Within a few minutes of taking Candy Cane back up to the room, I did not hesitate to tell Blueberry everything about what Charger and Shade told me. Her general reaction was a lot less extreme then I expected, because she just started to curse and mumble to herself and question why there were two kinds of bat ponies running around in the city.

We both went to sleep, eventually, although when I finally did there was a bit of daylight shining down on me.

When all three of us woke up, we all agreed we were hungry. So, naturally, we went downstairs, to discover that there was a buffet-style thing happening where there was large amounts of food being rationed out to both the ponies who lived in the hotel and the ones that invaded the place a day ago. There had to be more than three dozen little ponies in the room, all ill at ease at each other and now, with me.

I considered waiting outside the room, with all the big pony-eyes directed at me the moment I was noticed, but I figured that my hunger was more important than what a bunch of little equines thought.

So, without another moment, I took a few careful steps into the ruckus that made up the dining room, and joined it.

Breakfast is a wonderful way to start the day, especially when there's no semimythical creatures around to make it more awkward than what it needs to be.

My apologies to Dawn, but I do prefer to eat around other people who have actual mouths. It helps.

While I stood patiently in line and waited for the pony behind the counter to scoop up globs of what I assumed was a vegetable at one point on the three plates I had gotten, Blueberry and Candy Cane paired up together to find a spot for the three of us at one of the dozen or so long tables around in the next room over.

All said and done, it took me a while to find where the two finally settled down, because ponies were short but Blueberry was shorter than most, and I wasn't especially thrilled to find that it appeared that she decided to sit where Charity and her associated ponies were seated.

The pink-maned white mare who threatened me not a few days before actually waved me over to the table, as if we were as thick as thieves and had no bad blood between us. Charger sat to her right and Karen sat to her left, and both gave me questioning looks.

Seeing that I didn't have much of a choice, I scooted in between Blueberry and Candy Cane, put the food on the table, and tried not to hit either of them with my elbows as I sat down.

I took a bite of the pale green-yellow semiliquid sludge that sat in front of me, thought on it, and immediately decided to never look at it again. Candy Cane just sort of stared at it for a few moments, perhaps to figure out where the food was in the gelatinous mass that sat in front of her, while Blueberry took one look at it and promptly said nothing at all.

Charity, who had a salad in front of her that contained actual lettuce and apple slices in it, grinned at me.

"Do you want something else, dear?" she said, voice all poison and honey, "I can get you something else, if you want it."

For a pony who seemed to assume that I was part of some big, evil slaver ring, she seemed really keen on doing everything she could to insult me.

"No." I said firmly.

"Oh, well, that's fine." Charity replied, sounding incredibly not-charitable as she speared a cherry tomato and chewed on it. "I mean, you could have the pick of the greenhouse if you wish. There's plenty in there, so don't worry about eating everything, big guy."

I could have flipped the table on top of her if I wanted too, I think. Both Karen and Charger already looked prepared to get away from Charity, and I wouldn't think that Charity could move fast enough to get out from under it. I wouldn't think she would have many ponies in the room that would help her, either, so really, I had a opening to

But, I was smarter than that.

"I think Candy Cane could get something better to eat." I replied, figuring that it was a reasonable thing to request, "Given that this would probably stunt her growth."

Charity looked at the filly, who was then hugging my arm and giving her a pouty look, before shrugging slightly and pursing her lips.

"Fine by me. Hey, Karen? Take the filly back, and-"

"Sure thing." the jenny said quietly, her façade of uncaring breaking only when Candy Cane broke out into a smile and hopped off the seat.

The two of them exited the room, and I scooted over to where their was once a little filly so Blueberry would have more room. She gave me a appreciative nod, and went back to not eating her food and looking slightly perturbed by Charger.

The four of us said nothing for a while, the orange mare taking robotic bites of the organic goop in front of her with a plastic spork and Charity nibbling at her salad with actual silverware. while Blueberry and I did nothing but watch them.

Blueberry was the one to speak up first, but that was probably because she was bored out of her wits end.

"So, uh, Charger, you're wearing a Stable jumpsuit. Are you from one of the Stables up here?" she asked, putting on her best conversational voice. She sounded somewhat like she was talking to Candy Cane; I don't know what that means.

"No." Charger replied, after another bite of the pungent slime. "I bought the suit from a merchant. They were cleaning out a Stable, and I helped. I got it as part of the payment. It is comfy."

She paused, and said absolutely nothing else as she went back to eating her food.

Blueberry's fake smile wavered lightly. Charity smirked at her, but I don't think she noticed.

"What about those power hooves you had on earlier? I'v never seen that model before, or any in that color. Are they custom?"

Charger nodded her head lightly. "They were gifts from Boffenspark. It is unpainted; the green color comes from the aurichalcum used in their construction. The exact alloy, if I am correct, is named 'Sparklite'."

Charger paused, again. "I am unsure if it is named after himself or Twilight Sparkle. He is rather uncreative, and has a ego."

"Well, real aurichalcum is really rare." Blueberry replied, again using that same word I didn't know, "Does he sell those, or are those unique?"

"He does not sell them, but he manufactures other things with that same alloy." Charger replied, "So, no."

"Oh." Blueberry said, before going silent, like the mare she was talking to.

There was another pause.

"Hey, you two, I do got good news." Charity spoke up suddenly, sounding cheerful, "We know who killed those two ponies near the elevator."

I didn't think that was a good breakfast conversational topic, but it was good news regardless. "Who did it?"

"The Goddess told me she did it this morning. She forgot to mention it earlier." Charity said in that same sing-song tone, "She said that they snuck in through a window. She killed them and wrote those words because she thought it was funny."

Blueberry looked a bit unnerved, while I felt the slightest bit of relief that it wasn't Umbra who did it.

Charger didn't react to the news, and was back to her food.

"Why would it do that?" I asked, confused.

"Why do those Balefire Dragons fly around the city and don't do anything? I dunno." Charity replied, sounding as if she was talking about the weather, "She said she wrote that stuff because it was funny. I'm not going to question the big blue alicorn that can turn invisible and knows a spell that causes heart attacks."

This Alicorn sounds worse the more I hear about it. I didn't actually need to know that it could turn invisible, or make things have heart attacks with it's thoughts.

Blueberry shuddered.

"Do we have to talk about that thing? Isn't there anything else we could talk about, like the wedding?"

I wondered what made Blueberry consider the casual murder of a pony a better topic than the comparatively nonthreatening alicorn, but I wasn't going to judge.

Charity looked at Charger for a few moments, who didn't seem too concerned with the topic, and after a few moments she leaned in and spoke in a comparatively serious tone.

"We can talk about the specifics later, but after this I'll let you go through the armory. We'll need to get the two of you fitted for clothes, too."

My mind blanked out for a moment, but Blueberry spoke for me. "Fittings? We wouldn't be wearing protective clothing or anything?"

"No, not at first." Charity said, sounding as if the answer to Blueberry's question was obvious, "I mean, you might, but Boffenspark has robots patrolling the place so there's no real excuse for having armored guards around. There's a dress code involved, but if everything goes according to plan then there won't be a reason for anypony besides Rollcall's group to be armored. I'm thinking about weapons right now, though."

She looked at me, expectantly. I figured that she wanted to know if I had any weapons on me, and I replied accordingly.

"I am not comfortable with guns." I admitted.

Charity stared at me for a few, long seconds.

"Well hell." she replied sourly, "Give me something to work with here!"

"There is, in fact, a small collection of melee weapons in our armory, Charity." Charger spoke up quietly, giving the white-coated mare pause, "There are several utility axes and picks, as well as a few varieties of magical energy spears and polearms. I do think one of them lights itself on fire when it is turned on."

"Huh." Charity said, apparently enamored by the idea of a flaming spear, "Well, that settles it for me. Minotaur, you got yourself the pick of the armory if you want."

"I will try and pick out something for myself." I replied, before having a sudden urge to mess with her. "Your kindness will be remembered."

Charity went stiff as a board, while Charger's brow raised the slightest bit. Luckily, Blueberry was in on the joke and smiled slightly at Charity, which just caused the bossy mare to look even more uncomfortable. Hail Red Eye, if that got the mare to shut up.

"Uh, yeah, sure, whatever."

A few moments later, it seemed as if she was going to speak up, but whatever it was that she was going to say died in the back of her throat, along with most of the noise in the room.

The silence came suddenly, which is a little unnatural in a big room filled with ponies, which made clippy-clop noises when they walked. It wasn't a complete silence; there was still mutterings and hushed words, but nothing close to what was going on a few moments ago.

I turned around in the seat, and I saw what was the cause of the silence.

It was looking at me.

He was a tall white-coated unicorn, not muscular like some of the stallions in the room but relatively tall for a pony. His coat was white and he was wearing a white suit with a yellow tie, both spotless. His eyes were a dark brown and his shoulder-length hair was a custardy yellow-color, done in tight ringlets.

The pony struck me as somewhat, distantly familiar. I felt a instinctual urge to flee when I realized why I thought I knew him, though I didn't act on it.

His horn lit up, and in a flash of light, something like a sword appeared, made of a bright golden light.

I didn't know what I was supposed to do, but Blueberry jumped out of her seat, as did Charity.

Charger just lowered her head slightly, until her chin touched the table. She didn't seem to be especially concerned at the situation.

I sat there, confused and mortified. Half a hundred big, wide pony eyes were looking at me, and there was a angry unicorn pointing a blade made of magic and light at my face.

"You." said the stallion, voice surprisingly strong-sounding for a pony, filled with righteous loathing. "My name is Cheesecake Claymore. You killed Cheesecake Crumbles. You killed my sister and her friends. Prepare to die."

I raised a arm to defend my neck, but I realized too late that he was going in for a stab.

I had inadvertently covered my eyes, but I felt a sharp stinging sensation, followed by the oddest feeling of something trickling down both my chest and my back at the same time. I wanted to do something, but soon I couldn't feel anything at all and all I heard was the sound of someone screaming.

The last thing I felt though, was falling on the floor, face down, and getting kicked in the chest.

The last thing I thought was 'Oh damn it that hurt', but that's really unimportant, all things considered.