Twilight lay looking at whatever stars she could see through the mist of her breath. It had been two days since they had departed Hoof-Ridge and another day or so until they got to Prance, and the closer they got to Prance the worse the squirming in her gut became. The smallest bit of relief she could claim is that the snow had almost disappeared the closer they got to Prance, making things just that little bit easier even if it was still absolutely freezing.

She was also plagued with mysteries. Who was the Lady of the North? And did she really lead a rebellion four hundred years ago? If it is true she led the rebellion, why not sooner? Mareitania in its current state of affairs had existed since the exodus nearly one thousand five hundred years ago. Did she really spend a thousand of those years just sitting on her hooves?

Grammaw's sudden confession to being the duke’s younger sister also had her thinking. What was she going to do when she met the Duke and Duchess? Kill them? Impossible. Imprison them? Maybe. Would other ponies in Maretania even let her choose? Of course that was getting ahead of herself, she had to get to them first and she hadn't the slightest notion of how.

Then there was Celestia's comment about Princess Platinum being her and Luna's mother. Not that she wanted to doubt her mentor, but something about it just struck her as being slightly off, and Twilight very much wanted to know more, except she was almost afraid to ask. Twilight had to admit that she had never thought to ask where Celestia and Luna came from. To her and probably most Equestrians, Celestia and Luna had always been and always will be. The idea of them having parents and being children was just... weird, and the idea of them just having a normal unicorn as their mother also seemed weird, although she didn't know why. She was an alicorn now and her parents were normal unicorns.

Suffice to say Twilight's head was a busy place. No wonder sleep wasn't happening. She put another log onto the campfire and snuggled down into her sleeping bag, pulling the drawstring closed over her head and making a mental note to find Grammaw again and thank her for finding these things.

"Twilight! Wake up Twilight!" Trixie shouted as she prodded the grey lump that was Twilight in her sleeping bag. "If you don't wake up I'm going to drink your coffee and eat your breakfast and I totally won't be sorry! For many reasons! Seriously, I won’t be, I've already eaten mine and I'm still hungry and yours smells really, really nice."

Slowly Twilight undid the drawstring and poked her dishevelled head out. "Whattimezit?" she asked groggily as she noticed it was barely even light yet. Trixie passed her coffee to her, which she eagerly sucked down.

"I don't know... Sevenish maybe? Bric and Brac want us to get up early so they can get to Prance and set up shop by this afternoon."

Twilight blinked and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "And you're up already? You're normally the worst at getting up."

"I know right. Blame Fleur for cooking that delicious smelling hay bacon right next to Trixie," she said with a pout.

"Hay bacon? Since when do we have hay bac- Oh. Great." Twilight said quietly.

"Always happy to help, Trixie." Fleur said from across the campfire, where she was cooking something in a frying pan. "Yours’ll be ready in a minute or two, Twilight. So get up."

Reluctantly Twilight dragged herself out of her sleeping bag and quickly wrapped herself in her cloak. "Do you ever think we should have bought more than just cloaks?"

"Yes," answered Octavia who stepped out of the brothers caravan and shivered before practically sitting on the fire. "All the time. We really weren't prepared for this were we?"

"It was all we could afford at the time," Fleur said as she passed Twilight her breakfast. "If it wasn't for the trade caravan we'd be far worse off right now."

"Yeah," Trixie agreed, as she drooled over Twilight's food. "It was strangely convenient how they happened to be in Hoof-Ridge just as we needed them."

"Meh, stranger things have happened," Fleur said dismissively. "Anyway, you seem a bit more chipper today."

"Yeah, well... After what Bric and Brac were talking about when we left Hoof-Ridge and after having a bit of time to think it over I admit disguising me was probably a good idea. Don't get me wrong, I'm still mad that you forcibly dunked in me a tub of dye, but I can appreciate you were doing it for my own good. The dye will wash off faster than a horn would grow back."

"That's good," said Twilight, a small bit of guilt weighting her down a little less. "Speaking of, where are Bric and Brac?"

"Hmm? Oh they're off talking to some of the other traders." Fleur answered her.

"Good." Twilight got up and walked over to where they had stashed their saddlebags in the cart. She pulled out Fleur's and started rummaging through it.

"Twilight? What are you doing?"

"Something I should have done days ago." She pulled out Fleur's coin bag and emptied it, counting out what was there. "Thirty seven," she muttered to herself before pulling the coin bag out of her own saddlebag and adding her own money to the collection. "Fifty three, close enough."

"Twilight! What are you doing!?" Fleur demanded with a stomp of her hoof.

"Paying back what you took from Bric and Brac, and don't deny it, I heard what you whispered to Trixie. I'm not deaf."

"But I- we need that money! How else are we going to survive?"

"Surviving is one thing Fleur, but what you're doing is just plain greed! Bric and Brac are helping us and don't deserve to be half paid with their own money!"

Trixie and Octavia shared a nervous glance at each other as Fleur shoved her face into Twilight's. "You have no right to take that money out of my bag! If you want to pay them back use your own money. Oh wait, you can't. I'm the one who has to get all the money we need! You'd be penniless without me!"

"Perhaps, but we said to only take what we need. The amount you've been taking is far beyond that!"

"Then why didn't you bring this up sooner? Twilight suddenly feels guilty and now we have to give it all back?"

"The reason I'm doing this now is because they aren't here to hear it. I'm pretty sure that doing this in front of them wouldn't go down too well. I'm also bringing it up now because I'm pretty sure we never had any hay bacon yesterday, and it’s not like we passed any shops. Your stealing is getting out of control. Grammaw could see it, I can see it and Octavia and Trixie can probably see it!"

Fleur swung round to face a suddenly awkward Trixie and Octavia. "Well! Do you agree with her? Am I getting 'out of control?’”

"Trixie has no problem with it. I mean I wouldn't have stolen off Bric and Brac, not now anyway, because they're pretty cool. Otherwise, yeah, no problem."

"Thank you Trixie. How about you Octavia?"

Octavia rubbed a leg nervously. "I-I think that... maybe you could, perhaps, rein it in a little bit. I mean, you spent loads back at Hoof-Ridge and you still have quite a bit left. I know we need money Fleur, but not that much."

"I see. Fine." Fleur picked her saddlebags up and placed them over her back, before tying her sleeping bag on. "Clearly if my helping you makes you feel guilty, then perhaps I better remove the problem entirely. I'm going to go to Prance and I'm going to rob somepony and laugh about it."

"What? No! I don't want you to go Fleur!" Twilight pleaded, holding out a hoof to stop her.

Fleur roughly knocked it aside. "Too fucking late! Clearly my help doesn't mean shit to you Princess, so I'm going! Maybe I'll see you there, but I wouldn't count on it."

The three remaining ponies watched as she briskly trotted off down the road towards Prance. "Bravo Twilight, first the whole coat dyeing thing with me and now this. I can't wait to see what you're going to do to Octavia to piss her off."

"But- but I only meant to stop her stealing so much! I never... I never meant for her to do that!" Twilight shouted, pointing after Fleur. "Ooh what have I done..."

"You've lost Fleur, that's what."

"Oh hush Trixie." Octavia sat by Twilight to comfort her, "Even you have to admit that was a bit unexpected. What we did to you was far worse, and you didn't even mention leaving."

"I won't deny that Trixie thought about it, but yeah, I know what you mean."

Twilight sniffed and rubbed an eye, trying to compose herself. "I don't. I mean, I thought that maybe she would agree, or at least stop stealing so much for our sakes, because we're worried. Besides there are plenty of practical reasons for her to stop, like the more she steals the greater her chance at getting caught. The last thing we need is another one of us getting arrested."

"Exactly," Octavia said as she gave Twilight a hug. "There's something wrong with the way she reacted. I've met her a few times before this in Canterlot, and she was always really laid back and would laugh off even the worst insults. That... That was more like a child's reaction. 'You won't let me do what I want so I'm going to run away.'"

"Ok, yeah... Trixie can see where you're coming from, but that doesn't change the fact that she's gone. Shouldn't we be going after her?"

"I doubt she'd listen right now. Hopefully we'll find her in Prance once she's had a chance to cool down a little."

They had just finished dismantling the camp and packing their things away when Bric and Brac returned. "Is everything okay ladies?" Bric asked. "We could hear you arguing from over there."

"No, not really," Twilight said sullenly. "Fleur and I had a bit of a disagreement and she's decided to go to Prance ahead of us."

"Well that's unfortunate," said Brac. "We were just about to give you a warning about you going there. According to some travellers heading the other way, there's some government bigwig visiting, and the security in that place has been doubled-"

"If not tripled," Bric added.

"If you, as a unicorn, got caught doing something untoward in Prance right now...well..."

"Losing your horn would be the least of your worries because you wouldn't have a head to keep it on."

"You really couldn't make this stuff up," Trixie muttered to no one in particular as she stared up into the sky. "Can't we just catch a break, please?"

"Anyway..." Brac said slowly as he gave Trixie a funny look, "we've decided that we're not going to Prance, not yet anyway. We'll be stopping in Trotton, which is a little village a couple hours trot from Prance."

"If you ladies want to go on ahead, it’s your choice. We, on the other hoof, won't be setting a hoof in Prance until whoever it is, is gone."

Twilight, Trixie and Octavia huddled together in a circle. "We really should go after her," Trixie whispered. "If she gets caught pickpocketing in Prance now it'll be game over for her."

Octavia shook her head. "Normally I would agree, but the way Fleur was acting it'd probably just make her more determined to go there and do whatever she's going to do. What do you think Twilight?"

Twilight breathed out slowly as she thought. "I agree with Octavia, if we try to stop her going she'll probably think we're just trying to stop her from stealing. Besides she would probably get there before us, she has got a bit of a lead on us now, and I doubt Octavia can gallop that far without straining herself."

"You or me could do it Twilight," Trixie suggested. "We could catch up to her and at least warn her if we can't make her stop and wait for the rest of us."

Octavia and Twilight looked at each other and nodded lightly in agreement. "Yeah okay," Twilight said, "but it’s going to have to be you Trixie, I doubt she's going to want to see me."

"A mission only the Great and Powerful Trixie can complete? Now we're talking!" she said, making Twilight instantly roll her eyes.

"Leave your stuff with us so you can go faster. No point carrying that weight if you don't have to."

"And wrap a scarf around your muzzle," Octavia added. "Breathing in that much cold air when galloping really isn't very good for you." They broke from the circle and Trixie started trotting on the spot to warm up as Octavia went to her bags and pulled a scarf out.

"Trixie," Twilight said as Trixie wrapped the scarf around her muzzle, "if you get to Trotton and haven't found her don't go any further, and if you do and she refuses to stop, please wait for us. There's no point in you getting too far ahead and ending up in Prance too." Trixie nodded and set off, Twilight and Octavia watching her go.

"Where's she off to in such a hurry?" Bric asked casually.

"Chasing after Fleur. We figured that even if we can't stop her we can at least warn her."

"I see. Well come along ladies it’s still a long way to go."

Trixie flew along the road, her mane and cloak blowing out behind her in a way that would have looked very dramatic if she had been in a position to appreciate it. Unfortunately though, she may have rather overestimated her fitness when she volunteered to chase after Fleur. She'd only been galloping for ten minutes or so and she was already feeling the strain.

She slowed down to a trot and yanked the scarf down so she could gasp and wheeze for air a bit easier. "This is *gasp* totally the *gasp* thin air's fault! *gasp* Trixie is *gasp* better than *gasp* this." She attempted to start galloping again, which she managed for about thirty seconds before collapsing against a boulder at the side of the road and losing her breakfast.

"Yuck, hay bacon is not as nice on the way up as it is on the way down."

"Hey, you okay?" said a little voice from the top of boulder, causing Trixie to squeal and leap away before feebly blasting the top of the boulder with her magic. "Yeesh lady, a bit jumpy aren't we?" the voice said from its new position of behind the rock.

"Show yourself you cur!"

"Okay okay..." There was a scraping of hooves on rock as whoever it climbed back up the boulder. Slowly a tuft of pale purple mane came into view perched atop some pale purple eyes, followed by a small, grubby pale yellow body that was wrapped in a ratty brown cape that looked like it had been made from a sack. "Hi."

Trixie narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "What exactly is a young filly like yourself doing out in the middle of nowhere?"

"Oh you know, sitting, waiting. Watching unicorns throw up by boulders."

"Oh, ha ha. Very funny. What's your name little filly that likes watching unicorns throw up?"

The filly shrugged lightly, "You can call me Petal if you want."

"What do you mean 'if I want?'"

"Well ponies call me a lot of names, none of them very nice, but I don't think a nice and pretty unicorn like yourself would want to call me things like that."

Trixie preened a little before remembering she was dealing with that most treacherous of creature known as a pre-teen. "I don't suppose you've happened to see another unicorn pass by here? Tall, white, pink mane and tail and wearing a black cape? Probably looked a bit angry?"

The filly nodded enthusiastically, "Sure! A unicorn like that passed here about an hour ago."

Trixie groaned in annoyance before frowning in thought, "How long have you been out here by this rock?"

"I dunno. A while anyway. Dad told me to wait here while he did something in the fields, but he should've been back by now... You don't think he left me do you?" Her face scrunched up and she started to cry. "He...h-he's abandoned me has-has-hasn't he-he-he!"

Trixie swallowed nervously as Petal started bawling; crying children was so not her thing. "Uh... there there Petal," she said, feeling a bit of an idiot for doing so. "I'm sure he's not far away." She looked at her tear stained face and felt a little of her resolve falter. "What if I helped you find him?" she offered weakly.

Petal rubbed her eyes and sniffed, "You'd really d-do that for me?" Trixie nodded unenthusiastically. "Oh thank you miss!" Petal jumped off the boulder and scurried over to Trixie before latching onto her front left leg in what was probably a hug, but felt more like a death grip. "Thank you-thank you-thank you!"

"You're, uh... welcome... I suppose. Do you know where your dad is? Or rather, where he should be?"

Petal shook her head sadly, "He went that way," she said, pointing down a dirt track that branched off the main road, "but I don't know how far."

Trixie stared down the length of the dirt track, but couldn't see anypony. Unfortunately she couldn't see the end of the track either, and she had feeling the filly was going to make her walk the whole thing looking. "I guess we better get started..." she said in a voice devoid of cheer.

"You're the best miss... um... miss..?"

"Trixie."

"You're the best miss Trixie!"

Trixie didn't know how long she had been walking down this track now, it hadn't been that long but the longer it took and the further she went the less sure she felt about things. Petal on the other hoof seemed quite pleased as she walked down this dirt track in the middle of nowhere with a complete stranger, and chattered on about anything and everything like she hadn't a care in the world.

"Petal, are you sure we should keep going down here?"

"Uh-huh, he came this way and we haven't found him yet so we have to keep going, we just have to!"

"Okay okay. Please don't cry again!" You'd have thought that years of being a show mare would have meant that Trixie was perfectly at home with children. Such a thing couldn't be further from the truth.

After several more minutes of trotting, and listening to Petal's incessant chattering, they came upon a ramshackle wooden house that sat just in front of a small wood. "Where are we Petal?"

"This is where I live! I can't hear anypony here though so that probably means the doors locked."

"Where you live? I thought we were looking for your dad?"

"We are! If this is where we live then he's bound to turn up sooner or later right?" Trixie really couldn't deny the logic of that.

"Did you really need my help just to walk here though? I'm pretty sure you’re big enough to do this on your own. Anyway, are you going to be okay here until your dad gets back? I'm kinda in the middle of something which I really should get back to." Because at this rate Twilight and Octavia are going to get to Trotton before me.

Petal's lower lip trembled, "You mean you're just going to leave me out here in the cold? All on my own?"

Trixie sighed irritably, "I guess not... Would you be okay if I left you inside in the warm?" Petal nodded but still looked like she could cry. "Great! So how do we get in?"

Petal led them around the side of the house to a small window set level with the ground. She pushed it open and peered inside. "If you go in there you can go from the basement into the house and open the front door."

"Me? Why me? You're smaller than I am, you go."

"I would but there's a drop to the floor and its quite high for me, I might hurt myself." Trixie mumbled some curse words under her breath and was about to squeeze through the window when Petal stopped her. "You might want to take your cloak off. If you catch it on the window you could accidentally hang yourself."

Trixie took off her cloak and scarf and gave them to Petal. She then squeezed through the window and gracelessly fell to the floor with a thud. "Ow." She dusted herself off and looked around the basement, quickly finding the door into the house even in the poor light the window provided. She tried the door but it was locked. She was about to head back to the window and complain but it suddenly got a lot darker when something blotted out the light. She lit her horn and saw that some boxes had been pushed up against the window. "Petal? What's going on?"

"Y'know miss Trixie, your white unicorn friend is a lot sharper than you are. She didn't fall for it one bit. You though, you fell for it hook, line and sinker. This is a nice cloak, ought to be worth something back in Prance."

"What? No! Petal! Don't you dare run off with my things!" She waited for a reply, but got none. "Petal! You get back here right now you little rat!" Still no reply. "PETAL! I will find you, and when I do you have no idea how sorry you'll be!" The silence was deafening.

"You have got to be kidding me."

Trixie had no idea how long she spent sulking in the darkness of the basement, the dark robbing her of all sense of time. Slowly she became aware of hoofsteps on the floorboards above her. She swallowed nervously and spoke loudly in the hopes that whoever it was would hear her.

"H-hello? Can anypony hear me? I'm sorry to bother you but Trixie appears to be locked in your basement and can't get out." She waited as the hoofsteps headed towards where the door upstairs was, and cringed when it was opened, blinded by the sudden influx of light. She stepped out gingerly and was met by a small brown earth pony stallion with a bald head and a great big bushy beard, like his hair had migrated to his chin and decided to stay there.

He raised a cynical eyebrow at her, "Small yellow filly, 'bout this tall? He asked, raising a hoof to level with his chest.

"I-uh... well, yes actually. How did you know?"

"You're the third pony in six months. I really ought to put a lock on that basement window. Anyway, I don't want a dang unicorn here so you best be on your way."

He led her outside and was about go back in when she asked "What's the best way to Trotton that doesn't involve taking the road? I'd rather not go that way for... reasons."

The stallion pointed through the wood. "If you go in a straight line through the wood you'll come out at the bottom of a hill. If you go up the hill you'll be able to see Trotton in the distance. It’s pretty much a straight line through the fields. You'd be better off taking the road though, it’s much easier."

Trixie thanked the stallion and set off through the woods. "No way am I taking the road." she said to herself, "If I turn up in Trotton after them on the road they came in on, well...that's going to be embarrassing."

Twilight paced around the small fountain in the center of Trotton. "Ooh, where is she? If she's gone to Prance despite me asking her not to I might just scream."

"Relax Twilight," Octavia said as she sat by the fountain, watching Twilight go round and round. "If she's late I'm sure it’s for a good reason."

"Did you ever encounter Trixie before this mission?"

"No. Why?"

"Let’s just say that she's the sort of pony that thrives on fulfilling her whims." Twilight circled the fountain a few more times. "Ugh, let’s go back to the camp, maybe she's waiting there for some reason."

The few minutes’ walk back to where Bric and Brac were set up were walked in silence, Twilight seething quietly, and Octavia too nervous to say anything to her in case it was the wrong thing. When they got to the camp they were disappointed, but not surprised, by the lack of Trixie. There was also a lack of Bric and Brac.

Lifting the bag of coins out of her saddlebag that she had meant to put in the brothers' money box, or whatever they used, she paused a moment in thought. "Might as well have Fleur hate me for an actual reason," she said to herself. Louder she said "Octavia, keep an eye out for Trixie. I'm going to give Bric and Brac their money back."

She quietly stepped inside the brothers caravan and looked around. On the left were two bunk beds which weren't very helpful. On the right were two chests, each with the name of their owner embossed upon them. She opened the nearest one which belonged to Brac and started rummaging around hoping to find a money box or something.

She found nothing and was about to move onto Bric's when something under the bottom bunk caught her eye. She ducked down and using her magic, pulled out a small box that sounded like it had money inside. She opened it, but instead of finding money she found a collection of odds and ends, some papers, and most curiously a small orange feather that was the same colouration as Bric and Brac.

Her mind seemed to go blank as she studied the feather, and it wasn't until somepony right behind her cleared their throat that she was able to tear her mind away from the void it inhabited.

She looked round and was met by the stern face of Brac. "What do you think you’re doing?"

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to pry, I only wanted to find somewhere to put this money because Fleur stole it and I wanted to give it back so I came in here and I was looking in the chest for a money box or something and I found this box under the bed and I thought that was what I was looking for but it wasn't and I'm really really sorry!" She had managed to say that in one breath and was about to start again when Brac held out a hoof.

"Give me the money." Twilight did so, and Brac made a show of counting it. "It’s not all here, so it’s a good job I don't want it."

"I k-know it’s not all- not all there, b-but it’s all we had left. I'm sorry." Twilight hung her head and a tear ran down her cheek before dripping onto the floor.

Brac reached over and raised Twilight's chin so he could look her in the eye. "I said its okay, we don't want the money," he said giving her a kind smile.

"Y-you don't?"

"No. We suspected one of you had taken it because frankly, our money didn't really add up at the end of the day. Personally I suspected it was Trixie so I'm a little surprised to hear it was Fleur. She always seemed like such a nice pony."

"If you suspected it was one of us why didn't you say anything?"

"Honestly, because we were expecting you to haggle. We would have happily done the job for fifty marcs, maybe even less, and we would have shared our fire with you for free as we're not totally soulless, money grubbing merchants. So when she gave us one hundred and twenty marcs, even though it was half ours it still left us in profit, so we never brought it up."

"Oh." Twilight sniffed and rubbed her eyes. "But why are you letting us keep it?"

"Because you were nice enough to try and put things right. Even falling out with one of your friends to do so. Guess I have a soft spot for ponies that would do that. Now I bet you're wondering about the feather?"

Twilight nodded, "But you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"No, its fine." Brac took the feather in his magic and stared at it for a few seconds as a frown spread across his face. "This feather is all we have left of our other brother."

"Other brother?" She looked at the feather again and sudden twigged. "He was a pegasus wasn't he? Oh I'm so sorry."

"Sorry for what? That he's a pegasus, or that he was taken to the labour camps?"

"Sorry that he was taken of course! My friends and I aren't like that! None of us have a thing against pegasi!"

"That's good, and don't be sorry; you didn't take him away. Anyway I don't really remember him since we were still very young when they took him to the labour camps, so it's not like we feel his loss too heavily, but at the same time it just feels like something's missing. Its mine and Bric's hope that one day we'll find him and then we can be together again. That's why we travel around so much, hoping that someday we'll find something that'll lead to him. We also have some friends in the south looking."

"Hold on, Grammaw said she delivered you and Bric. She never said you had another brother."

"Of course she wouldn't mention it, it wasn't her secret to tell. If a family of non pegasi have a pegasus foal its seen as a mark of shame. The foal gets taken to be brought up to do the weather and in most cases is never spoken of again."

"Oh. In that case your secret is safe with me."

Brac snorted, "We're not ashamed and it’s not a secret. The more ponies that know, the better our chance at finding him."

Twilight was about to ask more but Octavia interrupted her by shouting her name quite loudly. "Thank you for sharing that with me," she said to Brac before heading back outside. "What is it? Is Trixie finally here?"

"Kind of yes, and mostly no. Not unless she has suddenly shrunk and turned yellow. See that filly there? The one with the purple cloak that's several sizes too big and the scarf that looks awfully similar to the one I gave Trixie?" She pointed to where said filly was lurking by a fruit stand. "Do you think that maybe we should ask where she acquired those?"

The two ponies walked over to the filly, who gave them a wary look as they approached. "Excuse me," Twilight said, "I don't suppose I could ask where you got that cloak and scarf from?"

The filly sniffed and spat on the ground. "Around," was her laconic reply.

"So you didn't happen to get them off a blueeerrrrr-dark grey unicorn?"

"I didn't see nopony. They were just there where anypony could take them. Recumbent like."

"That's a very big word for a filly."

"Oh yeah? Patronizing's a big word too, maybe you've 'eard of it? I also specialize in tall tales. Being tall rather than long makes them easier for me to say."

"Uh..." was all Twilight managed to say since she had the feeling she was being challenged in a way she couldn't cope with. "What if I offered to buy the cloak and scarf off of you?"

The filly's face suddenly split into a wide grin, "Sure! Twenty marcs!"

Twilight was about to agree when Octavia suddenly spoke over her. "Ten."

"Twenty."

"Ten."

"Twenty."

"Ten."

"Twenty."

"Ten."

"Twenty."

"Ten."

"Twenty."

"Ten, and I'll throw in the hay bacon roll that Twilight never ate for breakfast."

"Sold!" The ponies made their exchange, the filly quickly taking a bite out of the roll. "Hey, there's no ketchup in this thing! What a rip off. Oh, and your blueeerrrr-dark grey unicorn friend will probably be here in the next hour or so, give or take," she said mysteriously before cramming the rest of the roll into her mouth and scurrying off.

"How did you do that?" Twilight asked Octavia in amazement.

"Practicing with big kids helps, and Vinyl is the biggest kid I've ever met. I wonder how she got the cloak and scarf off Trixie?"

"I guess we'll find out soon enough."

They were waiting in the town center when a cold and mud covered Trixie squelched into town. Supressing a snigger Twilight held up Trixie's cloak, "Lose something?"

"Shut up?"

"Did you find Fleur?" Octavia asked.

"Shut up."

"How'd that shortcut work out for you?"

"Last warning," Trixie said as she walked up to the two ponies mocking her.

"How did a little filly rob you?" Trixie snorted and very suddenly yet deliberately raised her forehooves and rubbed one each over Twilight's and Octavia's faces, leaving a big muddy streak behind, before getting up, snatching her cloak off Twilight and quietly squelching off.

"So worth it," Twilight and Octavia said to each other with a grin.

Author's Notes:

I'm honestly going to have to start posting at where I'm writing. This whole 'writing three chapters ahead' thing I got going on is hella confusing for me. Leaves me wandering why I wrote most of this chapter. Oh well, too lazy for rewrites.