Two years passed.
Thunderquake had started the school in Canterlot and entered in it easily and naturally, and by the age of seven she could already count on a close-knit group of friends.
Blakelynn came from the distant Klugetown, and she was a fly. Not many of them were seen around Canterlot, so her presence, together with that of her parents, moved for work, aroused a lot of curiosity.
She had a gray body, with lighter segments, six legs and two small glass-transparent wings.
Her eyes were bright and red, and a smile was always on her mouth. Her face was framed by short silver hair. Blake loved to dress in bright colors, such as fuchsia and electric blue, and she was a shy little girl, who loved to listen more than to show off.
Brittany was an earth pony, and she was very beautiful. She was the daughter of two crystal ponies, and she had a silky, shimmering violet hair, which her mother combed in a thousand different ways every morning; she had two beautiful fuchsia eyes and a dark pink fur. When she grew up, she would've certainly had become everyone's idol.
Royal Tile was a white unicorn with short wavy hair, which turned from mint, to indigo, to turquoise. He came from a wealthy family and could afford a lot of chic thingies, such as pure gold sunglasses, key rings with precious stones and imported sweets for his parties. He had violet eyes, and although they often sparkled with a slight arrogance, Thunderquake loved him for who he was.
Finally, there was Gray Crown, a fawn. His family was originally from Acorn Forest, a pleasant corner of Equestria, from which exquisite dried fruit came.
Gray, despite his name, was a warm golden color, with unkempt dark red hair and yellow flecks on the hips. The belly was also yellow, as was the lower part of the tail, which on the upper part was dyed instead of a rich brown. The tips of the ears were black, just like the hooves.
His eyes were two sapphires, deep and thoughtful. Gray too, like Blake, didn't like to talk out of turn and was undoubtedly the most mature of the group.
That morning in early September, in fact, it was he who noticed Thunderquake's lost eyes, which remained fixed on the counter and looked for who knew what.
"Is there something wrong?" he had asked her.
The earth pony shook herself, and smiled at her friend.
"My sister was born last month. She never sleeps at night and I'm tired..."
To cement their union, Lightning Dust and Twilight combined their DNA into a spell that could make them mothers, and eventually the ruler gave birth to a tiny alicorn, who was given the name of Dusk Glow.
She didn't have the large wings of her cousin Flurry, but her horn was well developed; a tuft of four-colored hair emerged from it, passing from two different shades of gold to two of coral.
The filly's body was mainly powder blue, which turned to light indigo on her hind limbs, giving the illusion that the little girl was always wearing pantyhose decorated with dots.
Her hind hooves were a darker indigo, while her front hooves were lilac. The inside of her ears was light turquoise.
Her eyes, mild and sweet, were wine red.
Dusk Glow, despite being an alicorn, had come into the world with weak magic and poor health. She often woke up at night and hardly slept more than three hours straight. Twilight had no milk and was soon forced to feed her substitutes that induced her colics.
Dusk screamed loudly, neither her mothers nor the servants could calm her down; it was a single, long cry.
Only Thunderquake was able to rock and slide her into a precarious state of doze, but she was busy with school and she certainly couldn't take the baby to class.
Thunder loved her little sister, but she was demanding and she couldn't keep up with her, she was often awake at six in the morning and couldn't fall asleep again because of her crying.
Her cousin, Flurry Heart, also had concerns, albeit of a different nature.
The sweet princess of the Crystal Empire had few memories of her mother, but they were well defined and were described by her as a "very warm pink light".
She liked to remember her and she kept those few fragments of light in her heart, however she... she couldn't deny that she missed a female figure to guide her discovering the world.
She liked Pinkie. That pink pony often took her sweets to her Castle and then gladly stopped to play with her. Even though Flurry was only seven, she understood perfectly that the pastry chef wanted to be with her father, so one afternoon she broke the matter with her parent.
"Dad, can I ask you a question?"
"Mh? Sure, darling..." he replied, reading a good book on the sofa, and taking advantage of that moment without royal duties.
"Haven't you fallen in love since mom?"
Shining Armor nearly dropped the book to the crystalline floor.
"But Flurry, love... Why are you asking me this question?"
The little girl blushed shyly.
"Because Pinkie is in love with you!"
She had said it with a smile on her lips and in her eyes, with the typical foalish joy of somepony who has just made an incredible discovery.
He, however, could not participate to that joy. For him, the Sun didn't shine, it was always half-light.
"Flurry... It's a bit complicated to explain... I only think about mom."
"But mom is no longer there!"
Those words hurt Shining, above all because they came from the one who should have taken care of Cadance's memory with the most assiduity of all, her daughter.
Maybe she was really too young when it happened, maybe she couldn't remember her well enough to miss her.
"Flurry... Let's close this speech, shall we?"
"I WANT PINKIE AS A MOM!"
"ENOUGH!"
Flurry's desperate scream was superimposed on her father's barbaric one. Never in his life had the Crystal Prince shouted like that. He had opened his jaws and barked at his daughter, blood of his blood, with the same ferocity with which wolves bark at sheep.
Flurry Heart's immense turquoise eyes instantly filled with tears; Shining Armor was gasping in shock.
He tried to regain control of himself and softened his voice:
"Enough of these speeches. Go to your room to play."
Two tears fell to the floor. To Shining they looked like two tears of crystal, or ice.
After giving him a dirty look, the little girl ran to her room.
Calm returned into the big living room, and an unreal silence also descended in the Prince's heart. Was he wrong to be so tough? He didn't know.
What was certain was that no one could take the place of his beloved wife.
If Pinkie Pie was far from fulfilling her love dream, surely Rarity was no closer than her.
The seamstress had tried in every way to conquer her lovely cowgirl, from blind dates to endless confidences in the middle of the night, passing through some decisive scenes. Nothing had breached the orange pony, who seemed to take masochistic pleasure in continuing to chase Rainbow Dash.
Eventually, defeated, Rarity had raised the white flag and Applejack had breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
Rarity had thinned out her encounters with her foalhood friend, hurt and angry; she couldn't conceive the blond mare's obstinacy to run after an illusion, just as she couldn't stand herself for being so desperately in love with her.
And so, time began to spin again frantically...