2 days after - 3rd day at Ponyville

The outside of Twilight’s library had turned into a construction yard. Wooden sawhorses surrounded an area full of tools. Saws, hammers, grinders, and axes, all laid next to smaller implements, like measurement tapes, levels, and small pieces of wood connected by string were thrown all around in a daring display of unorganization that Applejack was certain made Twilight’s eye tic every time she got out of her library. Boxes of nails were all piled together forming a small neat wall next to satchels of sand and containers of polishing and sealing materials. The smell of fresh sawdust permeated the air, and the rhythmic noises of hammers, axes, and sawteeth grinding against wood went almost unnoticed by this point.

“Can you say, ‘best vacation ever’? I can!” Leaf Stream crowed, hungrily watching Raegdan hack away at the thick branch he sat on, slowly turning its top, curved side to an uneven, flat surface. The force of each strike of the hatchet rippled along his body and threatened to shake him off. Leaf Stream has been muttering, ‘fall’ in almost perfect sync with each hit for the last five minutes.

“If he falls from there, he’ll break his head,” Applejack observed, sipping at her lemonade. Some things seemed destined to remain unchanged, and Leaf Stream had probably bought a life subscription to that philosophy. She seemed to be as vitriolic as ever. Even more actually. She had upped the ante so much that it was funny now instead of aggravating.

“Trixie believes that this is the outcome Captain Leaf Stream is hoping for,” Trixie commented, pointedly staring away from Spike, going overboard in her attempt to convince any certain somepony watching that she had no interest in either of his family members as she had been doing all day.

After taking a look inside Twilight’s library, Applejack was extremely surprised by what she saw. Raegdan had actually done a superb job in a single day. She had seen him working inside the library yesterday, wanting to get the interior fixed before he started on Spike’s room, and the outcome was beyond anypony’s expectations. The big galoot certainly knew what he was doing. The staircase was as solid as a rock, with not even the slightest creak, and the flooring had never been more level. He had even replaced all the worn boards, and the library seemed almost new. She almost had it in mind to ask him to come over to her place as well if he had time to spare.

“Maybe we should lay something down below him, ya know?” Applejack suggested.

“Yeah, a few spikes,” Leaf Stream laughed.

Said similarly named baby dragon was helping Limit Breaker saw wooden boards in pre-designated portions by holding onto them. He turned his head to look behind him. “What?” he called out.

“What what?” Leaf Stream shouted back.

“What do you want?”

Leaf Stream’s face furrowed in puzzlement. “What I want?”

“What do you want me for?” Spike asked.

“I don’t want you for anything. Gross. What do you want?”

“Me? What do you want?”

“Nopony wants anything, Spike. All’s good here,” Applejack butted in, pulling the broken record out of the player before it really had a chance to get going. The little dragon puffed, waving his hand in dismissal, and turned back to his work. He was exalted to help Raegdan in any way or form, and from what Twilight told him he was antagonizing Luna yesterday on whose turn it was to hammer the nails that Raegdan held, despite the fact that Raegdan was insisting, rather exceptionally, he didn’t need help with that.

“Trixie swears she played Leaf Stream’s part at a carnival show once...” the soft blue unicorn’s purple eyes were sparkling in nostalgia.

Leaf Stream immediately growled at Trixie’s snark and lifted a hoof up to her muzzle. “I seriously don’t want this kind of lip in my team. I’m your captain, and I’ll have nothing but respect from you all. You get me? I have my eye on you… and you don’t want to know what happens when this eye zeroes in on a mare!”

Broken Gust chose that moment to land next to Leaf Stream, holding two cones of ice-cream between her front hooves. She passed the one bearing a mountain of chocolate, covered with sugary sprinkles, to Leaf Stream. “Here’s yours, sweetie!” The young thestral mare winked at her.

Then she kissed Leaf Stream’s cheek and sat next to her marefriend, enjoying her own strawberry and peanut concoction.

“She’s… She’s my gofer,” Leaf Stream stuttered, after the tide of snickers passed her by, leaving her in tatters. “She’s just… very affectionate. I’m a... a very generous boss. Nothing weird here. Nothing at all.” She half-heartedly started to eat her own treat, pretending not to notice when Broken Gust inched closer, practically melding together at the hip, or when the thestral stole a lick of sprinkled chocolate.

Applejack placed her elbow on the wooden table and rested her head on the hoof. “You do a lot of chores for Leaf Stream?” she asked with a teasing smirk. Now it made sense why the wingless wonder was playing up this angle of her personality so much.

“Oh, lots,” Broken Gust answered, her attention mostly on her frozen treat. Next to her, Leaf Stream had become stiff as a statue, standing painfully straight and with beads of sweat starting to appear on her brow, but the casualness of Broken Gust let her relax, only for the strings to be pulled taut again with her next sentence. “For instance, I have to make our bed every morni—”

There wasn’t even the blur of a fast movement; one moment Leaf Stream sat on a chair, the next she was up on the table, screaming. “HEY, RAEGDAN, YOU HAVE TO SKIN THE CHIMERA!”

“Holy shit!”

“Dad! Hold on!”

“I’m okay! I’m okay!” Raegdan assured Spike, even though his position was quite shaky. He was hanging upside down on the tree, having slipped over the side and barely managed to hold on with his legs long enough to secure his grip with all four of his limbs. Of course, that left him on the bottom side of a very wide branch, with no way to climb up, and about four to five meters off the ground with his back facing it.

“It’s not that high,” Limit Breaker said, walking to stand next to Spike, both of them looking up. “Can you make the fall? Or should we move all this stuff out of your way?” He pointed at the wooden boards and boxes underneath the biped, one of the few piles that were spread around the large tree that served as Ponyville’s Library.

“I can… get it, I think,” Raegdan growled, his gloved fingers trying to dig into the bark.

“Just don’t fall on your head!” Applejack shouted her own piece of advice, and left them at that, ignoring Raegdan’s very heavily censored insult. “What do you mean, skin the chimera? That sounds like an euphemism if ah ever heard one,” she chuckled to Leaf Stream, then blinked. “Wait, hold up there a sec. That chimera? Actually skin it?”

“Don’t ask. Seriously, don’t ask. Stop right there. You don’t want to know more,” Leaf Stream begged, climbing down to her chair. Trixie and Broken Gust were nodding, wincing in disgust.

“Ohhhh...kay…” Applejack sat back on her chair, deciding to stop the little jokes, and turned to Trixie. “So, ah got whatever survived of yer cart in mah barn. You can come over in the afternoon and pick it up.”

“Ah will—I mean, ah’ll, uh… Trixie will be there,” Trixie managed. Applejack bit her tongue. It wasn’t the first time this kind of slip ever happened around her so she let it slide. “Trixie had a few photo albums she would like back. And Trixie’s first cloak, if it’s still there. It’s very important to Trixie.”

The door of the library opened, a faint blue glow around the knob. Rarity and Luna exited the library side by side, the fashionista’s speech an unending stream that seemed to have no need of earthly needs, like pausing for breath.

“... And your mane is of course exquisite, Princess Luna, and I’m sure you take very good care of it—”

“I do have… a certain somepony posted to aid me in that,” Luna interrupted, her cheeks blushing slightly.

“—And I won’t deny he’s doing a very good job, but you should get a professional’s opinion. Have you considered curls? Oh, we have all the time in the world to experiment. The spa will be solely ours for the day, and we will have a marvelous selection of—”

Applejack’s head turned from the two mares to Raegdan who almost had his grip secured as he tried to twist so he would drop feet first. She saw it coming and called out to Luna, “Don’t slam the door—”

“Pardon?” Rarity asked while Luna slammed the door behind her, unknowing of Raegdan’s predicament.

The door shook in its hinges and the vibrations travelled across the trunk and over the branches, causing dried out leaves and bipeds left out to dry to fall like mature acorns.

“Fuuuudge!”

Applejack had to give Raegdan credit for managing to censor himself in front of Spike even then. She hoped he would prove to be okay, as she watched Spike and Limit Breaker rush over him, with Luna trotting there biting her lips in worry. If they were lucky the fact that none of the wood he landed on broke, it was because he fell from too short a height, and not because they proved sturdier than his spine.

“Raegdan? Are you hurt?” Luna worried, her muzzle and wingtips prodding on bones that had already been ravaged enough recently—and the year wasn’t even out.

The biped was out of Applejack’s sight, but she was able to see his hand rise up curled in a fist with his thumb pointing up. “Fine… Just… Took a break,” he groaned.

“... Was that a pun?” Luna indignantly asked after a few silent seconds.

“Maybe.”

Luna turned to Rarity, rolling her eyes. “He’s fine. We may depart.” She turned back to Raegdan, concern returning to her expression. “Do take a break— and I mean proper rest, will you? We are under no timetable. If it takes longer for your project to finish we will simply stay longer. And try not to get yourself hurt again.”

“I’ll be fine. I just got the wind knocked out of me. Go have fun for once,” Raegdan responded. Luna nodded after a few seconds, leaning towards him before freezing and taking a look around her, red. Then she quickly retreated and left with Rarity.

“Do you want me to get you some water, Dad?” Spike asked, eager to help.

“Yeah. Some water would be great. I’ll just lie down for a bit, okay, little flame?”

Leaf Stream had been craning her neck trying to see more, and Applejack was sure that there had been a hint of distress in the way Leaf Stream’s lips had pursed. But then Leaf Stream choked a snicker after everypony proved to be fine, and the caring moment was gone. She went back to ravishing her ice-cream cone, and shivered. “Mmm! Mistake, mistake! Brainfreeze!”

“You should take it slow and not bite. Enjoy your treat, y’all,” Applejack said without paying any real attention, her focus still on Raegdan and Spike. Twilight had been extremely clear on the fact that she was trusting Applejack while she was gone to keep an eye out, as unnecessary as both believed it to be for now, and Applejack was not going to disappoint that trust.

Leaf Stream shrugged. “Eh, it’s fading now. What about you? Got a headache?”

“Ah ain’t eating ice-cream,” Applejack pointed out.

“Hey! I’m trying to make conversation. Be friendly! So, try to keep up with me. Headaches. What do we think?”

Applejack was taken aback. Either she was missing something or the pressure was finally getting to the mare. She was cracking. She was cracking something fierce! Either way it seemed safer to humor her. “Ah don’t know. They’re… bad? Ah ain’t had…” She rethought her sentence. “Actually, I’ve been having a lot of them for some time now. So often that ah think I got used to them, at least ‘till today. Ah was having a talk with Princess Luna yesterday, welcoming her to Ponyville and all, when suddenly mah head felt quite relieved. Ya know the feeling, like when a pain you had forgotten suddenly stops. Well, actually, it was exactly that.”

“Huh.” That was all Leaf Stream said. Applejack looked away for a moment, but she caught, by the edge of her vision, Leaf Stream and Broken Gust exchanging a quick glance, gazing straight into each other’s eyes with a pleased expression. Applejack felt like cooing at the two lovebirds.

Land sakes, she wasn’t turning into a Rarity clone or anything, was she?

“So, ah guess it’s back to you now?” Applejack asked, considering her turn in the ludicrous subject matter done and over with.

“Nah. Bored of headaches already. Eating ice cream now. Go’way.” The two other mares shrugged apologetically for their captain’s sake, but Applejack took it in stride. It wasn’t like she didn’t already know of Leaf Stream’s major streak of jerkiness.

“Trixie doesn’t know if she will be able to have enough time this afternoon. Will you be available tomorrow?”

“Well, yer welcome to come by any time. If it ain’t me there, then get mah brother to help you out. I’ll let mah family know yer coming by. I’d go with ya now, but Twilight wants me to stay here and keep an eye on Raegdan and Spike.”

Leaf Stream frowned. “What for? Scared the fire hazard will blaze it all up?”

“Nah, just, ahmm… Ah’m keeping them company!” Nope, that wasn’t a suspicious glare, no siree!

… Actually, it kinda seemed like Leaf Stream was teasing her?

“How come none of the other guards help?” Spike asked Limit Breaker, pointing towards Trixie and Leaf Stream who sat nearby, sipping lemonade, eating ice-cream, and having a fun time.

Limit Breaker stopped sawing, wiping his forehead with his hoof. His copper-red mane was drenched, and laid on top of his head like a wet mop. “I traded a punishment I had for this. Do you think your dad will let me have some free time? Sea Breeze was talking about visiting a Zebra that lives nearby, and I want to go with her.”

Spike waved his hand. “If you ask him, he probably will. Actually… Give me a minute. There was something I wanted to ask him myself anyway.” Spike looked at the morning sun and sprinted towards his father who was taking the chance to sharpen his hatchet since he had landed.

“Hey, Dad.”

Raegdan looked up, smiling at once. “What, are we doing the greeting part again? Should I get my head out of your reach?” His hands kept working, as if with a mind of their own.

“No,” Spike grumbled. “I already apologized for that. Are you going to keep working for much longer today?”

Raegdan checked the sun’s position as well, frowning. “I planned to. It’s still pretty early, little flame. I want to get everything done as soon as possible, and I don’t want to waste the light. Besides, Twilight wouldn’t appreciate me hammering during the night.” He looked Spike up and down, recognizing the posture of his adopted son wanting a favor. “But, as Luna said my schedule isn’t written in stone, so…”

“Can we go somewhere? Together?”

“What, now?” Raegdan glanced towards Applejack, his hands on the axe finally stopping their movement. “I’m… not sure, little flame. If we left and weren’t back before Twilight returned she might be worried. Let’s wait for her to get back first, okay?”

“I can send her a message!” Spike reminded him, perking up.

"Shoot, you can,” Raegdan whispered, but Spike’s dragon ears caught it, and craned his head as he tried to decipher the meaning of that. “Uh… Okay, send her a message, but first ask Applejack if she wants to come along.”

“Applejack? Why? Not that I mind her of course, she’s a great friend, but—”

“Because, uh…” Raegdan scratched the top of his cloth mask, making the eyeholes move out of place and he spent some time slowly setting them back in place. “Because she is a guest here and it would be rude to abandon her here on her own?”

Spike nodded. “Oh, right. That makes sense. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that! I’m so thoughtless!”

“It does? I mean, yes, of course it does. So, go ask her.” He pushed Spike along—a little forcibly in truth—and rested his face behind his palms, obviously tired in Spike’s eyes. “Wait. Where do you want to go anyway?”

Spike stopped in place, grinning embarrassedly at the fact that he forgot to mention the most important thing in his haste. “Oh. The Ponyville School.”

“The school?”

“Yes.”

“You want me,” he pointed at himself, “at the school?”

“Yeah, of course I want you there!” Spike said, balancing his weight on his heels. “But you need to wear your work clothes first.”

“Um…” He looked down at himself, at the white shirt wet with sweat and the blue pants with the thick, tough fabric. “I’m ready.”

“No, your work clothes.” Spiked winked

“Oh, ho, ho,” Raegdan laughed. “I got you. I’ll be ready in a little while. Go tell little apple in the meantime.”

“Great! See you in a bit!” he hugged Raegdan’s leg briefly before running off to Applejack and the two mares he felt he shouldn’t like but turned out to be pretty funny sometimes.

“Hey there, Spike. Something up?” Applejack asked.

“Applejack, can you do me a favor? Please? Please, please, please, pretty please?” Spike begged, holding his hands locked together in front of him, begging.

Applejack lifted an eyebrow, pushed her hat higher, and turned in her chair to look straight at Spike. “If ya ask like that, ah think ah might have to. What is it?”

“Can you come with me and Raegdan to the Ponyville School?”

“The school?” Applejack pulled back at the unexpected request. She was internally pleased -and she was darn sure that so would Twilight- that Raegdan obviously arranged things so there would be an escort. But why the school?

“Why there? Ah mean, yer not enrolled, are ya? Ah remember Twilight mentioning plenty of times that she home schools ya, so…” Memories of yesterday evening and this morning at the farm crossed her mind. “Wait a sec. Wait, wait, wait. Ain’t today…?”

If she had any doubts, they were gone. Spike looked like he was holding a fiery burp with the temperature of a volcano in his cheeks.

“Well, shoot.” She lowered her hat to hide her smile. “Ah wouldn’t mind seeing how it goes mahself. Just remember to send a note to Twi first.”

“Already on it, Applejack. Thank you!” He hugged her briefly, and she reciprocated as quick as she could—kid could be as adorable as Applebloom. “I’m gonna send the note while Dad changes into his work clothes!” he said, and hastened off. She waited until Spike went back into the library before she beckoned Raegdan to come over.

“What was that about?” Leaf Stream asked.

“Yer gonna love this.” Applejack grinned, briefly explaining in the few seconds she had until Raegdan stood up and came over. “What’s this ah hear about work clothes, now?” she immediately asked, wanting to understand Spike’s cryptic statement first.

“He means my armor,” Raegdan answered, stopping in front of Applejack.

Broken Gust and Applejack snickered, Trixie seemed to be staying quiet by a force of will that could shatter mountains, and Leaf Stream was laughing so hard that she didn’t actually make any sound. It sounded like a fish asphyxiating.

“Why do ya think he wants ya to wear the armor?” Applejack asked between her choked peals of laughter.

Raegdan’s mouth hung open as he tried and failed to come up with a decent reason for a few moments. “Obviously some kids tried to bully him and he wants me to go and… no, huh? Uh, crap. No idea. He wants to show off?”

Four mares nodded, smiling maliciously.

Raegdan clapped his hands. “Great. He wants to show off. ...Wait, show off how? Why? What do you know? Why are you smiling? What the hell did I sign up for?”

“Hey, Mister Raegdan? Does that mean that I can go for now?” Limit Breaker timidly asked.

Raegdan spent a few seconds looking at Applejack and the three mares next to her, their grins growing wider. “Sure. Run for the hills, kid. Save yourself,” he declared. “And stay away from mares. You see their eyes? Those are crazy eyes. They’re crazy. Sadists!”

“Sea Breeze is always nice to me!”

“That’s how they get you!”

Twilight pulled out her checklist once more. Normally she would have memorized it during its creation and only take it out for the formality of checking off the items, but this list was one she didn’t write herself. After two days of dining in restaurants, Luna had decided enough was enough. Twilight was unsure if she was tired of being gawked at or she wanted to feel more useful.

Though the Princess did her best, it turned out that carpentry was not her strongest point, and she got in Raegdan’s way more often than not. She had been regulated to simply holding things for him, along with Spike. Being able to do only as much as a thirteen year old baby dragon might have offended her sensibilities. Her solution had been evident. She decided to take over the kitchen instead, and keep them all fed.

The fridge and pantry hadn’t been restocked yet though, and Luna had a choice of words that she shared with Twilight about that. The Princess of the Night talked to her at length about malnourishment and the insidious nature of hunger, drawing off from personal experiences that made Twilight feel like a spoiled filly who put in danger not just herself but her valued assistant as well.

At least Twilight and Spike were going to be eating exceptionally for the next two weeks. Twilight still remembered Luna’s cooking fondly—or would if it hadn’t been for the events that had followed—and the Alicorn hadn’t relied just on her natural talent, but took the time to unearth some cooking books from Twilight’s boxed library. Twilight had to be honest: She had been on the verge of salivating at the mere names of the dishes Luna was mumbling as she wrote down the shopping list.

Twilight ticked off the tomatoes entry. What came next was spices, and reading down the list made Twilight stop in her tracks as she had a horrid flashback to the first party Pinkie Pie set up for her, and that awful, awful decision to drink from an unlabeled bottle. Why did Luna need all this pepper? Why were there so many different ones? What sauces did she intend to make?

“Ah, you must be Twilight Sparkle!” An approaching, somewhat scrawny, griffin greeted, deftly avoiding the various shoppers in the market, and shaking her out of a growing panic attack.

“That’s me,” Twilight admitted. She used her magic to slowly put the tomatoes she just bought in her saddlebags, using the excuse to be ready to throw one of them at the newcomer’s eyes. She was a little weary of griffins. “And you are?”

“I am wounded,” the griffin swooned theatrically, the sharpness of his stare contrasting his playful words. “I would have thought that somepony would have mentioned the sole griffin thus far in the ranks of the Lunar Gua—”

“Oh! You must be Goobread Asstalon!” Twilight finally realized who was talking to her. The griffin froze, the wing he used to gesture sprung erect with a ‘twang’ sound, and his left eyelid seemed to be having a seizure while his neck was in spasms. Twilight bit her lip. She knew the name had been too weird. “Rainbow Dash took a few… liberties, then?”

“It was not her who first called me that,” the griffin grumbled, bringing his muscles back under control. “But she’s not doing herself any favors either.” He extended a claw, reintroducing himself. “Gobrend Grasstalon, an honor to finally meet you.”

Twilight blushed, and they shook. “Thank you... Gobrend. Likewise. I see that you are shopping as well?” She had spied the bags that he carried, both of them far more burdened than hers were.

“Ah, yes,” Gobrend chuckled. “You have spotted my malady. Your lovely town seems to be ill equipped to handle the insurmountable amount of extra bodies we have burdened it with. All twenty-five of us.”

“Ponyville is not really a tourist attraction,” Twilight coldly responded to the cutting and unfair remark against her beloved choice of residence.

A pair of intense, brown eyes scanned their surroundings, passing slowly over the simple market stalls and gossiping ponies around them. “The mysteries of this world continue to hound me. I cannot fathom why that would be.”

Twilight had enough on her plate as it was. She refused to spend time with Leaf Stream Two point Oh: Articulate Edition. “If you have nothing pleasant to say, mister Goobread, then I regret to inform you that I have more important work to do than listen to derogatory remarks about Ponyville.”

Gobrend hissed an inhale as if physically assaulted. His beak opened and closed a few times until his eyes settled on Twilight’s saddlebags. “... But everything’s fresh and at reasonable prices in this lovely town?”

Twilight looked behind her. She had the sneaking suspicion that… yep, the hoofmade poster on Honeybee’s stall said exactly that. Gobrend wore a pained, wincing expression when she turned her head back to face him, knowing he had been caught red-winged. “I’ll give you credit for the effort at the very least,” she announced after a couple of moments that she allowed him to sweat freely.

“... Thank you,” he said graciously. He unabashedly read the poster again. “Strange though. Everything is much cheaper here. It’s like the economic crisis due to Baltimare has not touched this place.”

She decided to start over, and give him another chance. “Just the food, really. Most is grown locally and nopony really wants to make anypony else starve. There is a little loss, but we keep by. And you must be feeling quite peckish,” she punned, pointing towards his overfilled saddlebags, and offering him a chance to undo his previous behavior. “It’s not a good idea to shop with an empty stomach.”

“Oh, you misinterpret my situation, dear lady,” Gobrend said, courteous as you please. “As I mentioned, space is quite limited. My team has rented a small hov—dwelling, and we are forced to make do. I have been assigned this menial chore. I am shopping for six stomachs. Some larger than others.”

“Team?” Twilight questioned.

“I had anticipated that you would already know. Apparently, I was wrong. The Lunar Guard has been separated into four teams, led by a captain each.”

“Oh. No, I never heard anything about this.” Twilight rubbed at her chin. “Now that I think about it, Raegdan and Princess Luna haven’t mentioned their work once so far. I suppose they take their vacation seriously.”

“There is validity within that reasoning, I concur.” He had started to walk next to Twilight as she went about, and jerked to a halt as he spotted Roseluck’s flower stall. “Tell me, which flower species do ponies specifically use for eating and which for decoration?”

“Oh?” Twilight stopped to think. “Do you have a special somepony?” she teased. “If you want, I have a number of dating advice books back in my…” She remembered that everything was now thrown into boxes, needing to be reorganized again. “Or I could help you right now! Is it for a first date?”

“Nothing so romantic, I’m ecstatic to say.” Gobrend smirked. “It’s for a bribe. I overheard that Sea Breeze knows of an Zebra alchemist that resides in the Everfree Forest, and I simply must be there—”

“You mean Zecora? She’s a friend.”

The griffin’s eyes hungrily staked their claim on Twilight. “My dear, miss Twilight. Has anypony ever praised the glossiness of your mane? It is as if a single strand could pull me through to velvety, alien seas of—”

“You know, yesterday I visited the last stallion who tried to ‘woo’ me. In the hospital. They had to treat his tailbone, seeing as how the bone itself is not constructed in a way that allows it to turn sharply enough for a stallion’s tail to be forced into… places.” She grimaced. “Never mind the smell.”

Gobrend gulped and shivered. “I thought that was a baseless rumor… He really pinned the tail in the pony,” he exhaled. “Please, miss Twilight, I would be extraordinarily obliged if you would do me the honor of introducing me to your friend.”

Twilight imagined how Zecora would thank her for burdening her with a rude griffin on top of everything else she had to handle while living all alone in the Everfree. She was too nice to magically curse her—not that Twilight believed in that absurd possibility—but perhaps she wouldn’t prove to be nice enough to not curse her in the manner of swearing up a few stanzas at her direction. “I don’t know if Zecora has the time for—”

“I will be very, very… nice, and I will owe you one!” Gobrend pleaded unabashed, looking ready to fall on his knees and grovel if that was what it would take. Then something glinted in the depth of his eyes. “And mayhaps… I could arrange it so that you would learn a few, very special things in turn… Hmm?” he teased.

This griffin! How did he dare? Wha-What was she supposed to say now? No? That was impossible! You can’t just dangle such a bait in front of somepony’s muzzle! But still… “Why do you want to meet Zecora so badly?”

Gobrend paused and pulled back, his eyes sweeping left and right in suspicion before leaning back forward again and spoke in a lower voice. “I have decided to continue a project I undertook a long time ago. Miss Zecora’s profession as an alchemist and long time resident of the Everfree Forest could prove crucial to my own undertaking.”

“And that project is…?” Twilight prodded. Possibilities were being projected in her mind. Could it be that Luna and Raegdan are behind this and are after a way of weaponizing alchemical concoctions? Poisons? Performance boosting potions? She had heard of potions that could enable a unicorn to keep casting even when all the magic in the body had been normally depleted, though at the body's immense expense.

“This is not information to be shared lightly. Do we understand each other, miss Twilight Sparkle?”

“... We do,” she said, leaning closer as he did.

The griffin’s beak almost touched her ear. He didn’t whisper as much as breathed the words out, revealing his secret.

“The Fauna and Flora of Everfree Forest: A Compilation.”

A dragon’s greed didn’t have shit on Twilight Sparkle’s.

“I get to edit it and have access to any samples you have or will collect, any manuscripts or references you have under your possession, the first twenty copies of the first edition, personally signed; free and immediate delivery of any addendums you may compile.”

“Wait, that—”

“You will also, of course, provide me with the aforementioned arrangement,” Twilight cut him off. “As well as a full transcript of your discussion(s) with Zecora, but I will allow for them to be produced at a later date.”

“... How did you do the parentheses—”

“An agreement will be dictated, notarized, and signed before witnesses no later than tomorrow noon, barring no delaying circumstances, at the City Hall. If you are unable to provide a witness of your own then I will need to be warned so I can find one for yourself.”

“Signatures? Whatever happened to a firm shake of—”

“And you will be a perfect gentlegriffin in Zecora’s presence or there will be repercussions.”

Gobrend’s stare regained its intensity. “Define ‘repercussions’.”

Twilight stalled for a moment. She didn’t want to do it, but in truth she didn’t have any other stick long enough. There was no other stick long enough other than the one Princess Celestia herself could wield.

“I’ll tell Raegdan.”

Gobrend clicked his beak twice. “The champion of the elements and of goodness, everyone,” he theatrically announced with a wry expression at nopony at large, the mass of shoppers around them ignoring him. “Then I shall meet you at my current residence, in a couple of hours. We are situated at the eastern side of Ponyville, near the post office. Look for the house with the burn marks.”

“Burn marks?”

“Trailblazer wished to practice,” Gobrend sighed. “I’m afraid our deposit will not be returned, not that I ever had high hopes of that to begin with. I will see you in a few hours.” He turned back to Roseluck who was smiling hopefully at him. “I’m sorry, miss, but I’m not interested today after all. No, my apologies, but—I really don’t—Fine, just don’t make that face, one bouquet, a small one—”

Twilight had seen this play out before. She left, heading for home. Two young mares, strong looking and obviously twins that Twilight had never seen before, passed by Twilight as she left the marketplace and Gobrend behind her.

“Hey there, Goobread! Getting flowers for your coltfriend?”

“I’ll wring your necks!”

“Woop-woop-woop!”

Rarity looked on smiling and feeling her heart swell.

Ditzy Doo’s house had never been the most well-cared house of Ponyville. It wasn’t that Ditzy, sweet darling that she was, didn’t care for her own home. The poor dear was simply a bit on the… clumsy side. Something was always broken, pieces of paper or blocks of wood found underneath tables and chairs to stop them from wobbling were a common sight, and the windows found themselves being covered with thick paper or just blocked off as time passed.

Little by little the house became more decrepit down the years, and Ditzy was trying to keep up with the damages as best as she could with her mailmare salary and what few chores she could pick up. It was hard, and the fact that Ditzy was such a sweet mare made it even harder. She would always pay back others first if she broke something of theirs -not an uncommon occurrence- even when somepony would insist she didn’t have to -which wasn’t uncommon either.

Then there was Dinky, Ditzy’s pride and joy. The single mother would make the impossible a certainty for her daughter’s sake, and she made sure her daughter would want for nothing. If that meant that Ditzy herself had to permanently live with a broken window into her own bedroom and sleep on a bed that was nothing more than a mattress on the floor, so be it. And as long as they had a solid roof over their heads and she made sure not to traipse into her daughter’s room then everything else would be fine. That was what Ditzy always said.

Which made what Rarity was seeing right now, the sweetest, most commendable, most worthy generous act she had ever seen.

“Cast Iron, I am so proud of you!” Rarity gushed, almost losing her lady’s decorum and hopping in place like a filly, or Pinkie Pie, next to Princess Luna in the middle of the street.

The minotaur finished screwing the window shutter in place and rubbed the back of his massive neck, blushing. “It really is nothing,” he mumbled, “I don’t like sitting idly on my hands. Besides, with so little space around and since miss Ditzy is accommodating Mint and her little brother instead of being forced to stay in a small place with any of us…”

Rarity addressed Princess Luna who was waiting serenely next to her. “Mint? Mint and little Stormdrain are here as well?” Oh, she had missed the little colt with the sweet heart. And Mint! She had to get something for the young Manehattan mare as well as Stormdrain. Maybe a proper dress -no pink of course- and maybe an excuse to wear it with a girls night out?

“Of course,” Princess Luna replied with a sense of confusion. “She is part of my retinue after all. That is proper, is it not? Or wasn’t it? Did I do this wrong?” she asked, quickly switching into abashment.

“Certainly not, Princess,” Rarity ascertained. “I was only mildly surprised. I thought you would have only brought your guards.”

“So did we,” Cast Iron chimed in, smiling widely as he put the second shutter in place, “but then Mint asked what she was supposed to do while we were gone—”

“Mint did not mean that she preferred to stay in Canterlot, did she?” Princess Luna asked at once.

“No, Princess, she’s very glad she came along. Stormdrain loves it here,” Cast Iron assured her.

A grey colored pegasus with a blonde mane and yellow eyes, each of them drifting towards a different direction, and one of the most honest smiles in the world, opened the door and walked out of her home while carrying a small tray with a large glass of iced tea with infinite care. Ditzy placed the tray on the window sill next to Cast Iron and quickly did a bow towards the Princess with one eye on Rarity and the other on the Minotaur.

“Hello, Princess!” Ditzy cheerily said, turning around and waving from too close a distance. “Would you like me to get you a drink too?”

“Greetings. Miss Ditzy I assume. No, that won’t be necessary. We’re only passing by. Thank you for being so hospitable to Mint and her brother.”

“Indeed, Ditzy. That is very generous of you,” Rarity added.

“Aw, it’s nothin’.” Ditzy waved her hoof and wings all at once, Cast Iron barely managing to grab the tray and glass of iced tea before she knocked them down. “Dinky and Stormdrain became friends so fast, I had to offer. It’s like a long sleepover for the two of them. Oh!” Ditzy straightened up as if shocked. “I almost forgot! Thank you for being so nice to Mint, Princess Luna. That was very nice of you.”

Princess Luna stirred in her place for a moment, bashfully looking aside and pretending—overacting, in Rarity’s opinion—to examine the horizon through the brick wall she was actually staring at. Rarity took it upon herself to answer. “I am most definite that Mint has proven herself quite capable of undertaking the position offered to her by the princess. I’m surprised she told you of their arrangement though, Ditzy.”

Ditzy nodded fast enough to shake her mane loose like a golden cloud. “Yep. I’m teaching her to make muffins since she doesn’t know how.”

“I thought that she would have...” Rarity trailed off. “But it’s a small thing, no matter. Forget I ever said anything.”

“Oh, you mean that she was…” Ditzy looked around her in as conspicuous a manner as it was possible, making everypony in a two mile radius know that she had a secret. “You know, her work?” Rarity reluctantly nodded. “I think she was afraid I wouldn’t want her around. Which is funny, cause now I’m afraid she might think I only offered her a place to stay because of your rules, Princess.”

“My rules?” Princess Luna asked, watching with no hint of emotion as Cast Iron stood behind Ditzy. The minotaur was grimacing and pantomiming a chicken trying to say everything was fine while dealing with the difficulties of egg laying mixed with fear-puckered holes.

“Oops, sorry. You must have a lot of them, Princess,” Ditzy apologized. “I mean the one that says that your guards and personnel must keep a proper appearance, including their resistances.” Ditzy made a confused face, clicking her tongue as if tasting the last word. “No, wait… residences? Yeah, that!” Ditzy finished proudly. “I thought Dinky and I were going to lose our new friends, but mister Cast Iron said that what it meant was that my home had to be repaired.”

Cast Iron’s face behind Ditzy was the very image of either ultimate begging or ultimate constipation.

“And from what I see he took it upon himself to oversee this ‘rule’ of mine?” Luna inquired, and Ditzy nodded in affirmation. “And how does the renovation fare so far?”

“I, uh, started with the windows and the frames first, Princess. Most of it was simple work actually. I just need to get a few glass panes and then I’ll see about the inside—”

Ditzy raised her hoof. “I can’t really afford that. But I do have some really sturdy cardboard to close them off—”

“Miss Ditzy!” Princess Luna almost shouted, cutting off the cheery pegasus and making her cower like a scolded filly. “I do not know what exactly Cast Iron has told you, but this is not part of my rules! I do not enjoy half measures or being told what to do. Cast Iron!”

“Yes, Princess?” the minotaur squeaked, his eyes closed and his expression one of crushed defeat.

“You will stop these shoddy repairs at once, and find Solid Charge. You will explain yourself to him, and give him a monetary estimate. He will provide you with the appropriate budget. Am I understood?”

“Yes, Princess,” Cast Iron responded again, gulping with his head downcast before raising it up as Princess Luna’s meaning registered, lighting up his eyes. “Wait, you mean that…”

Princess Luna turned to Rarity. “Shall we proceed to the spa? I do believe it is best we leave Cast Iron to his work.”

“I will be right behind you, Princess. Allow me a moment to say my goodbyes,” Rarity said, grinning widely even as Princess Luna kept her face void of any emotion, save for the fact that if anypony paid attention they would notice that Luna carefully avoided looking at Cast Iron or Ditzy.

Princess Luna walked slowly away, and Rarity quickly took the moment to congratulate Cast Iron on his great, big heart once more.

“Wait, what exactly happened?” Ditzy asked.

Cast Iron was grinning madly, his overjoyed expression making the fear of that dark alley where Rarity first met him all worth it. “We’re paying for the glass panes! I need to—no, I need to make notes of everything that needs to be repaired and replaced first. You said the oven doesn’t work sometimes, right?”

“Uh, that’s because it’s old, I didn’t do anything to it! It’s not that big of a deal—”

“Replaced!” Cast Iron yelled, lifting his arms in victory and laughing. “You don’t have a proper bed either, I saw that when I was fixing the bedroom window.”

“No, no, that is too much!” Ditzy protested, turning to Rarity. “Rarity, please tell them that this is too much, I just wanted to do something nice for somepony, I didn’t—”

“Replaced!” Rarity shouted, laughing with an exhilarated glee that threatened to lift her up to the sky even though she lacked wings. “The house needs a repaint as well.”

“The faucets are old, too,” Cast Iron noted with the same enthusiasm.

“And that door?” Rarity pointed at the front door that was covered in small, thin wood boards to cover the holes made by accident across the years.

“Replaced,” they both cheered.

Ditzy couldn’t take it anymore. She started crying, hiding her face behind her hooves and wings, muttering how this was too much and she’d never be able to pay back for all that. Cast Iron bent down next to her with Rarity across the other side. “Come on, miss Ditzy. It’s on our expense, don’t you worry. Think of Dinky. We’ll make the place nice for her as well, right?” he urged, making Ditzy burst into sobs and cling onto the minotaur’s neck.

Cast Iron accepted the embrace with the widest smile and hugged the small pegasus mare back. “Let’s make a few notes before I go talk to Solid Charge, okay, miss Ditzy? We will fix as much as we can, I promise you won’t recognize the place after I’m done!”

Rarity looked behind her. Princess Luna was watching them from afar. A hoof was placed on the heavy peytral over her heart, and her face showed a tired, ancient relief.

“And that’s the long an’ hard of how ya do the work in an apple farm the old, earth pony way,” Granny Smith proudly concluded to the class. She narrowed her eyes and managed to look each single young foal in the eye somehow. “Which is the best way, young ‘uns, and don’t let nopony tell ya any different, ya ’hear me now?”

The extremely old mare turned to miss Cheerilee, grinning through her dentures. “Was that up to yer liking, young one?”

Cheerilee led her class into an ovation. “Thank you, Granny Smith, that was very informative.” The young schoolteacher went around her desk and hovered her hoof over the far older mare’s back, not daring to put weight on her spine. “Outstanding as always.”

“Well,” Granny Smith slurred as she allowed Cheerilee to escort her back to the wall behind the class where other parents or family members stood, “Ah did the same thing for my good Bright, rested may he be, ah did it for Big Mac, did it for Applejack, ah couldn’t let sweet Applebloom all out and dry now, could ah?” Granny Smith chuckled.

The grizzled mare sat next to her granddaughter, and Applejack quickly pushed one of the few available cushioned chairs underneath the Apple matriarch for her to sit on rather than the hard floor. “Great job, Gran,” Applejack congratulated.

“Aw, shucks. That was nothing. Didn’t expect ya to come by, though.” Granny Smith looked up and to the side, examining the armored figure of Raegdan. The biped stood overwhelmingly tall around the ponies who were gathered there, silently fuming in his dreary helmet as he leaned back on the wall with his arms crossed forbiddingly around his chest. He had chosen to stand right next to the corner to make sure the only one standing next to him was Applejack.

“Aint’ seen ya around, sonny, that’s for sure,” Granny Smith observed, looking up and down. “I’d remember somepony that tall. And yeh are?”

“Pissed,” Raegdan answered.

Granny Smith chuckled, completely unafraid of the unknown being, unlike most ponies around her. “Can’t be comfortable in there then. Too moist. Better clean that up before ye rust all over.”

Raegdan’s helmet zeroed in on the guffawing mare, tilted in that way that Applejack had figured out to mean he was thinking, and then turned to Applejack. “Okay, there’s something wrong here. Do you ponies just go insane after you give birth or does bulky and spiky metal means clowns around here?”

Applejack joined her grandmother in her giggling. “Nah. My granddaughter might have told me a story or two about yeh. Though ah hafta say, ah don’t quite approve of some of yer shenanigans.”

“Oh heavens. Another one,” Raegdan spat, turning his visor away. His large pauldrons shivered. “Wait, granddaughter?” He examined Granny Smith up and down once more, his head switching from her to Applejack, and alarmingly scooted a little further away, his shoulders slumping.

“But ah do approve of you being here,” Granny Smith said.

Raegdan shrugged. “I… ah… I didn’t mean to…” He cleared his throat. “Not much of a choice. I didn’t know what little flame was planning.” He nodded towards the baby dragon who was sharing two desks brought together with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, almost jumping on his seat with excitement. “He’s, ah... changed. He didn’t used to be a— a braggart before.”

“A braggart?” Applejack asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

“Yeah.” He looked at Applejack. “If he expects me to tell stories about… about what the Lunar Guard has done so far, he’s going to be disappointed. I don’t think—” He stopped again, tilting his chin down and swallowing. “I don’t think scarring any more children would go well. With anyone. I’m sorry.” He kept his head up, refusing to look down on either Granny Smith or Applejack.

“Hmmm,” Granny Smith hummed, sucking on her teeth. “Mister Reektan—Am ah pronouncing it right?—take a look at yer young dragon there. How does he look now?”

Raegdan did as Granny Smith bade him. “Excited?”

“That’s right. And what might be the reason for that?”

“He—His ‘turn’ is coming up?”

Granny Smith frowned. “Spike is a very good, well mannered foal—or dragon ah suppose. He’s helped me with mah shopping bags whenever he was around. He’s as sweet as the best apple cider yer tongue will ever touch. We had him and Twilight over at the farm for dinner a lot of times as well, didn’t we, Applejack?”

“Lots, Granny.”

“That we did. And quite a healthy appetite he got.” Granny Smith nodded deeply as she talked. “So ah think ah can tell ya a few things, what with having raised a few sweet foals on mah own.” she winked at Applejack. “That there ain’t no kid who wants to tell tall tales to his friends to impress them.”

Raegdan’s helmet tilted to the side again. “Then I’m here because...?”

“‘Cause,” Granny Smith drawled. “That there’s a kid that wants ta show off he has family, not what they do. Family’s important, and ye know it more when ya lose it or never had it. Yer little Spike’s just lookin’ round to show everypony that he’s got one.”

The helmet turned back to Spike, not moving a millimeter away from him, still as a statue. Until Cheerilee called for Raegdan, the only movement the biped did was when Spike turned to him and waved silently but enthusiastically. He responded by weakly raising his arm in return.

“Mister… Rug-dan? Am I getting it right?” Cheerilee asked, but Raegdan simply shrugged. The mare was taken a little aback, but she quickly refocused. “Would you like to come forward and tell us a few things about yourself and what you do for a living?”

Raegdan nodded silently and moved to the front of the class. Every eye was on him, the colts and fillies looking at him with a mix of excitement and fear, though it was hard to feel very worried about his black and spiky appearance when he stood in a room decorated with foal drawings and happy colors. Still, the almost predatory movements and his silence was unnerving. It was hard to see his eyes before, but ever since he started wearing that black cloth underneath it was almost impossible.

Spike was striking the tips of his talons against each other, his previous agitation displaced by the turmoil of anxiety now that the time had come. Applejack managed to pull his attention for a small instant and shot him a calming smile that worked a little on easing his tension.

Raegdan inhaled deeply. The air swished audibly through the holes on his helmet almost like a whistle, his chest rising and deflating as he exhaled. The colts and fillies in front of him had frozen in place.

“Hello,” he began, his voice actually sounding friendly and even giving a small wave. “My name is Raegdan, and I’m Spike’s dad. Not his father, we’re not the same species, but his dad. I’ve been with him ever since a few months after he hatched. He’s been… How to put this…” His right palm patted his left elbow three times while he thought. “He’s been the best thing anyone could ever have. He makes me proud every day, and him deciding to call me his dad is… It was one of the best days of my life. Sorry, but your parents lied. You’re not the best kid in the world. He is.”

Spike was beaming, and the joy he was radiating only became greater when Sweetie Belle whispered something in his ear while Applebloom slapped his back in congratulations and Scootaloo reached out for a hoof bump that he gladly exchanged. The little dragon’s eyes were shining, and Applejack knew he was doing his best to hold back tears of happiness. Applejack realized how much Spike was waiting for this moment.

She wished she could be in his place. How great and grand would it be if she could sit on a little desk and see her own dad point at her like that. She never got the chance, and never would, but seeing Spike get it? That was almost as good. Seeing Applebloom be happy for her friend? Even better!

Cheerilee led her class on a short clap. “All of Ponyville is very glad to have Spike as well,” she said, causing Spike to discreetly brush his arm over his face. “Could you tell us what you do for a living?”

Be diplomatic, these are young colts and fillies, ya big galoot, keep yer trap shut and don’t try to be smart with—

“I, uh… I used to be a bodyguard before. I was working for Celestia, and I helped raise Spike. Now I am a Lunar Guard for Princess Luna.” He spoke as if he was unsure of the right answers. Good. That was good. He seemed he had understood that he should keep some stuff censored.

Cheerilee led him on, trying to coax him to talk a little more. “The newspapers say you were the first to join. Is that true?”

“Yes.”

“... And your job entails…?”

“Oh. Uh… We kil—hunt monsters. We don’t really do a lot of guarding as the Royal Guard does. Kind of a misnomer. We’re more active. Though we’re here on a vacation of sorts right now. We travel all together up to this point, but we’re going to stop that after this. We’ve separated ourselves in teams and we’re going to spread around to cover more ground.”

“Really?” Cheerilee asked. “I didn’t know this.”

“We haven’t actually told anyone yet,” Raegdan admitted, ducking his head a little between his pauldrons.

“And you’re going to be in one of these teams, leading one I suppose?”

“Uh, no. I’m mostly staying near L—Princess Luna. I’m going to be doing hunting of my own as well, but I will be doing it either alone or with L—Princess Luna. We’re both used to working alone,” he explained. He was rubbing his left arm, almost identically to how Spike did when he was feeling in trouble.

“Isn’t this dangerous?”

“I… suppose?”

Cheerilee waited a bit, but no more information was forthcoming. “Anypony have any questions you would like to ask mister Reg-tan?”

Every colt and filly raised a hoof.

“Scootaloo,” Cheerilee started.

The filly jumped on the desk. “Do you have horns under your helmet like a minotaur?”

“No,” Raegdan said. He pulled off his helmet to show what lay underneath, which to the children’s disappointment was mostly the black, cloth mask, but the flatness of the face amazed them even so. “See? I don’t have a coat either under here, but I keep my skin covered because, uh… doctor’s orders. Very sensitive complexion. I can’t sunbathe.”

Spike’s palm rushed to hide his snigger.

“Why do you wear a bandage?” Scootaloo continued, pointing at the bandage underneath the black cloth that covered his left eye.

“I got something in my eye. It stung,” Raegdan answered, and Applejack chortled despite herself. “Anyone else?” He put his helmet back on.

“Do you have a cutie mark?” Sweetie Belle questioned.

“Nope. My kind doesn’t get them.” He tapped at the moon sigil on his right pauldron. “But I got this one now.”

“That’s Princess Luna’s.”

“Well, she learned to share.”

“Where are you from?” Featherweight lowered his hoof.

“Not here. Too far actually, and you don’t want to hear that story. It’s really boring. Most of it is me walking. For months.”

“Witth wath the biggeth enemy you fought?” Twist asked. “The Leviathan doethn’t count,” she was quick to specify.

“I once wrestled Celestia for a piece of cake. I lost, and she became even larger.” The young ones laughed and the grown ups in the back gasped.

Diamond Tiara raised her own hoof, eyeing the armored plates the biped wore. “How much did that cost to make?”

“I don’t know; I didn’t keep the receipt.”

The kinda spoiled filly pouted. “Are you going to answer any question seriously?”

“Yes. This one. Next?”

“Do ya have a big, big sword?” Applebloom asked, stretching her front hooves apart as much as possible.

Raegdan stretched his own hands as far apart as they could go and excitedly announced, his smile audible, “No!”

Applebloom frowned sourly at wasting her question, and Raegdan obviously took pity at her. “I use a big hammer or whatever is around. I’m not really picky. I prefer to improvise. If you get too comfortable with a certain weapon then you stop seeing other options.”

“Do you have any special magic?” Silver Spoon asked.

“Uh, I kinda have the exact opposite in a way… To keep it simple, no.”

Silver Spoon finally got her turn. “Do you eat ponies like Nightmare Moon did?”

There was a slight gasp from the watching parents, as all of them knew that Princess Luna was currently in town. Raegdan stood still, as if equally shocked, for a second. Then, slowly and with deliberate movements, he made his way in front of Silver Spoon’s desk under the silent and teeth-grinding stare of everypony in the room, looking down at the suddenly shaking filly. He leaned down, grabbing the edges of her desk.

“Are you offering?” he darkly asked.

“N-No!” Silver Spoon immediately said, gulping in fear.

He leaned closer, almost touching her muzzle with his iron face. “Do you know what I would have done if you had said yes?” he growled.

Silver Spoon rapidly shook her head, trembling.

“Same thing I’m gonna do now,” Raegdan rasped, and Silver Spoon closed her eyes as Raegdan’s four fingered hand reached for her, opening her mouth to shriek.

Raegdan’s hand brushed lightly against Silver Spoon’s muzzle, and retreated. The young filly opened her eyes in surprise, crossing them to see what was obstructing the middle of her vision. Raegdan had put a sticker at the end of her muzzle.

The armored figure was already walking back to the front of the class again. “That’s the dunce prize for asking a dunce question. Well done. Alright, anyone else?

Sweetie Belle wanted to have another go, and Cheerilee indulged her by calling out her name. “I have another question; How come you’ve been over my sister’s house for the last three nights?”

“Isn’t that after your bedtime?” Raegdan challenged Rarity’s sister after a moment.

“I’m a light sleeper,” Sweetie Belle innocently answered. “Well? What do you two do?”

“... Ballroom dancing.” The classroom chuckled, with some uncertainty, once more.

Button Mash was practically jumping on his seat and Raegdan must have pointed at him if only to spare him from an accidental fall, if not to change the mystery subject. “How many monsters have you killed?” the colt asked as he sat, though his was still shaking all about.

“Oh. Let’s see… How high can you count?” Raegdan queried.

“All the way to infinity I guess?” Button Mash said. He scratched his head with his hoof, making his hat drop.

“Okay. Much less than that. Right, next one is… you, the patchy brown and white one.”

“I’m Pipsqueak, sir. Mom says you fought the Leviathan from the inside. How did you get in there?”

“That was the easy part; we let it eat us.”

There were a few seconds of stunned silence. There never had been an actual report of what and how, and even though Rainbow Dash had tried to share the story a few times nopony really believed most parts, especially this one. Applejack snorted as she took a looksee to her left and right and saw the expressions of the ponies near her. A couple of them looked like they were having a small seizure.

"It was fine,” Raegdan announced, enjoying the reaction. “Evidently, it didn’t chew.”

“H-How did you get out?” Pipsqueak breathlessly asked.

“I tickled the back of its throat. Then it threw us up,” Raegdan explained.

Applebloom popped in. “What would y’all do if it hadn’t coughed ya up?”

Raegdan shrugged. “Dunno. Run ‘til we got pooped?”

It took a long while until the questions stopped, and despite Raegdan answering them as laconically as he possibly could, it spurred the children even more. Applejack was certain they saw it as a challenge or a game, and soon enough questions and rephrasings started to pop up, trying to squeeze a little more info out of that iron head. In the end, nopony really wanted to stop them, the proceedings being actually quite funny to watch, and it was the school bell that brought them to a stop.

For now, Applejack and Granny Smith sat outside on their own. Leaf Stream, Broken Gust, and Trixie having long left when they were told they couldn’t sit in as they weren’t family of any of the students, and the classroom was not spacious enough anyway.

They were watching, completely bemused, as Raegdan turned himself into this recess’ favored toy, every parent and Cheerilee herself feeling at ease after watching him interact with the children for a few minutes. He had taken apart pieces of his armor and passed them out to the children to play, except for his helmet and kneepads as they were too dangerous with their sharp edges, and his hammer and daggers. Most of the rest, including his shield, had become fair game, and colts were running around looking like armored turtles as they used his pauldrons as makeshift armor, pretending to fight.

The rest of the colts and fillies who couldn’t get a piece of steel to play with had fun by climbing up and down Raegdan, who would pick them off him and throw them in the air a couple of times before setting them back down. Then they would start climbing up his back again and the game would continue.

Then the games were raised up in their ante, and the children had scattered, scrambling away and howling in terror. All but one, who had been left behind as a sole sacrifice.

“P-P-Please! Please h-h-have mer-mercy!”

“Mercy is a hope long turned to ashes for you.”

Raegdan was tormenting Silver Spoon. He had found out that the filly’s left side was particularly ticklish, and he was going all out. A little further away Diamond Tiara was trying to dare the beast and get close enough to rescue her friend from her fate, but Raegdan’s one eye seemed to sweep everywhere, and she feared to approach the long arms too much lest she be captured herself.

Luckily -or not- she had support and aid rained from above. Three fillies jumped from on high -and Applejack would have words with Appleboom for climbing on the roof when they got home- somehow managing to say quite a lot on their short way down.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders Tickle Rescuers!”

“He’s only got two hands!”

“He can’t get all of us!”

Raegdan got all of them.

Spike was hovering close, looking down at the failed rescue operation totally unimpressed. His brows were flat and low on his face, and he kept his arms crossed on his chest as he talked down with contempt at the three fallen crusaders who now shared Silver Spoon’s fate. “Full attack from the front, huh? Bold choice. Not what I told you, but hey. How did that go?”

“T-Thi-This a-aint—ha, ha, ha—fair! How does he—hahaha—do it? Two hands—hahahahahaha—t-two ha-hands!” Scootaloo was almost weeping.

“I can switch, you little idiot!” Raegdan’s hands were a blur as he kept the four filles trapped using his knees to push them all together, and went hard at work to making them asphyxiate.

“So, what do y’all say to having dinner at Sweet Apple Acres?” Granny Smith asked, watching her youngest granddaughter beg her for help. “I’d love to meet tha new princess, too. New Princess. Huh. That ain’t something happening often.”

Granny Smith’s question caught Raegdan by surprise enough that the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Silver Spoon grasped the chance to get away, gasping for breath and giggling still.

“Yeah, Dad! Let’s go. It will be fun!” Spike said. “And Granny Smith’s cooking is incredible. You have to try her pie!”

“Uh…” Raegdan’s head whipped from side to side as if looking for an exit. It didn’t take a genius to understand that he had no intention of going along, though Applejack found it strange, as well as a little insulting. “We’ll see, little flame. I need to ask Luna too. Let’s see what she thinks first, and we will arrange something later, okay?”

“As long as it ain’t too much later!” Granny Smith insisted. “Some of us are too old to be waiting on you young ‘uns, huh?”

“Hey Dad, show them that trick where you twist your arm all the way around your back,” Spike requested, motioning for the other children to gather around and watch.

“That wasn’t a party trick, little flame. I had dislocated my shoulder. I had done that so you would have a laugh before I popped it back in place.”

“Oh. Sorry. I didn’t know.” Spike lowered his head until his chin rested on his chest.

Raegdan sighed, and placed his right arm in front of Applejack. “Pull as hard as you can,” he grumbled, before putting one of his gloves in his mouth and biting it. “Party trick, coming up,” he called out with a pinch of misery.

Applejack pulled.

Most of the kids thought he meant actual fudge.

Twilight finished her examination of the armor and laid the pieces back on the bed in the order they had been, nodding her thanks to Tidal Wave for allowing her to do so. She had never seen the Lunar Guard armor up close before—of course she hadn’t—and it turned out to be quite unexpectedly constructed, nothing like she had imagined it to be. She had thought it would be forged in the way of the standard armor worn by the Royal Guard or maybe the ones by the Solar Guard with their increased magic protection. Instead the Lunar Guard had gone for a different route.

The outer layer of the armor was quite like what she would have expected and how Applejack had described it. It was sturdily built, thick, and covered almost the entirety of the wearer with only a few exceptions. She wasn’t surprised to see it was made out of the same steel alloy that Raegdan’s armor was, though she believed it was quite thinner than what he personally wore. All in all, extremely light for the coverage it offered.

The surprise was the inner layer. Magically enhanced armor, the very rare and precious ones, had runic arrays carved on the inner surface of the metal. Of course, given enough damage the runic array would be disrupted and stop working, making it useless. A strong enough cut, a deep enough dent, and the precious armor became dead weight. That was why runes that increased the metal’s hardness were so important. This was not the case here. The metal armor was clean, and devoid of any temporary spell weave, no matter any possible runes. But the inner layer underneath, the padding below the armor…

She knew what the material was, though not many ponies would recognize it. The runes were… somehow stamped on them, denting the leather surprisingly clearly. Twilight felt for sure that it would straighten out or repair itself in minutes, but no. The leather was covered in runic arrays, the runes as small as possible as they could be stamped on and still be working, which was frankly impossible, yet here it was!

Not only that, but there were loads of them! And unless she was very, very wrong, they even had—they even had backups! There were runic arrays designed to strengthen the material over them, which while was nowhere as strong as what could be used on the metal itself, considering what Luna’s metal was already capable of was still more than enough. Arrays that lightened the weight, that boosted strength, speed, and reflexes, everything increased by a tiny, infinitesimal edge. Almost negligible, yet that could save somepony’s life even so at a critical moment, and even an array that-

This was insane. They were using runes in a way that should not be possible, and they did it in order to regulate the wearer’s temperature!

Admittedly, nopony had ever thought of using leather as a medium for runes. And of course every other attempt to make use of a similar process using metal always failed. Metal could not be stamped accurately enough while cold, and the small changes as heated metal grew cold warped the runes enough to disrupt the flowing magic, and the rune became useless.

Speaking of which, Twilight performed a hasty test. “So, if I bend it like this, do the runes still work?” She showcased what she meant by bending the piece in a gentle curve.

Tidal Wave’s blue mane moved to cover his eyes as he nodded. He pushed it back. “So far, yes. It can take that easily. Something to do with its flexibility I think. As long as they don’t get warped too far, they work.”

Perhaps no pony knew as much about runes as they thought. The material did matter, she knew that. Runes on metal were uncannily sturdy, able to compress and withhold more magic, while all rare glass runework had proved itself ostensibly fast in actions like charging or releasing—

Leather. It was an organic material. Could it be so simple? Did the runes adopt the adaptability of the material? She never cared for runes before. Too much effort and too high risk to make your whole work fail because of a small mistake in the hoofwork, but new horizons opened up before her now. Twilight made a mental list of the tools she would need to find, as well as different materials, as diverse as she could find.

Twilight put down the leather piece she was holding as well. “This is both amazing and disgusting,” was her final verdict. Oh Celestia, she was going to have to ask Raegdan for some leather. She was going to have to work with leather. She felt icky.

“Not a fan of wearing dried out skin over me either,” Tidal Wave agreed, gathering up everything into a trunk. “But it has proven its worth so far, so I’ll take it even if it feels like I’m wearing a corpse.”

“I’m surprised the runes don’t fade,” Twilight observed.

Tidal Wave paused, taking a glance at the aforementioned runes. “They do if it gets wet enough. Not a lot, but enough that they need to be redone if it happens too much. Princess Luna is able to redo them easy enough.” Twilight figured that the quiet unicorn must have noticed her open jaw. “It doesn’t take that long. I think the princess is able to do a full suit in an hour or two at most. At least, I think so. I don’t know how it’s done.”

Don’t dislocate your jaw, don’t pop your eyes out, don’t get a cramp on your brain, stop that spasm on the side of your neck before you break your whole spine… “Really? Wow, that is so… fast,” she finished, her face feeling like a crackling mask of plaster.

The way Tidal Wave seemed to take the impossibility of this armor’s existence in stride bit at Twilight. For a moment she wanted to slap him, hold him be the neck, shake him, slap him again, and scream at his face. ‘Don’t you see what you are holding? Do you realize how much work it takes for one of these the normal way? Decades!’ Then she’d slap him instead.

She sighed. No, slapping wasn’t her. But she eyed those puffy cheeks. They were really asking for it. “What about the metal part? I suppose Raegdan and Luna make that also?”

“Oh, that I know.” Tidal Wave poked his head over the top of the trunk’s open lid. “Cast Iron makes the armors now, and all the rest of whatever we need. I think he knows how to make even the exploding stuff now. I don’t know if the other guy knows it.”

“Other guy? You mean Solid Charge?” Twilight asked.

“No, the other guy. The Thestral.” Tidal Wave closed the trunk with a thud, and he rested his elbows on it as he thought. “What was his name again? We don’t see him a lot, and he just got around…”

Twilight’s eyes got wide. She had a feeling that she knew exactly who Tidal Wave talked about, Rainbow Dash having told her everything, but she thought she’d never have the magnificent opportunity to talk to a pony from so long ago. She thought that he had been sent back to the Thestrals, to rehabilitate and continue his life as much as he could!

“Steel Edge? The Thestral that was part of the original Lunar Guard?” Twilight asked, hoping she was right. “Is he here? Can I talk to him?”

“No,” Tidal Wave responded, shattering Twilight’s hope with simple nonchalance. “He was making a clamor of getting back to Princess Luna, she didn’t want him around—”

“Why?”

“No idea. But he came to Canterlot anyway, on his own. He got settled with Cast Iron after all, but orders are to not let him anywhere near the Princess. I wonder why?” His hoof rapped the trunk’s lid as he thought. “You know the strangest thing? Not even the other Thestrals will talk to him. Eventide and the rest just… ignore him. Poor guy. At least he seems to have his plate full re-learning his trade.”

“What do— Oh, of course!” Twilight’s hoof gently smacked her forehead. “He’s one thousand years behind on modern blacksmithing. But why don’t the others talk to him? That doesn’t make any sense!”

Tidal Wave sat back on his bed. His hoof briefly passed over the old teddy bear on it, making contact for a moment. “Who knows? Half of everything doesn’t. It almost feels like a family issue of sorts, so I wouldn’t meddle in that. At least the guy, Steel Edge, is sticking close enough. That’s something.”

The outer door of the house creaked loudly enough that everypony inside knew when someone was going in or out. It did so now, and a few seconds later Gobrend appeared at the threshold of Tidal Wave’s room, a tall, tan-coated, and short-maned mare standing next to him.

“See?” Gobrend’s beak almost warped itself in a self-satisfied smile. “‘Tis as I said; I met miss Twilight, and had her come here as you asked me to do if I perchance ran into her.”

Twilight stepped angrily up to the griffin. “You told me that I was to come here to learn special things,” she mocked, “in exchange for a favor. You tried to buy me off with what you were already going to give to me.”

Gobrend clapped while next to him Sunrise Storm was shaking her head in exasperation. “Congratulations,” Gobrend smirked, resting his side on the wall. “You’ve also learned an important lesson in mercantile trade as well. Truly, I am spoiling you.”

Twilight gave him the sweetest and most saccharine smile she could, placing her hoof against her chest in a gesture of thankfullness. “Thank you. Oh, I almost forgot. I will have whatever samples you’ve already gathered today, please. Some payment must be given up front, you understand of course.” She winked, closed her eyes, tilted her head to the side, and lifted her hoof in a most innocent and playful way. “Mercantile rules!”

Gobrend scowled and stomped off, leaving them alone. “I’ll be in my room packing them up for you…” he grumbled.

“Miss Twilight, if I may I offer you a beverage in the kitchen?” Sunrise Storm said, gesturing the way.

The kitchen was small, homely, and not that much different than Twilight’s own, back in the library. Sunrise Storm closed the door and set on preparing tea for both of them, staring at the water as it heated up with unmoveable patience. Twilight waited as well, not sure about this mare’s character or personal quirks at all.

Sunrise Storm put Twilight’s cup in front of her and then sat across her. “I know that Gobrend may have told you that you would learn something from me, but that was a lie in a way. Unless of course my questions are informative by themselves to you, of course.”

“Questions? Am I being interrogated?” Twilight joked.

“Yes.”

Brain, restart. “...Wait, really?”

Sunrise Storm burst into a short laughter. “No! Of course not! I just have a few questions.” The mare’s crystalline eyes locked with Twilight’s, and the unicorn noticed that there wasn’t a whole lot of amusement in there, despite what the rest of the face said. “Do you know that we have separated into teams?”

“Yes. Gobrend mentioned that.”

The brown-maned mare nodded. “Good. He is in my team. I’m leading one of them, this one. We, however, have taken part in very few monster hunts. We’re being groomed for the cities and towns, not for the outside. The team is I, Gobrend, Trailblazer, Tidal Wave, Snared Wish, and Shaded Swirl.”

“I see. They want you to find the one behind the attacks.” Twilight levitated her tea in front of her.

“Actually, we weren’t. Commander Solid Charge assumed so and told us everything he knew in preparation. When we brought the matter to Princess Luna though, in hopes of having more information to share, she expressly forbid us from hounding the matter.”

Twilight managed to grab the cup only an inch before it shattered on the floor. It didn’t stop it from spilling all its contents on the floor. Twilight gasped and stepped aside so as to not step on the mess and spread it further. “She wh—I’m sorry, let me get that… but what!”

“I’ll take care of it, if you could change your seat, please.” Sunrise Storm found a rag and started mopping up the spilled tea. She kept talking while she worked. “I’m not ‘hounding’ the case as she requested, but it is only natural that I do ask some questions since it involves a princess’ safety, is it not? Tell me, have you seen this photo on the counter before?”

A purple cloud of magic floated a flimsy piece of paper in front of Twilight. Even though she had only seen it once, she immediately recognized the balcony door in front of which the Alicorn sat, shyly smiling at whoever shot the picture. It was taken right in Luna’s quarters. A more thorough examination revealed little more, but she did notice that the small mark, the dip on the side where Luna had been gravely wounded was not there. Twilight decided that this photo had been taken before any of them had gotten to Baltimare.

“It’s the first time I've seem it. The first clear photo of Princess Luna that I've seen, in fact, barring the ones taken at her speech in Manehattan.”

Dirty tea was wrung out of the rag and into the sink before the cloth splatted back on the floor after a brief wash. “You know what I really noticed on that photo? The angle. Do you see it?” Sunrise Storm kept her head to the floor as she cleaned up Twilight’s mess.

I do, Twilight thought, contemplating what she knew and the way everypony, including her, always turned their suspicions to a certain person. “Somepony taller than Princess Luna took the picture.”

“Yes. Do you have any suggestions-”

Twilight smacked the photo on the table. “I don’t have to make any suggestions. The angle wouldn’t necessarily mean anything. I can take a photo from that angle myself. Levitation magic, remember? Princess Luna is smiling in the picture. Considering it was obviously taken before they left Canterlot, she would only do so for two others. Raegdan or Princess Celestia.”

The scrubbing ceased, unnecessary as it was. The floor was as clean as it could be. “A different reasoning from what I took, but sound. The photo was found in Sharp Chisel’s possession. Strange that the princess doesn’t want us to find more about this, but she insists on tracking the bombs that Sharp Chisel allegedly made as soon as possible in some way other than going after our only lead so far. Now, Solid Charge let me know that Raegdan-”

“Raegdan can’t use a camera,” Twilight immediately said, scowling. She didn’t bother explaining about how a camera worked and how Raegdan’s strange ability would make it a practice in futility. “I don’t know what you were thinking,” she lied, “but the photo must have been obviously taken by Princess Celestia.”

Sunrise Storm deflated. “Oh. I didn’t know that.” She forcibly blew air, making her lips flap. “Well, that was a wrong hypothesis then. Any idea how it could have ended in-”

“It could have ended in Sharp Chisel’s possession in a number of ways if someone wanted to provide him with a photo. Do you have any idea of the sheer number of ponies who wander around the castle at any given time?” Twilight said, expressing her displeasure at the line of questioning.

“But if the photo was in Princess Celestia’s possession—”

“Which is kept clean by maids? And that is if Princess Celestia even kept the photo there. Don’t forget that somepony must have developed the photo. Who can assure us that there weren’t any copies made? What if Princess Luna had kept it? We know for certain that somepony crept in there with ill intentions at least once, and many more times according to Princess Luna.”

Sunrise Storm smacked her forehead. Suspicion erupted in Twilight’s mind. The mare was pretending, she was certain. “Of course, I should have checked that. Thank you for the suggestion.”

“You are welcome,” Twilight said, nodding. She pushed her chair back as she got up. She was certain that the photo was taken by Princess Celestia. And she was certain it was no maid who took it, they were the most trustworthy of those who worked there. Nopony could get in Princess Celestia’s room without her permission. Almost nopony.

“A last question before you leave?” Sunrise Storm asked. “When we separated in teams Raegdan told us he would stick out on his own.”

“I’m… not surprised,” Twilight confessed, stopping before the kitchen’s door. “He’s very self-reliant, and he does much better when he doesn’t need to worry over others. He has been hunting in the Everfree Forest since forever. He’s going to be fine on his own.”

“I heard about that. How does he hunt, anyway? Does he set traps?”

Twilight shook her head, and chuckled as she remembered Applejack’s story of how they travelled through the wilderness on hoof on their way to find the Thestrals. “I haven’t seen it myself, but Applejack told me something. He went to hunt a couple of times while they were on their way to the Thestrals. She said that he uses, and I quote, ‘the using-yourself-as-bait method’. It’s just like him,” she said, laughing.

“Oh yes, he raised you, didn’t he?” Sunrise Storm smiled warmly. “Happy memories?”

“I’m sorry, it just makes so much sense!” Twilight was laughing merrily, the joy coming so much easier lately when she thought of those moments that they had for a long time. “I remember when we had a snowball fight. Even Princess Celestia joined in. Raegdan kept using himself as a diversion in order to get us to aim for him while the rest in their team went for us. Oh, you should have seen him. It’s a wonder he didn’t end up with frostbite!”

The small kitchen was filled with sounds of disbelieving snorting, and chuckles as the images formed and Twilight shared some more details. Sunrise Storm wiped a tear from her eye. “Ponies don’t change much, do they? If one trick works, why use another?”

Twilight headed for the door. “Yes. I guess you are right.” Raegdan was a creature of long habit. It wasn’t the first time he did something like that, and even then her thoughts went to the armor he wore. He made himself an obvious target.

She remembered the story of when he faced that cat creature in some other world, that broke his arm. He didn’t try to hide or set a trap. He made himself visible and waited for it, preferring to know where it would come from. Rainbow’s story of how he killed that manticore in the camp was about the same. He had found it by making himself a target. Raegdan didn’t go blindly searching after his opponents and into their hooves.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t more helpful,” Twilight said, opening the door and preparing to leave.

Sunrise Storm came to her side, escorting her out. “Don’t worry, you’ve been quite helpful,” the mare said.

Funny, Honest Serenade had said the same thing once.

Twilight was feeling like a chump once again. Had she missed something? She replayed the exchange with Sunrise Storm in her mind, and for some reason she kept thinking of Applejack. Something that her friend had said sometime. She focused. She remembered papers, disappointment, she was someplace gloomy and… and…

“How the hay did you notice that?” Twilight asked with wonder. The pages were so indecipherable, and similar to each other, that even now she could barely notice the repeat. This was expertly done. They had even added some sketches in random points to confuse the eye even more.

“Patterns,” Applejack said. “I’ll explain some other time. Let’s just say that having to check a few hundred of identical trees for signs of trouble every day, tends to leave you with a talent for seeing this kind of stuff.”

No. This couldn’t be it. That was crazy! Was Sunrise Storm really suspecting that Raegdan and Luna left themselves vulnerable on purpo—

The door leading out slammed open as a red and black hurricane forced its way in. The edge of the wooden door slapped Twilight’s face, and she barely missed having a tooth or two prodded off by the protruding knob. She dazily saw a pegasus shouting at the top of her lungs, with military pneumatic efficiency, while Twilight herself was watching her upside down, thrown against the wall and pressing her hoof against her pained muzzle.

Twilight called out for a smidgen of aid by announcing, “sumrfloglub,” to the room at large.

“All of you, front and center, now!” The red coated pegasus with a short black mane sounded not quite angry as much as impatient. She lorded in front of the entrance like a pegasus warrior of old, ready to crush anypony who dared defy her by simulating the fury of thunder and lightning on their faces.

Sunrise Storm hovered over Twilight, helping her move so she could be more comfortable and urging her to wait while she would go and get her some ice. “Snared Wish, you accidentally hurt somepony here.”

“What is going on?” Trailblazer asked, peeking out of his room, the unmistakeable smell of smoke quickly emanating from inside.

Tidal Wave opened his door and walked out, sniffing the air. “Trailblazer, we said no more fire spells! And what is all that shouting? I was going to nap.”

“Nopony naps! I had it up to here. You are all getting out of here tonight! Right now!” Snared Wish shouted over the others’ voices, flapping her wings as to gain a physical advantage in height.

“That’s why I was trying to get a nap!” Tidal Wave loudly complained. “We have that stupid training exercise tonight. Vacation time, my flank.”

“Sooner! You are all leaving, and you are leaving now!”

Trailblazer casted a spell in his room, the smell of smoke instantly fading, and he walked out. “Okay, just what is the matter?”

Snared Wish was on him in a second, her eye an inch away from his, instantly intimidating and cowering the taller unicorn. “What is the matter? The matter is that I haven’t had ‘we’ time with my husband for months! This is supposed to be a vacation, I’ve been patient and expected you all to get my little hints, but a mare can't stand even her own, lovingly cared for, leaf collection for so long, and I’m not waiting a moment longer. You are all leaving, and will allow me and my Shaded Swirl to finally have some ‘we’ time. Have I settled the matter enough for you?” she, very threateningly, pointed out.

The fire-maned unicorn backed off rapidly, a drop of sweat staining his forehead. “Does this ‘we’ time involve his ‘wee-wee’?”

“OUUUUUT!”

Sunrise Storm rose up, scowling deeply. The mare looked actually angry. “Snared Wish, go get me some ice and a few paper towels. She’s bleeding.”

Snared Wish finally noticed Twilight, bleeding from her muzzle, and instantly quieted down. “Uh, who is that?” she asked, remorse painting her tone and expression as she alternating between staring at Twilight and the door. “Celestia, I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you at all, I’m so, so sorry!”

“Let me introduce you to Twilight Sparkle,” Sunrise Storm said, moving to look down at Snared Wish with more than a hint of annoyance. “Bearer of the element of magic, student of Princess Celestia, personal friend of Princess Luna, and adopted daughter of Raegdan. Can I get that ice pack now?”

All color faded from Snared Wish’s face. “Wait, didn’t he shove a pony’s tail up his flank for… for… It was an accident! You will tell him and the princess, right? They’re not going to be mad, right?”

Cackling laughter burst from above. You could almost hear the tears on the griffin’s eyes as he laughed harder than he ever had, claws scratching the floor as he tried to control himself. “Ha! It looks like that you’re getting your wish in some way! Of course, it won’t be your hubby doing the fu—”

Rarity, humming contentedly to herself, picked up two of the glasses and rested one of them next to Princess Luna as she sank back into the large tub of the spa, next to the Alicorn that enjoyed the warm water, her eyes shut in bliss. A brief opening of her eyelids revealed brilliant teal as the crystal glass tinkled, its bubbly liquid popping soundlessly.

Fluttershy had sunk herself low enough in the water that her nostrils barely made it out of the surface. She rose up high enough to speak briefly before sinking back down again. “None for me, thank you.”
Rarity didn’t mind. If there was one thing better than a glass of cold champagne during hot tub, it was two glasses.

“I have no words to describe how this feels,” Princess Luna purred, sinking a little deeper in the water. Her mane floated on the surface of the water, making it look like a lake at midnight was forming around her. “Is this wine?”

“Champagne,” Rarity said, taking a sip and enjoying the cold sensation running down her throat while she was surrounded by warmth. “This is not normally allowed here. Bringing a princess to Lotus and Aloe has granted us some perks though.”

Princess Luna sipped tentatively, swirling the drink from cheek to cheek before swallowing and licking her lips. “Tis acceptable. It fits the mood. How did you call it again?”

“Champagne,” Rarity repeated, and retreated to her own seat near the Alicorn, leaning her head on the folded towel at the edge of the tub that served as a pillow. “You’ve never had it before?”

“I don’t believe so.” Luna half opened her eyes to look around with a sense of serenity. “I wonder how hard it would be to have something similar constructed in my tower.”

Rarity giggled. “From the looks of it, you have a couple of hard working stallions that like to get their hooves dirty. Gentlestallions such as they would not refuse undertaking such a worthwhile project for a princess.”

“I think Raegdan and Cast Iron would actually like it,” Fluttershy added. “They both look so much happier with what they do now.”

“Indeed they do, darling, don’t they? You could probably ask them for an even bigger one and they would jump at the chance, princess.”

Luna lifted the champagne glass in her magic, slowly rotating it and catching the soft light. The fluted crystal sparkled, and the champagne within glew like pale gold. The Alicorn opened her mouth and let some flow over her tongue, not touching the glass with her lips, hovering the glass over her awaiting mouth instead.

“Time. It is a vicious, unrelenting enemy.” Luna’s hoof splashed the water, warm droplets speckling her mellowed face. “And this is a luxury I might be better off without. My time is already overwhelmingly too little just for my current activities. Having a wonder like this freely available would only taunt me.” She smirked, resting back again. “But I would not be averse to revisiting this spa a few more times before I am to leave.”

Fluttershy’s cheeks had reddened with heat that had nothing to do with the water’s temperature as she watched the way the Alicorn—ahem—‘drank’. “Um, princess, you’re supposed to, um… bring the glass to your lips and drink…”

Luna sighed in disappointment and she hastily placed the half-empty glass on the glossy marble at the edge of the tub. "I only meant it as fun. I presume it is a taboo way to drink champagne?”

Rarity pursed her lips. “Mmm, it’s a… frowned upon way of drinking. Depending on the,” she coughed meaningfully, “company though.”

She was uncertain on whether Princess Luna gleamed her innuendo, but Luna still frowned heavily, her lips moving from left to right in distaste. “This is exactly what I mean. So much to catch upon, so many things to do.” The glass floated on her magic again, raised high over everypony’s heads. “How do you drink this, on which occasions, is it an expensive drink, are there more preferable varieties, what time of day is it favored upon, how much can you civilly drink, what is the etiquette upon receiving it… a hundred questions, all over a single drink.”

“It’s just champagne,” Rarity weakly said.

“And it is something you’ve grown with, steeped in the culture that contains it.” Luna nodded at Rarity, letting her know she didn’t mean any offense directed at her. “But I haven’t. So many things to catch on, never knowing which motion of mine might cause me to be portrayed as an imbecile.”

“Is… this why you don’t take part in any formal appearances like Princess Celestia? Or why you still don’t talk to the press?” Rarity suddenly understood. Of course Luna wouldn’t talk to the press or make any appearances in public! It had become obvious that the princess hated being looked down upon, and there were indeed some really repugnant parties among the mass media that would gladly encapsulate on the slightest error of hers to bloat up their sales.

Ah, so much made sense now. It was simplicity itself to understand why Luna would rather savage anypony who asked her questions or approached too much as she used to do so recently. As much as equally scandalous as this degree of violence from royalty would be, it would be something she did by choice rather than an ‘oafish mistake’, and it kept those cowardly journalist weasels away from her.

Rarity had to admit to herself that maybe she was a little rough on how she thought of those ponies, but dammit, their review of her latest line still scathed.

“Partly,” Luna admitted. “The other reason is, once more, time.” The Alicorn stayed quiet for a while, casually making small waves with her legs.

After a minute of quiet she spoke again. “I take lessons, you know.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?” Fluttershy asked, slowly paddling closer and to the other side of Luna, across from Rarity. “What kind of lessons?”

“Everything. Etiquette lessons from Red Dawn. Modern Royal Guard strategies and tactics from Stalwart Shield and Short Order. Griffin relations from Gobrend. Everything about the Diamond Dogs that Raven Moon can tell me. Every little bit of knowledge that wandering ponies like Blank Slate can share. Conversations with Solid Charge, Trixie, Shaded Swirl, Tick and Tack, Eventide… And of course I follow Celestia in every other available second I have, watching and learning. Everything I can possibly get, all among my other duties.” Luna rested against the side of the tub, looking tired just from being reminded of her courses.

“I’m sure it will be worth it in the end, Princess.” Rarity smiled encouragingly, laying her hoof on top of Luna’s for a moment.

“Luna, please. Just call me Luna. I’m not sure if it is worth it now,” Luna darkly said. She was looking far away. “We started fighting.”

“It has been on the newspapers,” Fluttershy needlessly added.

The Alicorn’s expression darkened in puzzlement, looking thrown off her loop for a second before chuckling. “No, I didn’t mean that. I mean… with Raegdan.”

“Oh, this is absurd,” Rarity immediately said. “Raegdan simply adores you.”

“I haven’t spent almost any time with him at all in all those months. So much to learn if I truly desire to get better, and… I’m ashamed to admit that I cast him aside. He had nothing to teach me of what I wished to learn. Instead, I gave him more responsibilities. To spearhead the design and construction of our armories, to plan our excursions, to help train our guards even closer.

“I fear he believes I’m keeping him away. He is angry. He keeps it in check, but I know. And knowing that, I… I become angry myself. It never became a full blown fight, we never actually addressed these issues. We just gritted our teeth and kept on. Mayhaps we both hoped our stay here would ease our relation.”

Luna paddled the water once more. “But instead he spurns me and spends all his time with… I’m being unfair, am I not? He has missed Twilight and Spike so much. I shouldn’t be keeping this against them. They are not at fault here.”

Fluttershy, sweet, timid Fluttershy, swam next to Rarity and whispered in her ear, full of concern for her good friend. “Um… Rarity? I don’t think it’s proper to stare at Luna like that… Actually, your eyes kinda shine like a timberwolf’s...Like, a dark, sinister light, only it seems to swallow everything else...” Fluttershy meekly reached for a towel. “I’m going to the bathroom, I’ll be back… later,” she announced.

Oh, how Rarity knew that her patience would be rewarded. That her resolution and inspiration would be needed, nay, demanded! She flicked her wet, purple mane to the side, and in one smooth move was right next to Luna, her hoof draped comfortably across the mare’s back.

“Oh, Luna. Of course it is natural that Raegdan would wish to spend as much of his time with those he hasn’t had the chance to do so. But it is not right nor proper to have a pony worth so much to him laid so casually aside, is it?” Rarity’s voice was as thick and sweet as honey.

“I… will not refute the possibility that I may have had these thoughts…”

“Thus, nopony would blame you if you appropriated some of his time to spend together in a more personal setting, hmm?”

Luna ducked under and away from Rarity’s grasp. “I believe I should remind you, before you go any further into your proposal, that we currently sleep right under Twilight’s and Spike’s very sensitive ears…”

“No, no, no. Darling, you misunderstand me!” Rarity cried out in a dazzling display of showmanship as she caught Luna’s face between her hooves.

Luna spoke through her lips, crushed together as they were through Rarity’s hold, with some difficulty. “I am fairly thertain that thith ith both undignified and irregular.”

“Dream with me,” Rarity crowed, turning around and bringing her hooves around in a hold that smashed Luna’s face between Rarity’s foreleg and torso. Luna’s eyes were wide at the astonishing amount of strength that Rarity unconsciously used. “Visualize! A white tablecloth with no more than two tall candles to softly illuminate the setting. Music dancing its way to you from further away, strings singing a song of the heart. An opulent dish, the finest cuisine available, served on delicate, expensive china, its fragrance wafting and bolstering your appetites, mixed indelibly with gentle flowers around you. The pull of the softest of fabrics as the finest dress rests upon you, accentuating your lithe form and gentle curves, with silver resting on your brow and ears. And across you, dressed immaculately, his attention fixated solely upon you—”

“Wait,” Luna interrupted, her hoof raised and her words making bubbles on the water as Rarity held her a smidge too low. “I’ve heard of what you describe before. You mean…”

“Yes!” Rarity cried again, swivelling the far taller and heavier pony around her with as much ease as she would a scarf. “Exactly, darling! A date that will make everypony weep in envy. I will, of course, gladly aid in making whatever small arrangements are needed.”

“You expect me to ask him on—”

“Stars forbid, my dear! He’s the stallion, he will do so. Your part will constitute of staying radiant and graciously humoring his humble request!”

“... This will not happen in a million years,” Luna declared. “He will never do this. He wouldn’t do it even if I asked him. Which I won’t. This simply cannot happen in any conceivable reality.”

Rarity patted the top of the princess’ head, too far gone to realize what she was doing, although she would be mortified enough later when she finally laid on her bed after an hour or two of straining activity. “Leave this to me. You wouldn’t believe what a few whispers at the opportune moment can achieve. Stallions are so easy to manip—to divert their attention to their perceived shortcomings. They will rush on their own to do your bidding thinking it was their idea to begin with.”

“Opportune moment?”

“Tut, tut. Allow me a secret or two of my own, please.”

“Even if this absurdity were to pass, I’ve never even worn a dress, so I don’t own—Ah, of course. Should I presume it is ready even as we speak?”

Rarity chuckled. “You overestimate me, princess.” Rarity’s smile faded instantly, overtaken by her ‘business’ composure. “I need you to come in for the fitting as soon as possible.”

Luna’s magic brought her forgotten glass back to her, and she drank greedily. “Can we please let this go? I have more important issues to ponder than a,” she almost whispered, her voice turning tiny, “a date!”

“Well, of course—”

Luna sighed in relief. “Thank y—”

“—not!” Rarity waited, her eyes burning into Luna’s own, a manic smile on her lips. Luna would of course make the right choice, the only choice. It would be as it should be, as every story said, and Rarity would be there, right in the center like a scheming spid—a true and loyal friend who only wanted to make others happy.

Luna’s teeth were savaging her bottom lip as her surface desires fought with her deeper ones, her slow blush almost turning her dark blue color into a royal purple. “...Is it a pretty dress?”

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessss…

Twilight was on the verge of winning the battle for dominance over Luna. Despite the protests of the Alicorn, Twilight knew that she was in the right, and she refused to let victory out of her grasp.

“Twilight Sparkle, we agreed that I would be allowed to make thy meals for as long as we stayed here, did we not?” Luna repeated her argument once more.

Twilight grabbed the last of her shopping bags with her teeth—too far gone to think of using magic—and put it on the kitchen table. “Yes,” she mumbled through the thick paper, “but, first: We agreed on that by saying ‘starting tomorrow’, and two: I am not going to let yourself get steamed in cooking vapor and fumes today. Rarity would have my hide if I allowed this right after you came out of the spa.”

“Rarity can’t—”

“My hide!” Twilight interrupted loudly. She started putting everything at its proper and long-defined place. She questioned why storing packages in the cabinets had suddenly become so much more of a hassle when she realized she still wasn’t using her magic. “It’s not even time for supper yet. I will make something light for all of us later, you could at least allow me to attempt to cook for you at least once, right?”

“I don’t enjoy sitting around like this,” Luna petulantly grumbled.

“Tough. You’re supposed to relax on vacations. Raegdan should have let me and Spike hire some ponies instead of doing all this work himself. I think you both have gotten the idea that you’re only supposed to be idle when on a hospital bed.”

Luna blinked. “That is… not necessarily true.”

The library door no longer creaked, but the new and still unsettled floorboards announced somepony’s presence. Twilight headed for the main hall of the library to welcome back Raegdan, and ask him exactly where had he vanished. From what she got when they were done with their little trip to the school, Raegdan came back to keep working while everypony else was doing their own things. Spike spent most of his day with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, but when he returned, a little while ago actually, Raegdan was gone.

“True or not,” Twilight continued as she made her way out, “you will leave this to me for tonight. I can make a—”

A blood-soaked figure had entered the library. Its clothes might have been been blacks and greys once, but now they were dark crimson. There was a smell, not just the coppery, tangy smell of blood that suffocated her nostrils, but something deeper and subtle. Twilight was certain that bloody prints would be left behind the horrid sight, though a trembling glance proved her wrong. Whatever the reason, not a single drop had dripped.

Her tongue had gone numb, and it was only Spike’s voice as he yelled out in excitement that finally spurred her mouth to move.

“Is that Dad? Is he back?” the baby dragon yelled from the second floor. Twilight heard a thump, probably from Spike jumping off her bed, where he comfortably laid and read his comics.

“Spike, stay up there,” she shouted.

“Huh?”

“Stay up there!” she repeated even louder. She lowered her voice, hissing almost. “What in Celestia’s name happened to you?”

“I slipped and the bucket spilled all over,” Raegdan said, pulling at the fabric he wore. There was a squelch, and even though it was the exact sound soaked cotton did, it made her almost physically ill nevertheless. “Look, there was that chimera’s corpse, the one that went after Applejack? We put it in a shack, and I finally went to clean it up and, well, I just finished. Can I go take a shower before little flame sees this? You weren’t supposed to see me either…” he finished, spreading his arms in apology.

“Did anypony spot you looking like… that?” Twilight asked, covering her mouth with her hoof. Her stomach was queasy, and she almost felt something coming up her throat.

“A couple. So what? We’ll say it was paint if it troubles you.”

“Just… Just go get cleaned up,” she ordered, and watched as Raegdan obediently headed for the bathroom, using only one of his fingers to pull the door open and stooped to pass through the low threshold.

Then she went down to the basement, and spent a few minutes trying to find where he had stacked his belongings among the rubble that he hadn’t moved to make space for him and Luna as much as push away haphazardly. A change of clothes suddenly hovered next to her, caught in Luna’s magic. The Alicorn had come down, found what Twilight was looking for, and got them ready, and Twilight didn’t notice her. She picked the simple clothing in her own magic field, ignoring Luna’s expression of concern. She rushed past her, up to the ground floor, and knocked on the bathroom door after leaving the clothes in front of it.

Then she ran outside, sat next to the water spout at the back of the library, and heaved. There wasn’t much in her stomach, but the little that was in it gushed out. Twilight used the hose to clean up the mess, watching the liquefied remains of her previous snack get diluted and absorbed by the ground. She turned the hose on her next, washing her face and cleaned her mouth of the foul taste. When she was done she let the water run, the quiet splash on what quickly became mud a welcoming soothing noise to momentarily cover up her turmoiled thoughts.

He probably looked just like that after he was done torturing those ponies.

It didn’t matter how he looked. It didn’t matter if seeing him like this was almost exactly like the time she had gone down to the dungeons to find him, despite hating the smell of blood, and seeing him over a stringed up… torso that she had been certain belonged to no animal, and, and, and…

She tried to retch again, but all she managed was a little spit and a harsh cough. She washed her mouth again, gingerly swallowing a small mouthful despite her stomach’s protests.

You said you were going to wait until he had helped Luna. Until she had other ponies to keep her safe. She has her Guard now. It’s over. When are you going to tell Princess Celestia?

Twilight didn’t want to tell the Princess. At least, at least not yet. Not until she had figured out some stuff for her own.

Like Mom?

Oh, Celestia, what was she going to do? Her mother had told her that she would gladly accept any outcome, that it was her actions and that Twilight only had the obligation to do what was right, but how could Twilight do it anyway? How could she be the reason that her mom ended up in a cell?

Why don’t you mind the same about Raegdan? Why aren’t you that upset over him?

She almost choked on her breath. Why didn’t she? Didn’t she care for him?

She did! She absolutely did! She loved him, he raised her, it was just that… that…

You know that Raegdan won’t stand and let anypony imprison him, not for as long as he should be if he’s found guilty. You know he won’t allow himself to be executed either, even if Princess Celestia went insane and let it happen. As for banishment, he would laugh at the idea. Nopony tells him where he can or can’t go. You know that he will—

—Find a way out. He’s good at that. He would escape at worst and find residence somewhere where no reasonable pony would go find him, like the Everfree Forest. And even if he didn’t go in there, who would be able to catch him except Princess Celestia herself without risking lives, and that’s even if she was able to find him first? No, for Raegdan, this would only be a temporary hurdle. That’s why he didn’t mind if Twilight spoke up after his job was done. That’s why he wanted to take all the blame on himself and leave Twilight’s mother out of it or whoever else had helped him.

Then why do you want to snitch on him? Why do you want so desperately to betray him like this when you know that he will not be punished?

I don’t want him punished! That’s not why I’m doing this! I want to do this because it is the right thing to do.

Is it?

It is!

Then why aren’t you sure?

How can I be sure? Look at this mess; Innocent fillies freed from a torture by the worst of scum through bloodshed and torture. Yet it wasn’t done for the cause of saving them, though it was done nonetheless! It was done for revenge and blood, it was done with the foulest methods, for foul reasons, and worst of all it was done because of her. It saved innocents, yes, but Raegdan was as bad as they were in his way, or worse! Yet she loved him! Didn’t anypony get it? Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Pinkie, none of them got it! Twilight loved Raegdan despite what he had done!

What about the ponies who loved those horrible monsters that her own monster killed? What about them? What of their Twilights and Spikes? Would they never know what happened? Should they?

It wasn’t right what he did, but something right came out of it even so, and she didn’t know what to feel, she didn’t know what to think, she didn’t know if—

—If it was right or wrong. You don’t know if it was true or false. One or two. Black or white. You don’t want to believe in a grey world. So, you need to be told. You don’t want to do this so that the law will decide if he is guilty or not. Nothing will truly come out of it, and the law can be tricked and played with. You know him too much. You want to do this because—

—Because I want Princess Celestia to know. Because I want her to say if it was wrong or right. Because I need a definite answer. Because finding it on my own hurts too much, and there is no book that holds the answer to this kind of question.

Are you any better though? You will do this to someone you claim to love and care for, because most of all what you want is an answer? You will strike him like that, even if he’s willing to take the hit, when he has shown you nothing but love? Is this how you will repay him?

It was not as simple. Twilight was coming to realize that now. Maybe nothing was simple any more. Maybe it never had been. But she yearned for it to be so much. She needed to know if what Raegdan did was right or wrong, if she should have done things differently to spare him and others, if she was right to care for him, if it was right to keep Spike at a hoof’s distance away from him, if, if, if…

A thousand questions that she couldn’t answer. So she wanted an easy one. Yes or no.

Twilight reached for the valve and stopped the water flowing out of the abandoned hose. Her two right legs had been soaked in mud. Her left legs were still, by pure chance, on ground that had been left dry, and they were clean.

She should have had these thoughts long ago. Twilight could not comprehend why she hadn’t. Too fresh, she imagined. It was as if she had been lost in a haze as far as this matter was concerned for the last few months, the veil only recently lifting, letting her properly think.

And she still wasn’t able to make her mind.

Maybe… Maybe after some more time, she thought. Let them have their vacation. Wait until the Lunar Guard has some more experience. Until he does something about the rifts. Delay until you have another excuse.

Yeah, well… She deserved a few breaks. She’d take it.

Twilight went back inside the library, after making sure she had cleaned herself up and wiped her hooves dry on the doormat. She hoped that her absence would have gone unnoticed, but apparently she had lost track of time. Raegdan was already out of the bathroom and in clean clothing, the mask he wore still damp despite being wrung dry. He was sitting on the largest and plushiest chair that Twilight owned, the only one that could fit him comfortably. Spike was lying down across his torso, using the cranny of Raegdan’s left elbow as a pillow while he read from a pile of comics. Raegdan held one of them himself, holding it aloft so he could read without bothering Spike.

Luna had laid out on the couch, working through a notebook with a pencil caught between her lips and drawing a small line or adding a few letters every now and then while the thick notebook hovered over her face.

The moment that Twilight entered, Spike gave an offhand greeting that Twilight barely noticed. What she did notice was the nearly imperceptible look that Luna and Raegdan exchanged. The Alicorn sat up on the couch, patting the empty space next to her.

“Come, Twilight. Sit with us. It’s what we’re supposed to do, is it not?” Her easy smile disarmed her words of any possible stings.

Twilight thanked her, crashing on the couch with relief. She felt tired, physically as well as mentally. At least she thought so. It might just have been how her desire to curl under her blankets and sleep all decisions and problems away, though. She had been doing that for months, after all. Celestia only knew what had gotten into her.

Raegdan’s tongue struck against the top of his mouth in disgust. “Really?” he asked in tired disbelief. “The Mane-iac again? These all follow each other, right? They just caught her. Where do they put her, in a paper maché cell?”

“It’s part of her whole shtick.” Spike’s tongue wet his claw and turned to the next page without looking at Raegdan. “She always escapes and comes back. Even if she’s in an explosion, she soon returns. The guy at the comic store says that it’s possible she’s got immortality as part of her powers.”

Raegdan’s eyes narrowed. “Or she doesn’t and pretend she does. Do they ever lock her anywhere else than this Arkhay place?”

Spike rested his comic against his chest for a moment. “Nope, don’t think so.” He went back to reading. “It’s where they always put her.”

“No wonder she keeps escaping, then. She deals with idiots. At this point I only try to understand if she’s the bigger idiot for being caught in the first place.”

“It’s not like that,” Spike whined, not enjoying his favorite series being thrashed. “They always add new measures, alarms, guards, everything. She always escapes. She’s too devious!”

Raegdan squinted on that for a beat. “... Do they ever change the locks?”

Spike paused. “They haven’t mentioned that specifically in the comics so far…”

“No prison ever changes the locks. Bitch hides a set of copies under a doormat or something. No wonder she walks out at any time,” Raegdan declared.

Luna’s silver shoe double tapped against the other, causing Raegdan to lift his chin. “Raegdan, language,” she chided, openly nodding towards Spike.

“Heard worse,” the baby dragon immediately said, casually flipping another page.

“Still, bad slip,” Raegdan apologized with a glower on his frowny face that was directed at himself.

Twilight lifted her head. She didn’t like the atmosphere in the room. There was tension in the air, probably emanating from her. Spike hadn’t caught on, yet that didn’t mean he wouldn’t if this continued. Twilight glanced at Luna, who kept herself busy in her own quiet way. A strand of mane fell over her face. Nothing new, but the light curliness of it was. Lotus and Aloe had preferred to keep Luna’s hairstyle almost barely different, but the subtle effect was still powerful, perhaps because of that same subtlety.

Luna’s mane had been lightly curled, in a way that gave the starry landscape an illusion of increased volume and of space being distorted. As Luna breathed, a star would be lost behind another, only to reappear as she inhaled. It was as if dozens of dawns and sunsets happened every few seconds.

Her coat had been thoroughly cleaned, brushed, and given a deep gloss, making it seem a touch lighter where the light struck it, but a deeper, more velvet coloration at the edges, shining almost like polished metal.

“You look beautiful. Lotus and Aloe overdid themselves. I love how your mane is now. Not that it wasn’t great before, just… saying.” Twilight smiled awkwardly.

So did Luna, and the pencil on her mouth ripped the paper. She spat it out, blushing furiously. “Th-Thank you. Rarity said so as well, but… but it’s good to hear it from another.” Her eyes tried to move, but Luna got them under control and chose to stare at the naked floor instead.

Okay, this I get. I know what to do here, Twilight thought. “Hey, Raegdan, what do you think?” Twilight loudly asked. “Doesn’t Luna look amazing tonight? She went to the spa today.”

All I'm missing is a sign to hold that says ‘say something nice!’, Twilight thought with a frozen smile.

Raegdan barely glanced at Luna for a second before returning to his comic book. “Yeah, I know. Did you have fun?”

“It was… enjoyable,” Luna said towards the kitchen door, an edge of disappointment in her voice.

“Doesn’t her mane look fantastic like that?” Twilight wondered how much more heavily could she hint at this point. A little more and she might have been better off by giving him a written script to recite.

Spike looked up, smiling as he tilted his head left and right. “Yeah, it looks really great!”

“Yep,” Raegdan dryly said, twisting his fingers so he could flip to the next page one-handed.

Twilight huffed. Well, so be it. She could do some damage control, and then explain a thing or two to Raegdan in private. “Well, I think Luna looks absolutely stunning.”

“Yeah, sure.” Raegdan coughed a sound between a chuckle and a scoff, with a train stop at derision hill, offering a great view to the sneering sea. “So what? You think that’s because of the spa place? Luna always looks great. Waste of money if you ask me. I could do that.” He furiously shook the comic book, trying to get the pages unstuck while Spike called out for him to stop in dismay.

… And he fixed it without meaning to, Twilight inwardly observed, surprised indeed at the level of lightness and comfort that Luna suddenly exuded. Raegdan’s blunt and matter-of-fact remark had an effect much greater than any carefully crafted compliment would. Luna caught her notebook back in her magic and started scratching notes once more, this time much more lively and humming a pleased tune.

For a few minutes, everything was almost right. Everypony was doing his or her own thing, separately yet together in comfortable silence. Twilight had picked a book at random, not minding whatever topic she would pick out of a few books she had chosen for that exact purpose, only looking to waste time.

Then somepony knocked at the door.

A glance around her was enough for Twilight to confirm that nopony was expecting anypony. She made her way to the door, opening it with some wariness, seeing as how the sun had set.

A bright white and large Alicorn was waiting patiently outside. Princess Celestia lowered her head, smiling apologetically. “I’m not intruding, I hope? I know it’s a little late.” She snickered behind her hoof. “I did it, after all.”

“Princess Celestia? What are you doing here?”

The Princess waved her right wing towards the west. “Seeing how today’s work is over and done with, I was hoping I could… spend some time here with all of you tonight? I only have a few hours available, and I am forced to beg for a small corner for me to sleep off the night. If you’ll have me, of course?”

Twilight stepped aside, allowing Princess Celestia to come through the low—for her size—threshold. Luna was surprised to see her, but fortunately not in a bad way. “Sister? Is something the matter?”

“No, nothing at all, Luna. I managed to clear a few hours from my schedule, and I thought… well. I made these!” Princess Celestia revealed a platter that she kept hidden behind her back. Her golden magic removed the small towel covering it, revealing a respectable mound of sandwiches. “Supper, anypony?”

Spike jumped off his spot for a quick hug and a few of the offered gifts, immediately finding and picking those that had gems inside and saving the others’ teeth. Twilight picked a couple for herself, and even Raegdan accepted a few, making a counter offer at the same time.

“Comic?” he asked, holding one for her.

“Oh, thank you. Is that the one where the Mane-iac escapes?” Princess Celestia started flipping through it, taking a seat on the couch next to Luna.

“Don’t you start,” Raegdan warned.

The night Alicorn wasn’t eating yet. She had opened one of the sandwiches and gazed at the inside with a forlorn smile. She didn’t look she was going to stop soon.

Twilight gave into her curiosity, and opened the one she had half-eaten. She saw the remains of a smiley face made out of cheese staring back at her. She giggled. Her mom used to do the same.

“Any special plans for tonight?” Princess Celestia asked, looking at the innovations with interest. “Do you have a night out planned or perhaps some activity?”

“Yes,” Luna said playfully. “The program tonight consists of just relaxing.”

Princess Celestia practically half-melted on the couch, sagging in relief. “Oh, thank goodness. I’m exhausted.” She picked up her own comic, uncaring of the idea that a Diarch read comic books for children. “Who am I bunking with tonight? I am too tired to fly back until morning.”

“What happened to your fancy chariot pullers?” Raegdan asked. “Their backs finally gave up the ghost?”

“No, you ‘flatterer’. I gave them the night off. I wanted to relax, not keep parading.”

“You should have used them to bring you here at least, sister. Then I could lend you some of my own guards for the return trip.”

“See how nice it is when you have your own?”

“Umm… I’m not sure if my bed will fit you, Princess.”

Princess Celestia smiled at Raegdan, fluttering her eyelids.

“Fine, you can take my sleeping spot. I’ll take the couch,” Raegdan allowed. Princess Celestia whooped, and she missed Raegdan lowering his voice and half-whispering to Spike. “Wait till she sees I actually sleep on the floor. I bet you she’ll kick me off the couch in a second.”

Spike took the last bite out of his first sandwich. “Or she will just sleep on top of you.”

“Sh—oot. You’re right. There goes my spine.”