=Familia 6=

>Anonymous slips one of the last books onto the shelf. “There…a place for everything, and everything in its place!”
“It’s killing me that you won’t alphabetize these.”
>”Twilight I’m an old man and I have my books sorted just the way I like them. You wouldn’t force an elderly person to change their bookshelf, would you?”
>Your inner librarian screamed at the concept. A bookshelf was a sanctum.
“No…”
>”Thank you.”
>Anonymous continues to stock his bookshelf, quietly humming to himself.
>You look around the room for the third time that day and finally say what’s been on your mind.
“Anonymous? Why am I the only one here?”
>”Whatever do you mean, Twilight?” he asks, sliding another book in.
“Normally I’m here WITH someone. Celestia or Luna…but today I stop by and it’s just you.”
>”Does the solitude trouble you?” he asks.
“I’m afraid I just don’t see the value…”
>Anonymous smiles but doesn’t look at you. “Twlight, we may learn how to better ourselves from others but its only on our own that we truly begin to understand it and our place in the world.”
>He slots another book in.
>”Even I had to let my girls out from under my nose sometime…”
“Is this another story? Should I sit down?”
>”It was a bright, sunny day…”
>Yep.

>”Hurry up daddy!” Celestia cries as she runs to the top of the green hill you were walking up.
“Hold on, sweetness!”
>”Higher papa!”
“Okay, hold on!”
>You hold Luna up above your head and make rocket blastoff noises for her while you increase your speed to get to Celestia. Luna holds her hooves straight out and adopts a heroic face as she flies through the air, although she devolves to gigglefits once you reach the top of the hill.
>”There it is…” Celestia says “I can’t wait!”
>The girls and you overlook the deep forest spread across the land before you with trees so thick that the ground underneath was cast in perpetual shade. Shapes darted between the trees in dashes almost too fast to see as they watched you carefully.
>The girls, and now you as you discovered, aged slower than the rest of the world but the world still aged, and races beyond your little daughters had begun to appear.
>The closest to you being the deer.

>Celestia and Luna had both had brief spurts of interaction with them at the edges of your respective spaces, mostly in the fields or rivers and you’d caught a few in the backyard a few times before they scamper away in surprise, deer seemed just as skittish here as they did on Earth. 
>It warmed your heart to see a friendship forming between the girls and one larger white deer youth that’d appeared a few times behind the house. Imagine your feeling when the girls came to you saying this deer invited them to come to his lands to play.
>You set Luna down and walk hands in pockets down to the edge of the trees, stopping when you see the deer inside inch back.
“Girls, I want to know who you’ll be with and when you’ll be back. Can you find out?”
>”Leave it to us!” Celestia says with a determined grin. Luna and her gallop off to the trees and converse with a dark shape before running back.
>”Daddy! We’ll be with our friend Aspen and we PROMISE to be home by sunset! Okay?”
>You kneel down and boop her nose.
“Best behavior, alright?”
>”Cross our hearts and hope to die, stick a cupcake in my eye!” they both say in unison.
>You smile and turn, walking back towards home.
“I love you both!”

>The path you take is the same path you took to where you are now.
>You smile to yourself as you feel the grass crunch under your feet and your mind thinks about the girls and the day they had ahead of them.
>You think back to when you were a little boy and playing with your local friends. Often leaving the house early in the morning and not returning until late that night with wild tales of adventure under your cap to regale your parents with.
“Heh…this’ll be good for them.”
>It’s about halfway back to the house when you remember the other side of that coin you had with your friends.
>Namely all the trouble you used to get into.
>You stop in your tracks.
>There was the time you fell into the lake or when you broke your arm…holy hell you used to grab electrical wires and play with knives!
>You feel your breathing quicken but force yourself to calm down.
“They’re smart…they’ll be fine…”
>You hold your head up high and continue walking home.
>…But what about diseases?
>Deer back on earth carried Lyme disease along with a dozen other illnesses.
>Could horses contract Lyme disease?
>Could magical ones?
>What if the deer were more reckless than you were because they were nimbler than ponies? The girls couldn’t fly yet.
>You take a deep breath and press onwards.
“It’s nothing, Anon…just relax…trust them.”
>You lean forward and walk home with more determination than ever befor-
>What if those deer try to touch their horns?
>You turn on your heel and start sprinting back towards the forest.

>You run back to the forest and feel the rush of wind as all the deer spying on you utterly vanish in fright.
>You’d apologize later, you had dad neurosis fueling you right now.
>The tracks in the ground lead all over the place, probably from leaping excitement and glee, but two stood out.
>A pair of the tracks were lighter than the rest, clearly made by the marshmellowy hoovsies you’d washed hundreds of times.
“There you are…”
>You give chase along the path the tracks lead down at full tilt until you hear girlish giggling.
>The bushes nearby offer safety from sight and let you hide behind them easily enough. When you’re sure you haven’t been seen, you peek through a hole.
>Your fillies frolic and play alongside three adolescent deer, the tallest and whitest of which you guess is Aspen. Above them fluttered a flock of chirping orange plumes of flame.
>Magic maybe? Around fire, never tire.
>You take a closer look and see faces in the forms, avian ones.
“Pheonix chicks…” you mutter to yourself.
>In the woods like this? Was that even safe?
>”Go ahead, Celestia!” you hear.
>Peeking through the brush, you see Celestia stare intently at the flock of phoenixes, smiling up at them and looking non-threatening. One of the birds flutters down lower than the rest and flirts with her nose. Celestia can’t contain her joy and smiles wider.
>The bird, reacting to her change, gets spooked and flutters off with a slight whiff of flame that dances over Celestia’s snout.
>”Yow!” she exclaims as the deer groan their disappointment at the phoenix.
>You’re a heartbeat away from rushing through the bushes to help her when a snort from behind distracts you.
>Looking over your shoulder you lock eyes with a large imposing buck standing some hundred feet back. His brown eyes look past your own and bore into your brain, momentarily sapping you of your drive to your girl’s aid.
>He snorts once and gestures to the youths.

>Looking back you see Luna look at Celestia’s snout. “Are you okay?”
>”Yeah, it’s nothing…”
Oh…thank god…
>You sigh and the deer look over to you, spooked.
>”Did you guys hear that?” one says.
>SPOOT.
>”It was probably just my dad spying on us…” Aspen answers.
>”He does that?” Celestia asks.
>”All the time.”
>”How droll.” Luna replies.
>Oof…
>”I want to try again!” Celestia says, planting her flank in the ground amongst the phoenixes and holding her nose high.
>The birds circle around her in a lazy trailed pattern until one, the same one as before, makes another lazy descent.
>This time Celestia stands perfectly still while watching the bird land on her nose and smiles when it perches.
>The deer smile and cheer. “You did it, Celestia!”
>Celestia grins a toothy smile and moves with the bird on her nose.
>”Luna, do you think daddy will let us keep it?!”
>”Maybe. He let us keep you.” Luna responds.
>Celestia blows her cheeks out while the deer children laugh.
>You let out another sigh, masked by their laughter, and turn back behind you to find the buck gone.
>Shame washes over you, at what the boy said and your own realization. 
>There was no danger here, at least none that could readily occur. The girls were smart and these children had parents as well, parents who would go just as far to protect their children as you would.
>You feel the fool and back away from the bush, content to have the little ones have their fun
>Once you exit the forest and REALLY start heading home, you decide to make it up to the girls by preparing for their new pet.

>”And…done.” Anonymous says, slotting the last book into place.
>You blink twice and shake your head, having lost track of time.
“Wah-huh?”
>”Did you space out, Twilight?” Anonymous ask chuckling his old chuckle.
“I…guess. Nice story though.”
>”Thank you. I love stories about the big moments in the girls’ lives.
“Why’d you tell it?”
>Anonymous looks down at you and cocks an eyebrow.
“Well all your other stories had sort of a…moral or a point I guess that related to my life or princesshood, what’s this one?”
>Anonymous stares at you for a long time and then shrugs. “Cute things are cute?”
“Anonymous!” 
>”Alright fine! Always trust those who are important in your life and give them the space they need to grow or SOMETHING. Happy now?”
”You threw that together just now!” you accuse pointing at him.
>”Maybe!”
“That’s a waste of time!”
>”Did you like hearing the story!?”
“Yes! It was cute to imagine Princess Celestia getting what I’m guessing was Philomena!”
>”That’s right it was! If you thought, it was cute then that’s all the point you need!”
>You shut your trap and look up at Anonymous with narrow eyes.
“You win this round…”
>”I win every round, I practically invented the game. Same time next time?”
>You go to the door and find Anonymous already there holding it open for you.
“Sure, do you want me to bring anyone or…?”
>”Let’s see where life takes us, Twilight.”
>The two of you exchange a smile and you fly off.