“Now let’s have it. What made you get lost like that? I know you’re smarter then that.” Try as she might, Diamond Tiara couldn’t lie to her daddy.

“I… wanted to get away from everypony else so I could plan a prank on Scootaloo.”

“Well, if you wanted to do it away from prying eyes and ears, can I guess that it was going to be mean spirited?”

“She started it! She brushed me off like some fly when I was talking to her! And she’s got that super cool stallion to hang around and she was rubbing it in like it was the best thing ever. She’s beneath me, and I-“

“And what in Equestria gave you that idea? Beneath you?”

“Well, my talent. Leadership. That means I’m better then everypony else, right?”

“…Does that mean you’re better then your friend Silver Spoon?”

“Well no! She’s my friend an-“

“Then are you better then me?”

“S-stop that, I’m-“

“I guess you’re better then Princess Celestia too. If you’re the best, that means that every last pony in the world is just second place.”

“…”

“Tiara, I can’t trust my company to a pony who thinks that way. That’s not what leadership is. You aren’t better then anypony, it just means that you’re better at leading. You can direct a team of ponies into achieving great things. But at the end of the day, you’re just another cog in the machine. One that gets the machine started, but that’s useless unless there’s more cogs to operate the rest of it. Do you understand?”

“…yes daddy.”

“And if you were being mean to Scootaloo, then her not rising to the bait was the best thing she could’ve done. It was mature, and I expect that same maturity from you. You shouldn’t be antagonising other ponies anyway. If you do, then nopony will want to follow you. The machine will fall apart if a cog is acting incorrectly.”

“…”

“Look at me. Pride before arrogance. You’re part of a strong family, and you have an incredible future ahead of you. But you’ll eventually have to rise to that challenge, and a leader can’t do things alone. Do you understand?”

“Yes daddy.”

“Good. Now, that Ivan fellow. You saw yourself the trouble he went to when he heard a pair of fillies got lost. So I want you to go apologise and thank him for what he did for you. Everypony makes mistakes, but part of being a leader is cleaning up the mess you make so nopony else falls into it.”

“Yes daddy.”

“We’ll discuss your punishment when your mother gets home. Off with you now.”

--

“Wow, all that?”

“Yeah. So now I’ve gotta find that Ivan and say sorry.”

“Well I have to too, so it’s not all bad. We’ll do it together, right?”

“…yeah.”

“So where do you think he is?”

“I dunno. Maybe we could ask Miss Cheerilee? She seemed to know him pretty well. They’re probably friends.”

“Sweetie Belle and Applebloom’s sister and brother too.”

“Ugh, let’s not ask them. I don’t want to run into any blank flanks today.”

“Eh. If a hero like Ivan likes them, maybe they’re not all bad? I mean, your dad likes the Apple family, right?”

“Well yeah, they go way back.”

“Then you can’t hate Applebloom forever, right? Being friends with the Apples is like… some kind of tradition!”

“…you need to stop making sense, and you need to stop it right now.”

“Everypony important has an adviser, right? If you’re gonna be some fancy CEO, you’ll need somepony to see things you can’t. My dad always told me that two eyes see more then one.”

“We’ve both got two eyes. Well you’ve got four.” Tiara teased, tapping Silver’s glasses.

“Then we’ll see six times as much!”

“…fine… but I don’t have to like Applebloom until we’re adults.”

“Obviously.”

--

They eventually found Ivan, sitting under a tree. That would’ve been well and good, except between them and him were four crusaders all playing with a ball.

“Well. Darn, guess we’ll have to try again lat-“

“Oh, hello Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon.” Said Cheerilee behind them. “What are you up to today?”

“Erm… we were looking for Ivan.” Tiara mentioned.

“Oh, well so was I! I’ve got some very good news for him you see. Come on, let’s go see him.”

“Um, wai-“ But the teacher was already trotting up to the tree.

“Come on, let’s go. We’ll do it quick, like tearing off a bandaid.”

“…fine…” Tiara droned, approaching Ivan, who was being nuzzled hello by their teacher.

“I just saw Nurse Redheart.” They heard her say. “And she says you can come in to get that cast off today!” The crusaders cheered. All Tiara and Silver could think about was if Ivan would’ve won that fight if he had four good legs.

“Good. Itchy.” He said as he got to his hooves.

“Oh, you’re going right now?”

“Sure.”

“Well that’s good. I don’t think she’s busy at all, so we could do that. First though, do you remember these two?” Tiara froze up as Ivan’s eyes locked with hers. Silver Spoon didn’t seem to fare much better.

Ivan nodded, but didn’t say anything. They had his attention though, so that seemed like a good thing. The crusaders were shutting up too, so that was also a good thing. This was going good. Good.

“Good.”

“Mm?” Ivan grunted, not hearing.

“Uh…” Tiara stammered. “I, uh… just wanted to say thanks for going to get us like that. And… fighting a horrible cave demon and nearly getting killed. I’m… sorry about that.”

“You fought a what?!” Scootaloo yelled. “You told me nothing awesome happened!”

“Nope. Lost.” Ivan said.

“You… did?”

“Mm. Lucky. Nice monster.”

“I still want to hear all about it.” The pegasus said. The other crusaders murmured their agreement.

“I bet it was amazing.” Sweetie Belle said.

“It was. I was there.” Tiara said. “Even if he did lose, he was so cool.”

“You were the reason he was even there in the first place.” Scootaloo shot back, obviously jealous. Tiara smirked.

“Well how many times were you saved by Ivan?”

“Three.”

“Yeah I thou- wait what? Three?”

“Yeah. You were only saved once. That means that I-“

“Needed saving more.” Ivan deadpanned.

“Yeah, exact- Ivan you’re supposed to be on my side!”

“He saved me three times too. If ya count that one thang with Jerryrig.” Applebloom said.

“He saved me twice.” Sweetie Belle chimed in. Dinky looked dejected as she said;

“He only saved me once… does that mean Ivan doesn’t like me?”

“Well he saved us just once too.” Silver said. “And he likes us, right?”

“Don’t know. Just met.” Ivan said idly, cracking his neck and stretching out after a long while of relaxing.

“I’m sure he does.” Cheerilee said with a slight glare at the stallion. “Don’t you?” Ivan shrugged.

“Sure.” The teacher rolled her eyes.

“Well the point is, Ivan did those things because they were the right thing to do. But he likes you all anyway.”

“Sure.”

“Ivan you’re not helping.”

“Hey, Ivan?” Silver asked. “You’re really good at saving fillies. Is that your special talent? What does that even look like as a cutie mark?”

“Um, hey, Ivan why do-“ Sweetie Belle began, but she was cut off by Ivan lifting his coat without hesitation. There on his flank was the crossed sword and wand he had gotten yesterday, though the two new foals didn’t need to know that. All the fillies present gasped. Ivan bled smug. Cheerilee rolled her eyes again, but couldn’t keep the smile off her face as Ivan showboated for the enthralled children.

“Oh my Celestia that’s awesome.” Applebloom said, staring at the mark.

“You haven’t seen it before?” Tiara asked.

“Course not! He’s always wearing that coat, right?” Dinky said. “Hey, Ivan, tell us how you got it!”

“Later.”

“Why?”

“Bedtime story.” He replied, lifting his hat to show his horn. “Dark better.”

“Woooooooo!~”

“Alright, Ivan, if you’re done showing off to a bunch of little fillies…” Cheerilee said, plainly amused. “…we should go get that cast off, right? You never know when Rainbow Dash’ll try something crazy and land herself in her care again.”

“Aw come on, the chances of that are like, stupid low!” Scootaloo protested.

“Maybe, but a lot of unlikely things are happening lately. Like say, Ivan fighting to the death with a horrible cave demon.”

“…yeah, that’s true.” The pegasus admitted.

“To the hospital!” Tiara announced, raising a hoof.

“…who died and made you princess?” Applebloom asked.

“Hey, I’ve never seen a cast get taken off before. Maybe Nurse Redheart has some huge power saw or something.”

“…alright. Temporary truce on account of cool use of power tools.”

“Agreed.” The two earth fillies shook hooves, cementing the verbal treaty.

“Now to the hospital!”

--

“Alright, I don’t want to crush your hopes or anything.” Cheerilee started while they were waiting for Nurse Redheart. “But I don’t think she’s got a huge power saw fo-“

“So I heard somepony’s getting a cast off?!” the nurse shouted, kicking in the door and revving the biggest circular saw any of them had ever seen.

“Freaking awesome!” Dinky yelled, just barely audible over the roaring machine. It died down when Nurse Redheart released the trigger, laughing at the expressions of shock on Ivan and Cheerilee.

“Hah, I’m sorry… that reaction never gets old. Seriously though hold still.” She started up the saw again and lowered it toward the cast when Ivan jerked it out of the way.

“Ivan what are you-“

“Intact?” he asked as the saw stopped again.

“Oh come on, nopony ever lets me use this!” The nurse complained. “I mean it’s just plaster! What kind of sentimental value could you ha-“

All the signatures were important to Ivan in some way. One in particular, when he twisted his foreleg to show, convinced her immediately though.

“…ah. Well… go see a unicorn or something. And you.” She pointed threateningly at Cheerilee. “You and I are going to have a chat later about withholding information during mare talk.”

“Redheart, I-“

“Either you tell me, or I tell Rarity.”

“…fine. You win.” The schoolteacher grumbled.

--

“Ivan, how could you show her that? That’s…”

“Your friend. Told soon.”

“Well yes, I would have, but now she’s going to try and rip it out of me like some kind of… Rarity. Aren’t you embarassed?”

“Nope. Proud.”

“…stop flattering me so I can be mad at you.”

“No.”

“Then don’t show anypony else.”

“No promises.” He said as he knocked on the library door. And as he heard stumbling hooves on the other side, he looked back and wondered why the six fillies were still following him around now that the power tools were out of the picture.

…more crusaders?

…probably not. They had to truce in order to go to the hospital with him. Also they had cutie marks.

Was he still a crusader?

...Did he care?

“Oh, Ivan! What can I do for you?” Twilight asked, before noticing that Ivan was standing on four hooves.

“…is your leg all better now?” She asked. Ivan shook his head.

“Mended. Still weak.” After several weeks off of it, he’d have to work it back into shape. The nurse had handed him a slip of paper with a few exercises written on it.

“Oh, well what can I help you with?”

“Remove?” Ivan asked, holding out the cast.

“Oh sure, hold still.” The tip of her horn sparked, and now resembled a welding torch.

“No, intact.”

“…huh? Why?”

“…sentimental.” Ivan said, nodding towards the signatures. He didn’t turn it to show Cheerilee’s though. She was right there and probably ready to buck him in the side.

“Oh, sure.” Her horn glowed, and with a 'pop', the cast was on the ground next to him. He nodded his thanks and stuffed it into one of his bags.

“…wait, that’s it?” Tiara complained. “Isn’t magic supposed to look cool?

“Something small like moving a cast probably wouldn’t look ‘cool’ to a gaggle of foals, to be sure.” Twilight stepped aside to reveal the speaker, a dark blue unicorn that nopony recognized. He smiled amiably, making his way to the door.

His turquoise mane, slight mustache and goatee were impeccably groomed. Ivan caught a glimpse of his cutie mark, an atom diagram like one he spied in a high grade textbook when he was a foal.

“Ah, Twilight mentioned you I believe. Ivan Hooves, her student?”

“Sort of.” Ivan said, extending his now free hoof. It spoke positively of the new stallion’s character that he wasn’t put off by the somewhat atrophied limb.

“Cold Fusion’s my name. Twilight and I have been working to create a new form of energy.” He said as he grasped it and shook it firmly.

“He’s the reason I haven’t had any time lately. He read my latest research essay on magical ley lines and contacted me about a week back. We could be on the verge of changing Equestria forever!”

“Another day I’m afraid.” Fusion said, causing the nearly vibrating with excitement Twilight to deflate somewhat. “There are matters that require my attention, so this is all the time we have for today. I’ll send word when my schedule allows another visit.”

As if on cue, a chariot landed in front of the library pulled by a pair of solar guards.

“Ah, right on time. I must say, if I knew working with Princess Celestia’s protégé had benefits like this, I would’ve contacted you sooner. Until next time Twilight.”

“Bye!” Twilight said, waving her hoof as Fusion was flown off to Canterlot.

“…Twilight?” Ivan asked, getting the researcher’s attention. “Question.”

“Erm… shoot?”

“Lamia. Information?”

“Huh. While I wholeheartedly support the pursuit of knowledge, why would you want to know about lamia of all things?” Ivan answered by pointing off down the street, where Memry was coincidentally spending the first of her days off hoofwrestling with Rainbow Dash.

Twilight gasped. Ivan raised an eyebrow. Rainbow got flipped clear off her seat when Memry started trying.

“Celestia’s grace, what is a lamia doing this far from Spurta?! Nevermind, must research! Spiiiiike! Prepare emergency interview kit B!”

“Got it!” the dragon said, reaching into what appeared to be a secret compartment in a globe. A basket containing several rolls of parchment, a few quills, and a bowl of eggs were all the kit was made up of.

The crusaders had already pranced over and were talking animatedly with the snake creature. Twilight and Spike (the latter not believing that the emergency lamia kit actually had purpose) soon joined them.

Memry seemed delighted by the eggs, swallowing a few whole and hugging the unicorn in thanks.

Ivan shook his head and walked forward to greet the lamia, leaving Cheerilee, Tiara, and Silver to watch the scene unfold.

“Are you still scared of her?” Cheerilee asked. And held back her amused smile when they sputtered rapid denial.

“Well it’s only natural. You didn’t meet on the best of terms.” The teacher mused. “You know what fear is, right?”

“Well yeah. It’s when you’re scared of something” Silver said.

“Fear is what you get when your head tries to tell you that there’s a risk in front of you not worth taking. But when another pony takes that same risk and comes out of it on top, the one that’s afraid might feel like fear is something to be ashamed of.”

“Well it is, isn’t it?” Tiara said, watching Memry. All she and Silver could think of while looking at the snake were those fangs, eyes, and the loud crashing of her tail and the impact Ivan’s body made when he was smashed against a wall or the ground.

“If a pony doesn’t know fear, chances are they won’t know a long life either.” Cheerilee replied as Memry pouted. She was probably just told Ivan was going to have to take it easy on his leg for a little while.

“…Ivan wasn’t afraid.” Silver said. “But he lost. Does that mean…”

“It means.” Cheerilee said, “that Ivan saw a risk, and decided it was worth taking. There are things he’s afraid of too. Do you think he has any right to be ashamed of that?”

“Well… if he wasn’t afraid of Memry…” Tiara began, looking at the stallion in a new light. “…then whatever he is scared off is probably pretty… scary?”

“No matter what anypony says, they know fear. And laughing at another pony for feeling it is hypocritical.” Tiara and Silver scrunched their noses at the unfamiliar word, deciding to look it up later. Whatever it was, it didn’t sound flattering. “Instead, respect the pony who faces their fears and acts despite them.”

“Is there some kind of fancy word for that too?” Silver asked, to which Cheerilee smiled kindly.

“Courage.”

Satisfied she’d passed on a life lesson, she decided to see if she could learn a few things about lamia. If Ivan and her were going to be brawling on a regular basis, she might as well get to know her.

A few minutes passed as the two fillies watched on. And that was about as long as Tiara could stand.

Trying hard to forget the nightmares she had the previous night, she slowly made her way to see Memry, Silver following close behind.

--

“Hey, you. Red.” Big Mac turned to find somepony who was technically trespassing, but the Apples were more laid back then to get too defensive over such a thing.

A pegasus colored a pale shade of pink stood there giving him a bit of a stink eye. Her steel grey mane (shined almost like actual steel, really) was cropped short and something about the way she held herself gave Big Mac the idea she had a major chip on her shoulder.

There was also the fact that one of her wings was something of a heavily scarred stump, but he wasn’t going to be rude and stare.

“How can Ah help Miss?”

“I’m looking for somepony. You seen a green unicorn? I heard he’s wearing some black coat and hat. Probably didn’t stay for lo-“

“Ah, ya’re lookin’ fer Ivan?”

“Yeah, that’s him. Which way did he go?”

“Don’t rightly know. ‘Round this hour though…” Big Mac looked up to check the time. “…Ah’d say ya might find him somewhere around town. If ya stop by the schoolhouse, the teacher might know. They’re real close I hear.”

“…say what?”

“Somethin’ weird Miss?”

“…alright, don’t call me Miss. My name’s Salad Shooter. I’m just wondering why he didn’t move on.”

“Might be that he broke his leg a while back. He told me yesterday though he decided to settle in.” Big Mac shook his head, smiling. “Ah’m Big Macintosh by the way. Are ya a friend of Ivan’s too?”

“Something like that.” Salad replied, but she didn’t elaborate. “Listen, I just got here and I don’t know where anything is. Are you working?”

“Eeyup.”

“…well could you stop for a bit? I need somepony to help me find him.”

“Is there a rush? He ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

“I don’t believe you. He’s been ‘goin’ somewhere’ for years now.”

“…is there a problem Miss Salad?”

“Oh hay yes there is.” She muttered.

“Not sure Ah wanna help ya if that’s the case.” Big Mac said, frowning.

“I’ve waited ten years Red. Maybe I don’t feel like waiting much longer. You can understand that, right?”

“…ten years ya say?”

“What about it?”

“…are ya Ivan’s sister?”

“And how the buck would you know that?” The stallion frowned a bit more. He really didn’t care much for the mare’s tone, but there was something ahoof and he felt like seeing it through.

“He told me and a couple other friends he ran away from home ten years ago. Couple ‘a nights ago in fact. We were talkin’ about sisters at the time.”

“And he’s telling you this stuff? Everypony else I met who knew him didn’t know the first thing about him. ‘Cept this one pony, but still…”

“He also mentioned an ‘accident’.” Big Mac said, watching her carefully. And he was rewarded with an involuntary twitch of the wingstump.

“Oh is that what he’s calling it.”

“…alright, you win. Let’s go find Ivan.” Big Mac sighed. Something in him said it was better to resolve this sooner then later.

Salad didn’t say anything as they walked, though Big Mac did get a look at her cutie mark. A bowl of salad and a sharp knife.

Their first stop was the schoolhouse, but Cheerilee wasn’t there. So he took Salad to the tree Ivan normally napped under. The farm pony wondered if he technically lived under that tree now.

He almost chuckled at the thought.

Salad didn’t seem to care about the looks she was getting. A flightless pegasus was a tragedy in and of itself, but she very plainly lost her ability through something gruesome. Whispers followed them all the way through town.

One earth pony looked like he wanted to say something, but a glare from the prickly mare quickly shut him up.

Sure enough, Ivan was under his tree. Leaning against Cheerilee to boot. Big Mac wondered if they were interrupting anything, but Salad didn’t seem to care. When they got close, Ivan appeared to be sleeping.

She looked like she was about to say hi, but when she caught sight of Salad’s wing, she blanched.

“You know who I am.” Salad said, and Cheerilee could only nod.

“Wake him up.”

“I…”

“If you don’t, I will.” The teacher hesitated, but gave Ivan a nudge. Another when the first didn’t work, and he groaned and buried his muzzle into the teacher’s neck.

“Ivan, you have to wake up right now.” He obviously caught the stress in her voice and stirred, looking up. Then by the look on his face, Big Mac was pretty sure his mind was banished to the moon.

“…’sup bro?”

“…Sally?” The pegasus bared her teeth.

“Don’t you ‘Sally’ me!” The hoof caught him clean in the face and sent him tumbling down the hill. He didn’t get far before Sally was on top of him, eyes an inch from his.

“Ten bucking years Ivan!” She yelled. “Ten. Bucking. Years!” Another hoof across his face, and Ivan wasn’t sure if the moisture on his cheek was blood from a cut, or Salad’s tears.

“What were you even thinking?! Did you think at all?!” Hooves twisted up in his coat, she shook him for all she was worth. “Did you think mom and dad wouldn’t care?! Blowing up my wing wasn’t enough, you had to blow up the family too?!”

“S-Sally-“

“You’ve got this coming to you.” She said, slamming him on the ground. “I know why you ran away.”

“No. No.”

“Not your choice. Never was.”

“Please.”

“I forgive you.” Sally said, and Ivan choked back a sob as any pitiful resistance he put up fell flat.

“Didn’t want that, right? Wanted me to hate you? Wanted to be guilty since you were a bad pony and deserved it? That’s why you ran right? You were afraid I’d forgive you.”

“You can’t.” Ivan pleaded.

“I am.” Salad countered. “Because I want to. I wanted to so bad I’ve been following you as soon as mom and dad let me out of the house.” Sally seemed to lose her thunder, pressing her forehead into Ivan’s chest and sobbing.

“I just want my brother back. I want dad to stop looking at the new warder rosters to see if your name pops up. I want mom to stop looking at my back and remember when everything went down the tubes. Ivan you wrecked everything. But I forgive you. And now that I’ve got you, you’re going to fix everything or so help me…”

“…buck it all, I just want my brother back. Why did you run this long Ivan? You’re stupid. You were always stupid. You weren’t there when dad got promoted, or when mom became fencing champion, or when I got my cutie mark…”

“I just want my brother back.” She whimpered again as Ivan’s forelegs embraced her. “Why are you so stupid?”

--

Big Mac watched silently, mulling the information over.

Ivan had taken his sister’s wing. On purpose or not, nothing could make that alright.

…he wondered if all the stuff he had done up to this point had atoned for it. Salad had forgiven him, but…

He had suspected something along these lines ever since Salad had arrived with one wing, but he had hoped there was something he was missing. Salad’s outburst though had been quite clear.

Then he ran away from home, lived in relative solitude for ten years…

…Ivan was alright by him though. A friend. Big Mac refused to throw out a friend, no matter what the circumstances.

Cheerilee was as silent as he was, from where she stood. Probably waiting for her turn to hug Ivan, he mused. He wondered how long she had known about this.

Big Mac heaved a silent sigh and turned his back on the two siblings. It wasn’t right for him to look.

He settled into the grass. It didn’t feel right for him to just leave either.

Time passed at a crawl.