After Flan finished writing her letter, she sought out Spike, who was on his way to do the groceries. Having sent the letter to her sister, she returned to the clearing, the group of mares having finally stopped arguing.
Rainbow approached her first, “Where did you go, Flan?”
Flan wrote something on her chalkboard and showed her.
Rainbow read the first part about the letter, “Oh, but then…” Flan signaled her to keep reading, which she did. “Oh… so, she’s coming?” Flan replied to her question by nodding once, this put a smile on Rainbow’s face. “Awesome!”
“What’s awesome?” Twilight was the next to approach them.
Rainbow was brimming with excitement, “Remilia is visiting!”
Twilight raised an eye brow.
“Really?” she asked Flan, who nodded, “I see. But why are you so excited, Rainbow?”
Rainbow looked at her friend as though she asked her who the Wonderbolts were.
“Are you kidding!? Remilia is like one of the most -awesome- members of the Academy! She’s strong, she’s fast, she has magic and this giant red spear named Gungnir!”
“I don’t think Flan’s sister would feel flattered by you admiring her for just her powers, Rainbow. Besides, that still doesn’t explain your excitement. It’s not like you’re actually friends with her,” Twilight told to her prismatic friend.
“Just because you were too scared to befriend her doesn’t mean I can’t do it, Egghead.”
“I’m not scared of her! I’m just being careful,” Twilight protested.
“Who are you scared of? And why are you being so friendly with that thing?” Starlight asked while closing the distance between them.
Trixie just went to Flan’s side and picked her up, holding her like a doll again. Flan didn’t protest.
“Oh come on, Flan! You bit me the first time I tried to pet you, and now you let Trixie just pick you up?” Twilight was not okay with this development.
Flan just shrugged, which made Twilight pout.
“Don’t be jealous Twilight,” Trixie said with a smug smile, “some of us just have the special touch.”
“We’re not doing the whole ‘I’m-ignoring-you’ routine again, are we?” Starlight asked, giving her friends a deadpan look.
Rainbow flicked away a stray of her mane that got in the way, “We were just talking about how Twilight is scared of Flan’s big sis.”
“I’m not scared of her!”
Flan wrote something on her chalkboard somehow, and showed it to everyone present, “We have to go to the castle; Big Sis is probably there already.”
“Oh, it’s better if we go then, right?” Trixie asked her, Flan nodded.
“’We’?” Rainbow and Twilight asked in unison.
“Trixie is coming with you, of course.”
“Of course,” Rainbow muttered.
They reached Twilight’s castle after a quick walk, a walk that was pretty uneventful... Besides Starlight complaining about Flan, the latter just ignored her.
“Starlight, please, I know you are upset with Flan, but I think you’re being unfair with her,” Twilight commented while they approached the doors, in which a familiar person was waiting.
“Unfair? It attacked me for no reason! I have the right to be mad,” Starlight countered.
“That very unlikely, Starlight. Even when Flan and I weren’t on good terms, she never bit me without provocation. But you did something to her that she didn’t like and that's why she bit you,” Twilight tried reasoning with Starlight.
Looking away from the bickering pair, Rainbow noticed Remilia at the door and flew over there to greet her, grinning like a fangirl already. That was when Twilight noticed her too and she gulped nervously, worried that Rainbow could do something reckless to upset Remilia.
“That person at the entrance is your sister, Flan?” Trixie asked and Flan nodded. “Alright, the Nice and Wonderful Trixie will go and greet her.”
Rainbow approached, carefully, so to not startle Remilia, who was examining the castle, parasol open over her head. Needless to say, the prismatic mare was not successful.
“Are you trying to sneak on me, newbie? You’re still ages away to even try that,” Remilia said from behind Rainbow, scaring the primary feathers out of her.
Letting out an embarrassing girly yelp, Rainbow found herself cowering against the castle wall. Remilia leaned forward while putting the index finger of her free hand below her chin as she smiled innocently.
“Oh~ did I scare you?” she giggled some, “you should see the look on your face right now.”
Rainbow composed herself and let out a heavy sigh with a hoof over her heart, “Y-yeah, very funny. You got me good there.”
“Excuse me, miss?” Trixie asked from behind Remilia.
Remilia turned to see Trixie and Flan on her back waving at her.
“Flan!” she quickly snatched Flan from Trixie’s back.
Trixie was left confused on what just happened, but didn’t think about it too much: this was Flan’s older sister after all. She could see the resemblance between them and opened her mouth to introduce herself, but Remilia beat her on that.
“You have to be Flan’s new friend, Trixie, right?” Remilia asked, casually.
“Yes. The Great and Powerful Trixie, to be exact. But formalities can be avoided,” Trixie used her professional voice.
Remilia and Flan exchanged stares for a moment and then giggled together. Trixie just stared at them, not knowing whether or not be be offended.
“Miss Remilia,” Twilight greeted her formally, stepping forward.
“Greetings, Sparkle. It’s nice to see you again in a better condition than last time,” Remilia told Twilight in a more refined way.
“Thank you, and again I apologize for what I did,” Starlight and Trixie eyed Twilight suspiciously, but the purple alicorn kept her eyes on the new arrival, “um, why don’t we make ourselves comfortable inside the castle?”
“That is rather kind of you. Lead the way.”
The six entered the Castle of Friendship without any fanfare, making their way to the main hall, where Twilight and Rainbow sat on their respective thrones and, after a polite inquiry, allowed Starlight, Trixie, and the Scarlet Sisters sit on the rest.
“Well, since I’m sure you have no idea why I came all the way here, I’m going to be as brief as I can,” Remilia was the first to speak from where she sat on the Throne of Honesty, “and no interruptions, please.” At everyone’s nod, her expression changed to a serious one and spoke with a grimly tone, “No, really, I’m serious about that.”
Twilight became a little nervous; she knew Remilia could be dangerous if they upset her in any way. Rainbow, on the contrary, was completely chill; you could even say she was almost excited for some reason. Starlight was confused as to why Twilight was wary of this creature, and Trixie could swear that she saw Remilia’s red eyes shine for a moment.
“I don’t know if you’re aware that I gave Flan permission to stay here as long as she wants to, but we didn’t decide -where- she would be staying while she’s here,” Remillia spoke in a more casual tone, “that’s what we’ll be deciding today.”
Not wanting to interrupt, Twilight silently raised a hoof to ask something.
“What is it?” Remilia asked to the polite princess.
“I don’t mean to sound like a know-it-all or anything...” Twilight’s eye twitched at both Rainbow and Trixie’s ‘yeah right’ coughs, but kept her professional cool, “but since Flan is going to stay in Ponyville, isn’t obvious that she will stay here in the castle?”
“What!?” Starlight shouted, standing up from her seat on the Throne of Generosity, “there’s no way I’ll share my living space with that thing!”
Remilia, Rainbow and Trixie were clearly annoyed by that comment. Twilight started to sweat when Remilia threw her an annoyed glare. But her face soon returned to a neutral expression, “Well, that puts the castle out of the question.” She looked to her sister. “So Flan, where will you go?”
Flan, sitting atop the Throne of Kindness, looked to her pony friends.
“What about me Flan?” Rainbow offered with a grin, “we could do lots of awesome stuff together!”
“Rainbow, you live in the clouds, and Flan can’t walk on clouds,” Twilight pointed out.
“You could use the cloud walking spell on her. Problem solved.”
But Flan got up and went to Trixie’s side at the Throne of Laughter. Looking her sister in the eye, she pointed at the blue unicorn.
“Well, there you have it,” Remilia said with a wide smile, “Flan chose her. Time to go home.”
“Wait!” Fear forgotten, it was now Twilight’s turn to jump to her hooves, “this makes no sense! Are you really leaving Flan with -Trixie- without knowing the living conditions?”
“I don’t really care: Flan made her decision and I’m not going to stop her if that’s what she wants,” Remilia told her sincerely. Twilight’s ears fell at that. “-But-, you do have a point there too.” Twilight’s ears perked back up. “It wouldn’t hurt to check out where my little sister will be living. Besides, I’m bored.”
“Yes!” Twilight threw a hoof up in excitement, Rainbow was containing a laugh, the rest were looking at her with raised eye brows, at which point the purple princess noticed how silly she probably looked and slowly lowered her hoof with a slight blush on her face.
Getting up from their seats, the group filed outside and made their way outside of town, taking a route where they wouldn’t attract too much attention: one blond vampire in the town was more than enough and Twilight didn’t want to attract any unwanted attention. Once the township was cleared, Trixie lead everyone to her wagon, which was a short ways from where she and Starlight had been practicing earlier. Remilia inspected it immediately: she saw that the wagon wasn’t broken or in any danger of breaking, but it sure had seen better days. Trixie showed Remilia inside: it was decent, but there wasn’t much of anything in there, just a little bed, a little locker, a couple of boxes in a corner, and a starry blue carpet on the floor.
“What do you think?” Trixie asked with a hint of sadness on her voice, knowing that her ‘house’ wouldn’t impress Flan’s sister.
Remilia stared at her unimpressed, but her next question threw her off, “Why do you live so far away from the town?”
“The residents of Ponyville don’t like me. A lot of them pretend that everything is forgotten, but I see the accusing looks and they seldom speak to me,” Trixie explained, fighting the tears that threatened to flow.
Flan looked at her with sympathy: she knew she was right at choosing Trixie, Flan felt the sadness in her and wanted to help. She looked at her sister with pleading eyes. Remilia searched for any doubt in those eyes, but saw none. Pursing her lips, she turned back to Trixie.
“I see,” she said, nonchalantly, “before I leave, I want to be sure of something.” She looked Trixie in the eye. “Are you sure you want to take care of Flan while she lives here, Trixie?”
That question was the total opposite of what Remilia’s actual carefree expression gave away. Trixie knew that she needed to consider this seriously, after all, even if she had some experience with foals before, she never really took care of one. Ever. But… Trixie really wanted to take this responsibility. She hadn’t been so sure before, but when Flan chose her instead of Twilight and Rainbow Dash, she felt happy. Her mind was made up with that realization.
“Yes, Trix- I want to take care of her as long as she lives here,” Trixie’s throat nearly went dry at the proper use of pronouns, but this was important, “I will do better to improve the conditions of my home for her, so please don’t worry.”
Remilia was rather pleased by her response, “That won’t be necessary.”
She snapped her fingers, but nothing seemed to happen. Flan smiled, knowingly. Trixie was about to say something but…
“Did you call me, my lady?” a polite voice said from behind everyone scaring Trixie.
Twilight, Rainbow and Starlight were waiting just outside of Trixie’s wagon until they finished their business, though Starlight wasn’t happy to be left out of this decision.
“Gah!” they heard Trixie’s scream after hearing a ‘snap’ sound.
Rainbow knew that feeling very well, “That’s totally Sakuya.”
“Who’s Sakuya?” Twilight asked while searching any relation to this name in her memories.
“Well…” Rainbow started.
“I’ am Izayoi Sakuya, chief maid of Koumakan it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” the maid that appeared out of nowhere gave a courteous bow to Trixie, who stood there, mouth still agape.
This new person was a young silver haired, blue eyed woman, a little over 5.5 feet of height; she was wearing a blue French maid outfit with long sleeves and had a clipboard on her hands.
“Sakuya, this pony will be hired as Flan’s new caretaker, take care of the details please,” Remilia ordered, getting a polite nod from the maid.
With that, Sakuya proceeded to ask Trixie various questions to fill her form.
Ten minutes later.....
Twilight and company watched as everyone stepped out of Trixie’s wagon, with the addition of the one she now knew was Sakuya.
“Miss Remilia did you came to a decision?” Twilight eagerly asked.
“Yes I did,” was the only thing Remilia said, and nopony said nothing else for some moments.
Twilight grew impatient, “Well?”
“Well what?” Was the response she got from the older vampire, which only served to annoy her even more.
Starlight raised an eyebrow while Rainbow grinned a knowing grin: she knew about Remilia’s antics.
Twilight stared with a twitchy eye, but restrained herself from saying anything reckless, “What is the decision you made?”
“Oh that,” Remilia said dismissively, taking the time to stretch, causing a few strands of Twilight’s mane pop up. Rainbow’s face scrunched holding back the laughter. Starlight facehooved.
Remilia decided that the Princess of Friendship had been tortured enough, “I hired Trixie as Flan’s official caretaker. She’ll be living with her during her stay here.”
“What? On this rickety mess?” Twilight pointed at the wagon, getting a nasty look from Trixie.
“Of course not,” Remilia then gave a note to Sakuya, who bowed before vanishing again.
“Wait, what?” Twilight was confused, this wasn’t making any sense.
“Ask Trixie if you want to know. I have business to attend to, but before that...” Remilia motioned for Rainbow and the blue pegasus stepped closer. Receiving an envelope, Rainbow looked curiously at it: it was a plain white envelope with nothing written on it. “This is -only- for -you- to read. Do not disappoint me.”
Rainbow gave her a salute, “You can count on me, Miss Remilia.”
With that, Remilia took her leave.
Flan was glad that everything ended up fine: she didn’t expect her sister to help Trixie just like that. Maybe she was misjudging her, maybe she actually…
Then she felt something in her pocket, which she quickly fished out. It was a piece of paper that read, ‘I hope you’re happy with this, Flan, because I expect a little more cooperation from you when you return home.’ Followed by a drawing of Remilia’s face with a silly expression.
Flan stared at the piece of paper with a blank expression.
Trixie noticed that, “Flan? Are you okay?”
Flan squashed the paper into a ball and threw it behind her where it exploded mid-air.
The ponies stared, jaws dropped and ears flat on their heads...except for Rainbow, who was grinning again.