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WC - 1339 GO BIG OR GO HOME?

"No, no, tell me again. Wjat kind of insane story did your Dad tell you? Yolie your Dad seriously told you about spring pixies---" Nanner groaned.

Yolanda's delicate white brow rose instantly at her now-friend's words, blinking.

"I was a filly so yes? And what aboput your mom?" Yolanda tilted her head.

"Mother had no stories to tell me about spring. She was an orphan and didn't want me orphaned because she's--"

"We get it. Perfect." yolanda responded. Vanagandr shrugged.

"Beats being dropped on a polycule as a foal to accompany their filly." FVanagandr grunted. Yolanda stared.

"...You took someone's leg and still carry it as a trophy." yolanda informed her sibling by adoption calmly. Vanagandr rolled his eyes, before the familiar, generally agitated voice of Mioyo cut the discussion. The crimson mutant mare approached calmly, tail swaying. On her back was a new companion - a vunny nobody could figure out named Babatrix who was equally calm and just as collected, the Nobody-Rabbit seeming to peer at them with... Assumed curiousityas Mioyo griunted.

"Hey. What're you kids tyalking about?" Mioyo asked.

"Yolie's idiotic childhood sp[ring stories about pixies and stuff." Nanner grunted. Mioyo stared.

"Pixies? Y'know there's something.. Mini like that right? And those... Fliuttery... Butterfly winged sorts buit they don't make spring." Mioyo shrugged. "I got told it was the spirit of spring, but --"

"You have family? And stories?" Vanagandr sputtered. Mioyo rolled her eyes. Thiiiis was why she preferred Altair's company. Maybe Raven, knowing why the mare was cursed. Babatrix sighed.

"Let the mare talk kid." Babatrix warned. "Or I tell Beans you've been threatening limbs and she tells your daddy Meteor." Babatriux threatened. Unlike Beans' shyer nature, Babatrix was... Not intimidated. Vanagandr quieted as Mioyo nodded slowly. She wasn't mad in the end. She did understand.

...She was more like Vanagandr or Nanner than they knew.

"I do have family. Watching for them too." Mioyo admitted. "A brother, Naevius. But this story's from my father. One of them. I was a spirit baby, wsee, like Yolie here. Naevy troo. We're from the same time." Mioyo explained. All three's ears pricked, listening, even Nanner looked surpriused. Interested as Mioyo raised her head.

"My father's also polyamorous, my parents are mostly men. And at least two were or are warlords from my home herd. But father was never a cruel man. He beliueved in the herd, his family, and the old ways. And my chioldhood stories were from that."

Mioyo knew she had their attention and shifted. She was muscled, a warruior in her own right, which the triop just noticed as Mioyo raised her head.

"The world was once cast into summer and winter." Muoyo began firmly. "Searing heat or freezing cold. The spirit of summer demanded half the year, and Winter the other. But they could not agree and share time. Mortals froze or endured heat. There was no middle, but among them was born a flutter mare named Flora. She was not normal. She was pink and yellow - sofyt,, fluffy for winter, but cheery colored like summer with beautiful wings akin butterflies. Flora was special. Magic. You see, where she walked, flowers bloomed. And Flora walked to herds far and wide bringing comfort and hope for balance. Hope others might live a coimfortable interim between Summer and Winter, whom blessed her mission. They were not wicked spirits, you see, but they did not know how else to exist yet. But oh they too loved Flora, she made winter flowers spring into being, and afforded softness in summer."

Mioyo held the three's eyes, pausing dramatically. She stood, elegant, poised.

"Until."

Silence. Anticipation for the nesxt part hiung in the air as Muioyo looked to the sky.

"Flora was an adult you see and every stalliuon wanted her heart. She was finally chased for courtshipo by a cold stallion, a black unicorn-kalona hybrid prince of a dying hetrd seejking to keep Flora to himself. He huinted her, day, and night, believing it was his birthright to claim her, his right to be her lifemate. But when they met... Flora refused his advances. He was cold and dark, aloof. Eerie. He spoke to spirits."

Silence,

"Autumnus did not accept rejection. If he could not have Flora, nobody would and in his madness, ion his cruelty, Autuimnus killed Flora in cold blood. If noone could have her, she was worthless to himm. And the worthless were his to damn. In that moment, he performed a great sin, for he angered Summer and Winter both by robbing the world of a precious hope. And in that moment the world twisted. As Flora fell the spirits of Summer and Winter screamed in rage. Autumnus, they say, was frozen to iuce first, and them nelted, leaving only a wrathful spirit between Summer and Winter, cold and harsh... Dead. But he did not enter the afterlife. In huis wrath at divine vengeance he triued to tear open a hole into the bowelks of the Underworld, to release the spirits of darkness, the dead!" Mioyo reared, and stanmped her paws on the ground for Emphasis. Yiolanda jumped, Vanagandr's ears pricking -- even Nanner looked startled by the emphasis on force. Mioyo spoke passionately - fierce now.

"Autumnus raged, screaming at the defiance and waged war, now a wraith, a hateful spirit damned to slaughter and kill as he pleased, to exist-- leadiung to a battle with Summer and Winterm, so aggrieved by Flora's death were they they joined as one for once to fight this killing foe. And then [His servant came."

Another beat for emphasis. If nothing else, Miooyo was enjoying her old, favored tale of sp[ring. She remembered her father telling it to her long ago. Similar emphasius, drama... She'd loved the tale, because he told it so well.

"The High Spirit stepped in. And he brought a gift. He was an Angeni, a uni-Angeni in form, when he came. And he came with a beautiful mare of soft fluff and cheery cxolors. Flora. For as the siblings warre3d with ?Autumnus, He had deigned instead revive Flora as a servant herself of Nature. She had been revived, Ascended as an Angeni. She was almost unrecognizeable. But as she walked she created flowers. Autumnus luinged-- and Flora, in one movement, bested her killer, throwing him through The Veil into the Underworld. Summer and Winter were so overjoyed, they each gifted her a month and a half of theiur time, a time to spread her flowers and bring hope,. life.. And.. Comfort. Ease - to not burn nor freeze. To acclimate. To awaken. To appreciate the life granted us. And to remind the world of what Flora became... The High Spirit made two gifts. A flowering tree called the Sakura, with ephemeral pink blooms that spread and fall to bring beaty even if fleeting, and the Rosy Maple Moth as Flora's servants, all created to imitate Her beauty, and Florsa?" Mioyo winked.

"She loved Summer and Winter. She would give her heart to no others, and thus came to nestle between them as theuir love, spring. But, every year... SAautumnus returns to seek her. Snatching a month and a half from her lovers whom jeep him in line as Autumn." Mioyo paused.

"And that's why we have Spring. A mare blessed to handle both ended up mating Summer and Winter when another jerk killed her. And you know. Pretty flowers." Muioyoi shrugged. "I liked it anyhow. Good fights."

Mioyo was not admitting the romance was also cute and she adored it, not her. Never her. Yolanda blinked, Vanagandr blinking, but it was Nanner whoi spoke.

"That's kind of bad a**." Nanner admitted. "Are there more stories? Anything else with Flora?" Nanner asked.

"Not Autumnus?" Mioyo laughed. Nanner shrugged.

"No?" She admitted. Mioyo paused. And smiled.

"Yeah... Alright kid. I have other stories. That one's just my favorite. So... Whom wants to hear about Flora and the Wounded Rabbit?" M
All three of her audiance nodded, saying 'Me!' enthusiastically.