Breaking the Law
Rainbow Dash looked at her food the same way a vulture would observe its prey. She devoured her burger with reckless abandon, leaving little time to savour the meal before her. Scootaloo did the same, although slightly slower than her idol, her little jaw struggling to keep up. Question Mark had started eating, but froze as he watched their display. He gave the pair a raised eyebrow but they paid him no heed.
“Well, nopony is perfect,” he grumbled.
“What-d you say?” Dash asked him, her maw still full of food.
“Never mind,” he replied, going back to his fries. “You sure you two are going to eat all that?”
When Question Mark had settled on the idea of going to a burger joint, while it may not have been the greatest example of Trottingham cuisine, it was at least something nearly every colt and filly would enjoy. A simple burger and fries, then for dinner they could have a larger meal someplace fancier. What the detective had not anticipated was his marefriend ordering ten burgers between herself and her sister, and enough fries to feed a small orphanage. The pair of them were already on their second burger while Question had barely ate through his fries.
“You kidding me?” Dash belched loudly. “I’ve tackled way worse than this. You got any idea how much my metabolism eats through a day? A lot!”
“And what’s her excuse?” He asked pointedly, poking a hoof towards her smaller counterpart.
“C’mon dude, she’s a growing filly. Me and the Squirt have got this, right?” Scootaloo nodded along, although she was clearly faltering.
Daedalus on the other hand could symphaise. Despite his old age, he would often have to eat through grandiose meals similar to this one, and that was just to keep himself going. Although, he could not imagine stomaching food quite like this. Like most lings, he had a penchant for sugars and sweets, and while he could enjoy variation in his diet, sugar was always a necessity. Tofu didn’t exactly cut it for him.
Yet Toxotis was different. While Trottingham food could indeed be fancy, he had been raised on the most common of local cuisine. Potatoes, carrots, gravy, food that while tasty, lacked fancy flavorings. His pallet was much plainer than most other lings, which at times proved a point of contention when he and Daedalus would dine together.
“All I’m saying is if that little filly is sick today, it’s your problem to deal with.”
Dash responded by bowling a raspberry at Question, then smiling confidently at her protege. This only spurred the little filly on further, and just as Question Mark had finished his meal, the two mares had done the same. Quickly they departed, heading back towards the centre of town, now suddenly aimless again.
“So you remember what I told you before?” Question spoke aloud, addressing his marefriends sister.
“Eh?”
“It’s your day, meaning you can go anyplace you like.”
Scootaloo looked around the streets and ponies that surrounded her. There was so much to take in that her little heart could barely contain her excitement. But It did not take long for her to make up her mind. There was one place she had seen that she still wanted to go to most of all. “That big clock!”
“The Grand Fern? They do all day tours, they even let up on the top balcony next to the clock face.”
“Sounds cool,” Dash said with a shrug. “Let’s head over then.”
“This is going to be awesome!”
“This isn’t so awesome…” Scootaloo whispered to Rainbow, her head hanging low.
“Yeah, tell me about it,” Rainbow grumbled, tapping her hoof against the floor. “This guy could bore even Twi, and she lives for this kind of stuff.”
The moment they had arrived, Rainbow had felt like something was off. She hadn’t realised the fern was connected to one of the Princess's ‘summer palaces.’ In essence, it was a vacation spot for Celestia (and now Luna) where they could also continue to do work if need be. It was lavish and grand, but as to be expected, had top notch security. They were not alone on this tour, in fact they had to wait for nearly half an hour before being bundled together with a bunch of other families.
Then before long they had met a stallion by the name of Lord something or other - as Rainbow had eloquently put it - before he began to drone on and on about every piece of useless trivia imaginable, ranging from dusty old paintings to the royal bathroom. This was her own personal hell, and she imagined that for Scootaloo, the feeling was mutual. At some point, the three of them had lost their sense of time. They could have been here for minutes, hours, perhaps days.
“I remember it being more… involved the last time I was here,” Question whispered in her ear. She was surprised to see he was faring no better. Her coltfriend was an egghead through and through, but if even he was struggling to make it through this tour, then it spoke volumes to how bad this was.
At this point, the three of them could barely pay attention to what this stallion was saying. His tone of voice was so utterly monotonous that it became white noise to them. He was talking about a painting they had huddled around, that much was certain. It was a very old image of Luna, shortly before she became Nightmare Moon. It was a sad, despondent piece; its colours as dark as the night sky, but without the twinkling stars that made it beautiful. Considering it was big news that Luna herself had stayed here not too long ago, Question Mark was amazed it had been left up.
“This portrait will be joining many others in the reopening of the galley this evening. This may well be the last time it dawns these halls.” The tour guide noted, before directing everypony to follow him again.
Daedalus had not realised one could grow tired when they were already sleeping, yet here he was, on the verge of nodding off everytime this dull as dishwater stallion opened his mouth. He was prepared to start climbing the walls, perhaps even abandon this journey all together and abort back into the real world. He considered the possibility that something was wrong again. Why was he now forced into this slow path where nothing was occurring? Yet as fate would have it, he wouldn’t have to wait long to get his answer.
“How much longer?” Scootaloo asked through a yawn, rubbing her eyes.
“Dunno,” Dash confessed, doing her best to stay awake as well. “Better not be much longer though.”
“It’s not,” Question assured her. “We’re on one of the top floors now. On the next floor is a stairwell that takes you straight up, and another that leads right back down to the very bottom. We’ll be on the balcony soon enough.”
“... I’m afraid that area is closed off to visitors today.”
Simultaneously, Rainbow, Scootaloo, Question and Deadalus froze in their tracks. All four stared wide-eyed at the tour guide. It was the first time he had said anything of note to them, and it brought them all to a stand still.
“Pardon?” Question tried to clarify.
“We had a… incident a few days prior. Vandals or some such nonsense. While they clean the graffiti, we have had to close the balcony off to the general public. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
He said nothing else as he spun back on his heel and led the equally tired families to what would be the end of the tour. Yet the curious trio did not move. Each one felt a range of emotions from exhaustion, frustration, disappointment, but both adults did their best to contain these bitter feelings. Scootallo did not.
“Horse Apples!” The filly spat, flopping to the ground with a pained groan.
Rainbow scooped her up in her hoof and placed the Squirt on her back. Scootaloo responded by burying her head into Dash’s body, wanting to scream till she couldn’t anymore. The cyan mare wanted to do the exact same, but she held firm for the time being.
“Well that was a waste of time,” Dash growled out. “That jerk could have mentioned that part in the first place.”
“Less customers probably,” Question sighed out, looking at the floor. “It’s the main attraction. Keep quiet and technically you're not lying to the public.”
“Whatever, let's just get out of here.”
Ordinarily, Question Mark would have followed along wordlessly, taking the loss on the chin. But as his marefriend spun around, he caught a glimpse of the sadness behind Scootaloo’s eyes. And as he gazed into those light purple iris’, he came to a decision that was most unbecoming of the law abiding citizen that he was. Yet despite how out of character it might have been for him, he had not been more certain on a course of action in a very long time.
“No.”
“Huh?” Rainbow stopped in her tracks again.
“We’re not leaving yet.
“Quest, what are you talking about?”
“We came here for one thing, yes? And that arse made sure to not tell us we couldn’t go until the last possible second. I say if your opponent cheats, then breaking the rules is now fair game.”
Scootaloo’s downturned ears perked right back up. The rest of her body quickly did the same, shooting upwards and landing back on the floor.
“Do you wanna break in?” She asked the detective.
“More take an alternate route,” he replied, looking around to make sure nopony was listening. “I know where the staircase is. We could fly to the top, but they probably have guards flying about the perimeter, stopping anypony getting too close. However, I have a bit of an old trick up my sleeve”
Rainbow couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing. Where in the hay had this guy been the whole time? Her coltfriend had transformed from a dorky, awkward bookworm into a confident rule breaker. He shot her a smile before focusing back on Scootaloo, and Dash felt her cheeks grow warm.
“What do you say? Want to break a few laws on your birthday?”
“Yeah!” Scootally beamed widely and nodded wildly.
“And what do you say, Miss Daring Do?”
She stared at him for a moment, still trying to regain her bearings. But sure enough, she found her own confident smirk. “Hell yeah!”
Daedalus had been left utterly floored to see a side of Question Mark he knew so little about. Yet he knew he had seen it before. It was always in those rare moments when the curious ling would find himself driven beyond reason to achieve a goal. However, the King had only witnessed it when the detective was on the job, never in a situation like this.
Any sense of exhaustion the four of them had felt was replaced with a wave of adrenaline. They crept up to the next floor as carefully as they could, barely keeping their nerves together. To their collective shock, there had been a surprisingly lack of guards. Despite how tight security seemed, they were perhaps focused on the known entrances of the palace, rather than the inner corridors. However, just as Question Mark had suspected, there were indeed two guard ponies blocking the stairwell that led to the balcony. He held out his hoof to make sure nopony went any further, while peeking around the corner.
“Okay, I’m going to lead them away.”
“What do you mean?” Rainbow asked.
“Well I’m going to try to bluff them. Been a while, but I think I can handle this. Just wait here, I’ll motion when it's okay to come back out.”
Just before he turned the corner, Dash grabbed his shoulder. “Quest, good luck. Don’t get hurt.”
He smiled back at her, before making his move. Daedalus followed along as the detective put on his best mask of confidence, strolling up to the pegasi guards as if he was meant to be there. While they did not immediately react, the closer he got to them, the tighter they held onto their spears, crossing them together to block the doorway.
“Halt!” Announced the first guard.
“State your business!” Continued the second.
“My business?” Question questioned. “Do they tell you ponies anything around here?”
“Huh?” The guards said simultaneously.
The Detective rolled his eyes, revealing a parchment of paper from his waist coat pocket, before quickly retracting it back. “Inspector Critical Sight. I’m here to look at the extent of the vandalism.”
“You are?” One guard muttered, looking at the other. “We were not informed of this.”
“Evidently, or you two would not still be standing in my way.” The ling tapped his hoof on the floor impatiently. “I’m a busy stallion you know, I’ve not got all day here.”
“Didn’t somepony already take a look?” The other guard referred to the other. “It was a week ago, wasn’t it?”
“And you can thank the poor job they did for why I’ve been dragged out here.” Question let out a dramatic sigh. “Incomplete damage report, the pictures were unclear, and there was barely a summary on cost and damages. My department can’t go off that information, so I’ve been dragged from MY holiday to come out here and clean up that prick’s mess.”
“That’s rough, buddy,” the first guard said, nodding his head along.
“Yeah, trust us, we have to clean up far too many messes for other ponies here too,” his partner chimed in.
“It’s not even our department half the time.”
“But we gotta clean it up anyway.”
“Speaking of, you lads might want to skedaddle.” He turned his head around, making a show of hoping no one was listening in. “I heard some nutter has clogged the toilets downstairs.”
“What!?” They shouted in unison.
“Yep, overheard a C.O. Talking about finding the pair of guards who done it. If I was you boys, I’d cut him off before he starts pointing hoofs at ya.”
“Not standing for this again,” the first guard shouted.
“Bet you it was Gleamer. What the hell is his wife feeding him?”
“Cheers mate, you go on up ahead, we’ll be back in a bit.”
“Gonna find the boss.”
“Good luck, lads.” He gave them a salute as they marched away. Dash and Scootaloo ducked back round the corner, only peeking out again when the guards marched through the other exit.
“You did it!” Scootaloo yelled as quietly as she could, dancing on her tippy toes. She bounded forward and hugged the detective’s leg, before quickly throwing herself back off and blushing furiously. “I-I mean… that was kinda cool, I guess.”
Before she could embarrass herself further, she ran up the stairs faster than the adults could react. Question turned back towards his marefriend, about to suggest they chase after her, but was momentarily stunned by her genuine look of shock.
“What the hay was that!?” She yelled with much less reservation. It was not an angry shout, but Question did reel back from her voice. “Dude, you were like an entirely different pony!”
“Yeah, I’ve had a lot of practice.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well these days I’m a private detective, meaning I get little to no official support. Ponies can turn me away for any reason they like. So sometimes you have to be a bit more… convincing to get where you need to go.”
“You mean lie?” She deadpanned.
“You could say that I suppose. As I said, I have a lot of practice at it.” He removed the piece of paper from his pocket again. “Exhibit a; a Ponopoly card I claim to be a card confirming my identity. Flash it fast enough, ponies tend not to question if they actually saw what they needed from it.”
“How’d you get them with the toilet though? That was like, so random.”
“Not quite. When we talked, they mentioned cleaning up other ponies messes. I also noticed on the way up here that there was a staff toilet on the floor below. It was a gamble, but it worked nonetheless. Every work place in the world shares the same issues with the community toilet. Trust me on that one.”
Rainbow had her own war stories on that front, more than she cared to think about, so she settled on just grimacing and nodding her head. “Well that was pretty awesome.” Instead of a peck on the cheek, she softly graced his lips. She let the kiss linger, Question returning the favor with earnest. She pulled away just before he could get too excited, sticking her hoof on his snout. “And I should know, I’ve got a degree in it.”
“Oh, truly? Where did you major in?” he teased.
“The Rainbow Dash school for awesome ponies. It’s only got one course.”
“Two if you count big headedness.”
She went to punch his foreleg when Scootaloo called out from the top of the stairs. “Where are you guys!? You're missing out!”
The two looked at one another and smiled, walking side by side up the spiral staircase. Once they were at the top, they found themselves instantly filled with awe. Behind them was the massive clock face of the grand fern. So large was it that if it were a house, it could satisfy the needs of a family of twenty, with more than enough room to spare. A single digit on its face was thrice the size of all of them put together.
The sight of the city ahead of them dwarfed the view from the hotel window. Rainbow had seen so many incredible sights in her short time on earth. They had all started to blend together. She was almost numb to it now, but this clockwork city was like nothing she’d seen before. The architecture, the culture, the grandeur, it filled her with such an awestruck feeling that for a few moments, she felt her knees buckle and bend.
“Nothing quite like it,” Question spoke up, looking out beside her. “A city built by pegasi on the ground. All the scope and verticality of Cloudsdale, with the ingenuity of earth ponies, and the creativity of unicorns. There are times when I’m glad not more ponies visit this place. It’s crowded enough as it is.”
“Do you guys see that?” Scootaloo called out, pointing out towards a zeppelin going overhead.
“I hate those things,” Question admitted, whispering in Dash’s ears. “Death machines if you ask me, only a matter of time till they explode. Still, the foals love them.”
Dash nodded along, pretending to listen. Scootaloo danced around her, bounding from side to side, trying to see as much as she could. Rainbow ignored her, looking out towards the horizon, she approached the ledge and remained silent. Her sudden shift in behaviour didn’t go unnoticed. Question walked up beside her and tried to get her attention again.
“Something on your mind?”
“I just feel like an idiot right now.” She confessed.
“Why?
“I used to have a thing against land pegasi. Not like I hated them, I just thought it was dumb to not live in the sky.” She paused and bit at her lip, looking more downtrodden than before. “God, I was so dumb.”
“I don’t think that’s dumb. You just didn’t know. To be honest with you, there are many pegasi that are born and raised in Trottingham that think living in the sky is utterly ridiculous. Believe me, I used to share some of those sentiments as well. That kind of a mentality is routinely a two-way street.”
“You thought living in the clouds was weird?”
“My whole life was on solid ground. Being able to fly and do mag-” He caught himself and began to cough, pretending something had caught in his throat. “Sorry, where was I? Flying was just a nice bonus of living. Not an essential trait down here. Very different culture than what you were born into.”
“I guess you’re right,” Rainbow acknowledged, perking up just slightly. “But I don’t think that always defines you.”
“Oh?”
“Look at the Squirt.” She pointed towards her protege, who was still bounding about excitedly, peeking over every edge she could. “All she’s ever wanted was to fly like other pegasi, and she was born on the earth as well.”
“It’s different for everypony. If you see somepony with a life very different from yours, you either want it, or hate it.”
“I hope you don’t think I’m stupid for saying that stuff.”
“I told you before, didn’t I? You’re not stupid. Don’t call yourself that.”
“Well thanks for showing me how to be smarter, wise master.” She cheekily bowed at him. “But hey, even I’m not great at everything,” she grinned back.
“There’s what I love about you, your eternal humility.” She stuck her tongue out at him. “Who knows? Maybe you’ll be a teacher yourself someday?”
“Who? Me!?” Rainbow let out a loud, long laugh that had her nearly rolling on the floor. Question was thankful he had saved that remark until now, otherwise he would have had to drag her up the stairs. “What the hay would I even teach?
“Well you got Scootaloo to hover off the ground. For her condition, that’s extremely impressive. So flying would be a safe bet. You certainly aren’t a bad teacher, Miss future wonderbolt”
“Heh, I guess that’s not too bad an idea.”
“If that doesn’t work out, you could always teach friendship skills. I mean you are and your friends are meant to experts on that part of life.”
“A school for friendship?” She rolled her eyes. “Like that would ever happen.”
Above them travelled a particularly large zeppelin, that blew its horn so loudly it travelled across the city. They marvelled as it crawled through the sky. Rainbow and Question grew closer to one another. Nervously, Rainbow looked over towards Scootaloo, but she was paying them no heed, too engrossed with the hulking behemoth of a machine. So just as the pair started to relax, heads resting on one another, Rainbow pulled away.
“Wait? Did you say love?”
Dash’s sudden question caused her coltfriend to nearly suffer a heart attack. If Daedalus knew his friend - and he certainly did - then typically Question Mark would become a blubbering mess as he tried to talk his way around the situation. Or at least that would have happened, If not for the sudden intrusion of a group of ponies, who depending on your perspective, had terrible, or incredible timing.
“Hey! Who’s up there!?”
Everypony jumped on the spot as they heard angry shouts from the stairs. Question Mark had already figured out what had happened. The two guards from before went downstairs, started to ask questions, and his little lie was quickly unwound. In short, the three of them had outstayed their welcome. They danced around each other as they tried to figure out what best to do, before Rainbow froze on the spot and grimaced. “Well, Squirt, looks like you're getting your wish after all.”
“Huh?” Was all the filly could say, but Rainbow just placed her on her back, muttering to hold on tight.
“What are you doing?” Question pressed.
“Going skydiving.” She jogged to the edge, poking an eye downward. “Welp, least my wings aren’t bound.”
“We're gonna jump!?”
“Fraid so,” Dash gave him a smile. “Time to pull out that trick I showed you.”
Question reluctantly joined the fillies at the edge of the tower. He really wished he was a better flyer right now. The logical part of his brain kicked into gear. It was their only shot at avoiding spending the night in jail. Yet it also told him - quite plainly in fact - that he may well crash and burn. Rainbow placed one of her wings over his back, grinning at him again.
“Come on. Miss Future Winderbolt taught you all you need to know. I thought I was a great teacher?”
Before he could second guess himself, and just as he heard the first guard reach the very top of the stairs, Rainbow pushed him forward with her wing and the trio plummeted to the ground below. Daedalus jumped after them, yelling ‘yippee’ the entire way. The cyan mare screamed as the adrenaline in her body kicked in, the orange filly cried out in excitement as the winds blasted through her mane, and the white stallion wailed in fear as his life flashed before his eyes.
The ground grew closer and closer, and his heart pounded faster and faster. But just before he could succumb to despair, he regained what little willpower he could muster and remembered what Rainbow Dash had taught him. Gently, he tilted his wings upwards, letting the wind flow against them. He angled his hooves as he felt himself start to move ahead, rather than straight down. Just as his momentum had reached its lowest point, the ground came to call, and instead of splating in the pavement, he stumbled along it, barely keeping his footing.
“Wooo! You did it!” Rainbow yelled, launching her hoof into the air, having landed seconds before him. Daedalus followed suit, landing softly on the ground with a makeshift umbrella he had dreamt up.
Question Mark could scarcely believe it. He did it! But before he could get caught up in the moment, he remembered the guards that would certainly be hot on their tails. Not helped by the fact that everypony around them was now staring in their direction. “Move!” He shouted out.
He led them across the square and ducked into the nearest alleyway. Despite the guards shortening the gap, it did not take long to lose them. If there was one thing Question Mark knew about this city, it was exactly where to hide. Instinct took over as he went from street to street, alley to alley, only stopping when he realised they had gone a step too far. Rainbow nearly chased into his behind as she skidded to a halt.
“Why’d you stop?” Even Dash was running low on breath.
Scootaloo had remained on Dash’s back the entire way, clutching her tightly and keeping her own head low. Now that they had stopped, she took the chance to take in her surroundings, and she quickly wished she hadn’t. Everything here felt darker, grimier, sadder. Graffiti lined the brick walls, trash littered the streets, windows were broken and there was a strange fog in the air, or was it smoke? She couldn’t quite tell.
Daedalus recognised this place well, and knew that Question Mark was not the only being to harbor ill-will towards this place. Dash joined her coltfriend by his side. Looking at his face, he could only stare blankly forward, his eyes now dead and lifeless. “What is this place?” She asked him. He did not answer, he just kept staring. “Quest?”
“This was my home,” he finally said. His eyes darted around the place, taking a step backwards, he simply added, “We should leave.”
He walked on ahead, not waiting for either of the two mares to follow. Rainbow shook off her shock and caught up to him, but felt an ill feeling in the pit of her stomach. She wanted to know more; her coltfriends sudden dismissal leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. But she held her tongue, focusing on getting Scootaloo away from this place.
Daedalus followed on, sensing the very sudden shift in tone from a happy and excitable atmosphere, to a permeating sense of dread. As the day passed on, this feeling would not leave. Of course they would smile and be happy, eat tasty food, laugh and dance along the sights and sounds Trottingham had to offer, yet the elephant in the room remained a present threat. It would not leave until somepony inevitably brought it up, and Question knew it was only a matter of time.
With a sigh of relief, Athena finally delivered King Daedalus to his chambers. Despite his highness now having a potential concussion, he had been delivered safe and sound. The small entourage that she had collected on her journey home, were milling about the place, trying to keep out of the way of Artemis, who focused on fluffing the King's pillows.
"So this ere's the standard for a King's quarters?" She let out a harsh laugh. "Not while I'm still kicking it ain't."
It was never good enough for Artemis; if she entered a room and only mildly grimaced, you had done a good job. The room was as madcap as his majesty. Everything felt wonky and out of place, with a collection of seemingly random portraits and junk lined the walls and shelves. It was a room only fit for the likes of Discord, who would probably treat the place like his own summer home.
It was also surprisingly small, or perhaps cozy was a better term for this odd bedroom. It was humble, despite the status of the ling that occupied it. There was just enough room to fit the six of them in it, but moving about would be an awkward affair. Arachni gently placed Question Mark on a comfortable lounge chair, dusting off his mane along the way.
Orpheus had remained silent since they had arrived. Despite his new found ability to speak, he was often a ling of very few words. He never spoke when he didn't need to, but his eyes were often enough to give away what he was thinking. He was watching Artemis carefully, noting her sluggish movement, her shortness of breath, her weakened posture. Subtly, he moved behind her before speaking up.
"Are you well, Artemis?"
"Oi, commander to you," she stammered through a cough. "Course I'm fine ya daft git. Too much work to do."
The others quickly noticed as well. Her knees were shaking and her back looked to be giving way. Even Athena - who harbored even less love for Artemis than she did most other lings - was growing concerned. “Perhaps you should take a seat?” She suggested.
“Now what in tartarus' flaming arse are ya implying!?” She fired back. “I’m fine I tell ya! I’m fin-”
And then quite suddenly, Artemis collapsed. Athena caught her before she hit the floor, but one look at her face made it clear she was out cold. Arachni bounded towards her, while Orpheus stayed back, not wanting to crowd her.
“Artemis!” Arachni called out in a panic, cupping her head in her hooves. At the call of her name, the retired warrior began to stir. Her eyelids weakly opened, but her eyes were still rolled back in her skull. She weakly mumbled as Athena carried her to the last remaining chair, placing her down as gently as she could. “Artemis, are you alright? Can you hear me?” She mumbled again, but it was completely unintelligible.
“Let her rest,” Athena said softly, placing a hoof of Arachni’s shoulder. “She’s overworked herself.”
Arachni found herself gently pulled away, and instantly her walls began to break. But she stayed firm, her head spinning about as she desperately searched for something to do. Her eyes found their target as she travelled to the King’s side, fixing up his bed just as her mentor had done, giving his pillows an extra fluff.
“What shall we do?” Orpheus spoke to Athena, and her alone.
“Give her a moment,” she spoke back, eyeing the downed Artemis. “She’s a tough old bird. She’ll be back up and nagging us to death soon enough.”
The seconds ticked by as Arachni clambered about the room, looking over every nook and cranny for just about anything to do. But sure enough, Artemis’ body wriggled to life. Clumsily she rose from her fallen state, her eyelids only half open. “The hell…?” She yawned.
All three other lings in the room stopped what they were doing, and despite being the furthest away, Arachni made it to her side first. “Artemis! Are you alright?”
“Course I’m alright, I-” She caught herself as she realised where she was, and why she was sitting on a chair in the King’s bedroom. “Not again…” She grumbled.
“You need to have a proper rest-”
“I cannae rest! There’s too much bloody work left to do.”
“Not if you’re gonna collapse on us again,” Athena spoke up. “If any of us were in your hoofs, you’d order us straight home to sleep off the day. And don’t you dare argue back, you know it to be true.”
“Unlike you three, if any of you’z go down, the whole castle doesn’t go with ya.” She huffed, whacking her hoof against the armrest. “I bet the kitchen has already messed something up again, and it’s not even close to tea.”
“Please, Artemis, Athena is right,” Orpheus spoke up again. “Do the sensible thing. Give the orders you need, and at least take a rest for a few hours. No one wants to see you leave us just yet.”
A long and dour pause took hold of all of them. The old crone scowled at the trio, her eyes meeting each with equal ferocity. She was like a wounded lion, down, but still with more fight than any of them could be prepared for. Yet this time, reason won out. Slowly she pushed herself off the chair and threw a foreleg over Orpheus. Arahcni joined him on her other side and kept hold of her.
“You win,” she admitted, her head pointed downward. “I’ll give the orders as I go. You’d best follow them to the T’. You hear me?”
“Crystal,” Orpheus replied.
“Athena!” She addressed her, the last of her strength was placed in her commanding voice. “Do a once over of the room, then get yourself home. You ‘ave the day off for once too.”
The younger ling bit her lip. Most would have seen this as a reward, and yet it felt strangely spiteful to Athena. Ever since taking her position, she had rarely taken a single day off. She knew any attempt to argue the point would be what the elder ling would want, so she sighed and brought her foreleg into a salute.
“Yes, mam.”
“Good, now let's get out of ‘ere.” As Artemis was practically carried out of the room, Athena found herself pouting over her strange predicament.
When the doors were shut, it dawned on her how odd it was to be all alone with his majesty in his most vulnerable moment. He was entirely asleep and utterly defenceless. She had heard the stories of his power, every ling had, but to see him like this he seemed no more hazardous than a bunny. She wandered the room several times over, yet she couldn’t see why. She severely doubted there would be anything here that both Artemis and Arachni could have missed.
Then she spotted it. Between the two pillows Deadlus’ head lay upon, was a single blue envelope. She stopped dead in her tracks as she glared at it. She could not recall seeing it there before. As not to disturb the king any further, she carefully plucked it away and turned it towards her. To both her shock and horror, she found it was addressed to her.
Athena’s head swivelled all around, making sure no ling was hiding in plain sight. This must have been a trick of some kind, she reasoned to herself. She was tempted to throw the thing out and be done with it. But for whatever reason, the envelope would not leave her magical grip. She opened it up slowly, suddenly afraid of what she might find. Yet all that lay hidden within, was a curious invitation.
To Captain Athena
You are hereby invited to a meeting of like-minded individuals who wish to see real change in our kingdom. We are all from different parts of our society, from the richest and the poorest, and we have joined as one because we truly believe in a better tomorrow for all lings.
We know you are an extraordinary and proud mare, and we would be honoured to have you join our ranks. While we are unable to disclose all the details you may require in this invite, know all will become clear soon enough. Our next meeting will be held in the basement of the Queen’s Chitin, a pub north of Salamander Street. Please arrive at 4pm this afternoon.
We sincerely hope to see you there.
~ Your new friends
Athena read the note over and over again. Everytime she came to the same conclusion; she had to report this to her superiors. There was no other option for her. To not report this, at best, is treason. The message was clear, its implication apparent, and yet she found herself unable too. She looked over to Daedalus, dark thoughts swirling around in her head. She decided it would be best to take the day off after all. Quietly she left, a single eye remaining on the king’s slumbering form until the door shut behind her.
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HMMMMMmmmmmm....interested to see where you go with this...
...Uh oh, the treason plot tumor is back and growing. I'll give it more leeway to see if this is actually a Pinkie Pie-style conspiracy pretending to be something serious for delayed laughs, but if it's what it looks like it is it's going to ruin the story.
Oh hell yes to that one