My mind always doubted when ponies or creatures said, "I love you," "I missed you," "I care about you," or any of those terms. Because, I knew, they weren't true... But one statement that my mind did, infact verify as true was, "I hate you." Because, I hated me too.

"I've missed you, too!" I replied to my old friend. That was true. I did miss her and Sterope... They were Athena's parents, after all.

"Heheh. Darling, you won't believe what happened!" She said, excitedly. She sounded like something big had happened in her life...

I gasped in my mind. How could I forget!? Her eggs! They probably hatched... Wow... I was such a terrible friend.

"Astra, come back in! The chicks need you!" Said a familiar gruff voice. The blue flamed phoenix came out from the underbrush of the tree. He joined Astra outside of the tree, and he looked at her, but then looked down at me.

"Shadow!" Sterope shouted, now discovering I was there. Astra departed from where she was, and back into the tree. "The chicks have hatched!" He said, beaming. I could tell he was excited to be a father, but I noticed how much stress they both had.

"Tomorrow is when the fire cycle happens. You should come back to see them!" Sterope said. What was a fire cycle? Was it another thing with phoenix's I didn't know about? Wow, I was learning so much already...

"U-Um... What exactly is a fire cycle?" I questioned. I felt so lost... Just like I felt lost with rain, I was lost with this fire cycle, thing. Whenever I didn't know about something, I was always so lost.. But, it was good to learn about it.

"Oh! That's right, you probably don't know. Ponies never mention this in books, but it's very important in the life cycle of a phoenix." Stated Sterope, going into knowledge mode.