( Im gonna go read my book before bed. See ya later! :D )

Stormglade:

"Like I said, she's the smallest filly in the herd. It's kinda hard not to make her a target." he mumbled.

Starsummer growled softly and pinned her ears.

Stormglade swallowed and backed down. Starsummer shook her head. "That still doesn't explain my question. Why do you bully? It's not just Magicpetal, I've seen you bully other yearlings who are smaller than you. Just because your sad or angry doesn't mean you get to take it out on some one else."

Stormglade looked at his hooves. "I look around and everyone looks so happy. So I figured, if I can't be happy...why should anyone else? It's not fair...." he said

Starsummer thought of what to say. "Well, I hope you know that we are still going to announce this to your father and tell him what you've done." she said.

Breezebell:

She felt sorry for the colt. She had also suffered the loss of a parent. She dipped her head to graze. Her and Redmoon would have to go to their mother after twilight.

Breezebell:

She wasn't surprised that Stormglade had smacked her wing away, but she was surprised that it had hurt. She shook her wing out until the pain was gone and sighed.

Redmoon:

She pricked on ear when Horizongold had mentioned punishment to Stormglade, and even though she was on no one's side, she did not believe Stormglade should be the only one punished. Relief gave her one moment of satisfaction that he wasn't going to be punished. Her and her sister stood by waiting for their friends to be out of this kind of 'court' thing.

Emberblaze he flicked his ears at the sounds of wingbeats and he looked down to see his mother, fluttering her wings as she landed. "Is everyone alright?" she asked, looking inquisitively at each of her foals. When none of them answered she looked at Redmoon, Breezebell, and Horizongold. The circle that had formed was still there and this annoyed Starsummer. "Alright! When I get to the count of 5, I want every yearling that wasn't involved in this incident to back away!" she barked, flaring her wings. "1.....2....3.....4..." Most of the young pegasi had left as soon as Starsummer landed, but the few who had remained, scurried off as she began her count off. "There! That's better." she said, then turned back to her foals, and cocked one ear, awaiting an answer.

Magicpetal had stepped forward. "You shouldn't be asking Emberblaze the question. I-uh....I was the first one released from training. I wanted to speak with my brother and sister, so I decided to go look for them among the hoard of yearlings swarming into the valley to graze." She explained. "While I was looking for my siblings, I heard Stormglade come up behind me and he started making fun of me...again." She decided to leave out the part where Stormglade mentioned Horizongold as her boyfriend. "I didn't care what he was saying...I just wanted him to stop. I turned around to face him, but he wasn't there. That's when Emberblaze intervened. He had tackled Stormglade to protect me." She explained, looking down the entire time.

Goldenstream nuzzled Magicpetal. "What exactly did he say?" she asked, knowing that whatever he said had made an impact on Magicpetal. "It....it doesn't matter." she mumbled. "It was in the past." Goldenstream hugged Magicpetal with her wings and brushed the forelock out of her eyes.

~

Emberblaze didn't make eye contact with Redmoon. He was too ashamed, but when Magicpetal finished her explanation he spoke up. "I shouldn't have challenged him. But, please, you have to understand why... There was a bully making fun of my sister. I wouldn't just stand around and let her get picked on by someone who has a bark worse than his bite." he said, lowering his head, pondering what he would tell his mother.

~

Stormglade grunted and picked his head up. He was shocked to see a yearling filly standing over him, extending her wing down to him. "No. I'm fine." he snapped, shoving her wing away from him. He stood up and shook the leaves out of his mane. He glared at Horizongold and Emberblaze, then turned to face Skywing.

Redmoon:

She looked up at the slowly descending sun. Twilight was coming fast. Then, remembering Horizongold's question, glanced at Emberblaze, wanting to know what he thought had happened.

Breezebell:

She slowly snuck away and twoards Stormglade who was on the ground. She looked down at him and whispered, "need somehelp?" She extended on wing.

( Mine was long too, so Im right there with you XD )

Stormglade glared at Redmoon up and down. "I didn't say anything. Did I-huh Runty?" he cocked his head, asking Magicpetal who stood next to Emberblaze.

Emberblaze snapped his head toward Magicpetal. "Is that what he's been calling you?" he asked, his tone of voice more angry than it's ever been before. Magicpetal looked at the ground and slowly nodded. Emberblaze's eye turned stone cold and he turned his head back forward and pinned his ears at Stormglade. He bellowed his fury at the young stallion while flapping his wings. He bared his teeth and pawed the ground, but didn't charge, not wanting to hurt Redmoon.

~

Stormglade saw that Redmoon and Emberblaze were friends and wouldn't hurt one another, and that gave him an idea. "C'mon Emberblaze. Don't you want to fight me? Or are you afraid of embarrassing yourself in front of your girlfriend?" They now had gathered the attention of the yearlings. The yearling bystanders had formed a large circle around Emberblaze and Stormglade.

~

At Stormglade's words, Emberblaze glanced at Redmoon, then back at Stormglade. His muscles twitched and he breathed shakily. He molted many navy blue feathers and lashed his tail in every direction.

Magicpetal looked up at her brother and saw that it took literally all his strength not to charge Stormglade. She had never seen her brother so angry. "Emberblaze.... Please don't fight him...." she mumbled loudly enough for him to hear. "It's not worth it." she said. Goldenstream had landed next to Magicpetal and had immediately figured out what was going on. "Magicpetal's right Emberblaze. It won't prove anything. Stormglade wants to fight. He wants you to get in trouble. Be the better pegasi and just walk away." Goldenstream said, laying a wing over his hot back.

(That was long....my bad)

Magicpetal:

She nickered a friendly greeting to Redmoon, while also keeping an eye out for her own siblings. The crowd of yearlings were pouring into the meadow-they had the same idea as Magicpetal and Breezebell; Eating. Magicpetal tried to skim through the hoard of steeds to find the similar colors of her brother and sister. There were a lot of yearlings and all their wing colors meshed together so she couldn't find the exact colors. "I'll be right back." she announced to the twins before lifted off and flying above the clump of yearlings. She called her siblings names a few times, then finally heard wingbeats behind her. She turned around but instead of seeing the smiling faces of her family, she saw the smirking face of Stormglade, her meanest bully. "Hey, Runty! Long time no see!" he flew circles around her, taunting her with his large size. He had gotten bigger. His mane was longer and his wings were long and muscular. "I told you to not call me that!" she snapped. "Aww! Runty, I can call you whatever I want. What are you gonna do do about it? Are you gonna kick me? With those tiny hooves of yours it won't make a difference. Anyway, you look like your getting better at flying." Magicpetal already knew where this was going. "Chose your next words wisely." she said, getting angry. He rolled his eyes and continued. "You don't look anything like that worthless little flyer who couldn't even make it over the trees. And when you tried, guess what? You fell. It's only because you're boyfriend saved you that your even alive! Your so worthless and puny and-" Magicpetal turned away from him and tried to block out the mean things he was saying, but the next thing she new, he had stopped. She turned to face him again, but he wasn't there. She looked down and gasped. She now saw Emberblaze. Her brother had tackled Stormglade out of the sky, tumbling them both to the ground. Now, the two yearlings were circling each other in the middle of the meadow, threatening to fight.

Breezebell:

She shrugged. "Not much. But we did learn how to muffle our wing beats to nearly silence like the owls have built in," she said. Then she demonstrated to Magicpetal could catch up with what they did today. She furled her wingtips upwards and out instead of down and in when a pegasus flying normally.

Magicpetal:

The mist that sprayed into her face brought her back to the present and she turned her head to see Breezebell. "Hey!!!! What's up? How was training?" she asked, slightly shivering from the cold water and frigid temperatures.

(Not a lot. before spy training, Magicpetal awoke first and she went to check on Starsummer. But, when she did she saw that Starsummer's belly was starting to swell and therefore, Magicpetal found out her mother was pregnant. She ran across the valley to graze and think were she met Horizongold. He wanted to ask Oceangoldabout jewels that they found in a cave. After Oceangold answered all their questions, they went to go and train. It was the coldest day of the year. Breezecloud and Dusksplash came over. Horizongold's plan for today was that the trainees would betraying to muffle their wingbeats. But, he needed Mountain herd or Cave herd steeds to weave something together. Now, Breezecloud is about to teach a lesson on weaving.

Magicpetal found that she was pretty good at weaving and that she even enjoyed it. Breezebell learned how to muffle her wingbeats and she is proud to show her friends. Dusksplash got weaned.

Starsummer and darkstone had a talk about her not fighting in the war against Flame herd because she was pregnant. Darkstone wanted her to be safe and not fight Flame herd since they were a lot more gory and merciless than any other herd they've faced. Starsummer said that she fought a war once when she was pregnant and she could do it again. Then, Skywing came over and changed her mind by saying stuff like think of the foal and your family.)

Breezebell:

When he had dismissed the group, she immediately took off into the sky and dived through a very fluffy and wet cloud. She shivered with delight as the sweat she had gotten during training was wept clean by the cloud's cold water drops that it had forgotten to rain down. When she was done, she dived down and pulled up right in front of Magicpetal and flapped her wings in her face, sending a light spray of water onto Magicpetal's face.

As Magicpetal waited for Dusksplash to land, she overheard Horizongold and Oceangold talking with the trainees. She never liked the idea of war, but understood why it must be done. Her mother's voice bubbled into her mind. "Some pegasi don't like peace. They think it shows weakness and ignorance. They'd rather fight and lose than make peace and win. Always remember that. In today's world, you can't always turn your back on a foreign steed," At the time, Magicpetal didn't understand. "Why would someone want to fight? Why would a pegasus chose war over peace?" But now that she was older and toughened up, she was beginning to understand. It's just like her mother said 'Some pegasi don't like peace."

Dusksplash pouted theatrically, but obeyed because he knew arguing would get him nowhere.

Meanwhile, Horizongold and his mother were wrapping up. "Many of you have mastered the feather curl," said the pinto mare. "If you are among those who have not, practice doing so tomorrow when we don't have practice. But get plenty of sleep tonight and go to sleep early tomorrow night. We'll wake up the spy trainees around midnight for a special training session." A good-natured groan met this news and she smiled in return.

Horizongold stepped forward. "Make sure you're rested, practice, but enjoy yourselves tomorrow. As you know perfectly well, there is a war coming. That is why you are all training in the first place. Tomorrow may be one of the last fun days before serious fighting. Make the most of it."

A sober silence met these words, so he tried to lift the mood. With a broad grin on his face once more, he said, "That won't be for a little while, though, so have fun! Group dismissed!"

"Yeah, yeah!" Dusksplash called back, grinning widely. However, the truth was he was having some trouble. He hadn't realized till now that the trees masked the stiff wind of the area. He had to battle to stay upright and stable, and besides, the wind was ruffling his feathers. It was cold, the young pinto weanling realized, but he supposed he should get used to it. He braved on, upwards, and smiled triumphantly as he drew level with his mother.

Breezecloud looked over at the sound of flapping wings and smiled slightly when she noticed the splotched form of her son. "Dusksplash," she said gently, "please land. Stay with Magicpetal for now. Visibility is bad and worsening. You can practice flying with your father tomorrow, in full daylight."

Breezebell:

She nodded to Horizongold and walked away. When he wasn't looking, she drooped her ears. She had been looking forward to weaving. But she shoved that thought aside as she trained and practiced flying without making any noise like the owls. It was quite hard to do, but the instructions were simple enough. All you had to do was curl your end-feathers upwards so it wouldn't make as much noise when you flapped your wings. Soon she got the hang of it and couldn't wait to show Magicpetal and Redmoon.

Magicpetal watched as they lifted off. "What will it be used for? she asked, continuing to watch the twins soar overhead.

(ok!! Byee!!)

(I have to go for the night, hopefully be on tomorrow but don't count on it.)

"Yes," Breezecloud replied. "Now, since I know what we'll be doing with this thing, let's test it. Skyfeather, Dusktail, each of you place one hoof in one loop. Skyfeather, go on the left side, Dusktail on the right. Then start flying in unison. It might be tricky to figure out, but have at it."

The twins grinned and stepped forward. As Breezecloud had predicted, it was awkward at first. Neither twin knew when their wing should be extended in relationship to the other one's wing, then when they finally mastered that and achieved liftoff, the mat fell. This was because they had completely forgotten it was there in the first place, and had let the tension off of it. After numerous attempts and several sessions of collapsing in laughter, they mastered it. The mat stayed with them in the air and they flew levelly. Breezecloud nodded her approval with a wide smile on her face.

Breezebell:

After she had nickered her goodbye to Magicpetal, she leaped into the air and followed after Horizongold. They soon landed in a fairly open clearing. It was a warmer day than usual for fall and Glacier Herd, so already the trainees were breaking a sweat. Breezebell then walked up to Horizongold before the lesson started and as they were taking in the surroundings, she asked, "Horizongold, will the rest of us every learn how to weave? I was actually quite excited about learning to weave," she said.

Starsummer at first was offended that he was eavesdropping, but as he shared his point, her annoyance at him faded and his words sunk in. "First of all, thank you. I'm excited as well. Second of all," she paused to think of what she would say. Starsummer glanced up at the sky, then down in the direction of the training grounds, then at her hooves, and finally back to the two stallions. "I might take that into consideration. I am always the one to say that family is first." she said, nodding to herself, making up her mind. "Besides, there'll be more wars. I can kick butt then, but now's not the time."

Darkstone sighed in relief then nickered. "Thank you! Jeeze! Was this an actual hard decision?! Hmm, go into war and risk my unborn foal and my life or drop out of the war and live to fight another day? Uhh... That's hard! Let me think about this!" He teased, laughing as she bit his shoulder.

Breezecloud agreed with Magicpetal's thoughts. "Well done," she said warmly. "Now, you can watch once more as Skyfeather, Dusktail, and I each make a handle for this mat, fastened one in each corner. After watching, you can try to make the fourth one or choose not to and let one of us do it if it seems too hard." She and the twins quickly moved on to making those handles, twisting and plaiting four strands each and making a fairly large loop in one end of each of them. The end without the loop was then woven into the corner of the mat and fastened with another reed.

"All right," Breezecloud said to her group as the others ambled away. The two of you that have seen weaving before know what we're doing. Magicpetal, watch and learn for now. Dusktail, Skyfeather, lay these reeds in a grid. We need it to be pretty big, so let's say six reeds by five, but double-thickened for strength. Leave the rest for me to deal with."

Dusktail nodded respectfully and trotted forward, already reaching out with his wings. He deftly swept up five reeds into one wing, then moved aside and laid them, evenly spaced, on the ground. He moved aside for Skyfeather to come to the space where the mat was forming and passed her a reed, one at a time, about one a minute.

Meanwhile, Skyfeather was weaving the reed in and out, over and under, the ones already placed on the ground. Very quickly, a single-thickness mat was laid out on the ground. It was large enough that an adult pegasus's wing, folded up, could lay on it with room to spare.

Breezecloud nodded her approval, slightly impressed with the speed. "Nicely done," the council mare said. "Now thicken it, to be two reeds in width."

The twins nodded simultaneously and began working again. Dusktail's job was the same: sort out and pass the reeds to his twin sister. Skyfeather, however, began weaving the strands in at an angle to the first ones, to go in the corners between the broad strands. This took quite a bit longer because, being from Cave Herd, they had fairly wide feathers.

Breezecloud noticed the problem and waved to Magicpetal, knowing that her parents were originally from Sun Herd and therefore she was more equipped for this. "Seen enough to try it?" the pale dappled mare asked. "How about you give it a go?"

Magicpetal:

She nickered a soft goodbye to Breezebell, then turned to look at Breezecloud.

Horizongold turned to face the group of trainees, who had started milling around while he and Breezecloud had been talking. "In case you didn't hear that," the liver chestnut stallion said, "Three of you -- Magicpetal, Dusktail, and Skyfeather -- will stay with Breezecloud to weave a tool for our spy classes in the future. If I didn't just say your name, come with me to the other side of the clearing. We will be practicing how to muffle the sound of your wings in the air, so you can get close to a pair of conversing pegasi without being heard."

Magicpetal:

She was listening to the conversation and pricked her ears at her name being called to stay with Breezecloud. She was almost positive that she would go with Horizongold because she had no idea how to weave, but she knew better than to talk out of turn, so she stayed quiet and looked down at her hooves.

(YAY!!!!!!! I'm just glad that ur back!!!!)

It took a decent amount of time, choosing and pulling up frozen strands, but Junipersky and Horizongold eventually succeeded and returned to the spy-training clearing with their wings full of cattail leaves.

"I'm no good at weaving," Junipersky said apologetically to Breezecloud, who was waiting for them. "I was brought up in Ice Herd, not any of the mountain herds."

"That's alright," Breezecloud said with a shrug. "Drop the reeds in a pile here - you too, Horizongold," she added. "I'll keep the steeds who know how to weave with me, then Horizongold can take the others to practice flying quietly."

Horizongold nodded his approval. "Who will be staying here, with you?" he asked as the question came to him.

Breezecloud considered for a few moments. "Magicpetal, certainly. Skyfeather and Dusktail, the pinto twins. I'd like Oceangold as well, but she can come with you to keep order over the rest of the trainees. Four of us should be enough."

(Hello again! I didn't have my laptop over winter break so I wasn't on much. I don't get on the MB with my phone because it has a hard time loading everything. Right now I'm on my dad's new Microsoft tablet.)

(Anyone here?)

Magicpetal:

While her trainees went to gather the supplies she took the chance to glance at her mother once more. Now, Starsummer had moved into a patch of sun to keep warm in the frigid morning tempurature. She saw her uncle Darkstone land next to Starsummer and the two nuzzled for a while. "Uncle Darkstone!" she thought, smiling to herself. She couldn't remember the last time she had talked or even seen him. "He must have been hanging out with Whiteshadow." she thought again, flicking her small ears at them. Darkstone had grown since the last time she saw her 5 year old uncle. He was now almost the size of his old sister and he was growing muscular. His chest was rounded and his back legs were packed with muscles and she could see Emberblaze growing up to look exactly like their uncle.

When she noticed that some of the steeds were returning with the necessities, she turned her head back toward Breezecloud and tried to focus.

( A LESSON ON WEAVING?!?!?! OOF YASSS!!!! :D )

(Not right now, but yes. Gtg)

(Oh? What's the fix?)

(HERE!!!! sry)

(gtg)

(Hello?)

Magicpetal:

She flicked her ears toward a new voice that wasn't Horizongold's, but her small stature kept her from seeing how it was. She moved over toward the sides of the clump and saw Dusksplash and his mother. She glanced back toward her own mother who was still standing under the tree. Magicpetal watched for a few seconds then turned her head back forward, but she was still barely listening.

(No worries! At all! This post has been kinda dead because Dragon's been having issues with her computer. Oh, will you be dong the video call via Google Hangouts on the 21st?)

(Ah, right. Okay, that makes sense.)

Horizongold and his mother touched down in the training clearing for the spies and shuffled their wings. They both noticed the lowering temperatures and realized winter was drawing nearer.

Horizongold waved a wing to several of the trainees that were already gathered there, standing in a close huddle to keep warm. "Over here, please!" he called. "Now, I know everyone is cold. It's one of the coldest days this autumn so far. However, we need to move on in our training. Rather than the ground, today you will be eavesdropping on us in the sky!"

(They have a chance of winning if they attack before the snow falls because Glacier Herd won't be expecting it, but unless Flame Herd manages to have a quick victory, and they're still fighting after the snow falls, they is no chance they can win until much later, even if they managed to survive)

(sorry, what? That seems counterintuitive. They might win because of something –the snow – but they might lose because of the same thing?)

Cherrycloud (Flame Herd)-

Cherrycloud trotted around restlessly, the way she had been doing since the cursed Jungle Herd steed had broken her wing. This was because, no matter what the medicine mare did, there was this never ending throbbing pain, lingering near the break. She often used this time to go over the battle plans, which no seemed all be ill-advised, especially since quite a few of Flame Herd's spies had gone missing, ones who were well aware of these plans. Now, Cherrycloud was contemplating possibly going ahead with the war with Glacier Herd, before the snow fell. But there was many things wrong with the plan, for one, if it were to turn cold before Flame Herd won, they would have no hope of winning in the artic clement, however, this plan may be just the reason Flame Herd would win.

Oceangold nodded significantly. "That is the question, isn't it?" she asked. The question was rhetorical. "I have no idea. Anyway, the purple chunk is amethyst. That's from volcanoes, so maybe Jungle Herd?" She changed the subject. "Can you bring me to the place you found these?"

Horizongold raised an important point. "We can," the young stallion said. "But not today. There's spy training, remember?"

Oceangold pricked her ears. "Ah, right. Well then, tomorrow."

Oceangold nodded a reply, but was too startled by the gems that Magicpetal had placed in front of her to give the filly full her attention. "Wow. Where did you find these? They're incredible." She had pointed the question to Magicpetal, but Horizongold replied.

"There's a huge, breathtaking cave through some tunnel systems behind the medicine mare den," the young stallion said. "We broke some gems off and brought them for you to identify. Do you recognize any of them?"

Oceangold paused and stretched out a wing to brush against the gorgeous stones. "Yes," she hedged. "I think this glittery one, that has flecks of orange and rainbow, is called an opal. I saw them as a spy in Desert Herd, back when Sun Herd was whole. They had caves of them, but they usually aren't on the surface."

She switched her gaze to the marble-like blue one. As she picked it up, she realized it was the exact color of the darkest part of her wing. "Hmm," she pondered. "This seems like something from the ocean's edge, in the south part of Snow Herd's territory. I couldn't tell you what it's called, if it has a name." She set it down and moved on to the red egg-shaped one.

"Wh . . . what . . . " she breathed. "That is so incredibly rare. These red stones are the variation of the blue ones, and only occur in about one in twenty blue stones. I know these have a name: ruby."

Magicpetal:

At Horizongold's request, she went back to her family's sleeping space, took the gems out of their hiding spot, and carefully brought them back to Horizongold, not wanting to drop the beautiful crystals.

Magicpetal smiled as she placed the gems in front of Oceangold. "Good morning!" she nickered to the mare.