//------------------------------// // Act 2 // Story: Castle Reunion // by AizakkuHorooee //------------------------------// After the one-pony welcoming committee, and everyone breaks to wait for Chrysalis, Aita and Lorien, I take a walk over to the dining room to make sure the dishes are ready when a crunching sound makes me cringe.  It doesn’t sound like a bad step like I initially think, in fact I feel fine.  It sounds like… someone eating. I rush to the dining room to find Mangle holding Smoky, the latter of whom has eaten off one of the walls, which is missing a chunk in the middle. “Uh, Smoky?” I slowly call. “Oh!” Mangle exclaims.  “Cozy!  One of the old 'save Equestria' buddies!  First time reuniting since assisting in the battle with that Swing-Gali guy.” “So was that where you were just after summer break?” Smoky asks with a full mouth, to which Mangle nods. “I’m pretty sure it was ‘Svengallop’,” I correct.  “But yes.  At least the table looks set.  Guess I better tell Aita and Chrysalis about the wall when they get back.” Smoky’s irises shrink at my aside, but Mangle makes him relax by setting him down.  “Don’t worry about it, Smokes.  Surely they’ll have everything under control.  Let’s go with Cozy and meet with the other guests.” And so, I lead Smoky and Mangle to the library, where I last saw Mom and Dad.  Midway through the trip, the three of us turn our heads down to the main entrance when knocking erupts.  Assuming it’s all three of them, I have the dragon brothers sit down where they are in the loft. I fly down to answer the door, which reveals only Aita and Lorien.  I tilt my head.  “Huh?  Where’s Chrysa-?  Whah!”  Lorien pins me to the floor and starts kissing me like no tomorrow, making me laugh. “Lorien was getting antsy about you,” Aita answers. “so I took him home early while Chrysalis did the last bit of shopping.” “That’s odd.  He wasn’t worried when we went to Spade Con, or when Firelight stayed here.” “So where are the guests?” asks Aita. I take a moment to think, and each bit of answer, I pay quick but avid attention to Lorien, since he’s apparently worried about me being around one of the guests.  “Mom and Dad… are in the library.  Spike and Areola, playing cards in the his old room.  Lily Trail and Bright Trail… are taking a tour of the castle.  And Smoky’s on the loft above with Mangle.” Immediately, Lorien “bro” barks upon hearing Mangle’s name, and races past me and Aita to find Smoky and Mangle.  She and I directly fly up to the loft to see Lorien tackle Mangle, then make Smoky mount him as he runs out of the castle, all the while barking at the top of his lungs.  We can only watch everything play out in shock. When Aita and I land in front of Mangle, he lets out a soft groan. I help him up.  “You okay?” “I… I think so,” Mangle says. “Man, I have never seen Lorien do that,” remarks Aita.  “He never barks and he never attacks guests.  The only one he ever showed aggression to before was Discord and he never tried to take me and Cozy away from him.” Mangle wraps his arm around Aita.  “Don’t sweat it, little princess.  Probably just a fluke misjudgement.  We all make mistakes, don’t we?” “But why would Lorien attack you?” I ask him.  “You didn’t do anything wrong.” “Not that we know of at least,” Aita says.  “Foxes bark when there appears to be danger, usually when there’s something that shouldn’t be there, like a ‘road work ahead’ sign, or a trash can with a broken litter box in it.” “Okay, so it does sound like a fluke,” concludes Mangle, wiping his forehead with his claw in relief. The three of us hear two sets of hooves clipping towards us, so looking in their direction, we see that a concerned Lily Trail and Bright Trail have appeared. “Is everything alright?” asks Bright. “We thought we heard barking!” Lily adds. Mangle gets up and dusts himself off.  “Yeah.  Lorien tackled me and took away Smokes, but hey, at least he didn’t scratch me.” After having finished shopping, I start my way back home when Lorien zooms by with Smoky on his back.  I can’t go after him, seeing how I have so much in the saddlebags, so I come up with a different idea: take after Aita.  I call to Lorien, then click my tongue, and he promptly turns around and returns to me.  Smoky lifts off the fox’s back. “Smoky, what has you riding our pet?” I playfully inquire. “Lorien made me mount him.  He was barking almost the whole time until we got into town.” Smoky’s answer has me taken aback.  “Barking?  Lorien never barks, and he certainly never did that to Discord.  Is this true, Smoky?”  He nods.  “I would normally ask Aita what this meant, but she’s back at the castle to check on Cozy.” “Well, you done shopping?” I answer Smoky with a nod of my own.  “Then we could ask her now.” “Then let’s go.  Come, Lorien.  We’ll need to talk about this when the reunion is over.” Smoky and I head back to the castle with Lorien tracing close behind. After the whole dragon brothers separation incident, Cozy Glow and I take Mangle to the library, which was apparently where they and Smoky were headed.  There we see Amber and Tight Knit.  The latter is the first to see us. “Cozy!  Aita!  There you are.  How was shopping?” “Could be smoother,” I tell Tight Knit.  “Lorien’s been acting a bit weird since you guys got here.” “Why would he be doing that?” asks Amber.  “It looked like he wanted to play when we last saw him.” “Lorien must’ve thought I was home alone,” Cozy concludes. “Makes sense,” I agree.  “He, Chrysalis and I missed Areola and Spike come in.  Clearly Lorien has something against Mangle, but we don’t know what at the moment.” Tight Knit tilts his head to me.  “But why Mangle?  Isn’t he a sheriff from what Smoky told us on the train?” While in my old room, showing Areola Aita’s favorite card game, War, we did hear distant high-pitched barking.  But it isn’t addressed until I start shuffling the cards. “So what was that sound earlier?” Areola asks me. “Oh that?  I’m pretty sure it was that fox Aita got when she was helping out Cozy and Chrysalis with some nightmare,” I explain before briefly chuckling.  “Not sure about the name though… wasn’t it Kevin?  I’ll have to ask Fluttershy whenever I get the chance.” Before I have any time to start dealing out the newly randomized deck of cards, my ears twitch to the sound of the front doors opening. “Come on, Spike,” Areola orders.  “It’s probably Chrysalis at the lobby.” “Right behind you.” I closely follow Areola as we make our way down to the main entrance, and like she said, Chrysalis is there, but with the fox we were talking about earlier as well as a dragon that looks like Mangle, but my age. “Spike!  Areola!” exclaims Chrysalis, immediately waving to us.  “Lovely catching you here.” I fly down from the loft and bump claw to hoof with her.  “So I see you’re popular with young dragons, huh.” “I wouldn’t say that exactly,” Chrysalis answers back.  “Smoky here was taken out of the castle by Lorien and separated from Mangle.” I land on the floor in front of the three.  “Lorien?  So his name did change.” As I ponder about the fox’s name, Areola hovers down and rests a hoof on my shoulder. “I think I know what this is about.  Chrysalis, would you mind coming with me?” “Of course.  Lorien, lead the young drakes to Aita while I’m back out.” With a confirmation by Lorien with a boop to Chrysalis’ hoof, he swishes his tail onto me and Smoky as he walks between us, then puts his nose in the air and takes off.  Smoky and I watch behind us as Chrysalis and Areola walk out of the main entrance. “So what do you suppose that was about?” “I don’t know, Smoky,” I say.  “Maybe Areola knows something about Mangle we don’t?” Right after the me and Smoky’s quick side conversation, Lorien starts barking like I heard before, except he chases us away.  As I stop and turn around, out of the corner of my eye stands Mangle.  Smoky leads me around the corner to hide and take a peak at the scene. Once we can get a reliable view, Lorien takes a remarkably hostile stance at Mangle, growling and gekkering as if he’s about to maul him.  Mangle simply kneels down to fox level and offers his claw palm up.  Obviously in this mood, Lorien rejects this offer with a bite.  Oof, okay, if you don’t wanna be friends, Mangle calmly remarks, shaking off the resulted pain in the bitten claw. As Mangle walks off in the distance, Lorien running in a different direction than him, Smoky and I pull away from view, the former of us hanging his head. “Wow… no one’s ever disliked my brother before…” “Unless you count Stellar Flare and Svengallop,” I reply.  “But at least with those two, they were villains who really wouldn’t have liked anypony anyway.” “Exactly.  Why is Lorien so determined that Mangle is anything like that?” I scratch my chin scales before snapping my claw at an idea.  “Maybe Aita will know.  She has technically been around Lorien the longest, and she does come from the real world.” Smoky blushes at the mention of Aita, but ultimately smiles at the idea.  Not too sure what their history is, but he must’ve met her when she met Cozy.  So all is set for us just to go to the library.  It hasn’t been terribly long since I moved out with Twilight to Canterlot, so I still know the way. Most of the way is silent, but Smoky does eventually strike up a fresh conversation. “So, about Aita… and how she handled my old classmate…”  I look up at him, showing him I’m all ears.  “I, uh, ended up dismissing Cozy’s change at first until Chrysalis told me about what happened to her, the reason she had our class bowl with her at LOLO.” “I imagine the entire class did,” I reassure Smoky. “considering the need to go to Fillydelphia in the first place.  Did you ever apologize to Aita, Chrysalis or Cozy?” Smoky turns the other way, prompting me to place my claws on my sides below my wings.  “Smoky…” “No.  No I didn’t.  It’s really too bad too.  They haven’t talked to me about it.” I blink twice, realizing exactly what’s going on with Smoky.  “That’s because it’s not their decision to address it; it’s yours.  Twilight did something similar with Moondancer when we first got this castle.  At least with you, no one has any ill will toward you because they’ve been better off for what happened.  Besides, you really shouldn’t be so hesitant to answer stuff like this; it’s not healthy.” Smoky sighs.  “Oh… Sorry, Spike.  I-I guess I never thought about it like that, that not everything has to be kept a secret.” I stop and hug him.  “That’s the spirit.  Now let’s go meet Aita.” Smoky nods, and we continue our walk to the library.  He must’ve been taught that secrecy mentality by his parents.  It’s weird too.  Smoky said he was brothers with Mangle, yet I never observed anything like that with the latter.  I wonder if Areola taking Chrysalis out to talk in private has anything to do with Smoky’s situation.  I guess only time will tell. Opening the door to the library, we see Cozy Glow, her parents, Lily Trail, Bright Trail and Aita, the first and last of whom waves hello to us while the rest are marveling at some Shadow Spade book.