I tapped my hoof on the slightly ajar door of Steve and Dawn's room.

The wooded door creaked as it fell from its frame, and onto the floor in front of it. Giving me a full view of the aftermath of their tussle.

The two sofas, usually facing each other, were toppled and strewn into the corner. One of them was completely broken in two. The glass table that was before placed between the two seats lay on its side, the glass shattered and piled under the remaining framework of metal.

The fridge was on its front, liquids from the various toppled foods inside leaked out the seams and onto the kitchen floor. The area around the oven, including the oven itself, was blackened and charred. Every draw, cupboard and cabinet was open and had its contents spread across the kitchen floor, every breakable piece of crockery was in at least two pieces; even some of the metal tools and containers bared dents and gashes. And somehow, the kitchen sink was... well... it was gone. There was simply a square hole left in the marble worktop and a small pipe extruding from it, spewing a steady stream of water a couple inches into the air.

Some of the walls themselves had large holes and scratches on them. The window that over-looked the city was a fragile spider-web of cracks.

The couple, in the middle of the room, surrounded by that mess, looked across to me as the door loudly clattered to the floor inside the room.

Dawn had Steve held in a rather painful-looking position. He laid flat on the floor, she stood on her hind legs, pressing one into his back just between his wings, the other into the back of his skull, pressing his jaw into the carpet. She held her weapon threateningly above him, daring him to try and move.

As Dawn looked to me, smiling to herself, Steve attempted to do the same, but with a much more defeated face. He could not turn his neck however, due to Dawn's hoof. After another show of dominance from Dawn (in the form of a light kick to the back of the head) he stopped trying to turn to me, and instead simply faced an eye in my direction.

"You two...erm... done?" I asked from the doorway.

Dawn nodded happily. "Yep. As much as I'd love to continue I think I made my point." She said, stepping off of Steve. She made sure to make it as awkward for Steve as possible by shifting all of her weight onto one hoof as she stepped. She plopped back down onto all fours and Steve stood, looking slightly dazed. "We have decided that we should wait for Dan before releasing any music and we should practice whatever we want to, if we feel we need to." She said proudly, giving Steve a couple glares.

"Oh, okay, I'm okay with that." I said, taking a look about the room. "What are you going to do about... this?" I gestured to the wrecked room.

They both did a full 360, taking in the room. Steve groaned, "We've done it again, haven't we?"

Dawn nodded and sighed. "Mhm, we've done it again." She rolled her eyes and frustratedly walked out of the room, brushing past me. "I'll go get some towels. Rose, go tell the guards to send a clean-up crew. I did it last time." She called as she entered the halls.

Steve hung his head and exhaled in annoyance. He walked up next to me, putting a tired claw on my shoulder. "Sorry about this Eb, but I'd get out of here if I were you. Or you'll be dragged into the..." He sighed, "...cleanup."

He patted my shoulder and kept walking. Disappearing into the halls.

I turned and began heading back to our... well, my room. It was almost lunch time. I can probably get Steve to whip up another plate of stuff for lunch, he likely cooks his own lunch anyway. He's a good cook.

I turned a corner, my room's door was now visible, along-side Chromes. There was a mustard colored pony outside my door, knocking on it as if it were a deadly animal, very timidly.

I slowly and quietly approached the mystery pony. He had a cutie-mark of a shiny record-disc. Tapping him on the shoulder, "What do you need?" I asked as he turned his head to face me rather rapidly.

He froze.

"Erm, are you okay?" I asked his wide-eye'd look.

His hoof, which was still placed on the door began rapping on the door slightly louder. He never broke eye contact.

I focused for a second. Analyzing the air. Fear. Great.

"Are you here for Dan?" I asked, trying to sound as un-threatening as possible.

He stopped knocking on the door and turned his whole body to face me, backing up against the door. He nodded, "Y- yes. Please don't hurt me." His voice was barely even audible. He seemed to cower under me, despite the fact he was actually slightly taller than me.

I shook my head, "I assure you, I mean you no harm. I am Dan's partner, though Dan himself is... well, he's away at the moment. You can talk to me instead, since I assume you are here because of the whole 'band' thing we have going?" I said, pointing to his cutie-mark.

He remained silent for a couple seconds. Breathing heavily.

He closed his eyes, gathering himself, before exhaling and slowly opening his eyes. He instantly became paralyzed again. He settled for simply nodding slowly instead of forming words.

I sighed, seeing this guy was just legitimately scared of me.

I walked up to the door behind him, he rushed out of my way as soon as I advanced in his direction. I opened the door, took a couple steps and turned around. Luckily, he was still there, peering in. "You can come in, if you want. We can talk about this." I said, moving out of the way for him to pass.

He very slowly came in, skirting around me slightly. He bee-lined for a certain spot on the sofa, he had clearly been in there before. I sat across from him, as not to get too close, he clearly didn't like being near me.

"What did you need to discuss?" I asked, trying to sound pleasant.

He tapped his front hooves together, not making eye contact with me. "I... I wanted t-to ask D-Dan if he... if he had made more music yet."

I shook my head. "Sorry, mister..." I held out a hoof, waiting for a name.

He took a couple seconds, but eventually forced a whispered, "Veiled Alloy, sir." under his breath.

I smiled, but made sure to keep my teeth concealed. "Sorry, Alloy, but we have not made any music." He slumped slightly, but stopped himself, not wanting to let his guard down. "Also Dan is... he's in prison."

His eyes widened. "What?!" He quickly covered his mouth with his hooves. "Sorry. B-but... prison?" He mumbled through his hooves to me.

I nodded sadly. "Yeah he er... well, he got drunk and did some things he wouldn't usually do, let's just leave it that."

He nodded, not wanting to know the details. "So... what about the band? What about what he said? He told everypony he'd have music by now..." He was being a lot more open now that we were discussing music, better keep the topic stable.

"He's the leader of the band, so we're waiting for him to get back. He could be away for... well... to be completely honest, there is a chance he'll never return..."

He hung his head and mumbled into his chest. "Emerald was so happy with me... I finally made it big..."

I tilted my head. "Emerald?"

He looked up and me and blinked. "Oh... sorry, I didn't mean to... You kn- know her?" And now he's awkward again. Good job Ebony.

"No, I don't." I said, apologetically. "I didn't mean to pry."

He frowned. "No-no, it's... it's fine. She's... she's my special-somepony." He didn't sound very happy about it though. His eyes drifted to the small table between us. "You... you know if Dan still had that... guitar, was it?" He asked hopefully.

I nodded to him. "Yeah, he gave the acoustic one to me. I'm still learning." I said, shrugging slightly.

He stood up. "Oh, okay, I just wanted to know how things were going over here. I guess I'll be off."

I narrowed my eyes. Look at that, a complete sentence without a single stutter, and right after I talked about the guitar too. I guess this guy just really likes music. After noticing I had let my facial features show how intrigued I was about how his mind worked, I quickly righted the size of my eyes and leveled out my mouth. "Oh okay, bye I guess." I said, waving shortly.

He shot me a nervous grin as he left through the still open door. He seemed relieved to finally leave, even though it had been a rather short discussion.

I hit myself internally. I have an entire fridge-full of food. I could have gave him some, it's no use to me.

I entered my bedroom and retrieved my guitar from under the bed. I pulled in out as I slowly sat on the edge of the mattress, setting the instrument on my lap. I recited the songs Dan had attempted to teach me. I still had to really concentrate, since my magic was... not very strong, since I barely used it. Years of being disguised as a non-unicorn will do that to a pony.

I was trying to remember the next note of a song, when I heard something in the back of my head.

"Ebony."

I smiled. "Yes, my queen?"

"Luna requests your presence, she says she has news concerning Dan. She is waiting in the palace throne room. I will let you two have your time; I know you worry for Dan."

I stood from the bed, placing the guitar back under it with my magic. "Thank you, my queen."

I quickly made my to to the door of my room. I pulled it open and made my way through the halls. I had just passed Chrome's room when I heard the door open. I turned to look; Chrome and Feather both exited the room and started heading towards me. I slowed down to let them catch up.

They pulled up either side of me as we walked. "Where're you going Eb?" Chrome asked cheerfully, it wasn't often we met in the halls, since the palace was so expansive.

I turned to him and tried to lighten up my serious tone, to match his happy exterior. "Luna has news on Dan, Elder Queen Vicissit says she's waiting in the throne room for us."

Both of their eyes widened. "Well, we'd better get going then!" Feather said, gaining speed. Me and Chrome moved into a trot to keep up with her.

We practically ran to the throne room doors. We paused outside the doors.

Chrome eye'd the doors and their many human-foot shaped scuffs and scratches. They were covered up very well, but you could see them if you knew what to look for. A guard saw the looks we were all giving the doors.

"Those things are still leg-proof, you know?" He said. "Unless you want a headache or a broken spine, I suggest you use the door normally. As entertaining as it is to watch, it damages the doors and we're not supposed to let you do that." He pointed to me. "You got lucky today, changeling."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Don't pretend like you don't recognize me, Steel." I said, smirking slightly.

He blinked, tilting his head.

I slumped. "Ebony. Ebony Towers? I guarded Dan with you." I said, trying to get him to remember.

He just hummed uninterested before returning to his normal guarding pose. He never was very... nice.

I just sighed and pushed open the door. Feather and Chrome followed me in, either ignoring what happened with Steel or just not wanting to get involved. Getting information on Dan was number-one priority after all.

Sure enough, there was Luna. She was in the middle of the room, smiling at as. She looked rather tired. We all walked into the room and stopped a couple feet from her. She walked over to Chrome and leaned down. The nuzzled affectionately. I almost lost control of my knees. If I could get a hold of even a smidgen of that love...

"Good afternoon you three." Luna said, backing up and addressing us all. "I trust you are here to receive information about Dan?"

We all nodded.

She smiled, but her voice remained low and remorseful. "He has been sent to a high-security prison due north of here. They say the prisoners are kept separate at all opportunities, so Dan is unlikely to be harmed." We all smiled at that. "I waited all last night and this morning, and eventually Dan slept. Unfortunately, I could not completely enter his dream, only partially, due to the fields of protective magic encompassing the prison, but I was able to receive a rather scrambled message from him. It detailed, to put it simply, that he is fine. Though he was very adamant that I told everyone that everything was fine. I'm not to sure why-" she began to continue, but I raised a hoof, cutting her off.

"Are you sure that's all he said?" I asked, deadly serious.

She blinked a couple times, the ponies either side of me stared at my interruption. "Erm... yes, I talked to him for a good 20 minutes or so. And that was the only thing of particular note I got from him." Luna continued, sounding rather worried. "Is something wrong?"

I racked my brain.

"Something's up." I said. "He'd never say that."

Chrome stepped forward. "If everything were fine, he would have found something to complain about. Even in the most dire of situations. If he isn't complaining about anything, that means..."

"-it means he doesn't want us to worry." Feather interrupted. "He cares about us and probably does not want us to stress over his problems."

Chrome turned to Feather, a frantic look on his face. "But if he wants us not to worry, there must be something for us to worry about in the first place!"

I nodded in agreement. Luna looked about our small trio, unable to form a response.

Feather put a hoof on Chromes shoulder. "Chrome, he's in prison, of course there is something for us to worry about. I think he just wants us to be able to be happy while he's gone." She said with a sad smile.

Chrome huffed and hung his head. "I'm sorry... I just..." He choked on his words. "I already miss him Feather!" He wailed as he threw himself over Feather, who caught the limp pegasus. Feather gave Luna a pleading look. This shook Luna out of whatever thought she was in.

A blue light surrounded Chrome and he was lifted away from Feather and over to Luna. She placed the now crying pony over her shoulders and silently walked out of the room. The doors slowly swung shut behind her.

I blinked.

Me and Feather shared a look, now alone in the throne room.

She snorted. "It's strange... he's acting like that, and he's Dan's former roommate. But you..." She tilted her head. "You're fine. Why?"

I thought. The whole situation hadn't fazed me as much as maybe it should have. I shrugged to Feather's curious look. "Don't get me wrong, I am very worried. But I trust Dan. He's saved me, he's saved Chrome, he's saved Dawn... I'm sure he could save himself if he needed to."

I wanted nothing more than to find out the location of that prison, fly there myself and visit him myself.

She nodded. "I don't know how, but he handles himself pretty well. Considering he's never had any training."

"He told me a while back it's because no 'pony' knows how his body works well enough to fight it."

She shot a smirk at me for some reason. "If that's what's required for a pony to fight him and win, I bet you'd be a formidable opponent."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

She was very quiet after that...

I still don't know what that was about. I mean, Dan had never told me how any of his joints work or anything, he'd most definitely beat me in a fight.

I am so proud of that title. I mean, seriously. 'Every rose has its thorn' just so happened to start playing when I was writing the first couple words. It's perfect. But now I can't have Dan make a really bad pun about it cause I used it already... well, that's only if he comes back okay.

This one is meh. The writing was spread over the span of a couple days. 15 different sessions to be exact. So sorry if it seems to skip or jump at all.