determined how the next two or so years would go, except that we had no way of knowing the events that would unfold at the end of that time. But this time wasn't like that at all. We had been here maybe a week now. And over maybe the last 48 hours, events had just slowly unfolded that helped us orient ourselves to our surroundings. I don't think it was dread we were feeling. It was more just the auguring unknown. I just sighed. It seems we just left that feeling.

Well, I think Shysage realized I needed help. He moved to face me, and we rubbed noses a little while. That helped a lot. "Summer, let's fly some" he said quietly. I love flying, and that helped too. We were soon in the air, and I just followed him. We weren't especially high, but Shysage was taking us West. Thirty minutes later, we were laying on our bellies at the base of that huge Redwood. I immediately felt better, and relaxed. I think Shysage was counting on that. We had not seen the Keeper, but still. This was a reminder that we were in good hands. We had a purpose here, and everything would work out ok. We talked to true friend some. Then I looked at Shysage and smiled. He smiled back, and we rubbed noses a little more. In the shade of that huge Redwood tree, Shysage and I took a nap.

A few hours later, Shysage woke me up. "Hi beautiful" he said softly. A big smile was his reward. "Summer, we need to fly back and get dinner before it gets dark" Shysage said softly. We were soon in the air, and flew back to our tree. From there, we flew a few big circles to look for animals in our meadow. We didn't see anything. But I felt a lot better.

As the Sun headed low to the West, Shysage and I landed by the lake and ate and drank together. We rinsed off in the lake too, and that felt wonderful. Well, Shysage was, well, looking at me a lot. "Summer you look amazing when you are wet..." He said this slowly. I think Shysage needed this...

I splashed Shysage with one of my front legs, jumped back into the lake, and ran along the edge. I wasn't running fast; I wanted Shysage to follow me, which he did. Well, he gently knocked me over into the lake, and he was soon laying on his belly right next to me, as I was laying on my back in a few inches of water. I didn't move. Shysage blushed. I love my Stallion. He took care of his Mare. He made me feel like a Princess. It was amazing. Afterwards, we relaxed together, splashed more, then sat on the edge of the lake and watched the Sun set as we dried off.

All of a sudden, Shysage began weeping softly. This was surely different, something was seriously wrong I thought. I wasn't sure what to expect, so I led us both back up to the wind break in our tree. Shysage cried the whole way.

(opt:btm10b)
When we got there, still crying softly, Shysage sat down and said slowly, haltingly...
"Summer... I... You were... Wow... I don't know why... I didn't want... I couldn't... I'm sorry... I almost didn't..."

Author's Note

The tune is track 5 of the Original Soundtrack of the Final Fantasy XI 'Seekers of Adoulin' expansion.

Chapter 7, By The Moonlight

Well, I want you to know that I will try to be very careful with this chapter, and work on avoiding unnecessary details. I remember Shysage mentioning once as we did a previous chapter like this; "If our readers need a physiology lesson, there are textbooks for that."

And I had not gotten too far into this chapter when I realized that Shysage was deep in thought, and had an almost sad look on his face. Well, I'm his Mare, and I was concerned. I stopped, moved next to him, and asked him what was wrong. "Well, it's just that..." He paused for a minute, then continued. "Summer, like most everypony else in Equestria, we both treasure feeling amazing. But the pursuit of just that feeling falls so far short... Our times together like that are absolutely amazing, but the physical feeling is amplified by the committment, devotion, really the self-sacrificial love we have worked at and built together over years... We have worked hard at putting each other first, and have become so close, so emotionally bonded. The intimacy we share is far more amazing and meaningful as a result... But it seems ponies just can't be bothered with that any more. Or maybe they just don't know, I don't know. But all they seem to want is just the physical feeling, and they seem content with that, then run off to the next. That's like taking only a few licks from an ice-cream cone, tossing it aside, then walking away and looking for another one. That all seems so tragically short-sighted..." Shysage was working on not crying, so I just hugged him for a while. I held back tears too. We had both been like that, at one point. But true friendship took over, and we both learned... Well, the more you give, far more will you receive...

...

We had spent the last week maybe getting caught up on Canterlot Recording. Well, I laughed as I wrote that; what I am writing seems more like our own personal diary at the moment. But I doubt we are here just for a vacation. Still, it may be late in the summer, and Shysage and I brought back plenty of dried leaves from those broad-leafed plants down by the lake. He even carefully tore them up into approximately paper sized pieces so I could be more organized with what I had written. Stacked up, they even look kind of like a book! They work very well, and we still have tons of yummy berries. I actually started from the beginning, and re-wrote the record of our first few days here, than added the rest, covering what had happened since then, up to and including the 2 days when a few signs help a lot fall into place for us.

And, honestly, I was waiting...

Shysage and I, well, it is just very difficult for us to keep secrets from each other. We somehow just know, and I think that really is a good thing. And usually it is not a problem. Neither of us, well we have nothing to hide, and really work hard to keep it that way. But I guess this time... I... Shysage has taken such good care of me in so many ways. We have also covered a few of the times he has helped me feel like a princess, his princess, he calls me. Most of the time, there is not much in this for my Stallion. That has always seemed so wrong to me, but the responsibility of having a foal, and... I guess... Shysage and I, we had taken chances in the past, mostly because Shysage knew I needed it, but we both would have welcomed a foal into our lives on each of those occasions. That added responsibility would be welcomed and joyfully embraced; we have both felt that way for years now. I think Shysage is just waiting for the right time, even though we both agreed we didn't know when that was, or even if it would ever be. Well, it would be soon, if I got my way. And, whether a foal resulted or not; this was just not... I mean, I would be delighted with a foal, but even if it didn't happen this time... I wanted to make my Stallion feel like the prince he is. He is my prince. I have so yearned to give him that; he has given so much for me... And it seemed now was the time. I was waiting for the moon to get larger and brighter at night. That was happening, slowly, as it always does. I just had to be patient. So, we spent a number of days mostly nestled in our wind break under our tree together, as I wrote, re-wrote, and basically got caught up on what had happened since our arrival here, in Ponyville before it was Ponyville, deep in the Past.

The weather stayed nice and warm most of that week. It rained calmly for part of one of those days, and the air turned a little cooler afterwards, for the rest of the day. The birds were out in the rain taking a shower. We found what we felt would be the dryest place for our Canterlot Recording stuff, then we did the same thing. We found a spot out in the grass where we had already been (the grass was already laying down), and we laid on our bellies together, and drank the gentle rain in. It felt wonderful. And just thinking about the turmoil we had faced, even recently. I think we cried softly together for a while. And we also spent one night at the base of that huge redwood tree. We flew out there at around noon, flew some generous circles around it, then settled down in a nice spot near the trunk, surrounded by lush ferns. I think we both needed that.

All through that week, I had been watching the moon before we went to sleep. The nights were getting brighter and brighter. That was good. And my plan was pretty simple. We would do some long and late flying, come back to our lake to eat and drink at sundown, then allow the moonlight and the lake to take over. I wasn't about to push anything. I was ready to wait, try a few times if necessary.

We were completely caught up on our writing on this particular day. And it was pretty warm. We did our usual circle flying, looking for animals. We always do that. A while before noon, we stopped at the lake for some food, and rinsed off. I tried to make this quick. We spent the afternoon relaxing in the shade of our tree, looking out across the meadow, out across Ponyville, even though there was no Ponyville here yet. Late in the afternoon, I asked Shysage if we could fly to the Redwood tree for a while. I think Shysage has a hard time telling me no, if he doesn't have a good reason. He just mentioned that we probably shouldn't stay long. We didn't fly there fast, and the shade of that big tree felt amazing on this warm day.

As the Sun dipped low off in the West, Shysage suggested we fly back to the lake for some dinner. I asked him if we could rub noses a little while first. We both enjoy that, and it wasn't a little while. We flew back and landed next to our lake just as the Sun dipped below the horizon. Shysage was looking around. I knew he was working on our safety, just doing some thinking ahead. I treasure that in him. But I started eating, so Shysage did too. And just as it started to get dark, the moon crept over the meadow to the East. It never got very dark. And the soft blue glow from the moon... I kept eating. I think Shysage and I were both hungry. Later, we both wandered over to the lake and got a drink. Shysage rinsed off. I... well, I dove into the water. I had to be very careful with my wings, but Shysage got a good splash from that. I got up, splashed him some more, than ran off around the edge of the lake. Just like last time, he chased me, and finally, gently knocked over, then splashed down right next to me. I was on my back again, and I knew... Shysage started to say "Summer, I don't think I can..." I just looked into his amazing eyes, and he stopped right there. We rubbed noses briefly... maybe a little while. It felt amazing. (opt:btm10c) Then I got up and ran... To make a long story short, as a people, I surprised my amazing / amazed Shysage! (He was a people too.) (/opt:btm10c) It happened so fast. I made my Stallion feel like the prince he really is. And my amazing Stallion... He realized he had responded far faster that I had, and he still took care of me.

Well, for a long time, I just hugged my Stallion as he cried... We were soon crying softly together. My Stallion was long overdue for this. I was crying because I could, well I did finally give that to him. We cried together, hugging, right there, for hours... We said nothing. I don't think we could talk...

The first thing Shysage said...

If I could fly from East to West in search of loving beauty,
I'd never find another near, the Mare that now comes to me.
Her ruby lips, a heart of gold, and hands that yearn to serve me.
Summer Rain, you are my world, my life, my home, my destiny.

From Past through time, a million years, in all this I would see,
There never was, could ever be, a friend so true, so strong as you.
This gift so great such treasure rare I know not how I've found you.
Summer Rain, you are my world, my life, my home, my destiny.

So scary this, I hold you close, to lose you would destroy me
You share that fear and pull me near, so now we rest and sigh.
Our love so strong, so fear is gone, to dizzy heights we fly.
Summer Rain, you are my world, my life, my home, my destiny.

Shysage said this haltingly, and trying mostly unsuccessfully to not cry as he whispered this to me. We both cried together a while after he finished. He told me later he had been working on the words for this latest version of that poem since we got here. He didn't think it was great poetry, but it said... Shysage basically said what I think we both have felt for a long time...

And I don't know why, but a little while later, well, I couldn't help it. We were both still people. I tried to get up, so Shysage moved. I was soon standing in the Oats, hopping up and down. I was so EXCITED!!! I guess it had finally sunk in... While hopping up and down, I said something like this. Maybe I was delirious. And I know there was a long pause between each statement as I laughed and cried at the same time...

"Shysage, Shysage, Shysage, we are SO excited!

"You and I!

"We are going to have a foal!

"Finally!

"That is so AMAZING!

"We are going to have a little baby girl, and she is going to be absolutely beautiful!

"And we are going to name her Ariel Dawn... I absolutely love the name Ariel, and Dawn is our most amazing neighbor who took such amazing care of my Shysage when he forgot!

"Shysage and I, we are both SOOO excited!"

I don't know how much sense I was making. I was hopping excitedly the whole time. And by the time I was done, Shysage was holding both my hands in his as I hopped, and he had a huge smile on his face.

We hugged and cried together for a little while after that...

Well, we splashed each other some more in the lake, and ended up half in and half out of the water, hugging, kissing and crying softly together a while more.

It was the middle of the night, maybe early morning. We both got our stylish Equestria Girls clothes back on, then we both changed back into ponies. Still, the moonlight was bright enough, so we flew the 30 minutes or so to that huge Redwood. It was easy to find. We quickly found our spot among the ferns, talked to true friend a while, and fell asleep right next to each other.

Well, I guess... When I woke up the next morning, Shysage was looking lovingly at me. When I opened my eyes, he said softly "Hello, beautiful." I just melted. He then added this, again softly and slowly... "I can tell my Mare is carrying a foal... I can tell by the look on your face, your eyes... The life you are carrying... It is making you radiant, I don't know how else to explain it..." Tears came to my eyes, and I couldn't talk. "I love you Summer" Shysage said quietly, and he wrapped one of his front legs over my neck and hugged me, and we cried softly together there in the ferns for a while.

When I managed to stop crying, we took to the air, and flew back to the lake, then did our morning patrol, looking for Cougars. I was thinking my Stallion was right, we had not seen any more, I don't know. We relaxed under our tree together the rest of that day, and the next day too, and worked together, crying a lot, on this chapter.

...

That moonlit night meant a lot to both of us, and the introduction of a foal into our family just made it all the richer. But that one night became the first of many nights by the moonlight. And, since there were no other ponies around, we had some amazing mornings and afternoons too. We had already committed to the responsibilities of the foal I now carried. Shysage and I, we reveled in the amazing joy we could freely give to each other, easily the capstone of the love and devotion we had committed to each other, and demonstrated over years...

I... Shysage is my world, my life, my home, and my destiny too.

Chapter 8, Some Sweet Way

Shysage said he could just tell by looking at me, from my face, my eyes... Well, I could tell too. I knew my body had changed. And, in some sweet way, I knew the next morning, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there were two of us now. I felt Ariel's presence, in a way I can't really explain. I smiled a lot at this. I cried a lot too.

I felt the presence of our foal, but the practical impact of that, of her; it took a few weeks for that to fully dawn on me. I started being more careful; what I did, how much I ate. And I was a lot more careful to drink enough water, especially because it was pretty warm the rest of the summer. I even tried to land more carefully after flying (a princess landing, Shysage called it), and a bunch more seemingly minor things like that. The drive to compete from when I was younger had left a certain recklessness, well maybe just carelessness now. Ariel fixed that! I became a lot more cautious, maybe more like Shysage. It wasn't just me anymore. That next afternoon, I just started crying. Shysage was concerned of course. Still crying, and trying to not cry really hard, I said "Shysage, I love her so much already..." We cried together for a while, and that wouldn't be the only occasion. I was pretty sure Shysage felt that way too. And it wasn't that we didn't deeply love Cel and Lu; both Shysage and I so fully and completely bonded with them both soon after they were strapped to our backs, and we were flying high and away from deadly Cougers. But Ariel... She was here already, even though she had not even been born yet. Shysage and I, we both loved her so deeply already. And she was ours... Nopony could take her away from us.

Shysage and I, well we did really revel in the amazing pleasure we could freely give each other now. (opt:btm10d) But after a month maybe and some amazing times together, Shysage suggested that I should probably pick a body, and stay that way until after Ariel was born. Since this was Equestria, that meant my pony body, and that was that. This didn't stop us from enjoying...

Still, me carrying a foal, well our foal, that one fact quickly assumed primary importance in both our lives.

And this was so funny... Since it was clear I carried a foal, Shysage was in overdrive, spending a lot of time thinking about how to accommodate his Mare and his own daughter, he said. This was an intensely practical concern, and I really value how Shysage thinks this stuff through. One of the most important things he realized we would need, was some way to be able to hold and transport water, during really cold winter days, and for the time when moving would be very difficult for me. Yes, he was thinking that far ahead, and I am so glad! Shysage and I were sitting together, as people in our Equestria Girls clothing, on a low limb of one of the scraggly trees. As we hugged, Shysage mentioned his concern. When we raised Cel and Lu, we were near Coptol (the main pony city in the past), and happened to find a cast-off bucket. This worked fine then, but we had not seen another pony, or even any evidence of ponies here AT ALL.

Well, it was a warm day, and I had worked one of my shoes off, and was letting it hang by my toes. I was slowly rocking it back and forth. My Equestria Girls shoes weren't 'high-heel', I think they are called, but were shiny black, with a beautiful black bow over the elastic where most shoes get tied up. "What about my shoes?" I asked out of nowhere. I wasn't even looking at them, and not really thinking seriously about the problem. It was a joke; I honestly expected Shysage to laugh. Instead, he looked at my shoes a minute, then asked me if I wanted a piggy-back ride down to the lake, so we could try them. They held water very well, and I doubt our particular use was anything the makers of these shoes even dreamed of. Here we were, maybe 1500 years in Equestria's past... And we would be drinking out of these Equestria Girls world shoes! And we realized Shysage's shoes had a bunch of holes in them; the water drained quickly out. Anyway, the last time I was a people that summer, off came my shoes, and Shysage found a safe spot for them until they were needed.

One other rather important consideration was also resolved in an amazing sort of way. Shysage pointed out the obvious; we could not spend the winter, especially with me carrying a foal, by relying on Shysage's carefully built but very minimal wind break. We had to find someplace both warmer and safer for us to spend the winter together. We had to find a place suitable for having a foal in, too. It was still summer, and so there was some time to deal with this. Still, this was a pretty serious concern. We had actually done some extra flying in order to see if there was anything nearby. We found more ponds, and more trees... I don't know what we were looking for; there were no houses here yet! Shysage could try to build a house, but he had no tools. And the only big tree we knew of was that huge Redwood, and there was no convenient door in the side. As the summer wore on, I think Shysage was more and more concerned about this. It was still warm, but we both knew that would change eventually.

Near the end of summer, I stayed a pony from one day on, until after Ariel was born. Shysage and I still did Canterlot Recorder stuff, but Shysage had to be a people and handle any writing that needed to be done. He just wrote what I said. And we had talked about this too. We both knew we would need to use the Portal to get us all back to our present. It was doubtful we would be able to take a huge stack of leaves that contained the record of our time here. We spent a lot of time basically re-reading what we had written, and making (usually small) corrections we thought appropriate. Shysage was pretty sure we would both be able to duplicate what we had written if we were familiar enough with it.

One day near the end of summer, Shysage and I were relaxing behind the wind break one warm afternoon. I think Shysage was just discouraged. We needed a place to live. That was his responsibility. Shysage knew his family depended on that. Still, we had not found anything at all. We had just talked to true friend some about this. Shysage was still discouraged. I guess, I wanted to avoid a touchy issue. I asked Shysage if we could do a title page for the stack of pages of our record here so far. Maybe he was happy for the distraction; he jumped right into it, and quickly had a new page torn out of one of the dried, broad leaves. I had him write this along the top of the empty page:

The Chronicles of Summer Rain, Volume 10 -- Ariel Dawn"

Once he was done, I was thinking. "Shysage draw a large heart shape below that title. I want it to take most of the rest of the page."

Shysage looked at me, then smiled, then gently kissed my pony nose. "Of course, Mare" he said softly, then carefully drew a heart shape covering most of the bottom of our title page. Shysage was very careful, and it took a while, but it looked very nice. When he was done, he looked at me again, and again kissed my nose.

I was still thinking. "What should we put in there?" I was actually thinking out loud, and said this slowly and quietly.

Shysage answered right away "Oh, I know!" Then Shysage carefully wrote inside the heart "Summer + Shysage". Then he smiled, looked up at me and kissed me again. Then he added "An enduring monument to my lo--"

Shysage stopped abruptly right there, looked up, then gazed off into the distance. I felt bad. I thought this had upset him, and I didn't mean too...

For a minute maybe, Shysage didn't move or speak. Then, he said quietly "Oh, my goodness..." Maybe a minute later "Summer, can we fly some?"

We were soon in the air heading East. Shysage led us over where the East meadow would be in our present. A smaller lake was approximately where the larger lake would be, and we could now easily see the small creek that led from lake to lake. The water flowed slowly to the West. Some distance past this little lake, past the edge of this East meadow in the Past, was a small wooded area we had found before. Shysage said these trees were hardwoods. I don't know trees, but ok. There was a small lake near the center of this small wooded area. We carefully landed on the edge of this new lake. I just followed Shysage. We were soon standing in front of...

I was soon weeping softly. It was our cave... Well, when we brought Cel and Lu on a trip here to Ponyville before Ponyville, we spent the night in this cave. I guess we had both forgotten about this, until my title page reminded Shysage. Shysage was so happy, and gave me a huge... Well, we hugged for a while there in front of that cave. Shysage was smiling again, anyway, and that made me cry again. I am sure this discovery was a big load off his mind.

Shysage changed into a people, and went inside to check it out. The cave was empty, and not very big; I could see him the whole time. But it was big enough for the two, even the three of us. I remembered that from our first time here. Cel, Lu, Shysage and I; the four of us had slept comfortably in here... Er, would... Nevermind... Well, as long as a bear didn't have the same idea, or beat us in here for the winter. Shysage felt this a very remote possibility. There was just not enough around here to support any larger animals, let alone a bear.

Shysage was out soon. "No enduring monument yet... This means that we are even further back in the Past than Cel and Lu." Shysage stopped and thought a minute, then added "I have no idea why, though..."

I just smiled. "I think Ariel Dawn might be reason enough!"

Shysage smiled, changed back into a pony, and we both climbed inside the cave, and laid on our bellies, side by side, facing the entrance. Shysage hugged me while I wept softly. We stayed in there for a while. Even though it was pretty warm outside, it was very comfortable inside. I asked him if he was going to add that enduring monument like he had the last time we were here, hmm, which was now in the future from this time... Shysage explained that while we were here, since it was before our previous time here, we had to avoid doing anything that might change our future here in the Past. Well, all I saw was an empty cave, but I was not about to question Shysage. And his explanation made my head hurt! Maybe we time-travel too much, I don't know. But it was fine, this cave would make an amazing home this winter. And with the small lake so close... I guessed correctly that we would probably move here soon. And I was right, Shysage relaxed a LOT with this major detail taken care of.

Well, now it seemed like the stage was set. The passage of time, and a lot of little details, and Shysage and I... We would have Ariel! Shysage said we should enjoy the rest of our summer vacation, he called it with a smile. We did. One amazing afternoon, we were relaxing down at the lake, half in and half out of the water. I was laying on my back, and was just so relaxed, I didn't even want to move. Shysage bent carefully over, and kissed my belly. "That is for Ariel, by the way" he said quietly. We both couldn't avoid weeping softly together for a while after that. And I don't know why, but I remembered one of the bleacher girls trying to explain this to me. She called it a procedure, whatever that is. But the process sounded so... terrible... This young girl was surely trying to be gentle about the details, and was clearly apologetic, but what she was describing rapidly became so appallingly... I had to block it out. I just had to... True friends would never... And remembering this, on that afternoon, I couldn't help but cry. I asked Shysage to lay his head down over my belly, over our Ariel, which he immediately did. Shysage would protect her. Shysage would protect us. Shysage, my stallion... Like I heard one of the other bleacher girls say; Shysage was all over this. Accepting responsibility for what he had done; that makes him a real stallion, a real man in my mind.

Chapter 9, Waiting

Such a cold, rainy day; Shysage and I are nestled comfortably in our home, well our cave. I don't want to move, so we decided to get caught up on some Canterlot Recording. It seems like we are always behind...

Our summer vacation was amazing. I thought Shysage and I were close even before we got thrust back deep into the Past. But it was just Shysage and I... Once we had some important details worked out for our winter, and for Ariel, we just enjoyed being together and alone... and close! Every day seemed like a dream. In case you haven't picked up on this, I love my Stallion so much. Each passing day with him, next to him, here in our quiet meadow, with plenty of water and oats, and plenty of room to fly. That sounds like heaven in my book!

We always started every day in the air on Cougar patrol, that was a given. This was a pretty good workout too, and Shysage and I both were quickly back in good shape physically. We just expanded our circles, and were soon flying all morning. And yes, our tree was so easy to find, even if we were far away. At around noon, we would fly back to our tree, to our lake, eat and drink some, then collapse next to each other in the grass. Our afternoons might be us just relaxing next to each other, sometimes more. But honestly, just being next to Shysage... I think we both... Well, we spent a lot of afternoons laying next to each other, well facing each other, hugging and crying... I don't know how in Equestria...

And I think we were slowly becoming more familiar with our surroundings; basically Equestria before Equestria. We spent a few amazing afternoons, evenings and nights up in the (now empty) natural cloud bank that would become Cloudsdale. I asked Shysage once why these clouds stayed here. His explanation, well, I think he has some theories, even if I didn't understand much of what he said. Well, it didn't matter why they were here, they were just here. And a few full moon nights, we simply enjoyed the peace, the white quiet, and each other... We are both Pegasi, and that empty bank of clouds was, er would be home to me. Even in the Past, being, well, home like that... And with Shysage next to me... Well, it was amazing.

...

It was during one of our trips to Cloudsdale before Cloudsdale, that we started a family tradition, I guess, for until Ariel was born. We watched the sun set near one of the edges of a cloudbank. It had rained that morning, and the setting sun on the puffy clouds above us... It really was breathtaking. We weren't tired, so we... Well, I don't understand how Shysage can make me feel so amazing, but he says the same thing. We were both ponies of course, so we didn't fall through the clouds! Later, we were hugging, just relaxing, and I started to doze off. I didn't have a dream, but I vividly remembered something from our last trip to the Equestria Girls world.

I have already mentioned a young girl named Claire that we met our last time there. Working on bouncing back from a terrible date-rape... Well, she was pregnant from that, and starting to show (Equestria Girls Twilight Sparkle said this softly to me). Claire was sitting on the bleachers, crying. Claire was surrounded by bleacher girls and ponies from a different land, of course. But the boy responsible, well he was long gone; he had his fun then ran -- Claire yelled this as she sobbed. Her family was upset, and so many were saying... Equestria Girls Rainbow Dash was her good friend (Claire was on the soccer team too), and said softly "Claire, it's ok, it will all work out. Everyone here will do anything we can to help..." Her Twin, Equestria pony Rainbow Dash was sitting right behind Equestria Girls Rainbow, and they both said this at the same time, in the same way... Twins do that.

Claire kept crying... "But my mom wants me..." Claire said as she cried... Equestria Girls Dawn Flower, our amazing neighbor's Twin, was sitting behind me, with her arms on my shoulders. We had already cried together a while, and Dawn left Camille with her mom today since it was really cold. Otherwise I guess little Camille was almost a regular here with the bleacher girls too. Claire was crying out in anguish, and I don't think any of us knew quite what to do. Well Dawn did. Dawn dug through her backpack briefly, then pulled out a small black picture, I guess. It didn't look like any picture I had ever seen. Twilight said later it was a sonogram, a picture of a baby before it comes out, I don't know. Some of the things they can do in the Equestria Girls world...

Anyway, Dawn pulled it out, looked lovingly at the sonogram, then passed it to Claire. "Claire, that's Camille. When people said I should... Well, I would look at this..." Dawn was crying really hard, and couldn't say any more. I guess she didn't need to; Claire immediately understood, I guess, and hugged Dawn tightly, and they both cried together a while.

But Claire abruptly stopped crying. She sat back down, looked at her growing belly, and cupped both hands over it. Claire quietly said this. "What's his name is gone and wants no part of you... But you're MINE. And I won't let anyone hurt you..." We all burst into tears at that point, and cried together with Claire. And I knew for a fact, that Equestria Ponies, Equestria Girls, everypony sitting here would do anything they could to help Claire. True friendship...

But that night, buried in the past, up in the clouds... After remembering these details, I started crying. It took a while, but I finally managed to explain it to Shysage. He started crying too. We cried together for a while, then he stopped abruptly. He moved and gently put both his front hooves carefully over my belly. "Ariel, you are ours. And we won't let anyone hurt you..." We both cried for a while after that. But starting the next morning, we did that first thing every day. Unless we were in the clouds, Shysage would change to a people, and cup his hands over my belly, just like I saw Claire do. And we said that together. We meant it. And we usually asked true friend to help us; we knew we needed it.

...

And every six or seven days, Shysage led us out to that huge redwood tree, and we spent the afternoon there. I don't know anything about which days Shysage picked, and I picked a few too. It was just a very peaceful place, well different... It just seemed like some sort of sanctuary. We had felt the same thing with that circle of trees in the future. And Shysage mentioned once that he was pretty sure we would find this in our present too, and we knew where to look now.

Except that neither of us knew when we would be back in our present. One day at that big tree, thinking about my sister, Princess Twilight, our friends... I started crying, and asked Shysage if he thought we were stuck here now. We wept softly together for a while. But he mentioned that he didn't think so. He said it was doubtful the Portal would have moved us back in time close to our first visit here (when we raised Cel and Lu), and just leave us here. But he also said he really didn't know. He agreed though, he knew of absolutely no reason why we were even here.

Well, I reminded him again "Ariel Dawn is reason enough for me..." We cried some more after that, then talked to true friend about it. Come to think of it, we talked to true friend a lot laying on our bellies in the ferns around that tree. We talked to him quite a bit anyway, just more while we were there, I don't know.

And I don't know where I get these ideas, but as we sat in the shade of that big tree one afternoon, surrounded by ferns... And I knew Shysage's wife in the Equestria Girls world was dead, and that Shysage's family was really mean to him. "Shysage, when your family in the Equestria Girls world got so bad, why didn't you, well, look for..." I didn't finish the question because I didn't know how. True friend that he was (is), he never could walk away from his obligation to his wife, even though it had gotten boiled down to just that. And even though each day was excruciating for him, Shysage made no... Well, he just wouldn't.

Shysage sighed, and I guess he understood what I wanted to know, even if my question seemed incomprehensible. Slowly and thoughtfully, he worked on putting together an answer.

"A lot of the men I knew messed around, well slept with other women. I had watched that happen since my college days. But after maybe ten years, I noticed something. After sleeping with different women for a number of years, it seemed impossible for these same men to keep a marriage together. A few even told me they were ready to 'settle down now', right before the wedding, and their marriages still only lasted a few years, and exploded violently, without exception. And these same men ran through a string of marriages that all ended soon and similarly."

Shysage thought a few minutes here, then...

"I... I don't know of any studies, but it didn't seem like rocket science to me. I think that when a man sleeps with a woman, he may enjoy a little bit of contentment. But if, well when, he leaves that woman, which usually happened the next morning or sooner, he leaves that contentment there. He leaves that little bit of contentment behind. This whole process slowly robs... At some point, he loses the ability to even be content. He will spend the rest of his life vainly seeking what he has already given away... ...in his pursuit of happiness, I guess. Maybe we mistake momentary pleasure for true contentment, I don't know. It just didn't take me long to see what was going on, although I doubt anyone in the Equestria Girls world would ever point it out... Anyway, even as my own life became a daily agony, I guess I valued true contentment... and waited for it..."

Shysage wiped tears from his eyes, then smiled, and rubbed my nose with his. "It was worth the wait..." We both cried together for a little while after that.

...

The oats were drying out towards the end of the summer, and Shysage said that was his cue; we began storing away food for our winter. Every other day we would fly over to the, well, it is the meadow to the east in our present, and the cave is in the woods further beyond that. Shysage would turn into a people, and gather as many oat plants as he could carry, then carry them to our cave, and carefully stack them in the back. He moved some of the rocks around, and formed a nice storage area, and the oats went there. Shysage carefully broke the oats from the stems, and threw the stems on the floor of the cave. After a while of doing this, the stems formed a very nice carpet, Shysage called it, then he laughed. Well, I'm from Equestria. That growing mat of stems on the ground... It wasn't the amazing rug in front of the Portal with Princess Twilight's Cutie Mark on it, but it was plenty soft for me, and for our Ariel. And Shysage spent a few days putting a good stock of Canterlot Recording stuff in there too. I was so tempted to get into the berries... So my amazing Stallion... We flew back to the berries, and Shysage picked, while I ate them. I ate a lot of berries, they were very good. Shysage said something about trace minerals that I completely didn't understand. He smiled at me, then offered me another berry. Well, he ate a bunch too.

And, as I said, I felt Ariel's sweet presence that next morning. But as the summer wore on, I increasingly felt Ariel growing in my belly. Flying was not an issue yet, Pegasi don't use their legs while they are flying, except to take off and land. But walking became increasingly uncomfortable. Late that summer, I spent one afternoon crying in Shysage's arms. We both knew we would probably have to stop flying soon. For this Pegasus mare, that was just a hard realization. But after crying for a while, I stopped, then smiled at Shysage, and said quietly "Ariel will be worth it." We both knew this was true. Ariel was increasingly changing a lot in both Shysage and my lives. Well, it just didn't matter. Ariel was worth all that and more.

Later in the summer, Shysage said he thought it was an indian summer. This meant nothing to me, but Shysage explained that he felt the warm summer days were lasting longer than usual. Shysage watches the sky at night, and could somehow tell. He said we probably arrived here early summer, but admitted he really wasn't sure. Then he smiled at me, pulled me close and said "with you around, it doesn't really matter!" I think he loves me a lot too. But we didn't mind the warm days, not at all.

But the weather, well it started cooling off. It wasn't abrupt, and it was still warm when the Sun was up. Still, we spent more time up at our tree behind our wind break. And I started sleeping up against Shysage's chest and neck. Even with a cool breeze, that is so warm! Shysage says I sigh a lot in my sleep like that. Well, that is home to me, next to my Stallion. It rained softly once a week or so, throughout the summer. But the first storm Shysage saw with the weather cooling... We moved our stuff to the cave. This included the thick stack of leaf-paper that was the record for Volume 10 that we had done already, along with my shoes (I had to laugh some more!). These important items would be kept dry in the cave "even if it snowed" Shysage said.

As the days not so slowly got cooler and cooler, we did what we could to enjoy our vacation. It was soon too cold for trips to Cloudsdale. But we had a few amazing nights huddled behind our wind break! And the weather, the warm... With Shysage next to me...

We moved into our cave home on the first day of the fall, as best as we could tell. Well, it was the first day that was pretty cold, after a long, warm summer. And I guess it was rainy that day too. And I have mentioned, that after carrying Ariel for a month maybe, I stayed a pony from that point on, until after she was born. Well, this particular day was the only exception.

Ok, so we are buried deep in the Past, and there were absolutely no other ponies anywhere near us. Shysage and I just assumed that we would always stay together. If we got separated, that would probably be the end. I think we both just assumed we would never be apart. Each other, that was all we had. We did everything together. I don't think we ever minded that.

Well, it was a cool day. Still, we did our basic routine. After we both woke up, well we told Ariel we would take care of her, and then we usually cried some. Then we flew together down to, and around the lake, checking for any animals on the way. It was only after we knew the coast was clear that we landed at the lake, and ate and got a nice drink. Then we often rinsed off in the lake, and sometimes... That day, I knew it was probably because of Ariel, but I was just tired. It wasn't that I wanted to sleep, I just felt physically drained. We walked slowly back to our tree, and it was all I could do to avoid flopping down in the ground behind our wind break, and Shysage was quickly at my side. For a while, Shysage looked off into the distance. He was looking at the sky, at the clouds. He was getting pretty good at guessing at the day's weather. "I think we can expect some rain today" he said after a little while.

Our usual routine was to do some Canterlot Recording on days like that, days when we couldn't really go anywhere and do anything. I knew this was on his mind, so I sighed, and said "Well, we are out of paper, so I can't do any new stuff." This was important since it had been a while since... Of course, we weren't caught up.

Shysage said hesitantly "Well, I could go get some more leaves quick..." He said it like that because he had already realized he would need to go alone. He already knew I simply didn't want to get up at the moment. Neither of us liked this prospect, but it was not far; fly to the leaves, turn into a people, carry some back. And we had already done our Cougar patrol.

"Don't make me come get you, Stallion..." I said this, then I smiled. We rubbed noses briefly, then Shysage was in the air, flying to the broad leaf plants. It was late in the summer, and there were a lot of those broad leaves that had dried and fallen off. We had already worked at stock-piling some for Canterlot Recording during the winter. They were in the cave though.

Well, I felt nervous soon after he started flying away, I don't know. I watched carefully as he flew slowly, down the slight hill, and was soon at the lake. He went out of sight when he landed at those plants next to the lake, so I sat up, even though I didn't want to. I still couldn't see him. All I could do was wait now. He would be a people, and need to walk around the lake some, then back. I don't like waiting. With each passing moment, I was even more ready to get in the air and check on him. I kept telling myself that he would soon be here anyway.

I heard him before I actually saw him. He was coming back as a pony, heading for me, fast. He was galloping...

The next thing I heard...

"Summer, save yourself, and Ariel... Just get away..."

Shysage yelled this as he ran past me, past our tree, running as fast as I have ever seen Shysage run. I stood up immediately.

I immediately saw why, as four bounding Cougars followed him through the grass, and ran past me. I guess they were intent on Shysage; they ignored me. I could even see their ribs. They were probably starved since there were no other animals here, basically no food. And I guessed they probably smelled us from miles away.

I was crying right away. Seriously? Like I would entertain raising Ariel without Shysage? What was he thinking? And alone, Shysage didn't have a prayer. He would be dinner.

In the blink of an eye, I was very angry, and threw myself back, changed to a people, stood up, and spun up my Cutie Mark. "Ariel hang on, I need to rescue your father" I said this out loud...

As the Cougars ran past our tree, I watched as Shysage curved his path around in a circle, behind this clump of trees. I think he was trying to come up with something... But this just brought them all back past me...

I realized right away they were too close to Shysage for me to use the shield to separate them. And without doing that, I really couldn't use any of my Phantom Alicorn magic... I... I might hurt Shysage... And I had already done that... I was beside myself... I didn't know what to do. Crying hard, I stretched my right hand out and basically pointed at the Cougar closest to Shysage, closed my crying eyes, lifted my right foot, and shouted "No..." as I brought my right foot down quickly on the grass. I heard a loud 'bang' immediately, and quickly opened my eyes to watch the second Cougar fly into the air over the Cougar closest to Shysage, who was now writhing on the ground. Well, this left two more Cougars chasing my Stallion, but I knew what to do. Electricity was the element... Point my right hand, shout "No..." and stomp my right foot. I was still crying buckets. And I missed the last Cougar the first time, and had to try again. Just then, Shysage collapsed to the ground, exhausted. The second Cougar, who had tried to fly and failed, he was up now, walking slowly towards my collapsed Stallion, growling. That Cougar only took two more steps. He never got near my Shysage. This Phantom Alicorn then quickly finished killing all four Cougars with a big rock to the skull.

I ran back to Shysage, unwound my Cutie Mark, but stayed a people. I fell on the ground next to my precious Stallion, wrapped my arms tightly around his pony neck, and just cried... We spent most of the afternoon right there like that. It was cool, and drizzled on and off but we didn't care. It would be a while before Shysage could even get up anyway. Honestly, I was just glad he was alive; it could have been a lot worse. I cried pretty hard for a while, just because of that. It would have been terrible, after such an amazing summer vacation to lose...

Late in the afternoon, I changed back into a pony, Shysage got slowly up, and we took our time walking down to the lake, eating dinner along the way. Shysage said quietly that these four were probably scouts of some sort too, and that they were probably starving already. Then he said quietly "they must have been in really bad shape if they couldn't quickly catch me..." Well, I burst into tears. That would have been terrible. He and I, we hugged right there for a while.

We decided that, from that point on, we simply would just stay together no matter what, and Ariel too, after she was born. There was just too much at stake. Shysage also mentioned that he was pretty sure we wouldn't see any more Cougars until next spring. The four we just killed, well they had found no food, and it was getting colder now too. I quickly mentioned that I was going everywhere with him anyway. He smiled and said he expected nothing less. Shysage also felt we should move into our cave home soon. We did, that very night. It was pretty dark in that cave at night. It was in the woods, and even with a nice high moon, not much light made it into our cave. It didn't matter, I could easily find my Stallion, and I spent that night as close to him as I could. After the Cougars, I needed him close. I think he needed that too. The woods looked amazing though; we could look out and see the hushed, bluish white glow from the moon on the forest floor. But I cried a lot that night. And stomping my foot like that; well it just seemed vaguely familiar, I don't know...

One of the projects we had started during the summer, we actually pursued in earnest that fall, especially after we moved into the cave. I think I already mentioned that soon after we found the cave, Shysage rearranged some rocks in the back, to make a nice flat but slightly elevated area. Shysage said that was for storage, mostly for food. We could see the small pond from our cave, so water would not be much of an issue. But we would need food, well I would need food especially, as Ariel grew inside me over the winter. Shysage and I had made a bunch of trips here with oat plants that Shysage pulled up, stalk and all (Shysage removed the roots and left them in the meadow). The next morning after we moved in, Shysage went through all those plants that were stacked up there. He pulled the oat pods (?) off, then threw the stalks down on the floor. As the big stack of oat plants slowly dwindled into a dense pile of just oats, the stalks laying on the floor, well it made the floor of the cave a lot softer. And Shysage said we had a lot more oats to bring in.

We stopped Cougar patrol for the most part, and spent many of our days just collecting oats. As a people, Shysage would collect as big a bunch of them as he could carry, and we would walk together (always) back to the cave. The oats would go up on the storage shelf, and the stalks got added to our nice carpet (Shysage always laughed as he said that). And we had specifically avoided doing any snacking in the, well east meadow, here in the Past. It was closest to the cave, and Shysage knew we would use that meadow for food. By the time we saw our first snow, that meadow looked mostly stripped "mowed" Shyage said. Our cave had a nice, thick carpet, and we had what Shysage felt was a huge supply of oats for the winter. Well, we collected a bunch of berries too. They were mostly dried out, but adding a drop of water would allow us to make ink again. And we had a good supply of both berries and blank leaf-pages. And my two Equestria Girls shoes and our (still behind) pages for Canterlot Recording were up there too.

...

That fall surfaced another problem that happened to solve itself. Shysage said the cave faced south, and so would not be affected too much by nasty weather, which he surmised would come from the north and west. Still, the first really cool night, we found that the entrance to our cave was pretty big, and, well, we were pretty cold that night. Shysage kept me and Ariel warm, of course, but he was pretty cold the next morning, and our first task was to find a patch of warm sunlight to warm my Stallion up some. A few days later, a nasty storm blew through. Shysage said it was a warm storm. well, the air was warmer, even as the rain came down in sheets for hours. Evidently it was pretty windy, and it was very dark that night, as the storm blew our trees around a lot. There was a LOT of lightning too. The Weatherworks in Cloudsdale attenuates a lot of the weather extremes in Equestria. I guess it had been a while, since I heard a lot of thunder. And the bright flashes... I don't think Shysage or I slept much that night.

But we did hear one of the larger trees snap and break, and we heard what sounded like a large tree fall right next to our cave. Well, we were not about to go out and look, and the lightning died away soon after that happened, so Shysage and I fell asleep. We slept in, of course, and noticed that it was still darker than usual in our cave. We thought it was early! A huge limb had broken off of one of the nearby trees, and fallen down basically over the entrance to our cave. I was about to console my Stallion about having to clear such a huge thing away. Shysage surprised me, and I guess he had already figured this out. "Summer, I don't have to come up with a door now!" Shyage broke just enough branches off so we could easily get in and out of the cave. We had to turn left, walk under branches still filled with leaves, then out. But it was very easy. And, I don't know, the leaves died, but they mostly stayed on that huge branch until spring. I couldn't see the lake from the cave though. I just had to get up, and move so I was just past the branches and leaves. Then I could watch Shysage get us (usually me) some water in my fancy Equestria Girls shoes! This was fine, except that late in the winter, it was hard for me to even get up. Still, it stayed a lot warmer in our cave because of that fallen limb. Carrying Ariel, that was important.

The winter was cold, about what I remember from our present. The main thing, we didn't have any of Rarity's amazing coats to keep us warm. Shysage was a people quite a bit, and his sweatshirt helped somewhat. We did go outside often, but we never stayed out long. We couldn't, it was usually stinking cold Shysage said. Well, a few days when there was no wind, and it wasn't real cold, Shysage and I would wander out to the east meadow, about to where we thought our little hill would be, and we basked in the warmth of the sunlight. When we could even do this, we usually had an hour or two, then we had to return to our cave. And by the middle of the winter maybe, it was hard for me to walk very far anyway.

As the winter wore on, we spent more and more time relaxing in our comfortable cave. With the tree limb covering the opening, it stayed nice inside, even when there was snow on the ground. Shysage said the rocks deeper under the ground were always warm, and there was maybe two feet of rocks above our cave, and a lot more below. Well, I didn't understand all that, but we were both thankful for the warmth. Managing a fire in here would be difficult, and I would need to spin up my Cutie Mark to even make some fire to begin with. And collecting wood... Well, our nice warm cave was one major detail we thanked true friend for a lot. Especially with Ariel, well warm was just very important.

...

That winter, Shysage coaxed me out into the woods outside our cave just once at night. It had been snowing most of the day. Shysage called it a warm snow, and said it would be mostly gone tomorrow, I don't know. Snow is still cold, but... Well, I couldn't resist after looking in his eyes. It took a little while, and walking was hard, but we were soon sitting together on an exposed, snowless flat rock not far from our cave. There was no wind, and so we didn't freeze right away. Still, the hushed, quiet beauty of a blanket of white covered the floor of the woods... A full moon illuminated the forest. But the spot where we were sitting... The large branch that had fallen across the cave entrance... The full moon was shining directly down on us through the large gap above. In the soft glow of a full moon, Shysage looked amazing, and he said I did too. It was just... like we were on a stage or something. Where we were sitting was by far the brightest area around. Shysage said I really deserved the spotlight. We both knew the right answer to that!

We weren't sitting out there very long when we both began to weep softly. I am not sure why, but we both connected back to our first trip here to the Past, and a similar moonlit night sitting in the snow. That night had been much more... filled with anguish... When we rescued Cel and Lu, we didn't even know who they were or would become. But that one night, both our girls received their Cutie Marks in their sleep, and were transformed in a moment into Princesses Celestia and Luna (well they would be made Princesses months later). But that night... Cutie Marks confirmed our growing suspicions... Our two girls were Equestria's princesses... We had to give them away... That night, sitting in the snow, we cried out a small part of the anguish we felt... Being here in the Past again, I guess that still haunted us both, and we cried...

We had not cried more than a few minutes when the moon shifted, and it wasn't bright any more. Shysage helped me slowly back into our cave, and we cried some more. Maybe an hour later, we managed to calm down. "Well, princess or no, we won't be giving our Ariel away" I said gently. Shysage and I cried tears of joy over that for a while too. We finally fell asleep.

...

Overall though, we spent a lot of time together and alone in our cave for most of the winter. Most every day, while I could, I walked carefully down to the pond for a drink, and Shysage would break the ice if necessary. He had this thick part of an old tree; short stump with a smaller branch coming out the side. I laughed every time he used it (until even laughing became uncomfortable); it really looked like a big hammer! Towards the end of winter though, my Equestria Girls fancy shoes got pressed into service. It was just difficult for me to move some days, and Shysage would take the shoes down to the pond, and bring me back some water. And I seldom slept any more; I just napped until Ariel woke me up. Well, I always told her that was ok when she did. Shysage tried to keep a normal sleep schedule and sleep at night. He soon changed, and slept when I did. Well, the reason... I needed him near me. If I woke up in the middle of the night, I needed to know Shysage was there. I felt so... I think clingy was the word I heard. Never in my life had I been so dependent on Shysage, on his presence, on him being right next to me. He said constantly that he didn't mind. He hugged me a lot. We would spend what seemed like hours looking deep into each other's eyes. Well, I needed that. And when I fell asleep, he would too.

Shysage feels it is the end of winter, maybe early spring, I don't know -- we are both pretty sure Ariel could come soon. Well, I hope so! I mean, it was hard to even move, and even eating is uncomfortable. Shysage says Ariel is jumbling everything up inside me, and I just laugh, briefly.

Shysage came back from the pond all excited yesterday morning; he said it was spring. I smiled, still with glazed over eyes because I had just woke up from a nap. It has been a while since I could get enough sleep...

From behind his back, he pulled out the most amazing flower... The petals were the brightest white, and the center was a beautiful golden yellow... "Summer, they are your colors!" Shysage said this as he gently placed the flower in my mane above one of my ears. He told me I was beautiful. I think I needed that, because I don't feel very beautiful right now. I wept softly in Shysage's arms for a while, and even that wasn't real comfortable, but it didn't matter.

And I apologize if this chapter seems a little long, and covering such a long period of time; I'm sorry if it seems a little fragmented. And I can't cut and paste on leaf paper!

Like I said, I don't want to even move. Ariel is so big, and very active. Even getting up is hard for me now. I hope she is born soon; I think even she wants that! Shysage and I, we both love her so much. But, more than anything else... I just want to hold her...

Chapter 10, Ariel Dawn

Ariel Dawn did finally come, in all her glorious beauty.

It was early spring as best as we could tell. The days were becoming progressively warmer, or rather progressively not as freezing cold. After three days of not being able to move, my pains started. It's not really rocket science. Shysage was so supportive all the way through this process, even as Ariel's birth grew very near. He helped me even cope with each day. And those last three days, when I felt so... Shysage loved me, Shysage tenderly cared for me... He probably made dozens of trips down to the lake to bring me water. He never complained. He was always there when I needed him, smiling... He must have told me I was so beautiful a hundred times. I just looked deep into his blue eyes... and believed him.

It was maybe the middle of the morning. I had just asked Shysage for more water. He was on his way back when I felt the first pain. It was clearly distinct; a painful tightening around Ariel, not just one of the thousand pains that cropped up all over my body of late. I looked slowly up at Shysage as he walked into our cave and sat down. "Shysage, it's time" I said slowly. I guess he was more awake than I was; he understood right away. He helped me drink some water, put the shoe up, then he moved, sat down next to me, and hugged my neck tightly with his strong people arms.

"I love you Summer" he said quietly. Then he added "Our waiting is almost over..." We both cried briefly after that.

I asked Shysage to stay a people. Well, his hands, I had him hold one of my front legs as each new pain swept across my body. And he had to be where I could see him, where I could look into his eyes. It really did hurt a lot, and got worse each time. I kept reminding myself mares have been doing this for generations. That didn't help very much. Early on, Shysage spoke gently to me, encouraging me. And we talked to true friend a lot too, I think that helped some. This was all very good; early on I got frustrated because it seemed like things were getting nowhere. Well, later, it was clear things were getting somewhere. I felt very strong new pains in various places as my body was making way for our gem, our Ariel. Well, everything just hurt worse, and kept getting worse... And it hurt to cry... Shysage held me with both hands. But I could feel Ariel coming. That helped more than anything else, knowing I would be holding her soon. I don't have any idea how I made it through the last...

At the very end, I had shysage move around to my hind-quarters. I missed him, but we had already talked some about this. I guess I could have done this solo, but...

I (finally) felt Ariel move quickly out, and I immediately heard two things. Ariel was crying, and I about swooned. Shysage was crying too. He wasn't hysterical, but he was crying uncontrollably. I was able to lift my head up and turn and look. I saw my beautiful little girl, well foal, curled up in Shysage's lap. Both were crying pretty hard. Shysage was sitting still, just holding Ariel, crying. Well, I wanted to hold her too. And I knew she also needed to eat (well, nurse) soon.

"Shysage, please bring her to me" I asked.

No response.

"Shysage, can I hold our daughter too?" I asked next

Again, no response. I think I realized at that point that Shysage had, well, lost it. He was so overcome by his love for Ariel... I thought a minute, then asked quietly "Shysage, I need some water." I tried to sound just a little urgent, and evidently, that broke through. I felt bad, but I really did need his help. Well, and I wanted a turn with Ariel too... Shysage got carefully up, then gently picked Ariel up, and put her down in front of my legs, in front of my face (I was still laying on my side). I just cried. Well, all three of us, we all just cried together.

Ariel was hungry, and that suddenly took first place. She squirmed carefully along my belly, until she found... It was like she didn't even need to be told where. Wow, she was hungry... But it felt amazing for her to be able to; well she was releasing the pressure. And I was feeding my foal. I... That meant so much to me...

I looked at Shysage, and he looked back at me, then started to cry again. "Shysage, I need a lot of water now..."

Shysage got up, found both shoes, and went down to the pond, filled them up, then brought them back. He was still crying. I quickly emptied both shoes (I really was really thirsty), and sent him back for more. It was at that point I took care of a few details. This wasn't rocket science; a miracle definitely, but not rocket science. When he came back with more water, he was still crying. I again quickly emptied both shoes, and sent him back for more. I could feel Ariel still nursing, but now I had a chance to look at her. Then I started crying. Shysage set the shoes down in front of me, sat next to me, wrapped his arms around my neck again, and we cried together, for quite a while.

Ariel ate, well she drank a lot. Then she pulled her beautiful pony baby body back, then burped a few times. Her eyes caught mine quickly; Ariel knew who her mommy was. Shysage helped, and her head was quickly right next to mine as she lay on her side like I was. She was quickly asleep. Shysage and I cried very softly together as we surrounded our Ariel. It was late afternoon now, but we both certainly could not sleep, and so we didn't even try. An hour later, Ariel woke up crying softly. She was hungry again, and was quickly nursing. Cry, nurse sleep, cry nurse sleep... For the next few days, that was the cycle. Well, there was more, but it doesn't matter. Shysage quickly recovered, and carefully cleaned up -- his Mare, our daughter, our cave floor. And it was after that, I realized... I needed Shysage for this... Every step, he was my helper. Trying to do this alone would have been a nightmare. I probably could have done it alone, and would have, but still...

...

The next week maybe was just a blur. I was sooo tired. I slept when Ariel did, but waking up was just hard. Shysage started napping when Ariel woke up, then he helped Ariel back to me, to my head, then we all slept, until... The moon wasn't extremely bright, but it was only at this point that Shysage moved the huge branch that had fallen over the entrance to our cave. Well, he had too; we needed at least a little light in the cave at night. And Shysage's sweatshirt... Well, Ariel loved it, and maybe she needed it too. On cool nights, it kept her very warm. And Ariel looked soooo cute with the hood part over her head... Shysage was spending a little more time as a pony anyway, so it all worked out. Still, to see my beautiful foal wrapped up in Shysage's mostly white Equestria Girls world sweatshirt, even buried deep in the Past when there were no sweatshirts... Well, it was just amazing. And Shysage made a LOT of trips down to the pond with those two Equestria Girls world shoes. I was really thirsty a lot of the time. I was positive Shysage knew the way by heart; he had to, because I am convinced a few of those trips he never really woke up.

After that week, Ariel started sleeping a little longer at a time, a few hours usually. Shysage and I could both work on getting caught up on our sleep. And our sanity returned, Shysage said with a big smile. And, well, ok, give me a break. Maybe I should have included this sooner. Ariel is a Pegasus (mare of course). This is not surprising since both her parents are Pegasi too. Ariel's baby coat was light tan, just like I remember mine from as far back as I can remember (even though mine has faded to white now). Her mane and tail were blond (Equestria Girls world color), with quite a bit less gold than mine ever had. Eyes were hard to tell, but I guessed that faint trace of blue would deepen as she grew. It didn't matter; she was amazingly beautiful, easily the most beautiful foal in all Equestria. Shysage and I both felt that way.

And I guess... Shysage switched to his people form quite a bit, usually when I needed water, which was a lot. Ariel never had a problem with that; she knew who her dad was no matter which form he was. Shysage felt his voice was the key but it didn't matter. Shysage and I had already agreed that I should stay a pony for at least a month, so my body could put itself back together, Shysage said with a grin. Well, I felt like that... Still, to watch Shysage as a people, with his beautiful pony daughter curled up in his lap, asleep... I would usually move and put my pony head up on Shysage's knee so my head was next to Ariel's. We had spent a lot of time around Cel and Lu as people, and I missed them just thinking about that.

Well, after that second week... It was probably the middle of the night. The temperature outside had been getting slowly warmer, and sleeping seemed easier for all of us. And Shysage got his sweatshirt back too. Shysage and I were asleep, of course. I felt something nudge my face. I didn't think it was Ariel; when she woke up hungry, she helped herself, and I told her every time she should do that. Ariel couldn't talk yet, but Shysage and I, we still talked to her almost constantly, when we were awake and coherent (Shysage's word) anyway. Shysage could have nudged my face too, but it was Ariel; she was standing up, and that alone made this Mare want to cry buckets. We had spent the last two weeks in our cave home, and there was so little room... Ariel was just standing there looking at me. Even though I was half asleep, I struggled and got up too. It actually felt very nice to stand, by the way. I put my head up against hers right away. "Ariel, mommy and daddy love you very much" I said softly. By then, Shysage was awake and also standing with his head on the other side of Ariel's. Ariel smiled, and we didn't move for the longest time. Well, I was fighting back tears, and I think Shysage was too.

Shysage asked me about a slow walk down to the pond. It was the middle of the night, but we were all soon on our way. Shysage went first, and Ariel walked right next to me behind Shysage the whole trip. Well, she had walking down, no question about that. And, as we walked, Shysage asked me to explain to Ariel that she must never leave our cave when mommy and daddy are sleeping. I explained this very carefully. The three of us now, we just had to stay together. And I tried to explain the water to Ariel, well that if she got too far in, she could... Shysage gently mentioned to Ariel that she should just stay at the edge of the water for now. Then Shysage took a drink, and Ariel did the same thing. She sneezed first time, but otherwise did ok. And I drank a lot; I guess my body still needed a lot of water. It was too early for oats yet; we could eat some when we went back to the cave, although Ariel would nurse for months more. And I forgot to mention that the moon was high, and almost full; it was easily bright enough. Shysage led us over to that flat, exposed rock area, and we all sat down. Ariel had no trouble, and easily sat right next to me. Shysage sat on her other side.

I said quietly "Shysage, how in Equestria..." I have wondered many times, how I ever found my Shysage, but with Ariel here... That was just so amazing to me. Many nights I wondered if I could ever even be able to have a foal... But here... I just wept softly as I pulled Ariel close with one of my front legs. For a while, Shysage and I both talked to true friend. We were both thankful for Ariel, and the last two weeks, hard as they were. But we both knew that, well, we still needed his help, maybe even more. There was no moon spotlight that night, but it didn't matter. Ariel and Shysage, what more could I ever want. We soon made our way back to our cave. I laid on my belly where I normally did, and Ariel copied me exactly, and was soon laying right next to me, an she leaned up against me. Shysage carefully laid down on Ariel's other side. Ariel looked at me, and I smiled, and gently nudged her nose with mine. Ariel looked over at Shysage and he did the same thing. Ariel smiled, put her head down on her front legs and was quickly asleep. Shysage and I wept softly together for a while...

I was feeling a LOT better, compared to those last few days right before Ariel was born. And with a foal that can walk... Shysage said Mares in Equestria have it so easy... The very next day, we starting taking walks. Ariel needed them, well, I guess all three of us needed them. They were mostly to the pond, and around in the woods nearby. And Shysage let me set the pace and distance. He knew I was best at keeping tabs on how Ariel was doing. And on epecially long walks, Ariel would grow suddenly tired. We would stop and lay down. Ariel would nurse, then fall asleep next to her adoring mom and dad. Shysage and I would usually cry softly together, then I would nap too. Outside the cave, Shysage seldom napped. He felt it was a little too early for Cougars, but he wanted to know right away... It was clear though, over the next weeks that Ariel was growing rapidly. She was getting bigger, and could travel a lot further, even over a few weeks time.

...

Maybe a month after Ariel was born, I asked Shysage if we could take a walk to the, well, it is the east meadow, in our present, the meadow closest to our home, wierd. It was the closest meadow to our cave here in the Past, and it really wasn't far. Shysage answered softly "For you, Mare, anything!" Ariel was bouncing up and down on her front legs. She wanted to go for a walk too. Like I said, the walk to the meadow wasn't very far. Well, it was further than I remember, but Ariel didn't have any problems. The meadow still looked mowed, but it was all green, blanketed with new oat plants shooting up out of the ground. These young plants tasted very good... It was also easy to see that the meadow was empty. We would have been able to see a Cougar, even crouching, as low as the new oats were. We could also see what we thought was that small hill. We got to that hill just as warm sunlight spilled over the tops of the trees that were our woods.

"Shysage, I think one of us should do Cougar patrol" I mentioned quietly. Well, I did have a reason for wanting to come here...

I think Shysage read my mind. "Precious, mommy Mare... That's fine, just stay where you can see us." I don't know how he does that. But he must have known... "Ariel, stand back here with me please" Shysage said softly to Ariel. I just shook my head in disbelief...

But, now, still a pony, some distance from Shysage and Ariel... I threw myself back on my hind legs, stood up as a people, and immediately spun up my Cutie Mark. It never occurred to me that I might lose Phantom Alicorn just from having a foal. I didn't. Shysage said I jumped 15 feet into the air, but with my wings... I headed rapidly towards the sky. I am a Pegasus Mare, and that felt... amazing... And, with my Cutie Mark spun up, my wings were bigger, my muscles were stronger... This is how Shysage said I should spell what I yelled as I headed for the sky: "Yeeee... aaaahhhh... ha ha haaa..." Ok, after getting very high, I turned back into a pony, and did glide slowly down, sweeping increasingly larger circles in the process, as I checked for Cougars. When I landed, Shysage was crying, hugging Ariel. It took a while, but he explained what had happened.

Ariel didn't quite know what to do with the low rumble from my Cutie Mark, but she looked rather alarmed when her mom headed rapidly up into the sky. Ariel said her very first word at that point... "mommy?"

Shysage quickly hugged Ariel, and said softly "Ariel, honey, mommy is flying. She will come back in a little while."

Ariel looked back down, and stared briefly at the ground maybe five feet in front of her. Then she looked up, smiled, and said quietly to herself "fly..." That was her second word. Ariel is a Pegasus, all right.

Shysage was a pony, and turned some, and spread his wings out for Ariel to see. She got this most wondrous look on her face, and her eyes and mouth opened very wide. Almost without thinking, Ariel slowly, and haltingly unseated her own wings, until both were fully out like Shysage's. Ariel then began to bounce on her front legs, and haphazardly move her wings.

"Fly! Fly! Fly!'

Ariel said this a number of times, in her high pitched baby voice, and Shysage just could not keep from crying. After I landed, and he explained it to me, I cried too, as Shysage and I hugged our amazing foal...

Ariel Dawn was here...

Chapter 11, New World

Shysage and I, we had been here in this pony-perfect meadow, Ponyville before Ponyville, for maybe 10 months now. The first three or four months were absolutely amazing; just my Stallion and his Mare. We were together and alone and close, as much as we possibly could. Shysage said that was our summer vacation. The following six months were focused on surviving our winter, with me carrying a foal. That was a tall order. And as the winter crept slowly by, I was increasingly immobilized as Ariel Dawn grew large inside me, and even enduring each day became our top priority. Shysage enjoyed our summer with me. He faithfully endured the winter with me too, and everything in between. Our first month with Ariel was amazing too. Holding her was so... She is so cute... During that month, my body gradually returned to normal, and so I guess I did too. And I got caught up enough on my sleep so I wasn't a zombie all the time. And watching my Pegasus foal start talking and trying to fly, all on the same day... Our Ariel was here, and each day was increasingly delightful.

But for Ariel, well she was increasingly seeing a whole new world. Shysage and I talked; we noticed the same thing with Cel and Lu while we had them. We guessed Lu was a yearling, and Cel was a year older. But, by the way they acted, maybe their life before we found them, it must have been difficult, anyway. They only unwound and began to look around after we embraced them into our family. The king's mares, the two appointed ones... I could only imagine... But for Ariel, that slowly taking in what she saw around her, it was happening now...

Shysage and I talked to Ariel like she was here starting soon after, well, the next morning. It would have looked strange, but we were talking to this growing life inside my belly. Shysage felt Ariel could start processing that maybe the last few months, although she surely sensed it from early on. Still, we wondered if all that helped Ariel begin to talk early. Well, maybe not that early; three months is more common here in Equestria. Ariel talking was both amazing and delightful at the same time. And she wasn't quite like Cel; Cel asked about everything. Lu was content, especially early on, to just be near me. Ariel struck a nice medium. Ariel talked a lot, and Shysage and I, we constantly told her she could ask us anything. We wanted her to learn as much as possible, as fast as possible. I don't know why, that's just what we did. But Ariel needed to be close to at least one of us, as much as possible. Neither Shysage nor I minded.

Of course Ariel wanted to know about the four Cougar carcasses with rocks on their skulls, spread around our tree in that meadow. At least they didn't smell anymore. But we spent most of that afternoon, talking about Cougars, predators, fighting, death, anger... We doubted Ariel could take it all in, but we answered all her questions, honestly, and as clearly as possible. And this included me showing her my Phantom Alicorn form. She had already seen it once, but we carefully explained everything. We even described an example or two about how we had helped Equestria. Well, Ariel asked! We quickly found out one thing. Ariel was a fast learner. She was very sensitive, almost like me, but she clearly had Shysage's amazing cognative abilities. She rapidly thought things through. Sometimes listening to Ariel and Shysage talk, it was amazing. They could almost talk in shorthand (Shysage's word), and sometimes didn't need to finish the sentence to communicate the thought.

We were in the Past, but we were here by ourselves. We taught Ariel about true friend early on. Well, that is who we are, what we do. She saw this a lot on a day to day basis. But Ariel needed to know. That is just the core of our family. She understood. Well, we talked to our true friend in the sky a lot anyway. We felt we had to. In a lot of ways, true friend was all we had here. Ariel increasingly realized... And Shysage felt this was very important. We didn't teach her just what we did, and demand she do it. We spent a lot of time teaching her, showing her why true friend was the center of our lives. It was all very practical. Ariel saw that. Ariel talked to true friend a lot with us. That was a family practice after all. Shysage knew that a point would probably come in her life; she would either own it or walk on. That would be her choice. For now, we hid nothing from Ariel like we felt we had to, with Cel and Lu.

And Shysage and I did talk one evening after Ariel was asleep. We were here right now, and we would freely tell Ariel about what we knew about that. If we needed to reference events in the future, we would keep our description as general as possible. This was hard, since Ariel was so inquisitive. But Shysage felt we should not tell her about even events that would surely happen in less than 20 years from when we were. That would all wait until we actually got her back to our future (although that point filled me with a vague dread, I don't know). Ariel could know about right now, and mom and dad's past in the most general of terms. And she even pushed Shysage on a number of occasions. He just smiled, hugged his daughter, and said quietly "I will answer that question when it is appropriate." Ariel just learned that some knowledge had to wait.

Beyond that, it was just Shysage, Ariel and myself. We simply enjoyed life together. It was just the three of us, and I know each of us treasured the other two. Each day was amazingly special, and with Ariel rapidly taking in life here in Equestria before Equestria...

...

I think Shysage and I were ready for another summer vacation. Don't get me wrong, Ariel was so worth it. But the last months, winter especially... Grueling quickly comes to mind. That first summer with Ariel was amazing. Ariel was learning so much. She was growing fast as well. She still nursed, and took at least two naps a day. Well, Shysage said that, with Ariel nursing, it was not likely I would get started on another foal just yet. We had to be careful, but we enjoyed each other quite a bit that summer. Ariel took fairly long naps in the afternoon, and in the grass (oats) in the sunlight was her favorite spot. We would often move just next to Ariel, with a small bit of standing grass between us, and Shysage and I... We kept careful track of Ariel, of course. A time or two, she woke up early, and just said quietly "Mom?" She evidently knew we would be close, and we were. It was never a problem.

And we still did Cougar patrol every day, every morning. Shysage and I would take turns. The rule was that whoever was in the air would never go out of sight of the other two. I would rather have been able to fly together, but it was doubtful that would hapen until next summer, at least. For this Pegasus mommy, that would be a lot of fun. Ariel already knew how to get her wings out, and we have talked a lot about keeping them safe. Over the course of the summer, she got better at flapping them together, and basically moving a lot of air. She still had too little wing muscle strength though. But next spring...

It wasn't quite as often, but we made trips to that tall tree as a family as often as we wanted. It wasn't quite as easy; we had to walk the whole way. Shysage or I had to be in the air a few times to check ahead for Cougars. It was usually Shysage. The walk there and back was not a problem for Ariel. Well, she usually nursed, then napped while we were there. Still, she talked to true friend with us, and we basically just enjoyed the afternoon together. Ariel was talking a lot, and that was so fun. And, well, Ariel and I started having girl time on those trips. She had already noticed that Shysage's pony body was different, and she wanted to know. Well, our Ariel wanted to know everything about everything. But this... I handled everything very carefully, but I told her what I felt she needed to know. And I also tried to explain just how desparately in love Shysage and I are, and that was really the center. Well that's not the only thing we talked about. It is just that our trips to that big tree sanctuary, those times just became very special times as Arial and I talked about things she was not comfortable asking dad. We would often stop, and hug while weeping softly. I love her so much... And I quickly saw that she is like me in so many ways. Shysage had already told me as much though.

The summer held its chores. On really warm days, we would relax in the shade of our trees and work on Canterlot Recording. I spent a bunch of days getting caught up. But we mostly just read through what we had already written, so we could remember as much as possible when we got, well, back... With Ariel here, I just read out loud. We were careful about explaining what exactly these leaf pages were for. And some sections were clearly not age appropriate (Shysage's words) for Ariel. But Ariel really enjoyed knowing about our time here before she came. Shysage and I would often read through what we had already written before we had Ariel. That summer, we read out loud a lot. It didn't take Ariel long to learn to read, and her vocabulary (Shysage's word again) was expanding rapidly. A few times Ariel really wanted to know about us before we came here. Shysage and I always did the same thing. We stopped what we were doing, group-hugged her, and said quietly "Ariel, we will tell you about that as soon as we can." We hoped that would be once we were able to get back to our present. Still, I wondered how...

Later in the summer, we also started harvesting oats again. It was funny; Shysage and I ate a lot of oats every day, that was our food. Ariel paid no attention, and usually nursed while I ate oats. But Shysage explained to Ariel that we needed to stockpile food for the coming winter. Shysage would change into a people, then harvest a big armful of plants, then we would all walk together back to the cave in the woods, and put the oats on the shelf and the stems on the floor. A few trips an afternoon was all we could do. We had done harvesting the last summer and fall too. But we did it together. Ariel and I, we talked the whole time; that was just so fun. Shysage would look at us, and put both his hands up, shape them like talking ducks, and flap their bills open and shut. Ariel and I just laughed. One afternoon near the end of the summer, Shysage was sitting in the cave pulling the oats off the stems, and throwing the oats up on the shelf. He laughed and called the shelf full of oats our pantry. Sort of on a lark, he bit a piece off one of the oat things, and chewed it up. He was still a people. He managed to get it down, but he said that oats taste so much better when he is a pony. I just laughed. I knew my Stallion; as a people, a soda and a hamburger would be his preference. That would have to wait... If...

But Ariel asked Shysage "Dad, can I try the rest of that oat thing?" She quickly gobbled it down and said "Wow..." Shysage wisely grabbed a handful from the pantry, and Ariel made quick work of them. Ariel never nursed again. From the end of that summer, she ate oats just like we did. My little girl was growing up...

It's so easy to get complacent... I was in the air looking for Cougars one day at the end of the summer. It was cooling off, and raining a bit more, so Shysage felt autumn was close. It was still a warmish day, and I was supposed to be keeping guard. I was more focused on enjoying flying, I think. I was almost back to our tree when I saw them, just two. They were crouching, actually sneaking up on Shysage and Ariel from behind our tree. At first I wasn't sure what to do. I was still a pony, and decided I would pretend I hadn't seen them, and land next to Shysage and Ariel. I did that, walked around behind them, and said quietly for them to stay behind me. It was only at that point that I threw myself back, changed to a people, and spun up my Cutie Mark. I motioned a shield up with my right hand, just as they both jumped at us together, growling loudly, fangs bared... They certainly didn't recognize the people I was, or care about the noise. But I don't think they expected the shield either; both crashed into it, hard, and fell to the ground. Motioning electricity on them with my left hand next immobilized them anyway.

Well, we didn't want Cougar carcasses right here at our tree. It was kind of dangerous, but I had Shysage and Ariel follow me far away into the meadow behind our tree. Once we were on the other side of the trees, I stayed between Shysage and Ariel, and the Cougars. We basically walked backwards maybe 500 feet before they both managed to get up. I was counting on them following us using our scent, which they did. Shield, electricity then rocks, and they were dead. And they were a good distance from our tree, and mostly downwind. Still, Shysage pointed out... These two Cougars had things like Shysage's shoulder sack. They had carried food with them for the trip. Judging by the amount of blood we saw on the pouches, these sacks had been refilled a few times. It looked gross. But the Cougar scouts were clearly getting better at this... I guess all our explaining had prepared Ariel. She was scared like we were, but she didn't freak out or cry hysterically. As Shysage and I talked a little about the pouches, Ariel said quietly "Mommy, I don't like angry animals..." Shysage and I agreed, then we all hugged together for a little while.

...

There were, are a lot of details about Shysage and my life that we just take care of and go on. We have mentioned some of these in past volumes. From very early on in our relationship, brushing each other's mane and tail was always a very special time we shared. It wasn't physical or exciting, it was just a humbling way of showing we cared so deeply for each other, just sharing in so menial a task. We often would weep softly as we serve each other doing that. After our arrival here in the Past, we kept doing that. We didn't have our fancy Equestria Girls plastic (I don't know what that means) hairbrush. But we just gently ran our fingers through each other's hair, and worked any knots out. It was still very moving, very humbling.

The first fall we were here in the Past (well this was really our second trip back to the Past) we started running stuff for our winter to the cave that would shelter us. On a particularly blustery day, the wind blew a small branch down to the ground in front of us. Shysage had both arms wrapped around a very large bundle of oat plants, and we were in the woods, almost to the cave. Shysage watched it fall, stopped and looked at it, then carefully moved it aside with his foot, and asked me to not step on it. Well, it was just a branch, but I... That was fine, I carefully walked around it. After taking care of the oats, we were walking back together; Shysage stayed a people. It didn't take long to find that small branch. Shysage picked it up, and I just wondered. A few minutes later, he had broken most of the branches off, and trimmed the rest to approximately the same length. He was then carefully peeling the bark off. Well, he had made us a comb of sorts, with five small branches connected to a larger central branch. I am not sure how Shysage saw a comb in the random branch blown from a tree, but it worked very well. We turned around, and put our comb in the cave. Shysage changed back into a pony, and we headed off for another load of oats.

Later that same afternoon, Shysage had us walk back to the cave. For over an hour, my Stallion combed my mane and tail. He kept saying my hair was beautiful. Well, I was carrying Ariel, and I didn't feel... I just wept softly the whole time. And that winter... The closer it got to Ariel's arrival, the more I guess I needed that. Shysage would gently comb my mane until he couldn't even hold his arm up, rest some, then comb some more. He helped me survive, being in foal was very hard towards the end.

For the first few months after Ariel was born, well after we got our sanity back, Shysage and I began combing each other's mane and tail again. We both love that. Ariel would nurse then sleep early on, and paid little attention to this. As her new world started to open up before her very eyes, she paid a little more attention. But when she was maybe two months old, I noticed a large knot in her mane, probably from her last bath in the lake. And I need to add that Shysage was a people on and off since Ariel was born. After Ariel was a month old, I often switched back and forth too. None of this bothered Ariel in the least. And, I don't know; hugging Ariel in my people lap as she slept, or stroking her neck with my fingers to help her get to sleep... Anyway, when I saw that knot, I turned into a people, grabbed that comb, had Ariel curl up in my lap, and then I gently worked that knot out. And after I was done, in her cute foal voice... "Mommy, can you comb my mane like you comb daddy's?" I had Ariel stand up in front of me, and I began to comb... We both just melted, I think. We were quickly weeping softly together. From that point on, whenever Shysage got out the comb, Ariel would walk quickly over, and climb in daddy's lap, or when she was too big for that, she would lay on her belly and put her head on daddy's leg... Ariel was waiting for her turn, and she always got it!

Near the end of that summer, or early fall; Ariel was probably four or five months old. We were in our cave for the evening. By the last light of the setting sun, Shysage was combing his daughter's mane. Both were weeping softly. Shysage loves Ariel so much... Well, I watched this a little while, and started crying. It took a little while and a family group hug, then through tears...

"Shysage, I love you so much... I simply know of no way I could possibly love you any more... But I know that tomorrow I will... Shysage, please don't ever leave..." That was all I could say. Shysage and I cried together for a while; I am pretty sure he feels the same way. Ariel stayed close, crying too. She has a lot of Fluttershy sensitivity, and probably felt what was going on. As a family, we cried ourselves to sleep together that night.

...

Well, when it did get pretty cool, we moved back into our cave. It was probably early fall. Shysage said it was early because none of the trees had changed yet. Ariel didn't understand and quickly... Shysage explained how the leaves on some trees change into beautiful colors as the tree stops supplying sap, and the leaves die and fall off. Shysage harvested a huge armfull of oats on the way. After he was done, he laughed, and said it was time for us to hybernate. Ariel didn't understand... Shysage explained how some animals survive winter by finding a warm cave and going to sleep for three months. Well, we are ponies, and we don't hybernate. We might sleep a little more though.

That evening, after we ate oats from the pantry, then made a trip to the pond for a drink, we ended up on that flat exposed rock area near our cave, sitting together. We talked to true friend some, but mostly enjoyed being together. A full moon soon rose and lit up the forest floor. It was cool, but there was little wind. With Shysage on one side of me and Ariel on the other as I hugged her close... I realized I had so much... I so deeply loved our family, and I was soon weeping softly. But then, my sister... Princess Twilight, and all our other pony friends... My amazing Twin an all our Equestria Girls world friends... Weeping changed to painful crying... I didn't want to be stuck here...

Chapter 12, Pegasus Family (looming clouds)

This fall and winter was certainly better that the last fall and winter. A year ago, I was increasingly laboring to even survive as Ariel grew large inside me. This time through, it was just Shyage and Ariel and I. It was amazingly easier, physically anyway. But as the weather more and more kept is in our cave home, it was just difficult in different ways.

The calmness of winter did help us get current on our Canterlot Recording. Ariel absolutely loved those berries too; she ate a lot. But we also saved a lot of berries, and stored them in our cave. Late in the summer, Shysage managed to cobble together a poor substitute for his clip thing, and we had found a few more bird feathers. I worked with Ariel on some early writing lessons. Shysage and I both helped with this and Ariel picked it up quickly. Ariel was clearly a very patient pony; that clip thing needed constant fiddling, Shysage said. It kept slipping off Ariel's hoof. Even so, Ariel made good progress on her writing skills. She was already an excellent reader. And reading through that huge stack of leaves over and over, when it was freezing outside; I think even Ariel had most of our earlier chapters memorized. And Shysage and I agreed that keeping certain chapters away from our yearling foal... We read through them all, together, as a family, and carefully answered Ariel's questions as they came up.

We did have our share of storms that fall. But we didn't have the luxury of a huge branch falling across the opening of our cave. Shysage had to build a door by pulling some branches down from nearby trees. It was hard work for him, and took a while. And he had to add more branches in the middle of winter. Shysage thought this winter was colder than last winter. Well, it snowed more anyway. Some of our trips down to the pond were pretty cold. And a few days us girls sent Shysage to the pond with two Equestria Girls shoes to bring us water. Ariel asked about the shoes, more than once. Trying to avoid crying, I said I would explain them when I could.

I was a mess that winter. I absolutely loved both Shysage and Ariel. I just missed my sister Fluttershy. Well, and everypony else too. But there was very little I could say... Shysage understood, I'm sure, and probably felt a lot of what I was feeling. We just could not tell Ariel about the future, which was our past... It still sounds strange to even write that. During the summer, and part of the fall, well we kept busy. Always doing things, that helped divert my attention a lot. I think I was pretty normal. But when the frigid cold of winter basically confined us to our cave...

Shysage and I had talked quietly a few times when Ariel was asleep. He said this was very scary, but he felt our only hope was to wait here until after Cel and Lu were made princesses, and then sneak in and use the Portal to get us all back to our present. He admitted this was a very long shot, but he knew of no other way. And he also admitted that we could be here for years. We had no idea how long before Cel and Lu, well how many years it would be until they came... I knew that Shysage, well he had already thought this through, and come up with the best possible plan. I didn't question that. Years though... That didn't help me. There was just nothing we could do.

Maybe the middle of the winter, I think Shysage knew I was ready to snap or something. It was an absolute blizzard outside anyway and snowing fiercely. We couldn't even venture out. And we had to pull the branches closer to cut down on the icy wind blowing in. Overall, it was just a terrible day. And every time I ended up thinking about Fluttershy, I usually just talked to Ariel instead, to try to place my attention elsewhere. Well that day, I just couldn't. I was crying pretty hard. And I think Shysage knew Ariel was getting alarmed. We had already told her about mommy having a hard time being away from her family; we didn't feel we could tell her any more. Anyway, I think I was melting down. But I think Shysage knew.

Shysage hugged Ariel, then said softly "Ariel, listen..." Well, I knew to listen too. I have learned to trust my Stallion, especially when things are really hard. He began slowly, carefully choosing just about every word. Well, he had to...

"Ariel, your mom and dad, we actually came here from far in the future. The problem is that nopony is supposed to know that...

"Well, it is very... If we... Since we are in the past right now, and we say something, anything that could change the future, well that is very bad. We could change what already happened up to the point of our present. We could lose... We could disappear..."

It was clear that Shysage was, himself having problems with this, and he stopped, and he and I hugged and cried together for a few minutes. Well, we pulled Ariel into our hug. This was a family matter, and besides, we always hugged together now, and we hugged a lot. After a few minutes, holding his weeping Mare, Shysage said quietly

"Ariel there is so much we want to tell you, but most of it will need to wait... We just can't...

"Ariel, I know you are young, but you need to try and understand this..."

Shysage had to stop here again. And honestly, we really didn't know where Shysage was going with this; I think he forgot. This was just hard for both of us.

Ariel was looking at the ground thoughtfully, then surprised both Shysage and I. "Ok, so my mommy and daddy are from the future, and so everything needs to stay a big secret. Is that right?"

Shysage broke into a big grin, and I burst into tears. Well, still, Ariel wasn't even a yearling yet.

Ariel didn't stop. "Mommy, daddy, you are taking me back with you, right?"

I was closest to Ariel, so I managed to hug her tighty first "Honey, of course we are. You are ours, we are not leaving you anywhere..."

As a family, we hugged and cried together for a little while.

Shysage paused, then gently lifted my head with his front leg. "Summer, tell Ariel about her aunt..."

Well, I had to cry a bunch at this. But I spent the rest of the evening telling our Ariel about my sister Fluttershy, our family, my childhood... I tried to be careful, but a few times Shysage gently interrupted, and said "Ariel, I think that should wait." That was fine. Still, being able to talk about Fluttershy and the rest of our amazing friends; it made the distance hurt a lot less. And Ariel seemed to really enjoy what she was learning about her mommy and daddy before they came here. There was a lot we didn't say because we couldn't. But what I could tell my daughter...

The rest of the winter was pretty brutal, Shysage said. Whenever I got to feeling bad, it was always Ariel who sensed this, and asked quietly "Mommy, can you please tell me more about my family?" Ponies and people I cared about so much, and deeply missed; remembering them together with Ariel really helped. We survived the winter anyway.

...

Shysage thought the warmth of spring arrived early. But as the flowers burst around us with the advent of spring, so it seemed that our lives together blossomed out in so many ways. I think we were all ready to bust out of our cave and get some fresh air. Cool, but fresh air. We started taking walks as soon as we could, and they got longer by the day. I think we all had lost a lot... Ponies aren't meant to hibernate. And the more we did, the more the difficulty of the months of winter receded into a memory. "Maybe I was done with those feelings..." I thought this to myself often. I still missed my sister Fluttershy and everypony else, but we would be back soon enough.

I'll never forget our first visit (after winter was done) to that east meadow. I guess the oats felt the early warmth too; the oat plants were a good four inches high, and very green. And, just like last spring, we could have seen a Cougar a mile away in our meadow. We had walked slowly and calmly, maybe half way across the east meadow to the huge meadow around our trees, and it was maybe the middle of the morning. The warmth of the direct sunlight felt amazing. Shysage stopped, and so we did too. He sampled the new oats; well he stopped and had a snack. Ariel bent down, sniffed at the plants a little, then bit off a mouthful.

"Oh, my goodness! This is amazing!" Ariel loved these early oats, and she ate and ate and ate... Shysage suggested we let her go; her body probably needed all that. After maybe 45 minutes, Ariel picked her head up and said quietly "Wow, I'm thirsty..." We walked to the lake, and Ariel drank quite a bit, then was back to eating oats. Shysage and I, we ate too, and drank some water. All of a sudden, Ariel just plopped down in the grass where she was. "Wow, I'm full..." Ten minutes later, Ariel was asleep in the warm sunlight. Shysage did Cougar patrol, and was quickly back next to us. I napped some too, but Shysage did not. As that spring and summer unfolded... Ariel loved oats.

Well, we are a Pegasus family. Any sort of flying would need to wait until it was warmer, and we were back at our trees and our meadow. And, I guess I had been pretty lucky up to this point. When I taught Cel and Lu how to fly, they were already older, and had more wing muscle to begin with. Ariel needed some good practice to build those muscles up. We were still spending nights in the cave because nights were cool still. But during trips to the meadow, I would often have Ariel stand facing the wind, and we would work her wings some. Coordination was important, and so was the amount of air moved. Ariel was making good progress on both. Still, one evening I asked Shysage quietly if he felt I was pushing Ariel too hard. I was honest and said I could easily see myself do that. Shysage smiled, hugged me and said quietly "I think if Ariel loses interest in your exercises, then it is time to do something else." Well, Shysage was probably right, but Ariel wanted to do flying practice (she called it) any chance she got!

One warmish afternoon, I was having Ariel practice fanning the wind like this. Shysage said "I found my air conditioning", and laid down on his belly right in front of Ariel. The wind she was moving with her wings blew Shysage's mane away from his head at a good angle. Us girls had no idea what air conditioning even was, but Ariel worked a lot harder at moving air... ...and promptly knocked herself over backwards, laughing, into the grass. We had already talked at length about protecting her wings under various situations. She tucked them quickly to her side as she fell. Mom and dad laughed with her. It was clear Ariel was ready for the next step.

I remember watching in wonder as Equestria pony Rainbow dash found a properly sloped hill, and simply coached Equestria Girls Shyna through her first few flights. Well, Rainbow is clearly the expert, and Shyna was already very strong, and an especially gifted Pegasus. Rainbow knew what to do. Well, our Ariel is amazing if you asked her mom or dad, but she would need to learn to fly the old school way. Run, jump, glide some, land, run, jump, glide some more. Shysage trampled flat a long runway he called it, from our tree down to the lake. It was easy to see, down hill just a bit, and very flat. Ariel and I ran, jumped, and glided together. It was amazing fun, but doing that jerked constantly at my heart strings. Ariel was my Pegasus daughter. I was teaching her how to fly. In between loud laughter, I had to work hard to not cry. But Ariel... She LOVED EVERY MINUTE of this exercise. She wasn't flying, she was just gliding. But she quickly mastered the skills to steer, to go up and to come down.

We had been doing this maybe five days. On that fifth day, Ariel simply did not want to stop. She was clearly having a blast. As the sun headed below the horizon, we were walking back up the hill with Shysage, as Ariel pleaded for one more run. I hugged her, and said ok. Off we went; Ariel was laughing the whole time, and I was too. It was getting dark, and we both jumped together, and glided... Jump again and glide a while... Jump again... We only then realized we had jumped up right at the edge of the lake. Shysage yelled "ARIEL NO!"

We had already talked with Ariel about the hazards water could bring. Still, she and I both, not watching where we were going, we had jumped together, and sailed out quickly, gliding over the water...

I didn't freak out; I just said quietly "Ariel, your wings..."

In the blink of an eye, Ariel added flapping to gliding, and was soon pulling away and higher, laughing loudly. She was flying... She knew she was flying... My little girl was flying... I just cried...

It was Shysage who quickly caught up with Ariel, turned her carefully around, and coached her to a fairly calm landing. I landed near them, and we all just cried together for a while. This was a Pegasus family triumph. We hugged and cried together for a while. It was near dark, and not cold. We spent that night at our tree. Shysage had to do some work on the wind break, but still. It would be fall before we again spent any nights in our cave.

And from that day on, Ariel joined us on Cougar patrol. We started a lot lower, and when Ariel got tired, I would fly her down, and we would walk back to our trees while Shysage completed the patrol. Of course, as the summer progressed, Ariel was soon staying up high and with us the whole time. The three of us... Our family... Flying together like that was amazing. From that point on, there was never a reason for us to not stay together. We cried a lot together and laughed a lot together as we flew that summer. And towards the end of the summer, Ariel could easily spend hours in the air with us. We are a Pegasus family.

...

We enjoyed spring, and especially the warmth of summer. And flying together as a family was simply amazing. Shysage and I got no by the moonlight evenings; Ariel had to be our first priority. But if we were careful, some afternoons... Ariel was rapidly growing in her strength and endurance as a flyer. We were even able to start taking flying trips to that huge redwood tree, our tree sanctuary. Ariel was absolutely amazed at something so big. And flying towards it, actually being in the air... It was just a vastly different perspective. It looked huge from the ground. But flying towards it already high in the sky, well it really sank in just how tall that tree was. And there were no other trees around like that... Ariel was beginning to take a much more active role in our talking to true friend, there and whenever we felt the need. That meant a lot to Shysage and I. And every morning we did Cougar patrol. That could be a life or death thing; we had to do that. Most afternoons, Ariel bugged mom and dad for more flying time. She was a Pegasus mare, all right! Our usual solution, especially if we were tired at all, was to fly pretty high above our tree, then slowly glide back down in huge circles (wind permitting). Gliding is just so fun, and while gliding, we could focus on enjoying the amazing view. We could see the cloud bank that would become Cloudsdale, shining in the afternoon sun off in the distance. In the air, flying over Ponyville before Ponyville, it looked exactly the same as it did in our present. That was just uncanny; to be up in the air flying, and to forget when we were. But I realized that a trip like that... It would be next spring or summer before Ariel was strong enough for a trip to the cloud bank. Those clouds were pretty high up in the sky.

What we felt was midway through summer, we began to harvest oats again, in order to rebuild both our pantry and our carpet in the cave. As Shysage worked hard harvesting, Ariel and I would talk a lot. Ariel was growing up so fast! Well, she was a yearling and then some. She wasn't far from my size now, either. Her coat had not lightened out very much, but she was still beautiful (beautiful just like her mom, Shysage reminded her often). Shysage mentioned that we would probably need more oats this winter. Ariel absolutely loved oats! Well, Shysage and I did too. A bunch of warm days late in that summer, we probably stayed out harvesting almost until sundown. We wanted to make sure we had enough food. And Ariel timidly asked me again about mom and dad things on more than one afternoon. I think some of the chapters about Shysage and I together, well she just wanted to know. I did the best I could, I think. Shysage and I are pretty affectionate, well we are so deeply in love, and it just overflows. Ariel felt that, and just had some questions. Inside, I could only yearn for somepony like Shysage for my Ariel... And I noticed Shysage and Ariel talking together a lot that summer too, evenings mostly. Well, I know Ariel absolutely loves her dad. And I had trouble keeping up with some of their discussions. Shysage quietly mentioned that it was difficult to keep Ariel's inquisitive and far ranging mind satisfied at times. Like me, he said he usually did the best he could, treading and increasingly fine line between what he should and shouldn't say. He kept reminding Ariel that we hoped at some point to be able to tell her everything. Ariel clearly looked expectantly towards that time. We all did.

It was clear though that the love and devotion in our family was growing. Or maybe Ariel was increasingly becoming a part of the devotion Shysage and I shared. At least once each day, usually spontaneously, we would all hug and weep softly together for a while. Ariel was increasingly feeling our deep committment to her, and was herself increasingly reflecting that in her own committment to us. It was amazing. From that first day, when I just knew some sweet way that Ariel was inside me... Shysage and I, we have loved our Ariel so much from that point on. She was more and more loving us back. She wasn't being pushed to, she wanted to...

Oh, and we didn't see a single Cougar all summer.

...

I guess it was really a bunch of things together...

Shysage pointed out that the leaves of some of the trees in the forest had started to change colors. Vivid reds, yellows; the trees looked very pretty. But our flying days were numbered. That was not a very happy thought.

It was pretty late in the summer, maybe early fall. Shysage and I were hoping for some intimate time together that afternoon, and Ariel had just fallen asleep in the grass. Well, true intimacy doesn't just happen. I don't understand how some ponies think they can jump in, get what they want, then jump out and move along. They could have so much more... Shysage and I were just beginning the process of reaching into each other's hearts. Ariel woke up, and called out "Mom?" like she usually did when she woke up. She had not been asleep very long. A cold gust of wind woke her up. Shysage and I were not in any sort of position that Ariel shouldn't see (not yet anyway), and mommy and daddy were quickly at Ariel's side. Shysage and I, we could both feel the disappointment. We were devoted to our daughter. It was still tough. This had happened before; we just had to wait until a better time.

And that night was also pretty cold. Maybe it was fall. I don't think any of us slept really well. We were all on our bellies, and Shysage had Ariel sleep in the middle, between Shysage and I, so we could keep Ariel warm at least. Parents do that. But I was cold. Well, I didn't mind taking care of our Ariel, but some time next to my Stallion would have been nice too. And he would have been able to keep me warm anyway. Still, we kept Ariel nice and warm, and she slept. I guess that was the important thing. Shysage knew I was bothered, and we talked a while, quietly, and he told me over and over that I was his special treasure. I think I needed to hear that. Still keeping Ariel warm, and trying to not wake her, Shysage and I both moved carefully forward just a little bit so we could rub noses a while. That helped some. And at least I remembered that Shysage was here with me. I really needed him. Again...

The next morning, we did our normal routine; Cougar patrol, breakfast and water. It was too cold for our usual bath, and it was almost too cold for Cougar patrol too. I love flying, but flying when you are cold; that is just not fun. We did what we had to, and then we quickly landed, ate breakfast, then huddled together behind the wind break at our trees. It was cloudy that day, and the sun never quite made it fully out. There would be no warmth today. Shysage sighed, then said we really should head for our cave. It would be warmer in there, at least. We knew the way, and walked together. In the east meadow, Shysage changed to a people and harvested another huge arm full of oats, then we walked the rest of the way to the cave. Even with his sweatshirt on, Shysage was cold. Almost to the edge of the woods, Shysage said the direction of the wind had shifted. He expected it to get pretty cold tonight.

But the minute we all laid down in our cave... Last winter came crushing back down over me. I thought I had moved past this... But the memories just kept haunting me. Shysage knew what was happening, and we cried out together to true friend for help. Ariel did too. I think she felt something was wrong. We love Ariel so much, of course, but to lose... My sister Fluttershy... My Twin... The rest of our pony friends... The rest of our Equestria Girls world friends... Cel and Lu... It just seemed so unfair to me. Another winter here... I just didn't think I could... Shysage and Ariel, my only family here, we just huddled together, shivering, hugging...

I just cried...

Chapter 14, Out of the Blue

That night was just hard. For the first time, Ariel slept next to Shysage as he tried to comfort his hurting Mare. I think I really needed him that night. I think I have said that a lot though; Shysage has always been close to me when I need him. At some point in the middle of the night, Shysage carefully rolled over onto his side, making sure his back could help Ariel stay warm. She stayed asleep. But Shysage pulled me up against his chest and neck, and hugged me there tightly. It was only then that I began to calm down. But I don't think either of us slept much. And I knew I would need to explain to Ariel...

And when the light of the sun blazed into our cave, even through a thousand branches and leaves, we all woke up at the same time. I had to leave my place of solace, and was again weeping softly. I knew Shysage felt so torn. He had two mares to care for now. As the morning wore slowly on, Shysage tried to take care of us both. Even though it was cool in the woods, the sun warmed us nicely as the three of us headed across the meadow. I tried eating a little, but I cried the least leaning up against my Stallion. I don't think either of us knew what to do. I didn't want to be like this. But I also didn't want to be away from my sister, everypony else, for years... I even hugged Ariel at one point, and we cried together a few minutes. I guess my Ariel knew exactly what was going on. "Mom, it would be brutal for me to be away from you and dad for a long time. I understand." My little girl...

Shysage and I ended up laying next to each other in the grass, close to our lake. And I knew this was coming... Ariel really was growing up quickly, and had been pushing for just a little more independence of late. That was part of growing up, but... I wondered if she really grasped the fact that, away from us, she would probably die. Still, her next words didn't shock me at all.

"Dad, can I do Cougar patrol this morning? I promise I will stay where I can see you both, and I'll come straight back if I see anything."

I think Shysage was already feeling torn, and this just made it harder. It was only then that I noticed the tears in his eyes. He really didn't want Ariel to have to fly alone. But he absolutely knew he couldn't leave me, especially not now. It was silent for a while as Shysage wrestled. I felt bad I put him through this, but I couldn't help how I felt.

"Shysage, I think she will be ok..." I said this with as much certainty as I could muster, which wasn't much.

Shysage sighed deeply, then said "Ok Ariel, just stay close. Don't fly huge circles, just stay near us, and stay in the air."

Well, we hadn't seen a single Cougar all summer, and so I think Shysage felt this was probably fine. Ariel was quickly in the air stretching her wings, laughing. My daughter... A Pegasus mare, even though just a yearling, she absolutely loves flying. Shysage said it runs in the family.

I don't know why, but with just Shysage and I together, I began to relax. Maybe it was just Shysage and alone that I really needed. I didn't like that thought at all, because we both loved Ariel so deeply. But Shysage soon had me tucked up against his chest and neck again, and... I think I melted. I still missed my sister, and everypony else, but feeling my Stallion close like that... I honestly thought I could do this. Well, I really had no choice. Shysage and I had talked; there was really only one way out of here that we knew of, and we had to wait. And it would still be scary.

It was silent for a while. Shysage was constantly watching for Ariel high overhead, while tightly hugging his Mare.

"Shysage, I really love you. I think, as long as you are near me... I think I can do this..." I said this slowly, but it was clear, even to me, just from listening to my voice, I had calmed down significantly. Shysage started crying. I felt bad, but I was sure he sensed that I was working on dealing with years away...

We cried together for a while, and that felt very nice. Then Shysage tried to explain.

"Summer, I can't change... I know of only one way, and neither of us knows when..."

I realized that maybe he was struggling with this as much as I was; being away from our Princess, our friends... And he was right. Neither of us could change this. And if this was part of the cost for us having Ariel, then... I pressed the top of my head gently into the bottom of Shysage's neck.

"Shysage, I really love you. Please don't ever leave me..."

"Oh Mare, I can't... I just can't..."

It was quiet for a few minutes. I think we were both working on calming down. For me especially, that was an accomplishment.

"Shysage, I--"

The very next thing I heard...

"Mommy, mommy, mommy, help...."

Ariel flew overhead, next to another young Pegasus; they were headed west rapidly. Ariel shouted to us as loud as she could as they flew over us.

Well, sister or no, our Ariel was in trouble. In less than 10 seconds, I had rolled out from under Shysage's legs, stood up, reared back on my hind legs and changed into a people, and I had spun up my Cutie Mark. I jumped, and was quickly in the air. Shysage followed me of course. But as the Phantom Alicorn, I could fly much faster, and quickly caught up with Ariel and the other pony.

The other pony, another young mare, could barely breathe; she was clearly both terrified and winded, and I realized, very weak. The sweat on her back, she had been flying, probably as fast as she could, for a while. The other pony tried to explain, but was talking old pony, and I understood very little. Well, I realized "holp" probably meant help.

Shysage, a little out of breath, caught up with us just then. "Summer, nine Cougars chasing us." That was all he could say, but it was all he had to say. If our visitor had landed, she would have quickly died. No wonder... Looking back, I could see they were close, and probably as tired as our visitor. Still, I had a good idea what to do.

"Shysage, we need to tell our visitor to stop, but stay in the air. She is very tired, but I can most easily deal with the Cougars if she, well all of you stay in the air hovering behind me." As I quickly explained this to Shysage, I doubted our visitor understood any of it.

Shysage thought a minute, then said carefully "stoop", and Ariel and I stopped too, and we kept our position high above the ground. Our visitor kept flying, but quickly turned around and came back. Shysage explained later that we were the only ponies around for maybe a hundred miles. He guessed she would not leave us, and he was right.

Our visitor came back but obviously couldn't hover for very long. I didn't need much time. The Cougars stopped directly under us, and that made it easier. I quickly dropped down maybe half the distance towards the Cougars. I coated them all with electricity with my left hand, then carefully dropped ten large boulders (one missed), and they were all dead.

Less than 10 seconds after I had killed the last Cougar, our visitor made the most painful landing I have ever seen. She was quickly crying loudly, laying on her side in the grass. I was still a people, but I had unwound my Cutie Mark. I sat next to her, and had her pony head quickly in my lap, and I talked softly to her gently stroking her neck, and tried to comfort her. Well, she was still shaking with fear. Ariel laid on her belly right next to me, and put her pony head up on my other leg, and tried to help comfort her. "Hey, it's ok now. My mom can protect you. We will help you." I wrapped my other arm around Ariel and hugged her too.

Our visitor, with her eyes mostly closed, cried loudly for maybe half an hour, then her crying tapered off. She looked up at me with wonder for a few minutes, then she looked at Ariel, then back at me, then Ariel again. My daughter and I, we both smiled at our visitor. I said quietly maybe the only old pony word I knew very well; "Hoy", and Ariel awkwardly said the same word. Our visitor smiled back. She said quietly "Hoy", blinked her eyes a few times, then fell asleep in my lap.

Another pony, asleep in my lap... We were surrounded by the fresh carcasses of nine Cougars... With my free people arm still around Ariel, I hugged Ariel tightly. "Ariel, I love you..." While Shysage kept an eye out for any more Cougars, my daughter and I, we wept softly together there for a long time...

Chapter 15, Old Pony 101

Well, there were four of us now. We had just rescued another young Pegasus mare from nine Cougars. She had been flying fast for a long time, flying for her life really. How in Equestria she ever found us... Soon after we had rescued her, she fell asleep in my people lap, exhausted. We didn't even know her name or anything. Well, buried this far back in the Past, the only Pony city was Coptol, the main city of the three Pony tribes before Cel and Lu were made Princesses over Equestria. Shysage and I, we knew the way there; we could easily see the Equestrium every clear summer night. We just had no reason to go there. Well, now maybe...

Our new charge was maybe medium green, with a bronze mane and tail it looked like. I guessed she was around two years old, and no Cutie Mark yet. And she was sound asleep. For the next few hours, Ari (Ariel asked for the shorter form in everyday use) Ari and I cried quietly together, hugging, as our new friend slept. Shysage stayed alert, alternately up in the air or on the ground watching across the meadow, looking for any more Cougars. We had flown substantially to the west until we rescued her, and we were in view of that huge tree sanctuary. Still, this was probably a bad place to spend the night, out in the open meadow like this.

Maybe the middle of the afternoon, Shysage came over to us, and gently draped his pony head over my people shoulder. This put his head next to mine. I didn't mind.

"Shysage, I love you..." I said this gently. I really meant it.

"I love my family" Shysage replied just as quietly. Ari smiled, got up from my lap, and hugged her dad (Shysage) with one of her front legs. Shysage mentioned he hoped our visitor woke up soon. He agreed this was not a good place to spend the night, especially since there might still be other Cougars searching.

Shysage paused in thought a few minutes. Looking off into the distance to the east, he said, to nopony in particular "It's a little late for a trip to Coptol..."

This drew our visitor rapidly from her slumber, and she stood quickly but unsteadily up, and was crying right away. She spoke in old pony, of course, and we couldn't make a lot of sense out of what she said. She was clearly beside herself. "...no Coptol...", we picked out this much; she said this over and over. She absolutely did not want to go back. Shysage sighed. We would need to find out why at some point, but now was not the time. She would stay with us. And, since it was early fall, that probably meant she would spend the winter with us too, maybe longer. I don't think our family minded.

But in the middle of her pained old pony, Ari walked up to her, stopped right in front of her, and smiled. "Hoy" Ari said again.

Our visitor stopped talking and crying right where she was, sniffled once, managed a smile, then softly said "Hoy" back to Ari.

Ari didn't stop. She said quietly "I'm Ariel", then bowed her head briefly.

Our visitor helped us out anyway. "Annie" she said quietly, then she bowed too.

Ari lifted one of her front legs and sort of waved for Annie to follow. Ari started walking back east, and quickly said "Mom, dad, come on!"

Annie clearly understood Ari, but didn't move. "No Coptol" Annie said quietly, and with a clear questioning in her voice.

Ari looked back at Annie, smiled and answered right away "No Coptol".

I changed back into a pony, which again drew an amazed stare from Annie. I was my normal white and gold, but I saw no reason to do otherwise. The four of us walked back to our trees. Flying would have been faster, but Annie probably wouldn't be ready to fly for a while. Annie was next to Ari, who was next to me. Shysage was on my other side. Little was said on our trip back, which took maybe an hour and a half; we walked slowly to make it easier for Annie. Our family knew very little old pony, but that was all our new friend spoke. I guessed silence would probably be the rule for a while.

Well, at one point, Ari looked at Annie and cautiously volunteered "Friend?"

Well, Ari evidently communicated. Annie stopped, so we all did. Annie said slowly to Ari "Friend", then smiled, and hugged our Ari. Well, they both hugged. (While spelled the same, the old pony word for friend is almost two syllables, since the i is long like y, so "fry-end" quickly or something close. That's what we heard anyway.)

Ari insisted Shysage and I hug Annie too, and we said our names slowly before hugging Annie. Annie hugged Shysage easily enough, but she was still tentative where I was concerned. She had seen me change into a strange body and quickly dispatch nine Cougars... But I carefully repeated "Friend" the old pony way, and hugged her, well, we hugged. I think that helped her relax.

When we got to our trees, we headed down to the lake, and ate and drank some. Annie ate a lot, but this surprised nopony. If she had flown fast the entire distance from Coptol, flying for her life...

When we were all mostly done, and before it was too dark, I said quietly "Annie, come". I guess that worked in old pony, and Shysage led us to our cave. Without even waiting for Annie to be concerned, Ari headed quickly in, and Annie happily followed her. I went in next, and Annie and Ari were already on their bellies next to each other. Giving them a little space, I laid down near Ari (Annie was at the back of the cave), and Shysage was quickly next to me, closest to the cave entrance. Well, we had four in here again. I didn't know whether to smile or cry. I noticed tears in Shysage's eyes, I guess that's what he picked. I think we all missed... But taking care of Annie, that had to be our first priority for now. True friendship demanded nothing less. That was fine.

The sun went down shortly after we were inside, and it was quickly pretty dark. Ari tried tentatively "sleep?"

Annie thought a minute, then replied quietly. Well, it sounded to me like "slip", I don't know. Ari and Annie were soon asleep

Shysage and I already had our heads right next to each other, and we rubbed noses for a little while. That felt amazing. Still, I could tell Shysage was deep in thought. He whispered soon enough.

"I think we should learn and start talking old pony as soon as possible... We don't know who Annie is, or why she is here, but we need to do everything possible to blend into her world, which is Coptol in the Past, well, before Equestria." Shysage said this last phrase very quietly to avoid a reaction from Annie. Still, he was right. We would need to explain this to Ari tomorrow.

After Shysage explained this, we rubbed noses a while more, then I stopped; this time I was deep in thought. Shysage just waited patiently, then it was my turn.

"Shysage, I feel like I owe you an apology... I really did and still do miss my sister and everypony else. But we can't help when or why we are here. I think I need to work a little more at enjoying what we have, where we are, when we are."

I paused here briefly, then quietly added "Does that make sense?"

I could tell then that Shysage was already fighting back tears, and he quickly wrapped one of his front legs around my neck and hugged me tightly. Maybe he felt the same way. We wept softly and quietly together like that for a while.

Still, we were soon back to rubbing noses again, and that lasted a while more. I stopped at one point and said quietly "Shysage, I really love you..."

"Amazing Mare, I love you so much..."

Probably staying up later than we should have, we drifted off to sleep.

I awoke the next morning to Ari and Annie slowly and quietly talking. And the morning sun beaming through the forest from the east lit up our cave nicely. It was a little cool yet. Well, the girls were laughing quietly on occasion too. Shysage was already awake, watching them. He whispered quietly to me "Old pony vocabulary lesson."

Ari would point to something with her nose or one of her front legs, and Annie would say the word in old pony. Ari would then repeat the old pony word, sometimes laughing herself, at what was coming out of her mouth. Both Ari and Annie were being very patient, working together until Ari could say the word correctly in old pony. And a good amount of review was taking place too. It was amazing to watch. And Shysage and I were also learning old pony words. Like, the word for rock in old pony is pronounced like rook.

Well, we really didn't know how long they had been awake. But after watching this go on for maybe an hour, it was clear they had exhausted the items here in our cave.

It was quiet a minute maybe.

Ari hesitantly pointed directly at Annie...

Annie understood immediately, and put her head down. "Friend" Annie said slowly and quietly, then looked up and smiled at Ari.

Ari said "Friend" quietly back, and they hugged. We had no idea what Annie had come from, but Annie and Ari seemed to be getting along very well. We needed to get Ari away from Annie long enough to explain that we needed to shift exclusively to old pony, and I wondered how we could do that. But Ari seemed to already be diving into old pony anyway, so maybe...

I shivered; Shysage got up, and I lost my warmth! I followed him out of the cave, and Ari and Annie joined us. Shysage normally would have mentioned what we were doing, but said nothing as he led us out of the woods, across the east meadow, and to the huge meadow around our lake, Ponyville before Ponyville. The warm sunlight on my back felt amazing. Shysage and I spoke quietly and briefly, then he took off, and circled high overhead for a while looking for Cougars. I felt a certain responsibility to stay here and protect our visitor if needed. Shysage agreed he would probably be more of a help in the air anyway.

The trip from the cave to our trees and the lake took quite a bit longer than it otherwise would have. Ari's old pony lesson started anew as something as simple as a walk surfaced hundreds of new objects to learn. Until Shysage took off, we just carefully watched Ari and Annie, and stopped when they did. Well, we listened too, and Shysage and I were learning, and sometimes laughing with them as we tried to say new words. Annie was so sweet; she had no problems enfolding us into she and Ari's fun. I doubted we would remember as much as Ari clearly was however. And Ari occasionally tried to get the words for actions. The word for eat in old pony sounded like aet (long a quickly followed by our word for eat). Communicating the specific action Ari was after, this wasn't always easy, and frequently both girls ended up laughing together. But Ari was quickly learning... And Annie was so cheerful about this; she was every bit the patient teacher. Annie and Ari both were clearly enjoying this whole process together.

We found out the old pony word for fly quite by accident. Ari was scrambling for words to answer a question. When she said the word "flee", Annie pulled out her wings. We didn't fly just then, and Annie rested her wings. Still, for a bunch of Pegasi, that was an important old pony word to know.

That morning was pretty quiet. Two hours of relaxed eating and drinking, I think we all enjoyed the calm. Annie was clearly a lot more relaxed, and very hungry. She didn't work too hard to stay with Ari; Annie clearly trusted all of us now. This gave Shysage an opportunity to quietly pull Ari aside. And I gotta' hand it to my daughter...

Shysage whispered quietly "Ari, I think..." Shysage stopped there and was searching for words.

Ari smiled, then whispered back "Ya dad, you and mom are secrets from the future. I think we need to just blend in here for now."

Shysage and his daughter hugged. Shysage cried. We both so deeply love our Ari. Getting her to our present so we could explain everything, that would be amazing. But for Ari to already know how we needed to act here and now...

Anyway, we almost always spoke old pony from that day on.

Chapter 16, Sweet Mare

Since we now had to speak old pony on a daily basis, it was amazing how quickly we learned this strange new language. After two weeks maybe, it was like we just spoke it naturally. It was surely different. And Shysage and I did carefully and quietly speak modern equestrian together on occasion when we felt it was necessary. But as time passed, that happened less and less. We were just becoming a part of Annie's world, the world of Coptol (the old pony word for capitol), the world of the pony nation before it was Equestria. But Equestria would happen in 5 or 10 years maybe, as best as we could tell, and this was only a guess.

But it was fall, and becoming increasingly cooler. Since the afternoon we rescued Annie from the Cougars, from that day on, we spent nights in our cave. We all felt that was just a lot safer. But as the temperatures slowly dropped, we found ourselves spending more and more time in the cave, out of the cold wind. A few other things had to change however.

Last year, even during the fall, Shysage had continued to collect oats from the east meadow. He wanted to make sure we had enough for winter. And Shysage had to be a people for this. Up until we saved Annie, we had already collected a good supply. We thought that Ari would be eating more this winter, so Shysage tried to take that into account. But we never even dreamed we would have Annie with us too. Harvesting more oats would have been nice, and there were plenty, but Shysage said what we both knew; Annie seeing him as a people too, that was probably too much. She had already seen my people form, and even that... We both needed to stay ponies now, and so extra harvesting just couldn't happen.

Canterlot Recording came to a screeching halt as well. We couldn't write anything new, and we couldn't even review what we had written. That part was just hard; we had no idea how we would ever be able to get what we had already written to our present, and we already realized we would need to just remember as much as we could. Shysage quietly suggested running back through the activities of each day during whatever free time we found ourselves with. I think for both of us, that wasn't much. We had two young, growing mares to take care of now, and that kept us both pretty occupied.

Wow, and brushing each others hair... The pony doing the brushing was a people for this, but now we couldn't... Sometimes we take little things for granted. Shysage and I really missed such a simple delight, a humble means of showing each other we cared.

We did manage to fly together, the four of us, on a number of afternoons, before it became too cold for flying. Annie shared our love of flying. That probably is a Pegasus thing, although I know Pegasi that don't care for flying much. That wasn't Annie. Annie's stamina was on par with Ari's. It was clear that before she came to us, she either didn't or couldn't fly a lot. But Annie loved flying, and thoroughly enjoyed our time in the air. And it rapidly became clear that Annie would become tired before the rest of us, and so I just tracked her energy as we flew. Well, Ari was usually doing that too. Ari is such a smart girl... Cold weather put a stop to our flying though. Winter is just hard for Pegasi who love to fly...

Well, Ari already knew we were an affectionate family. Ari, Shysage and I, we hugged a lot, and cried softly together a lot. As a family, our mutual love and devotion was out in the open, and that didn't change. We just added Annie to our family, and she clearly didn't mind. I spoke with Shysage quietly at one point. He suggested we wait and let Annie tell us about her family; he felt we should let Annie decide when she talked about that subject, and how much.

Well, Annie didn't mention much. But even from little comments and statements we occasionally heard, it was clear that, to Annie, life in the pony capitol (uncreatively named Coptol) was just hard. We could read in between the lines... Pony tribes that were outwardly one, but each tribe continued to fight subtly for their own agenda. We guessed the tension in the air in that city was probably felt by everypony. And we could have guessed how that tension rippled down into the individual pony families. And if we add marauding Cougars to the mix... Well, it would not have been fun, and Annie's attitude towards Coptol seemed to reflect that.

Annie seemed starved for the love and affection that Ari, Shysage and I shared on a daily basis. We quickly folded her into our loving arms. She evidently needed that; as we hugged together, Annie often cried more than we did. Even Ari quietly thanked us one evening after Annie was asleep. Maybe Ari was realizing that the love we shared as a family was rare and precious. Well, we certainly felt that way. Both Shysage and I knew that families in both our worlds generally were far more difficult. And it was clear true friendship, putting each other first, that had transformed our family. And we joyfully shared that with Annie without explaining why. Shysage and I, we loved our Ariel Dawn. Annie was here; we loved her too. And Ari was getting an object lesson about sharing true friendship. While a lot more busy usually, our days together with both Ari and Annie were amazing. And Ari and Annie were quickly best of friends.

...

Ari and Annie talked together a LOT, girls just do that. Annie was clearly such a sweet spirited mare so we didn't really worry about that. It rapidly became clear that both girls were having a profoundly positive effect on each other. As a result, Shysage and I, we didn't try to keep tabs on every conversation they had. I had to laugh as I wrote that; these two mares talked together almost constantly. Cel and Lu did the same thing. My sister and I did the same thing. Uhm, I gotta stop that thought...

And I think Ari especially probably felt that mom and dad needed some time together and alone. I think she was right, but we all enjoyed each day together. Still, Ari suggested we move the pantry to the floor at the back of the cave, and make the raised area where the pantry was, that would be Ari and Annie's room. Cel and Lu had asked for their own domains too so we didn't think too much about it. Still growing mares, the girls slept more than Shysage and I anyway.

Rain had forced us all into our cave early on one cool evening, and that was fine. Ari and Annie were in their room, talking quietly like they always did. Shysage and I were on our bellies next to each other and both our heads were together over my front legs. Shysage was napping. I overheard the girls...

Annie spoke slowly, answering a question from Ari, I think.

"No, I don't ever want to go back to Coptol... I have never seen a Mare and a Stallion that love each other so much... And they love you... and me... Your whole family is so nice, I don't ever want to leave you..." Annie said this much, and towards the end she was speaking even slower, and her words just sort of trailed off.

It was quiet less than a minute, then Annie mentioned faintly "Unless..."

Ari knew that Annie was thinking about something. Ari said quietly "Friend?"

Annie sighed, then said quickly and calmly back "Oh Ari, friend..." and they hugged briefly I think. Still, it was clear Ari wanted to know what Annie was thinking about before. These girls seldom kept secrets. And mentioning the word friend was Ari asking.

Annie was quiet briefly, then she haltingly said this. "Well, its just that... Well, if I was the Mare, well... Then I would have to go back..." Annie said this slowly and it came out very disjointed, like Annie was at a loss for words.

Ari queried right away "the Mare?"

Annie quickly responded "You don't know about the Mare?" She paused briefly, then said a little more quietly "Oh thats right, you've never been to Coptol."

Pausing briefly, Annie quietly said this. "Every mare in Coptol dreams... We all hope that we might be... The Mare will foal the two app..." Annie ended up speaking slowly, with the most dreamy voice, then she stopped abruptly right there. Then Annie laughed loudly. "Oh Ari, that will never be me... I am about as ordinary as they come..."

The Fluttershy sensitivity in Ari was not about to let this go. She said quietly "Hey... Annie, you are amazing... And I don't ever want to leave you either..." They both hugged again, and cried together a few minutes.

Annie said softly "Ari, I feel so honored to be a part of your family. It is so... different... You all actually love each other, I can tell. And you all love me... I don't understand that. But, well, I don't want to lose that..." Annie was crying again. They hugged some more I think. That's what Ari always did when Annie cried.

A few minutes later, Ari quietly said this. "Annie, I don't think we will be going anywhere in the near future, and I know you are welcome to stay with us as long as you want." It was clear she had put some thought into the exact wording, and I appreciated that. Still, our Ari said what Shysage and I both felt. Annie could stay with us as long as she wanted. Annie cried over this for a while.

...

Honestly though, our time together, the four of us, it was amazing. There were, could be no by the moonlight nights, but that had to stop anyway, because it was just too cold. Years ago, rubbing noses, hugging each other, and being right next to each other, that had been easily enough. Well, that seemed the case now too. We couldn't really do anything more, but we really didn't need to. I think we both still missed my sister, our Princess and the rest. But, like I said, I think we were both working on enjoying Ari, Annie, and each other, right here and now. And Shysage quietly confirmed what I suspected, we were both talking to true friend a lot more now. Even though we expected spending years with Annie because she had no intention of leaving us, we were still entrusted with two young mares that we loved dearly. And it seemed like, to me anyway, that each new day pulled our past in 'our present' just a little further away. But Shysage and I agreed, we would see this through. Wherever, whenever, we would take care of our Ari, and help Annie any way we could. Like I mentioned before; the cooler weather found us in our cave more and more, but I don't think any of us minded. I certainly didn't; that meant more time with my amazing Stallion. Just being next to Shysage, feeling him near me, that was amazing to me. And Ari and Annie could always find stuff to talk about -- for hours.

Shysage needed to be a people in order to build a new door for our cave. He did this by breaking branches off nearby trees, and leaning them up against the exposed side of our cave. The branches broke the wind, and dimmed the light some. Late that fall, and over the course of maybe five days, he got up before the girls did, turned into a people, and took care of this. It was my job to keep Ari and Annie inside until he came back as a pony. I didn't like him being away, but I could hear him. He was close, and that was enough. We didn't expect any Cougars this late in the year.

Also late that fall, It sounded like Ari and Annie came to terms with something that had come up at least a few times. Annie would not forget the strange being that had quickly killed the nine Cougars that would have certainly killed Annie if she landed. And Annie knew that being was me. I overheard a few of the times they talked about this, and Ari could usually deflect the question in one way or another. I guess Annie wanted to know though. Ari answered with just one word, pronounced "n-tel" in old pony, probably a forging together of the two words no and tell. It meant secret. Trying hard not to cry, Ari explained to Annie that there were aspects about her mom that had to be kept secret (n-tel). The girls hugged and cried together briefly, but Annie knew that Ari would never intentionally lie to her. But Ari explained that she couldn't explain, and that was evidently enough for Annie. I don't think the subject came up again. Well, I did overhear Annie mention to Ari a few times that she felt safer with her mom (me) around. I guess...

The girls did talk a lot together about Cutie Marks. Neither mare had their mark yet, and that is (usually) just an amazing threshold that ponies go through as they grow up. It was clear both mares were insanely creative. Some of the marks and abilities they came up with, I had to work really hard to not laugh, even though Ari and Annie laughed a lot about this! Ari had no clue what her mark would be. Ari felt it was too early for her; she was just a yearling after all (well, a year and a half old). Annie was clearly old enough to get her mark, which was very exciting to both girls. Annie just had no idea what she could do that was, well, above normal. Annie thought of herself as a painfully normal mare. Of course, Ari didn't let her get away with that. And Annie correctly guessed that Shysage and my Cutie Marks were n-tel.

Late one fall afternoon, we were all huddled in our cave. Our new door wasn't quite done yet, and it was a pretty cool day. We were all trying to keep each other warm. The wind was blowing from the east, making warmth difficult for us. It wasn't freezing, but it wasn't quite comfortable either. It was quiet for a little while, one of those rare occasions where Ari and Annie were silent.

Annie spoke quietly and slowly. "Shysage, Summer, thank you for welcoming me into your family... And Ari..." Annie had to stop there, and the girls hugged and cried together a little while.

Shysage answered for us both. "Annie, you are such a sweet mare. And we will do anything we can to help you, just let us know."

Annie and Ari cried together a little while, then it was quiet again. Annie said quietly, to nopony in particular "I wonder if there's a Cutie Mark for that..."

...

Last winter, we had spent a lot of time teaching Ari how to write, modern equestrian of course. Shysage had cobbled together a clip thing that allowed Ari to attach a feather to one of her front hooves. Berries and water made ink, and pieces of those broad leaf plants served as paper. Even though that clip thing was very tempermental and fell off a lot, Ari was patient, and made a lot of progress a year ago now.

But this winter... The first freezing cold winter day that we were confined to our cave, Ari asked about teaching Annie how to write. Ari reminded us that she needed more practice too. And for the record, Ari had quickly hidden our Canterlot Recording pages, my Equestria Girls world shoes, and the clip, some feathers, and a bunch of berries when we realized Annie would be staying in the cave with us. Ari hid them in a small recess, and piled a bunch of rocks... I was glad she thought of that little detail because Shysage and I had started that day pulled in so many directions. Ari thought ahead, and did what needed to be done. She is a lot like Shysage in that regard.

But Ari asked about teaching Annie to write, and Ari herself could practice too. Annie absolutely loved the idea. She said only Unicorns in Coptol could write. Shysage thought a few minutes. We loved Annie to death, but we didn't feel any great destiny awaited her, even though it would seem rude to even suggest such a thing out loud. Annie was amazing at being normal, and so sweet about it. The pony nation would always need more ponies like that! Shysage saw no harm in this exercise. Of course the lessons would be in old pony now, and Annie would need to help us get the letters right; Annie could read a little already. We guessed that, as rough as life was in Coptol, reading wasn't too high a priority, for anypony...

Shysage pulled out a blank piece of leaf paper, and made some ink. The girls spent that entire first day working carefully on the old pony alphabet. And the clip thing fit Annie very well, and fell off only twice. We could say that such an exercise kept these two growing mares busy for hours; both enjoyed themselves immensely. But Shysage listened carefully too, and also insisted that the girls write everything down. For the historian in Shysage, this was an amazing opportunity.

It didn't take long until we were confined to our cave most days because of the cold. And we had no pony coats. Well, we always made our way briefly down to the pond for a drink every day, even if we were freezing. We quickly ran back to our cave when we were done.

But it also didn't take long until both girls were very good at writing and reading old pony. After a week, the alphabet, then short words. Annie was still teaching the rest of us new words in old pony. Both girls quickly began writing sentences, and came up with the most bazaar... We all spent a lot of time laughing.

And Shysage taught them about poetry some too.

If I could fly from east to west in search of loving beauty,
I'd never find another near, the mare that now comes too me.
An angel's eyes, the sweetest smile, her voice I long to hear.
A friend so true, my lover too,

Of course, I cried as Shysage worked on putting together another variation of a poem he originally started while we raised Cel and Lu, also here in the past. But Shysage only got this far, then he had to stop because he was crying too, and we hugged tightly. We have been through so much together... Words quickly fail at trying to describe the mutual devotion we share.

Annie cried too, then explained that most of the stallions in Coptol didn't make much time for true love (Annie's words). I wondered silently if maybe they couldn't... Annie said she was still hoping to find a stallion like Shysage, which made Shysage blush. I didn't say anything, but I am pretty sure my Stallion is easily one in maybe a million... Well, I cried again because I still don't fully understand how I had even found him.

One warmish morning in the middle of the winter, Shysage quietly replenished our supply of berries and broad leaves for paper. Well, he had to, Annie and Ari needed more... I wasn't happy because he had to go alone. He came back frozen just about, but at least he was safe. And I got to work on warming him back up. But the girls made amazing progress together on reading and writing that winter, and had a blast together doing that. Ari and Annie were probably the only Pegasus mares in the realm right now that could write...

...

One day late that winter, it snowed all day, constantly, slowly, gently. It wasn't windy at all, the snow just kept coming down. By the end of the day, as it started to get dark in our cave, Shysage said it looked like maybe three inches of snow on the ground. He said it was a wet snow, and he didn't expect it to last very long tomorrow. But we all decided to brave the cold, go get a drink, and head back in for the night.

We headed out slowly, and made our way to the pond. It was cold, but not windy at all. And the blanket of snow... It looked very pretty, and the woods were so quiet... Well, it took a little while for Shysage to knock a hole in the ice so we could get a drink from the pond. In the time it took for us to all get some water, the sun had gone down, and a three quarter moon was rising rapidly. It never really got dark.

On our way back, I asked Shysage about a brief stay at the rock. There is a slab of rock that is right at ground level. We had ventured out there on a few other nights. And with the snow tonight... We knew there would be no snow on it, and we were right. The flat surface of the rock was completely dry, and vaguely warm. We all sat down, and just took in the view across the woods, covered gently with a blanket of white. There were no leaves on most trees, so the moonlight beamed down, and the woods looked almost surreal, but were still very beautiful. We were all soon hugging together, and weeping softly. And I think we managed to keep each other just a little warm that way too. We stayed out on that rock for a while that night.

But, at one point, I said what was on my heart. "Shysage, Ari, Annie, I love you all so very much. I honestly look forward to the coming year and our time together..."

Well, we were all crying softly together already. But I had to add this. "And Annie, know that we will do anything we can to help you..." Annie was right next to me, and she hugged me tightly.

I really wanted to add the words "No matter what we need to do" but I didn't. But that is what true friendship is all about. A true friend is a friend in need... We would help Annie any way we could, no matter what the cost, just like true friend does for us, and just like true friend expects us to do for others. Nopony on this rock had any idea what the coming year would bring, but I spoke for our family. We would all help Annie any way we could, no matter what. That is true friendship.

Still, after crying together a while with my family, I realized... I could probably do this. Even if we had to wait years here... even with Annie... After we found it anyway, the Portal would probably take us back within hours, maybe even minutes of when we left our present. The hardship of being gone, separated from Sis and everypony else, that would be our hardship alone. But we could do that. We were true friends. Everything would work out.

For the first time in I don't know how long, I sighed. It was the sigh of me relaxing and enjoying the here and now. Besides, when spring came, we would be flying again, the four of us together. Pegasus fun for a Pegasus family. That would be amazing. And with summer coming, and warm, maybe Shysage and I could sneak away a time or two for some moonlight...

I ever so slightly hugged Shysage just a little tighter. Then I smiled.

Chapter 17, Change of Plans

The first warmish day the next spring, we were in the air. We laughed and said we were doing Cougar patrol, but we were just four Pegasi that were tired of being stuck in our cave. We took to the sky where we belong. We couldn't stay up for hours, but we all alternately laughed and cried the whole time. And after flying until we were too tired to fly, we landed at our trees and ate new oats and drank enough water for the first time in months. Of course, we all stayed together. We were a family now, and I didn't think anything could change that. We had thoroughly enjoyed our winter together, and the new year held so much promise for this Pegasus family simply enjoying life together. I could hardly wait.

That first warmish day turned into a week maybe. We flew every morning looking for Cougars, and enjoying flying too. We were quickly regaining our stamina, and we could all stay up for over two hours, and that was only after five days. And we still alternately laughed and cried. We spent the afternoon eating and drinking our fill, and then relaxing together in the amazing warmth of direct sunlight. It was still cold at night, so we spent nights in our cave. Shysage and I weren't really sure how to address that, but we both felt we would spend nights in the cave permanently if Annie preferred it. She was the one chased from Coptol by a band of Cougars hoping to kill her when she landed. We would let her decide.

Our Ariel was maybe two years old now, and we guessed Annie was two and a half years old. It seemed like, over the short six months we had Annie with us, she had, well matured substantially. So did our Ari. Shysage mentioned quietly to me that it would be interesting which of our girls would get their Cutie Mark first. The girls clearly realized this, and talked about it a lot. That was just an exciting prospect for each of them.

I awoke the next morning to what sounded like Annie quietly crying. Shysage and Ari were still asleep.

"Annie, what's the matter..." I said this quietly, lovingly. I loved Annie as my own.

Annie got quietly up, and moved over next to me, and I sat up too. We were quickly hugging, crying softly together. Annie just kept crying quietly. After minutes, she said softly "Summer, I have to go back..." Then she just cried for a while more.

Ari woke up next, and quickly joined us as the light of the sun filtered through greening trees from the east. We hugged and cried a minute maybe, then Shysage joined us too. This was our family, and we would rather cry together.

Annie must have sensed this, so she said again "...I have to go back..."

Ari started crying pretty hard. "Annie, please... Why can't you stay? We all love you so much..."

Annie pulled away, and hugged just Ari, tightly, and they cried loudly together.

When Annie turned to hug Ari, Shysage gasped quietly.

"Summer..." he said calmly.

It was only when I moved over to where he was that I noticed...

Annie had her Cutie Mark now...

I gasped too. I didn't, couldn't say anything, but Annie's Cutie Mark was exactly half of Princess Celestia's (Cel's) Cutie Mark, a blazing yellow sun. It contrasted with Annie's greening coat wildly, and a wavy line ran top to bottom to mark the boundary where the other half of Princess Celestia's Cutie Mark would have been. Annie's mark was half of Princess Celestia's mark... I was stunned...

Ari hadn't noticed the mark. But Annie clearly felt terrible, and tried hard to explain. The disconnected way her words came out... Annie was reeling inside...

"Ariel, oh, Ariel...

"I need to, have to... go...

"Ari, I'm the... Ariel, I'm... ...the Mare... I just can't help... Oh, Ariel...

"I never want to leave... You... Your family...

"I... I don't... want... I don't want to lose... this... lose you...

"...But we have to go... Back... to..."

Annie cried really hard, and only said one more word...

"Coptol..."

We all cried together for a while...

Chapter 18, Remembering the Future

Leaving Annie and Ari crying, Shysage quietly got up, and walked out of the cave, and down the slight slope to ground level. I followed him, of course. The background music changed immediately. I cringed because I recognized the tune(1). It wasn't loud, but it was very disconcerting. Once I was at his side, Shysage talked quietly, and broke our rule and spoke in modern equestrian...

"Summer, remember that we can't stop the chain of events --"

Ari and Annie came out at that point, still crying, and Shysage stopped talking abruptly. Well, I wasn't sure what he was referring too, but any trip to Coptol seemed fraught with peril right now. It would be so easy to slip up, change the future, and we would just disappear. And it was clear now that Coptol, the main city of the pony tribes, that would be our next destination.

Shysage and I were quickly weeping softly with our girls... Still, Shysage asked Annie quietly, back in old pony, of course...

"Annie, how soon do you want to leave?"

Annie didn't even stop to think. "As soon as possible" she said slowly through her tears, then she hugged Ari again and they both started crying some more.

Ari, crying, managed to ask Shysage "Dad, we are going with her, right?"

Shysage and I both joined their hug. I answered for Shysage. "Ari, of course we are."

I thought a minute, then, through tears myself, quietly said this. "Annie, we said we would help you, whatever you needed. We will accompany you to Coptol, and stay as long as we can help." I was pretty sure Shysage agreed. He just couldn't talk right now.

We cried together for a little while, then Shysage said we should go eat and drink before we left for Coptol. It was pretty cool in the woods, but the direct sunlight in the meadow felt very good. We didn't bother with Cougar patrol. We all stayed close together, ate and drank well, then we were up in the air heading for Coptol.

I led our flight. The natural cloudbank that would become Cloudsdale was my first landmark in the sky, as we made our way to Coptol. This small city, which was the pony capitol right now, was in the valley in front of the strange stepped mountain that would one day become Canterlot. The meadows on that mountain were vacant, but we kept an eye out for that mountain as our next landmark. Shysage and I, we both knew this trip well...

The trip would take an hour maybe, on a good day. The sunlight on our backs felt amazing, but up higher where we were flying, the air was pretty cool. It was early spring maybe, after all. There was little wind, but we were still cold. This trip was not fun. We stopped for a rest and a snack at the halfway point maybe, then we had to wait as something Shysage called a front blew through. Well, it was colder after that, and we would be flying into a gentle but cooler breeze. This trip was even more not fun. We had that stepped mountain easily in view, but we actually stopped again because we had too. We found a spot that was in the sun, but shielded from the breeze, and tried to warm back up. We were close, anyway.

The last half hour in the air was agony as we slowly made our way to Coptol. It hurt to fly very fast. We knew we were near when we found that huge sequoia, the tree in whose base we actually raised Cel and Lu... Wait, well it was past for us, but future from this point yet. Remembering the future... It is confusing... We actually landed at the broad road leading to the main gate of Coptol, and found some direct sunlight and tried to warm up. Annie was pretty agitated, and constantly looking at ponies coming and going on that main road. I realized she was looking for her family. That made sense. This city was her home before Cougars ran her off, hoping for dinner maybe. And, I noted that most ponies passing on that road were wearing coats...

We were barely warming up when Annie wanted to head into the city. We were helping her, so we let her call the shots. And Shysage and I gasped... There was no main gate. There was no wall even. There was just a typical low fence all the way around the outskirts of the city. The main gate was a gap in that fence... We could easily have jumped over the fence. I was sure that Cougars could as well... Still, Coptol looked less built up than I remember; there seemed to be fewer homes and more meadow, I don't know...

As we walked through Coptol, I did see King Thars' hall at the far end of the broad road through the middle of the city. And we saw quite a few armed guards too, but they ignored, well, everypony. That was of no concern to us right now, as far as I could tell. The normal ponies we passed basically ignored us too, although many probably wondered why we had no coats. It was pretty cold right now.

Still, it was clear Annie was looking for somepony, or maybe waiting for somepony. We probably wandered Coptol for maybe an hour, spending as much time in the sunlight as we could. Ponies ignored us, but Shysage and I both listened carefully to the bits of conversation as we passed. It seems Cougar attacks were a frequent theme. But so were hushed slander of other pony tribes. Then I realized... Only other Pegasi were smiling at us as we passed...

It was maybe the middle of the afternoon, and cold. Annie was weeping softly.

Out of nowhere, we heard...

"Arkanna, where yo be--"

The voice got this far, then we heard a number of ponies scream. We quickly saw why, as many Cougars streaked down the main road in Coptol. And they all had that grisly shoulder sack we had seen... The Cougars quickly scattered, and the screaming grew very loud, scattered all over town. As many ponies as could, ran quickly indoors. Just about all the guards quickly disappeared.

Cougars... Bah... Well, I knew what to do...

"Shysage, get the girls up in the air." I was sure the three of them were tired and cold, but that was quickly done. I reared back on my hind legs, turned into a people, then spun up my Cutie Mark. Changing the future or no, ponies were in danger. I just couldn't ignore that. I didn't know if that was right or not...

But I was quickly in the air too. Almost as quickly, I found maybe five Cougars parked together in a field, talking maybe, although I don't know how that would sound. It didn't matter. And they were ignoring me. I dropped down, and waved my right hand, swatting them brutally into the ground, also sending up a cloud of dust. One or two of those Cougars were crying out in pain. Well, they probably had so many broken bones... It didn't matter, and I didn't have time. With my left hand, I poured enough fire on them so they were burning brightly, and flew off in search of more.

None of the Cougars had attacked anypony yet. They were just running around, terrifying everypony. I thought maybe they were looking for somepony, I don't know. I found three more Cougars, then quickly killed them -- slap into the ground, then a huge rock to the skull.

I had to kill the rest of the Cougars by stomping, bringing the element down from above. They were too close to other ponies, so I couldn't do anything from the air. I landed, and ran around to find them. After maybe fifteen minutes, I had killed four more Cougars, two of whom were clearly hungry, and had cornered some poor pony, and were closing in for the kill. The Cougars never knew what hit them. I also watched another Pegasus, who evidently had watched me. He flew to the river, grabbed as big a rock as he could carry, flew back over Coptol, and made that rock count. And a huge Earth pony actually kicked one of the Cougars. Aside from the Cougar's body doing a back flip from the impact, there wasn't much left of that Cougar's head.

Fourteen Cougars... In maybe fifteen minutes, they were all dead...

As I stood near to the last Cougar I had killed, the townsponies began to gather. And, now that the Cougars were dead, the guards magically reappeared, and checked to make sure that all the Cougars were dead. But before I even knew what was happening, a considerable crowd had gathered around me. Well, I was a people, and the Phantom Alicorn, no less. Realizing the attention I was getting, I unspun my Cutie Mark, and changed back into pony. I guess that was not quite the way to blend in, but I didn't know what else to do. I guess, if I was thinking, I would have changed into a blue pony at least, but I was white and gold... with my Cutie Mark... I don't know... I just put my head down, as the townsponies gathered around me, whispering. Shysage, Ari and Annie landed nearby, and quickly joined me. Ponies just kept their distance, and whispered...

Annie's dad soon found us too, well he found Annie. He said again "Arkanna, where yo been?"

They were quickly hugging and crying. And Arkanna must have been Annie's proper name, I don't know... Annie said quietly "Daddy, I need to talk to you.

Annie's dad was more mesmerized by the feats of the Phantom Alicorn as his pony friends were describing it; he was soon called away, and into a hushed conversation.

Annie tried again. "Daddy, please... I really need to talk to you..." Annie was crying now...

"Arkanna, just a minute" came the reply. It looked like Annie's dad was slowly backing away from us. I am not sure why.

Annie was crying pretty loud. "Daddy, I need to talk to you" she yelled.

Annie's dad responded by waving Annie over to his side. But Annie could no longer control herself. Crying loudly, she yelled, also loudly...

"DADDY, I'M THE MARE..."

That short sentence echoed loudly throughout Coptol... Annie said this, then cried loudly, as Ari, Shysage and I moved in, and hugged her tightly. She would have otherwise been crying alone.

The second that Annie finished yelling what she did, it became deathly quiet in the crowds of townsponies, in Coptol. Ponies began running to join the crowds from all over town.

This was evidently an amazing admission. It seemed like everything in Coptol came to a screeching halt at the hearing of those four simple words. It was almost like everypony was expecting... The Cougars were forgotten... The Phantom Alicorn was forgotten, not that I minded...

Annie ran to her dad and cried... Well, they cried together. Her dad, looking very uncomfortable, and maybe even embarassed, said, only once... "Are you sure Arkanna?"

Annie just cried. Well, with half of Princess Celestia's Cutie Mark, something had to be up, not that I could say anything about that...

The crowd quickly reformed -- around Annie and her dad. People were looking at her Cutie Mark, and whispering again. Some were weeping softly. For minutes, time just stood still...

"What's this I hear..."

The voice came out loudly from far behind the crowd. And the music in the background was no longer quiet...

I cringed immediately. I recognized... I was sure Shysage did too... Well, the townsponies clearly recognized the voice too... Many gasped, as a path was quickly made, and just about everypony bowed... We sure didn't...

One pony said out loud what Shysage and I already knew...

"Lord Melvain!"

He walked slowly and calmly down the path opened through the crowd for him. He seemed to enjoy the adoration... He walked slowly up to Annie and her dad; they stopped crying, bowed, and seemed to wilt under his glare.

He examined Annie's Cutie Mark briefly. Then with as much of an air of superiority as he could muster, he looked at the sun, now heading towards the treeline in the west...

"Young lady, I am sure you know the prophecy..."

Then he repeated it, with the same arrogant air, along with almost a sense of mocking in his voice... And this was one of the leaders of the pony tribes?

Brightly Sun to yield the day

In all this you will see

Moon aglow the soft of night

with both marks you will be

The he looked down at Annie with just a hint of disdain. Maybe a little more than just a hint...

"Young lady, have you seen your Cutie Mark at night?"

Quietly, at first, then with a growing hint of defiance, Annie replied...

"Yes... After the sun goes down, my Cutie Mark is a dark color, and shows up in the other half of the circle..."

This hot air bag pronounced after some thought...

"Very well, it will be dark soon, and we will see. If it is as you say, then King Thars... But if you are lying young lady, you will probably spend the night in jail..."

...

I had heard enough... Our whole family deeply loved Annie, and to watch her be treated like this, and by this horrible Unicorn...

But that wasn't the real issue. I was absolutely livid... I was so angry... Enraged... This terrible excuse of a pony would end up as Dark Melvain. And beyond that pain and anquish he had personally caused Shysage and I... and Cel and Lu, Equestria's Princesses... This foul pony would end up killing probably hundreds of Equestria's own ponies... maybe thousands...

Like I said, I was absolutely livid, and it didn't take long... If I stood there much longer, this Phantom Alicorn would turn his worthless corpse into a small pile of ashes...

But that certainly would change everything... We would disappear... Everything we had worked for... gone... We couldn't meddle with the Past... Shysage had tried to warn me about that earlier this morning...

Shysage also taught me that the best course of action when we are really, really angry... I had to leave... I absolutely had to get away from what was causing me so much anger... Nopony was paying attention to us anyway...

Shysage turned to leave at the same time I did, and probably for the same reason. Ari saw this, and ran through the crowd right up to Annie, and the two cried together and hugged briefly.

Annie said quietly "Ari, I know where to find you..." Well, whatever would happen with Annie, we would be back in our cave with our Ari. Annie was right, she would be able to visit.

Ari was soon back by our side, and we found our way to the main road, away from that disgusting... We walked away from everything, away from everypony else... away from Annie... We headed towards the opening in the fence that marked the entrance to Coptol. The music in the background didn't calm down...

It was dusk maybe. I don't think Shysage nor I had any idea where we were going. It was getting dark and colder... But we both knew, we just needed to get away... So we were walking...

Evidently Ari knew something was up; rather she probably felt our rage. She said quietly "I hope someday you can explain this to me..."

The three of us stopped immediately, and we hugged and cried for a few minutes together. I could only guess how unfair this all seemed to our dear Ari.

Shysage said quietly "We will, Ari... That is only right..."

Then the three of us walked out of Coptol, and down the main road leading away from town. We stopped on the main road next to that huge Sequoia. I was pretty sure Shysage was contemplating spending the night there, before we returned to our trees, our meadow, Ponyville before Ponyville.

I began remembering some of the amazing times we had spent in that house in a tree down by the river, as we raised Cel and Lu for two years. It was past for us, but years future from where, rather when we stood.

Then I realized that, for us to be in that very tree, when we would actually come here later with Cel and Lu, that would probably blow every fuse in Equestria (I've heard Shysage say that).

But with that exact thought, Equestria deep in the Past, everything around us began to fade...

I turned quickly around to see the look of horror on our Ariel's face as we began to disappear...

Then our Ari...

Everything faded away...

Author's Note

(1) The Serpentine Labyrinth, from the Forever Today add-on for the Original Soundtrack for the Seekers of Adoulin expansion for FFXI, c2014 by Square Enix. Haunting, dark journey music...

Chapter 20, Thankful for the Past

Honestly, I have a very hard time remembering exactly what happened the day we returned to our present without our daughter. We quickly ran inside Princess Twilight's Castle to the rug in front of the Portal and collapsed... Shysage and I, we were in so much bleeding pain over our Ari. I had to ask our friends about a lot of this. It was just excruciating...

I remember Fluttershy and Shyna were the first to join us. I am almost positive Sis felt our presence, or more likely, our pain, as soon as we returned to the present. Both hugged us and quickly joined our crying. And I think my sister quickly felt what had happened. She didn't know names or anything, but Fluttershy deeply felt our loss over our daughter... And when she could, Fluttershy managed to explain some of this to Princess Twilight. Our amazing Princess had already realized that we were not crying because of the mob of angry stallions, and that something far more painful had happened. Princess just didn't know what it was until Fluttershy tried to fill her in. And I guess that, at some point, Princess Twilight got a message off to Cel and Lu, well Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.

Maybe an hour later, and the rest of Princess' girls (Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rarity) along with Filia and Fiona, all of our amazing pony friends were crying with us, trying as best as they could to help us through a... another... ...terrible nightmare... In that respect, we were glad to be back. To have to face such a loss alone would have been far worse...

I think we all cried together the rest of the day. Honestly, I lost track of time. I hurt so bad time really didn't matter much to me. I couldn't see that ever changing. We had left our precious daughter buried far back in the Past...

At one point, Pinkie Pie did try to tell me it would all work out. Through gut-wrenching tears, all I could do was nod and cry on Pinkie's shoulder for a while. I appreciated the gesture though.

At another point that afternoon, I remember being literally surrounded by loving, caring mare friends. That really helped, and I love every one. But I noticed that Shysage was by himself, crying as hard as I was, still over on the rug. That seemed so tragically wrong to me. He hurt every bit as much as I did. Ariel was ours. This was our tragedy. I gently pulled myself away from whoever I was hugging, and made my way back to my Stallion. Shysage and I, we cried together, surrounded by amazing, caring friends, for the rest of that day.

...

It seemed like late in the day when Cel and Lu walked quickly into the library, both already crying. Our friends made a path for them, and our girls quickly joined us. I think they just as quickly felt our pain as we cried together hours more.

But through my agony, I also began to sense... There was more pain than just ours in this room... After crying with Cel and Lu for a while, Lu quietly said just these words, still crying softly herself.

"Sister, its ok now..."

After Lu said this, Cel (Princess Celestia) was clearly working on calming down. She had some things she evidently wanted, maybe needed to say. It was then that I realized Cel and Lu were carrying pain that evening too... Of course, I cared. But I had no idea what it was... And I guess, sensing their pain maybe helped Shysage and I both... Maybe it put ours in perspective; their pain was important to us too. We all worked on calming down as a result. And with each passing minute, it became clearer that Cel and Lu were both reeling inside...

Cel tried to start talking a number of times. Each time, she would try to speak, then collapse into tears again as we hugged. Well, as bad as I felt, I would have done the same thing. I doubted I could even talk right now.

She finally started getting some words out. Cel spoke very slowly, very disjointed, clearly having trouble placing words, crying, breathing haltingly the whole time.

"Mom... dad...

"I... The last time... When you came back from the... future...

"That was very hard, because you couldn't... You just couldn't tell us... anything... Well, not much...

"That night I couldn't sleep, so I just worked on trying...

"I was trying to remember... things from the... past...

"And I know... Centuries... So many memories... Forgotten...

"I know you were... in the future... But I just tried...

"For hours... I remembered... nothing...

"Just mom and dad... and that tree house...

"So many amazing mem...

"I was almost back asleep... Then I remembered...

"I remembered... Oh my goodness...

"I remembered...

"...Our... Foal-sitter... Lu and my... Foal-sitter..."

Cel stopped and cried for a while, and Lu did too. We had no idea why... The four of us just hugged and cried together more. Cel soon stopped again though, and tried to keep going. It was still clear this was very difficult for Cel, and for Lu too.

"Our... She was so amazing...

"Our Foal-sitter...

"When I remembered her, I... I remembered...

"Our mother... So different... She tried so hard to stay... To stay with our father, King... King Thars... That was so different...

"Mother told us... Often... Father needed her..."

Cel stopped and cried some, then continued.

"Mother loved us so much...

"She always left... us... with our amazing Foal... ...Foal-sitter...

"Our Foal-sitter was... ...amazing... ...too... Beautiful... So smart... Gentle... Patient... She hugged us both a lot... We needed that...

"Our world... ...so full of death... ...deceit... ...arguing ponies...

"With our Foal-sitter... Lu and I... so much love... amazing peace...

"I think I remember more... than Lu... Lu was younger...

"But... we both adored... Absolutely adored our Foal-sitter....

"She was our world... our peace..."

Cel tried to laugh while crying...

"Our Foal-sitter... She started calling us Cel and Lu... So much easier to say... Fast..."

Cel was quickly crying again, and kept crying...

"While life in Coptol... Boiled over... Cougars... Stubborn ponies...

"Our Foal-sitter kept... She was our peace, our haven...

"Until we were... Tak... Tak..."

Cel started crying again, and couldn't keep going.

It was clear Cel and Lu both loved their Foal-sitter, whoever she was, and I could easily envision the terrible thing that was life in Coptol. It was like the ponies were so preoccupied, fighting behind the scenes for their clan... They couldn't see the coming Cougar threat. Shysage and I, we both deeply loved Cel and Lu... I was so glad to learn... At least there was a loving heart for them, before the terrible... Before we rescued them...

Well, we both loved Cel and Lu and, even in our pain, we were glad, I think, to be able to cry with them through this memory... That's what we did... I think, thats all we could do...

Even after a while, Cel still couldn't talk...

Then Lu tried. She too, slowly spoke through tears...

"Sister reminded me about our... Foal-sitter the next morning...

"I remembered right away...

"We both hugged and cried together... Our Foal-sitter... ...really was amazing...

...

"But we both realized at the same time...

"Dad's mane and tail... Mom's pony coat... Both your loving heart...

"We both knew in our soul... She was clearly yours...

"And we had no idea how that would even work...

"You had no foal even... And in the Past...

...

"All I remember... Her name was Ari..."

...

Fluttershy quietly said "Oh, my goodness", then burst loudly into tears. She evidently felt her way into what had happened based on what Cel and Lu said...

Honestly I... I was in no condition to even think, and I had trouble grasping much of this...

Fluttershy, also crying herself, said quietly and calmly... I think she was trying to explain for everypony else. I listened to my sister...

"I... I think Shysage and Summer went back into the Past and had... a foal... a mare... But they had to leave her there in the Past when they came back to us... But their daughter became Princess Celestia and Princess Luna's Foal-sitter..."

...

It took a while for this to sink in... Shysage and I were reeling for the reason... ...what Fluttershy said about our daughter. But Cel and Lu's Foal-sitter? Our Ari did that?

I nudged Lu gently away just a bit, and looked into her eyes... It was clearly true... Of course Cel couldn't say anything about it before, even though she desparately wanted to... But now... The four of us burst into tears together, and cried loudly for a while...

It seemed that, in a crucial time in Cel and Lu's life, our Ariel Dawn had been their Foal-sitter... Our Ari had helped them through a nightmare... Evidently, our Ari had loved these two foals, until Shysage and I rescued them, and were able to take over...

I... That was so amazing... Shysage and I are committed to true friendship. If that was the role we played, having a daughter so our daughter could also love the foals that would one day become Equestria's Princesses... I couldn't speak for Shysage. But I would try to live with that... Since that was clearly what Cel and Lu needed... What Equestria required... We should be thankful for that, for the role our Ari could play...

Cel, Lu, Shysage and I, we cried together there for a while, surrounded by the rest of our loving family, Princess Twilight and all our friends... Shysage and I, well Cel and Lu too; we were all clearly calming down. What our Ari would go on and do to help Equestria's Princesses... We could do this...

Over the course of an hour or two, it seemed like we all slowly calmed down... After my crying stopped... I think I was the last one crying... This still would not be easy... But I tried to thank our amazing pony friends. I turned to face them and tried...

"I... Shysage and I... What Fluttershy said is what happened... Our Ari was so amazing... But when we had to come back... She didn't... It really helps though..." Well, I thought I was ready for this, but I guess I couldn't continue. I put my head down, and wept softly.

Fluttershy ran quickly up, hugged me (which felt so amazing), and we cried together... Shyna, Pinkie Pie (I thanked her for before), Filia, Rarity... I hugged and cried with everypony, and that took a while. Cel and Lu were still crying softly with dad (Shysage).

...

I heard Rarity scream loudly, and immediately opened my eyes and looked. Over Applejack's shoulder, I saw it... It was just a dull orange blob. It looked like the same orange as the Portal Beacon, but this was so different... This blob barely held any form for very long, and faded in and out repeatedly... And there was no sound... Briefly, we all just stared at it. It was quickly gone.

Shysage spoke first. "Summer..."

Cel didn't wait. She quickly stood to her full height, which put her looking down at me, and Equestria's Princess had the most stern look in her eyes... She loudly shouted just one word.

"GO..."

Everypony else in the room except Lu and Princess Twilight, immediately fell to the floor before their Princess... She was... uhm... determined... This was a royal decree if there ever was...

Bah, the Past... Again... I guess I hoped we wouldn't find Lord Melvain again, or I would really be tempted to... A present without our Ariel would make that a tough choice...

I changed into a people and stood up, then spun up my Cutie Mark (just in case, based on past experience...) Shysage was right behind me, and he quickly took my hand.

I glanced back at Cel, and her stern countenance had not changed. I grabbed the edge of the Portal and squeezed. Equestria present, well our present faded from view...

We quickly arrived whenever our destination was. The Portal would sort all that out. Shysage and I were both standing, facing the Portal, but neither of us recognized the small, dark room.

Again, out of caution, I started to say "Shysage, please stay a peop--"

I heard a pony cry... "Mom..." I would never forget my daughter's voice...

Ariel was maybe ten feet behind us, laying on the floor. Clearly older, she still was looking up at us with an almost childlike, helpless pleading in her eyes. She was crying buckets right away... We guessed she had been crying a while... We both stayed people, and were quickly on the floor next to her... Ariel's head was up in my lap, and we all cried together... I have never ever cried that hard... I had my little girl back...

I know for a fact that it took Shysage a while to get through to me, to Ariel and I... I wanted to ignore everypony, and just hold my precious Ariel... "Never again" I kept saying to myself... But I finally listened to my Stallion.

Shysage had already said a few times...

"Summer, take us back, quickly..."

I tried to stop crying. This was all I could say...

"Ariel, you are coming with us..."

Shysage had the presence of mind to explain to Ariel what she needed to do, what would happen. She walked over to the Portal with us as the pony she was, and Shysage bent down, kissed his pony girl on the forehead, and held one of her front legs. Ariel leaned up against Shysage's leg and cried softly. They were ready to go as soon as I had my Cutie Mark spun up.

Looking back at my Ariel, I squeezed the Portal. Equestria deep in the Past began to fade... Our Ariel didn't... She was coming too...

The Portal actually held the Phantom Alicorn briefly in the Past. Maybe this was a small, first charge, I don't know. But the Portal in our present soon came into view... I could tell when I saw the corner of Princess Twilight's Library around the edge of the wooden Portal frame.

Cel and Lu literally screamed Ari's name the moment they saw her. Ari spun around quickly, and the three of them were hugging tightly, crying loudly together... We heard a bunch of times from all three of them something like "I thought I'd never..." Still, it was clear there was a lot of devotion between our Ari and her two charges, now Equestria's Princesses... Their crowns didn't... Ari saw Cel and Lu. She loved both so deeply...

The three of them cried together for a while, but Shysage and I both knew this wouldn't last... The pain in our Ari's heart quickly became so great... Shysage and I had stayed people, and we sat down on the carpet right next to each other, hugging, watching, waiting... We were fighting back tears... Still crying, our Ariel Dawn... She closed her eyes, lifted her head high, pulled away from Cel and Lu... And almost without even looking, she found her way into Shysage and my Lap... She actually walked up into our laps, and lay down on her belly there and just cried. Shysage and I, we cried with her, and hugged her tightly. Ok, so now, I have never cried so hard... I don't think Ariel or Shysage, either...

I don't know how... But we had our Ariel Dawn back...

Again, everything around us just melted away... All we could do was cry with our Ariel... She was ours... She was here...

I managed to only say one thing to our Ariel...

"Ari, welcome home..."

This made all of us cry harder. The three of us cried there together for a long time...

Cel and Lu were soon laying on their bellies, facing us, facing Ari; they cried with us. The rest of our amazing friends spread out around us and cried with us too. This was our family. We were all home and safe.

And Pinkie Pie was right.

Chapter 21, Ariel's Story

I don't quite understand how, but we were able to rescue our Ariel Dawn and bring her forward in time over a thousand years, back into our present. Well, I guess the Portal did that, I'm just not sure why. Ari, Shysage and I, we cried together, hugging our Ariel tightly, for hours. Our precious friends, now crowded around us, they began to nod off. A few at a time, they would get up, move to a less crowded spot on the floor there in the Library, and try to catch some sleep. I couldn't blame them, it was probably the middle of the night for them. It seemed like, almost in unison, Ari, Shysage and I toned our crying down to quiet weeping so our friends could get at least a few hours of sleep.

I wasn't tired. I could hug our daughter for hours, and still not be done crying. I think Shysage felt the same way, and I'm sure Ari did as well. We cried quietly for hours more. Shysage and I were both people, and Ari was laying across both our laps. Hugging my daughter... Being able to hug my daughter again, I was sure we had lost that... I was sure we had lost her... Not much else mattered. Ari tried to talk a few times during those hours. She usually got out maybe the words "Mom..." or "Dad..." but she could not say much else, and was quickly crying softly again. Well, she managed to say just once "I missed you" I think. I didn't even try to talk. Holding my daughter felt so amazing... And it didn't take me long to catch the amazing tune flowing softly in the background(1).

Hours later, it must have been morning in Ponyville. I could tell because Spike poked his head around the corner of the Library door to check on us. And if Spike was awake...

Spike alarmed Ariel, but he was quickly gone. Ari stayed quiet, and just rested, still in Shysage and my lap. Ari sighed deeply, a few times. I realized she needed this as much as we did. Honestly, I didn't mind. Almost whispering, Ari asked us, in ragged modern equestrian surely mixed with old pony "Mum, dad, where did yo..." Ari stopped there because she couldn't come up with the word she needed in order to finish the sentence... She thought a minute, then said the word in old pony, which sounded like "gon" or something.

Shysage realized right away, and said quietly "Summer, Ari has been immersed in old pony for years now..." Of course Shysage had already thought this through. And I realized, our Ariel was clearly years older than the two or so years old she was when we left her.

Next to a sleeping Fluttershy, Equestria pony Shyna spoke up, quietly. She translated Ari's complete question back into old pony, with the same word at the end, then asked Ari in old pony if this is what she wanted to ask. Ari just nodded to Equestria pony Shyna and wept softly.

Shyna got carefully up, and climbed over onto the rug next to us, laid back on her belly and said quietly, in modern equestrian "She wants to know where you both went." Then I realized that Shyna had also been pulled here into the future from far back in the Past. She too knew old pony very well.

Well, I started crying again, hugged Ari, and she started crying again too. Us having to leave her, that was still a fresh nightmare for me...

I guess, Shysage had already thought ahead... "Shyna, please ask Ari how much of modern equestrian, what we are speaking now, does she remember."

Ari looked at Shyna as Shyna asked her this question, in all old pony this time. Ariel put her head down on her front legs in my lap, and answered in old pony.

Shyna listened, then replied quietly, to us, in modern equestrian "not much..."

It was quiet for a minute maybe, then Shyna said something quietly, in old pony this time, to Ari.

Ari lept up from our laps, then hugged Shyna. Well, Shyna sat up and they hugged. Ari said what I think was the word for "thanks" in old pony to Shyna, and Shyna responded, also in old pony. I didn't recognize the phrase.

Shysage and I, we learned some old pony from Annie over a six month period, well, over the last six months. Our Ari had been speaking old pony for years now, it looked like, and she remembered very little of the modern equestrian that we spoke as a family for maybe the first year of Ari's life, before Annie joined us.

Shyna said softly in modern equestrian "I told Ari I would help her with talking to everypony."

And it was only then I realized that, in a lot of ways, our Ariel would be learning modern equestrian, again, from scratch. Ari, Shysage and I, we could probably communicate tolerably well in old pony, but Ari really needed to learn modern equestrian, and Shyna was voluntering to help with that. I changed quickly back into a pony, and hugged Shyna too. And by now, Fluttershy was sitting next to Shyna (I hadn't noticed before), and the four of us hugged together a few minutes.

Trying hard to not cry, I introduced our Ariel Dawn to both Fluttershy and Shyna. I didn't do very good at not crying. But it seemed that Ari remembered a lot about my sister Fluttershy, and we all wept softly together for a little while.

Maybe ten minutes later, the four of us (Fluttershy, Equestria pony Shyna, Ari and I) we were all laying on our bellies in a tight circle facing each other. Ari was clearly trying not to cry, and she said something in old pony to Shyna. Shyna teared up, but said in modern equestrian "Ariel wants to know where you both went when you left her..."

I looked at Shysage, trying to not cry myself, and was about to say something.

I guess most everypony was awake now, and listening. I noticed Equestria's three Princesses (Cel, Lu and Princess Twilight) speaking together briefly.

Then Cel (Princess Celestia) spoke up, and of course we all listened. "Mom and dad, I think we would all really like to hear Ari's story, maybe the short version. Can we all get some food, then come back in here for that?"

Shyna translated Cel's words into old pony for Ari, who just put her head down.

Well, as long as I didn't have to leave Ari's side... My brain was mush otherwise. Ari hugged Cel and Lu briefly, then we all got some food. Shysage and I had only been gone from our present for minutes maybe, and it was still the dead of winter here, so the food in the Castle eating area would have to do. Of course it was very good. And our Ari ate a lot, surprising nopony.

A little later, we were all walking back into the Library. I think Shysage realized this needed to be said. We had all just arrived in the Library, and Shysage quietly asked Shyna to explain to our Ariel that Cel and Lu, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were the two rulers of all Equestria. She may have guessed this, but still. I don't know if Shysage anticipated this, but everypony else bowed to Equestria's Princesses soon after he finished saying this. Wanting to give honor where honor was due, Shysage and I bowed too, even though we really didn't have to.

Shyna, as she bowed, explained quietly to Ari what was going on. Ari was still standing. I could have guessed what would happen next. Ari didn't, couldn't bow. Instead, she walked carefully through bowing ponies, and quickly hugged Cel, crying. Lu quickly joined them and they cried together briefly.

Ari still felt awkward, I think. Cel and Lu both had their crowns on, and Cel especially was quite a bit bigger than Ari. Of course, Cel and Lu both looked like princesses. Ari tried to back away and bow too, just like everypony else. Cel and Lu both quickly pulled her back up and they cried a little while more.

Cel tried to stop crying, and said to everypony else "Precious friends please arise..." Then she looked at Ari and said quietly "I think our Foal-sitter..." I suspect Cel planned on saying more, but she was clearly having problems even talking now. Cel said, just once, "Oh, Ari..." and the three of them just hugged and cried softly a little while more.

Nopony was in a hurry right now. A while later, we were all back out in the Library. Ari and I were next to each other on the rug in front of the Portal. Equestria pony Shyna was on Ari's other side; Shyna had already agreed she would be Ari's translator. Princess Twilight and our precious friends spread out around us.

I think Shysage was with Cel and Lu. I didn't like that. And I knew something needed to happen anyway before our Ari told her story. I asked Shysage to come up and answer Ari's question, where we went the day we left her, and explain the Portal, and the role it occasionally plays in moving us around. The result of this was that Shysage ended up on his belly right next to me where he belonged. Shysage tried to explain for our daughter, where we went the day we left her, and why, and what happened. It was hard for Shysage, and he almost couldn't do it. Still, he explained all this briefly. Ariel especially needed to hear this, and so Shysage had to speak in brief sentences so Shyna could do her best to translate everything into old pony for our Ari.

Ariel took everything in about the Portal and such, but gasped loudly as Shysage mentioned we had come back here only yesterday. Ari burst into tears and Shysage and I were quickly hugging her, crying ourselves. So, we all took a break as Shysage and I cried with our Ari for a little while more. But it was clear to me that we needed to hear her story. Ariel needed to tell her story. It was obviously years between when we left her, and when the Portal amazingly gave her back to us.

Wiping away tears, and still hugging Ari, Shysage said softly, in old pony even "Yo-ur torn, Ari..."

We worked on calming down, but we stayed basically where we were. Ari was between Shysage and I, and Shyna was next to me. We knew that Shyna would need to translate. I also realized I would need to actually write this later in modern equestrian.

Our Ari, amazingly back to us from the dim and distant Past... She explained what happened to her the day we left her... It was hard for all of us, well Shysage and I. We cried on and off during most of this... Ari talked slowly, and a sentence at a time, so Shyna could translate. She cried off and on, and laughed some too...

"Mom, dad, after you left... disappeared... I just stood there crying... You were all I had... And you were gone... And I was freezing cold, and it was getting dark... I felt so alone... I just stood there crying for a little while... I didn't know what else to do...

"I... I realized I had to find Annie... Or I would probably freeze to death... I ran back into Coptol, and everypony was still pretty much right where they were. Ignoring everypony, even that angry stallion, I ran right up to Annie, and could only cry on her shoulder for a while. I think most everypony else just ignored me...

"I think Annie realized there was a problem. She told me she would help me, but that I needed to calm down for now. I worked on doing that, and ended up sitting next to her, shivering and sniffling. We were waiting for the sun to set, so we could see her Cutie Mark during the night..."

Ari stopped here briefly and wept softly.

"Mom, dad... Annie was the Mare... Half of Cel's Cutie Mark during the day, and the other half of Lu's Cutie Mark at night...

"The whole town gasped, then wept the minute her Cutie Mark changed that night. What the book had predicted, it was unfolding right before our eyes... The townsponies were... amazed... Well, except for that angry stallion. He seemed almost unhappy that Annie had fulfilled that...

"The Mare would give the king the two appointed ones, and that mare was Annie. I just cried with her that night. I only slowly understood that our Annie would become such an important...

"The rest of that evening was a blur, and I spent a lot of time buried in the crowds, just trying to stay near Annie... The whole town celebrated... And another Pegasus mare gave me a coat so I didn't freeze.

"Annie still spent that night in her small house with her dad, and he didn't even ask questions as Annie brought me in and introduced me...

"Once we were in Annie's room, I explained that you both... had... You were just gone... Annie cried with me the rest of the night. She loved you both, and... But Annie pleaded with me to stay with her. I just cried. I didn't have anywhere else to go...

"Annie was just so sweet..."

Ari stopped here briefly, for no reason I think.

Fluttershy told me later, that as Ari explained this... Evidently this was triggering memories from the buried past for both Cel and Lu, and both their eyes were huge...

Then Lu said quietly "Mother..." and began to cry.

Cel, realizing the same thing said quickly "Oh, my goodness, you all knew our mother..."

Cel and Lu were hugging, crying... This was a memory from a LONG time ago for both of them... They were remembering now...

I started crying too, but for a far different reason. I guess, for the first time... I realized what I said quietly to Shysage...

"Oh Shysage... The mare we saw... Our first time in the past... Right before we rescued..."

Of course Shysage understood, and I think he had already made that connection, maybe months ago. On our first trip back to the Past, in less than a minute we watched a sea of angry Cougars kill another Pegasus mare... That mare was Annie... And less than two minutes later, we had rescued Annie's girls, Cel and Lu, and flew them back to Coptol, and raised them for over two years... My Stallion moved and just held me as I cried... Hoping nopony would hear, I softly said over and over "Oh, Annie..." She was such a sweet mare... We loved her as our own... Why would anypony want to kill her? She must have just been at the wrong place at the wrong time...

Again, it was my shy sister Fluttershy who said softly, for everypony else in the room "Uhm, Annie was Princess Celestia and Princess Luna's mother. Evidently, Ari was her friend or something." And I was glad Sis didn't try to explain why I was crying...

Ari said something to Shyna in old pony, then wept softly as Shyna said for her "Ari and Annie were best of friends..."

Well, a bunch of us cried softly for a little while, then slowly calmed down. I guess Ari realized it was her turn again, so she worked on continuing.

"Annie and her father lived in a small house near the edge of town. Of course, that had to change. They built a new house for Annie and her dad, closer to the Kings palace, and she and I each got our own rooms. It didn't matter, just like in the cave, Annie and I were always together anyway... But our new home was always well guarded, even with Cougars running around.

"Annie and the King quickly fell in love, and the marriage date was set. Well, I think the King really loved Annie. It seemed more than some obligation to what the book said. It was amazing. Well, still, when Annie wasn't with the King, she was with me, which was most of the time. We had so much fun together, even though her becoming the Queen loomed larger and larger in her daily life. I think some of the townsponies weren't very happy with me being around Annie, but Annie made it clear that wasn't changing. Nopony could really argue with Annie. She was 'the Mare', and would soon be the Queen...

"We got to fly together a few times that summer, which felt amazing. Annie loved flying. But we always had to have guards with us, and they, well, they were doing their job. And Annie realized that, well, for the guards to keep her safe, that was an important task now...

Still, as Annie's wedding day approached, she needed me more and more as each day passed. I helped her any way I could. We cried together a lot. Evidently, she was learning more and more about the problems plaguing the pony nation. It was hard for King Thars, so it was increasingly hard for Annie too.

"The marriage was that fall, and it was amazing... Annie and King Thars were clearly so devoted to each other; that led to a lot of whispering, well a lot of tears too. As a couple, they were so... different... I am pretty sure Annie got what she wanted in a Stallion. He was just so busy...

"But, when Annie got married, she just... disappeared. I knew she was enjoying every moment she could with her Stallion, and I don't blame her for that at all. She didn't need me though, not very much...

"I asked Annie if I could go back to our cave house out west for a while. At first, she wouldn't hear of it. But I explained that, if my mom and dad came back, they would be there, so she agreed...

"I had a very nice, warm coat, and some other things in a carry sack. That day, six months later, I headed back home... I cried all the way..."

Shysage and I were crying too... Ari kept going.

"I was pretty sure I was in the right place. It was just hard... I guess I could finally do this; I cried for my mom and dad most of the time that winter. I managed to build a door of sorts, but it was still a cold winter. And being where my mom and dad had been, doing what my mom and dad had done... It was just hard. The only thing I could do -- well I read your notes about what had happened since you came... I read them over and over, then started my own. It was a diary of sorts. I just didn't know what else to do...

"The first warm day the next spring, I just had to leave, I couldn't stay there another day... I flew back to Coptol. Annie, we cried a while when I returned. She was so scared for me, and was so glad I was safe. Annie was also heavy with foal, and asked me to help her when the King was busy, which was a lot, Annie said. I guess I got Annie back some anyway.

"And I guess for the first time, I realized mom and dad weren't coming back... I just needed to start over. Annie kept me plenty busy. She was the Queen now anyway... When she wasn't with the King, we were together again. And towards the end, she needed a lot of help...

"Her first foal was born the next spring. It was rough since the foal was larger than usual, but everypony made it through ok. Cel was beautiful, and Annie bounced back quickly. The town celebrated wildly, the first of the two appointed ones was born. I didn't understand all that, but Annie's first foal was here. I helped both Annie and the King quite a bit while Cel was small. Cel was a lot of work. And, I guess, as soon as she could, Annie began to spend more and more time with the King. My title changed to royal Foal-sitter. I didn't mind too much."

All this was distant history to us. Cel and Lu wept softly for the rest of this, as memories from over a thousand years ago, from Cel and Lu's earliest days, were dredged back up and became real again...

Ari continued. Well, she started crying first.

"Cel and I had a lot of fun together. She was so smart, and really kept me on my toes. When Annie was able to join us, I tried to get Annie to take part with what we did. Annie tried hard. But she often seemed so preoccupied with this or that issue the King, the pony nation was dealing with. I don't know. I think even the King wanted more time with Cel... It seemed there was always something that would come up. Cel asked me often, and I just said quietly "Being a King and Queen is not easy... But I know for a fact your mother and father love you deeply."

"Time moved on... Cel and I grew closer, and Annie was spending more time with the King. Well, Annie was the Queen after all... Early the next spring, Annie the Queen was again with foal. This made it increasingly more difficult for her to follow the King around, so Annie spent more time with Cel and I. I enjoyed these times, but Cel clearly relished every minute with her mother. And I think Cel and Annie finally began to bond. This was a good thing. I was even able that summer to visit back to our cave home. I didn't even think about seeing mom and dad. And I took a wagon this time, and walked, and brought back all those notes. I didn't really have time to read them, and had a Unicorn put them in a closet in my room. As soon as I returned to Coptol, Annie wanted one last field visit with the King and I was on duty again. It was ok.

"Late that fall, Lu was born. In spite of the cold, her birth went easy, and she was beautiful too. And, again the town celebrated wildly. The second appointed one was born, what could go wrong now? And Lu was so quiet! And Cel became very protective of her little sister.

"Well, soon enough, Annie bounced back from having this second foal. More and more, she was back at the King's side, trying to help him with the pony nation. Cel, Lu and I, we had amazing times together. Lu didn't often talk, she was just so sensitive. Lu didn't ask a lot about her mother and father, I think she just sensed what was going on and accepted it. I think that, after six months maybe, Annie realized she needed to bond with Lu, and she spent more time that summer with both girls. I tried to quietly back away as often as I could. I thoroughly enjoyed Cel and Lu, but they needed their mother. That was fine. I would usually go to my room, and work on my writing... Once Annie found that out, well, we often did that together while Cel and Lu played quietly in my room.

"For the next year maybe, things sort of calmed down. Queen Annie was carefully splitting her time between her King Stallion and her two growing foals, Cel and Lu, the two appointed ones. When Annie was with the King, I was the royal Foal-sitter. I didn't mind. Cel and Lu, we had a lot of fun together.

"The following spring, Lu was maybe a year and a half old. I had been up late reading through some of those notes, crying. I did not hear all the commotion, the screaming the next morning... I awoke to loud pounding on my door... It was King Thars... Crying himself, he said Annie, Cel and Lu had been taken by a large band of Cougars... Still crying, he walked away...

"I... My mom and dad were my life... I lost them... Annie, Cel and Lu were my life... Now, I had lost them... I... I was crushed..."

Ari simply had to stop and cry here, and of course Shysage and I hugged her tightly and cried with her. We had been away from our Ari for less than 24 hours. She had to live through years... A few times, she tried to continue her story, and finally succeeded.

"I ran away... I simply could not cope with this... I didn't know what else to do... I flew to the cave... I lived there for a few years. I cried a lot... I kept telling myself I would die here if my mom and dad didn't come back. I didn't want anypony else to be around me. At least I wouldn't lose anypony else that way...

"Well, maybe once a year, during the summer, I flew back to Coptol, just for the day. Once I learned that Annie, Cel and Lu had not returned, I flew back to the cave. Nopony even expected them to return at this point. The King was a hopeless mess, and the guards seemed so lethargic. They had built a formidable wall around the city, now, but it was too late... The damage had already been done... The two appointed ones, that the book had foretold, they were dead...

"The third summer I flew back just to check. And I almost didn't. I just expected more bad news. Late in the summer, I finally decided to try one last time... I found... Princess Celestia and Princess Luna... We cried all day together... And they insisted that I get my old room back, and stay with them... The King was even glad to see me, and seemed like a different person. And the townsponies... They were ALL getting along... working together... The whispering was gone... The small groups of only one pony clan were gone...

"Our first week together was... We all cried a lot... Seeing them again, spending time with them was so amazing...

"I finally got up enough nerve... I asked Cel and Lu what had happened... Coptol seemed so transformed...

"Cel explained that we were Equestria now, and that somepony called the Shila had --"

I guess I knew this would come up, but I still wasn't ready for... Ari got that far, then I burst into tears...

Ari was right next to me, and said softly, directly to me, again using half old pony "Mum, I know it was yo..."

We cried together, well Shysage, Ari and I, we cried together for a little while. Ari tried to continue explaining... And Shyna was crying now too as she translated...

"I... I knew it was you... And I had missed seeing you those two years you took care of Cel and Lu... I wasn't looking for... I just missed you... You were there... Cel and Lu were there... I didn't know where... I came just for the day and never..."

Ari was almost beside herself as she explained this... We were back there, and she had missed us. Some other day we would explain that it would not have worked for her to find us before we had actually had her...

Cel and Lu, crying buckets, moved up to us and we all cried together for a while. I wondered if maybe that was as much as our poor Ari could say right now. She was crying pretty hard. Well, we all were...

Still crying quite a bit, I think Cel felt it was important for her to explain why she had demanded that Shysage and I head to the Past via the Portal this last time. This proved a difficult task for Cel as well, but we all needed to know this I think. Our Ari knew all this, so Cel didn't bother waiting for Shyna to translate.

"Mom, dad, the Portal Beacon... before...

"We actually... The Unicorns and I we... made... it... We knew Ariel needed to come back... here... We made it... for... that...

"Ari needed... you... But we knew you needed to try to come... first...

"So, the beacon... We tried... many times... So much waiting... Ari waited... a long time... many failures... Ari waiting... She cried a lot... It was so hard for all of us... to.. watch...

"Ari said was crushing her... she had to leave and do something... else...

"One more try... we pleaded... She stayed... crying..."

Cel couldn't talk any more, and I guess Ari understood, and she was remembering too, and crying hard as I hugged her.

Ari, Shysage and I knew the rest.

But the Portal Beacon... As a very early attempt... And Cel would use it later to call us many times... Cel and Lu and a bunch of Unicorns, they actually made it to call us back to get our Ari...

We all cried together for a while...

Author's Note

Slow, understated elegance of 'The Celestial Capital - Al'Taieu'* from the 'Chains of Promethia'* expansion for Final Fantasy XI* (*c2014 by Square Enix)

Chapter 22, A Different World

That same amazing tune continued to drift calmly through the background(1). Twin time music...

It was maybe noon when the Principal sisters (Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna) came through the Portal, one at a time. We were on the edge of the carpet and so were safely out of the way. Still, we got quickly up and moved away, relocating on the Library floor nearby.

Cel and Lu (Princess Celestia and Princess Luna) were quickly hugging their Twins from the Equestia Girls world. But we were all still calming down from the last 24 hours maybe. Cel haltingly introduced their Foal-sitter Ari to the Principal Sisters, then said she would explain later. Cel tried to keep going... "Dad... About our mother... You need..." That was all Cel could say.

Lu finished for her sister. "Dad, you need to write that story. There is so much about our mother we really want to remember..." Then Lu cried with Cel briefly.

After a group hug with Ari, Shysage and I, the Celestia and Luna Twins headed out of the Library, no doubt to waiting Air Coaches, and were gone. Still, I suspected that a trip to the Equestria Girls world might be in the works for tonight. I think... Well, I was starting to feel very tired about now...

Princess Twilight asked that everypony pay attention briefly. She mentioned it was around lunch time, and everypony could head out and see what they needed to do. Still, eveypony needed to come back to the Castle tonight for dinner, then a brief visit to the Equestria Girls world. This last part made everypony very excited. Twin time is always amazing. I felt that way too. It had been three years for me, and I had really missed my Twin... Rarity, Filia and Fiona helped everypony with their coats, and most were soon out the door.

I guess I really felt the need to hug my sis... Fluttershy was waiting I think, and hugging her again felt so amazing... We cried softly for a while together like that. I really missed her.

It was only towards the end of those maybe twenty minutes... Shyna and Ari were talking together in old pony about a mile a minute. Some serious, some laughing... Fluttershy realized it too, and so she and I stopped hugging, sat next to each other, facing Ari and Shyna. They kept talking for a few more minutes, then realized that we were watching them. They stopped.

I didn't wait for them to say anything. Ari would have trouble saying anything, and Shyna... "Shyna, tell Ari she and you are already family." Shyna told her by jumping up and hugging Ari tightly. I think she said the old pony word for family to Ari, and they both hugged and wept softly together.

My amazing sister... "Summer, I know that it was hard... But I think it was worth it..."

Fluttershy and I were hugging, crying...

Princess Twilight was off somewhere, but Filia and Fiona were still in the Library, sitting down at one of the tables over some magic books. Shyna spoke quietly to Ari in old pony, and led her over to Filia and Fiona. Shyna introduced Ari to them both. Shyna mentioned Ari only knew old pony, but that she could translate for her. The four of them were soon talking, laughing together...

I had to stop and think at that. Working through a little math, I think our Ariel was near my age. But I think, when we left, in a lot of ways, our Ari just stopped, well, I don't know... In some ways, emotionally, maybe she was still 2 or 3 in pony years... Anyway, it was clear that she fit right in with Shyna, Filia and Fiona. That was very good. Our Ari had been through so much. Maybe now, she could calm down and finish growing up.

Sis was right next to me still. "Three years, Fluttershy... I missed you so much..." We hugged some more...

Before too long, the girls (Shyna, Ari, Filia and Fiona) decided they were going for a walk. Shysage and I both hugged our Ari tightly. Ari smiled and carefully said "family" in modern equestrian. I think that was her way of saying she thought she would be fine. Well, here in our present, the biting cold was probably the only real hazard. And our Ari had taken care of herself for years in the Past after we left. And, with Shyna, Filia and Fiona... Besides, up until today, the only peers, the only real friends Ari knew was Queen Annie. Filia and Fiona took care of coats, giving mine to Ari, and they were on their way, talking together for as long as we could hear them.

Shysage was already resting on the rug in front of the Portal. Fluttershy said she needed to head to the Cottage for a while. I sighed right away, and told her I wanted to go, but I was falling asleep. Sis and I hugged, then she left, and I snuggled up next to my Stallion. We were both exhausted, and were soon asleep.

"Wake up, sleepy heads." It was Princess Twilight, and hours later. I didn't want to wake up. I could easily have slept hours more. Shysage was already awake. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he felt the same way. But a little sleep was better than none. And my Sis was on my other side, resting. After Shysage and I got up, Sis and I hugged some more. Tearing up just a little, she said her Cottage felt empty so she came back to the Castle to at least be near us. I think we both shed a few tears after that. I really... It felt so amazing to be back around my Sis... our friends... our Princess Twilight...

A few minutes later Ari and the rest of the girls came back into the Library, still talking non-stop. Shysage and I, we hugged our daughter tightly for a minute or two, then the girls headed off to get some food. Princess' other girls were arriving too, and we just joined everypony as we walked to the dining area and had some yummy dinner. I don't think I said much during dinner. I just felt so spent. Still, I smiled each time I caught sight of our Ari...

We were soon back out in the Library. It was early evening, and we were all waiting expectantly for the trip, through the Portal, to the Equestria Girls world. I guess I did hope that the Portal didn't have other plans and ship Shysage and I off somewhere else. Amazing ponies were scattered around the Library chatting happily. I had really missed that sound...

Ari, Shyna, Filia and Fiona were sitting together still talking almost non-stop. Shysage was watching, or rather listening. I soon realized why. Evidently, our Ari was remembering a lot of her modern equestrian just by being around it. "Good girl" Shysage said quietly.

Fluttershy was right next to me, and I just leaned on her shoulder. I wanted to cry, but just rested there instead. Fluttershy and I didn't really need to talk. Sis especially was feeling what she needed to. That was fine. I didn't feel like talking much anyway.

But I did talk to true friend briefly about our Ari. She had seen Shysage and I both as people, although that was years ago now for her. Still, the Equestria Girls world was such a different world... And her people body would be so different. I remembered my spider fingers thought from my first time there... I just hoped she would make the transition ok.

When it was close to time to head through the Portal, Princess Twilight came up and asked us if we wanted to go first, so we could take Ari through and make sure she did ok. Shysage called Ari over, and asked her, using strictly modern equestrian. Ari asked Shyna about a word, then said basically that Shyna, Filia and Fiona had told her some of what to expect. Ari wanted to stay with us, especially at first. Still, Shyna, Filia and Fiona would go through first, and be waiting there for Ari so they could help her. Then Shysage and I would go through, followed by the rest of Princess' girls. Princess Twilight would go through the Portal last. I guess I also hoped that the Portal didn't have other plans for our precious Princess Twilight, and ship her off somwhere else either!

Princess sent Shyna, Filia and Fiona through first. Then Shysage and I walked Ari over, and she went hesitantly through the Portal next. Shysage and I changed to people, waited about half a minute, then holding hands, he and I went into the Portal. We were soon in the Equestria Girls world.

It was drizzling and freezing cold. Still, Shyna, Filia and Fiona were standing, group hugging with our Ari. Shysage and I both gasped; our Ari was absolutely beautiful as a people too. Her skin color was just like mine, and her hair, very light brown like Shysage's, flowed smoothly down her shoulders. This was her first time through, and the Portal had given Ari amazing clothes. Shysage and I still had our stylish Equestria Girls clothes on, but after three years, they were clearly showing some wear. But our Ariel... Our daughter was beautiful... She was standing there, holding her fingers out, looking down at them in amazement.

Once Shysage and I came through the Portal, we carefully herded the girls up the stairs and into the Canterlot High School lobby, to get out of the cold rain. Once inside, Filia and Fiona started crying, followed by Shyna soon after. I right away realized from the Twin Link that my Twin (Equestria Girls Summer Rain) was crying as well. And I could tell by what I was seeing of her view that she and her sister Fluttershy were running down the walkway towards the school.

I was quickly hugging my Twin again... It would have felt amazing, but she was crying buckets, so I was too. Our Ari seemed totally confused, and was standing over next to Shysage, who was hugging his daughter close.

After a few minutes, other Twins had joined us, and more ponies had come through the Portal. We were all huddled in the warmth of the Lobby. Just about everypony was crying...

My Twin pulled me off to the side, then tried to tell me what had happened, why everypony was crying. Shysage and Ari followed, and Ari seemed amazed at another people that looked exactly like her mom... Through tears, my Twin tried to explain...

"Oh, Summer, its just... horrible...

"Remember that sweet, sweet girl that joined us recently? I introduced her to you last time... Her name was Ann..."

My Twin stopped and cried, then continued...

"Its so horrible... Shes dead now... Last night... Its just...."

I remembered Ann... and she really was so... sweet... Wait... Red-head with... pale tint to her ski-- I was quickly crying again... My Twin tried to continue...

"I... She went with another friend to some event at another high school last night... I guess... They didn't like the pony on her Letterman jacket. Some of the Cougars gave her a hard time... Well, they were drinking too, and afterwards... Ann tried to leave, but they... They weren't very nice... They made her fall, and she hit her head on a pipe or something... She's dead... We're all just in shock...

My Twin cried in my arms a while, and I cried too. My Twin softly said over and over "Oh, Ann...", and I said it with her... Well, I usually said "Oh Annie..." not that it mattered. And we said once, and together "She was such a sweet girl... And we all loved her as our own... Why would anyone want to kill her? She must have just been at the wrong place at the wrong time..."

My Twin and I cried together for a while...

Suddenly though, my Twin's whole emotions, well, shifted, and dramatically... She pulled us over into a corner, and almost whispered. She stayed crying, but was clearly smiling as she cried... She didn't stay whispering for very long.

"Summer, did you hear the news?"

I smiled back at her. But I guess my Twin had just noticed. Twin stopped abruptly... "Wait... Summer, who is this nice lady standing next to Shysage?"

I kept smiling while I cried, and quickly replied "Oh, Summer, tell me your news!"

My Twin, Equestria Girls Summer, she was quickly bouncing up and down on the tile floor there in the lobby as we held hands. I tried to bounce with her. Bubbling over with excitement, she tried to say quietly...

"Oh, Summer...

"Shysage... Shysage and I... We are SO excited!

"We are going to have a baby!

"Finally!

"That is so AMAZING!

"We are going to have a little baby girl, and she is going to be absolutely beautiful!

"And we are going to name her Ariel Dawn... I absolutely love the name Ariel, and Dawn is your most amazing neighbor who recued me from the green eyes, and gave me back to my family here...

"Shysage and I, we are both SOOO excited!"

My Twin got this far, and could no longer talk. We hugged tightly and cried with joy together.

Twin was only whispering at the beginning... Everypony else in the Lobby could not avoid hearing the rest, and erupted in the loudest applause, cheering wildly... Both Pinkie Pies, together, called for a party on the spot. This really was good news!

After a few minutes, it quieted down, and my Twin soon calmed down, and stopped crying. But I could not stop... I kept hugging my Twin tightly...

"Summer..." Twin said softly, looking at our Ari...

Through tears, and having trouble even breathing...

"Twin, this is... Shysage and my... daughter... Ariel... Dawn..."

As everypony else gasped, then erupted again in loud applause and cheers, my Twin and I just cried together for a while...

Annie's Equestria Girls world Twin was dead... Our Ariel's Twin was on the way... I felt so overwhelmed... Us Summers cried together for a while, in the same way, at the same time, as my Twin pulled Ari into our hug...

All of a sudden, Twin popped her head up and said "Oh, my goodness, its bleacher girls time!"

Evidently it was saturday, and winter, so Bleacher Girls time started at 10 a.m.; everypony came to the high school gym. This sea of ponies with Equestria in our hearts, we all headed there. Bleacher time lasted four amazing hours. I had really missed this too!

I hadn't thought this far ahead, but I was so glad our Ariel could be a part of this. Ari was remembering a lot of modern equestrian just by hearing it. She stayed next to Equestria pony Shyna in case she had to ask. She did fine. In fact, she blended right in, and reached her heart out to hurting girls. Crying and laughing and hugging...

And Shysage joined his Twin with a bunch of guys on the bleachers on the other side of the gym...

...

Our precious daughter was back in our present with us...

She was sharing true friendship with bleachers full of needy girls... Well our whole family was doing that now...

What more could I ask...

...

We stayed crying as the bleacher girls (and guys) headed off into the afternoon. It was cold but the rain had stopped. Still, big hugs from true friends, it took a while before it was just us ponies from a different land left there in the high school gym.

There was going to be a party though, at the Cake's Diner. Well, we would eat lunch first. and I was hungry! But staying with this group... And with two Pinkie Pies at the helm... I knew it would be amazing! (Well, it was.)

My Shysage and his Twin hugged briefly, then my Twin and her Shysage hugged tightly, then he headed off to work at the church. Tomorrow was their big day, and he spent most of Saturday getting everything ready. Twin explained she would be there helping him (and enjoying every minute) except this afternoon was Twin time and a party too. Then she hugged me again. And I still had not explained we had been gone three years!

Being with all of our amazing friends... I cried softly most of the afternoon. I made it a point to try and hug everypony. It took a while. Shysage and I split a hamburger, and he quietly suggested we not say anything about what was in that yummy sandwich.

Ari spent most of the afternoon with the Filia, Fiona and Shyna Twins. She didn't ask about her Twin, but Shysage said she probably already figured that out. Still, late in the afternoon, my Twin, Equestria Girls Summer Rain, held both Ari's hands, and looked at her lovingly, then gave her a big hug. "Ari, your Twin should be born soon" my Twin said, then they cried together for a few minutes. Still, our Ari had an amazing time...

And in the middle of the party, both Raritys walked up to us with two stacks of boxes. They had realized Shysage and my clothes were showing signs of wear, and, of course, that simply wouldn't do! Twin pulled me into the ladies room, and helped me change. In place of a skirt and a blouse, Rare had picked out this long, flowing dress. It was the most elegant mixing of the white, yellow and royal blue that are my colors. Well, it looked amazing! And I got comfortable new black ladies' shoes too. I didn't have the heart to tell both Raritys where the other shoes went... And this outfit was topped off with a brand new, beautiful white sweatshirt, hooded with a zipper front, Twin said. But it had what Twin called embroidery, I think, delicate sewing that matched the colors of the dress. It was amazing. After putting everything on, I ran out and hugged with both Rare's for a little while. This was an amazing gift. And I didn't even know I needed it! Then I hugged my Twin when she came out with the exact same dress on! I gasped, she looked so beautiful. Wait... I had the same... I ran over to Shysage, and cried on his shoulders as he hugged me tightly. "My beautiful Mare..." he said a few times.

And, at one point, we were with both Pinkie Pies, thanking them for their amazing foresight at difficult times. After crying and hugging a little while, Equestria Girls Pinkie pulled out her cell thing, fidgetted with it some, then showed us both a picture. It was that shiny red car they had given to her parents. You would never know that Shysage had given them that old car, so they could fix it up. Well, the Pie kids know their way around cars! Well, I saw a pretty car, but Shysage noticed the change right away. "Side-pipes" he said quietly and smiled. I had no clue what that meant, even after he pointed them out on the picture on Pinkie's cell thing.

With difficulty, Equestria Girls Pinkie Pie explained. "The two Mustangs we had... Both had pipes like that. They were just part of the way those cars looked... Well, they sounded awesome too..." Pinkie stopped, and tried unsuccessfully to not cry, but added "Dad had those put on less than two weeks after we gave him..." Shysage and I hugged and cried with both Pinkie Pie's for a little while. Shysage's old car... It became such a meaningful, loving gift... Well, later I quietly asked Shysage about a ride in his other Mustang. He said something about the carburator, whatever that is. Maybe some day...

We hugged with the Applejack Twins too. I asked Equestria pony Applejack if they had any more dead trees in their orchards that they wanted removed. Both Applejacks laughed heartily, and said, together "Sure! Any time you want, just come and help yourself!" I promised we would.

And I guess Equestria pony Rainbow Dash had not yet realized... Both Summers and both Fluttershys, we were talking with the Rainbow Dash Twins. My sister (Equestria pony Fluttershy) said quietly "Rainbow, I think you might have a new Pegasus to coach."

Rainbow thought a minute, then said "Wait... Ari?"

We all just nodded.

"YES!" both Rainbow Dash Twins said at the same time.

Twin and I spent a few minutes hugging both Twilight Twins. It was just hard, Equestria Girls Twilight Sparkle was crying most of the time. She is sort of the unofficial leader of Princess' girls here in the Equestria Girls world, and even the bleacher girls... Well, she was having a hard time with Ann. It was just a tragedy... The four of us cried together, hugging tightly for a little while. I think I might have said "Oh Annie..." a time or two... Well, that was a tragedy too...

Early evening, the Principal sisters walked into the Cake's, and of course we all took turns hugging them. They hugged our Ari for a little while, crying. I guess, they knew why, now.

Too soon, it was time for the Equestria ponies to return home. We walked quickly back to the High School Lobby, and said our goodbyes in there. It was too cold to stand next to the Portal and do that. I hugged my Twin for a while, and really wished I could have had more time with her. But, I think all of us Equestria ponies felt that way.

Just like when we came, Filia, Fiona and Shyna went through first, then our Ari went. Ari told us she fell on the Equestria side, after turning back into a pony. About that thick rug... We told her later that part would just take practice.

Shysage and I went through the Portal next, and together. We were soon back in Equestria.

The rest of the ponies came through the Portal into Equestria after us. Princess Twilight came through last. I started to cry, and ran over and hugged her. "Princess, I hope the Portal doesn't take you off somewhere else..." I think we were all crying anyway. Leaving our Twins is just hard...

Well, it was a cold day, maybe mid-morning in Equestria. Rather than bother with the Canterlot Recorder's house, Fluttershy, Shyna, Ari, Shysage and I walked quickly to Fluttershy's Cottage. Shysage turned into a people and stoked the fire some. Us girls were already on our bellies facing the fire, and enjoying the growing warmth. Shysage changed back into a pony, and took his spot next to me. Ari was on my other side, then Fluttershy then Shyna, not that any of that mattered now. We were all family... We were all soon asleep.

Author's Note

Slow, understated elegance of 'The Celestial Capital - Al'Taieu'* from the 'Chains of Promethia'* expansion for Final Fantasy XI* (*c2014 by Square Enix)

Chapter 23, Signs

Wow... In the space of less than two days... We came abruptly back to our present without our daughter Ariel, crying buckets... Maybe twelve hours later, at Princess Celestia's demand, we went back to the Past (by squeezing the Portal rim) and amazingly found Ari, then quickly brought her back to our present. We all cried a lot together; Ari was Cel and Lu's (Princess Celestia and Princess Luna's) Foal-sitter... Then, yesterday I think, we made a whirlwind visit to the Equestria Girls world, and our Twins (sigh) and... bleacher girls (sigh more...) While there, we found out that Ariel's Twin was on the way (in the oven my Twin said), but Queen Annie's Twin had died suddenly only days before... We came back from the Equestria Girls world absolutely exhausted, and crashed at Fluttershy's Cottage. We all slept a long time...

And that amazing tune in the background never really faded(1)...

When we finally woke up the next morning, I only vaguely remember Fluttershy cooking us all a yummy dinner the night before. Sis does so well with that, and there were five of us too; Fluttershy and Shyna, and Shysage, and our daughter Ariel and I. Well, before we were spirited away to the Past again, I was learning how to cook. But that was three years ago for Shysage and I, and honestly, I don't remember much about cooking. Sis said it would come back quickly. And Shysage called it jet lag, our 24+ hours of sleep. I was so out of it, I was really glad Sis did the cooking.

That next morning, I also realized that Shysage had been up a number of times to take care of the fire. The Cottage was nice and warm, and there was a good supply of logs nearby. Well, at some point, my Stallion had also collected Fluttershy and Shyna's coats from the Library, along with his coat and my two coats (Ari got the white one) from the Canterlot Recorder's house.

So that next morning... Fluttershy cooked us all a nice breakfast. Then we hugged together some, then our family (I cried writing that), Shysage, Ari and I headed for the Canterlot Recorder's house.

We passed Dawn and Camille heading out as we arrived, so we hugged a bunch with them. Dawn mentioned the angry crowd briefly, and I don't remember what Shysage said. I had missed our amazing neighbors too. But it wasn't until Dawn asked about the mare with us... I cried a lot... Shysage explained to Dawn that we had been gone for three years (keeping it as vague as possible), and we had Ariel Dawn while we were gone. Ari's full name made Dawn cry, and Camille cried with us. I realized that Ari and Camille would probably get along very well now too. We cried and hugged with Dawn and Camille for a while. The sun was up nicely and kept us from freezing, in between small clouds coastng past.

Well, it was maybe noon when Dawn and Camille finally left and headed to Rarity's Boutique. It wasn't freezing cold, so Shysage asked about our little hill in the east meadow. That is where we headed. We were quickly on our bellies next to each other on that little hill, facing away from Ponyville. Well, I started crying first, and before long... Calming down, Shysage and I took turns talking to true friend. Ari took a turn too, which made Shysage and I cry some more. Still, it felt so good to relax back on that hill. We all soon calmed down, and just enjoyed being together. It felt wonderful. This was Shysage and my family...

I would often look longingly at the lake. I knew it was partially frozen over; any by the moonlight nights were out of the question. Neither Shysage nor I like the cold... But Ari started looking at the lake too. Shysage and I both could tell that the wheels were turning... The lake... the woods... the contour of the land... Then Ari said quietly and slowly

"...Oh... my... goodness..."

Then

"Mom, dad... Our east meadow, in the Past... It was right here, wasn't it?"

Well, I just cried. Even though it was difficult for him, Shysage explained that, when the Portal took us to the Past this last time, it moved us back in time, but left us in the exact same location. That was all Shysage could say, but we both knew it was enough.

"I was born here... I grew up here..."

Ari said that, then cried with us. It felt better to hug, so we sat up and hugged while we cried for a while.

We did calm down, but the calculating part in Ari (she got that from Shysage)...

"You both knew this is where we were, didn't you? And you couldn't say anything about it because it was future..."

Shysage thought a minute, then said quietly "If you look from here... The pond and fountain in the middle of town is where the long lake was in the Past. You flew over that lake when you learned to fl--"

While Shysage tried not to cry, I hugged Ariel, then looked into her eyes and said quietly "So much we couldn't explain... We can tell you everything now... Well, just about everything..." This made Ari cry, and we just cried with her.

We thought we had calmed down.

"And, I'm named after your neighbor too, right?"

We cried together some more. But I also realized there was just so much to tell our Ariel. At least we could do that now.

As the sun ducked behind some trees, Shysage said we should head home. This made us all cry again. The Canterlot Recorder's house really was our home now. While we cried, Shysage got us up and led us back there. Ari quickly and easily ducked off her coat, and was on her belly on the big rug in front of the fireplace. As he usually does for me, Shysage changed into a people and helped me get my coat off. He told Ari he was taking care of his princess, which made me blush.

Ari said quietly "I love my family..."

It didn't take long for Shysage to get a good fire going. Evidently, he had already been here since we came back, and coaxed some fire from left-over coals... I just hugged my daughter as we wept softly together. Shysage ended up on the other side of Ari, just like we usually did when she was young, maybe 1,400 years ago now... In a lot of ways, we were starting over where we had left off. None of us minded. In fact, it felt amazing. Off and on, we wept softly and sighed together for a while.

"Ok, I noticed the little room, and that's your room, right? Where do you want me to sleep tonight then?"

I was crying even before Ari finished her question. I love my Stallion, and I love being with him. But, right now, I didn't want to leave our Ari alone. I was trying to calm down some so I could explain this.

I think Shysage was thinking a little further ahead. Ariel was already maybe 6 or 7 pony years old, but still... "Summer, maybe you and Ariel need to... discuss..." Shysage stopped there and blushed. I guess he had trouble finding the right words. Well, I didn't know either.

"Mom, dad, thats ok. I... I think I know what I need to know about stallions..."

Ariel smiled when she explained this. I guess Shysage and I should not have been surprised. Ariel continued.

"After Annie became the Queen, she talked some about her time with the King. She was careful, but on a number of occasions, I asked Annie questions that made her blush. She always explained of course. That part, how everything works, it wasn't that hard to understand..."

Brief pause...

"And it was clear that Annie and King Thars were really in love, and the time they spent... like that... Well, Annie said it was absolutely amazing."

Ariel paused a little longer here, then almost broke down and cried...

"Dad, I watched how you treated mom... I watched how the King treated his nobody Queen Annie...

"I... I wanted that too, and it didn't take me long to realize...

"I was the Queen's maiden, and the royal Foal-sitter too. Quite a few stallions tried to, well... Most said they wanted to be my friend, but I quickly realized they had something else..."

Ariel was crying at this point and Shysage and I got up and hugged her. Still, Ariel explained.

"Mom, dad, all of those stallions were TAKERS..." Our Ari said this slowly and with some disdain. She kept going.

"I don't want that..."

"I don't want to even be like that...

"I grew up with you both, the most giving ponies I have ever known... That's what I want... Thats how I want to be... to live... I want to be a giver...

"And I will only give myself to... ...marry a giver... I want to spend the rest of my life with somepony who... gives, above all else..."

Ariel cried pretty hard, but she managed to finish her thought.

"I... I don't know... about here... but givers... they were so rare in Coptol... I can only dream..."

Shysage and I hugged our daughter, and cried with her. She would find out that givers are pretty rare here and now too... But somehow, I had found my Stallion, so... Through tears, Shysage said haltingly at one point "Ariel, keep dreaming... Life's good Dreams like that... are Hope's cousins..." We cried together for a while.

The fire needed more wood, so Shysage got up, turned into a people and took care of that. I could tell he was deep in thought, then he spoke softly...

"Ariel, between two givers, intimate time really is absolutely amazing, far more than just a pleasurable feeling...

"And when the Portal moved us from the middle of this harsh winter here, and left us together and alone at the start of the warmth of summer deep in the Past, we enjoyed ourselves a lot... And you are the result of one of those amazing times...

Brief delay, and Shysage turned back into a pony...

"I... Mom and I will find time to be together and alone, its just harder during the winter...

Shysage was clearly done, hugged me, and cried on my shoulder. I knew he wanted to give me that. I pulled Ariel into our hug, and said quietly "Honey, most nights during the winter we sleep together on this rug near the fire. We fully intend to keep our precious daughter with..." Then I couldn't talk either. But I think we answered our Ariel's question, at least for now.

For the rest of what was left of that evening, little was said. We had plenty of time to explain what our thoughtful Ariel didn't think through herself. We mostly hugged in front of the warmth of the fire, and cried softly on and off. I think Shysage is probably the only other pony who fully realized just how it felt to have our Ariel back with us. She was ours...

Well, we were soon on our bellies, together as a family, sound asleep.

I think I woke up last the next morning. Shysage was already working with the fire, and Ari was sitting, looking into the pantry. She was probably trying to make sense of the stuff in there. I didn't think I could. Ari asked Shysage about water and some sort of pot, then she asked me about some of the jars in the pantry. Ari made us a most amazing breakfast. She called it Oat Stew. It looked simple enough to make, but it was very good. We all had plenty to eat. I think we were hungry.

After breakfast, we decided to go for a walk. Shysage helped his mares get our coats on, then he got his on. We wandered to the east meadow, and got a drink, after Shysage managed to break a hole in the ice. It wasn't very thick, so this was pretty easy.

We wandered through town some, and spoke briefly with both Pinkie Pie and Rarity in passing. Then we headed to Fluttershy's Cottage. Fluttershy and Shyna both joined us for our walk. We headed to the Castle, and found nopony around except Spike. Spike said something about magic lessons, and so we headed down the hall, out the Castle door, and down the steps. It was actually a nice day, for the middle of winter. Few clouds obscured the sun, and there was no wind. With coats on, we were fine.

We had probably only taken ten steps away from the Castle, when Ari stopped walking and just stood there. She looked over at, well, my tree, then around and slightly down towards the center of Ponyville.

"Wait... That tree... Our trees were right there too, right?"

I would explain the significance of 'my tree' to our Ari at some point. Or, more likely, she would read through all of the other chronicles, and would learn a lot about it. But I just wept softly. Shysage said simply "Yes..."

"Mom, dad, lets go..."

Ari led us past the tree, and beyond, clearly off to the west. Of course Fluttershy and Shyna came with us. I guess Shysage knew fairly quickly what Ari had on her mind. He said quietly "Ari, you know the trip there will take about an hour and a half on hoof, and we will also need to make the return trip walking..."

Ari stopped walking, turned around and smiled. "I know dad, I just want to see if that tree is still there."

The walk was very nice and the weather cooperated. Ari and Shyna led the way, talking non-stop, now mostly in modern equestrian. Fluttershy and I walked together behind them and we talked almost non-stop too. THAT was just amazing. I had really missed my Sis... Maybe half way there, Ari and Shyna slowed and walked next to Sis and I, and we were all talking together. Shysage walked on my other side the whole time, and said little. That was ok, I felt him close. I would occasionally bump his nose with mine. I love my Stallion.

Still, I think Shysage saw where we were heading before the rest of us girls did; we were too busy talking. We were almost to the spot of the lone, huge tree before the rest of us even noticed. The four of us stopped talking at about the same time, and gasped... together... Fluttershy started crying. For a few minutes, we looked, and stared...

In the Past, flying one day, we had found a single, huge tree here. Shysage said it was a Redwood, and he had no idea how a lone redwood could spring up out of nowhere. And it was so tall... But... now... The ring of huge trees that we saw... It was the exact same large circle of huge trees that we saw at the end of our time in the future. Well, it looked just like it, anyway. And even though it was the middle of winter, somehow the blanket of ferns...

Shysage led the rest of us through an opening between two huge tree trunks, and we timidly walked towards the center of the circle of trees, as we all looked around in awe. The ferns... The grass inside the ring was still green... It must have been around noon, and the sun, though low, warmed us nicely. It again felt... Hushed quiet... Huge trees... What was this place?

Fluttershy wept softly the whole time. Her goal was to come back here, to this very spot maybe 37 years in the future... ...to Desert Spring...

I think Fluttershy, Shysage and I half expected to see the Keeper of Equestria show up again, but he never did. Still... Shysage and I both talked to true friend briefly. Thats what we often did when we visited the lone tree deep in the Past.

It was mostly just hushed quiet and Fluttershy's sniffles.

After maybe an hour restng on that small hill in the center, Shysage said we should head back. I think we were all ready, although Sis probably would rather have stayed right there until... Well, at least we knew where it was now, and we could come here again. Shysage led us carefully through the gap in the circle of trees, and we were soon walking back towards Ponyville. Looking at the lay of the land, we really didn't need any help finding our way. We had walked this way and then back often when Ari was younger. We had flown here many times too.

Little was said on our return trip. Fluttershy, Shysage nor I, we really couldn't explain that we had been to this big circle of huge trees before, but in the future (which sounds crazy I know). Our Ari had only known that lone Redwood, when she was much younger. And Shyna... Sis kept weeping softly, and I just joined her. I didn't know what else to do.

Still, I didn't think we would ever see the Equestrium again like we did the night after we found that lone, huge tree in the Past...

Near Ponyville, Fluttershy asked quietly that we all spend the night in her Cottage. She probably just wanted us close right now. I understood, and that was fine. As the sun dipped below trees and it got very cold, we made our way through Ponyville to her Cottage. Sis made us a very nice dinner, and the dessert was good too. Shysage took care of the fire, and the five of us were soon on our bellies facing the hearth. Ari and Shyna talked quietly, and I hugged my Sis as she was again weeping softly.

"Do you think we will still..." Through tears, Fluttershy said this much, then stopped. Fluttershy should not have said any more, but both Shysage and I knew exactly what she meant, so she didn't have to. I... was mush, crying with my sister. I knew Desert Spring would be worth the wait. But I still hurt for her.

Shysage answered quietly "Fluttershy, I think the Keeper can be trusted to keep his promise."

Fluttershy calmed down at this, and the five of us were soon asleep.

Of course, Shysage kept Fluttershy's Cottage plenty warm during the night. The last few days, it had been very cold at night, but just tolerably cool during the days, especially in direct sunlight, and with our coats on. I think we all slept well.

Fluttershy made us all a nice breakfast the next morning. Afterwards, she mentioned she and Shyna had some chores to do. After everypony hugged everypony, Shysage, Ari and I got our coats on, and headed out. The sun was up nicely, so we were comfortable. We walked slowly through town, and didn't run into anyone in particular. Ari looked around a lot, and asked me a bunch of questions, about all sorts of things. We basically talked the whole time. And I guess I made a mental note that we should try to get at least some of the chronicles nearby so Ari could read them when she wanted to.

We ended up at Princess Twilight's Castle. We walked slowly up the stairs, down the hall, and into the Library. Princess and Filia were both reading at one of the tables. They noticed us right away, got up, and used their magic to help us take our coats off. As soon as that was done, Princess said apologetically "Oh, Summer, I'm sorry we missed you yesterday. Spike said you were looking for me. I hope everything is ok..."

We bowed to our Princess, then took turns hugging her. Princess officially welcomed Ariel to Ponyville. Then I explained to Princess that we were just wandering around with our Ariel yesterday, enjoying life in Ponyville together.

After a lull in conversation, Princess explained a little more. "The girls and I were practicing our levitation magic yesterday. It is one thing to move a quill, a table, rocks and other stuff. It takes a lot more magical control to carefully move a small amount of, well, something. We were practicing that yesterday. We were scooping up small amounts of dirt and moving it around. You wouldn't think such a simple task would be so difficult, but it was a good exercise in magical control. We will do it again some day when Rarity can come."

Princess paused briefly, as if in thought, then she continued.

"You would think I knew about everything around our little town. But yesterday, Fiona noticed, well, a small cave in a wooded area close to town. Well, we --"

Shysage should have known better, but I think the wheels were quickly turning. "Princess, where was this cave?"

Princess graciously replied right away "Well, it was close to town, but I... It would probably take a little while, but I think we could find it."

Ariel was way ahead of everypony else, and by this point, she had already pulled her coat off the table, dove under it, ran down the hall, and was quickly out the Castle door.

Well, if it was the cave Shysage was thinking of, our cave, we could find it easily enough. Princess and Filia helped us get our coats back on, then they got theirs on, and we walked together through town. Past the Canterlot Recorder's house, into the east meadow, into the woods beyond, and we kept going. Still, the lay of the land was very similar, and we were soon standing in front of... our cave home in the Past...

"I... I hope this was ok. I didn't know what..." Princess said quietly.

The magic lessons from yesterday had emptied the cave mostly out. We had to actually go down now to get inside. The whole valley floor had filled in, and the lake was larger too. Still, Ariel was already inside, laying on her belly, weeping softly.

"I grew up in this cave... Queen Annie lived with us in this cave..."

I walked carefully in, laid on my belly next to Ariel, hugged her, and cried with her.

Shysage teared up too, but tried to explain. "Princess Twilight, we actually lived in this cave, deep in the Past for the first maybe two years of Ariel's life. This was our home. And when Annie came, she stayed in here too. We lived--"

Shysage stopped abruptly. "Summer look up at the roof of the cave..."

It... It was still there...

On an overnight visit here with Cel and Lu, some 1,400 years ago maybe, Shysage had carefully scratched a large heart shape on the roof of this cave. It took him about 30 minutes. Then he wrote inside the heart 'Summer + Shysage'. When he was done, he said softly "An enduring monument to my love for your mom."

It actually had endured, amazingly...

I got up quickly, climbed out of the cave, and just about tackled my Stallion. We were quickly hugging... I really love him... Still, I knew this might be awkward for everypony else, so I quickly got back up, and rejoined Ari in the cave.

Shysage had hugged me tightly; I'm sure he felt the same way I did. We both hoped our love would last, well, forever. Still, Shysage said calmly to Princess Twilight "Princess, finding this cave, and clearing it out, you all have done us an amazing favor. This cave has a special place in our family history, and to be able to visit here now..." Shysage had to stop; he was fighting back tears again.

Princess hugged him briefly, then said cheerfully "Well, I'm glad we didn't ruin anything for you. It really was a good exercise for the girls. Should we do anything else to it?"

"Well, you can clear away some more dirt from around the cave entrance. But I think that will be a constant battle, so I don't know." Shysage said hesitantly.

It was quiet for a few minutes except for Ari's sniffles. Princess mentioned to Filia they needed to get their homework done, and the two of them hugged us then headed back to the Castle.

Shysage, Ari and I... Our family spent a bunch of that day in our cave home from 1400 years ago in the Past. We talked... We remembered... We laughed... We hugged a lot... We cried a lot... We really didn't want to leave... Memories just kept flooding over us. It was like time just stood still, even though we knew the hours were racing by.

...

At one point we were crying softly together, hugging. We heard voices aproaching, then...

"Oh, my goodness! The cave!" It was Cel (well, Princess Celestia), and both she and Lu (Princess Luna) were quickly crying buckets. We made room for two more crying ponies, as Cel and Lu, crowns and all, climbed down into our cave home. Ignoring the dirt, we all laid on our bellies and cried together for a while. Cel didn't need to be reminded about the enduring monument. She quickly looked up to see if it was still there, then cried about that. And then, when we explained to Cel and Lu that we had raised Ariel in here for two years, and also added their mother Annie to our family here for the last six months of that time... Princess Twilight and Filia laid on their bellies in the grass nearby and just wept softly with us. For another hour at least, we cried and hugged (it was tight), and remembered and laughed with Equestria's Princesses...

As it started to get dark, Cel insisted that we accompany her back to the Castle. Of course, we did. We took turns climbing out, and tried to shake as much dirt off as we could. I don't think anypony really minded it though.

Cel led us through town, as we stopped briefly for those ponies that were out and about, and were very surprised to see Equestria's Princesses, and bowed quickly. Still, we were soon heading up the steps into the Castle. Down the hall, into the Library...

Cel stopped next to a table piled high with...

Ari shouted loudly "Oh, my goodness, all my notes!" Then Ari burst into tears... "How could you... I treasured all of these... And now they are here... how..."

One stack was clearly the large pile of leaf paper that we had used to record everything that happened to us while we were in the Past this last time, well up until Annie came. And how they could even last all these centuries... The other pile was clearly real paper from Coptol. Our Ari could write, after all. Shysage and I were quickly crying too. Having our notes about our time in the Past... That would make Canterlot Recording for this trip a lot easier.

Cel was quickly crying buckets with Ari. Lu tried to explain.

"The time-locked magic safe... After Ari left, we put... These were the first things we tried after the Unicorns said it was done... We never really knew if it would even work... We had found these notes cleaning out Ari's closet in the Kings palace, and used them to try it...

"Everything popped out of the safe yesterday..."

Lu cried a while, and so did Cel. Then Cel said through tears "Lu and I were up all night reading... We cried a lot... We didn't sleep much... We just couldn't... Our mother... We had forgotten so much... It's like we know her a lot better now... We remembered..."

Cel, Lu and Ari hugged tightly and cried loudly together for a while. The Foal-sitter with her foals... Queen Annie far more than a forgotten memory... Mother... We all cried...

And, as I mentioned, we recorded our time in the Past up until Annie arrived. Evidently, some time later, Ariel had picked up the record at that point, and added the details of our six months with Annie, as well as our visit to Coptol to find Annie's dad so Annie could tell him she was the Mare... Ariel added all that detail, up until we disappeared. She had helped us with our Canterlot Recording...

This record... From when we left, up until we came back to our present... It was all here... Shysage and I just cried...

...

Maybe half an hour later, Lu pulled away, and walked over to the stack of Coptol papers. Cel noticed, stood to her full height, and said somewhat sternly "Everypony, silence please." Using her magic, Lu brought over two pages, and said quietly

"Ariel, please read this..."

Author's Note

Slow, understated elegance of 'The Celestial Capital - Al'Taieu'* from the 'Chains of Promethia'* expansion for Final Fantasy XI* (*c2014 by Square Enix)

Chapter 24, My Dearest Ariel

My Dearest Ariel,

Words cannot express how much your amazing friendship has meant to me. Since even before I was married, you have been nothing but the closest and most giving friend. Not knowing anything else about me, you quickly became such a dear part of my life. Our first six months together were like a dream come true for me. We flew together... We laughed together... You and your family enveloped me in a deep love I had never known.

I guess we will never know what happened to your amazing mom and dad, but I speak for the rest of my family, that taking you in, just like your family did for me, that was nothing less than a joy for everypony. And the months leading up to my wedding, you were my constant companion, and a ready ear, sometimes the only ear, where I could share my hopes and fears, my deepest longings and worries. And you shared your shoulder with me as I cried... My family are such simple folk, and I am sure me becoming, well, royalty, over night... I know it was hard for them. But it seems like you were always there for me, well, you were always there. We were inseparable (your word), and I guess I really needed that.

Until I received my Cutie Marks, I dispaired of ever finding a Stallion, somepony that wanted more from me than just having foals, and keeping house. And watching your mom and dad... Well, I secretly hoped, anyway. But marriage, well, it took me so by surprise, and to a king no less. I just don't understand that.

But one thing I do understand... You never talked much about it, but your family taught me to put others first. And when I was married to King Thars, I put that into practice. I think he really needed that. It a lot of ways he is an amazing Stallion, my Stallion. But he is just so run down and scattered so many directions by ponies who refuse to give the past up. I give him everything I can, and I think that helps him cope. I love you so much, but my love for him is so vastly different. He is my Stallion and I am his Mare. I think he and I would be a lot like your mom and dad, if only we had the time...

So far, I have given him, really given us both, two beautiful mares, the two appointed ones. Celest and Luna, our girls are absolutely amazing, and my only wish is that the King and I could spend more time with them. As you know, I try to be with the King as much as I can. Some have told me quietly that the leaders treat King Thars much more kindly, more respectfully, when I am at his side. That means a lot to me, and if that is the main way I can help him...

But believe me, I am so delighted that you are spending so much time with Celest and Luna in my place! They need you. In the midst of this dark maelstrom that is Coptol, they need the calm and quiet love and devotion that you showed me... While I am out and about with the King, trying to make sense of ponies that don't want to think beyond themselves... I help him any way I can, and it gives me great calm knowing that you are the Foal-sitter for our two jewels. I can relax a lot more, and try to help my Stallion. I would rather the four of us, the King and I, and of course Celest and Luna; I wish we could move out to your cave out west, and just enjoy each other. But, for now, we will do what we need to do here.

I don't know why, but I have been filled with a deepening sense of foreboding of late. Cougar attacks are on the rise, and it seems that just a few of them instill such fear in the townsponies, and the guards too. The guards run off as quickly as ordinary folk do, and that is just scary. We have lost so many ponies, citizens... I was right to fear coming back here, but I knew I had to. But living here is scary too, you know that. I wish your mom were here...

I don't know where this looming cloud will blow, but I want you to know that I will treasure you always. I know that King Thars and I are prime targets. And if anything should happen to me, make sure that you take good care of Celest and Luna for me. They deserve that at least. And they both love you dearly too.

I could have told you all this tomorrow, and probably will anyway. But you taught me to write, and I can't sleep, so I wanted to get this all down, how I feel. Thanks to your dad's clip thing, everypony in Coptol can learn to write now, not just Unicorns.

Well, my Stallion the King is away, checking on the forward camp, I can only hope he returns soon. I need him here, I think. Well, I just need him.

Oh Ariel, I am just so thankful for you. I hope our amazing friendship lasts forever.

Faithfully yours,

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ark-Anna, The Mare
Princess of the Pegasus Clan
Queen of the Pony Tribes
Mare of King Thars

Chapter 25, Thankful for the Past

Ariel read the letter, written to Ari herself by Queen Annie... It was probably the last letter Cel and Lu's (Princess Celestia and Princess Luna's) mother wrote before she was taken by the Cougars and killed. And, judging by the shock quickly etched across Ari's face; Ari probably had not seen this letter before. When Ari finished reading, Cel, Lu and Ari, they just collapsed into tears together on the floor. They cried for a long time. And I think that, maybe... This was probably the first time that Equestria's Princesses were able to cry through their mother's untimely death, now over a millenia ago.

Still very young, Cel and Lu were absolutely traumatized when we rescued them, which was right after Queen Annie was killed. Seconds away from death themselves at the hand of six hungry Cougars, these two foals were in no shape to even try to grasp their own mother's death, and they may not have even known. At the time, Shysage and I, we didn't know who any of these poor ponies were, or what had just happened. But we had rescued two terrified foals. We just scooped Sue and Lee up, flew them back to Coptol, and loved them as our own for over two years. We didn't even learn who Sue and Lee actually were until...

But now, as their Foal-sitter burst back into their lives, and their mother's memory loomed large before them, Cel and Lu wept deeply for their mother. And our Ariel had lost her most amazing best friend. The three of them cried together a long time...

Shysage and I cried too. Perhaps closing a much smaller chapter ourselves, Annie was such a sweet mare... For six months, we had loved her, just like we loved our Ari. Annie's death hit home for us, and Shysage and I hugged tightly, and wept softly for a while as well. Her death seemed so senseless...

I have no recollection of who came and went during that evening. We had first come here to Princess Twilight's Castle near sundown on a cold winter day, which would be early evening. And we all cried for hours. But, probably in the middle of the night, we noticed Princess Twilight and all her girls, circled respectfully around Equestria's Princesses, weeping softly with them.

And I have no idea how, but we all ended up asleep, right where we were there on the wood floor in the Library.

Fluttershy wondered later if maybe Equestria's Princesses had some sort of internal alarm clock. They were up pretty early the next morning, from what Sis told me. I guess Shysage and I slept in. When I woke up, Ari, Cel and Lu were on their bellies facing us, talking together quietly, and maybe sniffling just a little still.

Most of Princess' girls were already gone (except Fluttershy, who was on her belly nearby). Sis said that Princess Celestia had thanked her extended family (Princess Twilight and her girls), after explaining a little more about Ariel's role in their lives, now so long ago.

Noticing our three girls (which made me want to cry), I quietly woke Shysage up, and we worked on getting coherent. It wasn't long before Cel noticed, and said quietly "I... Our Foal-sitter has not yet been to Canterlot, and I would ask that you three treat Equestria's Princesses with a visit in the Audience Hall when it is convenient."

Of course, we would make that happen.

Cel, Lu and Ari hugged tightly for a little while more. I think parting was especially tough for the three of them. Cel took a few minutes to hug Fluttershy, then Equestria's Princesses headed out the door, and were gone, no doubt heading back to Canterlot in an Air Coach. I could only hope the trip went well, it was winter after all.

I... I needed to hug Fluttershy some more. I think we hugged and wept softly for a while. Three years, I had really missed my sister. I think I already said that... Then she and Shyna headed off to the Cottage.

Ariel led us over to the two piles of papers, then broke down and just cried. Shysage and I hugged Ariel for a while as she cried some more. While she was crying, she said at one point "If that letter is any indication, I have no idea what else I might find..." After Ari calmed down, we agreed this task could wait. Well, all of the notes on that table -- this would significantly ease our Canterlot Recording for this volume.

...

Looking around the Library, it was just us. Shysage helped Ari and I get our coats on, then he climbed under his, and we were off, out of the Library, down the hall, and down the steps in front of the Castle. We headed to the Canterlot Recorder's house for breakfast, even though it looked like it was probably close to noon. The sun was high and warm. We needed coats, but since there was little breeze, we were comfortable. On the way, we passed Dawn and Camille, and hugged them a few minutes. Once home, Ari made us some more of that yummy oat stew. I think we were all hungry.

After breakfast or lunch, whichever it was, we headed to the meadow off to the east for a drink. Shysage asked about that little hill. I just mentioned softly that we were heading out to Sweet Apple Acres to talk to Applejack. Shysage didn't ask any questions, and we all walked calmly there. Just walking together like that, it felt very nice, and we weren't in a hurry at all.

We found Applejack in the barn moving hay bails around like they were paper. We spoke briefly, and Applejack sent us off into the west orchard. It didn't take long for us to find the clump of eleven or so dead apple trees near the center of the orchard. Shysage helped me get my coat off. It was a little cool, but with no wind and the warm early afternoon sun... I shifted back on my hind legs, and changed into a people while standing up. I stood there briefly and again admired the long flowing dress Rare had given me in the Equestria Girls world. It was beautiful. Then I spun up my Cutie Mark, and Shysage asked Ariel to stay with him, which she did. It didn't take long for me to completely uproot the dead trees, throw them into a big pile, then smash them down into a much smaller pile of splintered limbs and branches.

Remembering our trip to the future, I had Shysage run back and ask Applejack if she needed the firewood. Applejack about cried, and said yes. She told Shysage we could leave it right there, and she and Big Mac would run wagonloads to the house.

I just sighed, but I guessed we were done here. I was soon back to my Pony self, with my coat on, as we walked back to the barn together. Applejack thanked us for "killing two birds with one stone", she said, as we got ready to leave. Applejack paused in thought a minute, then said slowly "You know..." She paused briefly again, then said "Hey Summer, there are two dead trees along the road to town. They are near the fence, and look bad. They have been there for years, and I just keep forgetting, until I walk by... If you could pull them up, that would be a big help. We don't need that old wood though."

I assured Applejack we would take care of the two dead trees along the road, then we headed off. The two ugly trees were easy to find, and fairly close to the edge of the orchard. They were quickly yanked up, and in a pile away from the other trees, and broken into small pieces. That is what I needed.

I turned back into a pony. I asked Shysage to stay back, as I called Ariel over. I looked at the pile of wood, briefly, then I got this much out "Ari, I wondered--"

Ariel already knew what I was after, and didn't wait for me to finish. She raised her left front leg, pointed it at the big pile of dead tree pieces, then stomped her right hind hoof quietly but quickly to the ground. From high above, a ball of fire crashed down on the pile of wood, and it was burning hotly.

I glanced at Shysage, and he was smiling. I think he had already realized, both what I had in mind, as well as what the Phantom Alicorn's daughter might do.

I looked back at Ariel, and she was smiling too. "I am my mother's daughter" she said quietly. We hugged and cried together for a while. This was really amazing... That she could share some of my powers...

After calming down just a little, Ariel tried to explain.

"The first Cougar I met out west... I felt so helpless... I was under a tree... And I was angry to have to die like this... I sort of worked through the motions... I pointed at the slowly approaching and loudly growling Cougar, closed my eyes, and stomped my hoof, and yelled NO!

"...The growling stopped..."

"That's my girl..." What else could I say?

Shysage joined us, and the three of us cried together for a while more.

I quietly asked "What elements do you have?"

Ariel thought a minute, then replied "Fire and Water are all I know of."

"Can you put that fire out then?" I asked calmly.

That was quickly done.

Ariel is probably the same age I am; she already has her Cutie Mark. Against her white coat, a yellow streak of lightning maybe, comes down, then curls up into a shrinking circle, Shysage said its a spiral, whatever that is. I don't know if thats the right way to describe it, but that is Ariel's Cutie Mark. I was pretty sure I knew what it meant as soon as I saw it. I guess I could have asked her; she knew what it meant too.

This was Shysage and my family and this was a family discussion. I asked Ariel what she knew about me and my powers.

My daughter smiled right away. "Well, you are the Shila, and your magic is great, even though you are a Pegasus. And I vaguely remember you doing what I did or something similar when I was very young. Still, watching you throw apple trees around, that didn't surprise me."

I answered quietly "You will learn more about that, but the most important thing..." I stopped and sat down right there in the road, then closed my eyes, and said quietly "Because of my powers, Equestria owns me, and has moved Shysage and I around a lot. Still, nopony must know about that... I am the Phantom Alicorn, and I need to stay out of sight until I'm needed..."

Shysage had already sat on one side of me, as close to me as he could, and he wept quietly with me. Our Ariel would some day learn the price we have had to pay to be able to help Equestria.

Ariel sat on my other side, and wept softly with us for a while. Then she said quietly "I quickly arrived at the same conclusion. I am not a normal Pegasus, and the powers I possess are not mine. They are for helping others."

We just cried together for a while, there on the path.

Then Ariel smiled. "Mom, dad, my Cutie Mark is a mixing bowl. It means I am good at cooking. Did you know that?"

Laughing with tears in our eyes never felt so good...

Until Shysage mentioned quietly "Ariel, your mother is Shila the Beautiful, and you are just like her."

Ariel and I both blushed. We had to hug a while more, then the cold rushed us back to Ponyville, back to the Canterlot Recorder's house.

...

Honestly, oat stew was good, but... I think we all arrived at the same conclusion at the same time. We kept our coats on, and walked back out the door. We wandered through town, then headed to Fluttershy's Cottage.

Sis and Shyna were happy to see us, and us girls hugged for a bit while Shysage tended to the fire. Fluttershy said she had plenty for dinner; they would be delighted for us to join them. Shyna and Ari were soon talking together as Shyna helped Fluttershy. Well, Shyna and Ari both helped. I didn't think we needed a lot of food, I don't know.

Princess Twilight and Filia arrived soon after we did. We all bowed, then hugged our amazing princess.

Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Fiona came through the door next. Well, I finally figured out we were joining Princess Twilight and her girls for dinner at Fluttershy's. I guess that explained the two tables.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash came soon after. Princess insisted on a group hug, and somepony started us saying what we often say together, and Princess said her part through tears. We hugged together for a little while, then we all sat down for dinner.

I was kind of scared; it seemed like we had invited ourselves here. Shyna quickly called Ari to the table with Filia and Fiona, Princess Twilight and Rarity, and Pinkie Pie I think. Still, Shysage and I both stood back a little. We would sit where Fluttershy wanted us to sit, and that was up to her. Well, Sis wanted me right next to her, and Shysage was next to me of course. With Filia, Fiona, Shyna and Ari talking non-stop and laughing at the other table, Rainbow laughed and said this would be the quiet table. And Applejack thanked us again for a few year's supply of firewood.

Of course, dinner was good, and Ari and Shyna both helped serve everypony.

Afterwards, Princess Twilight asked for everyponies' attention and said a few words, I think about volume 5, which I guess could start any day... I can't remember what she said because I was weeping softly and trying to not cry louder.

I was remembering the day these same six ponies, my sister Fluttershy included, had welcomed me into this circle... So much had happened since that afternoon, and I have grown to so deeply treasure each of the amazing ponies in this room, as well as their Twins on the other side of the Portal. I don't know what the occasion was for this dinner, but I couldn't seem to stop crying, especially remembering helping the Equestria Girls rescue Princess Twilight and each of her girls from death that dark night, years ago now...

"Aww, Summer, what is it..." Princess Twilight asked softly.

I think I got out "Oh, Princess... Dark Night... Huge Tombstones..." and could say no more. I think a group hug was really the only thing we could do, as we all wept softly together, remembering that terrible night.

Shysage and I, we don't have much. Well, Equestria owns our home, and... We really don't have anything...

...but our amazing, true friends in this room; each a rich treasure...

...our precious daughter from the Past...

We have so much to be thankful for...

Chapter 13, Ancient Pony Wisdom, Part 2

This is an ancient poem, written in old pony, and clearly also a prophecy. It was originally written with large letters, and looks like coal on parchment. It was probably never intended to last more than 100 years, let alone over a millennia.

The symbol [...] indicates unreadable text. This poem appeared to include two stanzas, but the entire first stanza has been reduced to a single smudge. This is the second stanza, now barely readable.

[...]

Hish will fine the mar

[...] hi the ar [...]

Brightly Son to yeild te day

In all thish yo will zee

Mun agloo te soft of nigt

with bot mar[k?]s yo will be

Com nu ner [...]

[...] hish tom me [...]

[...]

Fitch her sooner [...]

[... ...] shii[l?]a

[...] famtum [...]

[...] stiil bar [...]

[...] dappont onz

Chapter 19, Ariel Gone

Equestria present came into view. The music was gone... I didn't even bother looking for our Ariel... Shysage and I were both immediately crying buckets...

The Portal placed us back on the steps of Princess Twilight's castle, right where we were when we had left. Shysage was laying across the bottom step, and I was standing next to Princess Twilight at the top of the steps. We couldn't have been gone from our present very long, even though we had been in the Past maybe three years... It was freezing cold, of course, and I could see the snow on the gound.

The angry mob was still there, although most of their signs were on the ground now, and they were quiet. I heard most gasp when we came into view. Shysage was no longer a bloody mess...

And it sounded like Princess Twilight was trying to talk to them. What we heard... "...Surely you don't really want to reduce Equestria to ashes and death..."

Shysage and I didn't even bother waiting around for the answer. Almost immediately after we arrived back in our present, Shysage and I, both crying profusely; we got up, ran into the castle, down the hall and into the library, up onto the rug in front of the Portal, flopped down on our bellies, and we buried our heads together over Shysage's front legs. We just cried. We really couldn't do anything else...

We loved our Ariel deeply... We told her over and over we would never leave her... We promised her that someday we would explain everything. We told her some about our amazing friends and family here in our present, and said we would be overjoyed for her to finally meet everypony... We loved Ari as our own, because she was...

It would be a long day... It would be a long night... It would be a long... For weeks... months... years, we would be...

Our Ariel was gone...

Chapter 26, My Precious Annie

My Precious Annie,

Bah, I don't even know why I'm here... away from you...

You know, until you burst into my life as the Mare, I didn't even care about mares; well, I just didn't have the time. Getting even simple tasks for the Pony Kingdom done seemed to take forever. I knew I had to try and lead our growing pony race, but every step, every gain... It was just difficult. So a mare was the last thing on my mind. It had to be. And I knew the Mare would be coming soon, but I really didn't think she would come to me, during my life.

But you...

I think most ponies quietly wondered if the Mare was really you, even after it was clear you had two Cutie Marks, just like the books foretold. You seemed so simple, so normal, just like everypony else. I'm sorry, but I felt the same way, at first... It didn't take long. I can't describe the light I felt in my soul. Just having you nearby brought me such calm, such hope. I didn't have to fight with you, ever. It was like you just... You always wanted... did what was best for me... That was so new, a feeling I had never known. You gave to me... Everything you could, even though I know it was hard for you. Well, of course, I have tried to love you just the same, and I hope I am making progress there. You really are amazing. And it didn't take long for me to realize how much I absolutely needed you; I still need you. And now I'm out here, and want you really badly... Well, and Celest and Luna too, I miss our girls so much. I hope we are done here soon, and I can return.

You know this, but the Cougars are coming from far west. We are doing some scouting to try and find a way to stop them before they can reach Coptol, or at least be alerted when they prepare an attack. But the land is just so vast... The guards here tell me they can scout for days and find nothing. Well, yesterday, we did find an area that looked like it was recently occupied, but probably by ponies, and not Cougars. And it didn't take long for us to find the remains of maybe a dozen Cougar raiders in the area. We are just not sure what to make of that. Even if a bunch of them attacked us, I doubt we could survive. We certainly couldn't kill twelve like we found there.

Coptol isn't much safer, but I hope to be able to come back soon. You are there, and now, being with you means everything to me. And if anything should ever happen to you...

I love you so much.

King Thars