25 Flower Moon 1008

Flurry had an idea. A very good idea. She just needed to convince Mom and Dad to go along with it.

So, she hopped down the stairs and walked into the living room to see Dad sitting at the table, looking down at something.

‘’Hi daddy,’’ she greeted him as she used her magic to pull out a chair next to him. ‘’Whatcha doing?’’

‘’Hi sweetheart,’’ he greeted back. ‘’I’m just looking over some stuff from work.’’

‘’Okay.’’ Flurry peeked her head out onto the table. The papers in front of Dad were filled with letters and drawings she didn’t recognize or understand. She pulled her head back and asked, ‘’Can I ask you a question?’’

Dad looked sideways at her. ‘’Sure.’’

Flurry lifted the book Jet Set had given her on her birthday onto the table. ‘’Can we go here?’’

‘’Stardew Forest,’’ Dad read aloud, ‘’a beautiful forest in southern Sunset that is home to many rare and unique flora and fauna. Huh.’’ He looked away from the book at Flurry. ‘’Why there?’’

Flurry shrugged. ‘’I didn’t want to go to the mountains, and the rest is all very far from here.’’

‘’How do you know that?’’

‘’There’s a map at the end of the book.’’

Dad raised an eyebrow. ‘’And the map says where Sunville is?’’

Flurry nodded. ‘’Mr Jet Set put a red dot where Sunville is.’’

‘’Ah.’’ Dad nodded. ‘’I see. Well, it certainly sounds interesting. Are you sure you can manage it?’’

Flurry scowled. ‘’I can walk, daddy,’’ she said, a little harsher than intended. ‘’It doesn’t hurt anymore.’’

‘’I know,’’ Dad said, ‘’but the doctor said to be careful, and we’re going to be doing a lot of walking. I don’t want you to be hurt.’’

‘’I know.’’

Dad smiled at her. ‘’I’ll talk about it with Emerald, and with Daygleam. It’ll be a family thing.’’

‘’Yeah.’’ Flurry leaned against him. ‘’Thanks, daddy.’’

‘’No problem, sweetheart.’’

|-x-X-x-|

25 Flower Moon 1008

‘’So where is this forest, exactly?’’ Emerald asked Star.

‘’In Sunset, the state that is.’’ Star pointed at the map, more specifically at a couple of trees to the south-west of the city. ‘’I can teleport us to Manebourne, and we can take the train north from there. See, there’s a stop at Stardew City.’’

Indeed there was. Emerald still wasn’t convinced. ‘’How long is that journey?’’

Daygleam shrugged. ‘’Five hours?’’ She tapped her chin. ‘’Unless we go early in the morning we’ll have to stay the night there, but that’s not a problem.’’

‘’Except for Flurry,’’ Emerald pointedly reminded them. ‘’I don’t think she’d like having to hide her wings for so long.’’

‘’True,’’ Star conceded with a slight frown.

Daygleam turned to face Star. ‘’Can’t you hide her wings with magic?’’

‘’Unfortunately not.’’ Star shook his head. ‘’I have never been very good at illusions and invisibility spells. And, they’re actually more risky than wearing a jacket.’’

Now that, Emerald needed to have explained to her. ‘’Why’s that?’’

‘’Clothes make sure that Flurry doesn’t use her wings. If I hid them with magic, they’d still be there, people just wouldn’t see them. But if they accidentally bump against her, they’ll notice. And with clothes on, Flurry can’t accidentally use them if she forgets they’re supposed to be hidden.’’

That… made a lot of sense. Emerald inclined her head in acknowledgement. ‘’Okay,’’ she said, ‘’so she’ll have to wear a jacket.’’

‘’I say we leave early in the morning,’’ Star announced. ‘’If we arrive at around eleven or twelve, we can stay until six.’’

‘’And be back at eleven?’’ Daygleam questioned, and Emerald shared her marefriend’s concern. Eleven was far too late for Flurry and Magic.

‘’If I could get us back earlier, I would,’’ Star said, ‘’but while teleporting myself isn’t a problem, teleporting the five of us is too tiring for me, I’m afraid. I’d be dead on my hooves.’’

Emerald frowned. ‘’You got the three of us to Turhamn,’’ she pointed out.

‘’Teleportation gets harder with more people,’’ Star replied without missing a beat. ‘’Distance is a factor too, but a lesser one. One filly and two adults is easier than two fillies and three adults, obviously.’’

‘’If you say so…’’ Emerald trailed off doubtfully. There was, of course, no question that Star knew more about magic than she did, so she really shouldn’t question him on that, but still.

‘’I do.’’ Star gave her a slight smirk. ‘’So, shall I get the tickets while you two tell the girls?’’

‘’Sure.’’

‘’Give them my love.’’ And with that, Star teleported away.

Emerald turned to face her. ‘’Them?’’ she asked.

‘’Them,’’ Daygleam confirmed, mirth evident in her eyes. She reached forward and gave Emerald a chaste kiss. ‘’So let’s inform our daughters of our oncoming trip.’’

Well, Emerald wouldn’t mind that in the slightest. ‘’Let’s,’’ she agreed, and together they walked out of the living room.

Flurry and Magic, of course, were playing in Flurry’s room. Daygleam had put her toymaking skills to good use in the past weeks, and if she had to guess, Emerald would say that Flurry now had the same amount of toys, if not more, than she’d had in the Crystal Empire.

It did suck to clean up. Emerald was probably going to pass that on to Flurry herself, in a few months.

‘’Hello sweethearts,’’ Daygleam greeted as the two of them entered Flurry’s room.

‘’Hi mommy!’’

‘’Hi Daygleam!’’

‘’Are you having fun?’’ Emerald inquired as she sat down.

Flurry lifted up one of the toys, a soldier by the looks of it. ‘’We are! Look, this is the knight! He’s going to save the princess,’’ she pointed at the wooden mare on top of a pillow, ‘’from the monster!’’ And she pointed at Whammy, who stood behind the mare.

‘’Yeah, and if the knight is too late, the monster is going to eat the princess!’’ Magic picked the tale up where Flurry left off, with far more enthusiasm than Emerald was used to from the filly.

Daygleam gasped very convincingly. ‘’That’s bad!’’ She slid a wink at Emerald as she said those words.

Emerald played along. ‘’Will the knight rescue the princess in time?’’ she asked the two fillies.

‘’Of course!’’ Flurry replied, as if that was obvious and Emerald needed to go berate herself for thinking otherwise.

‘’He wouldn’t be a very good knight otherwise,’’ Magic pointed out.

Emerald chuckled. ‘’No, I guess not.’’

‘’Sweethearts,’’ Daygleam spoke up, ‘’we’ve got news. Tomorrow, we’re going on a journey.’’

Both fillies looked up at that. ‘’To where?’’ Flurry asked.

‘’Stardew Forest,’’ Emerald explained. ‘’We leave early in the morning, so no late bedtimes tonight. It’s a long train ride north, and then we can spend the entire afternoon there, before we head back in the evening. Does that sound like fun?’’

‘’Yeah!’’ Flurry cheered, before jumping over the toys towards Emerald and grappling her in a hug. ‘’Thanks so much, mommy!’’

‘’Oof!’’ Emerald grunted as she almost fell down on the floor. She managed to keep herself from doing so, and gave her daughter a hug back. In the corner of her eye, she saw Daygleam and Magic were giving each other a hug as well.

She didn’t want to mar Flurry’s happiness, but there was something else she needed to know. ‘’Flurry,’’ she said softly, ‘’you’ll have to wear something to hide your wings, just like on the ship.’’

‘’Aww…’’ The filly sighed. ‘’Okay, mommy.’’

Emerald smiled, and pecked her under her horn. ‘’Thank you, sweetheart.’’ For being so agreeable.

Now our luck just needs to hold for fourteen years. Floriona, give me strength.

|-x-X-x-|

26 Flower Moon 1008

It was far, far too early.

Not that Flurry cared. They were going to Stardew Forest today! She was going to see the Cloudleaf trees, and the Jewel Stream, and the-

‘’I can’t wait to see the Comet Trails!’’ Magic told her excitedly.

Yes, those. ‘’I can’t either,’’ Flurry admitted with a grin.

Magic opened her mouth to say something, only to yawn instead. ‘’Sorry,’’ she said after she had finished yawning. ‘’I just don’t like getting up so early.’’

‘’I don’t like it as well,’’ Flurry agreed. ‘’Look how dark it is outside.’’

Out the window, the night sky was filled with stars, and the Moon was as bright as ever. But it was still very dark. Flurry couldn’t even see the grass!

‘’Yes, it is,’’ Daygleam said. Flurry turned around to see her enter the room, saddlebags on her back. ‘’Are you two ready? Teeth brushed, manes combed?’’

‘’Yes, mommy,’’ Magic replied, while Flurry just gave the mare a nod.

‘’Good.’’ Daygleam smiled at them. ‘’Then let’s go downstairs. Star and Emerald are waiting on us.’’

They were, Flurry saw when she got down. Just like Daygleam, they were both wearing saddlebags.

‘’Good morning, Flurry,’’ Dad greeted as they came down the stairs.

‘’Sleep well?’’ Mom asked.

Flurry nodded. ‘’Yeah. It’s still early though.’’

‘’You can sleep on the train,’’ Dad said. ‘’Now, do you remember what we said?’’

‘’I do,’’ Flurry replied. ‘’You’re mommy’s brother, and I have to wear a jacket. Also, my name’s Snowy Sparkle.’’

Mom gave her a sorry smile. ‘’I know it’s hard, sweetheart, but it’s for your own safety, alright? We don’t want bad people to find you.’’

Flurry could understand that. And Snowy Sparkle was a nice name. Flurry liked snow, and she also liked her family.

And the jacket was warm and soft as well. Flurry wasn’t going to complain about wearing it.

‘’And remember the other rules,’’ Dad continued. ‘’Don’t wander off without telling us and keep us in sight. If you lose us, stay where you are, and we’ll find you soon enough. Got all that?’’

‘’Yes, daddy.’’ It wasn’t hard at all. And Flurry wasn’t going to walk away anyway. She didn’t want to get lost in the forest.

‘’Yes, Star.’’

All three of the adults smiled. ‘’Well, then I think it’s time to go,’’ Mom said while looking at the clock. ‘’Do we have everything.’’

‘’We do,’’ Dad and Daygleam said at the same time.

Flurry and Magic giggled as Mom snorted. ‘’Right. Gather around Star, and we’ll be on our way.’’

They all stepped closer to Dad. Then his horn lit up in golden light, there was a flash, and they stood in a street.

Immediately, Dad exhaled audibly, and muttered something under his breath that Flurry didn’t hear enough of to understand, but it probably wasn’t a nice word.

‘’Are you alright, daddy?’’ she asked, brushing her leg against his.

He smiled down at her. ‘’I’m fine, sweetheart. Don’t worry.’’ But he seemed tired anyway. Was he lying to her?

‘’Come on, we’ve got a train to catch,’’ Mom urged them on. ‘’We can rest once we’re in there. It’s a long trip anyway.’’

It was a pretty short walk to the station, and the train was already there. It was blue, with a dark roof, and there were lots of pretty lights inside.

‘’Did they-’’ Dad promptly began to laugh. ‘’That’s ingenious. They’ve used glitterflies in the lamps.’’

‘’What’s a glitterfly?’’ Magic asked before Flurry could.

‘’Flies that glow in a lot of different colours,’’ Dad explained. ‘’They charge their lights by drawing on the emotions of whoever’s close, kind of like changelings do with love, but different.’’

Huh. That sounded- ‘’Cool.’’

‘’Isn’t it?” A mare dressed in a uniform said. ‘’Tickets, please.’’

‘’Here you go.’’ Dad got the tickets out of his saddlebags and hooved them over to the mare.

‘’Looks good,’’ the mare declared after a few moments. ‘’Go on in, everyone, and have a nice trip. There’s more than enough space at this hour.’’

‘’Thank you.’’ Dad took the tickets back, and they got on the train.

The lights were even more pretty up close, blue and yellow and purple and green and red and all other sorts of colours. If she wasn’t wearing a jacket, she might have flown up to one of the lamps to take a closer look at them.

‘’Can we get those glitterflies at home?’’ Magic asked someone - probably Daygleam.

Daygleam chuckled. ‘’We can certainly look for one,’’ she replied. ‘’But for now, let’s focus on getting to Stardew Forest, alright?’’

‘’Okay mommy.’’

‘’This is our cabin,’’ Mom said suddenly, and she pulled open a door to reveal a small room with a large window, a table and a bench on either side.

Flurry sat down at the window seat on the left, Magic opposite her. Dad was next to Flurry, and Mom and Daygleam sat together on Magic’s bench.

She might be sitting at the window, but there was nothing to see outside through the darkness, except for a few streetlights.

‘’When does the train leave?’’ Flurry asked Dad.

‘’In fifteen minutes,’’ he told her, ‘’so you won’t have to wait that long. But it’ll be sometime before the sun rises and you can see stuff.’’

Mom pulled out blankets and pillows. ‘’Why don’t you try to go to sleep, sweethearts?’’

That wasn’t a bad idea. She was still very tired, and with the pillow and blanket, it actually wasn’t that uncomfortable.

Flurry curled up against Dad, and after the train pulled out of the station, fell asleep.

|-x-X-x-|

26 Flower Moon 1008

Flurry sleeping against him was something he’d thought lost when Crystal grew too old for that, but he didn’t mind it in the slightest.

Daygleam, from the looks of it, enjoyed the fact that not just Magic, but also Emerald, were sleeping against her sides even more.

‘’So,’’ Star softly began the conversation, because awakening anyone in here was sure to earn him some ire regardless of who actually woke up. ‘’How are you doing?’’

Daygleam gave him a kind but tired smile. ‘’Well enough,’’ she replied. ‘’You?’’

Star shrugged. ‘’Work’s not bad.’’

‘’What are you working on right now?’’

‘’Nothing important,’’ Star answered truthfully. ‘’Just some research on varying topics. You?” He wasn’t truly interested, but it was a nice way to keep the conversation going.

‘’Orders have slowed down over the past few weeks,’’ Daygleam admitted with a scowl. ‘’There’s not much I can do about that.’’

Star hummed. ‘’Any reason why?’’

Daygleam shook her head. ‘’I think, by now, mostly everyone has enough toys to last them a lifetime. I’ll probably still make new ones because I like doing it, and something’s bound to break eventually, but the market has dried up.’’

‘’That’s unfortunate.’’ And really, what else was he supposed to say to that.

Star looked out the window again. The sun should have risen by now, but one of Nightmare’s more petty acts was purposefully halting it’s rise and descent for longer than normal. Petty to the extreme, but also a show of her power.

‘’Star?’’

‘’Hmm?’’

‘’What is your plan?’’

Star looked back at an intense-looking Daygleam. ‘’Plan?’’ he echoed.

‘’For the future.’’ Ah.

‘’Strange location to discuss this,’’ he couldn’t keep himself from commenting, and snickered a little inside at Daygleam’s supremely-irritated look.

‘’Just answer the question,’’ Daygleam hissed. ‘’You obviously have a plan to go back to Equus.’’

‘’Do I?’’ He chuckled, and shifted his foreleg a little so he was more comfortable. ‘’I do. However, it’s nothing more than vague ideas at the moment.’’

‘’And those vague ideas are?’’ Daygleam questioned.

‘’Raise Flurry as best as possible, aid Twilight and her resistance as best I can from here,’’ he listed off. ‘’There’s not much more I can do. Eventually, when Twilight’s resistance is strong enough, I’ll go over to Equus and help her more directly.’’

‘’And if that happens,’’ Daygleam asked, ‘’what about Flurry?’’

Star smiled at them. ‘’She has Emerald, and you. I think she’ll be okay if I leave for a few months, by that time.’’ At least, I hope so.

‘’What time would that be?’’

Good question. ‘’When she’s older than ten, at least. I don’t want to say that I hope the resistance won’t be ready until then, but that’s an age where I can trust that she’ll be able to go for a long time without me.’’

After a few seconds of tense waiting, Daygleam nodded. ‘’Okay.’’ He saw the tension leave her body as she sat back and exhaled. ‘’Good.’’

Star inclined his head, then went back to looking out of the window.

|-x-X-x-|

26 Flower Moon 1008

Those trees are very big, Flurry thought.

Her neck hurt as she tried to look at the top of them. She managed for a few seconds, before lowering her head. The trees were brown, but their leaves weren’t green but white, like the clouds.

‘’So this is Stardew Forest,’’ Dad said as he stood next to her. ‘’Certainly looks impressive.’’

Daygleam pointed at the entrance. ‘’That must’ve cost a fortune.’’

Flurry looked at the entrance. There were two white stone towers, and between them was a path where lots of ponies walked. Flurry couldn’t see what was so special about the towers.

‘’White crystal?’’ Mom said, sounding surprised. ‘’That’s expensive even in the Empire.’’

Flurry looked closer at the towers, and then she saw that the roofs of the towers were made of white crystal. The sunlight reflected off it in a very nice, likeable way.

‘’I wanna go in!’’ Magic said suddenly, grabbing Daygleam’s leg and pulling at it. ‘’Come on, mommy!’’

Daygleam chuckled as she was led to the entrance, with Mom and Dad and Flurry following behind them. They passed the gates, and Flurry gasped as they entered the forest.

It was so beautiful!

There were butterflies everywhere, and glitterflies too. The flowers next to the path were all red or yellow or orange, and the grass looked even greener than it normally was. Above her, the Cloudleaf trees loomed, branches blowing in the wind. Birds’ singing filled the air, and all in all it looked like she had stepped into a fairytale.

‘’Follow the path,’’ Dad told her. ‘’And remember the rules.’’

‘’Yes daddy!’’ Flurry turned and gave his leg a nuzzle. ‘’Now come on!’’

Stardew Forest only got better the further they went into it. The birds came down so they could be petted, and the flowers got brighter and brighter. There were lots of other ponies and a few griffons in the forest, also visiting. Flurry didn’t stop to talk with them.

She giggled as Dad pulled in a swarm of glitterflies with some sort of spell. When they flew away again towards her, they were all glowing golden.

Magic reached out to touch one of the birds, but it flew into her face with a squeak. Magic yelped as the bird vanished into the skies again, while Flurry just laughed at the funny scene.

They came across many different signs with text on them. Flurry could read some, but not all, of it. All the signs explained things about the forest, like the Cloudleaf Trees (The tallest was nearly a hundred meters tall!); the various birds (there were over two hundred species of birds in the forest. Flurry couldn’t count to two hundred, but she knew it was a lot.); the flowers in the forest (there were lots of those as well, all with names Flurry couldn’t pronounce, but Dad seemed to be interested in a few of them, and Mom in all of them.)

Mom also got some stares and comments, because the other ponies were interested in her crystal coat and mane. Dad and Daygleam managed to keep people away though, so that was good.

And then, she suddenly felt tired in her legs.

‘’Daddy,’’ she said, ‘’my legs are tired.’’

Dad was by her side in an instant. ‘’That’s not good, Snowy,’’ he said. ‘’I think if we go that way, there’s supposed to be a restaurant of some kind. Why don’t we go there for lunch, and then you can rest.’’

That sounded very nice. Flurry was a little hungry. ‘’Okay, daddy.’’

‘’We brought our own food, remember?’’ Mom said. ‘’Doesn’t mean we can’t go to the restaurant, but…’’

‘’Aww…’’ Magic pouted. ‘’I wanted to go to the Jewel-Stream.’’

‘’Then why don’t you and Daygleam go to the Jewel-Stream, while I take Snowy to the restaurant,’’ Dad suggested.

‘’Are you sure, Star?’’ Mom asked.

‘’It’s fine, mommy,’’ Flurry said before Dad could reply. ‘’You can go and have fun without me.’’

She didn’t like it, but then she shouldn’t have climbed into that tree.

|-x-X-x-|

26 Flower Moon 1008

‘’Bye, Flurry!’’ Magic waved at her friend as they walked away.

‘’Bye Magic!’’ Flurry waved back.

Magic kinda wanted to go with her and Star, but she also wanted to see the Jewel-Stream, and while being with her new sister was a lot of fun, she could always do that back home.

‘’Come on, sweetheart,’’ Mom said to her. ‘’Let’s go down to the Jewel-Stream.’’

‘’Yes mommy.’’

The Jewel-Stream was a few minutes of walking away from the crossroad. As they came closer, Magic could already hear the sound of water rushing down through the forest. She walked even faster, and there it was!

The Jewel-Stream was beautiful. It’s water looked more blue than any water Magic had ever seen before, and under the water, she could see all sorts of shining lights, green and blue and purple and all other colours.

‘’Wow,’’ Emerald breathed as she came to a halt next to her. ‘’This is enchanting.’’

‘’Just like you,’’ Mom said, and Magic turned away from the kiss she got for that. Nothing wrong with kissing, but Magic didn’t wanna see Mom do it. Even if she liked Emerald a lot.

Magic leaned in a little closer, and touched the water with her hoof.

Cold!

She pulled it back immediately, and didn’t try to touch the water again. ‘’Don’t touch the water,’’ she warned, ‘’it’s really cold.’’

‘’Then we won’t touch it,’’ Mom promised, Emerald nodding along. ‘’Shall we follow the path down the stream?’’

‘’Sure.’’ Magic joined them again, and together they walked down the path along the Jewel-Stream.

The Jewel-Stream left the forest through a cave, and that cave wasn’t accessible to normal ponies, sadly. So, they had to stop at the place it entered the cave, and there they had lunch.

Then they went back up the Jewel-Stream to the restaurant where Flurry and Star were, and they had lots of fun.

Until...

|-x-X-x-|

26 Flower Moon 1008

‘’Right,’’ Daygleam raised her voice a little so everyone heard her, ‘’time to leave.’’

‘’Awww…’’ Flurry and Magic both pouted.

‘’I know,’’ Daygleam soothed, ‘’but we’re all tired, and if we don’t get the train in time, it’ll be too late.’’

‘’Too true,’’ Star butted in. ‘’Let’s go.’’

It was quite a long walk back to the train station. By the time they got there, the train was filling up with ponies, and the sun was setting already.

They got on the train without any trouble, luckily, and their reserved cabin had some very comfy seats.

They settled into the same places they’d been in on the trip there, and Daygleam gave Emerald a brief kiss which should have dragged on longer but was interrupted by Magic tugging on her leg.

‘’Look! It’s so beautiful!’’

Daygleam didn’t quite agree with the notion that anything other than her marefriend was truly beautiful, but she looked away anyway.

And found herself revising her opinion, for the setting sun through the glass roof of the station was beautiful indeed. There had to be some magic at work there: light didn’t just shatter like that.

‘’Impressive spellwork,’’ Star remarked softly. ‘’That must be some self-invented spell, because I am pretty sure there isn’t a spell that does that.’’

Well, the more you know.

As the train left the station, the light faded, and Daygleam turned back to Emerald and kissed her again.

So nice.

Author's Note

Alright, that's done. This chapter was terrificially hard to write, which is why it's so late. It just didn't want to be written, and the fact I gave myself a goal to make this a large chapter probably didn't help.

Anyway, I'll be going to France this Friday until the 25th (of this month), and we're going to be moving around a lot. So, I'll see if I can finish Chapter 15 before I leave so that I can upload it from France, but if not, you'll have to wait until I'm back home. My apologies for the delay.