“Thanks guys!” smiled Sonata, giving a wave as she trotted toward the door. “Lex will be totes happy to know he can count on you to take care of Vanhoover while he’s gone!”
“After everything he’s done for us, we’re happy to help,” replied Garden Gate, giving the departing mare a warm smile in return. “Just make sure he has a good time in Las Pegasus.”
“You know it! We’re gonna make him relax to the max!” cheered the Siren as she crossed the threshold that led out of the solarium, her eyes taking on a distant look as she sauntered into the hallway. “First, we’re gonna go out someplace really nice for breakfast in bed, then we’re gonna…”
She kept talking as she wandered away, and it was only after her voice could no longer be heard that several confused looks were exchanged.
“So…Las Pegasus has restaurants where you can have breakfast in bed?” asked Hopscotch, scratching her head.
“I think maybe she was talking about some sorta prince thing,” offered Funshine, though he didn’t sound entirely certain. “I mean, if a prince showed up somewhere and said that’s what he wanted, they’d probably make it happen…somehow.”
“They’ll probably just have what they want delivered to wherever they’re staying,” shrugged Granola Bar. “Even if whatever place they pick doesn’t normally offer takeout, I’m sure there’ll be somepony who can go get their order for them.”
“If a beauty like her is the one doing the asking, somepony definitely will,” murmured Slip ‘N’ Slide, still staring at where Sonata had left.
“I think Granola Bar was referring to one the prince’s servants, Slip,” snorted Turbo, rolling his eyes as he stood up. “Look, if there’s nothing else, I’m heading out. Some of the pegasi in the village are trying to put together a pre-industrial cloudmaker, and I said I’d help.”
Funshine tilted his head. “You mean one of those old pedal-powered things they have in museums? I thought they needed, like, a week’s worth of work just to make one little cloud?”
“All the more reason to get started now,” replied Turbo glibly as he strode toward the door.
But he hadn’t made it halfway there when Garden spoke up. “Actually,” she began, her voice carefully neutral as she looked at pegasus stallion, “I think we should all sit down and come up with a game plan. Lex-, Prince Legis is trusting us to take care of everypony here while he’s away, so we should try and think of some ideas about how we can keep this place running smoothly, as well as what we’ll do if there’s another emergency.”
Turbo looked ready to protest, but Hopscotch raised a hoof before he could get a word out. “Maybe we should wear badges?” she asked, looking around to see what everyone else thought of the idea. “That way, everypony will know that the prince asked us to watch over them, and they won’t feel worried.”
Funshine clopped his hooves together excitedly. “That’s a great idea! Everypony already knows that Garden helped fight off all those ghouls, and that she almost defeated Starlight Glimmer all by herself! If they see that she’s been left in charge, they’ll know everything will be fine!”
Garden looked down, smiling self-consciously at the praise. “I didn’t fight those undead ponies alone, or Starlight Glimmer for that matter. But I do think some sort of symbol would help everyone know that we’re here for them while His Highness is away.” Nodding, she looked around the room again. “Any other ideas?”
“We should ask those kids, the Night Mare’s Knights, if they want to help,” volunteered Granola Bar. “They might be young, but they’re no ordinary foals.”
The words were barely out of her mouth when Turbo resumed his beeline toward the exit. “I’ll do it.”
Frustration and sadness flashed across Garden’s face in equal measure. “Turbo, wait-”
“Those kids are working with Cloudbank now,” he shot back quickly, cutting Garden off, “and I got to know her pretty well when we were raiding that bank, so I’m the best person to talk to her about coordinating with those children.” He didn’t look back as he reached the door and turned the corner. “I’ll let you know what she says.”
Then he was gone, leaving an awkward silence hanging in the air in the wake of his departure.
“It’s not just me, right?” asked Slip ‘N’ Slide after a few seconds, looking around at the others. “Everyone else thinks that was weird too?”
“It’s not just you,” confirmed Funshine. “I haven’t seen Turbo make tracks that fast since the last time we ran across a ghoul pack back in the city.”
“I hope he’s okay.” Hopscotch’s ears folded down, dispirited at the thought of something bothering her friend. “I can only imagine what it must have been like to not only have died, but then come back to find that a whole bunch of stuff happened in the meantime, and then for a big fight to break out immediately afterward.”
Granola Bar reached a hoof out to gently tousle the smaller mare’s mane. “I don’t think that has much to do with it,” she reassured her. “Turbo’s probably just upset he wasn’t there to help against Starlight Glimmer.”
“Aren’t we all,” huffed Funshine. “If we’d just gotten there sooner-”
Slip ‘N’ Slide gave his brother an incredulous look. “That crazy nag almost fought Lex – or Prince Legis, or whatever we’re supposed to call him now – to a standstill, and that was after she took on all of the other heavy-hitters here! If we’d gotten there sooner, we’d be the ones needing to be resurrected!” He gave a shudder at the thought. “I’m just hoping that this will be an easy job and nothing goes wrong for a change.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” began Granola Bar.
But she didn’t have a chance to continue as Slip ‘N’ Slide groaned. “Did you actually just say that?! Do you not remember that the last time we did a job for Lex, we wound up fleeing from the Royal Guard in the middle of the night? All we were supposed to do was drop a few sick ponies off, and it ended up turning into ‘Escape from Canterlot!’”
“I got us into trouble then too, didn’t I?” murmured Garden quietly, looking down.
Seeing the depressed look on their leader’s face, and the glares being directed at him from the others, Slip ‘N’ Slide quickly began to backpedal. “Wait, no, that’s not what I was trying to say!”
“I know it wasn’t.” Forcing herself to smile, Garden raised her head. “And it’s okay. That whole escapade might have been my fault, but what I haven’t forgotten how you guys stood by me the entire time. That, and it helped me come to terms with everything I did while we were trapped in Vanhoover.” Taking a deep breath, she turned back to the matter at hoof. “We’ve got two good ideas now. Turbo’s going to talk to Cloudbank about the Night Mare’s Knights pitching in. What’ll we do about some sort of badge or emblem to let everypony know that we’re keeping the peace in the prince’s stead?”
“About that,” volunteered Hopscotch. “I think one of his new servants is supposed to be in charge of crests and insignias and things like that. Maybe we could ask them for some ideas?”
“In that case we should do it now, in case they need to run anything by Prince Legis,” decided Granola Bar.
Garden was already nodding. “Since this place is so huge, let’s all split up and see if we can track whoever we’re looking for down. Meet back here around noon. Badges or not, I want us to start going out and letting ponies know what’s going on then. Also…tell Turbo what we’re doing if you see him, okay?”
A series of nods and affirmative grunts came in response as everypony filed out of the room, save for Granola Bar, who stayed seated. “I’m actually meeting Piggy here in a few minutes,” she explained. “His idea. I think he’s finally ready to apologize for how awful he was to Cloudbank and Thermal Draft the other day.”
“I suppose them not being here for the apology would help,” scoffed Slip ‘N’ Slide.
But Granola Bar had an answer at the ready. “Oh, I’m planning on having him write it down, so he can show it to them later.”
A look of deep skepticism crossed Funshine’s face. “You really think he’ll do that?”
“He’s a good boy, deep down. He just needs to learn that while that stubborn streak of his can be helpful when things are falling apart, it’s not always the best option when it comes to getting along with others. Besides” – the barest hint of a smirk crossed Granola Bar’s lips then – “I can be very persuasive when I want to be.”
Slip ‘N’ Slide raised a brow at that, grimacing. “I don’t want to know what that means,” he muttered, exiting the room with a shudder.
Funshine looked only a little less put off than his brother. “Have fun, I guess,” he called over his shoulder as he left.
“Good luck with Piggy,” added Hopscotch, and unlike the stallions her smile was genuine.
Garden was the last to leave, giving Granola Bar a perfunctory nod. “See you back here at noon.”
“Garden.”
“Hm?”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
The question made the taller mare freeze. “I…don’t know what you mean,” she lied.
Granola Bar was silent for a long moment before replying. “Do you remember what I said after you helped defeat the ghoul army? When we were all mourning Turbo together?”
“…”
“I encouraged him to do something to help with how guilty you felt about the things you’d done back when we were all trying to survive,” recited Granola Bar, quoting what she’d said that night word for word. “What I didn’t say was that the reason I encouraged him was because he was more upset about what Lex did to you than any of us, and I knew why.” She let that sink in for a moment, making sure her expression was as nonjudgmental as she could make it. “And I know why he’s acting the way he is now.”
Another pregnant pause ensued, with only the sound of Garden swallowing breaking the silence. “Do the others know?”
“I think Hopscotch suspects, but Funshine and Slip have no idea.” She rolled her eyes, a good-natured smirk sliding across her face. “Stallions.”
“Yeah,” replied Garden softly, a ghost of a smile crossing her lips. But it lasted only for a moment before her expression turned miserable. “I broke his heart. After everything he went through…after he died because of me…he comes back and the very first thing I do is hurt him.”
“We don’t choose who we fall for,” pointed out Granola Bar gently. “You don’t need to feel guilty if you don’t love him.”
“I do love him,” answered Garden immediately. “I love him deeply, the same way I love you and Hopscotch and Funshine and Slip ‘N’ Slide. But that’s not what he wants from me…”
“I’m going to say something that might sound cold, or maybe dismissive, but it isn’t meant to be,” warned Granola Bar, waiting for Garden to nod before she plunged forward. “You’re not responsible for what Turbo wants, or anypony else for that matter. You’re only responsible for what you want. Do you know what that is?”
“I want things to slow down.” Again, Garden’s answer came without hesitation. “I want to stop feeling like I’m living on a roller coaster that’s about to jump the tracks. I feel like I’ve only just managed to figure out who I am again, and things are still happening faster than I can keep up! Everything was just starting to settle down, and then that crazy mare attacks and almost kills me, then I wake up and find that my dead friend has come back to life and is in love with me, but I can’t deal with that because Princess Twilight and her friends are here and plotting to kill Lex, who’s already at death’s door, except he’s better now and he’s fighting a duel, and he wins but now he has to go to Las Pegasus and we’re being asked to run Vanhoover for him and Turbo’s mad at me and I just want everything to slow down!”
Granola Bar didn’t say anything, staying quiet in case Garden needed to vent more. Her instinct was proven correct a second later. “I know I need to talk to Turbo,” sighed the unicorn. “I know this isn’t anypony’s fault, and that we need to work this out before it ruins our relationship, but I’m afraid that if I try, I’ll end up making things worse, and I can’t deal with that right now. I just can’t. Maybe if the next six weeks are as calm and quiet as I need them to be, but not right now…”
“Okay,” smiled Granola Bar sadly, moving over to give Garden a hug. “You know that you can always talk to me about anything, right?”
“I know,” smiled Garden, the expression turning playful as she ended the embrace. “But right now you’ve got your own love life to deal with, so I’ll stop burdening you with mine.” Walking toward the door before Granola Bar could insist she wasn’t a burden, Garden gave her friend a cordial wave as she disappeared through it. “See you at noon.”
“See you,” called back Granola Bar, but Garden was already gone, leaving her alone in the solarium. Sighing, she leaned back, craning her neck up to look out the large windows that dominated the room, thinking about everything her friends were going through. She was still lost in thought when she heard the door open a few minutes later, followed by the sound of hoofsteps approaching her. Shaking off her reverie, she couldn’t help a moment of guilty gratitude that she wasn’t going through anything as complicated as Turbo and Garden. “Piggy, I’m glad you-”
“Piggy won’t be in attendance,” snapped an unfamiliar voice, causing Granola Bar to nearly fall over as she turned her head to look at the newcomer.
“You’re-”
“River Bank,” replied the middle-aged mare as she strode into the room. “Piggy’s mother. And you’re Granola Bar.”
Surprise kept Granola Bar rooted in place as River advanced, stopping just outside of leg’s reach as she looked the other mare over from top to bottom.
“I think it’s time you and I had a conversation about your intentions toward my son.”