"Eeeeeee! Eeehehehehe!" Sunny Daze shrieked with laughter as she plunged through the waterlogged marsh, sending sprays of water over the gently waving reeds as her hooves skidded and splashed in the knee-deep water with every step.

She swirled with a gasp of laughter, sending her sunset hair tumbling around her white face as she turned to confront Sparkleworks. He grinned as she swiveled to splash at him with her hind legs. The orange pony rose in a playful half-rear, then crashed his forehooves into the marsh, sending a small tsunami crashing over Sunny Daze. The white mare gasped in mock fury as her mane dripped in long, loose scraggles; then she leapt straight at Sparkleworks, bodychecking him and sending both ponies tumbling off their hooves.

"Mercy! Mercy!" the stallion laughed, spluttering and snorting as Sunny Daze pinned him in the shallow water.

She laughed. "You shouldn't start what you can't finish, Sparkleworks."

"Maybe this was the finish I had in mind," he replied, half-closing his eyes as he smiled and leaned back, letting the water seep up his orange coat.

Sunny Daze tilted her head coyly. "Maybe you shou--OW!" She grimaced suddenly, shaking one of her hind legs.

"What's the matter?" Sparkleworks pushed himself to a sitting position.

"There's something caught on my hoof," the white earthlng said with a distinctly annoyed expression.

"Here, let me help . . ." Sparkleworks offered his shoulder. Whether it helped or not was questionable, but she certainly seemed to appreciate the support, leaning on him and giggling a little as they worked their way back to the soft, mossy banks.

"Now!" she said as she pulled herself out of the water and shook out a cascade of sun-crystaled droplets out of her mane. "Ewwww, can you believe it?" she asked as she turned to see a limp, dripping vine tangled around her right hoof.

"Here, let me." Sparkleworks pulled it off, pulling back his lips so that they wouldn't touch the rotted plantlife. Even so, he grimaced expressively after swiftly dropping the thing.

"It looks like a tendril from one of the willows," Sunny Daze said, regarding it with interest. "It must have fallen in and--hey! What's that?"

"What's what?" Sparkleworks was still scrubbing at his mouth.

"That, silly!" With one white, water-stained hoof, Sunny Daze deftly nudged something away from the dead coil of plant. "It's a marble."

"It's a rock," Sparkleworks said, not much impressed.

"It's too round to be a rock. And look--it's carved! It's got carvings . . ." Sunny Daze scrubbed the dirt off the object by putting her hoof over it and gently rubbing it over the grass.

"So it's a carved rock," Sparkleworks shrugged.

"I like it," Sunny said. "I'm going to wash it and put it in the Common Room." She gently gripped it in her teeth and trotted off, her cheeks dimpling merrily.

"But I thought maybe we could--" Sparkleworks started to trot after her persuasively, then slowed and turned around with a shrug. "Well, whatever . . ."

"Having fun, Sparkleworks?"

The orange pony turned to discover dark purple Kimono lying in the drifts of meadowgrass, regarding Sparkleworks with one lifted eyebrow. Beside him Minty lounged on his back, his pale pink mane and tail spread like banners beneath the cloud-wisped sky as he lay with his hooves outstretched.

"What do you think you're doing?" Sparkleworks asked.

"I decided my hair would look better white," the green pony replied lazily. "So I'm bleaching it."

"Which, oddly enough, incorporates your favorite activity," Kimono said drily. "Namely lying around doing nothing."

"It's nice how it works out that way, isn't it?" Minty said.

Kimono rolled his eyes a little, then turned his attention back to Sparkleworks. "Looks like you and Sunny were having a good time."

"So what if we were?"

"How's Wysteria these days?"

"You shouldn't stick your nose where it doesn't belong."

"You shouldn't do lots of things," the purple pony replied calmly. "But that's never stopped you before."

"I don't need advice," Sparkleworks said, loftily tossing his head, "from a stallion named after a dress."

"A kimono isn't a dress, it's actually a--"

"I wouldn't talk if I were you, Sparks." Minty flopped his head across Kimono's flank, gazing upside-down at the orange pony. "What's your daughter's name again? Pork Pie?"

Sparkleworks flicked his tail in annoyance. "Don't blame me for Cotton Candy's brat."

"Well, it sure wasn't me or Kimmy!" The green pony rolled over so that his front hooves were draped across Kimono's back as he aimed a playful nip at the purple stallion's ear.

Kimono flicked his ear out of reach. "Don't call me Kimmy."

"Motivate me," Minty said, grinning.

The purple stallion twisted his head around to look the green earthling in the eye. "I'll think up a horrible nickname for you," he said in a calm voice that was more a promise than a threat.

"You already call me Mint."

"Maybe I'll just use the last part of your name. 'Ty. Tee."

"Hmm . . . Mr. Tee . . . it has a certain ring to it . . ." Minty mused.

"Or perhaps Int."

"Oh, I like that. Int. Short for 'intelligent', right?"

"Short for interrupter," Sparkleworks said, distinctly disgruntled at being so suddenly and thoroughly ignored.

"Oh right, we were talking about your daughter . . ."

"SHE'S NOT MINE!"

Minty gave him smile full of disbelief. "Immaculate conception, then, I take it?"

"Well, what about Rainbow Dash?"

"What about Rainbow Dash?" Now Kimono was giving him a look.

"He's friendly towards Candy," the orange pony said meaningfully. "Oh sure, he may act all vapid and innocent--"

"Merely the result of too many rainbowberries, I fear."

"It takes more than being friendly, Sparks," Minty informed him. "When a mommy pony and a daddy pony love each other very much--"

The orange pony stamped a hoof in frustration, swiveled with a swish of his dark pink tail, and marched away, head held high.

"There goes He-of-the-Unfettered-Ego," Minty commented rolling away from Kimono and stretching under the golden sun once more.

"I wouldn't be concerned if his ego was the only unfettered part of him."

"Ho HO! I thought I was the only one who made jokes like that!"

"Well, we all have our off days." A slight smile curved Kimono's lips as he leaned back, lying beside Minty as he watched the clouds drift by.