"I am kirin." Winter nodded to one wife and then the other.

Summer applauded with a clopping meeting that Maple joined an instant after. "Good."

Maple nodded firmly. "Ah knew you were. Glad you feel better 'bout it."

Winter went up to touch nose to cheek with each. "Learning. Wait?"

Summer inclined her head.

Maple got it. "Wait for you?" He nodded. "Of course we're gonna wait for you." She swatted at him. "That's what a family would do, ain't it?"

Summer nodded firmly. "We're going nowhere until you're ready to go. But, just to note." She reached over, slapping a hoof on a sheet of paper. "Our home isn't a world away. You can still reach out and talk to these kirin any time ya want."

Winter willed the paper in the air to float in front of him for proper consideration. "Yes... Not yet." He put the paper down in his magic. "Learn more. Then." He pointed to the paper. "Then."

Maple slapped both hooves down on Winter's chest. "Listen t'you! All talkin' an' whatnot." She nestled in, rubbing the top of her head under Winter's chin, nose to his throat. "I like it. I liked it before, but I like this too..."

Summer smiled at both of them. "Here's a 'hear hear' to that. Our stallion done got even better. Didn't think it was possible." She turned for the small stove. "Now, since ya went and found yer voice... What do you want for lunch?"

Winter perked up at that. "Lunch." As if he were tasting the word more than any theoretical food. "Mmm... Meat."

Summer perked her ears, turning around halfway, curling so her front and back both faced him. "Meat? Oh, since you can ask, do kirin eat meat?"

A fine question that made him think with a raised hoof to his chin. "I don't... know. But I want meat."

Summer nodded. "Well, if you want it, yer gettin' it! Gimmie half a trot to get some." She abandoned the goal of reaching the stove to take off out the door towards the market.

Maple sat next to him. "Why meat? Ah mean, sure, everycreature's got their taste... but why that?"

Winter considered a quiet moment. "Good memories. Meat." He held up his hooves as if holding a sandwhich between them, a big perfect burger. "I..." He dropped the phantom burger. "I was not a kirin." The words left him heavily, a big thing to admit. "I was not a kirin..."

"You're a Winter," argued Maple. "And a darn tootin' fine Winter at that!"

Winter smiled at Maple's eagerness. "Thank you. I was not a kirin. I liked meat." He licked over his lips. "Cow?"

Maple's eyes went wide. "Woah! Wait... don't let the cows hear you say that... They're creatures too, you know." She glanced left and right for privacy and leaned in. "Pretty sure only Griffons would trade that kinda meat..."

Winter hummed softly. "Hm..."

"Yer thinkin' the wrong thing!" Maple bapped at him impotently. "We're not visitin' the griffons to buy that."

"Okay," he allowed, sagging a little. He was a bit sad, and he showed it. Let it show... He'd keep that nirik away until it was needed.

Maple blinked softly. "Did... Huh... I'm not used to you... showin' yer emotions like that."

"Back!" Summer came rushing in with a bag on her back, bouncing with each step. "Hope yer ready!" She leaned off to let the bag fall to the counter where it flopped open, revealing two smaller packages within. "Ah ain't no specialty when it comes to this, so ah let them give me a sampler."

Winter rushed up for a peek. One of them was fish, smelled like it. Trout. The other was bird, and it smelled, unsurprisingly, of raw chicken. Neither were cow, but he clapped anyway. "I can help."

Summer touched noses with him. "But I want to make a treat."

He returned the touch, rubbing. "It will be a treat... to cook with you. With you both?"

Maple jumped up to her hooves. "Let's do it!"

So they got to cooking. Winter remembered how to prepare meat, and ended up leading the way, but they all had their hooves on it, the meal a creation of their shared want to make up some tasty food.

A snout poked in, a kirin stallion following it. "Mmm, something smells wonderful. What are you making?" The idea of personal space in private property seemed a loose concept among the kirin.

Winter pointed proudly at the food he was gently prodding with a magic-held spatula. "Fish and Fowl. Tasty." He licked his lips in eager anticipation. "Share?"

"Gladly." He moved to sit at the small table. "Thanks!"

Summer sat across from the new kirin. "Hey, since yer here, got a kirin question."

"If I can help." The kirin inclined his head at Summer. "What is the question?"

Summer pointed to the joyfully cooking Winter. "What do kirin usually eat? What's good for 'em? I want to fill my stallion with what'll keep him happy and healthy."

The stallion perked his tufted ears up, going red at the tips of them. "Oh! That's... very thoughtful of you. We kirin can eat a lot of things." He hummed with thoughts of foods filling his mind. "But a healthy kirin mixes fruit and vegetables in. We can eat hay, like a pony, but we aren't ponies." He smiled wider than he had to, pointing to his canines. "We like meat." He glimmered with heat. "We're good at cooking it. He seems to know that."

"Yes!" Winter approached with a serving platter floating next to him. "I hope you are hungry." He set the platter down in the center of the table and slid in himself. "Eat."

Maple sank next to him. "Gladly. Ah ain't the meat kind usually, but this smells great."

"Agreed," joined the kirin.

Things quieted down, save for the sounds of chomping and eager consumption. "Mmm." The stallion nodded at Winter. "You can cook."

"I can cook," he agreed with a smile. "Thank you." He took another big chunk of breaded bird. "Mmm..."

Summer scurried off, returning with a bowl of various fruits she put beside the main dish. "A healthy kirin eats this too! So does a healthy pony."

The kirin looked to Winter. "She was asking about kirin food. You seem to know it already. Meat, fruits, a little hay and vegetables... All good. We like our food cooked."

Winter nodded firmly. "Better when.... cooked, yes. Thank you." He willed a bit of trout up, tapping it with the kirin's bit and they chomped together, then a slice of apple and some cherries. Mmm. Though that made him think. He picked up a peach from the bowl. "How... Cook?"

The kirin eyed it a moment, but it clicked. "Oh! Never heard of baking? You can make all kinds of tasty fruits into pies and cakes and things." He licked his lips with appreciation. "If you don't know, your mares might?" He looked to them.

Summer took the peach from Winter. "Peach pie? I can do that! I'd want you to take the--" She didn't get to finish. The peach glowed brightly with Winter's magic, splitting in half and the core casually falling out. "Like that... but a lot of peaches to make the treat with." She looked to the new kirin. "Ain't nothin' wrong with a peach jus' the way it is, ah hope?"

The kirin willed one of the two halves over and took a nice big chomp out of it. "Nope." Easy answer that. "Mmm, but it's even better when it's cooked. Most things are."

Heat was a part of him. Heat was a part of a healthy happy kirin... That made sense. Winter bounced in place a little, feeling happier by the moment. He was a kirin. He hadn't been a kirin before, but he was a kirin, and that was a fine thing to be! "Sorry."

The other kirin blinked. "Sorry?"

Winter pointed at the two mares. "Want time."

"Oh!" The stallion got to his hooves. "Sorry. See you later." He left without further prompting. Getting between a stallion and their mate wasn't on his plans for the day.

With privacy returned, Winter went to touch nose to each of his wives' cheeks. "I love you."

Maple began to tear up suddenly. "Wow... Ah always knew ya did... but hearin' it... Don't ever hesitate to say that again."

Summer grabber Winter by the cheeks. "I don't love you. I adore you." She brought him closer by the cheeks, touching noses. "You are my everythin'... If you are hurt or sad, you tell us."

Winter felt something... oh... he was crying too. Happy tears. No flames were trying to escape him, just liquid pride. "Yes." That word felt improper. Insufficient. Weak, small... Just not enough. He nuzzled and nipped Summer's ear, just to turn that same loving attention on Maple. "I love you both. I am not mad." He sank to his haunches. "I am not mad. I am happy." He thumped his own chest. "I am glad to be me."

Maple leaned in against Winter. "I'm glad yer who you are too, and who that is ain't a solid thin'." She nudged against him. "It'll change. We'll change... Part of bein' 'live."

Summer nodded at that. "Well said! Ha... I feel silly now. Alright, I'll make up for it by making some of that pie. Winter, you promised to help."

Winter scrambled to his hooves and followed after her to help some some fruits ready for the pie process. "Yes. Tonight, going to class. Learn how to kirin..."

Still Insight was waiting patiently in the darkening ampitheatre. "There you are." Her horn began to glow as she spotted Winter approaching. "I was worried a moment you may not come."

"No." Ah, that mastered word. "I want to learn." He tapped at his own chest. "I am happy to be a kirin. Show me how to... How to be a good kirin."

Still gently pressed a cloven hoof to his face. "You're already a good kirin."

Winter sank to his haunches. "You... don't know?"

"I do know," Still gently countered. "You have friends and family that came all this way just for you. That doesn't happen easily for bad creatures, kirin or not. You are loved and you are cared for. If that isn't a good creature, I must not know what one of those are."

Winter inclined an ornate ear, not that the mare before him had one any less so. "I was not a kirin. I am now."

"I think you mentioned that... What were you? You don't have to tell me, but I am curious" Still willed a steaming cup closer. "Want some tea?"

Winter accepted the tea, taking the cup into his magic as she grabbed another. "I was tall." He stood up. "Like this. Less fur." He felt over himself. "Most here." He clonked down on the top of his head. "Um... No tail." He looked back at his long thin tail. Life without it felt like a strange thing to consider. "Fingers." He held up a cloven hoof, only two fingers there. "Happy. I was happy. I am happy now."

"Good," she chimed, sipping her tea. "You've gone from a happy place to another. I can think of worse things. Did you ask to be a kirin?"

"No." He sank back to his haunches. "I did not."

"Oh..." She shook her head slowly. "That isn't good. One shouldn't make a creature into a different creature without asking. That is rude. You agree?"

"I agree." That teacher seemed to know which way was up. "But I am happy."

"Good." She inclined her head. "But you look like you have a question."

"I asked Twilight something." He pointed to where that happened. "If she would be happy, if another Twilight appeared, no matter hownice the new Twilight was."

Still blinked at that. "Is there another of you?"

"I don't think so..." He patted himself down as if a second copy could fall out with the effort. "Just one."

"Good, good... Then that question is for her to think about. For you, a different situation." She drew from her tea gently. "You were one thing, and happy. You are something else, and happy. That sounds good to me. What do you feel like?"

"I want to find the pony who did it."

"And punish them?"

Winter inclined his head slowly. "No... I am not angry. I have questions."

Still set a hoof on his shoulder. "We don't always get to ask our maker questions, and even they don't always have it even when we do."

Author's Note

Still is a good pony, and Winter has a really nice cooking day! I liked this chappy.

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