//------------------------------// // Whitetrot's Vengeance // Story: Farmhand // by MLP-person //------------------------------// It was very late in the day, almost sundown in fact, when the image of the little girl soaked in her own blood, damaged beyond a chance of survival, was forced from his mind. Discord had taken him around town instead of back home, showing him the places in town that were less known but no less fun to know of. He particularly liked an old, colonial-style ice cream parlor that carried so many flavors it had been nigh impossible to choose just one. Discord's genius solution was to let him pick three, saying that he could do with putting some weight on. It was true that he was very, very thin, but he had grown used to the trace amounts of food and no longer felt like he needed much. He enjoyed the frozen treat very much anyway. But, when Discord snapped and warped them back to Fluttershy's cottage, she was nowhere to be found. "Alright, well, I think you'll be coming to stay at my place for a night! Can't leave you here alone, at any rate. Not that I don't thin you capable-" he added, for Quill had cast him a reproachful look, "-but since you're not an adult I can't do that." "Where do you stay?" Quill asked, thinking he should have seen a creature such as this walking around town before now. And he meant that in the best of ways, Discord had been nothing but friendly and helpful ever since finding him in that alley. It was uncannily like Discord could read minds, and was doing his best to move Quill's mind off of less pleasant things. "I stay in the chaos dimension, don't you know?" He said it like it was the absolute most obvious thing in the world and grinned toothily, one especially wicked fang glinting eerily. "Ready to go? I promise you, it is perfectly safe, as long as you don't stray where you shouldn't and watch out for the giant vultures." Quill blinked. Discord held his grin without faltering, waiting for a response. "Alright. Let's go!" Quill was intrigued, and he could fly just the same as a vulture could. Discord's grin widened, somehow. "I knew you were up for it!!" He snapped his claw again and suddenly Quill found himself with Discord in a cozy kitchen, standing between a fridge and a sink full of dishes. Discord's smile dulled a bit as he set his eyes on the dirty plate. "Yes, well, I thought I washed those...but no matter!" His voice sort of faded off after that-Quill was looking through the window above the sink. He wasn't as tall as Discord, so he could see up far better than down, and instead of blue sky he saw a swirling mass of deepest purple, looking alive, veins of a lighter shade webbing around. All of it weaved and shimmered and writhed, like the most insubstantial smoke he'd ever seen. But also, it did seem to be a sky, with nothing but empty space between it and the window. "Wha..." He didn't even know what to say. "Yes, that's how it is here, little guy. It's home, though, and I find it much more appealing than that blue sky you ponies seem to favor so much.." His face bore a neutral expression now. "It's awesome!" Quill grinned. "Tell me more about thi-wait, you can get us back as easily, right?" "Yes yes, Quill, how could you doubt me!? I'll take us back tomorrow. Although I admit it's hard to keep track of time, here." Quill nodded-he would bet on that. "Okay, so tell me more about this place?" "Well, I don't mean to brag.." Discord responded in a voice that said he had every intention of bragging and milking the question for all it was worth, "-but I'm the LORD of chaos. And this is the di-men-sion of chaos. Therefor my dear little pegasus, I control what happens here. Each and every thing that you see-it's there because I thought of it, I designed it, and I don't deign to change it. Following me?" "Yeah! That's just awesome! But what is it that you've done with this place?" "Yes, well, lots of things. Most of them are safe of course. There's a bottomless pit because REALLY who doesn't need a bottomless pit??" Quill nodded. "There's the vultures and TalRocs, birds of my creation. There's a whole sub level of this place that's dangerous-zombies, monsters and such. I spend much of my time there as an awesome survivor and hero! You know, for when I want even MORE love and admiration than I get in Ponyville...and there's other realities I can visit, but they're a story for another time." Quill nodded and asked something that felt like it had been bothering him for ages. "Can I explore!!???!!!??" "Yeahhhhhhh no. At least, not without me. I can create anything here, maybe we can find something to do in the morning." "Aw, Discord, there's no way I can sleep after all that! Show me some of the stuff you can do?" "Alright, but just a few." Discord chortled, clearly enjoying the young pony's admiration. He snapped, but nothing visible happened. "What did you do?" Quill tilted his head. "Look at your sides, Quill." Quill, confused, turned and looked at his sides each in turn. They looked normal, wha- "My wings!" "Now look up!" "But my wings are go-" "Look up Quill!" "Trotting in spot nervously, he looked up. Just there, at the top of his vision, was a little blue protrusion. He froze up, understanding suddenly perfectly well what this meant. "You made me a uni-" He stopped talking, eager to try and work the horn. He focused on the dishes in the sink and as though light as air they lifted up, starting to wash themselves. "Excellent work Quill! But I must insist I do my own dishes." He laughed and snapped-the dishes returned to the sink, and Quill was a pegasus again. "I mean, I'd let you, but if Fluttershy found out I'd been letting you she'd probably think I told you to and I just don't want the drama, no sir not in my life!" Quill nodded, glad to have his wings back but missing the horn. Only alicorns really won, he guessed. "Well, that's a basic cantrip. I can also..." He snapped, and a table full of items appeared between them. A sword, a shield, a bow with arrows, a number of gems, a mace, and a book with an arch on it, a small circular vortex the book. All of this disappeared in a moment though." "Quill, these showpony tricks are enough for tonight. I want you to go to sleep. Rest up, and I can show you around this place tomorrow. Just get some rest." He laid a paw on Quill's back and led him to a posh living room, where Quill beat his wings and set himself on a plush green couch. Though bigger and fancier, he could see traces of Fluttershy's cottage in this room. He rolled his eyes, thinking that Discord and Flutters must be close. Well, he didn't want to, but sleep never hurt anyone. And he, admittedly, was tired from the day of walking around town. He felt sure that he must know everywhere in the town now. Of course right after he had he had been introduced to this insane place. He couldn't wait to explore it...but for now, sleep... He was jolted awake by the sharp cry of a rooster, piercing through his ears and shocking him awake. He jumped up with a small exclamation of surprise and looked around the room. There was a small brown rooster standing in the center of the room, and Discord was nowhere to be seen. But then, with magic such as his, maybe Discord WAS the rooster? "Erm..good morning, Discord." He knew he was going to feel damn stupid if it turned out that he was wrong. Luckily he didn't need to worry about it;the rooster disappeared and Discord materialized in one bright flash of white. Quill blinked, seeing spots. "Well, sorry about that! But how'd you know it was me? Ugh, did I forget to change the tail again?" Quill shook his head. "It was kind of obvious after you showed the type of stuff you could do. You, nowhere in sight. Some seemingly-random rooster waking me up, standing in your living room?" "Alright alright, I see your point. What do you want for breakfast?" Quill shook his head. "None! I want to go see more of this place!" Discord gave that little chortle again and swirled his talon through the air, a glass of something thick and red appearing in his talon. This he handed down to Quill. "Here you go. Drink up and we can go." He sighed and took a long drought. It was thick like syrup and way to sticky, but he choked it down and gave the glass back (which was promptly made to disappear), watching as Discord crossed the lavish room to the door and pulling open. Outside the crazed purple was everywhere in the distance, like the house was surrounded with a massive bubble that spanned hundreds of miles. "That, sir, is the edge of this dimension." And he walked off, singing to himself; 'Winter wrap up Winter wrap up!' "Discord, what's that you're singing?" He stepped outside with Discord-while Discord simply walked on the empty air, a patch of grass appeared under him, disappearing behind and expanding before as he walked so that he was always on a private circle of dirt and grass. Around was a space so empty and clear that out here it seemed as though the purple was pressing in from all sides, above, to the sides and below the dirt underhoof. "So where are we going?" Quill asked Discord, tilting his head. Discord shrugged. "Hush, just wait and see. I can't show you anything tooo bad, or Fluttershy will have my cloven hoof!" "I won't tell her! Show me something awesome!" Discord just laughed with amusement. Later Quill stood on the main street of Ponyville, feeling happy and refreshed. Apparently Discord had slipped off to let Fluttershy know where he was in the night, and the only requirement was that he be home by sundown. So he wandered through the town, looking around curiously at the shops and homes he passed. He had seen them before, by now, but they were still fun to look at it. Even though he had misjudged and ended up closer to the cottage than the town, he had made it the rest of the way, albeit with the help of Twilight and Applejack. He was here. He didn't remember the exact words but when spying on a class, he'd heard something along the lines of; "If you're going to try, go all the way. It will mean" many bad things followed, "and lastly isolation. Isolation is the true gift, all the rest are tests of your determinedness-how much you really want to do it. When you're isolated you'll be alone with the goddesses, and it will be the sweetest thing you've ever achieved." Well, yeah. He'd had hardships aplenty, and it had ended with him all alone in Everfree forest, bleeding out like the filly whose dying body he'd left behind. But now he'd made it, and looking around at what he had reached was the sweetest thing he had felt in a long time. He was just passing the giant gingerbread house that he had been told was called Sugarcube Corner when he heard a sharp tapping. He looked around, and after a moment he spotted Apple Bloom, Button and Dinky in a window of Sugarcube. Button waved him in while all three of them flashed smiles. Apprehensive, he walked towards it and inside. Inside it was welcoming, and his apprehensiveness faded away at once. With white walls and many windows, and a mint green floor, it really did remind him of a giant sort of candy house. The three foals were waiting at a booth, and Button patted the spot next to him-Apple Bloom and Dinky were sitting next to each other. "Hey, Quill." Button said and yawned, his eyes half closed. Quill cast a questioning look at Apple Bloom, who explained; "He stayed up all night with his video games, he's tired as a raccoon in the day." He nodded, carefully avoiding Dinky's eye. "Hey! You're not embarrassed are you?' Dinky asked innocently. "Well, maybe a little? Is that bad?" Dinky shrugged. "I mean, that kind of stuff happens at parties. Apple Bloom and Sweetie don't really do those things, but the rest of us do. Even the school bullies get in on it sometimes." Quill nodded, calming down. It was just embarrassing, but he could get over it. "Yeah, dude...happens to all of us, and you aren't the first one." "Fluttershy really chewed Pinkie out for spiking the punch, that's the kind of stuff you would expect from Vinyl, not her." Apple Bloom informed him. "Yeah, but it was worth it. I had a bit to much but I don't really regret anything." Dinky said calmly. "Me neither." Quill said honestly, he didn't regret anything any more than she did. "You moa-" "ANYWAY!" Apple Bloom laughed, seeming to pick on something that he himself didn't. What had she been about to say? "Hey, you guys!" They all turned- Sweetie Belle and Rumble had walked in through the door. Rumble had spoken. Sweetie looked like she thoroughly would rather be at home. Quill and Dinky both scooted over-Sweetie hopped up next to Quill but overshot and ended up a bit to close. She didn't seem to mind so he let her lean against him, enjoying the warmth. Rumble hopped up next to Dinky. Struck by a sudden thought, Quill whispered to Sweetie 'is Dinky a slut?' 'No,' she whispered softly into his ear, 'but when she's tipsy beware.' She giggled and pulled her lips away from his ear-as she did he noticed that the whole table had gone quiet, watching them. "What?" Quill tilted his head. Button and Dinky shrugged. Had Sweetie done something odd? He looked over-her cheeks were flushed pink-probably from the attention on her, he assumed-but otherwise she seemed fine. "Well you can stop staring, guys!" She looked down at the table and for a moment they all sat there in silence, no one very sure what to say. Sensing an awkward silence forming, Quill blurted the first thing that came to mind. "Discord showed me the chaos dimension! It was weird, there were zombies and weapons and monsters and these weird things made of plastic that shot these little metal bullet-things, and then there were swords and shields and such, and gems and bits and everything you could imagine!" "Ugh!!" Button blurted out. "I wanna go there so badly, but I don't really know him!" "Why'd he show you, anyway?" Rumble asked curiously. "Because when he led me back to Fluttershy's she had gone out, so he took me back to his house. He just brought me back to the town at around noon. "Lucky." Apple Bloom giggled. He glanced over-Sweetie was still sitting right up against him, soft and warm..but she hadn't spoken since telling everyone to stop staring. Curiously, he looked down at the tri-colored shield that adorned her flank, with the little star and music note inside it, before looking back up. The three who had already been here were nursing shakes. "Okay, Quill, if you're gonna be that obvious then we're gonna have to say something." Button mumbled, then put his head on his hooves. Seconds later, soft snores began to emanate from the gap between his cheek and hoof. Apple Bloom and Rumble rolled their eyes while the other two didn't seem to particularly care. "What? I wondered what her cutie mark was, that was all." "Mhm." Apple Bloom smirked. "I did!" "Her cutie mark? On her flank?" "Yeah, so?" "Well, nothin' Quill. It's just that you didn' wonder what any of our cutie marks were, did you?" He shrugged. He hadn't, truthfully. "But you DID," She continued, "wonder about what was on Sweetie's butt." Quill blushed at what she was saying. "Yeah, I wondered what her cutie mark was! That's all!" He glanced over, worried she'd be mad if she looked at it Apple Bloom's way, but apart from a much-darkened blush she was still comfortably sitting up to him. His face felt as warm as hers felt. Turning back, he saw Dinky whispering something to Rumble. Rumble nodded but said nothing, a satisfied smirk upturning his lips. "What?" Quill asked nervously, sensing something was wrong. "What??" "Nothing, man, calm down!" Rumble exclaimed-Button snored on peacefully. Quill frowned,but what could he do? He looked down and laid his hooves on the table. STILL Sweetie said nothing, content to listen. "You okay?" He frowned, "you've been really quiet." "She's just embarrassed." Apple Bloom said. "Of?" "Ah have absolutely no idea." Apple Bloom said innocently. Then, "She just gets like that when she is, thas all." Quill shrugged, believing it. Still, though, he couldn't see what she had done to embarrass herself, since she hadn't spilt anything, and she most certainly hadn't said something to embarrass herself. "Drinks?" Pinkie had appeared at the booth's opening, looking rather subdued. "Milkshake, chocolate. One for Quill too. And vanilla for Sweetie." Pinkie nodded and trotted off behind the counter, and they sat there quietly until she had returned with the deserts. Quill stabbed a straw into it and took a sip-it was delicious! More than the terrible things he had been reduced to eating in the forest, anyway. Sweetie silently took a sip of hers, careful not to let the white ice cream cling to her lip. Rumble quickly started chugging his, having it gone in moments. Rumble passed Pinkie a few bits and she walked off to another table, leaving them to their own devices. "So, Quill. You have any new friends? A fillyfriend, maybe~?" Rumble asked playfully. "No, just you guys, and Discord." "What about Fluttershy?" "Does she count? Yeah, I guess." "So what about a fillyfriend?" Rumble sounded innocent this time. "It's been what, a week?!" "So?" "So, I've never dated, and I'm not rushing into anything in two days!" Rumble shrugged, smiling. "You just said it's been a week." "Or a week! Why are you asking this stuff??" Quill, thoroughly embarrassed, looked out the window at the random ponies passing by. "Just ignore him." Sweetie finally spoke, nudging him. "He's always like this with new members of the group. Asking awkward questions and such." "Yeah, but the reason's different every time." Rumble had donned a straight-up smirk, and said nothing more. "Yeah, really, just ignore him. Don't think about it to much." Sweetie told him, looking evenly down at her shake, which was half drained now. "So, Quill. Feel like telling us where you're from?" Apple Bloom asked him. Quill shrugged his head. "Not particularly, no." "Come on, Apple Bloom!" Rumble said boisterously, "Let him be the mysterious stranger!" "That's not why I'm not tel-" but Rumble erupted with a laugh, waving a hoof at Quill. "D-Doesn't matter whether ya want to or not." He managed through his fit of mirth, "You are!" Dinky nodded in agreement. "Like something out of a book. Mysterious teenage colt shows up in town. Looks like he's been through hell with bruises, and cuts-although your scarring is hardly noticeable, it's there-but then recovers and joins the town but refuses to say anything about who he is or why it is that he's come. Like something out of those books Sweetie reads!" "My sister reads those books, that doesn't mean I do!" Sweetie burst out indignantly. "So ya never read a steamy book, full of hot, sweaty se-" rumble started, "No I have not! Read those ones. But fine, I've read a few romances." Sweetie hurriedly cut him off. "Speakin of, what do ya write Quill? Noticed yer cutie mark was a Quill'n paper at the party, before ya snuck off with Dinky." Apple Bloom said interestedly, tilting her head. Her bow was falling back into a plain ribbon, but she didn't seem to have noticed yet. "Well, I write different stuff." He said offhandedly, not particularly caring to explain. "No no, Sweetie and I love to read, maybe we've heard of you. What's your last name? I swear I've heard of a Quill somewhere, come to think of it..." Dinky trailed off thoughtfully. "Oh, I've only had one thing actually published, and it's only on shelves in one city." "And what city is that?" dinky asked him. "It's a city, though, so that rules out here and Appleoosa." "Here was already ruled out, or we would've seen him." Rumble rolled his eyes. "Jus' answer the question Quill. What do ya write?" Apple Bloom tried to get the conversation going where she wanted it to again. "Eh. Fantasy, mostly." "Tell me a little about the book you wrote? What was it about?" Sweetie asked curiously. "It was about..." He had to think about how to word this. "Two best friends. Who left a city that they lived in, returning to find it in ruins, taken over by an opposing force than their own country's. The main character sets out for revenge with the help of his best friend and a city guard, making more friends along the way. There's a couple suggestive moments, and a huge betrayal later on. It's nothing special, but it helped pass the time and I figured 'why shouldn't anyone ever read this?'. But it's just in one place and I'm not famous or anything like that, far from it." "But you're still a published author. Could I read this?" Sweetie asked him. "I don't carry copies around sorry, and you won't find it in this town." "Twilight might have it in her library. I'm interested too." Dinky shot across to sweetie, who's eye brightened. "I'm actually interested too. You wanna come with us to look, Apple Bloom?" Rumble. "Nah, I'll stay here and wake Button up." Rumble nodded, and he and Dinky got out of the booth. "Come on, Quill! She had so many books-I bet we can find yours!"Sweetie grinned excitedly and got down, turning with the other three to wait for him. Sighing, he got down and followed them out of Sugarcube corner. The sun was still bright and warm on his back as they all walked to the castle-Rumble and Dinky both knocked loudly, and the four of them waited. It wasn't long before a little purple dragon with a green crest answered it. "This is Spike, Quill." Rumble called back and said to Spike, "We were wondering if we could get a book out of the library?" "Sure, just don't mess anything up in there-I just fixed it." Spike said neutrally and walked away, disappearing through a door. "Wait, where's the-" Dinky sighed-he was already gone. "I know! Follow me!" Sweetie glanced at Quill and walked off into the castle, showing them through several long hallways and into an enormous library, where bookshelves rose from floor to ceiling, hundreds of hooves up. "Sheesh, we're never gonna find your book in this place..." Dinky muttered. Quill looked around. "Well, I've organized this place a hundred or so times." Came a voice from behind them-Quill wheeled to see a very, extremely light purple mare with darker purple coloring in her mane, a real strips accenting a little curl in the front, just below her horn. "Hey, Starlight." Rumble grinned, but Quill was pretty sure he was the only one who saw his wings rustle, and he rolled his eyes. "Heyo. So what were you guys looking for? Something for school?" "Have you ever come across a book by any author named Quill?" Sweetie and Dinky asked eagerly. "So you're Quill, huh?" Starlight turned and sized him up. He could see what Rumble had rustled for, she was cute. But thankfully he wasn't a pervert like Rumble and didn't run the risk of a wing boner. "Yeah, that'd be me. I don't really approve of this though." "Why? Nopony would have published you if it was bad." Dinky said reasonable. Sweetie and Rumble nodded quickly. He supposed it was true, but if they thought about it, they would realize that they could trace the publisher back to where he had come from. Hopefully that would never come up, though. Yeah, it wouldn't matter to them that much, if at all. "Yeah, I'm sure the book is worth a good read." Sweetie smiled. "Come on man even Im interested in reading it, and I hate books." Rumble said it shyly like it was the highest compliment he knew how to pay, and Quill took it as such, smiling at the three of them. "It's called Whitetrot's Vengeance. And yeah, I saw it somewhere a few weeks ago. Give me a few and I'll find it." Starlight walked off, disappearing in the shelves. Rumble wandered after her, fixated on her flank. "That pervert." Dinky laughed and turned to Quill. "So, why's it called that?" "Whitetrot's the city that was ransacked. And the main character set out to get vengeance on those who did it, for the city he called home." "Just the one book? Not a series?" Sweetie asked him interestedly. "Well, I left off where it could be a series, but it was just the one book." Quill told her patiently. "Do you think you'll write more?" She put one hoof forward but didn't take a step. "I don't know. I haven't written anything in a while..." "You should!" She giggled. "Wait, where'd Dinky go?" Quill looked around-the lavender filly had indeed disappeared to somewhere. "Don't know. Guess we'll just wait for them to all get back?" He went and sat down on one of a few couches in the initial area of the library. Sweetie nodded and hopped up next to him. "So. Is that all you write? Is there anything else that you haven't published?" "Nothing, except some old notebooks that I lost ages ago." "And what was in them?" "They were stories about the worse parts of life. Some ponies don't realize that isn't all happy go lucky friendship everywhere, you know." "And was it bad like that where you're from?" Sweetie asked him, looking like she was practically itching with curiosity. It was cute, and before he could stop it a short, carefree giggle slipped from him. "What?" She asked defensively, her cheeks pink. "Nothin, really." He shrugged. "Anyway, yeah, I'm not from the prettiest place. There's a bad half to a few cities, mainly Canterlot and Manehattan, but also a few other places like Neighvarro and Las Pegasus." "And one of those is where you're from." She said certainly. "Well, yeah, but we aren't getting any more specific than that, or I run the risk of going back." "I wouldn't tell, you know." She assured him earnestly. "You could tell me, at any rate." "Yeah, well, I'm not telling anyone, but thanks." They sat there in silence, neither of them really feeling the need to speak. "Are we ever gonna find out what's with all the quiet?" She asked at last. Goddesses this was getting old-suddenly she seemed less cute and far more annoying. "That's enough. Tell me a little about yourself, see how you like it." He said warily, anxious to steer the conversation away from himself. "Me?" She blinked, Quill nodded. "Um. Not much out of the ordinary. Mom and dad are pretty busy, so most of the time I'm staying with my sister Rarity. What else is there?" "That's what I asked you. Um, what do you all do for fun in Ponyville?" "Lots of things! We can always just walk around. The very edge of the Everfree forest is usually safe-" "That's where I was attacked." "Sorry sorry..." She trailed off, looking at a bookshelf nearby and busying herself with reading the titles. "Nah, it's fine." He forced a smile. "What else?" "Well, there's Sugarcube corner and a couple other places with good food. Sometimes Rumble tries to sneak into Vinyl's club-which you could probably get away with-but that's not for all of us. Sometimes we dink around with games at Button's, or help out on the farm-Ab lives there remember-and other than that school takes up most of our time." "What about when summer rolls around?" "Well, a big chunk of summer is spent at the watering hole. A lot of heat is spent there too..." "And how do you spend that?" He rolled his eyes, not expecting an answer. "Well, Rarity always keeps me at home so, doing boring stuff around the house. She says she's worried I'll get 'serviced', whatever that means." Quill swallowed in a valiant attempt to keep a blank expression-he had, really, not expected an answer. "Wow, you guys. Talking about heat?" Dinky was leaning on the back of an opposite couch from behind-Quill almost facehooved. "Why would you ask that Quill?" "I wasn't expecting an answer." He shrugged. "That doesn't answer my-" "Got it!" Starlight had reappeared, pretending not to notice Rumble still watching her flank appreciatively. I'm her magic she was gripping a very thick book, bound in leather and with gold tooling, the words "Whitetrot's Vengeance" stamped on the cover with scarlet ink. "Who's this for?" Sweetie raised her hoof-she had gone quiet again for whatever reason. "Here you go, and sorry I took so long." She floated the book over and onto Sweetie's lap, letting it drop from the turquoise aura she possessed. Sweetie produced a pair of saddlebags from somewhere and deposited the book into one, shimmying under the strap. "Alright, thanks Starlight." Dinky said with a genial smile. "That was all we needed." Star smiled, nodded, and left the library. "Come on Quill, Rumble." Dinky said, the latter of whom looked like he had just come to from a long slumber. Quill walked forward, falling into step between Rumble and a very amused-looking Dinky. Looking distracted, Sweetie stepped up on Dinky's other side and together, they left the castle. "Quill. Sweetie and I are gonna check out the book. Ya wanna come, while Rumble fantasizes flank?" Rumble, who seemed to be doing exactly that, kept walking without them and looking as though he wouldn't soon realize that he was walking completely alone. "Yeah, sure. You'll probably get bored of it soon enoug up, though." "Doubt it!" Sweetie burst out sincerely, earning a few funny looks (that she ignored) from passerby. She just kept walking like she hadn't said a thing, Dinky behind her, and Quill behind her. Up ahead, Rumble wandered down a side street and disappeared from view. "Where we headed?" Dinky asked Sweetie. "The clubhouse is kinda far, wanna just go back to the boutique?" "Yeah, lets." Sweetie nodded and kept walking, bags weighed down with the big book. It wasn't long before they reached the shop and Sweetie Belle, without hesitating, walked inside. "Sweetie Belle, lets go to your room. You know Rarity won't like it if we try to set up shop in the shop area." "Yeah yeah, come on." Sweetie levitated the book into the air and walked down a hall-quill and dinky followed along without hesitating. Well, Quill did, just a little. He felt weird, strolling through somepony's house without their even knowing he was there. "You okay Quill?" Dinky asked and Sweetie looked back worriedly. He nodded quickly. "Just, would Rarity be okay with my being here?" "Yeah, don't worry about that Quill. I promise, I probably wouldn't bring you here if I wasn't allowed to bring friends." He nodded, but he wasn't exactly reassured. Her room was large, circular, and mostly white, with little traces of an extremely light purple all over the place. "Never get tired of this room. It's so big!" Dinky breathed. Quill nodded-it was definitely a large room. Sweetie tossed the book on her bed and hurried over to the desk, tucking several sheets of paper away into her drawers, along with some kind of incredibly thick spiral bound notebook-maybe a sketchbook? "Do you draw? And what's with the desk?" "I write sheet music." She shrugged non chalantly, "And yeah, I draw. But I'm not really any good." "Mind if I see?" Quill raised an eyebrow and took a step towards her. She shook her head adamantly. "I do mind, actually." He nodded and backed off-he wasn't going to force her. "Hello? I'm still here, don't forget about me." Dinky waved a hoof and they both glanced across at her, then turned to fully face her. They were a bit closer than he seemed to remember. "Weren't we gonna check out that book?" "Um...yeah we were, weren't we?" Sweetie walked away from the desk and set the book on the carpet, popping the cover back. Inside was a two page illustration of five ponies, all looking dirty and emotional. There in the middle was a young white unicorn stallion, with a jet black mane and tail, looking pained, like he'd just been stabbed in the back by his best friend. He wore black robes like some sort of wizard. Two stallions stood to his right, a black stallion with a white mane in thin armor, and a tall stallion in thick, metal armor, levitating a massive black war hammer. To his left were two mares;a white unicorn with a ginger mane and thick armor, looking as though she'd done something terrible, and a second white mare with a mane that shone in a multitude of blues, her wings spread for flight, wearing armor that was a peculiar shade of purple-somewhere near burgundy. "Who are they?" Dinky, Quill and Sweetie settled down in front of the book, while Dinky voiced her thought. Quill answered readily. "Shadowcast with the white hair, Stone with the hammer, Ravencast with the robes, Dawnbreak with the ginger mane and Robyn with the blue." "Ravencast's cute. We can't see Stone through the armor!" Dinky whined, flicking her tail. Sweetie chuckled and turned the page, reading a small paragraph. "Written for Feather, who helped Ravencast find his way-Who's Feather?" "Nopony." Was the immediate answer. "Fine, be that way." Sweetie shot back and turned the page again-there was the title in big letters, then turned the page once more. She read aloud, now, down from the large number 1, speaking of a soft, sad story. The story of a colt named Ravencast, who was orphaned at a young age (that's terrible!) but was adopted by the court wizard of a fine, old city called Whitetrot, eventually to become his apprentice. He made friends with the fiery-maned mercenary named Dawnbreak, and was generally happy with his simple life. Why shouldn't he be? The background information spanned one enormous chapter, and after a half of an hour, Sweetie used her horn to shut the book. "You're definitely a unique writer." She said, yawning sleepily. "And I'm definitely going to read more." She stood up, looking down at the prone figure of a sleeping Dinky. She looked drunk, but he knew she was just tired. Though, it was near to but not quite sundown. "Ya should stay the night." Sweetie Belle giggled and wandered for her bed, flopping onto it and promptly starting to snore quietly. Laughing a tiny little laugh under his breath, he walked over and gently pulled her blanket over her, watching as she grabbed the pillow that her head wasn't on and cuddling up to it. Had he just thought she was annoying earlier? In what world...leaving both the fillies to peacefully sleep on, he left the room, only to find himself face to face with Rarity. "She tucked in okay?" Rarity asked quietly, her tone devoid of any one emotion in particular. "Yeah, she's out colt. Night, Rarity." "Good night, Quill. See you sometime soon?" "I dunno where I'll be. But maybe so, yeah." She smiled and waved, watching as he walked off and left the boutique, heading back for the cottage against a backdrop of orange and pink sunset.