Fireflare and Wishing Star both glared at the disembodied unicorn head. The pegasus actually stood up–
–but Wishing Star held out a hoof and stopped her with a wicked grin. “You know, pet, part of being a mistress is handing out punishments when the pets are acting up. It’s all an exercise in good training, really.”
The brown unicorn rose, her hips sashying as she gripped the head gently in her forehooves. “So…” she breathed over Vinyl’s horn, “here’s what’s going to happen.”
With utmost gentleness, she lifted the white head and leaned into the DJ’s chest, sliding the neck through the collar with that same, wicked smirk. “Octavia,” she murmured breathily, “is going to endure the tender, sweet mercies of my dear Fireflare.” Her hoof trailed from Vinyl’s shoulder down her foreleg. “You… and I, meanwhile….”
She grabbed Vinyl’s Fetlock and suddenly dragged her into a standing position. “We’re going to check on the kids!” Wishing Star chirped brightly, tugging her out of the room. “Bye you two, Fireflare nothing above third level!” The doors slammed shut behind the two unicorns.
There was an awkward moment.
“Okay, just so you know,” Fireflare finally said, “she was completely serious. And she can, you know, kinda tell if we haven’t, uh…”
~~~~~~
Moonshine sighed, dragging a hoof down his face. “Look, even if you do have a crush on him, I don’t know if he can return those feelings. Like, at all. I mean, maybe he’s able to, I dunno, but–argh.”
He stared at the sky for a few seconds.
“Okay, okay. How about this. You two can hang out or whatever, and I don’t know, when he’s like eight maybe you can start kinda dating? I… no, that wouldn’t work… My point is, puberty. Puberty is when things get serious, because of… things. At least I think that’s what it’s called–no, what I’m saying is, I don’t think… I don’t know if anyone is going to be able to take two kids in love seriously, because, uh, you’re kids. So…”
He frowned. “I’m really not getting this across well. OKAY. What I mean is, just… just don’t expect anything grown-up from a kiddie relationship. If it lasts long enough, maybe it works, but… he’s five, so just… know that, right?”
Solar Flare rolled his eyes. “Are you two done talking over there? That pooka thing put yakity sax on, and you know what happens when he does that!”
~~~~~~
“I received no help from the fae in this endeavor,” Glory Star replied quietly. “I simply… have my reasons.”
“She can be stubborn when it comes to secrecy,” Comet Trail confided, accidentally jumping her character into a pit of boiling pudding. “Oh! Did… did I lose–oh, wait, there I am…”
“The deaths presented in this game are both less painful and less permanent than reality’s version, as an inherent property of a property meant to challenge. And I just found the hidden emerald.”
Octavia blinked, then blinked again. Vinyl and Wishing Star’s departure had been…rather quick, and…somewhat intimate? Even the DJ, who usually acted brash and in charge of things, had a submissive wide-eyed expression right before she was pulled out of sight. It took a moment for the cellist to completely take in what had just occurred.
“Um…w-well, then. I…I suppose that I…wouldn’t be against such a thing, honestly. And we shouldn’t disappoint our spouses, of course,” Octavia stammered, a blush evident through the grey of her fur, though there was no signal of discomfort from that emotion-sensing collar Fireflare had given them the night before. “So, uh…here? I mean, we’re behind closed doors, but still…”
~~~~~~
“…I understand, Moonshine-sama. I have done something foolish, and will do a better job at restraining my emotions for the next…uh, couple of years to a decade, dependin’ on how Flare develops. Until then, know that I both respect your judgement, and also would never intentionally cause emotional trauma to your lil’ bro. This is…well, I guess it’s an awkward sitch for all of us, so thanks for…y’know, makin’ valid points without yellin’ and callin’ me foolish, I guess.”
Tempo gave one more respectful bow towards the colt that had been having a really unusual day so far, and then turned towards her favourite sparring partner. “A’ight, ya punk! Hope you enjoyed your break, ‘cause it’s only gonna get tougher from ‘ere on! BANZAI!”
~~~~~~
“Oh, this is…good, I think,” Pitch commented, as the characters in the game were sent out of the bonus level and back to the main path. “Getting all of those emeralds unlocks…I want to say ‘the final level’? Perhaps just an extra cutscene following the last boss’ defeat, since collecting such trinkets during the chaos of multiplayer is usually quite a feat.”
The four children progressed onward in the game, and after a bit of semi-uncomfortable silence, Reverb decided to talk more about something Star had recently said. “So…yeah. This is entertainment, a way t’distract yourself from the stress of reality while also testing skills like reflexes and hoof-eye coordination. To give such a harsh punishment as a permanent death for checkin’ out something new, exciting, and dangerous rather…uh, sours the mood. Yeah.”
“No, probably not here. I mean, there’s a chance the kids could…”
Fireflare sighed. “Look… Wishing Star shouldn’t have done that. I mean, I was about to punt your wife’s head through a window, I’ll admit that, but the teasing was… absolutely the wrong ‘punishment’ for the situation and quite frankly she shouldn’t have brought you into it. She just reverts a bit to ‘sex goddess’ when she’s stressed… I’m pretty sure once she’s calmed down, she’ll realize what she did was wrong and apologize.”
The pegasus stood up. “That being said, for the moment she is a quote unquote mistress and she takes that duty very seriously. So… we should probably head up to the bedroom and, uh, yeah.” With an awkward glance behind her, the pegasus walked toward the living room door and opened it. “…After you?”
~~~~~~
Solar Flare took the charge with a firm stance, whipping up his forelegs in a block and quickly moving them about to counter the filly’s blows. Moonshine rolled his eyes, walking up to the porch and taking a seat to watch.
At this time, Wishing Star and Vinyl Scratch burst through the front door, the brown unicorn grinning like a maniac. “Well, it looks like our kids are sparring again. Moonshine, dear, how are things out here?”
“They’re fine now…” the grey colt allowed. “They got weird a little earlier, but… Uh…”
He fidgeted a bit. “…Miss Scratch, you may want to give Tempo that same talk that Mom and Madre tried to give me.”
Wishing Star, still smiling, turned her gaze toward her son. “…What.”
“…Cause, you know, I’m pretty sure I screwed it up.”
“…What.”
“…See, I kinda found them, you know, kissing, except I think she was kissing him–”
Wishing Star sat down and facehooved, her smile gone. “Wow, okay. We really screwed up this time.”
~~~~~~
“I, uh, don’t really get into video games that much,” Comet Trail admitted. “I mean, I can see the appeal and all, I just… there’s a lot of stuff that goes on in them and around them and it can get just so… overwhelming, you know? Not just playing the games, but keeping up with all the ponies that talk about them and the various strategies they come up with and… it’s all so complicated.”
“A combination of artistic expression, technological innovation, and sports-like competition,” Glory Star mused as her character effortlessly devastated a group of angry salamanders. “It really does contribute to a vast and complicated culture… although, sadly, so many corporations go for mass shallow rather than distribute the deep possibility.”
With a nod, Octavia accepted Fireflare’s polite gesture and left the room, though she did turn her head back briefly to talk. “Apology accepted…in advance, I suppose. ‘To err is pony’, as the philosophers say, and there are certainly more…’volatile’ ways of dealing with stress. Hopefully, it’s just a matter of socializing more with others until she can properly…handle herself.”
~~~~
For a while, Vinyl had been stunned. Star’s closeness, her authoritative tone, how she had alluded to what the loves of their lives would be doing before pulling a 180 and pulling her along…the DJ, usually the most brash pony in the household, was honestly blushing from it all. But now, that blush was gone…and Vinyl was still stunned, but for an entirely different reason.
“What.”
She turned her head to the side. Vinyl saw Tempo who apparently already had a crush that her momma didn’t know about seriously how had she MISSED THAT defend against the counter, and continuing the assault against a colt so much younger than you like for Celestia’s sake Tempo what the heck are you THINKING where did we go wrong if this isn’t puppy love then he’d better at least like wubs with some hoof smacks instead of trying to find another avenue of attack. The DJ then faced Moonshine again.
“What.”
~~~~
“Eh, it’s a hobby,” Reverb muttered while assisting Glory, and while Pitch did her best to simply keep up; the polite sibling was struggling as much as Comet at times. “Different ponies say it’s an addiction, an art form, a menace, a tool for intelligence and recovery, a material that’s going to crash thanks corporate greed…but at the end of the day, at least it all provides a fun memory or two.”
“Believe me, she’s actually a whole lot better now than when we first met.” Fireflare chuckled. “There was this time where she and I went for two days straight…”
They made their way up to the bedroom, locked the door behind them, and events, as they say, eventuated.
~~~~~~
“I…” Moonshine coughed. “I think I got the message across, to not expect adult feelings in a kiddie relationship, but I… wow.” He stared at the two ponies sparring on the yard as Solar Flare used his smaller size to knock Tempo’s legs out from under her. “Is… is this how you and Madre felt when you were trying to figure out what to tell me?”
“I’m guessing so,” Wishing Star replied vaguely.
“…I don’t think I told them about sex,” Moonshine clarified suddenly. “I just wanted to make sure they understood the relationship part of it.”
The brown unicorn sagged in relief. “Oh thank the princesses…”
~~~~~~
“Fun memories can be made anywhere,” Glory Star countered, “depending on the mindset of the one who is making the memories in question. No, my interest is more broad and far reaching than mere entertainment. Right now, behind that screen, so many numbers and equations are running so quickly in a delicately balanced system, interpreting my inputs and calculating the results, but what we see is my character singlehandedly taking off two hundred of this boss’s hit points. Incidentally, why does this boss have so many hit points? This is only the first level of, let’s be honest, a fairly simple game.”
Comet Trail winced as her character fell off the screen again. “Um… maybe it’s because there are so many players?”
