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Before we get to the next chapter, thank you to Wolf Fang 497 for another follow and I also forgot to thank Lynnecaya and Leifj2009 for their favs and follows!

And now lets get back to the story!

Chapter 9: Heartbroken

The next three days passed by relatively quick as Blooming Rose became much more comfortable in the school, spending quite a bit of time with her new group of friends, studying and chatting with them throughout the day, in fact Rose hated it when the school day was over and her brother came to take her home. She never imagined that coming here would be such a good thing for her and she was happy that she was sent here for her education.

Soon enough, on the third day as it approached the very middle of the day, the second half of the school hours was devoted to Friends and Family Day. Of course Rose and her new friends were very excited.

"Oh boy, I can't wait to meet your friends or family guys." Rose said happily to her new group of friends.

"We feel the same way Rose." Ocellus replied. "It's going to be nice to meet your family."

"Oh and Yona, please try not to squeeze them too hard." Rose told the Yak, chuckling a bit.

"Yona promise not to hug friend's family too hard." Yona answered back as the group of seven friends came out of the school building to outside, where the event was taking place, the teachers and other students already there.

"Hey, there's my family." Rose said as she was looking around and spotted three of her family members. "But where's my dad…" Rose wondered as her dad wasn't with her mom, brother, and sister.

"Maybe he had to go to the stallion's room?" Smolder suggested.

"Maybe…" Rose replied, uncertain as she saw her mother wave at her, apparently having noticed her little daughter.

Rose, with her friends besides her, trotted over to her family members, Bluebell greeting her daughter with a hug.

"Hello sweetie, it's so good to see you." Bluebell smiled as she looked to Rose's friends. "And I'm guessing these are your friends your brother told us about."

"Yes they are mom." Rose said as she introduced her friends. This is Gallus, Silverstream, Smolder, Yona, Sandbar, and Ocellus." Rose pointing to her friends as she said each of their names.

"Yona happy to meet friend's mom." Yona said as she hugged Bluebell, a little too tightly…

"Yona, what did we talk about?" Rose reminded her big yak friend.

"Oh right, sorry, Yona forgot." Yona apologized and let go of Bluebell.

"It's okay, I'm glad to meet all of you too." Bluebell smiled as she got her breath back from being hugged.

Rose wanted to talk about her friends more, but there was a more pressing issue to talk about first…

"Mom, where's dad?" Rose asked. "Is he just at the house unpacking the luggage or did he have to use the stallion's room?"

Bluebell knew this question would come, but she wasn't prepared for it, even thought she had the time.

"Well sweetie… He…" Bluebell began, but couldn't get it out.

"Sis, he had to…" Pen tried, but failed like his mother.

"Oh for Celestia's sake…" Dancing Tune sighed as she had to be the one to get it out as she breathed in and out before calmly revealing the truth to the youngest family member. "Sis, I'm sorry, but dad had to stay back in Canterlot because of a huge diplomatic event that required every guard on duty."

Three days ago and a few hours after Sword got the letter from Pen…

"What am I supposed to do honey?" Sword asked his wife as he was in bed, unable to sleep because of the hard decision to make. "I don't want to disappoint Blooming Rose again, but if I go, that means I might get discharged from duty." Sword sighed as his head was aching.

"Honey, you have to do what you think is right, to be honest, I think it's best you do your duty, me and Dancing Tune are still going to go to Ponyville, so she will have most of her family there." Bluebell stated her opinion.

"That's true, but I feel like if I don't go to Ponyville, she's never going to talk to me ever again." Sword expressed his concern.

"She'll understand honey and she's still your little filly no matter what." Bluebell trying to give a comforting smile. "Now you have some time before the day, so try to get some sleep for work tomorrow." Bluebell giving Sword a kiss on the cheek before she laid down herself in the bed and closed her eyes.

Sword still thought about it more and he figured his wife was right, so finally laying down as well, he breathed in and out before slowly closing his eyes to sleep…

Back to the present…

"Oh…" Rose began, but didn't know quite what to say next.

"You okay Rose?" Silverstream asked, showing a face of concern.

"I'm okay, I just need to go back to my house…" Rose told everyone and just left, trotting back to her new home in Ponyville, leaving her friends and family behind as all they could do was stare at each other and then at the little filly getting smaller and smaller in view.

Meanwhile in Canterlot…

Sword Gauntlet was at his post, standing guard as the diplomatic event was underway. Princesses Celestia and Luna were meeting the rulers of Saddle Arabia, talking over important issues needing to be discussed. However that wasn't on Sword's mind as he maintained his post, however he found himself sweating, which he doesn't usually do having because so used to wearing his armor and helmet and not only that but his legs were all shaky. Of course it was because he was regretting not having gone to Ponyville and it's not like he could leave now all of a sudden and hurry to the smaller town. Certainly every other guard would see him run off and think it was just to get out of duty, serving as witnesses to the captain of the guard, who would must certainly strip Sword of his rank and get him out of the guard.

"Why did I make this decision…" Sword thought in his head as he tried to keep looking as professional as he could, suppressing the urge to make a break for it. "I hope I just didn't destroy a father-daughter relationship…"

Back in Ponyville…

Rose made it back to her house and went straight to her room, once she opened her door, she just threw herself on her bed and cried her eyes out.

"Why didn't he come!?" Rose shouted loud enough that if the her window was open, ponies would certainly hear her. "He sent me here and he doesn't have the strength to talk to me!" Rose was both upset and sad as she cried.

Rose was still on her bed as she heard her door slowly creak open and her brother's voice greeting her.

"Hey sis." Pen said softly.

"I'm not in the mood big brother." Rose angrily snapped back.

"Okay, you don't have to say anything, just let me speak for a minute." Pen began and continued. "Look, dad wanted to come, but it's not like him to just go off duty when he's need, he thought you would understand and you still have the rest of your family and your new friends."

Rose still didn't say anything back as Pen sighed, half expecting a response.

"Okay, I'm not going to force you to come, but we will all be sad if you don't come back to the school, think about it, we're waiting for you." Pen told Rose as he then left, closing the door gently as Pen went back to the school.

Meanwhile back at the school, Bluebell and Dancing Tune were getting to know Rose's new friends, but at the same time they were all worried about the little filly. They stopped as they saw Pen returning to the school.

"So, is she coming back?" Sandbar asked, referring to Rose of course.

"I don't think so…" Pen sighed as he came up besides his older sister. "The only way she's going to come out is if my dad is here and convinces her to forgive him."

"But he's on duty, no way can we just pull him off and bring him to Ponyville." Bluebell remained her son.

"Well, there could be one way…" Gallus thought and then turned to his friends. "Guys, it's time we go to Canterlot."

What are the Young 6 going to do exactly? You're going to have to wait until the next chapter to find out!

See everycreature later!