"Now--" Twilight walked alongside Summer. "I don't suggest you just spring this all on him all at once. You have to approach carefully, with consideration for his feelings."

"R-right, of course." Summer swallowed thickly. "Is he gonna hate me?"

Twilight patted Summer on the back. "Probably not. Many... I don't have a word for them. Replacements? Most replacements that find a happy new life become quite attached to that, I've found. His love for you isn't a lie."

"That's good..." She was quiet a moment, just their hooves on the ground. "But do ah deserve it?"

"That is up to him to decide." She turned to the mare, getting a little in the way. "But I do know if you break ties with him, it will hurt him. You won't be doing him a favor, or yourself, if I have the situation understood as well as I think I do." She tapped at her cheek softly. "Your love for him isn't a lie, either. It may have had an... impure motivation to start, but you have developed a genuine family."

Summer smiled at that, marred with her emotions. "T-thanks. You're just the best." She reached with one hoof, hugging Twilight briefly, if firmly. "Right... May have started kinda bad... but we came out of that... I just gotta tell him the truth, and let him decide. Whatever he wants, he gets. I owe him that much!"

"It's very clear." Twilight inclined her head at the hut they had been approaching. "You all adore each other very much."

Lifted by this fact, Summer charged into the room. There was Maple, cooking something on the small stove there. Winter spotted her right away and rose to trot up to her with a mild smile, practically a grin by his standards.

Summer flinched back, which he noticed. She forced herself upright. "S-sorry, just... We need to talk." She sat in front of him. "Heart to heart."

Maple slid what she was cooking to the side, off the heat. "That sounds like somethin' I should be there for." She walked over and sat next to Winter, facing Summer.

Winter sat with Maple, the two watching Summer, eager to hear what she had to say.

Summer swallowed thickly, her nervousness not well hidden. "Right... So..." She played with her hooves in the air. "Before you joined me, Winter, I was... kinda lonely."

Winter leaned in for a nosetouch, but she gently pushed him back. "Story time. Nuzzles afterwards if you're feeling up for it."

Maple put an arm around Winter. "Let's hear what she has to say, looks important."

Words. Winter settled with a faint huff. He would wait for the words to be done. That she was upset about something seemed clear, but not much else.

"Winter... I didn't meet you, not by chance. Not sure how much you remember it..." She flopped bonelessly to her haunches. "Ah... kinda ordered you."

Ordered him? He perked an ear, a loud exclamation of confusion in his books.

Summer put both hooves to her head as if to fight back a headache. "Ah was lonely an' thought... And ah got you! And you've been... just the best. But ah did that!"

Twilight tilted her head. That hadn't been very careful or slow. She backed away out of sight, leaving the family to have their chat.

Winter blinked silently, as was his way. He reached to place a hoof on her, which she shied back from. He set the hoof back down on the ground.

"Oops." Maple swatted gently at a lick of fire on Winter's shoulder. "You alright?" She looked to Summer. "You bought him?"

"I'm the worst," admitted Summer, flopping over entirely.

Winter had so many questions, and so few answers. But, perhaps more, he wanted Summer to stop being so sad... He grunted, practically a shout for him, the fires growing against his will as he struggled against the emotions.

Maple frantically beat at him with a towel, trying to put it out. "Let's just... all calm down, everypony... We can talk about this reasonably and figure--"

"No!" shouted Winter suddenly, his voice cracked and uneven. He hadn't talked in a long time.

Summer sat up suddenly. "Winter?"

"No," he barely got out, shuddering and flickering with his emotions. "No..." Visions of his past life washed into his mind. He had been playing a game, with friends he'd never seen before. He was playing... and then Summer. "No..."

Summer didn't have to flick her ears back, already folded. "Winter... I understand if you're angry at me. I deserve it!"

"No!" he shouted at Summer, fires blazing hot and high and driving Maple back. "No..."

Maple abandoned the towel, useless as it was proving to be. "Summer, perhaps it'd be better if you explained what happened 'xactly."

"Y-yes, of course." Summer looked to Maple and Winter. "When ya first came, you were--"

"Like this," interrupted Twilight, a hologram of a human appearing in the air, with her horn glowing with the same halo of magic.

Winter's eyes widened. That image... it brought back some memories. He had hands. He had fingers. He had a job and a life... He had a lot of things... But he traded it away, without being asked. It was stolen, and in its place, Summer, and Maple. He felt his vision shift, becoming nothing but heat as his eyes shifted to nothing but the fire of a nirik. He could still see, but it was like everything was on fire, the heat haze washing over everything in his vision.

"Like that," miserably allowed Summer. "An ah told ya all about the kirin... an' you became one, the best one I know! My kirin..."

Winter flashed his teeth, deadly sharp in nirik form. Biting her. Yes, that felt like a great thing to do. Bite, tear, and burn until it all made sense again. Yes....

"No!" he barked at that part of himself, stomping with a puff of flames. Most of the town was made of wood, but they had put them in a hut of stone. The why of that seemed suddenly very clear. "No..."

Maple suddenly moved in front of Summer. "Alright, Ah'm the only straight-thinkin' adult in here, so ah'll set it straight." She pointed at Winter. "We love you. But what do you--" She pointed directly at their flaming husband. "--want? We want that. Simple as that."

Summer sat up, blinking. "When did you start talkin' like that?"

"What?" Maple wheeled on her. "I can speak sense when there's sense that needs speakin'!"

Winter crashed to his haunches, still burning. What did he want?

Twilight approached on slow hooves. "I understand part of what you're going through."

Winter looked at the unicorn. How would they know?! They were just saying that. His flames burst higher in irritation. "Hear me out," she gently assured. "I've been chasing Doctor Fetlock, the one who gave you to Summer, for a while."

His flames guttered out suddenly, leaving him tired. He flopped forward onto his belly. "Are you alright?" asked Twilight, looking at the fallen kirin. "Should I... come back later?"

"No." That one word, he had reclaimed. He forced himself upright enough to look at her.

"Continue? Or stay gone?" But she got the hint. "Doctor Fetlock is a master of 'filling holes'. She, somehow, conjures humans to take the part of ponies that are missing, be that through misfortune or simply not existing in the first place." She gestured a bit wildly as she explained. "Once she completes the sale, she doesn't seem to care what happens to the new pony or creature, and divests all responsibility to the new 'owner'."

Winter tried to think on that, to dredge up old memories. He sure didn't remember hearing about tons of missing people, but he didn't remember a lot... Still...

Twilight nudged against Summer, sending her forward. Summer came in with a shy smile. "Ah'm really sorry... If ya don't want nothin' to do wit' me, ah understand. Ain't no excuse fer what ah done."

Winter placed a hoof on her snout. "No..." He frowned. That word was pretty flexible, but he needed more of them... Silence just wasn't enough for that situation. "No... No. I." He turned the booping hoof on himself. "I..." Ugh, stupid words. He drew her in and hugged her firmly. That was an answer!

Summer smiled awkwardly. "Now, no matter what Twilight jus' said, ah ain't yer 'owner'. Yer free to do whatever ya want." Which, apparently, meant hugging her without pause. "Ah'm pretty alright with this option..." A new presence nestled in. She drew Maple into the hug, completing the family. "We are one strange family!" she laughed out, Maple joining her, and a new strange sound coming in third.

Winter was laughing, an odd noise, coming from an unused throat, but it was laughter. His wives hugged him all the tighter as he laughed and cried at once, the pressure running loose that had been held in for so long.

Twilight jumped at a poke, twisting around to see Rain Shine drawing back a hoof. She gestured with her head at the family and backed away. Twilight followed the kirin leader outside the little house. "Can I help you?"

"I can only assume you helped them." She pointed to the hut and its odd family. "Thank you for that. Did I hear him speak? I thought he was silenced... No, that doesn't make sense." She put together the secrets shared with her. "He has decided to speak?"

Twilight nodded firmly. "It was his choice and none other." She let out a slow breath. "I think they'll heal back stronger for it."

"They are welcome to stay, that friendly dream of a kirin." She inclined her head. "He is prompting emotions among my kirin. Jealousy, anger, desire, disgust..."

"Those are not good emotions..." Twilight squinted at Rain Shine. "And you want him to stay longer?"

"For as long as they need to be ready to leave, no more or less." Rain Shine nodded with the stoic energy of kirin. "That goes for you and Applejack, though you two are welcome with less strings attached. Most are pleased to have you here." She leaned in, horn almost touching Twilight's. "In fact, the children had many questions about ponies. Would you have the time to talk to them about it?"

Twilight's eyes shined. "I would be delighted! I'll have a lesson plan prepared for tomorrow. Where is the school?"

Rain Shine led Twilight off. Applejack's advice had been spot on in what motivated the unicorn. Their foals would get an excited lesson, if not exciting, the following day.

"Alright to come in?" Applejack was at the door, smiling at the ponies and kirin within.

"Yes." Another word. Winter waved her in and pointed to the table Summer was seated at.

Summer greeted her with a brief hug. "Hey there. Ya done missed all the drama... Probably fer the best... Already embarassed 'nough that Twilight saw it..."

Applejack cringed at that. "Oooo, that bad?" She looked to Winter curiously. "I heard you. Ya talkin' now?" He nodded. "But only a little. That's fine. Ain't no rush. Got a brother who's powerful quiet. Bet you two would get right along." She flicked an ear back. "He's, uh, met the Good Doctor before..." That got his attention. "Ah'll send him by, you two probably got plenty to chat about."

Maple looked over from where she was trying to finish lunch. "Wait, your brother? So you know all about her then?"

"Not much," she admitted with a shrug and closed eyes for that moment. "Brother ain't talkin' to me much. An' he's quiet to start. But I bet he'll open up to another pony already dealin' with her. Shoot, wish ah could trap her in a room... Ah'd get a few answers out of her..."

Maple brought over a large platter to set on the table, sliding free from her back. "Time to eat, not ruminate, unless yer ruminatin' with yer teeth. Go ahead with that."

It was time to not talk.

Author's Note

This was a big moment. It could also be the end? It could also NOT be the end. Thoughts?

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