Spike sat in the Crystal Palace’s library at a couch while reading a book from a thousand years ago. Perhaps it was because he’d grown up surrounded by books, but ever since being separated from Twilight, he’d actually naturally progressed from reading only comic books to reading other types of books. Of course, the adopted prince only really enjoyed fiction stories, but there were hundreds of those in the library.
A part of him found it completely ironic that he found a love of reading only after he had been separated from Twilight. Of course, he knew he would never be the bookworm that Twilight was, but having found another hobby aside from comics and O&O to fill his time when he wasn’t training or getting a more formalized education was rather nice.
Currently, he was reading a series called The Dark Star Saga which was a high fantasy story that followed a crystal pony rogue who found himself in the middle of a royal dispute between two small fictional kingdoms in another world. There was mystery, intrigue, a magic system that was unlike that of the real world’s own, and new races that didn’t fit the mold of the real world. The characters felt real, even the villains of the story, and the settings were all described so vividly that Spike could see them in his mind’s eye.
He was on book two and was deep in reading it when he felt a weight on his lap. Looking down, he saw his adopted younger sister Flurry Heart sitting on his lap facing him with wide happy eyes. He lowered his book and gave her a curious expression. “And just what are you up to, young filly?”
“Beware princesses bearing gifts,” the young filly said in the appropriately quiet tone for a library while simultaneously holding up a small but warm cornet with chocolate filling.
Spike rolled his eyes and quickly swiped it before the librarian saw it. “You know better than to bring food in here,” he said before quickly stuffing it in his mouth, enjoying the freshly baked snack.
“Is that why you’re stuffing your face now, big brother?” she asked coyly but innocently.
“Hush,” he said before reaching down and scratching her head with his claws, swallowing the pastry down with his flask of water, the only concession that the librarian had given on her no food and drink policy. He put his flask away and looked at Flurry. “Why aren’t you with your friends?”
‘They’re all going home because it’s late,” she pouted as she settled more into his lap, nuzzling against him. “Can you read something to me?”
Spike looked up and saw that the sun had already set. He hadn’t realized it had gotten so late. “Not in here, but we can find a book or two to take to your room,” he said softly as he put a bookmark in his own book.
“Why not in here?” Flurry asked with a bigger pout as he stood and picked her up.
“Miss Amethyst wouldn’t let us,” he reminded her, referring to the librarian Amethyst Mark.
Flurry made a raspberry as she spread her wings to hover beside Spike as he began walking towards the children’s section of the library. “That old hag?” she asked while making a face.
“You know what Mom said: her library, her rules,” Spike gently reminded her. Whenever he spent time with his new adopted sister, he always felt the urge to be more mature than he was used to, and that made him feel good about himself but at the same time nervous. He didn’t want to be a bad example for her, after all.
“She’s an old fuddy-duddy,” Flurry said.
“Now where did you hear that?” he asked quietly as he picked out a few books that looked interesting.
“Daddy,” was her simple reply.
Spike rolled his eyes in amusement. Shining Armor, his new adopted dad, always had something to say about things. It certainly sounded like him. “Of course,” he said as he began heading to the exit.
“What books did you get?” Flurry asked, now in her normal tone as they left the library to head to Flurry’s room. He yawned and stretched, arching his back and hearing some of his vertebrae pop. “You’re an old guy like daddy!” Flurry exclaimed with a giggle.
“I’m not that old,” he protested as the two turned to face a large set of stairs. He spread his wings and began flying up them with Flurry by his side keeping pace.
“You’re older than me!” she said with a triumphant smirk.
“Of course I am,” he replied as he set down on the landing above.
“That makes you old like Daddy!”
“I’m not that old,” a familiar voice said from behind them.
Flurry and Spike turned to see Shining Armor and Empress Cadance standing there with smiles on their faces. Flurry smiled and flew over towards them, catching her mother in a big hug. “Mommy, Daddy!”
Shining put a tender hoof on Flurry’s back, rubbing it up and down. Cadance smiled and wrapped her wings around Flurry. “Hello, sweetie,” she said tenderly. “You going off to bed?”
“Big brother’s gonna read to me!” Flurry exclaimed happily.
“Is that right?” Shining turned to Spike and smiled wider. “What sort of interesting books did you find?”
Spike shrugged. “Just these.” He held the books up for the couple to see.
“Good choices for bedtime stories,” Shining said.
“Wanna come listen to Spike read??” Flurry asked in an excitement that belied the lateness of the hour. “He does some funny voices!”
“Funny voices? Really?” Cadance looked at Spike with a wry grin.
Spike, feeling embarrassed, shot back, “Hey, I learned from the best foalsitter around. Who was it who did all those funny voices for me and…” he faded out, the memory of Twilight at that age throwing a damper on his good mood. He took a deep breath and plastered a smile he suspected Pinkie would immediately know was fake and continued. “‘You must pay the rent!’ ‘But I cawn’t pay the rent!’ ‘I’ll pay the rent!’ ‘My hero! Mwah mwah mwah!’ Sound familiar?”
Flurry was beside herself laughing, Shining was trying to hold back a laugh, and Cadance was looking rather embarrassed. “It wasn’t that exaggerated,” she said.
Feeling better now, a more genuine smile came over Spike’s face. “Nope. I toned it down.”
Cadance’s cheeks went redder as Shining’s attempts to hold back his laughter completely failed. Spike had his arms crossed triumphantly as he gave Cadance a look that asked ‘What now?’
The moment was disturbed by a crystal pony quickly trotting up to the royal couple with a scroll in his mouth. He pulled it out and passed it to Cadance. “Your Majesty, we just received this report from Canterlot.”
That caught Spike’s attention. Canterlot didn’t send them much anymore since his adopted mother had cut off most trading agreements with the kingdom of Equestria. He was old enough now that he was figuring out some of the political aspects of his parents’ jobs as rulers of the Crystal Empire, and that was one of the first things he’d learned about from some of his talks with his new parents. He approached the two of them as they looked at the report. Without asking them what it was, he spread his wings and hovered in between them as he read over their shoulders.
What he read startled him. Apparently, there had been a couple of incidents in Maretime Bay, the new town Celestia had built for the former citizens of Ponyville. The first had been an attack on his former caretaker, and he used that term loosely now. As he read the report, he learned that apparently she had been ostracized by the ponies of that town for her actions, which didn’t surprise him too much now, but learning that ponies would try and attack her was a step he had no idea they’d take. She’d apparently been saved by a group of mercenaries.
The second incident was a kidnapping of four familiar fillies by a drug crazed Spoiled Milk, who was then mysteriously turned into a tree by a strange disembodied voice that spoke in rhyme. One of the mercenaries had identified the voice as belonging to somepony named Queen Majesty. The report came from the two princesses themselves, asking if they could look at their historical books and try and find anything about a Queen Majesty. They were unable to get anything out of the mercenary, as he had immediately left the scene.
“Mommy? Daddy? Big brother? Is something wrong?” Flurry asked, looking at the report as well.
Cadance quickly rolled the scroll up and smiled at Flurry. “Nothing that you need to worry about, sweetie,” she said with what Spike knew was a forced smile. She then turned to Spike. “Would you take your sister to bed?”
Spike nodded and landed, walking up and gently leading the still hovering Flurry. “Come on, sis. Let’s get you to sleep.”
As the two made their way to Flurry’s room, she landed on his back, hugging him from behind. “Spikey? Is something wrong? Mommy and Daddy didn’t look happy.”
He smiled up at her and stroked her mane. “It’s nothing, Flurs. Nothing you need to worry about at all.”
“She definitely didn’t believe me when I said that,” Spike said as he sat with his adopted parents a few hours later. They were in the private conference room where Cadance and her imperial advisors met every so often, the report from Canterlot being projected onto the wall so the three could look at the report.
Cadance reached over with her wing and gave Spike a gentle caress. “Flurry’s a lot smarter than we give her credit for, sometimes. She gets that from your father and me.”
Shining smiled a bit and nodded. “Still,” he said, “thanks for trying not to worry her. She’s still too young to be worrying about things like this.”
Spike nodded, then refocused his attention towards the projected report, leaning forward. “What are your thoughts on it?” he asked, directing the question towards the two.
Cadance removed her wing from Spike and looked at the message with a thoughtful expression on her face. “I don’t know anything about this Queen Majesty, but what I do know is that the Crystal Empire has a restricted section of ancient scrolls dating back to at least five hundred years before the founding of the empire itself. And the Crystal Empire is older than Equestria, relatively speaking. I’m going to have our best experts scour the section for any mention of Queen Majesty.”
Spike looked at his new adopted parents. “One doesn’t get raised, as it were, by one Twilight Sparkle and walk away with nothing,” he said. “I’ve been frequenting the library here enough that I know the sections. I also can pick up on things in a new library relatively quickly. I’d like to help look for information on this Queen Majesty, if the information exists in this restricted section.”
“Absolutely not…is what I’d like to say,”Cadance said with a heavy sigh, “but you’re officially our son, and that makes you a prince.”
Shining nodded and gave Spike’s spines a ruffle before he said, “This search won’t interfere with your normal studies and training, however. We’ll have others looking in the section as well, but you’re more than welcome to help, especially since the restricted section is massive.”
“It’s bigger than Canterlot’s,” Cadance explained as she got up and walked up to Spike. She gave him an affectionate nuzzle. “No, it’s getting late. When you’re all finished with tomorrow’s studies and training, come see me and I’ll send somepony with you to lead you to the library.”
Spike nodded, giving his new mother a kiss on the cheek, then hugged his father before he yawned. “See you all in the morning,” he said.
Pinkamena lay in her bed after another long, hard day of work. It had been yet another successful haul that she’d been able to help her family with finding. They’d begun to move some rocks from the south field up to the western one, an activity she remembered long from her time before moving to Ponyville.
Despite her earlier words a couple days ago about going to see her old friends, she decided to hold off for at least another week until she had helped with the rock migration. One she was satisfied with that being accomplished, then she’d told her parents that she’d be going away for a couple of weeks, maybe a month. They’d agreed.
During the past few days, the hope of seeing and hopefully seeing some change in her old friends kept her spirits up more so than she’d been the past couple of years. A bit of spring had come into her mane and tail, but instead of the normal curls, there were waves in her once completely straight mane and tail.
She brushed her wet mane aside and sighed contentedly. It had taken her body a month or two to get back into shape, but now her body didn’t ache after a long, hard day of work. Most of her pudge had been replaced by muscle. She had also cut out a good portion of sweets from her diet, not that she didn’t eat sweets, but they weren’t the main part of her diet now.
She turned over slightly, seeing a somewhat dust-covered photograph in a frame sitting on the table next to her bed, the lamp illuminating the subjects. Pinkie sighed and reached over, picking it up and looking at it. It was one taken in front of Twilight’s former castle before its destruction. She was there with her five former best friends, all smiling at the camera. Pinkie herself was jumping in said photo with a wide beaming smile as well. She blew the dust off of it, remembering the day that they’d taken this photo. A wave of nostalgia washed over her, then the guilt returned, especially since this was taken while Jason Wright was still alive and living a horrible life in the cave.
A cave she’d visited when she left Ponyville to go back home. Sighing, she set the picture back down and silently apologized once more to Jason, even if he couldn’t hear her. “I wish I could have given you a nice big party-” she began, before her body began shaking.
She sat upright instantly. Her Pinkie Sense hadn’t activated in years, and a part of her had been relieved when it failed. It hadn’t helped her in sensing Jason’s sadness. It hadn’t done her any good, at least in her current opinion. That part of her felt normal, for once. It was a nice comforting feeling to have that normalcy. But this Pinkie Sense was what her former self might have called a super-ultra-mega big doozy. A doozy that happened to be coming from the direction of a town she knew as Maretime Bay.
She sat up, wide eyed. The doozy she felt was something that she’d only felt once or twice before. And for both times, they involved Jason Wright. But since Jason was already dead and buried in high honor at Canterlot, it couldn’t have anything to do with him.
Slowly, she lowered herself back down onto the bed and closed her eyes. She focused inwards, using her recent years of experience of meditation that she had learned from Marble to concentrate on the feelings from this doozy. She’d never tried this before, mostly because her Pinkie Sense hadn’t activated since she’d arrived back home. She dug up the old, painful memories of the two times she felt the doozy, comparing them to what she’d just experienced.
And immediately noticed a subtle difference between what she’d just felt and the ones she felt before.
Confused, she tried thinking and feeling just what those differences could be. There were so many sensations to sift through, but after about ten minutes of peaceful meditation, she managed to pinpoint the feelings that were different. If she were to try and explain it to anypony else, it would be utter nonsense, but she understood the implications.
If she was right, then one very strong possibility was that there was another human in Equestria.
With that thought, she pulled the covers up and covered her face. What could she do about it now? Should she even-?
Her thoughts were interrupted by a soft knock at her door. “Pinkie…dinner’s almost…done…” Marble soft and tender voice called from beyond the door.
Pinkie’s appetite had vanished when the realization of the possibility of another human in Equestria had popped into the forefront of her mind. “I’m too tired tonight,” she lied, inwardly wincing. She hated lying, but she mostly wanted to be alone.
The part of her that didn’t want to be alone was grateful when her younger sister slowly opened the door and shut it behind her. When they were alone, Marble’s normally straight mane and tail became more full of volume. It didn’t become curly like that of the former Pinkie Pie, but it still looked a lot fuller. Marble’s voice became a bit stronger as she came up and sat next to her sister. “What’s wrong?” she asked, putting a tender hoof on Pinkamena’s mane and running said hoof through it.
Pinkamena knew what this was. Every Pie had a strange Sense of sorts. Marble’s own Marble Sense was one that relied heavily on empathy, so much so that when Pinkie had asked Twilight about it once, the alicorn had suggested that Marble might be an empath, a rarity among ponies, and almost impossible with earth ponies, but not unheard of.
Pinkamena sighed and explained what she’d felt a few moments ago. Marble listened intently, her normally shy eyes focused solely on Pinkamena. When she’d finished, Marble nodded. “If you want to leave now, mother and father wouldn’t mind, I know it.”
It always amazed Pinkamena whenever she heard Marble speak in such an eloquent tone. It rarely happened, and part of Pinkamena blamed herself for it because of her always speaking over or for the normally quiet and demure Marble. She was right, of course, and Pinkamena knew it. Pinkamena knew that, despite her parents both being more traditional and strict, they understood their foals very well. Even Pinkamena who’d been away from home for so long. Still, she hesitated. “But with father’s laminitis, and mother being busy around the house-”
“They will understand, Pinkie,” Marble said, a warm smile on her face as she sat and put a hoof over Pinkamena’s. “They’ll be fine when we leave.”
Pinkamena started to nod absently before it finally registered as to what Marble had said. “Wait a moment…‘we’?”
Marble nodded and her mane somewhat deflated. “I’m…coming…” she said in her normal cadence.
Pinkamena shot out of bed, alarmed. Marble rarely left the farm because it was her comfort zone. She was a lot like Fluttershy, only with the shy part turned up to an eleven. “B-But what about the farm?!”
“Mother and Father…said it was okay…when I mentioned it…” she replied, and a small smile appeared on her face. “I’m not…as strong as Limestone…or Maud…but you…need somepony…to come…with you…”
Pinkamena was completely blown away by this revelation. Marble was the last pony she expected to voluntarily leave the farm for anything, but to hear that she was willing to accompany Pinkamena was both a shock and, to her surprise, a big relief. Pinkamena had been dreading going through the wilderness alone.
Still, she had to be sure. “But what about you? You never leave the farm. Aren’t you scared?”
“Terrified,” Marble said without any hesitation, but then her mane puffed up a bit. Her more tender demeanor returned. “But I don’t want you going alone. That’s what my Marble Sense is saying.”
Pinkamena’s eyes began to water and she looked away, a bit embarrassed to let Marble, her younger sister, see her older sister crying. “I…sniff…thank you, Marble…”
Marble’s hoof ran through Pinkamena’s still damp mane. “You’re welcome…Pinkie.”
Pinkamena smiled a bit. She’d given up that cheery name when she’d come back, and the others had respected her wishes to call her that. Still, it felt good to hear that old moniker referred to her. She sat up and sniffed loudly, wiping her eyes then blowing her nose. “Right, let’s tell Mother and Father and then get packing.”
“No way, you’re lying…you and GILDA?!”
Rainbow Dash sat with her parents in the Shy household’s dining room eating a dinner that the two families got together for every month. Today, though, there was a surprise guest that Rainbow hadn’t expected. Zephyr had answered the door, but to Rainbow’s shock hadn’t immediately started hitting on her. And now she knew why.
“Guess she knew a good thing when she saw it,” Zephyr said with a triumphant smirk. This earned him a light smack on the back of his head from Fluttershy along with an admonishing glare. “Okay, yeah, that was a bit much,” he admitted sheepishly, “but yes, Dash. I got together with Gilda. It’s been a whirlwind and a challenge, but I’ve really been enjoying it.”
Curious now, and since curiosity was temporarily banishing her own self loathing, she leaned forward. “How’d you score that birdbrain?”
“Funny you should ask,” he said, and he regaled her with the story of how he’d done her feathers, and their banter, then their getting together. Rainbow inwardly chuckled. That was Gilda, alright. It made sense. She was always a hothead. Then again, was Rainbow any better?
“Well, congratulations,” Rainbow said, and she did mean it. She might have been turned off by Fluttershy’s brother, but she never wanted to see him really hurt. And it seemed as if he was happy. In fact, she was a bit jealous. Not because she had feelings for Zephyr, but because he had begun to move on from something big whereas she was still stuck. “Why didn’t you bring her with you to meet the family?”
“I asked, but she said-well, she had other plans for this week,” Zephyr said, hesitating a bit, then correcting himself. “I actually want to bring my family to Manehattan sometime to meet her if possible.”
Rainbow had an inkling as to why he had hesitated. If Gilda knew about this monthly dinner, she would want to avoid Rainbow herself. Not that she could blame her former friend. She pushed down the ache in her heart and nodded. “Well, I hope things go better than when…well, when she came to Ponyville…”
“She told me about that,” Zephyr said, “and she does feel bad about it. She does want to apologize to my sister for that.”
“Zeph, I told you already, I forgave her for it long ago,” Fluttershy said.
“It’s a pride thing for her,” Zephyr explained. “Her pride was tarnished, so she needs to restore it by acknowledging her wrongs. And yes, she’s doing this even though she knows what happened two years ago.” He shot a sideways glance towards Rainbow, who flinched slightly.
“You said you wouldn’t mention two years ago,” Posey said with a frown.
“I won’t mention it after this,” Zephyr promised.
Silence filled the table as they ate. After a bit, Rainbow looked at Posey. “You make a mean lasagna, Mrs. Shy.”
“Can I get the recipe?” Windy asked hopefully.
Posey smiled. “I’ll write it down for you later before the night is over.” She looked over at Rainbow then. “Dear, would you care to stay the night here?”
That came as a surprise to Rainbow. She hadn’t stayed over with Fluttershy since they were foals. She turned to her parents, but the looks on their faces only confirmed that they would be okay with it. She turned back to Fluttershy, who was giving her a small smile. Zephyr was just eating, not getting involved in the conversation. Whether he cared or not about her staying, she couldn’t tell. Still, she looked back at Posey. “If you’re okay with me staying, then I’d be down for it.”
Gentle Breeze smiled at that. “We can set something up in Fluttershy’s room. If that’s alright with you, dear,” he added, turning to his daughter.
“Perfectly alright, daddy,” Fluttershy said.
“I still can’t get over that Zephyr and Gilda got together,” Rainbow was saying later that night as she lay in a comfortable cot the Shys had set up in Fluttershy’s room after dinner. The sun had since gone down and the room was in complete darkness save for a scented candle on a nightstand next to Fluttershy’s bed.
Next to her, Rainbow heard Fluttershy giggling. “They would be a unique couple, but I don’t remember ever seeing Zeph so happy.”
Rainbow looked over at her former friend. There had been tension between them since they had laid down. It was as if they were both avoiding something, something that was perfectly obvious to Rainbow, but something she was nervous to bring up. So, instead of tackling it, she continued. “Zeph? I’ve never heard you call him that.” She chuckled a bit.
Fluttershy turned over and faced Rainbow. “It’s an old foalhood nickname he used to hate, but one he only ever lets me use.”
“Ah,” Rainbow nodded. “Well, it sounds like you two are closer than ever.”
Fluttershy nodded, and the two slipped into silence. The floral scent of the pink candle on the nightstand was actually very pleasant, and after her long shift at her job that day, was just what the doctor ordered for a hopeful peaceful sleep free of dreams. Dreams that had haunted her for the past two years. At the thought of those dreams, her mood fell. Fluttershy must have noticed because her smile faded as well. “Dashie? You okay?”
Rainbow winced inwardly at being called by her old nickname. “Well, it’s just…I might not sleep well tonight. I haven’t been this week, and if I do, I have nightmares.”
“About Jason Wright?”
There it was. Out in the open. Just where Rainbow didn’t want it. The memory of that human pained her. Not because she hated him for anything, but because in her dreams she always saw him as he had been after she’d struck him with lightning all those years ago: a collapsed and twitching biped lying in the middle of Ponyville’s streets. A twitching being who would look up at her with a look of sadness, rage, then hatred.
She sighed. “And other things, but yeah…”
Fluttershy closed her eyes as she took in a shaky breath, then looked back at Rainbow. “Same here,” she whispered softly, “and it’s starting to drive me crazy. Mommy and Daddy can’t fully understand what I’m going though. Why do you think I asked my parents to ask you to stay?”
Rainbow’s eyes shot open at that. “What?” she asked.
Fluttershy sat up and leaned against the wall behind her, prompting Rainbow to do the same. The latter saw that the shy pegasus was psyching herself up for a serious conversation as it was obvious by her slightly twitching tail and regular focused breathing. Finally, Fluttershy turned to Rainbow. “Do you regret what we did to him?”
”Every damned day,” Rainbow said without hesitation. The profanity made Fluttershy wince, but now that Rainbow had spoken, she realized that she wouldn’t be able to stop. “All I can see in my dreams is him suffering because of me, and do you know what I did? I laughed because I, the Element of Loyalty and the defender of Ponyville, got a bullseye on the big bad monster. And my coworkers aren’t any help. I try to work to get my mind off of things, but they all know about the cruel pegasus mare who struck a magicless human in cold blood and don’t ever let me forget!” Tears began to form in her eyes, something she hated, but not something she could avoid now. “I can’t escape it!”
She felt a warm presence wrapping a pair of soft wings around her, and before she knew it, Rainbow was lying in Fluttershy’s bed next to her. She could feel that her friend was trembling as well. “I-I know…” she said with a whimper. “I keep seeing him all beaten up and hungry at my door, but I can’t even move to help. He stands there and begs me for help, but I-I just stand there like a coward…then he just walks away…”
Rainbow had never heard Fluttershy sounding so broken before. All through dinner, it had sounded like her friend was starting to get better, but Rainbow should have known better. Fluttershy took things rather personally when she messed things up, and in this case it was a major screw up. It made sense that she would hide her guilt beneath her new gardening habit and her old pet Angel, who was lying in a pet bed on the other nightstand next to Fluttershy’s bed. With trembling hooves, she wrapped her friend up in a hug as the two quietly sobbed.
After they finished crying and after cleaning their noses and eyes, Fluttershy looked at her old friend. “Hey…um…I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and…I’d like to try visiting Maretime Bay. Would…would you like to come with me?”
That caught Rainbow off guard. She knew that Rarity and Twilight both lived in that new coastal town, so the thought of going there to see them had briefly crossed her mind, but she was too angry at them and herself and ashamed to face them without risking blowing up at them. “You…want to visit Rarity and Twilight?”
“And Applejack,” Fluttershy added.
”Applejack?” Now Rainbow was even more confused. Last thing she knew was that her former rival and friend was still in Ponyville providing Equestria with her family’s goods.
“I got a letter from her yesterday saying that her farm was going under and that she was going to move to Maretime Bay with her family,” Fluttershy said. “It was postmarked a week ago, so she’s already in Maretime Bay by now.”
That was another blow to Rainbow. She didn’t think that AJ, of all ponies, would pack up and leave. There had to be more to it, and she mentioned it. Fluttershy nodded. “Yes, well, she said that the orchard was dying.”
Rainbow wasn’t sure how many more gut punches she could take. She curled up, feeling upset on AJ’s behalf despite their friendship being over. That farm had been her life, her family’s life, for over a hundred years. She took a few moments to gather her thoughts. “So…when are you going?”
“Probably…sometime tomorrow,” she said. “Zephyr’s going to come with me. It’s not that far away if we fly.”
Rainbow slowly uncurled herself, her mind racing. She wasn’t sure if she really wanted to go, but her old loyal self was starting to tug on her heartstrings, pulling her to go with her oldest friend. She took a deep breath, then made the biggest decision of her life, or so it felt.
“I thought you had a job,” Zephyr said to Rainbow after she appeared at the Shy household with a saddlebag packed with what she would need for a trip to another town. “Won’t they miss you?”
Rainbow shrugged. “I told them I was taking some emergency personal time,” she lied. In truth, she’d gone into her old job and, after calling out each of her coworkers on their faults which was a bit relieving for her, she’d unceremoniously quit and gone back home to pack quickly. She thought she’d done a pretty bang up job on calling the others at her old job out on their horse dung, and she felt a lot more free than she had in months, maybe even years. There were still the other emotions she had yet to sort out regarding some other more sensitive matters, but for the moment she felt pretty damned good, if she said so herself.
“Oh dear, I hope they didn’t keep you long,” Fluttershy said, but Rainbow knew that Fluttershy wasn’t fooled. She knew Rainbow had lied.
“Nah,” Rainbow said with a wave of her hoof. “I’m ready to go whenever you are.”
Fluttershy looked with a hint of suspicion at Rainbow, which the latter knew meant that there was a lecture coming later. She was used to that, but still wasn’t looking forward to it.
Tobias watched as his human friend walked quickly back to the future house of Sunny Starscout. He was keeping pace with Gregory after they’d quickly vacated the guard station after being paid without so much as a thank you. That wasn’t like him. Gregory might have been what a human might call a hard ass, but he at least was polite up to a point, especially with a client. The fact that he’d dispensed with that told Tobias that something was wrong.
Behind the two, Sunset and Twilight both were trotting along fast, trying to keep up with the longer strides of the taller bipeds. Sunset rushed up beside Tobias and looked up at him. “Hey, what’s up with our fearless leader?”
Tobias shook his head. He had no idea, but if he had to guess, it had something to do with how he reacted to the disembodied voice and what had happened to Spoiled Milk. He’d never heard of anyone named Queen Majesty. The only queens he knew about were Queen Chrysalis, who’d been missing for the past several months according to the rumor mill, Queen Nala IV of the Highclaw Dynasty from Panthera, and Queen Katherina VII of the Proudpaws Clan in Caninia, but that was it. “Not sure,” he replied, “but I’ve never seen him so…agitated.” He didn’t say afraid because he couldn’t see under Gregory’s mask. “I can only guess.”
Sunset sighed. “I can’t even guess…that damned mask…”
The four entered the house, but Gregory didn’t stop, instead heading upstairs. Tobias told Sunset that it would be a good idea to start packing up to leave, and he went after Gregory. When he entered the room where Gregory had slept the night before, he saw that his friend was packing in a rushed but methodical manner. Tobias knew that Gregory never unpacked anything much whenever they stopped, even during an extended stay somewhere. Quick in and out was one of the mottos of every mercenary. He closed the door and stood in front of it, blocking Gregory from leaving. “G,” he said calmly, “what’s going on? Who’s Queen Majesty?”
Gregory turned and faced Tobias. The abyssinian noted that despite not showing an ounce of skin, Gregory’s body was tense. “I can’t tell you that. She’s probably watching us with magic right now.”
Tobias raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure? Is this something from the My Litt-?”
Gregory was across the room and covering Tobias’ mouth. “Don’t talk about that!” he hissed.
Tobias’ eyes were wide now, Gregory’s gloved hand still over his mouth. Something was really wrong if he was acting this way, but he knew his friend well enough when to leave well enough alone for the moment. He slowly nodded, and when Gregory removed his hand, he said, “So, we’re leaving then?”
“Get packed,” was Gregory’s only response.
Knowing an order when he heard it, Tobias quickly left the room and went back to his room, not bothering to be neat while putting things in his bag. When he left his room, Gregory was already making his way downstairs with a quick but determined gait, only to freeze when he saw something downstairs. Concerned, Tobias rushed over and looked over the railing, only to pause as well.Sunset was downstairs, saddlebags ready and facing the open door which Twilight was standing in front of. Just outside the door, stood the very last person anyone expected to see.
Princess Celestia.