Two new trains had arrived in the camp shortly after sunrise. Coming from different directions they had come a stop right in front of one another; one was a loaded train from Ponyville and the other had originated from Manehattan. The latter had only one train car attached to it. The first pony to emerge from the steam at the front exit was a gold-maned white stallion of sturdy build. He was thirty-three years old and handsome, and aside from perhaps his glasses there was nothing about his appearance that suggested he was a successful writer. He stepped off the train and was immediately followed by the only other passengers; two slightly younger stallions on either side. One was a darker charcoal gray unicorn with a black mane and the other was a green earth stallion with a mane of snow white.

As soon as he stepped outside the intense cold brought a blasting chill on his face, causing him to readjust his red scarf so that it covered the bottom of his neck completely. The rest of his body was covered almost completely by a winter dress coat tailored to his frame. His younger two associates were dressed in similar but quite less expensive suits and sported scarfs of white and blue, respectfully. Nothing worse than sleeping on a train, he thought to himself.

"Don't forget the coffee," he muttered over his shoulder to the gray stallion. His intelligent eyes scanned the scene around him, taking in as many sights, sounds, and moods as he could.

"I got it on me," replied his assistant groggily.

The first thing he noted were the ponies pouring off the new arrival in front of his own engine. He gathered they were all from Ponyville. Their facial expressions were universally dreadful and wrought with unspoken angst as they all flooded off the train and into the camp with a strong sense of urgency, a sight that quickly brought a negative emotional blow to the stallion. He watched them go almost right into aiding the in-progress construction of several family-sized tents all on either side of the tracks, taking mental notes in his head of everything. An overwhelmingly uncomfortable air dominated the entire scene.

Royal guards and others - mostly young stallions and mares from Ponyville - were hard at work on these tents. Managers barked orders and workers would ask questions before darting back to the spot they were needed. It seemed that in just a few more hours this spot might look like a tiny village in the middle of the frozen planes, with four road-like pathways already well established in the camp between where the tents would be. Most of the tents looked as though they would be family-sized or smaller, ranging from five to ten yards in width and length and no more than ten to 5 yards tall. It seemed like each one was a different color; royal blue, scarlet red, emerald green, sunflower yellow... There were a few much larger tents under construction, however, both of them near the tracks; two of them looked like they were going to be nearly one hundred yards long and maybe 60 yards wide. The other one was perhaps looking to be fifty by fifty.

The stallion turned his head. To the south there were snowy flatlands as far as his eyes could see and to the north lay the Crystal Mountains. But then his eyes turned to the west, where the another layer of mountains came down and the geographical implication was a narrow valley that was all but invisible to them from there, as they could only imagine what lay over the mountains. Even though the sun had risen not long ago this entire section of Equestria is known for its relative lack of sunlight and the cloud cover had returned with snow flurries so the light in the area was weak. Yet by far the darkest section of the earth at this point was this valley. The clouds that hung over the white peaks were heavy and dark. The stallion cringed. Yikes...

"Alright boys, let's go find my guy," he said, and he trotted off with his two assistants following. He was making his way over to the largest tent in the camp when a lone young mare spotted him across the path.

"Hey - aren't you Bucky Quill?" asked light green mare with the similarly-colored mane and tail but with streaks of white. "Top columnist for the Manehattan Times and the most-read writer in Equestria?"

"That's me," he replied, unable to hold back a faint proud smile despite the situation.

"W-what are you doing here?" she asked. She looked like she had been having a rough time, which was to be expected.

"Well Miss, I wanted to write a story about this whole situation for The Times. You know, to let ponies know what's up and to kind of promote encouragement for the team. I might mention a little something about the apparent miscommunication or something to provide a little context for how this happened - I need to find out more about it myself - but there won't be anything negative about you guys or anything like that. Just trying to get something out there before word gets around and misconceptions start popping up."

"Word's gonna get around really fast once he publishes it to the world," whispered the green-coated assistant to the gray.

"Oh," she replied. "I guess that makes sense." She was rather astonished to be talking with such a famous pony who she frequently read, but the nature of the situation really held back her excited emotions. "But... how did you find out about it and get here so fast?"
"Well," he replied, looking to side in thought for a way to put this without sounding arrogant, "when you are - well like you said 'the most popular columnist' in the land - it comes with certain privileges. I mean, got ears everywhere, Miss... just put it that way," he continued while his two assistants traded looks. "Would you be open for a little interview? I'd like to talk with a few different ponies here. You're from Ponyville, right?"

"Me?" she replied bashfully. "I- I don't know. Normally I'd love the idea of being quoted in a Bucky Quill column, but this - I don't know if I can -"

"No names are being published in this piece, Miss. Not unless they wanna be," assured Bucky. She put her hoof to her chin. "You've read me before, right?"

"Oh yes, I'm kind of a... big fan actually."

"Hey, I appreciate that. I promise you no names and this is entirely for the support of the team, if you trust me."

"Well, I guess when you put it that way. Can you wait a little bit? I was gonna help finish my friend's-"

"Miss, you do what you gotta do and take your time," he interrupted. "We'll be in this tent - the big white one, you see it right here? Just come in and find us and we'll talk."

"Um, alright then," she replied, nervous but intrigued at the idea of being quoted in a widely read article for the biggest city's newspaper published in many other places throughout Equestria.

Bucky meanwhile trotted over to the front of the largest tent in the camp that had just finished completion. He looked inside; there were small tables for four ponies or so, a few couches, and longer tables on either side with food and water on them. In the back there was a giant roaring fireplace, and the smell of burning pine filled his nostrils.

"How did they get this up in just a few hours?" asked one of the assistants.

"There's my guy," said Bucky, eyeing a blue stallion in the back near the fire. His mane was gray with streaks of light and dark and his cutie mark was three yellow stars. Like nearly all other ponies there, there were no traces of happiness of his expression as he looked over some papers on a table. Bucky and his two assistants walked briskly in his direction until they stood across from him in front of the table. "Thanks for being here. You got my stuff?" he asked the stallion seated at the table.

"I'm fine, how are you?" he responded half amusedly.

"Waste of time," replied Bucky, taking a seat and encouraging his assistants to do the same, which they did on either side. "You want some coffee?"

"Yes please," replied the blue stallion, rubbing his forehead.

"Lucky, get us all some coffee, yourself included," he told the green stallion, who responded by pulling out a large thermos from his saddle bag.

"I'm Fashion Plate, by the way," said the blue stallion to the two assistants.

"Right," chuckled Bucky, "Fashion, you know my assistant Lucky don't you? This here's Ash," he said, pointing to the gray on his right, who shared a nod with Fashion Plate. There then was a brief pause while Lucky poured the coffee, with Bucky letting out a long sigh and a head shake. "Boy I feel bad for these ponies," he said, and Fashion shook his head distressingly. "What time did they get here?"

"The first ones from Ponyville were about three hours ago, but the royal guards were here before working on the big tents. They did the Princesses' first of course, then they got to work on this one. They work fast. They just finished this like fifteen minutes ago actually, now they're all working on the one where the doctors will be. I think the idea is, this is for everyone basically, whereas that other one is for doctors and hopefully the kids and team members if they get here."

"Come on now," replied Bucky. "You mean when they get here."

"Yeah," sighed Fashion Plate, though clearly not fully believing it.

"Who's idea was it to set up a whole camp like this and basically bring up the whole town, anyway?" asked Bucky.

"Pinkie Pie's and Rarity's, I believe," said Fashion. "But there was already the idea for the camp, the Princess came up with it. But the whole town coming? That was their idea, and the entire town went along with it and traveled all through the night."

"Ok. Yeah I know them, elements of harmony," said Bucky, thinking to himself and shaking his head up and down. "I mean I love the idea. I think it shows commitment, the town will rally around each other... the kids will definitely like it. Gotta say though despite all the hard work there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of hope in the ponies' faces."

Fashion Plate didn't say anything. He just sipped his coffee and stared at a spot in the ground.

"Ok," said Bucky, "let's run through what we know. Ash, take all this down," he commanded to his gray assistant. The unicorn's horn lit up and used his magic to take out a quill and notebook from his saddle bag. "So, this train was sent to the Crystal Empire, at what, noon yesterday?"

"Yeah, something like that," muttered Fashion Plate.

"And they went on this rail line right into those ugly mountains to the west right there, is that right?" pressed Bucky.

"Basically, yeah. That seems to be everyone's understanding," replied Fashion Plate, sitting up a little straighter and more focused.

"Why? Why didn't it just take the direct way in? What was the deal with this other line they took?" asked Bucky.

"Well, apparently - and this is supposedly from the Princess herself, but we may wanna ask a few more to confirm. But basically this area right here - these plains and the areas just to our north into the crystal mountains where the usual line goes - were all snowed out yesterday in a vicious blizzard that seemed to be the most intense just to the north of here, and the storm itself was out of the north. So they radioed down to our guy in Ponyville and recommended the back way in. The back way which went into those mountains you saw there in the west up over the Valley of White Death -"

"Wait a second," interrupted Bucky in disbelief, expressions that his assistants shared. "Did you say 'Valley of White Death'?"

"Yeah," he replied, in equal disbelief. "It hadn't been used in forever and it was actually forbidden a long time ago, but somehow that decree got lost in the red tape over the years and when the trains stopped going to the Empire altogether. A few times since we started going back, they sent a couple trains over the western mountains at high elevation with no problems. So when yesterday came around, they sent that train back there with no qualms."

"What happened? Why didn't the train make it through?" asked Lucky as Ash scribbled the quill frantically across the notebook with his unicorn magic.

"Million dollar question. Just the engine made it through. It was a car full of foals that didn't make it. The engineer's not doing so hot, though it sounds like he's gonna make it. There's a bunch of theories out there right now, some of them more optimistic then others... but the most popular one seems to be ice dragons."

"Good heavens," sighed Bucky, rubbing his eyes sadly. His heart was heaviest for the parents of those foals who happened to be on that train. "The elements of harmony are no use, apparently. I wrote that really popular bit on 'em last year so I know that they can't do anything unless they're all present, which is the problem. Some of them are away in other lands or something."

"And another element, one of the best fliers in Equestria and our own local hero Rainbow Dash, she hurt her wing a few days ago and can't fly at all. So the best pony for the job is out of the question," uttered Fashion.

Bucky and his assistants let out lamenting sighs almost in unison as a distressing silence fell on the table, but for Ash's scribbling quill that finished up the last parts of Bucky and Fashion Plate's recapping. Bucky knew this piece was gonna be a difficult write. Hopefully those guys give me something better to write about here soon, he thought to himself, referring to the team of pegasus out there in the wilderness. But it occurred to him they had no idea where those kids might be, and common sense didn't seem to point to a lot of hope. If they were abducted by ice dragons, they'd be a hard retrieve if they even got there on time. If something worse then ice dragons, well then...

"So who's in charge of them?" asked Bucky. "Spitfire? The Wonderbolt Captain?"

"Yeah," replied Fashion Plate. "So that's good at least, right?"

Still, Bucky resolved not to give up hope and would use his influence to inspire as much encouraging thought as he could, without watering down the situation too much though. Suddenly in his silent thought Bucky noticed the pictures and writings in front of him on the table that Fashion had spread out. He picked up on of them; beneath a picture of a smiling, likable gray pegasus stallion read the name Thunderlane, and beneath that was a paragraph of information on him. He read it with interest while he looked back up at the picture; he wanted to get to know each team member that was out there braving the danger for their fellow ponies. Mostly descriptions like his family, his age, but it also had other personal information such as his likes and hobbies as well as his friends, with a few encouraging notes and descriptions from such.

He picked up another picture; this one was a sassy whitish mare named Blossomforth with a watermelon mane and tail and a similar bit of information beneath her. He scanned it and then quickly familiarized himself with the other ponies' profiles which all followed the same format though there were obvious personality differences visible even in just the pictures themselves.

"Is this all of them?" asked Bucky. "Because I've got the Wonderbolt profiles, those were easy to obtain. And thank you so much for these by the way."

"With the exception of one stallion, yes," replied Fashion Plate.

"Really?" asked Bucky, looking up surprised. "Why not him?"

"Well, he's new to the town. Here, I got a picture, but I don't think we should use this picture for the paper. And the thing I have on him is really short," he said, and reached over to the edge of the table for the embarrassing profile that he had sort of intentionally hid. Bucky held the bio up in his hoof.

"What the-?" he muttered to himself.

In the foreground of it was a young stallion. Most of his physical appearance was charming; he had a nice coat that seemed to be light blue but almost light grayish as well, and a mane and tail that featured streaks of colors that ranged from dark blue down to light blue and then light gray and dark gray as well. He featured a cutie mark of a yellow lightning bolt with a raincloud.

His eyes were a light greenish blue or turqoise, but it was his eyes and body language that made the picture so depressing to look at. The young stallion looked hopelessly heartbroken and defeated, his head down low as he looked shamefully into a crowd of angry pegasus ponies that surrounded him on all sides, who's disapproving glares seem to cut through the stallion's heart as though he'd just let them all down in spectacular fashion. Bucky had never seen a single still picture capture such a story, and a very emotional one at that. He wondered what the stallion did to be drawing such a negative and hostile reaction from his peers and he couldn't help but feel really bad for him. The stallion's face had a kind of innocence about it that demanded mercy. Beneath this image was the name, Sonic Rain.

"Sonic Rain... Hm. Interesting name," he said to himself out loud. "Sonic," he repeated in a whisper.

He glanced down and read the words on the paper in his head. Sonic moved to Ponyville recently and very little is known about his previous life and family. It is believed that he knew Rainbow Dash well before coming to Ponyville as the two are known to be close. We are eternally grateful for his courageous efforts alongside our other team members in rescuing our foals. It just didn't seem right to Bucky, publishing such a small bit of information next to the rather large paragraphs of his teammates from the same town even though the Wonderbolts had even more information under their pictures.

"Well you're right about one thing, I'm not using this picture. What's the deal with this guy? What is this picture of? You didn't get this from a newspaper did you?" asked Bucky to Fashion Plate.

"He's a complete unknown. I don't know anything about him before Ponyville and the couple ponies I asked didn't either. Yes, that picture is from the newspaper by the way."

"What?" muttered a disbelieving Bucky, feeling even worse. "What kinda dirtbag would put this in the paper? What are they tryna' do, humiliate the poor guy? What is journalism coming to?"

"Um- excuse me," said a young female voice from behind Bucky and his assistants. They all swung around to meet the green unicorn mare with a harp for a cutie mark who had identified Bucky earlier. She was standing there bashfully with another young mare, a dark pink pegasus with a light reddish-brown mane. "I hope you don't mind, but... I brought a friend."

"Oh not at all!" replied Bucky, who's head was turned around fully. "Why don't you girls pull up a chair? Make some room for 'em there, will ya Lucky?" he said, eyeing Lucky who scooted his chair towards him so that the two mares could sit on the side of the table between Lucky and Fashion Plate. They both wore serious expressions which was to be expected, though the pink mare was a bit more distraught.

"Girls, I'm guessing you know my friend and correspondent Fashion Plate here, one of your own," he continued. "These are my new assistants, Lucky and Ash. Ash writes for me. You know... I tell him what to say and he writes it," he said with a small smile. "It's not like he comes up with any of the stuff you read, it's just if you're an earth pony like me and you get popular enough, you can afford a scribe, which is nice because writing with your mouth has its disadvantages," he added, though the two mares couldn't force a chuckle while his two assistants shook their heads.

"I'm Jetstream," said the pink pegasus quietly.

"Lyra," muttered her friend.

"Nice to meet you ladies. I know we already talked Lyra but for you Jetstream, I'm just trying to, you know - figure out what's going on, get some interviews for an article, and basically come up with something positive and encouraging for the team members while filling in the rest of us as to what exactly is going on here. This is going in The Times and wherever The Times gets printed, which is frankly a lot of places, in fact I think most cities," said Bucky. "But I absolutely don't have to publish names if you don't want to. And I won't unless you tell me otherwise."

"Wait a second... how are you gonna get this in the papers from here?" asked Lyra.

"We got the machine on the train car. I just need to make one copy, then we can send it in through the Princesses to Manehattan, where my guys make a zillion copies."

"In that case, anonymous is fine with me," said Lyra.

"Yeah... me too," added Jetstream uneasily.

"No problem," replied Bucky, and Ash picked up the quill with his unicorn magic and readied it for writing. Any positive energy Bucky had from easing them into this with his dry humor seemed to leave now that he had to address the situation head on. He struggled to think of something. "Well girls," he sighed. "It's gotta be tough. The first thing I have to ask I guess is... do you have any family out there? How's the morale?"

The two mares traded depressed looks and deep breaths. Lyra wrapped her foreleg around her friend as a comforting gesture. It all had an unspoken impact on every stallion sitting there.

"I have no family, but I am friends with nearly everyone on the rescue team from Ponyville, especially Merry May and Blossomforth," said Lyra, sadly as they showed themselves on her expression. Bucky's eyes wondered down to the table while he dealt with his own heavyhearted reaction. All three of the other stallions were having the same problem.

"My little brother has several friends out there, all of whom I know," lamented Jetstream, covering her eyes with her hooves, which drew Lyra's hoof on her back. "And a lot of guilt."

"A lot of guilt?" asked Bucky softly, though he asked it almost reluctantly. It was suddenly painful for him to have to do this interview. She didn't respond initially, she just stared into space in deep regret.

"There's... there's this stallion out there with the team. His name's Sonic," she finally said. Immediately the rest of the stallions sitting there took interest. Bucky thought maybe Sonic was her good friend or something. He was going to ask about the poor stallion if he wasn't brought up, so now he was very curious. When she said his name, Lyra shook her head sadly with her eyes closed.

"Sonic? You mean this stallion?" said Bucky, holding up the picture. The two of them had a very negative response to seeing it and they were filled with sadness. "I was actually going to ask you about him. Fashion doesn't seem to have hardly any info on him."

"Not long ago the pegasus ponies tried to lift the water out of the reservoir in Ponyville into Cloudsdale for weather production. It didn't work out," started Lyra. She spoke up because Jetstream was having more difficulty with the situation, though Lyra was by no means okay either. "The failed attempt was believed to be Sonic's fault. He crashed into the mare next to him which caused a domino-effect that led to failure of their whole wind vortex. Ponies went flying, a few even got hurt - including Rainbow, who is his- ... Well Sonic, who moved to Ponyville just recently, was the most unpopular pony in town almost instantly."

Bucky observed Lyra's mournful expression and a sniffling Jetstream. He then looked back at the picture of the poor young stallion, who's face was wrought with shame and horror at the hostility of his fellow pegasus. He quickly deduced where this was headed based on what'd she'd seemed to be building up to, though he guessed his innocence just by the kind of pony Sonic looked like in the picture.

"Except it wasn't his fault... was it?" whispered Bucky.

"Sonic got treated really badly," said Lyra, rubbing her forehead.

"Early last night," started Jetstream, who was visibly more upset than Lyra to the point she was now struggling to speak. "Just after Sonic and Rainbow got called into Canterlot... Rarity, who was working on the case for him, discovered some new developed pictures of the event taken by a photographer-"

"Rarity," interrupted Bucky.

"Yeah," whispered Lyra, who took over completely for Jetstream. "One of the pictures showed four stallions in the way back, but clearly visible- Dumbbell, Hoops, and two other stallions. They were huddling together with *very* suspicious looks on their faces in Sonic's direction. Aside from the suspiciousness of that, the stallions themselves had told Rarity on record and a few other ponies that they had had no contact with one another beforehand, which the picture clearly disproved."

"Hold on one second," interrupted Bucky again. "Sorry - Ash, you getting all this?"

The grey stallion was working hard to write it all down but he clearly needed a breather. He took one and let the quill down for a second, then picked it back up with his unicorn magic again.

"Please, keep going," said Bucky to Lyra.

"You see," she continued cheerlessly. "Sonic had maintained that those four cornered him in air and then pushed him into the other ponies that caused the whole failure in the first place. But it was four against one, and for whatever reason the rest of us were so angry we didn't have time to think about it and so we didn't believe him. We just said he must be lying. When this new evidence came out one of them eventually confessed late last night. They framed him. Had it thought out and everything. Those four are on guard in the jail in Ponyville right now."

"That's terrible," said Bucky, disgusted as feelings of vengeance came up inside him. "I'll be sure to give those four a nice little shout-out in my story."

"It gets worse," said Lyra dejectedly while her friend began to tear up. "Sonic and the rest of the team left before any of this came out. He doesn't know that we know he's innocent."

"No..." muttered a disbelieving Bucky.

"Yep," replied Jetstream, shaking her head shamefully as she struggled to fight back more tears. "I mean for all we know, he's gonna die out there thinking that we hate him. Risking his tail for our foals. I should know... I scolded him the day after, and I saw it in his face how much it hurt him, and it's tearing me apart!"

Lyra reached her forelimb around her friend again, who this time returned the embrace much more fully. Lyra chose not to look at the other four stallions, who were all feeling bad. Ash looked at Lucky and Bucky looked at Fashion Plate. Bucky understood how difficult this would be for someone like Jetstream if Sonic didn't make it back. He just hoped it wouldn't bother her the rest of her life, which he knew it could.

"Hey now," he said, trying to be encouraging. "We've all been there, Jetstream. We've all said things we wish we could take back."

"It's not just you," reassured Lyra, resting her head on top of her. "It was the whole town. Everyone else feels terrible too."

Bucky and the others took a deep breath. This was quite the depressing side story. Bucky especially wanted to make sure that the rest of Equestria knew from his article that Sonic was innocent. But he also didn't want Sonic to be defined by something he didn't do. He wanted to find out more about this mysterious stallion.

"Ok, so we know that Sonic is no tornado-wreaker. Do you girls know anything more about him I can say in the article? Fashion doesn't have much." Lyra lifted her head up in thought and then stared directly at Bucky, who was fascinated.

"No one really knows anything about Sonic before he came to Ponyville, except Rainbow I'm sure. I had the biggest crush on him when he first got here. He's got the gentlest eyes," she continued, even managing a faint smile in her recollection. "He's really, really nice too. A little awkward maybe but I just found it cute. I figured out pretty quickly though that he loved someone else. It stung a little at first but it felt a lot better once I found out he'd known her since way before and probably had a crush on her way before he ever met me."

"Oh I hear that," assured Bucky to her, referring to the disappointment. He was also all the more intrigued with Sonic's story.

"We didn't think she would ever, you know - get a boyfriend or anything like that. She just never seemed like the romantic type," continued Lyra.

"Who?" asked Bucky.

"Rainbow," replied Lyra. "That's who Sonic loves."

"Rainbow Dash?" asked Bucky in disbelief.

He remembered her. She was the beautiful but tomboyish element of harmony. She obviously loved attention a lot, but she was tough, and she loved her friends. He knew that much. Lyra was right - she was not a mare he could really imagine caught up in romance either, though he could certainly imagine romantic aspirations from stallions with her. He was hungry to learn more.

"Oh yes," continued Lyra. "They've been inseparable ever since he arrived. They like to disappear together for a while in the woods or in the sky. She clearly loves him... it's obvious to anyone who's seen them together no matter how hard she tries to hide it."

Bucky was getting more interested by the second. A mysterious stallion and a mysterious romance... Under normal circumstances he knew this made for a great story. He had to be careful not to give him more attention and interest than the other ponies out there braving the cold, because they deserved to have their stories told as well. Holding back his excitement further was that he knew well the real possibility that some or all of them might not make it back. He knew it will either be the greatest triumph or the saddest tragedy ever.

"Excuse me," said the voice of a stallion from the side. All eyes at the table turned to get a look at who the voice belonged to, and doing so they saw a white stallion with a camera around his neck and a light brown hat approaching them. He had on a heavy winter coat that matched the color of his hat. "Are you guys talking about that young stallion whom that beautiful white mare just proved innocent through my pictures?"

"Yes, we are actually," replied Bucky. "You took those?"

"I sure did. Name's Eff Stop," he said. "I have a few more of him as well. Look at this one. This was before they tried to lift the water."

Eff Stop reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a photograph. He took an admiring look at it before he handed it to Bucky. The rest of them leaned over and crowded around him to get a look for themselves. The two mares gasped with awe while their hooves covered their mouths. Even Ash and Lucky were moved.

In the picture there were many pegasus ponies, all of whom didn't know their picture was being taken. They were scattered out on a dirt plane in front of a green hill; most of them were in groups, stretching and talking in preparation for what they now knew was the reservoir lift. Many of them were smiling, some of them looked more focused. But what demanded the attention in the photograph were the two ponies facing each other in the middle of the action, the foreground. There were spaces in front of the camera and around them, almost as if to highlight their presence.

The two ponies were Rainbow and Sonic. She was on the right side hovering just a little off the ground, facing him who stood just beneath her. The sun was setting directly between them and shining brightly on both their faces. The real beauty of this image, however, was in the expressions of the two featured. Her face was brilliantly joyful, all of it pointed directly at her admirer who in turn was looking up at her with the purest affections that Bucky had ever seen. Lyra was right, he thought. His eyes were astonishingly gentle, and she was the happy recipient of his idolatry in the same way that he was the primary receiver of her confidence and loyalty. Wow...

"This is the most romantic picture I've ever seen. Look at him. He's Cupid's slave," said Bucky.

"So is she, " Fashion Plate pointed out.

"Aww," cried Lyra tearfully. "Please come back."

"Please," whispered Jetstream in agreement.

"It's so... beautiful," admitted Lucky.

"It really is," muttered Ash.

"Well," sighed Bucky, setting the picture down and staring ahead wearily. "This has been both extremely inspiring and extraordinarily depressing," he added, something which everyone present agreed. He took a deep breath, and pondered hard. Come on, he thought to himself. You're the most influential writer in Equestria. Suddenly he turned to the two mares. "Do either of you know if Rainbow is here or not?"

"She came in on the first train with the royal guards, several hours before we got here. But come to think of it, I haven't seen her since we first got here," said the green mare.

"Ladies, you've been fantastic, thank you. We'll be back. Come on boys," he said to Lucky and Ash. "Let's go ask the Princesses, find out where she is."