“Do you have any idea of just how much trouble we’re in?” William moaned bitterly through his fingers, tiredly covering his eyes. The little room that they had been quickly escorted to in the palace by a small battalion of guards felt more like a broom closet than a temporary holding room, but William couldn’t tell the difference. The only thing that really occurred to him was that Rainbow Dash was going to put her hoof through his skull.

And that was after the princesses were going to throw them into prison for life.

The dim lighting didn’t help matters at all, and the pair of wooden chairs that had been provided for them made it seem almost like an interrogation room.

“Yep,” Eris rolled her neck beside him, eliciting a couple of painful sounding cracks. “We’re in trouble. As per usual.”

“As per usual?!” William glowered at her, heat stinging his eyes as he tried to fight back panic. He was too young to spend the rest of his life in a dungeon, wasn’t he?

“Chill out, dude,” she actually cringed when she saw that he really was on the verge of crying, and shifted a little in her seat before turning her attention back to the locked wooden door. “I said I was sorry, alright?”

William wanted to tear down her pitiful apology, he wanted to rage and reprimand her and release his pent up frustration of everything that seemed to be spiraling downward in the past few days. William wanted vindication.

And the more he saw the burns and numerous still bleeding and amateurishly bandaged cuts along the draconequus, the swifter his anger leaked away. It was unfair, how guilty she made him feel when he wanted to be angry.

And yet, if it hadn’t been for Eris throwing herself on top of him and accepting the brunt of the damage, William would undoubtedly be in much worse condition than even she was now. He had walked away with hardly a scratch, whereas she looked like she had just finished crawling out of a furnace. And, even stranger, seemed to be displaying absolutely no symptoms of shellshock.

But he could have died, he vaguely reminded himself.

And, upon that thought, so could have Eris.

In fact, she might have nearly died, and William knew stark little about her, save her name.

“… Dude, if you don’t quit staring at me like that, I’m gonna get really freaked out.”

William shook his head slowly, a pounding headache growing between his eyes. He let out a long, slow whistling breath of weariness and despair, and was left staring despondently at his twiddling thumbs as what felt like hours ticked by. The minutes crawled at a snail’s pace, ever so slowly passing with such a leisurely inching that William wasn’t quite certain if he had fallen asleep a few times or not.

Each time he felt himself drifting off, he jerked himself back to reality, nearly falling out of the chair when he did so.

William wasn’t quite certain at what point his head had been silently shifted over into Eris’s lap, or when he had fallen asleep for such a thing to occur; he did, however, vividly remember awakening with a jolt to discover Eris’s paw running gently through a few strands of his hair. She stroked his head slowly as she hummed a soft and bizarrely familiar but unnamable little tune.

William found himself much more awake and alert shortly afterwards.

He guessed that the main event of the festivities with the princesses was over by the time the pair of them entered the room.

There was a commotion of jostling and clanking armor just outside, which was rapidly followed by the door being yanked open to allow the entrance of Princess Celestia herself. It wasn’t clear from her serene look just what she was thinking, which befuddled William. The cobalt mare that he had seen before, who trailed closely behind Celestia, seemed significantly more disgruntled than her elder sister.

“Thank you, Steel Spear,” Celestia nodded to the pegasus guard, who bowed deeply in return. “You may depart.”

“Right away, Princess,” he bowed out swiftly, and the door behind the pair of princesses slowly snapped shut, leaving Eris and William sitting uncomfortably before their watchful stares.

“… Well, that certainly shook things up a little,” Celestia looked back and forth between the guilty couple, and William couldn’t bring himself to look her in the eyes.

“Thou art – you are fortunate that death did not besiege you both.” Luna seemed nearly livid, but in such a way that was so tightly compacted, so forcefully controlled that it startled William, even though she barely raised her voice above a whisper.

“Do either of you realize just how much of a panic was caused tonight?” the porcelain alicorn ruffled her wings a little, beginning to pace back and forth in front of the silent duo. “Not to mention just how worried you made some certain ponies, or that one of them is crying her eyes out in the room next to you?”

William’s head darted up so sharply that Eris thought she heard it crack.

Gone was the last vestige of his anger, and he didn’t even appear to be all that concerned about the ensuing punishment. If anything, William looked absolutely horrified. All color began draining from his face and down his neck, and a thin, cold sweat began trickling over the back of his neck.

“There shall be ramifications for thine actions,” Princess Luna threatened quietly, giving Eris a stern, flat stare. “To interrupt the Summer Sun Celebration, of all things, injuring both thyself and another!”

“Lu-”

“And then,” Luna grew louder, glancing over at her sister before turning her ire back to the ashamed draconequus. “Then, you have the audacity to insinuate that the fears of thousands of ponies are for naught?”

“You are both remarkably fortunate,” Celestia added patiently. “The first assumption was that an attempt had been made on the royal family.”

“Do either of you know the penalty for assault on royalty?” the princess of the night inquired almost noiselessly, and this time it was Eris who looked as if she were going to be sick.

“I’m sorry.”

It was the first that either of them had spoken in quite a while, and all three heads turned to William’s throaty croak.

“It-it was my fault,” he strained to clear his throat, suddenly less confident now that they were all watching him. Eris particularly so, with a flabbergasted look on her face. “It’s… all my fault. I-I talked Eris into sneaking into the fireworks hold with me. If it hadn’t been for her, I-I wouldn’t even be alive.”

“… Is that so,” Celestia mumbled quietly, looking back and forth between the boy and the stunned draconequus with an expressionless, almost hawkish gaze.

“Yes,” William nodded, unable to look her in the face any longer. “It’s true. It’s my fault. It’s all my fault, Eris was just dragged along be-because I had an… insatiable sense of adventure.”

For a split second, William felt as if Princess Celestia viewed him as a piece of glass. Like she could see right through his lies, and she were silently judging and weighing him for spouting such atrocious falsehoods. Heat blossomed into his face, and it took everything he had not to backpedal quickly and renounce himself, which disturbed him even more so.

It was not often that William had difficulty lying. Perhaps it caused him such anxiety because of the punishment hanging over him if he were found out, if the stakes were the only thing making him quiver.

Or perhaps, it was something that he didn’t quite fully understand, and this revelation shook him so deeply that he really did begin to tell the truth. No sooner had he opened his mouth, however, than Princess Celestia nodded again, and he literally had to bite his tongue to keep from speaking.

“Very well,” she stated eventually, breaking the horrid silence. “Then you fully accept the consequences of your actions, William Zachariah Klaskovsky?”

He nearly asked how she even knew his full name, but he only swallowed hard and bowed his head.

“Oh, surely you aren’t going to have him executed?” Luna asked with a little sly wink to her sister. William, however, nearly passed out.

“Hm. I don’t know,” Celestia answered agonizingly slowly, her face blank. “That does seem a little harsh. Surely exile would be a more fitting punishment for such a grievous assault?”

“Now-now hold on a minute!” Eris blurted nervously, mismatched eyes flicking back to each princess.

“I believe that punishment can be postponed,” Luna said wryly, magically opening the door. “For now, the hour has grown late, and my duties call. Sister, wouldst thou join me as the ‘rapscallions’ are allowed entrance to their guardians?”

“I think Twilight can handle the rest of the celebration by herself for now,” she grinned coyly as she stalked after Luna. “She’ll wish to hold audience with us shortly. But it has been a while since a good old fashioned beheading occurred in Canterlot, don’t you think?”

And with that, Celestia and Luna trailed off down the enormous opulent hallways side by side.

“Tia,” Luna struggled against her intense snickering as they passed a trio of stalwart guards. “That was unnecessarily cruel. We are terrible. Whatever happened to banning cruel and unusual punishment?”

“In my defense,” Celestia placed a single gilded hoof over her chest as she walked, nodding politely to the head maid she passed by. “We have a clearly long family tree of less than reputable kind.”

“Oh, certainly,” her younger sister giggled. “If by that, you mean that we are obviously the descendants of trolls.”

“William!”

William grunted in surprise when Scootaloo flung herself forcefully around his neck as they wordlessly entered the room similar to the first, albeit decorated with numerous art pieces. He vainly attempted to pry the pegasus from around him for a bare moment, before he saw the venomous glares being shot their way by Rainbow Dash. Oddly, he felt a little as if keeping Scootaloo between them as a shield would be a superior idea.

“Do you have any idea…?!” Rainbow Dash stood warily, marching toward them with fire in her eyes. Pinkie Pie laid a single hoof on her flank and stalled her for a moment, as Dash had not initially spotted the shadows lurking a little behind William and Eris.

“Miss Scootaloo, you’re choking me,” William gasped breathily as she finally released him, and he was a little surprised to see a relieved looking Diamond Tiara along with her father, Filthy Rich. The stallion himself just looked worn down and tired, as William expected anyone would if they had to spend that much time around the spoiled filly.

“You’re lucky somepony wasn’t killed,” Pinkie Pie scolded William in an unexpectedly angry tone, and William could tell from the blotchiness of her eyes that she had apparently been the one Celestia implied was crying.

“Were you trying to blow my son up?” Dash glowered viciously at Eris, who didn’t have time to reply before William spoke up.

“Yeah, I’d blow-”

“It was not her fault, Mother,” William stated quietly, which seemed to shock Rainbow Dash. “I led her away, and then I set off the fireworks by-by accident.”

“And as such,” Celestia butted in from behind him, causing him to jump nearly a foot off the pristine and polished floor in surprise. “We have come to a conclusion as to how the punishment shall be served for such irresponsible and foalish actions.”

William stepped out of their way and hanged his head, hardly able to breathe anymore. Not a single soul in the room could be heard so much as breathing at all, and it grew so silent that one could have heard a pin drop. Scootaloo stared at them in anticipation, looking as if she were ready to cower behind Pinkie Pie again.

“Luna,” William was grateful when Celestia finally broke the silence. “Precisely how much work and effort was put into the Summer Sun Celebration?”

“Quite a lot, Celestia,” she replied emotionlessly, looking around the room. “Why, I would dare say that several thousand bits worth of property was destroyed tonight…”

Rainbow Dash paled when Luna’s cold gaze settled over her, and her wings clamped tightly to her sides.

To everyone’s surprise, it was Eris who stepped forward.

“Oh, puh-lease,” she rolled her eyes cheerfully. “So, It’s just some ching ching and bling you’re worried about? I got this.” Eris took a deep breath, rolled her shoulders and craned her neck to speak directly into the air.

“YO, DADDY!”

All eyes stayed on Eris for nearly an entire minute, in which it slowly became apparent that absolutely nothing was going to happen.

“… Da-dad?” Eris asked loudly to no one again. “Hey, need some help, here! Dad? Uh… Dad!”

“I don’t believe that Discord is going to come to your aid, Eris,” Celestia stated with a miniscule and somehow still peaceful smile.

“And I don’t believe we’ve actually been introduced, Sun Butt,” she eyed the large Cutie Mark on the princess’s flank.

It was at that point that Rainbow Dash started wisely backing away from Eris.

“Discord was kind enough to explain things in full when he… visited,” Celestia started a bit awkwardly, only to be cut off by Luna.

“He turned my royal bedchambers into a glowing swamp!”

Eris laughed hysterically, and swiftly stopped when Luna’s death-glare settled on her instead.

“Discord was here?” Dash asked curiously, turning to Princess Celestia. “What? Why? When? What exactly did he say?”

“Much of what was said,” Luna deadpanned, “would be considered horridly impolite for any mare to repeat at all, let alone in the company of subjects. He did, however, make multiple references to ‘wars in the stars’.”

Eris found this equally hilarious, and had even more difficulty stifling her laughter than the last time.

“You do realize that you are expected to pay for the damages caused, correct?” the princess of the sun turned to the sniggering draconequus, who again began to cease her laughter with abruptness.

“I, uh… I don’t actually have, you know…” Eris shrugged, patting imaginary pockets. “Money.”

“Considering that you were exempt from this discussion on the grounds of being a supposedly unwilling participant,” Celestia said calmly to the increasingly uncomfortable Eris. “One could reasonably assume that I was speaking to the young Klaskovsky.”

William thought his knees were going to buckle, but forced himself to stand straight.

“Well…”

The majority of the room’s inhabitants seemed to have completely forgotten that Diamond Tiara and her father were even there at all, tucked away in the corner as they were. Even Scootaloo seemed surprised, and she was standing with them.

“Daddy, we could cover the costs, couldn’t we?” the filly asked evenly, as if she were discussing the weather.

“Oh, I would be happy, Princess –” Filthy Rich began, but stopped himself short when Celestia slowly shook her head.

“I would ask no such thing of you, Rich,” Celestia smiled kindly, which seemed to make the stallion horribly uneasy for some reason. “No, that would completely defeat the purpose if somepony else were to do that.”

“So how-how am I expected to pay back for the damages?” William asked weakly, desperately wishing that he had been ‘ill’ this year instead.

“Well,” Princess Luna leaned toward him with the same serene grin as her sister. “I’m certain that years of hard labor could pay for the immense damages caused.” William nearly collapsed from the sheer dejection, certain that his short life was already over.

If anyone had been looking closely, they probably could have seen Celestia subtly poking her sister in the side.

“Or,” Celestia added calmly with a small wink to Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. “Or, one summer month of assisting the palace servants in maintaining a cleanly atmosphere.”

Not a single one of them blinked as Celestia spoke, and shrugged shortly afterwards.

“… We have very well paid maids,” she explained bluntly.

“You know,” Pinkie nodded slowly, her throat dry. “I think that might be a good idea.”

“A-a whole month, huh…” Dash started weakly, torn as she was looking back and forth between the fidgeting boy and the princess. “Don’t you think he’s a-a little young for-for…”

“Mother,” William cleared his throat and clasped his hands behind his back, standing up straight. “I have fully accepted responsibility for my actions, and as such shall attempt to rectify the damage caused by whatever means at my disposal. I will not shirk obligation to do so. I am not a child.”

“Yes, you are,” Dash pulled him into a tight, warm hug with her wings, softly rubbing the top of his head with her chin and whispered “… So grown up. My little colt. Just like your father. So much like your father.”

William eventually pried away from Rainbow Dash an eternity later, self-conscious that everyone’s eyes were on him again as the hug lasted a far too long. He cleared his throat again, and asked “Will I... be allowed to gather a change of clothes first?”

“Very well,” Celestia smiled knowingly down at him before starting away with Luna by her side. “The arrangements shall be made for transportation tomorrow. Unless you would rather somepony fetch them?”

“No,” he shook his head fiercely, looking back to Dash. “I’ll-I have to get them myself.”

“And don’t touch the begonias in the back yard,” William droned on to the bored draconequus, who lay sprawled on his bed with her head draping off and resting on the floor upside down as he packed. “I’m uncertain if they’re a specific Equestrian variety, but they’re very fragile. The roses need special attention, I have plant mix prepared for those – and the morning glories!” he snapped his fingers as he slammed his small brown trunk shut.

“What is it with you and plants?” Eris yawned, stretching.

“… I like flowers,” he deadpanned. “I have an especial interest in botany. I always have,” William ensured that the small bookshelf beside his bed was pristine before latching the trunk firmly. “Usually nobody bothers asking. Where did I…?” he trailed off, furrowing his brows.

“Looking for these?” Eris dangled a pair of bright blue underwear before him, which he snatched away in embarrassment before jamming them in his trunk quickly.

“Kindly just ensure that my garden is taken care of,” William glowered at her sulkily. “I’d rather not come back in a month to discover that my babies have been starved to death.”

Eris snorted, and rolled her eyes.

“Babies? Oh, come on,” she snickered. “They’re plants. Not even the sentient kind. They’ll be fine.”

William started to retort, but looked back at her thoughtfully.

“There are sentient plants?” he blinked, uncertain if she was toying with him or not. He found it difficult to tell when she was simply making something up. Then again, William also had difficulty differentiating when someone was trying to tell him a joke, which seriously dismayed Pinkie Pie on numerous occasions.

“Oh, here and there,” Eris drawled conversationally.

William paused for a moment, before digging something out of his trunk and placing it in Eris’s paw.

“What’s this?” she peered at the earplugs curiously, cocking an eyebrow. “What do I need these for?”

“Mice.”

“Mice?” Eris blinked.

“… Yes,” William answered slowly. “… Mice.”

“You ready?” Rainbow Dash stuck her head in through his bedroom doorway, anxiously watching him. “The-the ride is here.”

Without another word, William picked up his small trunk, gave a small peck on the cheek to Rainbow Dash, and started out the door. She even started after him with an odd look in her eyes, but was stopped by Pinkie Pie.

“Pinks, I-”

“He’ll be fine,” she hummed soothingly into Dash’s ear. “They’ll be back before you know it.”

Rainbow Dash shook her head slowly, watching him go with a forlorn, sad expression that took every ounce of William’s self-control not to look at. Scootaloo still waited outside, nearly prancing back and forth as she waited for him to finally return.

“Promise you’ll write? You’ll write, right?” the orange pegasus followed him as he faltered and marched warily to the unsettlingly open chariot, looking back and forth between the pair of winged guards intended to pull it.

“… Oh, dear,” William blurted suddenly, backing away from the chariot. “I believe I’ll go back home now.”

“Homes are for hobos!” Eris yanked him along, causing him to jump. He yelped in surprise as she dragged him onto the wooden floor of the chariot, whereupon they started forward at a breakneck pace.

“Wait, stop!” William struggled uselessly, eventually clinging to the steel and wooden wheeled vehicle until his fingers went numb, but the chariot did not stop. Instead, they traveled even faster, which seemed to thrill Eris. "Stop, why are you even -?"

“Aw, relax! It’s a free ride, quit twitching.” the draconequus patted the terrified boy on the back as the rumbling nightmare machine did the worst possible thing it could have. In William’s opinion, that is.

It started rising into the air.

“Go back down!” William shrieked in panic, adhering with all his might to the chariot as they rose higher and higher. “Oh god, I’m sorry I blew up the fireworks I’ll never do it again go down go down go down go down-!”

The stallions pulling the chariot actually turned back to see the wide eyed screaming boy stricken with fear as they strode effortlessly over a large cloud, only to see the ecstatic Eris rapidly shaking her head back and forth.

“Y’alright there, tiny?” Eris grinned down at him, throwing her tail leisurely over his shoulder. “Looking a little green around the gills.”

If anything, William looked to be a more ill, pale grey than green, but he obviously wasn’t arguing.

He clenched his eyes tightly shut, squeezing the rattling chariot with all his might and desperately trying not to look down. William clenched the chariot so tightly that he began to lose feeling in his fingertips, and he was suddenly besieged by horrible thoughts of what would happen if he let go.

“Give me your hand.”

“What?” William forced one eye open to steal a peek at the surprisingly serious draconequus, who kneeled beside him.

“Give me your hand,” Eris repeated herself quietly, but loudly enough to make herself heard over the wind. “It’s totally safe. Just give me your hand, okay?”

He shook his head viciously, clinging tighter to the shaking chariot and squeezing his eyes shut.

Perhaps it was just the wind, but it sounded quite a bit like Eris sighed rather heavily before wrapping her tail in a winding fashion up his midriff. He automatically grabbed ahold of her, the mad fear that she was about to toss him off causing his heart to beat against his ribcage wildly.

“If you don’t quit squeezing my tail like that,” Eris chortled, “It’s going to fall off. Just chillax and take in the scenery, would you?”

“I don’t want to take in the damned scenery!” William swore, clutching her all the more tightly. “I want to be back on the ground! The nice, solid, safe ground!”

“What happened to your sense of ‘adventure’?” she cackled good naturedly. “Come on, look that nimbus, that stratosphere… cloud! Thing!”

“Actually, that’s a cirrocumulus,” one of the stallions called back, to which Eris was quick to drown him out by belting obnoxiously off key singing.

“NO ONE TO TELL US N~O, OR WHE~RE TO GO-”

“And that one’s a stratus, and that one’s an alto…”

“Why do they all sound Latin if the language is based on pre-Eastern ancient Romane?” William screeched even more loudly.

“OR SAY WE’RE ON~LY DREAMING, A WHOLE NEW WO~OO~ORLD! A NEW FA~NTA~STIC POINT OF VIEW!”