Gossip Spreads Quick

Roseluck and the others sat around a fire, occasionally glancing at Shoeshine fighting her tent and Silverspeed snorted with a smirk.

“Need some help over there?” Silverspeed called out and Shoeshine shot her a glare.

“No, I do not. What I need is this damn thing to work!” Shoeshine snarled and started wrestling with a tarp. “Why the hell do these not come with instructions?”

“It did,” Daisy reminded her with a deadpan stare. “You used it for kindling for the fire stating, “I don’t need no damn instructions.” How’s that working out for you?”

“Just fucking peachy.”

“I can tell,” Daisy rolled her eyes and hid her snicker behind a hoof as she turned her focus to her marshmallow.

“Stupid fucking thing,” Shoeshine grumbled under her breath and shoved the tarp on top of tent. “Where’s my tape?”

Sunset groaned quietly and subtly used her magic to put the tarp on the tent properly and by the time Shoeshine turned around with her tape, Sunset’s horn had stopped glowing.

“See!” Shoeshine exclaimed triumphantly and grinned. “Told you all I didn’t need help!”

“Uh huh,” Sunset commented casually and twirled her stick with her magic. “Totally.”

Shoeshine sat down on a log next to Derpy and stretched her forelegs upwards.

“Should we be worried about the forest catching on fire?” Derpy asked nervously Lily shook her head.

“Nah. Sunset cast a spell so the fire doesn’t escape the pit. It’s safe,” Lily reassured her and everypony else.

“What happens if the embers to escape the pit?” Silverspeed asked curiously and Sunset flicked some embers out with her magic and everypony jumped. The embers slammed into a shield and disappeared as they all relaxed. “Oh, fancy.”

Sunset nodded with a smug grin. She was a sucker for compliments, especially from cute mares.

“It’s a surprisingly not so scary in here in a large group,” Roseluck mused and Daisy nodded hesitantly as she and the others all listened to a loud growl in the distance and Trixie tensed up slightly.

“It’s just a bear. They’re common here. Probably Henry to be honest,” Derpy waved a hoof and Trixie sat back down. Why or how Fluttershy had a bear was way beyond her level of caring. As long as Henry and any other creature stayed far away from her, Trixie was happy. Unless said creature was a dog. She wouldn’t be opposed to petting a cute dog.

“Fuckin Henry,” Sunset grunted and ate her marshmallow. “Oh dear Celestia, hot.”

“Next time wait till it’s cooled down Sunny,” Derpy chided with a frown and shot Trixie a dirty look as the blue mare snickered. “Not funny.”

“Alright mom,” Sunset snarked and Derpy raised an eyebrow.

“Mom?” Derpy echoed in confusion and Sunset looked away sheepishly before nodding.

“We pretty much decided you’re the mom of the group. You always look out for us, give us advice and help us. You practically treat us all like your children so it’s pretty obvious why we came to that conclusion,” Sunset explained after a moment of tapping her hoof against her chin in thought.

“Who is we?” Derpy glanced around as they all raised hooves slowly. “Even Roseluck?”

“Well yeah,” the cream mare lowered her hoof with a shrug. Derpy sat in silence before nodding with a smile.

“I’m okay with that, to be honest,” Derpy admitted and held out a hoof to admire a lightning bug that landed on her hoof. “I wouldn’t mind expanding my family with five more kids.”

Roseluck waited for Derpy to take a sip of her water before opening her mouth to speak.

“So is that why you’ve hitting on my cousin?” Roseluck asked with a smirk and Derpy’s eyes went wide as she spit her water out on the dirt.

“What?” Derpy demanded after wiping her mouth off.

“Time Turner tells me everything. He says you two hit it off pretty well,” Roseluck teased as her sisters smirked. “He’s single, you know?”

Derpy’s cheeks turned a dark red as they all laughed and Roseluck leaned closer to her ear.

“And he said you were cute. He really liked your eyes. Said they were a gorgeous shade of gold,” Roseluck’s breath tickled Derpy’s ear and she gulped. “And your mane.”

“M-my eyes?” Derpy stammered and rested a hoof against her right eye. “Nopony likes my eyes. They’re different.”

“Time Turner likes different and so do we,” Daisy rested a hoof on Derpy’s. “Trust me, I know him well.”

“I don’t know,” Derpy scratched the back of her head. “As long as my daughters like him.”

“Fair,” Lily allowed and stretched out on the dirt with a cracker in her mouth. “This is nice, but I’m gonna hit the hay. Goodnight everypony.”

“Night,” everypony said the at the same time as Lily stumbled in a green tent she was sharing with Trixie and zipped it shut.

“I’m going too,” Derpy announced and Shoeshine yawned into a hoof. “Night all.”

Sunset trotted to her own tent with a lazy wave and disappeared as they went to their respective tents excluding Silverspeed and Daisy.

“You going to sleep?” Daisy asked and Silverspeed should her head, patting her bow and arrows sitting on her lap.

“Staying up to make sure no monsters come up while you guys are asleep. Go sleep, I’ll be fine Daisy. Honestly,” Silverspeed stifled a yawn and Daisy nodded as she went to her tent. “Just me and this forest. This dark and totally not scary forest. Alone.”

Silverspeed shifted anxiously and her eyes flicked around the woods, grateful that Sunset kept the fire going. Silverspeed idly tossed another log into the flames and held out her hooves, eating a piece of chocolate.

An owl made a noise and she jumped.

“Easy Silverspeed,” Silverspeed slapped herself. “You’re a royal guard and hoof picked by Celestia. You went through worse in Basic Training. Nothing can be worse than getting shoved into a tear gas chamber and forced to take your mask off.”

Silverspeed shuddered at that. That had been a fucking nightmare in her eyes. She cried for a solid ten minutes afterwards.

“March along, sing our song, with the Army of the free. Count the brave, count the true, who have fought to victory. We’re the Army and proud of our name,” Silverspeed sang softly as she fluttered her wings softly. Her ears flicked a roar in the distance and she pointed her bow in the direction she thought it came from. “I don’t even want to know what that was.”

Silverspeed kept her bow aimed for a few more moments before lowering it.

She gave a yawn and her eyes closed as she slumped next to a log.