Two days later, as promised, Rose returned to the Carousel Boutique. Honest went with her, taking a day off from being a baker’s assistant to be with her. Rose had asked him, though she hadn’t told him why.
They arrived at the shop, and unknown to Rose, Twilight was waiting inside, hidden behind a screen and looking into the room through two tiny holes poked into it. At Rose’s knock, Rarity went to open the door and Twilight readied herself, still clueless as to what Rarity wanted her to see.
“Good morning Rarity!” Rose said as she opened the door.
“Good morning darling, your dress is… is this Honest?”
“Yes! Meet my husband, Honest Cloud.”
“A pleasure to meet you miss.”
Rarity nodded, trying to decide if she remembered him on the hill as well. “Come in, I can have it ready for you in just a moment.”
She led them inside, and left them in the room while she went to ‘get the dress’. She went through a door, and then leaned against it, hoping that they would let something slip.
Honest looked around, uncaring of the dresses in the shop. He really only cared about them if Rose was wearing them.
“Why did you drag me here honey?” he asked as he looked about the room.
“Because I like being with you! And because I want to get your opinion on the dress.”
He smiled at her. “You should know that it’s you, and not it, that I’ll be staring at.”
Rose giggled and Honest growled, making Twilight, far unused to such things, nearly give herself away.
She is… innocent in a way that is very strange to me. I never thought about romance, and Twilight didn’t either, but where I am unaffected, there is no better way to get Twilight flustered.
But she held herself together and tried to focus. Rose and Honest were familiar, but Twilight couldn’t put her hoof on it. She knew that Rarity wanted her to observe them, so she would, and maybe she would remember.
The couple waited, Rose with patience, and Honest without. He fidgeted until he decided to comment.
“Nice place here.” Rose nodded, not really listening to him. “Surprising to think that one of the element bearers would run a clothing shop.”
“Maybe, but everypony has a hobby.” Rose said.
Rarity, listening from behind a door, flinched, unhappy to know that Rose knew who she was. Twilight didn’t really care; a lot of ponies knew who they were.
“Hey, remember when we saw them all together? Back in Manehat ooff!”
Rose kicked him slightly, and glared, but she had been far too late. Both Rarity and Twilight realized that they had been the ones on the hill with me, the ones that they presumed dead.
Rarity nodded in satisfaction and went to get the dress, happy with the knowledge. Twilight was frozen.
If Rose and Honest were alive, then logic dictated that so was Pinkie.
Pinkie was still alive.
Rainbow had gone to find her, and she might actually be able to do it. Twilight had tried to stop her before, but right then, she was regretting not going with her. All of her pain from Pinkie’s death shifted, turning into a deep longing to see the mare again, and a happiness to know that what she had been certain of was false.
She realized that she didn’t know exactly how we survived, or how Pinkie was doing, just as Rarity led Rose and Honest out of the shop, bid them farewell, and came back to her.
“Well darling?” Rarity asked as she moved the screen.
“We need to get them back here!” Twilight yelled, only stopped from racing after the pair by Rarity moving in front of her.
“Twilight! It is not proper for a princess to rush after random ponies she never met!”
“But I need to know! Rarity, don’t you realize what this means!?”
“I suspect I do darling.” She said, smiling.
“Pinkie is alive!” they both yelled.
“And I need to find out how and where she is Rarity! And Rose might know!”
“I know, I know, but again, you can’t just rush up to them and ask.” Twilight looked thoughtful, but Rarity supplied the answer, “Invite them for tea!”
Twilight smiled and nodded, hurrying off to write a letter, overjoyed by her realization. It was only when she finished mailing the letter, and called the remaining bearers together that she realized what else their survival meant:
I was most likely alive as well.
Honest had only just arrived at his home the next day when Derpy, the mailpony, delivered Twilight’s letter.
He had taken it without much thought, and continued inside, where Rose was waiting for him.
“Everything alright at the job?” she asked him.
“Just fine. Haven’t dropped a thing.” he said in pride.
The pair nuzzled each other, and then Rose spotted the note.
“Mail? For us?”
“Yep, just got it.” he said, opening it with his magic.
The pair read the note together.
To Rose Bush and Honest Cloud,
You are invited for tea at the Castle of Friendship at 7:00 pm today. Formal dress and behavior is not required.
I am very eager to meet with you both, and I hope that you can make it.
Twilight Sparkle
The princess of Friendship
Rose squealed in delight. “The princess wants to meet us! Us! We’re invited to her castle!”
Honest smiled at her as Rose clapped her hooves, thinking about the experience to come.
“I’ll need my best dress, and you’re going to need something to wear, and…”
“Honey, it even says ‘no formal dress or behavior required’.”
Rose just gave Honest a dull glance. “She’s just trying to make us feel comfortable! Of course we have to be at our best Honest!” She looked at the clock and gasped; it was already 6:30. “We’re going to be late! Quick, you get your dragon suit and I’ll find a dress!”
Rose was bursting with pride as they walked to the castle, drawing more than a few glances. Rose was wearing the new dress from Rarity, white, to match Honest who was doing his best to stand proud in his gleaming suit.
She knocked on the door, and it was answered by Spike, who let them in and led them through the building. He was nervous about this, as Twilight had a talent for making friends, but meeting new ponies, especially when she was overexcited, never went well.
Twilight herself was waiting in one of the rooms that she had purposed into a simple dining hall. Tea was simple to make, as were biscuits. She had made absolutely certain to try and appear as normal a pony as she could, and nothing in the room besides herself seemed overly royal or special. She couldn’t do much about being an alicorn.
When Rose entered and immediately bowed she felt awkward, particularly when Rose didn’t get up immediately. Honest followed suit, and Twilight took a deep breath to calm herself.
“That isn’t necessary.” she said, “I want you to feel comfortable.”
“Of course princess.” Rose said as she got up.
The pair walked to the other side of the table, and Rose waited with the perfect expression of neutrality. Honest was slightly tense.
Twilight fidgeted, trying to work out a way to talk to them without sounding like this was forced. Then she noticed the scales on Honest, and for a moment she was consumed in curiosity instead of nervousness.
“Where did you get that?” she asked.
Honest started. “Get what… princess?”
“The dragon scales.”
“Oh! It was a wedding gift.”
“From my grandmother.” Rose added.
“Do you know where she got them from?”
Rose was beginning to warm to Twilight; Twilight did not come across like royalty.
“Grandmother and I had been traveling, and she got them from two drakes. She made the suit herself, and gave it to Honest when we got married; he wore it during the ceremony.” she said with some pride. She smiled at the scales, and Twilight wondered how anypony would convince two drakes to part with so much.
“Well… maybe I could hear more about you two?”
Rose was slightly stunned. Twilight wanted to hear about them of all ponies?
“Well… I mean, this is an honor Tw, princess.”
“Just Twilight, please?”
Rose blinked, but smiled. “If you want it that way.”
Twilight smiled and nodded, and Rose began telling her about herself, and Honest avoided mention of his shady past. As they shared, she shared, and all three began feeling at ease with one another. Twilight expressed deep sympathy for Rose’s losses, and Rose was endlessly interested in Twilight’s own life, stuffed full of adventure and magic.
“That’s when… grandmother visited me.” she said. “She cheered me up, and I went with her on her journey.”
“Your grandmother was wandering Equestria?”
“Yes! She still is in fact: she is looking for happiness, loyalty, and magic.”
Twilight wondered about that, but Rose made it sound almost normal. Almost.
“We went to Manehatten, and that’s where I met Honest again. We reunited, and would you believe that Celestia came to visit the city on our last day there?”
Honest nodded. “We didn’t get a good view, as we were leaving at the time.”
“And then…” Rose trailed off, realizing that she didn’t recall exactly what had happened then. And that she had no way of explaining the spell or its results without telling Twilight everything.
“Then?” Twilight asked, leaning closer.
Honest looked at Rose who was trying to think of something to fill the void between Manehatten and Eaglemount.
“We just kept going. We went pretty far too, all the way to Eaglemount, following grandmother.”
Twilight blinked. Eaglemount was very far from Manehatten. Across an ocean to be specific, and a place most ponies never traveled to without good cause. It was also northeast from Equestria. That would have tipped her off, if she wasn’t already certain that they were the ones I transported.
Twilight weighed her options. She could pretend to believe them, even if Rose didn’t necessarily lie, and let them continue, hoping that they might tell her about Pinkie or Hag. Or she could confront them, tell them that she saw them on that hill, saw them disappear with Hag and Pinkie, and demand an answer.
She decided to let them continue, and if she didn’t get what she was looking for, then she would be more direct about her desires.
Rose had kept speaking while Twilight was consumed in thought. “It was on the way to Mountainside that Honest proposed to me.”
She gave Honest a happy smile, and he smiled back, neither looking at Twilight.
“He went and found a frost rose for me.” she said, remembering. “It truly is as beautiful as they say.”
“It was only beautiful when you held it.” Honest murmured, causing Twilight to develop a blush.
“You say that even if I have a stick tangled in my hair.” she said, her smile shifting slightly as she giggled, Twilight unable to even speak, slowly blushing more.
“I would. Wouldn’t I?” he practically whispered, turning his head toward Rose.
“We spent two days in Mountainside, me and grandmother planning the wedding.” Rose said, turning to look at Honest.
“The entire town was there.” Honest said, speaking slowly and softly.
“Grandmother had made the whole town and land fill with flowers.”
“She made me the scale suit, and Rose had the most surprised face I’ve ever seen when she saw it.”
“It was perfect as he stood next to me, grandmother by my side, and Pinkie by his own…”
“I looked at her…”
“And I him…”
Together they said, “And I said ‘I do’.” They then leaned forward and gently kissed.
Twilight hit the floor, as red as she could be, rigid and unresponsive. Spike looked inside, saw the scene and then shut the door, not willing to interrupt Rose and Honest, or to revive Twilight who was going to be… strange… when she woke up. Very strange.
Rose and Honest hadn’t noticed during their visit, but the other bearers had been nearby. Fluttershy was much the same as Twilight, and Applejack and Rarity only covered their faces with their hooves at their friend’s inability to deal with romance.
Rarity managed to extract Twilight without the couple noticing (not that that was hard), and they carried her, and Fluttershy, away while Spike led Rose and Honest out.
Once Twilight recovered enough to speak, it was fairly apparent she had forgotten exactly what she had been listening for in the first place. She was a flustered mess for some time until they managed to calm her down to rational levels of thought again.
“Come on Twi, you kin do better n this. Ya didn’t faint when yer brother got married.”
“I know Shining and Cadance, and I wanted them together! It’s very different when other ponies…” she trailed off, turning bright red again.
“Calm yourself darling. I thought it was very romantic. Remember? The dragon scales on Honest, the dress Rose wore, the way that her grandmother made the entire land bloom, how Pinkie stood next to Honest.” she said, putting particular emphasis on the last.
Twilight hesitated, and then groaned and dropped her head. “I didn’t ask them.”
“Nope.”
Twilight sighed. She was happy; they knew Pinkie, but she had thoroughly messed up the opportunity to ask them about it. For a moment she was concerned that she would have to do it all again, but then she recalled that she had made, if not friends, at least acquaintances of Rose and Honest.
She could visit them, and ask them about Pinkie then. Friends visited friends all the time, so it wouldn’t even look strange!
So the plan was made. Twilight was not going to visit the couple. Rarity was, despite Twilight’s desire otherwise. Twilight was simply too important a pony to visit without questions, both from Rose and from the locals.
Rarity had met Rose before, and the two ponies enjoyed one another, making it far more normal for her, the dressmaker, to visit, instead of Twilight, the princess.
Rarity came to Rose’s home at the same time that the girls had, and she hesitated upon seeing them so friendly with her. Why did they know Rose so well? The couple hadn’t been in town that long.
“Good morning Rose!” she called as she came over, the fillies looking up in surprise and Rose smiling at her.
“Rarity! What a surprise! I’d though you would be busy with your shop.”
“I can take a break every now and then to visit a friend.” She looked down at the girls. “I see that you know the CMC. Not too much trouble I hope?”
Rose laughed. “Not at all! Want to come inside for berry bread?”
All of the ponies went inside, where Rose treated them to my own recipe, if you could call it that. Berries stuffed into bread wasn’t hard or particularly impressive.
“Did you get a note from Granny?” Scootaloo asked Rose as the others ate.
“Nothing new I’m afraid. Notes are pretty rare from her, and she is a very busy mare.”
They pouted slightly and Rarity wondered who Scootaloo’s granny was, and why Rose would get letters from her.
Then one of Hag’s birds flew in through the window Rose left open for that purpose, and Rarity started as the girls cheered. Rose caught the bird, and got my note from it.
“Read it!” they cried.
“Hang on, hang on. Alright.” She looked up at Rarity, “You don’t mind, do you?”
“Go ahead darling, I’m somewhat curious as well.” Curious because birds don’t deliver mail in Equestria.
Rose looked at the letter, and cleared her throat. “Dear grandchildren,” she said, imitating Hag’s voice which made Rarity hesitate. Had she heard that voice before?
“I am traveling to High Peak, the capital of Eaglemount. The land is rocky, and barren, and I cannot find many forests here. Just the last day I found this bird, and I suspect it is the last one I shall see for some time.”
“I hope that you are doing well, healthy, and happy. Make sure to eat right, as growing children, born and unborn, need the right stuff to grow. Your Grandmother.”
“For Rose’s eyes alone… Oh! That part’s for me girls. Hang on.”
Rose began reading the rest of my note, detailing my annoyance with Pinkie, and the hope that we find Feather’s past.
Rarity was slightly confused. How did Scootaloo’s grandmother know all the girls and Rose well enough to even know about Rose’s child?
Then Applebloom told her, without actually telling her. “Do ya think grandmother can get back soon miss Rose?”
There had only been one pony who Applebloom called grandmother. Hag. Rose was receiving letters from Hag, and Rarity only barely kept herself from blurting it out.
It was suddenly very important she get that note.
And get it she did, when Rose left it on the table unattended. Rarity had a surprising ability to be sneaky. She brought it back to the others, and they all spent a moment to read the last part:
For Rose’s eyes alone;
I am growing very frustrated with Pinkie. She does not know the meaning of quiet, and unlike your humming, her singing is impossible to get used to. Feather’s is doing well; I got his eyes to glow if he’s looking and he looks most of the time. I think he is upset, or possibly eager. No real way to tell with a skull.
With any luck, High Peak will have his family, or something, and he can pass in peace. Lot of mountains ahead of us. Wish me luck, because these bones are not meant for climbing.
Hag
“Hag’s got Pinkie!?” yelled Applejack after a moment to decipher my writing.
“She is near High Peak? Where is High Peak?”
“At least they are alright.” Fluttershy whispered.
Twilight was preoccupied. She knew High Peak was to the northeast, where Rainbow had gone. For a moment, she hoped that Rainbow could find Pinkie, and rescue her.
Then her spell reacted, and Twilight froze.
Twilight’s tracking charm was a little more than that. She had also made it so that it would tell her about Rainbow’s health, so that she could feel safe.
Rainbow had just been hurt, very badly. Badly enough for the charm to stop working, implying one of four things.
One. The charm might have fallen off and given her a false signal, but that was as rare as cold fire.
Two. Rainbow might have been hurt, and then the charm fell off, which was far more likely. The charm had a chance of overreacting, or maybe breaking.
Three. Rainbow was hurt badly enough to make the spell assume that she was dead or dying and fail which was terrifyingly possible and overlapped with the fourth option.
Four. Hag hurt Rainbow, found the charm and removed it, and now Hag had both Rainbow and Pinkie in her clutches as she continued to High Peak with Feathers, the skull she got from who knew where.
Twilight’s mind settled on the fourth option, the one most likely in her mind to have happened. She thought me evil, and was very convinced of my strange strength.
The others stared as Twilight paled, and then she took a breath.
“We need to go to High Peak girls. Right now.”
As they rushed to try to begin preparations for a trip that long, nopony noticed the girls, listening in on them. Their minds hit on the idea that they could trail after their sisters and see Hag again ahead of schedule.
After all, their sisters had forgiven her, and were only excited over Pinkie.
In any case, the charm had fallen off during the fall. I must have torn it off in my panic, and it laid forgotten in the ravine somewhere.