“Okay, but then what…?” Eris mused to herself, one talon trailing aimlessly over the slightly crumpled map.

“Prolly on this side,” Velvet pointed out with her hoof, circling the large rectangular shape in the middle with a little red triangle etched next to it. “At least, that’s what I think it is.”

The creak of the wooden door swinging inward alerted them both, but it was Velvet who jumped the highest. She and Eris seemed relatively relieved that there was no alarm, only a slightly bedraggled William slowly trudging barefoot inside.

“Oh, hey,” Velvet waved cheerfully to him. “Was wonderin’ what was taking so long. The old bat give you ‘nother earful?” she asked, slightly guiltily.

She wasn’t certain whether or not he was going to reply, as Eris interrupted with a snap of her talons.

“Actually,” the draconequus said deliberately, sidling off the bed from opposite the filly and tugging out a bundle from beneath William’s small bed gracefully with her tail. “I wanted to say something.”

Eris paused directly in front of the boy, clearing her throat loudly before handing him the bundle, which was tied up with a single piece of blue string.

“I… felt kinda bad, after, you know…” she rubbed the back of her neck stiffly, eyes rolling around to find something interesting on the ceiling. “So… I got you your pants back. So, we cool now? Willie?”

William held the package in his hands, blinked once, and looked back up at Eris. He didn’t say a single word as he carefully clambered into bed and pulled the covers up over his head, his back to her.

“… Guess not,” Eris let out a nearly inaudible sigh. “Hey, me and Velvet are gonna go exploring. You, uh… you wanna come with us?”

“No. Kindly escort yourselves out of the vicinity,” the muffled reply came from beneath the blanket. Velvet looked back and forth between them, but Eris only shrugged.

“… You sure?” Eris asked, a hint of hopefulness in her voice.

“I want to be alone.”

“If you say so.” She shrugged again, giving up and motioning for the filly to follow. “See ya when we get back!”

William stayed very, very still until he heard the sound of the door closing, the noise of the latch echoing a little. He waited until he was certain that they were very far away before finally slipping out from beneath the blankets, still gripping his package tightly.

He needed to wash.

The dusty tomes clinging to ancient, musty bookshelves looked like just the sort of darkened place that William would have liked, Eris thought vaguely to herself. A shame he hadn’t decided to break into the castle’s library with them.

Shadows hung on every corner, looming over them as the odd pair crept between the enormous shelves, tiptoeing as softly as possible across the cold wooden floor.

“This place is actually kinda creepy when everypony’s gone at night,” Velvet whispered, her voice sounding much louder than it actually was. Eris grinned and shrugged, slinking alongside her with the map held open. She’d spent longer ‘exploring’ than she had expected, but at least it was better than scrubbing chamber pots.

“Reminds me of some crypts I’ve been in,” she answered casually, but the hairs bristling on the back of her neck implied that she wasn’t quite as at ease as she would have liked to appear.

“What’s a crypt?” the filly peered at her curiously, blowing another lock of red mane from her face in agitation. “Pffffff! Knew I should have gotten my mane cut.”

Eris rolled her paw through the air as they turned a corner, and she rolled up the map with her other hand.

“Oh, you know,” Eris said conversationally. “Some folks like to have places where they stick all the dead ones.”

Velvet gaped at her in horror and shuddered.

“Eey-yuck!” she exclaimed, her voice echoing in the empty library. “Some ponies keep their dead relatives?”

“Yeah, I guess it’s just a culture thing.”

“But-but what about returning ‘em to the ground?” Velvet scrunched up her face in disgust. “You’re s’posed to get all burned up when y’die, so’s you can be free in the afterlife. Keeping bodies around is just… just gross.”

Eris shrugged again, passing her the map.

“I’ve seen weirder,” she rambled conversationally. “There was this one time, me and dad met a necromancer who accidentally turned this whole village inside out-”

“Stop right there,” Velvet commanded, looking as if she were going to be sick.

“Yeah,” Eris rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. “It is kind of a gory story-”

“No, I mean I think it’s here….!” she insisted, going over the map in the dark again. “Start pulling books off of shelves.”

“Yes!” Eris fist pumped. “Finally, wanton destruction!”

Velvet watched her begin yanking book after book off of the shelves, giggling madly as she did so. One by one, each book was tugged roughly from its place and tossed wildly through the air, landing in a steadily growing messy pile behind her. Which was really the main reason Eris wanted her adoptive brother along, because seeing what she did to the books probably would have given him a heart attack. Her grin grew at the thought.

After roughly five minutes of doing nothing but pulling books off of shelves, Eris had slowed considerably, just as the pile had grown. And Velvet, who had already given up four minutes ago, simply sat and watched the panting draconequus from the side.

“I – don’t think – whoo – that any – secret passage – is gonna open,” Eris said breathlessly, hands on her knees as sweat dripped from her brow. “Jeez, I’m – ooh, dizzy – why am I so tired?”

“Well, I guess that’s four down,” Velvet scratched something off of the map with a little red marker.

“So, our whole day was wasted,” Eris slumped onto the pile of books next to her as if it were an armchair, and craned her head back in attempt to relax. It felt like her very muscles were on fire, something that she was unaccustomed to. There was just such a bizarre wrongness to her unfamiliar aches that seemed to be accumulating all over her. She wasn’t used to feeling like this. Dust flew into the air where she had landed, and she resisted the urge to sneeze. “Seriously, bookshelves are supposed to have secret entrances. Haven’t any of these idiots ever seen Scooby Doo?

“Wasted? Nah,” Velvet beamed. “Now there’s only three places left until we find the secret passage to the secret treasure room!”

She rubbed her hooves together gleefully, a gleam in her eyes.

“The secret treasure of the secret treasure room, behind the secret passage,” Eris corrected her.

“This is gonna be so cool!” she wriggled excitedly, rolling up her crumpled map again. “When we find it, we’re going to be set for life!”

“Unless we get caught,” Eris frowned with a hint of very uncharacteristic pessimism.

“Except that we won’t…” Velvet stated firmly as she clambered to stand. “The second we get our hooves-”

“And talons.”

“-And talons on some o’ that gold, all our worries will be solved.” Velvet stated it very matter of factly, extending a hoof to help Eris back to her feet. “When I get me some treasure, I’m gonna build my whole house out of rubies, and I’m never goin’ hungry again. What are you spending your share on?”

“More treasure,” Eris grinned coyly.

Velvet snorted and rolled her eyes, a sudden thought occurring to her as they slowly walked away.

“… Wait, what about the books?”

Eris was already on her way out the window.

The sound of retching into the bucket was about the last thing that anypony wanted to hear, but it seemed to be the most frequent.

Rarity cringed in mild revulsion, looking away as she passed the woozy pegasus another cold wet towel. Rainbow Dash shakily pulled herself back onto the sofa, moaning miserably into the damp as she held the towel against her face.

“Really, dear, I’m both appalled and amazed,” Rarity admitted. “I’m pretty sure there’s enough alcohol in your system to subdue an angry minotaur. I’m astounded you lasted as long as you did without-”

Dash retched again, the splattering of the bucket making the unicorn flinch.

“… I practiced,” Rainbow Dash muttered in weak attempt at humor as she drew herself up, her stomach long since empty. Rarity helped her tug a sheet a little tighter over her shoulders, to which she nodded gratefully. Dash sniffled, her matted mane plastered to her head from her attempts to wash out the drunkenness in the rain. Although the warmth that the cider had originally brought her was long gone, the ill effects still remained – the grogginess refused to leave her head, and her vision swam when she looked at anything but the insides of her eyelids for too long. And she didn’t even like doing that – too many memories came back that she’d rather not deal with all at once.

“Quite finished?” Rarity asked with a hint of exasperation as her shoulders began to shake again.

“Dry heaves,” Dash shook her head wearily. “Celestia. I hate that anypony sees me like this.”

“Don’t be silly, dear,” she helped her dry some of the rain from her mane with another towel, carefully reseating the woozy pegasus on the couch. “We all have our bad days. Yours just so happens to be rather… er, slightly worse.”

Rainbow Dash tried to raise an eyebrow and nearly passed out from the effort.

“Alright, awful. You look awful, you poor thing,” Rarity admitted with a hint of embarrassment.

As it would have done very little good to argue with her and probably have taken a great deal of effort, Rainbow Dash simply let her friend help her a little longer, closing her eyes as Rarity gently dabbed the rest of the water from her rain soaked mane.

“… Thanks, Rares,” her voice was muffled beneath the towel.

“Don’t mention it,” Rarity replied a little stiffly. “I can’t imagine how anypony could expect less from a friend. Besides, these little ‘unexpected thunderstorms’ seem to keep targeting Carousel Boutique. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve left a window open and returned to find my entire loft sopping wet, thank heavens I store my fabrics carefully-”

“Rarity,” Dash tried to pry herself from beneath the towel with a weak grin. “If you rub any harder, you’re going to set my mane on fire.”

“Sorry, dear, sorry!” she pulled away swiftly. “You know how it is, I just get so worked up, you know you’ve got to stop me when I start ranting or it’ll never end.”

“Nah, it’s cool,” Dash replied with a feeble smile, leaning toward her a little. “I really like it. It feels really good when you get right behind the ear…”

Rainbow Dash leaned in a little closer as Rarity twisted the towel mindlessly in her hooves, weakly crawling to her and trailing a single hoof over her leg.

“It feels really good when you touch me, Rarity…” Dash whispered huskily into her ear, tracing a figure eight on her leg. “Nopony has even touched me in what feels like forever. It feels… really, really good…”

“Oh – oh. Ah. I, er, see,” Rarity fumbled uneasily.

“… Is it ‘cause I was sick a couple minutes ago?” she asked with a slight slur.

“I don’t actually, er… er-hem, that’s not my cup of tea.”

“Shi- right, yeah, of course,” Rainbow Dash pulled away swiftly, and coughed awkwardly into her hoof. “Sorry. I-I wasn’t, uhm…”

“I’ll blame the cider.” Rarity’s cheeks were tinged pink and she wouldn’t quite seem to look Dash in the eyes.

“Right, right,” she answered embarrassedly.

They sat in uncomfortable silence for a while, the last pitter patter of raindrops dwindling down to a soft drumbeat that tapped politely against the windows, as if hopefully awaiting entrance.

When an equally quiet knock came at the door, Rarity wasted no time in vaulting off the sofa.

“I’ll get it,” she sped off, leaving Rainbow Dash in silent and wearily contemplative solitude. She ran a hoof through her still slightly damp mane and slid it over her aching head for a moment longer, head feeling oddly heavy.

Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Celestia, I can’t think straight. All my fault.

“Rainbow Dash?”

Dash blinked and peeked through her hooves, which she had been covering her mildly burning face with. The sight of Rarity fussing about in her home came as no surprise, as she had done practically nothing but since arrive, but Fluttershy had been unexpected.

For some reason, seeing her only made her feel worse.

“Hey, Flutters,” Rainbow Dash grinned weakly instead.

“Oh, um, hello…” the butter colored pegasus shifted uneasily as she tried not to watch Rarity collecting cider bottles, clucking her tongue in a scolding fashion. When she didn’t say anything more, Rainbow Dash resisted a sigh and spoke.

“… You can come in and relax, you know,” Dash reminded her slowly, to which Fluttershy flinched.

“I’m sorry,” she hung her head, carefully placing her bright yellow umbrella by the door. “Sorry, sorry. I was just, um… my mind was preoccupied, I don’t mean to make anypony uncomfortable.”

“A little late for that,” Rarity grumbled, but no one heard her.

“Come on in, take a load off,” Rainbow Dash said a little bitterly. “The place is a lot emptier than usual.”

“I heard about Pinkie Pie,” Fluttershy nodded self-consciously. She looked as if she were desperately intent on removing something invisible from the bottom of her hoof, but settled instead on taking a seat beside Rainbow Dash. A single empty cider bottle sat sadly in the plush armchair beside the couch, just in front of one of the rain spattered windows. “How have you been feeling?”

From somewhere in the kitchen amongst the clink of far too many cider bottles, somepony snorted.

“What I mean is,” Fluttershy backpedalled quickly. “Have your, um, t-therapy visits been helping at all?”

Rainbow Dash stared at her for a full beat before looking uneasily down at the floor.

“Oh. Those. Uh, well,” she shifted restlessly, tugging at one of her wingtips out of habit. “I mean, I haven’t exactly, you know… been, yet.”

Fluttershy didn’t say a word, but she gave a little sigh through her nostrils that made it very clear that she was supremely disappointed. Somehow, this stung a little more than Rainbow Dash expected it would. Like the silent but stern look of an adult that has grown weary of a foal’s behavior, but was refraining from discipline to teach a different lesson. It was a look that did not sit familiarly on Fluttershy’s face, and made Dash horridly uncomfortable. It was almost like she knew, but she was expecting her to somehow redeem herself and was found wanting.

“I mean, it’s not that I wasn’t planning on it, I just haven’t… yet,” Dash added defensively after a few seconds had passed.

“No,” Rarity huffed with a small sliver of cheekiness as she returned, dusting her hooves. “You’ve been rather busy elsewhere, clearly.”

Fluttershy gave her a look stern enough to make her sit down rather quickly in the armchair before the window.

“I think it would do you a world of good, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy patted her shoulder gently with a warm, reassuring smile.

“I’ll agree with that.” Rarity nodded slowly, leveling her gaze hopefully at the pegasi. “Anything’s got to be better than sitting around moping, trust me dear, I have experience. Besides, I’m sure that everything will be fine once you two are finished with your little break up – make up things, and-”

“Pinkie Pie left.”

Dash and Rarity both gawked at Fluttershy, who was becoming increasingly uncomfortable.

“I-I mean, she came to tell me goodbye and everything first,” Fluttershy said shamefacedly, resisting the overwhelming urge to hide behind her curtain of mane. “She said that she’s leaving town, and that she didn’t know when or if she’d be back.”

“She-she told you all that?” Rarity asked, a little hurt. It was clear that it had affected Dash much more, though she refrained from speaking.

“Um, yes. Pinkie Pie wouldn’t tell me where she was going, just that she wanted somepony she could trust to know where she was in case…”

Fluttershy couldn’t quite bring herself to finish her sentence, instead opting to clear her throat quietly and look away. Rainbow Dash glowered at her own hooves in a sullen silence, ears plastered sulkily against her head.

“… Well, I think I’ve overstayed my welcome!” Rarity said suddenly, clearly tense about the entire ordeal. “And I believe the rain has stopped, and I left Sweetie Belle all alone and I just know that she’s up to something, you two have fun I’ll see you again, darling!”

Her words all came out rushed as if she had been holding them in to let them all out at once, and she spoke rather rapidly as she made for the door. Rarity didn’t say another word as she left, leaving the two of them in troubled quiet. No noise penetrated the house aside from the nearly silent dripping of rain as the sun began to peek through the spent clouds and the quiet chirruping of birds basking in the much welcomed light.

“… I’m sure she’s very busy,” Fluttershy said all of a sudden, not usually one to break the silence. But it had become so deafening that she felt that she needed to.

“She didn’t even tell me,” Rainbow Dash moaned into her hooves. She had been so sure that she would be back in no time, so positive that the usually energetic pink party mare would return. She hadn’t even bothered to pack her things, Dash was so sure she would be back… at first.

“And I’ll bet that she had a very good reason for it.” She nodded profusely a few more times, but was cut off by Rainbow Dash’s remark.

“Why are you here?”

Fluttershy blinked, and looked uncertainly back at the weary pegasus.

“Um, I don’t know what you mean.”

“I mean, why are you here,” Dash circled her hoof over the general vicinity. “Rares’ was getting pissed off at me for not staying on top of my job. Why are you even here?”

Fluttershy toyed with the tip of her mane distractedly, and chewed her lower lip.

“Well, um, because I was worried about you. When I heard that you still hadn’t shown up for therapy, I started wondering if you were okay and thought that I would come by and check up on you.”

Her explanation seemed to satisfy Rainbow Dash for a moment, before she began rubbing her aching temples.

“Hang on. How did you know that I ditched?” she asked suspiciously, wondering if her friend had been following her.

Fluttershy blinked, and said “Well, um, because I’m expected back at the facility today myself.”

Rainbow Dash felt a sting of guiltiness for expecting the worst from Fluttershy, somepony that likely never would have stooped to spying at all.

“… Oh,” she said at last, and it sounded weak and pitiful in her own ears. “I mean, I, uh… I didn’t really expect, y’know…”

“I’m much better now,” Fluttershy nodded peacefully with a half-lidded look perched cozily above her smile. “How about this – you could come with me today, that way we could do both of our sessions at once. That way you don’t have to be worried about doing it alone. I mean, if that’s okay with you.”

Rainbow Dash almost shrugged her off. She didn’t want to go anywhere, she wanted to lie down and let her pounding head drum her a steady beat to sleep. She wanted to go back to check and make sure Rarity hadn’t poured out the rest of her cider as she feared when she heard the sound of draining liquid – or worse, found her wine stash. She wanted to stretch her wings a little and fly, break her promise and head straight for Canterlot so that she could hold her colt again and shake the horridly lonely feeling away.

However, she had also made a promise to Pinkie Pie.

But then again, Pinkie also hadn’t even trusted her enough to tell her where she was going…

Fluttershy watched Rainbow Dash tug at her bottom lip for a long moment, brows furrowed in thought.

“… Yeah. Just this once,” Dash said at last, prompting a heavy but silent sigh of relief from Fluttershy.

“Great! You aren’t going to regret this, I promise.”

Somehow, Rainbow Dash wasn’t quite so certain.

William stared out the open window down at the courtyard below, hands tight on the windowsill as he tried to fight off the prickle of fear from the height. Strangely, it wasn’t quite as prominent as usual.

“… They look like ants from up here,” Missus Trimming said at last, breaking the silence as she stood casually beside him. With one foreleg propped on the window as she leaned a little forward, Trimming looked nearly as tranquil as he had ever seen her. William, however, remained as he was, his grip on the windowsill so stiff that he might as well have been a part of the finely carved wood.

“I agree,” he answered quietly.

“Peculiar, isn’t it?” she asked as she clicked open a small metal tin with one hoof, eyes never leaving the courtyard where a handful of ponies still milled about. “How nopony ever really sees themselves like that. Even though in reality, that’s all they really are.”

William did not have a reply to that.

“… Here,” she tipped the tin in his direction with a bit of a rattle.

William’s expressionless gaze turned to one of mild discomfort for an instant.

“I believe that I am too young to smoke, Missus Trimming.”

Trimming snorted and shook the tin at him, the numerous rolled cigars tumbling about in their case.

“Don’t feed me that ironic horseshit, colt,” she said mockingly. “Ever had a Zebrican cigar before?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Life is full of firsts,” Trimming rolled a tool in her hoof as she dropped the tin on her desk. “Here, let me show you. You just cut off this part here – not too far or you’ll lose the flavor – and then light it. It’s idiot proof, so a colt like you shouldn’t find it too difficult.”

William frowned as he followed her instructions flawlessly, and watched as she quietly lit her own cigar and breathed deeply. A thick, earthy scent began to fill the office and smother the scents that still remained, and he resisted the urge to wrinkle his nose.

“I am neither stupid nor immature,” William repeated the process just as she had, again making no mistakes, to her slight surprise.

“You are slow, though,” Trimming smirked as she took a long draught of breath, a couple of cinders dropping through the air as she resumed her place at the window. Thin billows of cigar smoke drifted outward, and William hacked and coughed as he tried to imitate her.

“You’ll get used to it.”

She patted his back roughly a couple of times, and he felt as if he were going to lose one of his lungs from trying to breathe through the fat cancer stick again.

“Still too quickly,” Trimming frowned, letting out a practiced puff. “Stop trying to inhale the whole damned thing and just ride it out. You’ll learn to like it.”

“Doubtful,” William muttered under his breath, along with another cough as he held the thing a little further from himself, but she heard him nonetheless.

“You say that again…” she held the cigar between her lips for a moment longer, eventually blowing out a single grey smoke ring.

William fell silent once again, and found that the mare was staring at him trying to hold the cigar between two fingers as he had seen older boys do with cigarettes. Doing the same with the cigar was rather difficult, so he instead gripped it between his thumb and forefinger.

“I know you love it,” Trimming turned from him after a few seconds, dusting a couple more ashes out the window. Her eyes meandered over the oblivious ones below, almost like a hungry cat’s.

“If you say so, Missus Trimming.”

“We both know it,” her gaze turned slowly in his direction as she watched him trying to look as if he weren’t struggling with the cigar out of the corner of her eye. “Don’t lie to yourself. It’s why you keep coming back.”

His lips were tight as he tried to inhale a tiny bit from the cigar, his whole throat and lungs burning ferociously.

“I just want to keep sending letters,” he said, his small shoulders shaking as he coughed.

“It doesn’t seem like anypony is bothering to write back, though, does it?”

Trimming hid her smirk of triumph well as she began to finish pounding the nails in the coffin.

“It’s part of my duty, you know,” Trimming said offhandedly as she dashed some more ash away, shifting again to make herself more comfortable against the sill as warm sunlight broke through the clouds. The chirrup of a bird could be heard in the distance.

William stared at her a moment, not noticing that he was still holding the cigar away from himself after his last attempt at breathing fire.

“Oh. No, not that,” she chortled. “I mean the palace’s mail. It all goes through me, at some point or another.”

“… Why?”

“Because nopony else is qualified for anything aside from guard duty or beating their heads against walls,” Trimming scowled suddenly. “I’m surrounded by idiots and incompetent slack jawed morons. It used to be Shear’s position before he passed, and the princesses saw fit to lump it onto my back.”

Her sudden burst of anger surprised him, but not quite as much as anything else.

“You don’t seem to have a very high opinion of anyone aside from yourself,” William said pointedly, taking a successful drought from his cigar without coughing for the first time.

“Don’t make me slap you again,” her face twitched hard before becoming stony.

“I apologize, Missus Trimming.”

“Your ‘apologies’ are about as hollow as praise from Celestia,” Trimming snorted again. “Try again. More emotion.”

“I’m sor-”

The slap to the back of the head was unexpected, and stung badly. He fumbled with the dwindling cigar as he nearly dropped it out the window, and clung desperately to the sill with his other hand.

“And you’re not good with sarcasm,” Trimming stated dryly. “Figures. Stallions.”

“Not everyone is exactly the same,” William’s eyes started to burn again as badly as his throat was, but he shook it away.

“Oh?” she relaxed again, kicking out one of her back hooves and perking up her ears a little in a gesture to show that she was listening. “Really. Do tell.”

He started to speak again when she gave him a sudden glower, making him clamp his mouth shut.

“Don’t question me, colt. I know a lot more than you do,” Trimming said as she began to reattach her earrings. “It doesn’t matter what your opinion is, you’re exactly the same.”

William seemed even more distraught by her comment than she expected him to be, but he tried not to show it.

“How would you even know?” he asked quietly, the last of his cigar burning away. He followed suit when Trimming dashed hers against the wall outside a couple of times before dropping it.

“It’s called wisdom, and it comes with age,” she answered smartly. “Not that you would understand why, like you wouldn’t understand your own shortcomings, present and to come.”

He didn’t answer, but frowned and furrowed his brows.

“Oh, don’t look at me like that,” she smirked. “Face it, it’s not like you’ve exactly got a bright future ahead for yourself.”

“You’re a pessimist,” William lowered his gaze.

“Am I?” Trimming leaned a little closer to him, latching the window closed as she did so. “You have nothing ahead for you but what some mare decides for you, and it’s high time you grow up and accept it.”

William did not answer again, but instead looked away as she placed a hoof softly on his shoulder and forced his gaze to return.

“Your place is beneath a mare stronger than you are, thrusting your little hips until she gets sick of you.”

He looked as if he wanted to argue, but couldn’t quite find the words.

“You know it, deep down,” she traced her other hoof slowly onto his chest, still gripping him with her other. “At your core, you know that something like you really has no other place. That’s why you keep coming back, isn’t it?”

William muttered something incoherent about letters, eyes downcast. It seemed far too unfairly bright and sunny all of a sudden, and he wished that the previous gloom would return.

“It’s what you were born for. Don’t start looking at me like that again, it’s true for all stallions. If I can even call you that,” she frowned suddenly, forcing him to look at her again. “How many of them call you things behind your back when you turn away? Just how many regard you as nothing more than a freak?”

“Nopony does,” William answered sharply. He did not move, but a growing fire was stirring in his eyes, which Trimming was all too glad to see rising up just in time to be crushed.

“Is that right?” she asked mockingly, still not releasing him. “Do you really think that anypony aside from me really cares about you at all?”

“Of course I do!”

“Then why hasn’t anypony written back to you?”

William didn’t seem to have an answer to that, either. She delighted in watching the light dim in his eyes as he looked away again, desperate to see anything aside from her triumphant sneer. But when she forced him to look at her again, she held no such look. Instead, Trimming gazed at him with nothing but seemingly genuine pity.

“Poor little William. All alone in the world with no mare to hold him. Pathetic, really.”

“… I’m not pathetic.”

“You didn’t cry.”

He looked openly perturbed by her words as she pulled away at last.

“You didn’t cry,” Trimming repeated herself. “And still haven’t. That’s not strength. It just means that some other mare had you first, didn’t they?”

Silence said volumes to a question such as that, but her triumphant sneer was still nowhere to be seen.

“Figures,” she tossed her mane back as she began to redo it casually. “I’m not really that surprised. Somepony you know, I suppose? Never mind,” Trimming shrugged when he made no move to answer, instead becoming very, very still. “Put your uniform back on. There’s plenty to do, always is.”

The aviary of Princess Celestia was a grand sight to behold, standing in free air in her personal garden. Late blooming flowers that William did not recognize wound in exotic patterns up gilded lattices surrounding them, and the singing and chirrup of birds filled the air.

Eris crumpled her nose at the smell of nature, gazing with slight disdain around the many cages of all shapes and sizes. Each one was large enough to hold many more their own size, and were built in such a way that one could simply walk in once the doors were unlatched. A few, however, were very small and dangled from trees, but were clearly empty.

“Birds,” the draconequus scowled as she dropped the mop. “I freaking hate birds.”

“I’ve never seen birds like these before,” he watched what looked like a cross between a swallow and an albatross sized bluebird happily eating from an equally bulky seed tray. “I think they’re rather pretty.”

“I think that turkey-thing just barfed,” Eris stated in a mix between deadpan and mild disgust.

“Well, at least you don’t have to clean all the cages yourself…”

“True dat.”

He admired them for a while longer, an odd look coming over his face as he trailed a finger over the thin cage bars.

“… Hey.”

“Mreah?” Eris asked with a distracted half frown, utterly unwilling to get busy.

“Eris, do you ever feel… like a bird?”

“Are you trying to ask me if I’m high?” Eris blinked, turning to him. “Because I totally know some cool stuff you can do with Poison Joke-”

“That’s not – ugh, never mind,” William scowled, pulling fretfully at the hem of his uniform to keep his hands busy.

“A’ight, chill out,” she held up her paw and talons defensively, grinning. “I’m just kiddin’ around.”

“I’m being serious.” William clasped his hands together as he looked around at the impressive menagerie. He couldn’t seem to form his words properly, like his mouth was fighting them on the way out. “I mean… do you ever feel like they must?” he asked, gesturing toward the cages.

“Y’mean… trapped.”

“Exactly,” he said with a bit of relief. “I really feel sorry for them. I doubt any of these birds were even bred in the wild – they probably wouldn’t even survive, even if anybody did let them out. It must be like a life sentence in prison for them…” William finished softly, looking sadly at the melodically chirping birds.

“Yep,” Eris nodded after a moment. “It’s gotta suck, alright.”

“Eris?”

William looked fretfully at the draconequus, who leaned forward a little with her mismatched hands on her hips.

“Can-can I… can I, um… tell you something?”

“Can you tell me after lunch?” Eris asked absentmindedly. “Dude, seriously, the old bat said we aren’t getting any until we’re finished, and I really don’t like the idea of trying to sneak into the cafeteria if she decides to check on us again.”

“Like- I mean, something important…” William clasped at his own hands worriedly.

“I guess,” she shrugged.

William paused for a moment and took a deep breath.

“Actually, never mind. You’re right, we should just hurry up.”

William frowned as he dragged his own mop bucket along, a thought occurring to him. “… Wait.”

“What, did you just realize that birds poop, too?” Eris sniggered, making no move to enter the latched cages.

“Eris?” he said uncertainly. “I-I don’t have shoes.”

“… Why not?”

“I may have lost them,” William admitted abashedly.

“Huh. I kinda wondered why you were going barefoot all of a sudden.” Eris scratched her head. “I was hopin’ you were slowly going native,” she added with a sly grin.

“Oh, god, I don’t have shoes,” William gawked at the birdhouses with newfound horror. “I-I can’t go in there!”

“Bwah, water exists for a reason!” she smirked, tail whipping back and forth behind her head as she tried to drown out the quiet but persistent chirrup of the birds. “Besides, I’ve walked in worse, you’ll be fine.”

William stared at her hard for a moment.

“What could possibly-”

“You don’t wanna know the answer to that,” Eris answered suddenly with a very serious look. “C’mon, let’s just get this over with so’s we can get some lunch. Dunno why, I’ve been just starving. All the time now, it’s so weird.”

William made no move to enter any of the cages, despair filling his face as he at last gave a firm grip to his mop and sighed.

“… Hey,” Eris clicked her talons together suddenly, a light in her eyes. “I’ve got a plan.”

“What – hey, no whoa hey hey hey!” William yelped as she yanked him up in the air by the collar of his uniform, powerfully dropping him onto her shoulders.

“There!” she said chipperly as she snagged her own mop and began carefully slipping into the birdhouse and eventually latching the door behind herself. “Now, just try not to fall off and don’t pull on my antler or left ear. My ears are super sensitive.”

“Why are there even metal floors in this thing?” William asked in anguish. “It’s outside! They’re all outside, why do they have floors?”

Eris peacefully hummed to herself for a while as she handed him his mop back, and they worked in quiet for a while. The only noise protruding was the happy noise of birds, who sang to each other as they worked. He nearly fell off once or twice, but Eris was always sure to keep a firm grip on one of his legs when he started to slip.

“… Thank you,” William said at last.

“For what?” she blinked, craning her neck and nearly making him fall again. “Oh. Yeah, whatever.”

“You didn’t have to carry me,” he added quietly, carefully cleansing his mop in the bucket as Eris scrubbed at a particularly nasty spot.

“Pff, ‘course not,” Eris rolled her eyes, although he couldn’t see it. “I do a lot of things I don’t have to. You missed a spot.”

He felt as if he were avoiding the point, but he didn’t press it.

“… Hang on,” Eris stopped suddenly, and William clung to her neck in panic as he was almost thrown from her shoulders. “I just realized something.”

“That birds poop too?” he asked, a hint of smugness in his tone.

“You aren’t wearing pants,” she pointed out. “You made all that fuss about not having pants, and you didn’t even put them on today.”

Although William did not stop cleaning, he did become very, very quiet.

“… You devious bastard!” Eris cackled suddenly, doing a little jig that nearly sent him toppling to the floor, a fate certainly worse than death. “You sneaky, cheeky little cock waffle!”

“Eris,” he gripped her fearfully. “You’re going to drop me, you’re going to drop me…!”

“You planned this, didn’t you?” she laughed, turning in a swift circle as she balanced on one cloven hoof. “Duplicitousness runs in the family, I knew it, I kn~ew it! Ha ha ha, that’s great!”

“ERIS ERIS ERIS OH GOD PLEASE DON’T DROP ME!”

“It all fits!” Eris beamed, coming to a sharp stop. William’s grip never loosened, and he was slightly dizzy from all the turning. “You were planning on this, huh? You wily little perv!”

“Wh- it’s not like that!” William shrieked in a pitch much higher than he expected. “I swear, I swear that I’m not like that!”

“Uh huh,” Eris sniggered, clearly unconvinced. “Sure you aren’t.”

“I am a decent person!” he insisted furiously, cheeks tinged pink.

“Oh, so now perverts can’t be good people?” she gasped in faux affronted tone. “Well, you must be positively awful then, Willie!”

“I am NOT a pervert!”

“So you’re telling me I’m imagining that poking at the back of my head?” she asked smugly, leaning against her mop.

“I – you – just – fffffffng-!”

William wrathfully pinched her left ear tip, making sure to pull hard.

Eris froze in place, a strange shuddering gasp escaping her lips. Her hairs bristled immediately, and he felt the tremor that rippled all throughout her body from her head to her tail. Instead of responding angrily as he expected her to, Eris shivered again, a sudden heavy pant breaking free.

“Oh~hh. Oh, oh, oh god,” Eris whispered in an unexpectedly scratchy voice. “N-not there…”

“You foolishly revealed your Achilles heel,” William said quietly and very matter of factly without releasing her.

“… Not there, not the~re,” she breathed heavily, leaning harder on the mop. Her whole body seemed to sag from the mere effort of remaining standing. Eris uncomfortably tried to shake her head. “Don’t p-play with it like that…”

“Oh, you mean like this?” William asked with a shred of assured retribution, slowly rubbing her ear tip between his thumb and forefinger.

In an instant, Eris’s weakened shivering was magnified and multiplied. She quivered wordlessly against the mop handle, a low moan escaping her lips. The growing sense of discomfort that had been slowly welling inside William expanded, and he ceased his actions. An awkward silence was enlarging between them, and neither of them moved.

“… I-I liked that,” Eris whispered breathily.

“Did you now?” his voice was quiet and still as he ever so slowly resumed caressing her ear with his whole hand. She shuddered hard, another squeaky noise emitting from her that made William turn several shades brighter. He felt a bizarre sense of gratification from the sound, urging him to rub harder. Eris’s shoulders shook a little again from the gyrations, and she let out a raspy, needing moan at the assault, which was slightly muffled as she chewed her lower lip hard.

“… We should stop,” Eris said after a long while, making no movement at all. When he halted, Eris weakly grasped his bare ankle with her paw.

“We should. This doesn’t seem right.”

“Y-yeah,” she huffed feebly. “Even if it-it feels… really, really good…”

“I’m glad I can make you feel like that, Eris.”

“… A brother and a sister really shouldn’t-shouldn’t do something like this,” she added unhurriedly as he gently resumed rubbing her ear betwixt his fingers, rolling it softly through his knuckles and making her quiver again.

“Hm… I recall rudely stating something along the lines of not really being related,” William whispered into her other ear. He didn’t know quite why he said it, only that he wanted to. A bewildering sensation was slowly, slowly beginning to make him burn, an unfamiliar itch that dug at him painfully.

“… So – hnnh – so m-maybe…” Eris breathed, her own cheeks flushed.

“Working hard?”

Eris shrieked and jumped nearly a foot in the air at Celestia’s bemused voice.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH OH JESUS MOTHER MARY SHE DROPPED ME!”

Author's Notes:

After a load of edits and several rewrites, this chapter is significantly less dark than previous versions were, on the grounds of the other one being 'unbearably depressing'. And I quote, "Oh my fucking god Aku, no, just no. There is such a thing as TOO dark."