Honestly, these Daring Doo books seemed like the ponified version of Indiana Jones, but at least it helped me keep my mind off things. It gets really frustrating trying to turn a page with hooves, but that was all I had to work with. I hadn’t come out of the bedroom even once, out of fear that I might snap at some stray remark. I found my mind constantly wandering to either Ribbon and Mirage’s safety, or trying to figure out why I was turning into a lunatic, neither of which helped with my mood. -Hey Ribbon, whatcha doing?-

’Overseeing the hives renovations, including our hot spring. Speaking of, we might need to move our room soon.’

-Why?-

’We’re going to knock down the walls to make room, I want a grand cavern to be carved out, and our room is in the way. Plus we can sell the crystals.’

-When do we have to move?-

’20 minutes.’

-That soon?-

’Tavish was very insistent.’

I mentally sighed. -How much, and what, did he use?-

’Do you know what nitro is?’

-A very unstable liquid explosive.-

’Apparently it’s his favourite, said it made a better prettier sound. I told him to ‘no’ and it turns out he already set it up. You have 18 minutes.’

I immediately bolted out of the bed, and sprinted out the door and down the hall. -Whats the minimum safe distance!?-

’About 120 feet, that’s where I am. It’s just a wall. Also, cover your ears in about, 16 minutes.’

I kept running, not stopping until I got past a bunch of changelings who were more than likely stopping to watch the inevitable fireworks.

-How the hell did he even get his hooves on nitroglycerin anyway!?-

’I don’t know, he won’t say. I hope you got your stuff.’

-Aw crap. Is there still enough time?-

’12 minutes, make it quick.’

I ran, and kept running, retracing my back, before grabbing everything I could and tossing into the saddle bags, throwing them onto my back, before getting the hell out of Dodge. By the time I got back to the safe area, I was ready to keel over. -Goddammit… so exhausted.-

“Tired already? Either you’re out of shape, or those cuffs are going a good job.” I looked up and saw Ribbon standing there.

I took several moments to catch my breath. “Not… Funny.”

“Well, don’t mind me. I just came down here to punch Tavish and see the fireworks.”

“Well you said she was moping around in your room, so I thought I could help by getting her out and provide a little distraction.” Tavish walked out from behind an outcropping of rocks, more than likely where he was taking cover. It looked like one of his eyes were swollen.

“You set explosives by our room, unstable explosives, and with Chi still inside.”

“She’s not inside anymore. Mission accomplished.”

“Oh, go fornicate with a cactus!” I leveled a glare at him. The Glare didn’t seem to affect him, or it didn’t work anymore.

“Oi, I wouldn’t need to blow up your room if ya just stop moping about!”

Ribbon smacked him in the back of the head. “Shut up. Like you’ve never been sad.”

“Uhhh, what about the explosion?”

“Oh, right.” Tavish pulled out a remote with a big red button on it.

“I thought it was on a timer.”

“I lied.” He pressed the button and dove back behind the outcropping.

“What the fu-”

*KA-BOOOOM!*

I quickly covered my ears as the sound of the explosion ripped throughout the hive. once the ringing died down, I opened my eyes. “GODDAMIT! MY EARS! THAT FREAKING HURT!”

Ribbon covered her ears when I yelled. “You’re louder than the explosion!”

“Oops… Sorry…” I was actually quite surprised that the RCV still worked. "Where are we sleeping now, anyway?"

"Near the soon-to-be hot spring."

"Well... Lead the way."

After we had settled into our new royal apartment (Still in the process of being carved out), Ribbon had left to continue overseeing the renovation of the hive, leaving me by myself. Might as well look around, and see what it looked like so far. The first room was just a big cave with some crude fernatcher. The second room was clearly a bedroom, there was a cloud bed in the middle of the room, which I was hesitant to flop onto with those ‘alicorn magic suppressors’ concerned that they might also be suppressing my cloudwalking ability.

-Uhhh, Ribbon? Why do we have a cloud bed if I can't even walk on clouds right now?-

’I wanted to test it. Pegasus magic is just for flight and weather control, and with your wings pinned it wouldn’t make much sense to suppress your pegasus magic. Just try it, see if it works.’ With reassurance from Ribbon, I set hoof down on the cloud bed, encountering the familiar fluffy resistance I had grown to expect, and climbed onto it.

My restraints don’t block my pegasus magic. I sighed in relief, as at least that meant I wouldn't be sleeping on the floor. With that mystery solved, I went back to the only thing I had to do at the moment. reading.