Attentively the young filly listened to the explanation offered to her by Paladin, her confidence only stronger for having been backed by Aaron in her questioning. Her ears swiveled back and forth thoughtfully before she popped up with a simple question. "Then why didn't you ask to lead beside Mother, instead of completely changing everything?"

And then all hell broke loose. A coldness she'd never heard before came into Smoke's voice, and Kimber's head swung around warily to watch her mother. Listening. Shocked and dumbfounded. Did this mean...? It did. She didn't know how to process this, and stood motionless as Smoke and Paladin spoke. The unicorn stallion sounded as confused as she was, though she probably had a better idea of why her mother was acting as she was. Paladin acted and sounded like someone who barely knew the Wild Rose for who she was, for all his professing to have known Smoke for years.

So absorbed was she in her own inner turmoil and confusion that she didn't notice at first the rising tide of emotion emanating from Ricochet. But the young stallion's voice, tense and harsh, alerted her and she gazed up at him anxiously. Secretly she admired him for speaking up with the truth of the situation, but he forever lacked tact. Which was a bit like pot calling kettle.

Kimber eased closed to Ricochet, reaching hesitantly out with her muzzle to touch his shoulder, but he was too caught up. His voice grew louder, his posture more frenetic. Her eyes grew wide and her ears tipped back, the ferrets vanishing beneath her mane. This was the first time she'd ever seen the Incendiary like this, and now she understand why he was called that. For a moment her shock was encompassing, watching stallion and dog display their violent emotions for all to see.

And then common sense clawed its way back into her mind, and the yearling shouldered against the buckskin stud. "Ricochet, you're going a bit overboard with this..." She said insistently, tugging on his mane with her teeth. Her ferrets had been replaced with a fox, which leapt down to dance a distracting circle about Guns. "This is Mother's place to challenge or no, and she probably has a really good reason." At least, Kimber hoped so. It was unlike Smoke to not have some sort of reason handily available to explain to others the whys and why nots.