Twilight and Applebloom, now alone sat around the crackling fire, the silence of the woodland surrounding them was calming; a well deserved interlude before the next surge of dramatic events. Applebloom was, simply put; in a strange state of mind at the present: she was displaced by the revelations of earlier, yet it felt as if a massive weight had been hoisted from her, it was almost as if she had known of these things all her life and the confirmation of it was the release of these burdensome thoughts.

The filly decided that there was no sense in wallowing in such things, not now anyway. They had a job to do—and frankly she didn't have the slightest as to what exactly it was.

“Twilight?” Applebloom asked, using her full name as a sort of subconscious protest to her upbringing.

“Yes Applebloom?” Twilight replied.

“Is all this stuff you been sayin' about the Princess true? She really a no-good lyin' hooligan like mah sister?”

“Well....yes.” Twilight said unsure of whether this was a safe subject so soon after their confrontation.

“So, why did everypony chase us out of town? Why didn't they believe you like we did?”

“Good question Applebloom,” The library put a hoof to her chin, thinking of how to explain this to her.

“Remember that word Scootaloo had trouble saying?”

“Propo-something?”

Twilight laughed, “Yes, it's 'propaganda'. It is stories rulers will tell their subjects is true when they really aren't—they do this so their subjects think they are noble and good when they really aren't. Then, nopony will have any reason to question them.--Does that make sense?”

“So they lie to make themselves look good so people forget about all the bad stuff they did?”

“Well, that's part of it—there will still be ponies who know what happened so you have to make them as comfortable as possible under your rule to make it so they don't care and eventually forget.”

“So, Ms Cheerilee was one of those ponies that knew?”

“I can't be too sure on that one, likely more her own teacher than anything. Like us, she likely believes all of these stories and had never heard anything else.” Twilight noticed the filly trying to mask a yawn, they were both spent for sure.

“We'll chat some more tomorrow; we all need to have a bit of a discussion it seems.” Twilight got up and smothered the fire with some dirt. “Let's head off to bed kid.”

Applebloom conjured a grin and followed her into the cave. They could see, illuminated by the moon that Sweetie Belle and Rarity had done quite the job: four make-shift beds were scattered at the rear wall of the cave. Rarity was sprawled and on her stomach on one, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were snuggled up on the other, which left a separate one for both of them though the filly wasn't too keen on that.

As Twilight was preparing to crawl onto her bed and get some sleep, a cream colored filly joined her, clinging to her sides in a firm hug. Twilight wanted to get some sleep; she knew the filly was one to wake up early and wasn't one to stay quiet when others were asleep. The unicorn gambled crashing this whole evening for the sake of her own sleep.

“Applebloom?” Twilight asked, slowly removing the fillys hooves which caused Applebloom to look at her.  “I'd really like to sleep by myself tonight, I need all the rest I can get—this whole week has left me pretty tired. Nothing against you—I promise.”

Applebloom thought about crying and making a scene, she felt like she was being pushed away, neglected, her face slumped and her lip quivered. Twilight hugged the filly.

“Don't be upset Applebloom,” she whispered, “I'm right here if you need anything. Remember what Rarity said to Scootaloo when she was afraid?”

Twilight could feel the filly nodding her head, though reluctant to leave the unicorn's grip.

“The same goes for me. You'll be safe here.” She removed her hooves once again and Applebloom sat there for a moment, looking at the ground, whimpered something unintelligible and sulked over to the vacant bed opposite side of Twilight near Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.

It wasn't too long before the both surrendered to a deep, peaceful sleep.

Fluttershy took her time waking up. The idea that Rainbow's rejected plaything had found them, forcing her to wake up to something less than pleasant promoted her procrastination. The curtains to the deck were shuttered so it was rather dark inside despite the sun being out in full force.  The pink-maned pegasus turned her head lazily to see the outline of her friend sound asleep on a bed next to hers. A small sigh of relief passed from the cream unicorn's mouth as she slowly sat up and stretched. Her wings were apparently sore, it had been quite some time since she'd flown that far—or perhaps it had something to do with the hair-raising stress and embarrassment of the night before.

Fluttersy made her way to the washroom where she recreated her morning routine; sans the animals and the chores. She wondered about her creatures, critters, those she tended to and cared for religiously. It bothered her for a moment: what if nopony was watching them? What if they are lost without her? She acknowledged that by her own caring and protective nature she had coddled them into being as far flung from self-sufficiency as naturally possible, though she never meant to.

These thoughts made way of course for a much more pressing one: her friends below. They didn't have the leisure of retreating to a friendly metropolis above, nor did they seem to be doing well amongst themselves. She sighed again, figuring they would be fine so long as she and Rainbow did as they were asked. Fluttershy missed Ponyville, the quaint uneventful weeks of spa dates with Rarity, dinner with the girls, and usually some crazy adventure with her fellow Elements. Even the crusaders' antics roused  a stir of nostalgia for her life as it were but only three days ago.

“You're gonna take up all the hot water huh?” Rainbow moaned, stumbling into the washroom.

“No—well—I—sorry Rainbow Dash, I was just about to finish up.” Fluttershy apologized. She quickly dried herself off and returned to the main room as Rainbow Dash let her own morning rituals run their course.

Fluttershy opened the curtain to see a bright and initially powerful view of Cloudsdale, busy as ever with the exception of the Colosseum. She could see all of the prominent locations throughout the city: from Flight Camp, to the large recreational and shopping center which towered over the diner they ate at last night, to the Council Of Cloudsdale. That is where they were headed soon, to make their steep case for assisting in a coup of the Equestrian Monarchy with the rosy promises of a free society. She had never studied much in the way of politics, or anything pertaining to that—nopony did for it was considered unnecessary. Now however she was wishing she had strayed from her cottage a few days earlier, she would have have the time to properly absorb this wash of information that Twilight had dumped onto her.  She also wished that Rainbow Dash was a bit more supportive in the effort: between, in her mind, defaming and slandering one of their friends, combined with her general lack of interest in the “egghead” portion of this whole affair gave her the impression Rainbow Dash wanted nothing to do with this “Diplomatic Mission” and everything to do with the guaranteed skirmish or possibly all out war that would take place at some point.

Rainbow Dash didn't take too long to get clean and ready for the day's events. Though she didn't require—at least in her mind—the kind of upkeep that her friends seem to achieve.

“Ready to go Fluttershy?” She asked.

“I guess so.” Fluttershy sighed. She wasn't ready for anything—but she didn't have much of a choice.

“Alright then lets blow this joint and do all that crazy junk Twilight was talkin' about.”

The two made their way down the hall and descended a massive spiraling tunnel of sorts. As a majority of Cloudsdale's permanent residents were airborne, there was no need for stairs, escalators, or other things, though organization and efficiency were still in mind, otherwise the hotel would likely be more like a bee-hive than an enclosed building.

Once they were on the street, Rainbow prepared to offload all of these daunting responsibilities to her friend.

“So, how do you expect to win these grumps over?” Rainbow jabbed her elbow into Fluttershy's side playfully. “Ain't gonna be easy talking to these old stallions you know.”

“We don't know until we try Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy tried to thrust some confidence in her voice and her posture.

“Well alright then, you lead the way—we got some persuading to do!”

Fluttershy froze. It came to her that she still had no idea what to do or how to go about any of this.

“Come on Fluttershy....you do know what we're supposed to do right? I didn't understand a word Twilight said!”

“Uh.....well.....I......oh dear.”

“Oh great.” Rainbow facehoofed, “So we both know nothing. We flew all the way up her to do something we know nothing about?”

“Well I kinda know why we're here but I don't know what to say.”

“Well then figure it out!” Rainbow boomed, sending Fluttershy back a few feet.

Fluttershy's patience was at an end, Rainbow had been nothing but a prick to everypony since this all began and frankly, she wasn't about to do this alone. No way.

“I'm not the only one who has to do some work around here.” She hissed.

“Oh? What do you expect me to do? I don't know any of the egghead nonsense you girls were talking about! Don't expect me to be making any speeches, ain't happening.”

“Yes it is.”

“Pfft, you think you're in charge?”

“I might as well be you don't know what to do.”

“And you do?!”

“A heck of a lot more than you do.” The pegasus froze, Rainbow was in her face and beyond irritated that her reclusive, dainty little friend stood her up as an idiot.

“You call me an idiot Fluttercry?” Rainbow mocked,

“No!” Fluttershy said sternly, “I'm calling you lazy—an—and ignorant. Now please, we need to go to the library and figure out some things before we go and make a foal of ourselves in front of the Council.” Fluttershy briskly flew towards the library and noticed Rainbow wasn't moving. Pouting.

“I'm not going!” Rainbow protested. “Everypony this week has called me an idiot, scaredy-pony, whore, you name it, they've said it! I'm tired of being bossed around by ponies who think they know everything. You're gonna need all the luck you can get.”

Fluttershy hovered for a moment, with a look on her face that could only be described as surprise. She declined to argue with her though and decided she was going to have to muster up whatever courage she had and go about this alone. She made her way to the library, determined to make this work and to get her life back to normal. Whether her immature friend wanted to help or not. Next Chapter: Onward To Adventure! Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 16 Minutes