27 Flower Moon 1008

‘’Let’s go to Berry and Lily,’’ Flurry suggested. ‘’We promised them we’d tell how the day was.’’

‘’Oh yeah, we did,’’ Magic remembered. ‘’Where do you think they are?’’

‘’At their home?’’ Flurry guessed. ‘’I dunno. Let’s go look for them there.’’

They walked down the path from the mansion to Sandy’s farm. Sandy was working in the garden in front of the house, and she told them that Berry and Lily had gone to the square with some other foals.

So, Flurry and Magic went to the square. And just like Sandy had said, Berry and Lily were playing on the square, and they weren’t alone.

Not that Flurry minded having more friends to play with. Even if she wasn’t friends with the other foals like she was with Berry and Lily, they were still all nice to her.

‘’Hey guys!’’ Flurry shouted as she and Magic walked closer to them. ‘’We’re back!’’

Berry and Lily turned to them and smiled brightly. ‘’Flurry! Magic!’’ Berry cheered. ‘’How was it?’’

Flurry knew what she meant, of course. ‘’Stardew Forest was so cool,’’ she told Berry. ‘’And we got to stay up late on the way back!’’ She didn’t tell them she’d fallen asleep before reaching home.

‘’What did you do?’’ Lily asked. ‘’Did you see the Cloudleaf trees?’’

‘’We did,’’ Magic spoke up. ‘’They were very tall. There were a couple we could climb in, and we were up very high.’’

Flurry would have liked to fly there, but she hadn’t been able to, but she’d watched some other pegasi foals fly between the trees. Dad had given her a sympathetic look and a nuzzle when he noticed it.

‘’That sounds nice,’’ Berry said. ‘’I hope we can go there too sometime.’’

Flurry smiled at her. ‘’I’m sure we can.’’

‘’Yay!’’ Berry cheered. ‘’Now come on! We’re playing tag!’’

‘’But I can’t really run,’’ Flurry pointed out. ‘’My legs, remember?’’ They didn’t hurt as much anymore, but it still wasn’t nice.

‘’Oh yeah.’’ Berry’s face fell. ‘’We can go play something else, if you want.’’

‘’It’s alright,’’ Flurry replied. They didn’t need to stop playing just because Flurry couldn’t play with them. Watching was fun too, after all.

‘’Okay.’’ Berry turned around and jumped back in the game, with Magic following behind her.

But Lily didn’t. ‘’They can play without me,’’ she said. ‘’I’m gonna stay with you.’’

Flurry smiled a very big smile at Lily. ‘’Okay!’’ she chirped, before laying down on the grass. ‘’Thanks, Lily!’’

It was nice to have friends.

|-x-X-x-|

1 Hot Moon 1008

‘’Good morning,’’ Star greeted as he entered the room, and for his efforts, he got a chorus of good-mornings back.

With a smile, he sat down in his seat. ‘’So, before we begin, how are you all?’’

‘’I’m doing good,’’ Moondancer, surprisingly, was the first to speak. ‘’I finished all of the research I’d planned on doing.’’

Translation: I spent the entire week working.

‘’I look forward to reading the conclusion then,’’ Star decided to say. ‘’Anyone else?’’

‘’You know,’’ Ayalir butted in, ‘’this isn’t a classroom, and you’re not a teacher.’’

‘’At the moment,’’ Star couldn’t resist remarking, ‘’but very well. I actually have a question. Are you familiar with Stardew City Station?’’

Seven faces all stared back at him with blank expressions that he just couldn’t resist chuckling at. ‘’No? I’ll explain, then. A couple of days ago, I was in that station, and I noticed something. See, the roof of the station is made of glass, but at certain locations, there’s some sort of spell - or rune, I don’t know for sure - that breaks the light into a lot of smaller beams. It’s definitely magical, but I’d like to know how they did it.’’

And now, I have their attention.

‘’There ought to be records of that somewhere, right?’’ Moondancer mused, ‘’We could check there.’’

‘’I can go there and take a look,’’ Dirt offered. ‘’If it is a rune, then I can probably find it.’’

‘’I’ll go with him,’’ Guido spoke up. ‘’It might be griffon magic.’’

‘’Griffon magic? Please, explain,’’ Star requested.

Guido cleared his throat. ‘’Well, signor, griffon magic is primarily rooted in enchantments, and this sounds like something an enchantment ought to be able to do, though I must confess that I do not know what enchantment could achieve an effect like this off the top of my head.’’

Disappointing, but Star wasn’t able to name every spell he knew as well, so he didn’t have any room to complain. ‘’If you two could do that, it’d be much appreciated. Try and find out what it is and how it works. Then, we can see what it can work.’’

They didn’t have an entire laboratory and several testing rooms for nothing, after all.

Guido nodded. ‘’Then do that we shall! But not today. Tomorrow.’’

Dirt shrugged. ‘’Fine by me.’’

‘’Right, thank you,’’ Star inclined his head at both of them. ‘’Now then, does anyone have anything? If not, we’ll move on to Moondancer’s research.’’

When nothing came forward, Star turned towards Moondancer. ‘’Moondancer?’’ he prompted.

Moondancer cleared her throat. ‘’Well, as you know, last week I took the research we compiled home and worked on it further. I think - think! - I have something now.’’

She pulled a notebook from her saddlebags and put it on the table. ‘’It was a lot of work, but I figured out how to store magic in small crystals.’’

Star’s eyebrows rose. ‘’Can I see?” he requested.

Moondancer passed the notebook to him.

Sweet Tree of Harmony.

If he needed any proof that Moondancer was brilliant, this was it. Star’d worked on this project himself occasionally, but for all the time he spent in the Crystal Empire, crystals were never his forte. He’d never been able to figure out how to circumvent the size issue, and thus, any research he made inevitably got stuck.

The fact that the Crystal Empire’s crystals behaved differently from the rest of the world’s crystals only made the problem harder. Anything Star could confirm worked on them, he would have to retest on crystals from outside the Empire, which was tedious.

‘’This is most impressive,’’ he complimented, before passing the notebook around. ‘’I think with this we’re definitely onto something.’’

Now we just need to continue working on it.

|-x-X-x-|

8 Hot Moon 1008

Who is that?

Flurry stood up and watched the yellow mare that was circling around in the air, slowly climbing down to the ground. She didn’t look like anyone in Sunville. Maybe she was family of someone?

Suddenly, the mare dove down to the ground. It almost seemed like she was going to hit the ground, but she managed to stop just before that, and landed with grace in front of the gates.

Flurry wasn’t sure what to do. The mare was probably here for a reason, but she wasn’t supposed to show herself to people from outside Sunville.

‘’Hello? Is anyone there?’’

If I don’t get too close to her, I will be safe.

With that decided, Flurry walked out of the shadows of the tree. ‘’Hello miss,’’ she said. ‘’Can I help you?’’

The mare looked down from the gate at her. ‘’Hello, sweetie,’’ she said. ‘’Do you live here?’’

‘’Yes,’’ Flurry replied. ‘’Are you looking for someone?’’

The mare suddenly didn’t look happy anymore. ‘’Does Star Tower live here?’’

Flurry hesitated. Her first instinct was to answer truthfully, but Dad had told her to be cautious of strangers, especially strangers asking after him specifically.

‘’I just want to talk to him about something important,’’ the mare continued. ‘’Is he home?’’

The mare didn’t look dangerous. And if she was, Flurry could always run. ‘’He’s home,’’ Flurry finally answered. ‘’You can come in, the gate’s unlocked. I’ll walk with you, miss.’’

‘’Thanks, dearie.’’ The mare opened the gate a little and slipped through it, before walking over to Flurry- and suddenly stopping.

‘’You’re- you’re Flurry Heart!’’ the mare said excitedly. ‘’Look at you! You’re so adorable!’’

Adorable? ‘’Thanks?’’

‘’And look at your wings!’’ the mare continued. ‘’They’re big for your age! And so pretty!’’

Flurry couldn’t help but feel a little proud of that. ‘’Thanks,’’ she repeated, more resolutely this time. ‘’Who are you?’’

‘’Oh, didn’t I say? My name’s Skystreak.’’

Skystreak?

‘’You’re the mare Dad took on a date, right?’’ Flurry asked with a tilt of her head.

‘’Dad- Oh, you mean Star? Y-yeah, I went on a date with him,’’ Skystreak said. ‘’That’s actually why I’m here. Sort of. It’s complicated.’’

Flurry narrowed her eyes a little. ‘’Complicated like what?’’

Skystream suddenly looked very nervous. ‘’Uhhh… let’s just say it’s a big thing. A very big thing. I’d rather not talk about it here.’’

Flurry watched her for a few more moments, before nodding. ‘’Okay. Come on then.’’ She spread her wings and flew down the road, Skystreak following behind her.

‘’Your flight is really stable,’’ Skystreak said when they landed. ‘’You’ve got such big wings, yet you’re still able to fly that well. I’m impressed.’’

Flurry blushed a little. ‘’Thanks.’’ She folded her wings to her side again, then walked up the stairs and knocked on the door. ‘’Daddy, I’m back!’’

She saw a golden flash through the windows, then the door opened. ‘’Hello-’’

‘’Hi,’’ Skystream said nervously.

Dad looked at Skystream. ‘’Hi,’’ he said after a few seconds of silence. ‘’What are you doing here?’’

‘’Can I come in?’’ Skystream asked. ‘’We need to talk.’’

Dad glanced at her, then nodded. ‘’Sure, come in.’’ He stepped aside, and both Flurry and Skystream walked in.

‘’Shall we talk in the living room?’’ Dad suggested as he closed the door.

‘’Sure.’’

Flurry felt a little excluded. Dad’s attention was completely on Skystream, and he seemed very interested in why she was here. Why was a mystery, but Flurry wasn’t sure if she liked it.

‘’So why are you here?’’ Dad asked as they entered the living room. ‘’Not that I’m complaining, mind.’’

Skystreak stopped and turned to him.

‘’I’m pregnant.’’

Author's Note

I LIVE!

The rewrite is still on-going, but I couldn't resist posting this. From now on, chapters will be shorter. This is because fitting 3k-4k words into one chapter is exhausting, and currently I cannot manage it. My apologies.

Also, you might have seen that the names of the months have been changed. I have borrowed the new calender used from the wonderful Rokim21, with his permission of course.

Equestrian Calendar System AKA "Moon Calendar"

Each months has 30 days each

January - Young Moon

February - Hunger Moon

March - Sap Moon

April - Grass Moon

May - Flower Moon

June - Hot Moon

July - Thunder Moon

August - Barley Moon

September - Harvest Moon

October - Corn Moon

November - Mourning Moon

December - Old Moon

https://www.fimfiction.net/user/351895/Rokim21

So yeah, that's that. Hope you enjoy the cliffhanger.