“How big is this place?” groaned Cleansweep, closing the door to what had to be fourteenth or fifteenth empty room she’d checked.
No answer came, which wasn’t unexpected since she was all by herself. Even so, the silence made her feel a little sad, causing her to glance back at where Venin used to coil around her middle. Even though she had only met the colorful snake that morning, Cleansweep still missed her dearly. I really hope Lex can help us get our spirit animals back, she thought mournfully. While Miss Sonata had made it sound like it was practically a done deal, since Lex was apparently really happy with how much they’d helped out, Cleansweep knew she’d keep feeling anxious until Venin was wrapped around her again. And I bet the others feel the same way. After all, at least she still had her mom, and she was sure that her dad had gotten out of the city. Most of her friends hadn’t been so lucky…
Shaking her head, Cleansweep forced herself to focus on her current task. Right now, finding Miss Sonata’s sister was priority number one. “And priority number two is tidying this place up!” she murmured, unable to help but smile a little at that. Speed-cleaning was her special talent, after all, and thanks to this place having been abandoned for the last few weeks almost every room she’d been in so far had been too dirty for her to ignore. Even so, there were just so many of them, and all empty. “Guess I’ll try the downstairs,” she decided. After all, Miss Sonata hadn’t said anything about her sister having to be up on the second floor.
Having passed a staircase a little while back, Cleansweep turned around and headed back in the direction she’d come from. But as she made her way through the maze of hallways, she paused as she caught sight of a familiar pony peering around the corner that led to the stairway, his back to her. “Crunchy?”
Fruit Crunch jumped at the sound of his name, immediately pulling back from the corner and whipping his head around. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw her, only to immediately raise a hoof to his lips a second later. “Shh!”
Blinking in confusion at being shushed, she landed and crept toward her friend, lowering her voice. “What’s going on?”
“The princesses are on the move,” whispered Fruit Crunch, gesturing at the corner. “Take a look.” He didn’t wait for her to follow his advice, sticking his head just far enough into the intersection to glance down the adjoining hallway. Flapping her wings just enough to let her hover slightly above him, Cleansweep did the same.
She’d been right about this hallway having the stairs that led to the first floor, and at the other end of the hallway a small horde of ponies were slowly making their way toward them. In the lead were several guards, still looking worse for wear after the fight earlier that morning; all of them were sporting cuts and bruises, several had notable dents in their armor, and at least two of them were walking with a pronounced limp. But despite their injuries, they all wore looks of determination, glaring suspiciously at every door they passed.
Towards the middle of the group were a number of doctors, most of them wearing nervous expressions on their faces. But unlike the guards, their fears were directed towards the two ponies in the center of the pack. “Princess Celestia, I really must protest this,” murmured one of the doctors, a unicorn stallion with a blue coat. “Traveling in your current condition carries a high risk of exacerbating your injuries, and your sister…”
“I appreciate your concern, Doctor House Call.” Standing in the center of the cluster of ponies, Princess Celestia managed to keep her voice pleasant despite the obvious pain she was in. Her steps were slow and halting, and several ponies were on either side of her, making an effort to steady her and prevent her from stumbling. “But I believe you yourself said that we both required greater treatment than the facilities here are capable of providing. So leaving now is the more responsible course of action.”
Celestia didn’t look at House Call as she spoke, her eyes locked onto the pony beside her. Unlike her sister, Luna wasn’t walking at all. Instead, she was lying on a mattress which was held aloft by the golden aura of Celestia’s telekinesis. Tucked under a blanket, her head lying on a pillow, it was hard to tell if Luna was conscious or not, but even from a distance Cleansweep could see that she looked pale and was breathing shallowly.
“Then at least let us carry you and Princess Luna,” objected House Call again. He was apparently the only one with the courage to do so, despite the other doctors universally wearing grimaces of worry. “The more stress you put on your system right now, the harder it’ll be for your body to heal later.”
“Thank you,” murmured Celestia, still keeping her gaze fixed on Luna. “But I have to do this.” House Call opened his mouth, clearly not willing to let the issue go, but Celestia didn’t give him time to say anything else. “Are the chariots ready?”
One of the guards at the front of the assemblage looked back at her, nodding sharply. “Yes, Your Highness!” One wing came up in a crisp salute. “The pegasus contingent will get everypony back to Tall Tale, guaranteed!”
“Thank you.” This time Celestia did look away from Luna, turning to give the guard a grateful smile. But it only lasted for a moment before her expression turned somber. “And the other arrangement?”
A pained look crossed the guard’s face, and Cleansweep saw him struggle to keep it together. “We’ve…” He faltered for a moment, before making himself continue. “Captain Silhouette’s body is ready for transport, Your Highness.” This time Celestia didn’t respond verbally, simply nodding before returning her gaze to Luna, who still hadn’t moved beneath her blanket.
The procession continued toward the stairs, but Cleansweep had seen enough. She didn’t regret standing with her friends to help Lex, but seeing everypony like this made her feel sad. She hadn’t liked that Silhouette guy, but his death – the circumstances of which, she realized uncomfortably, Lex had never clearly explained to them – had obviously hurt everypony there a lot. It reminded her too much of how she felt about what had happened to Venin. “Crunchy, c’mon,” she whispered, pulling back around the corner. “We should go.”
Fruit Crunch likewise stepped away from the corner, but only to give her an incredulous look. “What do you mean ‘go’? The princesses are trying to escape! We need to let Lex know!”
Cleansweep cringed at the thought of what would happen if Lex decided that the princesses needed to be forcefully stopped. But she knew better than to say that to Fruit Crunch, instead taking a different tack. “But what about finding Aria?”
“Sonata and your mom can do that,” scoffed Fruit Crunch. “Besides, it won’t make any difference if we find her now or in a little while. But if we don’t act now, the princesses might get away, not to mention all those guards!” He ground his teeth, glancing back at the intersection. “Like I’m gonna sit back and do nothing after what they did to Lyden and the others!”
That was enough to make Cleansweep bite her lip. “Crunchy, I know how you feel, but-”
“Hey, what’s going on?”
The voice – spoken at a normal volume, in sharp contrast to their whispering – made Cleansweep give a shriek of fright, but her cry was cut off as a larger pony suddenly swept her and Fruit Crunch both up in her hooves, squeezing her tightly. For a split-second Cleansweep felt herself start to panic, before she realized that the voice that had spoken had been Sonata’s, and the mare grabbing her right now wasn’t trying to hurt her, but was instead hugging her tightly. “M-Mom?”
“Oh, I’m so glad you two are safe!” whimpered Feather Duster, hugging both foals to her chest. “I was so worried about what would happen if the princesses found you!”
“They’re here!” croaked Fruit Crunch, his voice muffled by how hard Feather Duster was squeezing him.
Sonata tilted her head. “Who’s what, now?”
“The princesses!” whispered Cleansweep, pointing to the intersection directly in front of them. “They’re right over there!”
The announcement caused Feather Duster’s eyes to widen, and she backed away from the adjoining hallway as though it was the entrance to Tartarus, her grip on the foals tightening. Sonata, however, simply smiled. “For realsies? That’s great! Maybe they’ve seen where Aria is.”
Feather Duster shot her a horrified look. “Miss Dusk, you can’t-”
But Sonata was already moving, leaving her companions to watch, completely aghast, as she casually trotted around the corner. “Hey there!” she called cheerfully. “How’s everypony doing?”
Okay, this has got to be some sort of lead, decided Straightlace.
The room was empty, just like all of the others that he’d checked. But unlike the other guest rooms he’d looked in – not to mention the parlors, washrooms, and closets – this one bore signs of recent occupation. The bed wasn’t made, various books and toys (of all things) were scattered haphazardly around, and several dirty dishes were piled on a tray in one corner. Most strange was how the furniture had been shoved into a pile next to the door, as though whoever had been here had barricaded themselves inside, only to change their mind and leave.
Had Aria done this? If so, Straightlace couldn’t imagine why, despite his having crept around looking for clues for the last few minutes. But then, he realized, he had no idea why Sonata’s sister was even in the Banks’ family mansion in the first place.
I wish Altaer was here, sighed the colt to himself. The eagle might not have known what to look for, but he would have been a comforting presence all the same. His encouragement had made Straightlace feel confident and decisive, which was exactly the opposite of how he felt right now, standing in the empty room not knowing if it contained a clue that he had somehow missed or if he was completely wasting his time.
I should at least go get the others, he decided at last. One of them might know what to look for. Feathercap was a really smart colt; he might take one look at this and figure out exactly where Aria was. Or maybe Fiddlesticks-
“H-hey!”
Lost in his brooding as he exited the room, it took Straightlace a moment to react to the unfamiliar voice, blinking as he turned to look at its owner. “Huh?”
“Who’re you and what were you doing in my room?!” demanded an earth stallion roughly ten feet away from him. Despite his voice sounding like it belonged to a young adult, his short legs and chubby physique made him look rather childlike, and his beady little eyes darted between Straightlace and the door nervously. In fact, “nervous” was the perfect way to describe him; the fat little stallion was sweating and breathing heavily, shivering despite how warm it was. “You better answer me right now,” he bleated after a second of silence, “or I’ll tell my mom on you!”
His brow furrowing in confusion, Straightlace tried to figure out what was going on. “Wait, this is your room? Then you’re…?”
“Piggy Bank!” snapped the corpulent pony. “So you better watch out if you know what’s good for-” His threat was cut off as his stomach gave a loud rumble, causing Piggy bank to grimace and put a hoof to his gut. After a moment he looked back up at Straightlace, the suspicion in his eyes replaced with desperation. “Y-you’re one of the new servants here, right? Go and get me something to eat! And make sure the princesses don’t follow you when you come back here!” He glanced around, clearly anxious.
Straightlace couldn’t help the skeptical face he made then. “Why would the princesses be after you?” After everything that had happened that morning, it struck Straightlace as highly unlikely that the pony in front of him now was one of the people that Celestia and Luna were concerned about.
“Because I’m a really dangerous pony who did a lot of really dangerous stuff after the city flooded!” snapped Piggy, trundling toward his room. “And because I overheard their super-secret plans just now while I was looking for something to eat!”
Straightlace raised one eyebrow, finding all of that very hard to believe. “Uh-huh…”
But Piggy either didn’t notice or didn’t care, hurrying into his room and slamming the door closed. “Now hurry up and go get me some food!” he yelled through it.
A second later the sound of him barricading the door again filled the hallway.