//------------------------------//
// Part 12 - Productive 
// Story: Lone Wolf: A Halfling Side Story 
// by Dee Pad 
//------------------------------//

A small rabbit scampered across the grassy field at the bottom of Canterlot Valley, diligently searching for the leafiest of greens to munch on.  The vegetation in the valley was abundant, so the herbivores seemed to be rather picky over what plants they consumed, choosing to indulge only in what they perceived as the tastiest or most nutritious flora.  The little rabbit passed by many shrubs and flowers that, to most foragers, would have been perfectly adequate to make a meal of, but this greedy bunny wanted something choice.

A particular bush grabbed the rabbit's attention.  Small, white flowers peppered the twigs, and the green of the leaves sparkled like emeralds as the sun glistened on the morning dew.  And the fat, juicy berries growing on it were especially appetizing.  The gluttonous rabbit wasted no time stuffing its little cheeks with tasty berries, becoming so overindulgent that it didn't even notice the pair of blood red eyes gazing from within the shrub.

Before the rabbit even had a chance to register what was happening, it suddenly found itself impaled on a pair of long, sharp fangs, and its neck snapped under the force of crushing jaws.

Guise peeled the dead rabbit off his fangs, tearing a chunk of flesh off as he did and savoring the taste of meat and blood on his palate.  With everything that's been on his mind lately, Guise hadn't had as much time to do a little hunting.  Even over the past week or so when he didn't have a job he needed to attend, he just didn't have the state of mind to track down some helpless prey.

But that was in the past now.  He still didn't have a job, but Sweetmint didn't know that.  The difference now was that he didn't have to tend to Tapioca anymore, so he was free to do whatever the hell he wanted with his time now.  It had felt like ages since he'd had the pleasure of sinking his fangs into the frail body of a tiny animal.  That was a form of satisfaction he had dearly missed.

At least one thing he missed was still satisfying...

Guise let out a sigh as he finished his meal.  On a whim, he focused his magic into his horn, letting it glow rather brightly with its vivid, green aura.  He definitely felt like his magic had grown just a little bit stronger, though maybe not enough to do anything significant with it just yet.  The difference was minute, but noticeable.  It wouldn't take long for him to reach the level of power he once had two years ago.  Back then, he only needed three days worth of love to get to that level, but he was perhaps as overindulgent then as the rabbit he'd just eaten.  This time, he wasn't brainwashing anypony, and his goal wasn't to gain power anyway.  All he wanted was to taste it and enjoy the sensations it gave him.

But he couldn't even do that apparently.

Guise shook his head.  As disappointed by this turn of events as he was, he didn't want to dwell on it.  He was in a comfortable place now, and he didn't want to squander that by wracking his brain over something as trivial as this.  He was probably just overthinking it anyway.  Whatever was going on would sort itself out in due time.  That's what he'd been telling himself since he woke up that morning anyway.

Right now, it was probably about time to see what Sweetmint was up to.  He'd make a quick stop back at their apartment to rinse the smell of blood out of his mouth, then head over to where he knew his girlfriend was busily spending her day.


*****     *****     *****


It was an odd thought to Guise that, despite the fact that Sweetmint hadn't worked there in a few weeks, Guise had still had to regularly go to Rocky's Road anyway.  He hadn't really had to change that habit much aside from the fact that he was going there as somepony else and to actually work there for two weeks.  But even now, he was still heading back there, and it was still going to be a regular occurrence.

Of course, the major difference now was that the place was no longer Rocky's Road.  In fact, it didn't even belong to Rocky anymore.  By now, while Guise was supposed to be "at work," Sweetmint should have finalized her deal with Rocky and the place would now be under new management—their management.  Sweetmint had expressed great interest in spending the whole day there and getting everything ready for their grand opening.  She wanted to open the doors as soon as possible, so she was intent on working her flank off to do just that.

Guise was admittedly pretty proud of her.  After being stuck in a funk since she got fired, he'd managed to light a fire under her hot enough to reignite her passion for ice cream making.  Given that he had chosen her to be his love bug from the beginning because of her personality above all else, seeing her being all dejected and unmotivated was not reflective of the mare he'd come to know.  But Sweetmint had practically leapt out of bed that morning, downed a big cup of coffee, and charged off to meet Rocky and make the exchange.  That was the mare he knew.  If anything, she was more than the mare he knew now.  She used to just tolerate the crap that life threw at her, only occasionally bursting a blood vessel and flying off the handle in a rage.  But now, she was taking Guise's advice and grabbing life by the horns, identifying what she wanted and just taking it, just like he'd told her when they first met.

The changeling was admittedly pretty interested in what she had planned for the place.  Sweetmint had shown him some plans she'd drawn up in the past, but now that they had a venue to work with, it'd be easier to picture it.  Guise walked up to their new building.  Even though it looked exactly the same as when he was there yesterday, it still seemed different with the knowledge that they now owned it.  Obviously, there was still no sign up; Sweetmint hadn't actually settled on a name for the new business yet, and he wasn't sure how high a priority that was.

Guise walked inside, his arrival signaled by the familiar chime of the entrance bell.  The sound of the bell was followed by the sound of hoofsteps from the backroom, and the door suddenly burst open, making way for a rather energetic, mint green mare.

"Welcome, fuck face!" she greeted enthusiastically.

Guise gave her a grin.  She usually only addressed him in such vulgar terms when she was in a particularly good mood.  "Hey.  Guess the deal's done, huh?"

"Yup.  I slapped Rocky with a fat check, signed the papers, and now I'm the proud owner of this quaint, little shit hole.  Now we just gotta give it some love and turn it into not-such-a-shit-hole.  And I mean a lot of work.  I wasn't lying yesterday when I told him this place probably has a sour reputation and poor location.  It's gonna take a hefty helping of good, old-fashioned elbow grease to build this place the momentum it needs to take off."

"So how's that been going so far?"

"Not bad, really.  I mean, I've been making plans for this for years at this point, everything from the menu to the interior design.  I wanna focus on renovations for the time being—can't be closing down shop to fix the place up right after opening.  I think the first thing I want done is the sign."

"Yeah?  You decide on a name already?"

Sweetmint grinned confidently.  "Yeah, check this out."  She hurried back into the office and returned with several sheets of paper, showing one to Guise.

The changeling looked it over.  It appeared to be a pencil drawing of what she wanted the sign outside to look like.  It was actually pretty well drawn.  He was honestly surprised by her artistic ability.  Guise had seen her drawings before, but only stuff she'd done when she was drunk.  Even then, she was pretty good at it, so seeing something she'd done sober was especially impressive.  Her design wasn't as childish as Rocky's, having a more sharp appearance overall and looking as though the whole thing were frozen in a layer of ice.  His reading comprehension wasn't good enough to recognize the single word on the page, though, so he was going to have to bluff his way through this topic.

Guise decided to take a skeptical approach.  "And this is the final name?"

Sweetmint grimaced.  "What, you don't like it?"

"It looks cool—no pun intended—but I figured we would brainstorm names together."

"Come on," she insisted with an eager grin.  "It's a great name.  Frostbite.  Just saying it gives me chills—pun totally intended."

Now that he had actually heard the name, Guise was pretty confident in his own standpoint.  "I don't know.  Doesn't exactly sound inviting."

Sweetmint's grin only grew larger.  "See, that's the draw.  All the other ice cream shops in Canterlot are either all classy or childish.  We can grab people's attention by being a little more—again with the puns—cold.  We might end up attracting a lot of hipsters that way, but a customer's a customer.  And think about it: how funny will it be when people are saying to their friends, 'Hey, let's go get Frostbite'?"  She snickered at her own joke.  "In all seriousness, it's like I've said before: we've gotta do everything we can to set ourselves apart from everypony else.  Maybe people'll think it sounds uninviting, but that thought alone might spark curiosity, you know?"

Guise held up his hooves with a resigned sigh.  "Alright, whatever.  You know more about this stuff than I do, so I'll trust your judgment.  It's not like I dislike the name or anything, I'm just trying to see it from an outside perspective."

"Yeah, well, it's what we're going with," she said with a cocksure grin and a firm, condescending pat on Guise's cheek.

Sweetmint dropped the papers onto one of the tables, alongside a newspaper that she'd brought with her that morning.  Upon laying eyes on the newspaper, she was quick to change the subject.

"Hey, have you seen this?"  She tossed the paper to Guise and he caught it with his neon green magic.

While Guise wasn't going to bother trying to read the headline on the front page, his attention was drawn to the photo on it.  It was a picture of Tapioca and her father.  Guise didn't really feel like he had to bluff to figure out what this was about.  "Whoa, really?" he reacted with mock surprise.

"Yeah, crazy, right?  Nopony even knew she was gone for a whole week.  I don't even know why somepony would want to kidnap her of all people.  Surely there are less annoying victims you can target."

Guise could certainly agree with that sentiment.  "Well, as long as she's okay, I guess."

"True.  I might not have the highest opinion of Tapioca, but I did feel my heart jump when I saw that."  She took the newspaper back and looked over the article again.  "It's pretty weird, though, right?"

Guise arched an eyebrow.  Now that the whole thing was public, he was curious to learn how people viewed his scheme.  "How do you mean?"

"Tapioca's family is loaded, but the kidnapper only demanded twelve thousand bits.  I mean, I paid almost that much for this dive.  Why go through the trouble of kidnapping somepony for so little money?"

Probably because you paid almost that much, Guise thought to himself.  "Maybe he figured if it was only a relatively small amount, it wouldn't be worth pursuing him over it."

Sweetmint shrugged.  "Who the fuck knows?  These types of lunatics can probably rationalize anything in their own heads.  They're probably so desperate or crazy that they don't think these things through properly."

I like to think I thought it through pretty well, thank you very much.

She wasn't wrong, though.  Guise was pretty desperate at the time.  Even though he tried to plan out all possible scenarios, some things were bound to slip through the cracks.  The amount he demanded was something he figured might be called into question, but he also assumed that the larger the amount, the harder it would be to hide.  He had to approach that aspect of the plot practically, especially since he wasn't fleeing the city with the cash and had to keep it stashed somewhere.

"Either way, they're still on the hunt for the guy.  Apparently the royal guards are combing the area for him," Sweetmint said.

Guise wasn't too concerned about that.  That, too, was something he'd expected.  It wasn't like he hadn't noticed the guards patrolling the city streets all day.  They were likely to investigate Canterlot Valley as well, but the bits were hidden deep inside an out of the way cave whose entrance was concealed by dense foliage.  He'd even buried the dough under a pile of rocks and gravel and disposed of the cart somewhere away from the valley in case they happened upon his hiding place.  No doubt they'd give up looking around Canterlot after a few days and expand their search to other towns, so he just had to wait it out.

"Man...  I wonder how Tapioca's doing after all that," Sweetmint muttered with some concern in her voice.  "She'd just lost her job, and then gets kidnapped out of nowhere.  She must be a complete, emotional wreck right now."

"Heya, Minty~!"

Guise and Sweetmint both stared at the pony who'd just suddenly walked in, the entrance bell accompanied by her grating, singsong voice.  A cream white unicorn was waving exuberantly with a chipper grin, her mane and makeup looking exceptionally well-managed compared to how Guise had been accustomed to seeing her lately.

Sweetmint blinked, staring rather incredulously.  "Tapioca?  Uh, what are you doing here?"

"Whaddaya think, silly?  I came to start work," she answered as though it should have been obvious.

Guise slapped a hoof against his own face, already exasperated by Tapioca's presence and stupidity.

Sweetmint arched an eyebrow.  "You, uh...  You don't work here anymore, Tapioca.  Rocky shut the place down, remember?  Just because I own the place now doesn't mean your position here transfers over."

Tapioca tilted her head in confusion.  "Huh?  But Crimsy said he'd ask you to hire me."

Guise rolled his eyes with a deep sigh.  He didn't even have to look to feel Sweetmint's eyes drilling a hole through him.

"Is that right?" Sweetmint practically growled at her boyfriend.

Guise held up a hoof defensively.  "Okay, yes, we had a little chat after she lost her job, and I might have said I'd mention it to you at some point when you got around to opening your own place.  But to be fair, I never promised anything.  It was more or less just to shut up her whining about it."

"Wait, you haven't even asked her yet?" Tapioca inferred with hurt in her voice.  "But you said—"

"I never got around to it, okay?" he told her.  "There was never a good opportunity to bring it up."

For as annoyed by this information as Sweetmint appeared to be, she offered Tapioca a sympathetic look.  "Listen, Tapioca, we're still working out this whole thing right now.  I'm not really thinking about hiring staff at the moment."

The other mare frowned, her ears drooping dejectedly.  "Oh...  Uh, o-okay...  I guess I'll see you later then..."

Sweetmint watched Tapioca trudge slowly back to the door.  Guise could already see the remorse building on her face.

"Wait, hang on."

Tapioca turned back to Sweetmint with a hopeful look in her eyes, her ears perking up again.

"Listen, I know you went through a rough time recently, so I'd feel like a real bitch if I didn't extend you an olive branch.  Plus, I guess I do still owe you an apology.  Soooo...  How about, when we're ready to open, you can come work for me doing the same thing you did before?  Sound good?"

Tapioca's lips curled into a toothy grin and the mare practically hopped in excitement.  "Totally!  Thank you soooo much, Minty!"

Tapioca was about to lunge at Sweetmint to give her a grateful hug, but like Guise had done many times in the past, the green mare held out a hoof to stop her.

"However," Sweetmint continued sternly.  "I am not going to cut you the same kind of slack Rocky did.  If you're gonna work for me, you're gonna pull your weight.  No slacking off, and no complaining when you're told to do something.  Got it?"

Tapioca was undeterred by the conditions of her employment, simply nodding enthusiastically.  "Mm-hm, gotcha!  You can count on me, boss!"

Sweetmint managed a smile as well.  "Great.  As long as we have an understanding.  But you don't have to call me 'boss.'"

With how pleased she was, Tapioca cast an equally grateful look toward Guise, even if he didn't really do anything in the end.

But with that out of the way, Sweetmint shifted the subject.  "So how you holding up anyway?"

Tapioca blinked.  "Hm?  Whaddaya mean?"

"Uh, the... the kidnapping," Sweetmint elaborated for the surprisingly confused mare.  "I wasn't expecting to see you out and about so soon.  Didn't you only just get released yesterday?  Are you sure you're well enough to be out?"

"Pff, it wasn't all that bad," Tapioca scoffed.  However, she noticed the discreet, corrective glare that Guise was casting her and quickly backpedaled.  "Uh, I mean, not as bad as I thought it'd be, you know?  It was pretty scary at first, but he took care of me and stuff.  It was just kinda lonely, that's all."

"Oh.  Well, as long as you're okay, I guess.  Where was he keeping you anyway?"

Tapioca's eyes ever-so-briefly shifted to Guise, who lifted his brow expectantly in response.  "I... don't know.  I was blindfolded when he moved me!" she said with perhaps more zeal than was necessary, proud of herself for remembering Guise's instructions.

"So why'd he only want twelve thousand bits?" Sweetmint asked.  "Doesn't seem like a whole lot in exchange for somepony's life."

Once again, Tapioca glanced at Guise with uncertainty.  "Uh...  I-I... don't know?"

Guise decided it was time to interject.  If this kept up, it was only a matter of time before Tapioca cracked and said something suspicious.  "Come on, Mint, give her break.  She probably came here to put all that behind her, right?"  He looked expectantly at the mare in question.

Tapioca recognized the authority in Guise's eyes and nodded.  "Yeah, I don't wanna talk about that junk.  I spent all day yesterday talking to guards and stuff.  It was omega boring."

Sweetmint nodded apologetically.  "Right, right, sorry.  But, I mean, we're kinda busy right now, sooo..."

For as dim as Tapioca was, the frown that appeared on her face seemed to indicate that she recognized the hint.  "Oh.  Dang, I was kinda hoping to hear about the stuff you wanna do to this place."

The green mare ran a hoof through her mane with a sigh, still clearly feeling a little guilty.  "I guess... if you don't have anything better to do, you can stick around if you want.  You sure the guards don't have more questions for you or anything?"

Tapioca shook her head with a peppy smile.  "Nah, Daddy convinced 'em to give me some space for awhile after I told him I had another job lined up."

"Being awfully presumptuous there.  You're just lucky I owed you an apology," Sweetmint told her.  However, she quirked an eyebrow.  "Wait, how'd you even know I bought the place already?  I only just made the deal yesterday."

Tapioca and Guise discreetly exchanged unsure looks.  Guise wasn't entirely sure how to explain that one, nor could he even say anything with Sweetmint standing right there.  The mare's propensity for just saying things before thinking them through was starting to paint the two of them further into the corner.  But he was going to have to trust Tapioca to come up with something at least halfway believable.

Tapioca's eyes briefly shifted to the papers on the table that had a bunch of Sweetmint's plans on them, her face suddenly lighting up as though somepony finally hit the on switch in her empty head.  "Because... I know you," she said with a smile.  "You always seemed to have a good handle on business junk.  You basically ran this place most of the time since Rocky was barely ever around.  I figured you'd snatch the place up pretty quick."

Guise grinned rather proudly.  Perhaps she was a better liar than he gave her credit for.

Sweetmint blushed modestly.  "Yeah, well...  I wouldn't have had the motivation to do it without a certain somepony by my side."  She nuzzled up to Guise briefly, though the smile on Tapioca's face as she watched the rare display of affection made her regret it almost immediately.  So she pulled away again, coughing awkwardly into her hoof and attempted to change the subject.  "So, uh...  If you wanna see some of the stuff we've got in mind, check this out."

Tapioca followed her over to the table with the papers.  Sweetmint spread the sheets out to let her look them over, and Tapioca grabbed one sheet in particular.  "Oooh, is this a menu?"

"Kinda.  I've just been jotting down any ideas that come to mind.  I'll probably have to narrow things down so as not to make things too complicated.  I've been thinking of having, like, a rotating menu or something, switching out flavors and stuff on a day-to-day basis, or week-to-week, or whatever we end up deciding."

"Sundaes, sorbet, soft serve, banana splits..."  Tapioca was practically drooling as she rattled off everything that Sweetmint had written down.  "What about toppings?" she inquired eagerly.

"Oh, there'll be plenty of toppings, trust me," Sweetmint answered confidently.  "And feel free to make some suggestions.  I want this place to blow every other ice cream place in the city out of the fucking water, so the more ideas we have, the better."

"Oh, you know what I used to do when I was a filly?" Tapioca started eagerly.  "I used to crush up potato chips and mix it in my ice cream."

Sweetmint's eyes suddenly widened in surprise.  "Holy shit, me too!"

"It's sooo good, right?"

"Yeah!  The mixture of sweet and salty was surprisingly tasty.  And ice cream with some crunch has an odd satisfaction to it, like with sprinkles, or chocolate chunks."

"Totally!"

"Shit, I thought I was the weird one for liking that."

"Or maybe you're both weird..." Guise muttered under his breath.

Sweetmint smiled enthusiastically, looking over her menu notes again.  "You know what?  I'm gonna add potato chips to my order.  We can offer it as a topping."

Tapioca clapped her hooves jubilantly.  "Oooh, this is fun!  I thought running a business would be, like, snoozeville, but I'm already having a blast!"

"You say that, but you don't have to balance the budget, or do all the paperwork.  Devising the menu is probably the most fun part, so you don't really have a feel for the actual 'business' aspect of the business."

"Well, it's probably best to leave that junk to smart people like you and Crimsy."

Sweetmint actually blushed a little at the compliment.  "Oh, well, thanks.  But you did just give me a good idea, so if you wanna help come up with new flavors or toppings, we can brainstorm together."

Tapioca grimaced with uncertainty.  "Uh, is that gonna hurt?"

While normally the airhead's idiocy would annoy Sweetmint and make her question the future of pony kind, she actually managed a lighthearted chuckle.  "Just don't think too hard and you should be fine."

"'Kay.  Oh, what are you calling the place?  Rocky called it Rocky's Road, so are you gonna call it, like, Sweet Street or something?"

"No, but that might actually make a good name for an ice cream flavor.  But the name I'm going with is Frostbite."

"Brr.  Oooh, that gave me shivers just hearing it," Tapioca commented with a grin.  "With a name like that, I know where I'd wanna go to cool off on a hot day."

Sweetmint glanced smugly back at Guise.  "Hear that?  Somepony gets what I'm going for."

"You must be so proud to have her approval," Guise quipped sarcastically.

"Don't be a dick just because you're outnumbered, hun."

"Does he not like the name?" Tapioca asked with a tilt of her head.

Sweetmint waved off any concern with a lighthearted chuckle.  "Relax, we're just messing with each other.  Wanna see some design ideas?"

"You bet!"

Guise stood by quietly as he observed the two mares, Sweetmint going over other aspects of their business for her new employee.  It was such a strange sight.  Over the past month, Guise had warmed up slightly to Tapioca.  He still found her lack of intelligence rather needling, but considering how supportive she'd been toward him and Sweetmint, Guise found it difficult to dislike her the way he used to.  She was still annoying, to be sure, but she had at least become more tolerable.

But he was surprised to see Sweetmint suddenly hitting it off so well with her.  Pretty much all of the past interactions Guise had witnessed between the two of them have been largely negative.  Even if Sweetmint felt she owed Tapioca an apology, he figured she would have seen it as more of an obligation than genuinely caring about her feelings.  Yet here they were, having a friendly and productive conversation as though the two had been friends for years.  Then again, there was a particular exterior force that was the cause of most of the tension between the two mares, but now that Tapioca was working for Sweetmint as opposed to with, that wasn't really an issue anymore.

It was then that the entrance bell jingled again, interrupting the conversation between the two mares.  And the person who had just walked in was one of the last people they would have expected or wanted to see: Frosted Chips.  The young stallion casually walked in with a pair of saddlebags on his back as though he were heading in for another day at work, even though it was the evening now.

Not surprisingly, his sight immediately locked onto Tapioca, his eyes widening upon seeing her.  He was no doubt relieved to see the real Tapioca again and seemed to instantly recognize that it wasn't her doppelganger.  However, what appeared to catch him off guard was the fact that she was staring right back at him.  Tapioca gazed at Chips with some slight uncertainty, but Guise could have sworn he saw a slight blush on her face.  Chips's blush, however, was entirely apparent.  Based on what Tapioca had told him, Guise was pretty sure this was the first time the two of them had ever actually made eye contact with one another, and Chips's brain didn't seem to know how to process that.

In contrast, Sweetmint gave the greasy stallion a scornful glower the moment he walked in.  "The hell are you doing here?" she growled.

Chips managed to jerk his eyes away from Tapioca when Sweetmint addressed him.  He didn't appear to be bothered by her vindictive tone—or, more likely, was too inept to recognize it—and used his deep blue magic to remove a sheet of paper from his bags, passing it silently to Sweetmint.

The green mare raised an eyebrow in suspicion, clearly debating in her head whether or not to humor him.  But curiosity took hold and she snatched the paper out of the air, looking it over.  Sweetmint looked quite vexed by what she was reading, turning her eyes back on Chips.  "A résumé?  You want me to give you a job?"

Chips simply nodded.

Sweetmint eyed him up for a moment before chuckling darkly.  "You're kidding, right?  What in Equestria makes you think I would hire you after what you put me through?"

Chips tilted his head slightly.

"Don't act dumb!" Sweetmint snapped, prodding a hoof firmly against the stallion's barrel and prompting him to take a startled step back.  "I know what you've been doing this whole time!  You've been feeding Rocky praise for Tapioca and talking shit about me for the past three years, and he's just been blindly going along with it!  You're the reason I've been miserable here this entire time!"

Chips shrunk back frightfully with a nervous gulp.

Unexpectedly, Tapioca stepped forward to interject.  "Minty, don't you think you're being a little harsh?"

"That's easy for you to say.  No offense, but the only reason you got treated so well when you worked for Rocky is because this mute jackass has a thing for you."

Tapioca briefly glanced at Chips, then back to Sweetmint.  "M-Maybe, but... what if he just didn't realize how the things he said would affect you?  If he was only thinking about me, wouldn't that be possible?"

"Don't try and justify his actions.  He's an asshole, plain and simple, just like his brother."

Guise watched as Tapioca's ears drooped a little.  She seemed pretty insistent that Chips wasn't as bad as they thought he was, and Guise was starting to think there was some truth to that.  Chips didn't exactly seem like the brightest kid when it came to anything that wasn't Tapioca, so her theory sounded plausible.  The real puzzler was why she was even going to bat for the guy in the first place.  Tapioca seemed pretty sympathetic toward Sweetmint's plight after Guise explained everything to her, so he'd have thought she would side with her on this.

Tapioca stared pleadingly at Chips, the eye contact and close proximity making Chips's face look like he was filled with strawberry jam.  "You didn't... say those things about her on purpose, right?"

Chips just stared into Tapioca's eyes.  It was hard to tell if he could even hear what she was saying with how flabbergasted he looked.

"You were just saying that stuff for my sake, right?  So just apologize to her, okay?  Please, Chippy?"

There was a long pause as Chips and Tapioca stared into each other's eyes.  The stallion looked like he might faint at any moment from how much blood was flowing to his head.  But Chips eventually managed to tear his eyes away from her to look at Sweetmint again.

"Sorry..."

Sweetmint's incensed scowl vanished for a moment, clearly just as shocked to hear him speak as Guise once was.  However, she composed herself quickly and scoffed at him, though Guise could see her ire had dissipated somewhat.  "An apology doesn't automatically make things better."

"You apologized to me and I accepted it," Tapioca argued empathetically.  "Can't you just give him another chance like you did for me?"

Sweetmint let out a long breath through her nostrils and ran a hoof through her mane.  She stared at Chips, her expression conflicted.  "I suppose when it comes down to it, it's more so Rocky's fault for not fact-checking.  He was really the royal douche here in the end.  I saw that firsthoof yesterday.  But here's the thing: even if I wanted to hire you, we don't exactly need a full crew of people to run this place, and I don't know if we could afford to pay that many staff members.  To be blunt, we probably don't even need Tapioca, but I owed her an apology.  I don't owe you anything.  Besides, couldn't you just get a job when your brother opens his new place?"

Chips glanced toward Tapioca briefly.

The green unicorn took notice of that and groaned.  "Right, of course...  Anyway, sorry, but I can't give you a job.  But I guess the least I can do is turn the other cheek and not outright ban you from showing your face here.  If you wanna visit and have some ice cream, or say hi to Tapioca, that's fine."

That alone seemed to put at least a small grin on Chips's face, and even seemed to please Tapioca.

"Not gonna lie, though," Sweetmint continued, "seeing you is still bringing my blood to a simmer.  So for both our sake, I think I'm gonna head to my office and get some paperwork done.  Keep on eye on the place for me, would ya, hun?"

"You got it," said Guise as Sweetmint left.

Tapioca grinned at Chips.  "See?  She might be prickly, but she's a real softy underneath, just like Crimsy."

Chips didn't smile back.  Instead, he just stared at her with a look of intense disbelief.  Guise presumed that he was still trying to figure out whether or not he was dreaming.

The mare tilted her head in slight concern.  "You okay, Chippy?  Your face looks like a bottle of ketchup.  Are you sick?"

It took a moment for the kid to make a decision, but it seemed like he was choosing to indulge in this potential dream world, as he shook his head finally to answer the question.

"Don't be all protective like he's just a harmless puppy, Tapioca," Guise interjected, giving Chips a glower not unlike Sweetmint had.  "Whether it was on purpose or not, he's essentially been the primary reason why Sweetmint's been teetering on the edge since she moved to Canterlot.  She was just lucky I showed up to help keep her shit together."

"But he apologized and Minty accepted.  Isn't that enough?"

"Please," Guise scoffed.  "She's tolerating it at best.  She's got more important things to focus on than this loser, that's all."

Tapioca scowled at Guise.  "Stop being mean to him.  You're supposed to be a nice guy, Crimsy."

"I believe I told you that I am not a nice guy.  I've got no obligation to be chummy with him, because we both know what his motivation is, and that's the only reason you're sticking up for him.  Being single-minded is not an excuse for being an asshole," Guise stated, fully aware of the hypocrisy.

"But you don't have to worry about that anymore, right?" Tapioca argued.  "Minty's not hiring him, and everything turned out okay in the end, so it doesn't matter."

Guise let out an aggravated huff through his nostrils.  He was loathe to admit that she had a point.  But at the same time, while Chips was no longer Sweetmint's problem, he was still Guise's problem.  In truth, it might have even been better if Sweetmint had decided to hire him, then Guise could keep tabs on him since he was the only person who knew Tapioca's kidnapper was a changeling.  But with that in mind, he had already discussed with Tapioca how to help keep his lips zipped.  Guise would feel a little more tolerant himself if he could ensure Chips's silence.  It was just a matter of moving the conversation in the right direction.

"You know, you of all people shouldn't be blindly trusting somepony just because they're showing an interest in you.  That's probably how you got kidnapped in the first place if I had to venture a guess," Guise started, shifting the topic.

Tapioca gave Guise an uncomprehending stare.  She was no doubt confused as to why he'd bring that up, but hopefully she'd play along.

"Um..."

The mare turned to Chips, who appeared to want to say something, but suddenly clammed up the moment his eyes met Tapioca's again.  "What's wrong?" she asked.

Chips audibly gulped, his anxiety apparent by the red still flushing his face and the beads of nervous sweat forming on his forehead.

Guise actually found this kind of interesting; despite how enamored Chips was with Tapioca, he had probably never actually said anything to her—or if he had, she never noticed.

But after what could be presumed to be at least three years of silence, Chips finally spoke to his crush.  "Are you okay?" he asked.  His nasally voice was quiet, but suffered a noticeable crack from his lingering pensiveness.

Tapioca tilted her head.  "Huh?  Why?"

Guise rolled his eyes.  "The kidnapping, Tapioca.  You know, that 'harrowing' and 'frightening' experience that you were released from just yesterday."

Her ears perked up, the look on her face signalling that she understood what he was trying to do.  "Oh, right!  Uh, yeah, I'm fine.  Like I told Minty, it wasn't that bad."

"He didn't hurt you, did he?" Chips asked with only about as much courage as Guise would have expected from a wimp like him, and more than he would have exhibited if he knew he was in her kidnapper's presence.

Tapioca waved off his concern with a flick of her hoof and a dismissive smile.  "Nah, I'm good.  He made sure I had food and stuff, and he never laid a hoof on me."

"Did you know he was a changeling?"

Guise and Tapioca both exchanged quick, discreet glances.  Guise was admittedly curious as to how she planned to handle this.  It shouldn't matter either way how she decided to approach this question, so he didn't give her any real signal about how he'd suggest she answer it.

"Uh, yeah, I knew that," Tapioca answered.  "But please don't think he's a bad guy.  He, uh...  He said he's just trying to live peacefully and stuff, but he was really desperate for money and didn't have any other way to get it."

She briefly looked in Guise's direction for approval.  The changeling himself wasn't sure if this was the best response, but the objective here was to convince Chips to not worry about the whole situation too much, so being sympathetic towards her kidnapper might have been the correct call.

"But how can you trust a changeling?" Chips asked.

Tapioca smiled.  "Not all changelings are bad, right?  He didn't have to be nice to me, but he was.  And it sounded like he had a hard life," she said with a sympathetic frown.  "He doesn't want to hurt anypony, he was just in a bad situation and I got caught up in it.  Actually, he only wanted the money to help somepony he cares about because they were both in a tight spot.  He's a little rough around the edges, but he's really just a big sweetheart who cares more than he's willing to admit."

Chips blinked in silence for a few moments.  Guise eyed him up curiously.  Something was going through the kid's head, that much was evident, but it wasn't until Chips slowly shifted his attention to him that Guise realized what it was.  Chips was staring at him incredulously, like he'd just had a sudden and shocking revelation.

Guise felt his heart rate start to climb.  No way...

"It was you," Chips breathed in disbelief.

Tapioca suddenly looked like she was on the verge of panic.  "What?!  N-No no, of course not!  That's silly!  Crimsy's not a changeling, haha!  Isn't that silly, Crimsy?!"

Guise didn't respond.  He and Chips were exchanging intense stares.

"Crimson is the only guy I've ever heard you describe like that, even though he's actually a big jerk.  It is you, isn't it?  You're a changeling.  You're the one who kidnapped her."

"No no no no!" Tapioca continued to argue in hysterics.  "He's not, really!  He's just, uh...  He's just got a lot in common with my kidnapper, that's all!"

"Then why isn't he denying it?"

Tapioca turned to Guise.  His glare was harsh, but like Chips said, he wasn't denying it.  Guise could have easily just told him he was wrong, but he no longer saw the point.  Frosted Chips knew Tapioca better than he knew anything else—if one could earn a master's degree for knowledge of her, he'd have one framed on his wall—so, of course, that meant he knew her interests.  And as much as Guise hated to admit it, she had been interested in him, and Chips knew that.  The kid likely saw him as a rival for Tapioca's affection, and knew exactly how she felt about him.  Tapioca had gotten a little too descriptive and had inadvertently shared a little too much with the wrong person.

"Crimson?" Tapioca addressed him cautiously, clearly feeling uncertain and guilty about this turn of events.

"What are you going to do about it?" Guise challenged, glaring unwaveringly at Chips.

Frosted Chips straightened up with uncharacteristic resolve.  "I'm gonna protect her."

Tapioca blushed lightly at the proclamation.

"There's nothing to protect her from," Guise told him.  "The stuff she was saying about my intentions was true.  I'm just here to live my life.  She just happened to stumble upon my secret, that's all.  I'm not gonna hurt her and she's free to go about her life like normal.  I've got better things to do than keep her on a leash."

"But what if she tells somepony?  What'll you do then?" asked Chips.

"She just told you, and what's happened?  We're having a civil discussion about it.  I could say the same thing I did to her when she found out: I could just kill you to ensure your eternal silence, but that would only create more problems than it would solve.  So let me ask you another question: are you gonna rat me out?"

"Please, don't!" Tapioca pleaded with Chips.  "If you just keep this secret, we can all just get on with our lives like nothing's different.  Nopony has to fight or get upset.  Chippy, please."

Chips hesitated.  Guise could tell he was conflicted, torn between protecting the mare he cared about, or conforming to her request in order to please her.  "But how do you know you can trust him?"

"Because everything he's doing, he's doing for Minty.  If you tattle on him, she'll be hurt by this, too."

"But that's his fault for lying to her," Chips argued.

Guise took a firm step forward.  "Listen, regardless of whether or not you think I'm trustworthy, I've already left my mark.  Actions speak louder than words, kid, and all you have to do is tear your eyes away from Tapioca's ass for two seconds to see the changes I've made.  Sweetmint was stuck in a financial rut—which you were partially responsible for, by the way—but my meddling allowed her to live more comfortably."

"But that was for your benefit, right?" Chips retorted.

Guise sneered.  "Maybe, but in doing so, I even managed to get our landlord out of a bind.  And everything lead to this point.  Mint and Tapioca might have been at odds before, but now they're practically friends."

Tapioca grinned at the thought of it.

"Mint may have gotten fired, but now she owns her own business.  Again, thanks to my encouragement.  Your brother doesn't give a shit that his business went under because he was never invested in it to begin with.  Even your crush has finally noticed that you exist."

Chips turned to Tapioca, who was smiling back at him.

"None of that would have been possible without me.  Everypony involved has benefited from my involvement.  I've done absolutely nothing wrong since I got here."

Chips turned his eyes down in thought, mulling it all over carefully.  His affection for Tapioca was his true driving force, so Guise's hope was that as long as she was okay and in his corner, Chips would be compliant and accepting.  The fact that she was even talking to him was probably the whole reason he was giving this any consideration.

"Can't you just give him a chance?  Pleeease, Chippy?" Tapioca requested once more.  "Like I said, even though he kidnapped me, he took good care of me.  He never hurt me, and we would just kinda talk and keep each other company.  I even helped him with the ransom stuff."

Chips stared into Tapioca's wide, pleading eyes once more.  He then glanced back at Guise for a long moment, then back to Tapioca with a deep sigh through his nostrils.  "Okay."

Tapioca practically hopped with glee.  "Really?!  Oh, thank you, Chippy!  You're the best!"

She suddenly embraced Chips with a grateful hug, causing the stallion's face to flush red like a boiled crustacean once more.  Judging by the lack of further protestations, Guise presumed that a hug from Tapioca was all the reward he needed to know he made the right decision.

"So, you happy now?  Can we just get on with our lives?" said Guise, exasperated by this conversation.

"I-I guess...  A-As long as you don't hurt T-Tapioca," Chips said, though clearly still flustered from having his crush's hooves wrapped around him.

Tapioca finally released Chips, but still skipped happily in place at how things turned out.  "This is great, right?  Now we can all be friends!"

"Let's not go overboard," Guise told her with a grimace.  "He's still a piece of shit if you ask me.  But as long as he keeps quiet, we won't have any problems."

Chips stared at Guise with a somewhat hopeful look.  "Can you convince Sweetmint to hire me?"

The changeling rolled his eyes with a loud groan.  "Fuck off.  You're not pulling that same crap, too.  Mint already told you why you can't work here.  And I'm honestly getting pretty sick of being blackmailed.  Can't people just get jobs on their own without my help, seriously?  And it goes without saying that neither of you are to mention any of this to Mint."

"Why not?" Tapioca questioned.  "You really don't think she'd be okay with it?"

Guise turned his eyes down with a slight grimace.  "I know she wouldn't..."

"How do you know that?"

He glowered at Tapioca defensively.  "That's none of your business.  Besides, she's perfectly happy with the way things are.  Why risk compromising that?  There's no harm in her not knowing I'm a changeling."

Tapioca shifted her hooves, her expression conflicted.  "I guess, but I don't really feel good about keeping secrets now that we're friends."

"'Friends' might be pushing it.  And, admittedly, I don't know how much faith I have left in your ability to keep your trap shut."

"I didn't say anything bad to the guards, I swear!" she insisted.

Guise flicked his hoof dismissively.  "It's not like I have a choice anyway.  Just don't let me down, okay?  Same goes for you, Chips."

Tapioca flashed a reassuring smile, while Chips simply nodded.

It was nice knowing that he had both of their cooperation, even if there was realistically nothing stopping them from outing him.  Guise actually felt a little grateful; mostly to Tapioca.  Maybe it was about time he did something for her in return.  "You still need some cash to make ends meet, Tapioca?"

"Huh?  Uh, not really?  I kinda have a job now."

"We don't know how long it'll be before we're ready to open this place.  I'm just saying, if you need some help, the least I can do is offer some of your dad's money if you need it."

Tapioca's eyes sparkled a little at the offer, and she tapped her chin in interest.  "Hmm, well, if you're offering, I won't say no," she giggled.  "I could use some new makeup.  We left most of mine up on the mountain.  Think you could grab a few hundred sometime?"

"A few hundred?!" Guise balked.  "How is makeup that expensive?!"

"Well, if you want the good brands."

Guise glared adamantly.  "You get one hundred.  Mint and I might still need that money, so the rest comes out of your own pocket."

Tapioca rolled her eyes with a scoff.  "Ugh, fine..."

At that moment, Sweetmint returned from her office, a slightly annoyed look on her face.  "Are you two still here?" she grumbled, staring at Tapioca and Frosted Chips.  "What, you got nothing better to do than loiter around my shop and shoot the shit?  It's hard to get any work done with Tapioca scraping the walls with her yelling.  The hell are you guys even talking about out here?"

"Tapioca's just excited about working here, that's all," Guise told her.  His response may have sounded nonchalant, but internally he was breathing a sigh of relief that Sweetmint hadn't been able to discern the topic of the conversation.  He might have to reduce Tapioca's "allowance" for not being able to control the volume of her voice.

"Well, she can go be excited elsewhere.  You and me got work to do," she instructed Guise.  "Just because I'm the owner doesn't mean you get to coast off of my success."

Guise grimaced back at her.  "Geez, who pissed in your cereal?  You were in a good mood just a few minutes ago."

Sweetmint flicked her hair with a groan.  "Yeah, well, paperwork's not exactly fun, and he kinda spoiled the milk the moment he walked in," she complained, pointing a hoof at Chips.

"Do you want us to leave?" Tapioca inferred.

"You don't work here just yet, so there's really no need for you to be here."

The white mare nodded.  Despite Sweetmint's attitude shift, she continued to smile amicably, no doubt still pleased as punch about all that's happened in the past fifteen minutes.  "'Kay.  Can I come by for a visit tomorrow?  I wanna see all the totally awesome stuff you plan to do with the place."

Sweetmint rolled her eyes, but cut her some slack.  "Yeah, sure.  I could use some company while Crimson's at work, I guess, even if it's you."

Tapioca tilted her head in confusion.  "At work?  But he works here, right?"

"Not yet I don't," Guise corrected her tersely.

Her ears twitched as she realized her mistake and quickly backpedaled.  "Oh, right."  She grinned awkwardly, eliciting a discreet, exasperated groan from Guise.  "Anyway, I'm out.  Later, Minty!  Bye, Crimsy!"

"See ya," Sweetmint waved halfheartedly.

However, just as Tapioca was about to head out the door, Chips jerked back to life and reached out to her.

"Um..."

Tapioca looked back at him curiously.  Sweetmint watched with equal, if not greater, intrigue.

Chips hesitated pensively, his face flushing red once more as though that were its permanent color now.  With an audible, apprehensive, and self-doubting gulp, he spoke to her.  "D-Do you... want t-to... get... d-dinner?"

Sweetmint's jaw practically hit the floor in awe.

Tapioca, however, barely reacted to the question, simply curling her lips in thought.  "Mmm...  Yeah, I'm kinda hungry.  Sure."

Chips's legs looked like they were about to give out on him, and the widest, goofiest grin Guise and Sweetmint had ever seen shakily curved his lips—actually, it may have been the first smile they'd ever seen from him.  Hearing his dream become a reality and having Tapioca agree to a date with him seemed to inspire a newfound confidence within him.  "H-How about we get something at The Gilded Spork?  Th-That's your favorite restaurant, right?"

Tapioca lolled her head back and forth as she contemplated that.  "Hmm...  Nah, I wanna get some Hayburger."

Chips blinked, completely caught off guard.  "H-Hayburger?  B-But you hate Hayburger."

Tapioca giggled at his assumption.  "What're you talking about?  I love Hayburger.  Where'd you get that idea, Chippy?"

Totally bewildered by her assertion, Chips glanced over his shoulder at Guise, the only person he could figure may have been responsible.  The changeling was staring up at the ceiling awkwardly, trying not to look suspicious.

"O-Okay..." Chips agreed.  He was still obviously a little frazzled, but he wasn't going to argue with Tapioca now that he actually had a date with her.  And with that, the two of them went on their way.

Sweetmint just stood there, dumbstruck, for several moments before casting an incredulous look toward Guise.  "Seriously.  The fuck happened while I was gone?"


*****     *****     *****


Guise let out a long yawn as he sauntered down the mountain path toward Canterlot Valley.  His hooves were a little sore from the long walk, but he had time to kill while Sweetmint thought he was at work.  Besides, he could use a little bit of exercise for once.  He would be the first to admit that the more laid back lifestyle of ponies was making him a little lazy, though recent events made sure he always had something to do.  But now he was bored out of his skull until Sweetmint was ready to open up shop.  Still, beats slaving over a pile of dirty dishes.

As strange as the thought was, Guise would have been fine with killing time by hanging out with Tapioca—mostly to keep an eye on her and make sure she didn't blab about him to anypony else—but he worried that spending too much time with her might raise suspicions, and he didn't want to run the risk of randomly running into Sweetmint while she was doing errands for the shop.  It wasn't like that was an option anyway.  Tapioca was apparently spending the day with Frosted Chips.  Three plus years of going completely unnoticed by her and now the two of them were already on their second date.  Guise almost felt a little pride in knowing that he was responsible for getting an empty-headed ninny like Tapioca and an awkward weirdo like Chips to hook up.  Almost.

But it was like he'd told Chips the previous day: everypony was happier because of Guise's actions.  It may have been incidental, but it was still a fact.  Tapioca was happier, Chips was happier, Sweetmint was happier...

Yet as Guise wandered down the mountain, he felt like he was the only one without a smile on his face.

He tried tasting more of Sweetmint's love last night, hoping that whatever problem he'd had with it before might have magically fixed itself.  It didn't.  Something was still wrong, and it was becoming increasingly frustrating.  Guise was now even contemplating just giving up on that altogether to avoid further disappointment, even if the taste of it was still delectable.  He felt like if he were to keep doing it and getting no satisfaction from it, it would only prove to make him more aggravated and irritable.

Even so, there was still the hope he could figure out what the missing ingredient was eventually.  Guise would be incredibly infuriated if it turned out that he went to all this trouble for nothing.  It was almost enough to make him want to actually use the power he was getting from it for something, regardless of how Shade and Chamella would react.  But he didn't want to just give up everything he'd worked for and have to start over somewhere else.  He was willing to stick this out a while longer, but he also wanted to put it out of his head for the time being.

That was part of the reason he'd come down to Canterlot Valley: just to give himself some time to try and think about other things.  And he also promised to give Tapioca a hundred bits, so he was on his way to his hidden stash to grab the cash for her.

Guise walked along the monolithic cliff face underneath Equestria's capitol looming overhead, but his destination was farther than that.  Further down the valley and far away from where anypony in Canterlot would reasonably be able to look, Guise stopped at a patch of thick shrubbery growing at the base of the cliff.  He pushed his way through the bushes, grumbling as the twigs clawed and scratched at him.  At least without a disguise he didn't have to be concerned with dirt and leaves getting caught in a fabricated coat, but it still made a slight mess of his spiked mane.

Beyond the bushes was a well concealed cave entrance.  Guise assumed it must have been an animal's den at some point, but he'd yet to encounter any potential inhabitants.  Even if he did, he wasn't afraid of whatever it might be, be it a bear, or even a manticore.  He was pretty confident in his ability to fend it off, or at least use his aerial agility to escape.  He fearlessly tread inside, his changeling eyes allowing him to navigate the dark cavern.  It took a few minutes of walking to get to where he'd stowed the money, but who in their right mind would travel this deep into a potentially dangerous cave?  It seemed like a perfectly safe hiding place.

Guise spotted the mound of dirt and rocks he'd buried his ransom money underneath and started clearing some of it away until his golden horde was revealed.  Anypony who did happen to wander into the cave might just think a young dragon had started a horde here.  He produced a brown sack and started filling it with bits, counting out exactly one hundred.  He'd never actually bothered to count if the whole sum of twelve thousand was there or not, like he'd demanded—who had that kind of time?—but he didn't really care that much at this point.  With the way things were going, he doubted he'd even need the cash.

With Tapioca's money safely secured, Guise began to make his way out of the cave once more.  However, as he was beginning to approach the exit, he stopped cold.  His ears swiveled forward.  He could hear voices.

Guise remained perfectly still for several moments.  There were definitely people outside in the valley.  He couldn't pick out what they were saying, but he could distinguish two different voices.  Carefully, the changeling crept toward the exit, using the shrubs outside as cover as he peered outside.  His heart rate jumped up immediately.

Wandering around the valley some distance away were a pair of stallions clad in golden armor—one a unicorn, the other a pegasus.  They were conversing with each other rather casually as they halfheartedly glanced around at their surroundings.

"You really think he'd still be here?" the pegasus asked his comrade doubtfully.

"Hey, I never said he would be," the unicorn responded.  "Personally, if it was me, I'd've hightailed it out of this whole area after making the exchange."

"Right?  What dumbass would be stupid enough to hang around afterward?"

"The only reason we're down here is because 'Mr. McMuscles' insisted," the unicorn sneered mockingly.  "But I guess he had a point; it would take awhile to lug a cart full of bits outta here, so there's some credence to his assumption, I suppose."

The pegasus groaned.  "Please don't tell me we're gonna have to do a stakeout.  It's Sidearm's birthday, dude.  We were all gonna go out and get shitfaced to celebrate."

The unicorn shrugged, but visibly shared his companion's frustration.  "I sure hope not.  Let's just look around for a little longer and tell 'em we found 'nothing suspicious.'"

Guise ducked back into the cave, an aggravated, yet quiet growl escaping his throat.  This was just what he needed right now; a pair of royal guards snooping around.  He expected they would comb the valley at some point, but their timing couldn't have been worse.  At the very least, they seemed pretty lax about actually doing their jobs properly.  It sounded as though they were just going to halfheartedly search the area and be on their way.  Guise just needed to lay low inside the cave until they gave up and left.

"Hey, check this out."

The voice of the pegasus guard caught Guise by surprise.  He sounded uncomfortably close, his voice echoing through the cave.

Shit...

Guise hurried deeper into the cave, doing his best to tread lightly and avoid his hoofsteps being heard.

"There's a cave here," the pegasus pointed out to his partner.

"Probably an animal den or something."

"Dare you to go inside."

"You 'dare' me?  What are you, twelve?"

"Fine, then I bet you twenty bits you're too much of a wuss to go in there."

"Fuck that.  There might be a bear or something in there.  We came out here to find a kidnapper, not get mauled by wildlife."

"Now that you mention it, it does look like it could make a good hidey hole.  Think our culprit camped out in here?"

There was a short moment of silence, a moment that Guise spent silently hoping they turned around.

The unicorn sighed in resignation.  "Yeah, I guess we should check it out.  But if a bear shows up, I'm bailing on you."

Guise clenched his teeth, his whole body tensing up.  This was bad.  The cave was a straight shot, no alternate routes where he could evade them.  If they trekked all the way to the back where he was, they'd definitely catch him.  It was dark, sure, but the chances of both of them passing on by without bumping into him were slim.  All Guise could really do was try and conceal himself as best he could behind some rocks.

He had little doubt that he was going to be spotted.  Even trying to disguise himself as a random person claiming to just be exploring the area wouldn't work once those two found his stash of bits.  If that was the case anyway, Guise decided it best to at least protect the knowledge that he was a changeling by shapeshifting into the dark blue stallion with the bright orange mane that everypony believed was Tapioca's kidnapper.  All he really had to do was evade the guards and shift to another form unseen to lose them.  He was confident enough that he could manage that, though, unfortunately, his backup cash was essentially forfeit at this point.

That was the plan.  It wasn't much of a plan—more like a bid of desperation—but it was his best option.  He took the form of Tapioca's "kidnapper," and lay in wait.  He heard the metallic echo of the two guards' armor through the cave and getting closer.  Guise's heart was pounding.  As loathsome as this situation was, he had to admit it was at least exciting.  The feeling of his blood pumping vigorously and his adrenaline building; this was a different sensation entirely from the taste of love, and one that he also missed.

Guise heard the sound of a hoof on the floor immediately next to him, and took that as his cue.  He leapt out of hiding, blindsiding the unicorn guard with a violent punch to the side of his head and followed that up by tackling the pegasus to the ground while he was reeling from the surprise attack.  Guise took advantage of the darkness in the cave, making a beeline for the exit while the two guards were disoriented.

"Shit!  Hey, come on!  He's getting away!" the pegasus called to his companion.

A cocksure grin spread across Guise's lips.  That was even easier than he expected.  Those two were going to have to get their bearings and stumble their way out of a dark cave now and he could just make his escape, no problem.  It sucked that he had to leave the money behind, but it was better than being caught.

Guise bolted out the exit and back outside, the bushes at the entrance not slowing him down.  However, the moment he leapt out of the shrubbery, he ran face first into what felt like a brick wall, causing him to fall backward onto his backside.  Guise shook his head and glanced up at the offending object, his cocky expression immediately replaced by one of vexation.

Standing before him was the beefy butler that had accompanied Tapioca's father to the exchange yesterday.  He just stood there, motionless, staring down at Guise with an unreadable expression—or rather, Guise assumed he was staring through his squinted eyes.

The hell is this asshole doing here?

Guise didn't exactly have time to ponder his presence.  The two guards were hot on his heels and he needed to get out of dodge.  So the changeling booked it past Wellington, nimbly slipping by the burly stallion without issue.  But he suddenly felt his momentum stop cold, along with a sharp pain stemming from his tail.  Guise glanced back to find the orange hair of his fake tail firmly gripped between Wellington's teeth.  If the earth pony's eyes had been open enough to see them, Guise presumed he would have witnessed a merciless glower.

With seemingly no effort whatsoever, Guise suddenly found himself being hurled through the air by his tail, slamming him into the cliff side.  Guise groaned as he stood back up, glaring right back at Wellington.  He felt the pain that had just been inflicted upon him begin to subside, a sure sign that his adrenaline was beginning to spike.  Guise knew what that meant, and he bared his teeth with a menacing grin.  His bloodlust wasn't going to let him just leave now that a challenge had presented itself.  If this guy wanted a piece of him, he was going to get it.  All of it.

Just then, the two guards finally caught up.  The unicorn let himself relax when he spotted their target cornered against the wall by Wellington.

"Well, well, guess it's true, then: the culprit does always return to the scene of the crime," he commented with a cocky smirk.

"This isn't actually the scene of the crime, just where they met up to make the trade," the pegasus corrected.

"Who cares?  I just wanna see this dirtbag pay for that sucker punch," the unicorn sneered, rubbing his cheek.

Guise flashed a challenging grin.  "You wanna go?  Sure you do-gooders wanna get violent?  Wouldn't that be brutality?"

The unicorn shrugged.  "I didn't say anything about the two of us.  We'll just leave the physical stuff to 'Mr. McMuscles' here, since he's not a royal guard anymore."

Guise quickly glanced back at Wellington, vexed by the guard's words.  'Anymore'?

Whatever the case may be, Guise didn't really have an escape route anymore thanks to the big guy, not that he was complaining.  He'd been afforded opportunities to tear into people verbally over the past few months, but harsh words weren't going to satiate him.  He didn't doubt his ability to take the butler down; Wraith was more threatening than him, and Wraith had magic and flight on top of his physical strength.  And one upside to choosing a unicorn as his disguise was that he could still use his own magic without revealing himself.  And Wellington couldn't block it.

Guise decided to can the trash talk and just throw out another attack to catch Wellington off guard.  But the moment his horn began to glow green, Wellington smacked him upside the head with a backhoofed slap.  Guise staggered sideways, knocked for a loop by the surprising speed and reaction time of the bulky earth pony.

"Ooh, that looked like it hurt," the pegasus guard chuckled darkly.  "Not talking shit anymore, are you, jackass?"

The changeling's bloodthirsty smile never faltered.  "Heh, you think that pathetic slap impresses me?  I'll show you what power is!"

Guise's horn lit up again.  He might not have fed on Sweetmint's love for very long yet, but a blast at full power would even send this burly stallion reeling.

But, once again, Guise didn't even have a chance to loose the bolt.  Wellington firmly planted his hoof against Guise's cheek with a vicious punch.  He must have blacked out for a second, because Guise didn't remember falling over onto the ground.  His vision was blurry and his ears were ringing.  Guise attempted to stand up, but found his equilibrium had been thrown out of whack and he just toppled over again.

"Did...  Did anypony catch that train?" Guise stammered deliriously, unable to reconstitute his thoughts.

The pegasus guard sauntered over to the collapsed pony, nudging him with a hoof.  Guise just groaned weakly in response.  "All bark and no bite.  Typical."

The unicorn glanced up at Wellington with a satisfied grin.  "Think you can give him a lift, big guy?"

Wellington let out a gruff grunt in affirmation, roughly tossing their disoriented quarry onto his back and started making their way back up the mountain.


*****     *****     *****


This was perhaps the closest thing to what Guise would call, "The worst possible scenario."

Beaten down in essentially a single blow was humiliating enough, especially considering he had once held his own against someone as tough as Wraith.  But now he had come full circle from the last two years in the Changeling Kingdom.

Once he had regained his senses, Guise had found himself staring up at a white, marble ceiling and laying upon an uncomfortable cot.  Once again, he had found himself in lockup and sealed off from the world for his crimes.  The only indication of where exactly he was currently was the barred window.  He thought he may have been in the dungeons of Canterlot Castle, but he could see the castle through the window.  He must have been at the local police station.  He wasn't entirely sure how long he'd been there, but the sun was still pretty high in the sky, so he estimated it was around noon when he came to; probably not long enough for anypony to realize he was missing yet and he was still in his disguise, if that was any consolation.

All he could really do at this point was think about the mess he was in.  The guards that had brought him in stopped by to give him some shit about being a cocky asshole, to which Guise responded with a hearty, "Fuck you."  But the past couple of hours he'd spent wracking his brain over how he could get out of this situation, if he even could at all.

Guise breathed an aggravated groan as he rolled over on the cot, turning his back to the bars sealing him in.  There didn't appear to be any other malcontents being held there currently, so at the very least Guise had some peace and quiet to contemplate all this.

But that notion was shattered by a stern grunt, eliciting another groan from Guise.  He rolled over see who wanted to bother him this time.  He thought the grunt sounded familiar, as it turned out to be Wellington, his face as unreadable as ever.

What Guise hadn't expected to see was the pony who was with him: Tapioca.

The changeling quickly rose from his cot, though a slight knitting of Wellington's eyebrows told him to keep his distance, despite the iron bars separating them.  He had to be cautious here.  Assuming Tapioca hadn't blabbed, everypony was under the impression that he was her kidnapper.  He was going to have to watch what he said.

Guise cast a vindictive glower at Tapioca in an effort to keep up appearances.  "What do you want?" he growled.

Tapioca opened her mouth to speak, but hesitated.  She glanced up at Wellington, who quirked an eyebrow slightly at her.  "Um, do you think I can talk to him alone, Uncle Welly?"

Wellington grunted in disapproval.

"I, uh...  He might be scared to talk if you're glaring at him, right?  Pleeease?"

The burly earth pony stared into her wide, puppy dog eyes, and his expression softened slightly.  He gave a somewhat reluctant grunt in response, shooting a warning glare at Guise before taking his leave.

Guise watched until Wellington rounded the corner and left the holding area.  Once he was certain they were now alone, he addressed Tapioca, though still kept his voice down just in case.  "What the hell, Tapioca?  I thought you said he wasn't a royal guard."

"I didn't know he was!" she answered apologetically.  "Daddy never told me that until today."

Guise sat down, running a hoof over his fake, orange mane with a groan.  "Damn it.  I knew it was some kinda trap.  I should've been more forceful when that brute showed up with your dad.  Must've gone with him for reconnaissance or some crap."

"What even happened?"

"I went down to the valley to get your money and got ambushed.  I really must be getting soft.  It was stupid of me to go down there so soon when it was obviously going to be a hot spot, but I just had to be a nice guy, didn't I?"

"Sorry..." Tapioca offered with her head hung low.  "Uh...  I could maybe pay for your bail to get you out."

"You got that kinda money?" he asked doubtfully.

She grinned awkwardly.  "I was kinda hoping I could borrow a bit more?"

Guise grimaced, but he wasn't in any mood to chastise her stupidity.  "That money's a lost cause anyway.  They've probably already recovered it by now, so now my backup plan is down the drain too.  Besides, it'd be more than a little suspicious if my victim posted my bail.  Speaking of which, why are you even here?"

"I was on my date with Chippy when Uncle Welly showed up and told me that they caught my kidnapper.  At first, I was like, 'huh?'  But then I totally realized what that meant.  They wanted me to come here to make sure it was the right guy and maybe get some more information outta you, like who you are and where you live and junk."

"Well, as long as they don't know what I am, I'm gonna need you to go ahead and keep your mouth shut."

"But what are you even gonna do now?  You're in jail, Crimsy.  Minty's gonna wonder where you are."

Guise let out a long, reluctant sigh.  "Alright...  I've been giving this some thought since I was put in here, but I can't think of any reasonable way of getting out of this mess.  But there is one possibility.  It's not something I ever wanted to resort to, but I hedged my bets for a reason."

Tapioca perked her ears up, listening intently.  "What is it?"

"You remember Chamella?"

The mare pursed her lips in thought.  "Um..."

"The changeling girl.  You met her."

"Oh, right, her.  She was the wimpy one you knew growing up, right?"

Guise raised an eyebrow, but almost smiled.  She couldn't remember her from her name, but she remembers her from the stories Guise had shared during her captivity.  "Right.  Anyway, I made a deal with her and the other changeling in Ponyville a few months ago when I left the Changeling Kingdom.  I helped save their little halfling brat, so they agreed to bail me out if I ever got into a rough spot."

"So she's gonna get you out of here?"

Guise grimaced doubtfully.  "I... don't know.  She didn't sound too happy with the way I was going about things last time I talked to her.  She might not be willing to help, but this is the only chance I have."

"But how are you gonna ask her?  You're kinda in jail."

He stared at her for a moment, hesitating to speak what was on his mind.  "That's why I need you."

"Huh?"

"I know I'm not exactly in any position to be asking a favor of you, but you're the only one I can rely on right now."

She gulped nervously.  "I...  I'll do what I can, I guess."

Guise looked Tapioca straight in the eye with utmost seriousness.  "Okay, then listen to me very carefully.  I need you to go down to Ponyville, find Chamella, and ask her to come here so I can talk to her."

"Y-You want me to go get her?" Tapioca stammered.

"Yes.  Even you should be able to handle something as simple as that.  But if it's at all possible—and this is a long shot—can you try and convince her to keep the fact that I'm a changeling secret when she gets here?  I doubt she'll go along with it, but I just want you to try."

"Um..."

"Oh, and one more thing—and I can't stress this enough—if she does agree to help, she's no doubt going to want to get Shade involved.  Do everything in your power to make sure she doesn't.  I don't want him having any involvement in this or the rest of my life if I can help it.  You got all that?"

Tapioca swallowed, her face full of uncertainty.  Still, she answered with a simple, "Mm-hm..."

Guise leaned closer, a pleading look in his eyes.  "Tapioca.  Please, don't fuck this up.  This might be my last chance to get my life here back on track.  Do everything you can to convince Chamella to help me, as long as it doesn't involve Shade.  I'm counting on you."

Tapioca grimaced, fidgeting slightly as she prepared to leave.  She glanced over her shoulder to look at Guise one more time.  Her expression was less than assuring, but he was still putting his full trust in her, and Guise knew she didn't want to let him down.  Now all he had to do was wait and see if she was successful.