Bon Bon had gone back into the infirmary to sit with Lyra.
Twilight had finished recounting what had happened to her friends. She didn’t realize until afterward that she hadn’t counted Driftwood separately.
Everyone was in different states of agitation. Dash was flying rapid circles around the central hall that fed into the other rooms in the tree.
Rarity stared at Twilight in shock from where she sat on the floor. Driftwood did not even look up from where he lay at Rarity’s hooves, one arm draped over he face to cover his eyes.
Pinkie had mimicked him, save for not covering her eyes, her mane flattened as if it were a balloon that most of the air had been let out of.
Applejack glared towards the wall, focused on nothing in particular. “That snake,” she said plainly.
Fluttershy had raised one hoof to her mouth, her eyes watery. “Oh, poor Lyra,” she said plaintively.
“Five minutes with her,” Dash said. She touched down hard. “That’s all I want for Hearth’s Warming!” She stomped her hooves and bucked the air. “I’ll settle for two!”
“Rainbow, please control yourself!” Rarity said. “This is extremely upsetting to hear for all of us, but this is clearly abnormal behavior. Frankly, I don’t feel we are in a position to say anything about it.”
“Yeah? Well, why doesn’t he say something, then?” Dash asked in Driftwood’s direction.
“I would, but I don’t have the nerve. I used it all up staring down Ms Bon Bon,” Driftwood replied. “I escaped from a mob in Pleven and it was bad enough that I ended up in Portside. If I had to choose between that and her a second time, I’d take the walk.”
“Dearheart, those are almost on opposite ends of Equestria from each other!” Rarity exclaimed.
Driftwood moved his arm enough to uncover one eye. “I feel that only proves my point!” he said, before he covered up again. “I’m sorry, I’m just….”
“She was very intense,” Fluttershy said.
“Yeah,” Dash agreed. “Still, pretty good show, if you ask me. You’ve got serious guts, standing up to her like that.”
“Speaking of that, and forgive me for pulling further from the topic,” Rarity said, looking to Rainbow Dash. “But I’m curious, Rainbow, why you left the infirmary without objection, or even without a word.”
Dash looked back at her for a moment, brow quirked. “Wait, seriously?” she asked.
“Well, darling, Driftwood all but ordered us to leave, and I’ve never known you to care much for authority,” Rarity said.
Dash looked at Rarity again until Driftwood spoke up: “Unicorns don’t face off.”
“Oh!” Dash’s eyes lit up, then she scowled and rolled her eyes up towards the ceiling, and then looked back at Rarity and Driftwood. “They don’t?” she asked. She looked at Twilight. “Like, ever?”
Twilight shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know what that means,” she said.
“Ok!” Dash sat on the floor, cleared her throat, straightened up as tall as she could, and raised a hoof to her chest. She said, affecting a heavy Canterhorn accent, “When two pegasi find themselves at an impasse, they will oft feel the necessity, nay the compulsion to dig in their hooves and show their opponent that they shall not be swayed from their position, even at the risk of great, physical harm.”
Silence descended on the room for a few moments, before Dash and Pinkie Pie both suffered a fit of giggles that did not appear to be contagious. “At least one other pony in this room found that amusing,” Driftwood said.
“At that tactless display? Well, I suppose we can hazard a guess as to whom,” Rarity said with a sidelong look at Applejack.
Driftwood lifted his arm from his face. “Changeling, dearest,” he said with a smirk.
“Well!” Rarity started with look of comical shock. “I suppose I shall have to get used to a life with no more secrets.” She emphasized her words with a ‘hmph,’ and turned her head away from Driftwood, nose pointed up towards the ceiling and the barest hint of a smile.
“I promise to only use my power when it won’t horribly embarrass you,” Driftwood said.
“Hang on! How come you know this?” Dash asked, giving Driftwood a pointed look.
With a sigh, the changeling put his tarsi under himself and pushed up to sitting. “Partly, because changelings have to know these things to have a chance at staying hidden, so our families teach us,” he said. “And partly because changelings also face off with each other.”
“So then why’d Bon Bon do it?” Applejack asked either Dash or Driftwood.
Dash gave a loud huff. “Duh. Because Driftwood was trying to be in charge of what happened with Lyra, and she thought she should be in charge of what happens with Lyra, and she wanted him to back off, but he wouldn’t even though I’m like, one hundred percent sure he couldn’t beat her in a fight,” she said before looking over to Driftwood. “Two pieces, am I right?”
“Maybe more,” Driftwood said with a nod.
“Right.” Dash turned back to Applejack with a smirk. “No way he could beat her, but Bon Bon has clearly taken a few tips from yours truly, and really respected that he kept his tack, so she let him be the boss just this once.”
“I get it!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she bounced from the floor and onto her hooves, mane full of life again. “And that’s why we’re all in here and Twilight sent Bon Bon back with Lyra, because she’s in charge and even though Twilight’s a Princess, she still knows that you don’t mess with the pony in charge and we all learned something about pegasi! And Bon Bon, and changelings and even alicorns maybe, or maybe only a third of something about alicorns depending on how the numbers all shake out and Spike! Take a letter!”
A moment of silence passed. “Oh, right, it’s way past dragon baby bedtime, so I’ll have to take my own letter. Welp! No time like the present!” Pinkie said excitedly, and then she was gone.
Driftwood could not account for where she had gone, and perhaps more importantly, no one present could account for how she had gone. She had said that she was going, and then she was just gone.
“Well, uh, sure, but I mean why’d she do it?” Applejack said after a moment. “She ain’t a changeling or a pegasus, and I ain’t never seen an earth pony face off before.”
Dash had lost her smirk when Pinkie Pie had gone, and it did not come back when she looked at Applejack. “Uh, well, uh…,” she stammered.
“I have a hunch,” Driftwood said, still staring at where Pinkie had been. “But it’s not….” He shook his head. “I’m sorry, I-I need to take a walk.”
“Pinkie Pie does have that effect on others when they first meet her. Come along, I’ll walk with you,” Rarity said, startling backwards when Dash was suddenly right in front of her.
“Why? So you two can sneak off somewhere private? Forget it. I’ll go with him,” she said.
Rarity stared for another moment. “I beg your pardon?” she asked.
“I don’t mind” Driftwood said, drawing looks from both Dash and Rarity. “If I want her to trust me, I’ll have to earn that trust the old fashioned way.”