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A black shape with orange wings fluttered among the flowers in the early morning light. Well, not a pure black figure; the ends of the legs were orange, tipped with white. It wasn't a butterfly; butterflies have six legs instead of four, and they generally do not have emerald eyes and a long silken tail. What fluttered from flower to flower was an arion stallion named Brennus, the only son of the leaders of the Sunflare Herd, the largest herd of Stars currently known on Earth.

Brennus sipped the nectar in the buttercups he was investigating. Sweet. Grass was fine, but he liked the sweet, tangy flavor of nectar much more. Which was probably why he spent so much time the size of a butterfly. It wasn't exactly easy to sip nectar with a huge muzzle, so being the size of a butterfly was helpful. Besides, this size, he could slip away from the herd for a bit.

His parents had adopted a young arion filly who looked remarkably like just about everyone else in his family, the filly, Naas, was asleep, his parents were cuddling in their bizarre way, which involved his mother shrinking to the size of a butterfly and playing in his father's mane, and his three sisters were off doing their own thing this morning. Kana seemed to have a boyfriend outside of the herd, Sunniva was keeping an eye on the herd, and he never knew what Delilah was up to.

Sighing, he continued to have his breakfast, unaware of a full-sized black arion mare heading his way.

The first sign that trouble was descending on Brennus was a shadow, followed closely by an increase in birdsong, and completed by someone nibbling on the flowers AWFULLY close to him. Being the only son of two herd leaders, one of them he'd grown up hearing had been a sun once upon a time, Brennus understandably flipped out. He grew instantly to full size, smacking into the black and hot pink arion mare who'd been grazing on the buttercups and nearly munched on him.

"Watch where you're eating, you nearly ate me!" he snorted, irritated at having nearly been eaten by accident.

Brennus sighed noisily, not really being all that pissed. Mostly annoyed, but then again, Brennus occupied a difficult position in his family, so he often felt like the odd one out and was easy to irritate. "I know you didn't try to eat me on purpose. I just don't like getting eaten while I'm having my breakfast." He sighed again, this time in a much more dignified manner befitting the son of a sun and two herd leaders.

"Look, I'm sorry I bumped into you, but I didn't particularly care to be eaten by accident. Do you want to have breakfast with me? The nectar is the best part of the flower, and you can only really get at the nectar if you're the size of a butterfly," he added as he shrank again to the size of a butterfly, warily landing on her dark muzzle so she didn't repeat her mistake.

Brennus stared at the arion before him. No. Not physically possible. All arion learned to change size from infancy. He, his mother, his sister Kana, and his adopted sister Naas could all change their size as easily as breathing. Well, Delilah couldn't, she wasn't an arion, but neither was Sunniva nor their father. They didn't count. All arion knew how to change...unless...unless....

Brennus had, of course, heard of Starfall and the world of the Stars in Dreamspace. His parents almost never spoke of their own Falls, only that it had been terrible and often had dreadful effects on Stars. Was it possible that she'd lost her memory of how to change size and didn't even realize she'd lost her memories?

Possibly. Better to not ask about it, given how touchy even his own parents were on the subject. So. New problem. How to reteach her how to change size? How had he learned? Well, one had to want to be a certain size and to will it to be so. Though the first time one did it, ever or after a long time of not doing it, was to imagine oneself as a certain size and then insist to yourself that you really were that size. After that, it was usually just a matter of willing yourself to be a certain size.

He took a deep breath. "OK, here's how you do it. Imagine yourself being the size of a butterfly. About the same size as me. Once you can clearly imagine that, tell yourself that you really are that size, and tell it to yourself so firmly that you believe it."

No. Not possible. Changing size should be as natural as breathing to an arion. "Try again. Try...I dunno...try imagining the two of us going from flower to flower, drinking the nectar. Keep the mental image firmly in your mind." The image was sticking in his mind and he kicked it away as a distraction. Nice thought, but he had bigger fish to fry right now. "Tell yourself that you can do it, that you are doing it, and that it's second nature to you. All arion can do this. Maybe you've just forgotten or something, but you can do this. I KNOW you can do this."

Brennus laughed long and hard. "See? You can change. You probably haven't changed in so long that you've forgotten how to do it. Now," he said, landing on the flower next to her, "breakfast. And then I'll reteach you how to fly with tiny wings," he added, a little sheepish that he'd completely forgotten how hard it is to fly after the first change, ever or in a long time. It should take first priority, but she'd need energy fast. And nectar was the perfect way to get it. Smiling, his emerald eyes still sparkling with laughter, he bent his head down to drink the sweet, tangy nectar of the buttercup, using his eyes to gesture to her to do the same.

Brennus couldn't help but laugh at her antics. This one was cute. Really cute, and a bit sassy. Rather like nectar, sweet and tangy all rolled up into one, never tasting wrong and never dull. Grinning, he moved close to her until their shoulders nearly touched and started licking some of the stray nectar off her delicate muzzle. "Missed some," he said cheekily.