Snickers was set onto the soft floor from Rarity’s magic as the room fell silent. Not even Laxxie’s creaking joints moved to make a sound, the implication of who Seven was seemed to affect her, even though she didn’t understand the importance.
“This is Cordite, my assistant. Miss Rarity and Snickers? I need to speak with you both, in private,” Seven stated flatly.
Rarity hugged Snickers close and shook her head. “My son just returned home from a long sabbatical and we’d appreciate some time to acclimate, if you don’t mind.”
Seven and Cordite shared a look, then nodded. “Very well, we’ll be back in two hours.”
Rarity nodded and Seven let the door swing closed, leaving the group alone to share an awkward look. “Well, it’s good to be home.” Snickers said, his clothing forgotten for the moment while Silver and Diamond looked him over several times, giggling and whispering to one another after a moment.
Rarity rolled her eyes and ushered the youth to her showroom and prepared a large pot of water to heat on the stove before sitting beside Snickers. Snickers leaned against her and sighed, smelling her fur and remembering why he cared for her now. “So, my little prince,” Rarity said softly, “tell me about your trek from the Canterhorn mountain back to your home.”
…
Two hours later, Seven returned with Cordite, and without knocking they entered the Carousel Boutique and stood in the foyer.
Gil, Cress, and Kiwe looked to one another before Silver and Diamond moved to touch their sides against Snickers, their tails wrapping around his hind legs to show their connection. Seven barely frowned at the action before he looked at Rarity. Rarity carefully swallowed, the loudest sound in the room at that moment, before she spoke up. “Snickers, be a dear and join me in the kitchen.
“Everypony else, you may wait in the parlour for our meeting to conclude. Sorry, girls, but this has to be between us only.”
Both fillies whined. “But, like, Snickers is our stallion. We can’t just abandon him in his time of need!” Silver said.
Seven walked into the room with Cordite following closely. “It’s an adult matter, and I’m sure Snickers understands that quite well himself, right, young colt?”
Snickers wiggled slightly, the cue being taken and the fillies stepped away enough from Snickers to let him move to Rarity’s side. “Mom, can I get that shirt before we do anything?” He asked, his request being quickly fulfilled by his mother while the foals and gryphon went to the sitting room to wait and occupy themselves.
Once Snickers was dressed, Rarity led her group to the kitchen where she put a kettle on the stove and prepared four cups with tea leaves. “So, Seven, to what do we owe the pleasure of your visit after so many months? I was under the impression all was going well.”
Seven took a seat closer to the back door while Cordite stood by the divide between the kitchen and the showroom. “Take a seat, Snickers, this is going to be a very important conversation.”
“Yes, sir,” Snickers said, taking a seat to the social worker’s pleasure.
Seven opened his folder and took out a pen, readying it in his wing to take notes. “You seem well adjusted, compared to when you arrived. How do you feel living here with Rarity?”
Snickers shrugged. “It’s fine, I guess. I just spent the last few weeks living in Canterlot actually, but I kept in touch with Mom the whole time. Every night we talked, er, wrote, so… I dunno.”
Seven wrote something down and then looked back to Snickers. “Alright, and while you were living in Canterlot, who were you staying with exactly? Did anyone from Ponyville accompany you?”
Snickers smiled. “I was with Princesses Celestia and Luna and my herd, and my friends, and my daughter. It was a really… interesting time.” Snickers went into a story that covered an overview of what he’d done while in Canterlot that lasted through Rarity’s first cup of tea, and part of her second before Seven had taken nearly a page of notes.
When Snickers finally stopped, Seven took another sip of his tea and looked at Rarity. “And you were okay with Snickers leaving your care for three weeks to live relatively unattended at the royal palace?”
“Well, I would hardly say he was unattended…” Rarity stopped herself when she noticed the look in Seven’s eyes. “Well, I wasn’t exactly pleased, but you know how foals can go on their own journeys and learn life lessons? Plus we spoke each and every night through writing.”
Seven scratched more words into his notepad and flipped the page. “And you feel that justifies letting a foal you were supposed to care for live with two fillies, that he slept with most nights, miles away from your supervision?”
Rarity stammered, then inhaled and sat up taller. “I am unsure of what this line of questioning is getting at, would you mind being more direct? Snickers and I can handle it,” she said, then noticed a pink envelope with Spoiled Rich’s cutie mark in the return line sticking from the pages.
Internally the grey-white mare fumed, but externally she simply sipped her tea to hide the sneer she briefly sported.
“Well, if you insist, then I’ll cut to the chase; I’ve received no less than a stack of informative documents, letters, comments, and complaints from several ponies across town over the past couple of months that draw a stark view of how you’re raising Snickers. Initially, I tried to dismiss them as Snickers still needed time to adjust. However, it seems to have progressed into something my office won't let me ignore. Let me know if this helps you recall anything.”
Seven moved a few pages and looked at one such letter, then he began reading the complaint, “On the nineteenth day in the seventh moon, Snickers stopped by my flower cart and tried to purchase two flowers on Rarity’s account; when told he’d have to pay bits, he told me to -expletive censored- and then left. When he later returned with three bits, he spat them on the ground and picked a bunch of flowers while I was gathering the bits and preparing to clean them.”
Snickers looked away and sighed. “I was wrong. That was my second week here and I wanted to get a snack. I wasn’t very acclimated at the time.”
Seven hummed. “Next, this one is like many others in that after being lost in the Everfree forest, which we weren’t told about,” he narrowed his eyes at Rarity, “Snickers began admitting he had a child, a daughter, while in the woods.”
Snickers raised his foreleg quickly and lowered it when Seven nodded to him. “That was Laxxie, short for Snore Laxe; she’s my timberwolf that can turn into a timberpony. She’s in the next room, I’ll call her over!”
Seven shook his head. “That’s fine, I think I understand. Do you like to play pretend, Snickers?”
Snickers nodded. “Yeah, it’s fun to play pretend with my fillies and friends, and Laxxie. Even if Laxxie doesn’t really know what’s going on sometimes, she still plays along, like one time--.”
Seven interjected himself, “Pardon me, you say that you like to play these games with your fillies and friends. What I'd like to know is how well do you imagine. Do you believe any of these things you pretend are real?”
Snickers cocked an eyebrow. “No, imagination is just pretend in my head, with my friends.”
Seven nodded and scratched something in his notes, then looked at Rarity. “And I know Snickers has a history of acting more adult than foal. Given this history, what have you done to encourage him to act his own age?”
Rarity sipped her tea and set the cup down with a quiet clink that resounded through the room. “Well, I’ve encouraged him to play with his friends, herdmates, and we had a mother-son night every night until he left. After which we wrote one another for about an hour each night.”
Seven looked at Snickers, then quietly sighed and looked back to Rarity. “And that leads me to a couple of personal questions. First, about your… masturbatory habits with foals in the area?”
Rarity blushed and quickly took the final sip of her tea before setting the cup down with a tremble. She refilled her teacup and set the pot in the middle of the table before speaking. “Well, if you must know for professional reasons, I do not pleasure myself as much as I once did. I am proudly free of that form of stress relief and have better ways to cope with troublesome issues.”
Snickers snickered. “So, Mister Ed’s finally getting a break?” He snarked, then grimaced when all eyes went to him. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”
Rarity nodded and caught Seven’s attention. “And your foal knows of your nickname for your pleasure device, how?” Seven asked, readying his pen.
Rarity was now a shade of pink from her withers to her ears. “Well, Snickers found my toy shortly after you left and teased me with it. No! Poor choice of words, he taunted me with his finding of it.”
“I threw it at her, pretty much,” Snickers admitted, then smirked. “She made it teleport away, it was really cool.”
Seven held a wing up to halt Snickers. “And where did you find it? It wasn’t just lying around, I presume.”
Snickers shook his head. “I raided her room and found it under her bed. I was just being mean, though, I’m better now. If I found Mister Ed, I’d totally not do what I did and would leave it alone.”
Seven hummed and glanced at his notes, then asked, “And how did you carry it down the stairs, unless Rarity was upstairs at the time?” Seven asked, writing fervently.
Snickers licked his lips and looked at Rarity, who nodded. “In my mouth, since I can’t carry it in my hooves or on my back, or anything. It’s really floppy.”
Seven glared at Rarity. “In his mouth,” he stated. “Do you clean your devices after each use, Miss Rarity?”
Rarity’s magic lifted her teacup and nearly spilled some from how much it was shaking. “I certainly do,” she said and whispered ‘now’ to herself while sipping her drink.
“So, you do now, but when he found it?” Seven asked, surprising Rarity. Rarity sighed and shook her head, upset that the pegasus colt had heard her. “Are you still comfortable staying here Snickers? Would you like to leave?”
Snickers shook his head. “I like staying with my mom, and I don't want anyone to change that.”
Seven prepared a new page in his notepad. “Very well, how did you get lost in the Everfree Forest?”
Snickers shifted in his chair. “I went in there to find Zecora to ask her some stuff, but the forest led me off the path and I got lost for a few days. I managed to make a fire by a creek and foraged for a while. I ate something that let me… poop out Laxxie, who I called Pup then, and then we were rescued a couple days later. No big deal.”
Had he been able, Seven clearly would have snapped at Snickers and Rarity about the entire ordeal being passed off so casually by everypony involved; instead, his pen tore through the page he was writing on and he had to compose himself. Cordite wasn’t quiet with her nicker and grinding teeth.
“No big deal? My young stallion, going into the Everfree without a guide or any adult supervision is a very big deal. Ahem, I apologize for my clear frustration, but I’m being overwhelmed by the… choices you, as a mother, have made with such a tender foal as Snickers. Do you encourage his ‘adult’ behaviors? Do you have him around colts his own age?
“Have you avoided sexualizing anything since he arrived, as far as you can control in any way, Rarity?” Before the mare could answer, Seven pressed on, “I have to ask myself, ‘Why, Seven? Why did you leave such a traumatized foal with such an incompetent adult?’, to which I can only tell myself that your reputation and circle of friends were the largest reason.
“Snickers, have Rarity’s friends at least earned your trust and respect?” Seven asked the colt.
Snickers’s ears drooped and he placed his forehooves between his legs on the chair, looking down to avoid eye contact with Seven. “Not exactly…”
Seven calmed down, his caring demeanor returning. “Snickers, did Rarity's friends do anything that would make you say that?”
Snickers looked up with a sharp glare, then looked out the window. “Rainbow Dash told them all to lie to me; Mom, too. Rainbow told them all, and my herd then, that I was just a crazy broken colt and the only way to fix me was to pretend I was normal… but I was normal, and I was acting nice and learning to be a good pony, too.
“When I found out, I ran away to my mommy in Canterlot, where I found Aquelis. He was inside me before I knew it and we’ve talked a few times since I found him in there, but he likes me in control. I can’t believe I almost had sex with Scootaloo so many times, though… and after Harmony played his games with me.”
Seven’s head was spinning with questions at that moment. “What games did Harmony play with you? Is Harmony an adult you know?” Seven asked, his pen still as the older colt listened with rapt attention.
“Harmony’s an adult, but I don’t trust him, or his brothers! They tried to fuck me, they tied me up, they locked me in an insane asylum with a monster, and they made me taste cum in the shower! They’re jerks, all three of them.”
Seven shot a glare at Rarity, who raised her forehooves. “Now, wait a moment, this is all out of context! None of that really happened, it was a spell gone wrong, is what it was.”
Seven slapped the pen in his folder and closed it with a snap. He nodded his head sharply and Cordite walked to the table, between Seven and Snickers. “Snickers, please follow my close friend Cordite from the room, I need to have a private conversation with Rarity…”
Snickers hesitated, but eventually hopped to the linoleum floor with a clatter of hooves that made Rarity wince, then Snickers left the room with the large earth pony mare behind him.
Once the room was empty, Seven took a gem from under his wing and set it on the table, activating it with a tap of his hoof. He then began to shout, “Rarity Belle, Equestria Foal Services finds you to be unfit to care for anypony and we’re taking Snickers to a safe location, away from you.”
“What?! You can’t just come in and take my son away!” Rarity propped herself on her forelegs on the table to seem larger than the pegasus.
Seven flapped his wings and took to a hover over Rarity, glaring down at her hard enough to subjugate her will for the needed moment. “You have no rights to this foal any longer, Rarity. The horrors he’s been exposed to are far beyond what he can recover from, at this point, and I won’t see him traumatized any more than he has been..”
Rarity scoffed. “What do you think you’re doing? You can’t just take him away, he has a herd and family here.”
Seven reached for the gem, but before he picked it up and turned it off, he glared at Rarity. “The Equestrian Ministry of Families, Foals, and Mental Health Services does not thank you for your service, nor for your time. I know this has become very unprofessional of me, but I feel you need more therapy than what you’ve caused Snickers to need over the next years of his life.”
“What about his herd and life here?! He said himself that he didn’t want to leave!” Rarity snapped. “He’s got a lot going for him, he can’t just be taken away from it all.”
Seven sighed. “He’ll have to adjust. Even if I don’t take the reports into account, he’s just admitted to sexual acts with another filly that shouldn’t have happened, had he been monitored closely by you. Take this as a lesson to teach others, Rarity; don’t let foals that claim to be in a herd sleep together, especially when you’re fostering them.”
With that, Seven scooped up the gem and walked into the showroom. “Cordite, let’s go. Snickers, you’re coming with us on a trip.”
The earth pony mare nodded and wrapped a foreleg around Snickers, then pulled him from his spot beside her and began walking with him. “Hey, let me go! You can’t just take me away! Mom! Stop them!”
“Release my son, you lowlifes! You have no right taking him from me as soon as he returns home! Let him go this instant, or I’ll summon the Princesses!” Rarity commanded.
The social worker and his assistant didn’t slow, not even when Rarity began pulling items to block their path to the front door. Snickers’s defiant shouting had quickly turned to panicked screaming as the world he knew was being dragged away from him with each step taken.
Three foals, one made of wood, ran into the showroom to see the commotion and were about to run to help Snickers when a small shield formed around the two carrying Snickers from the shop.
Cordite had a glowing earring that had cast the spell. The shield was only hip-height on an adult, but more than enough to stop anypony from outside the barrier getting at them.
Snickers’s crying stuttered as the ceiling cracked and all eyes went up, just as a tile gave way and dozens of pounds of old mail fell from the attic. Cordite shoved Snickers clear and barely leapt over Seven to keep him safe.
Diamond and Silver screamed, Kiwe raised a small shield of his own, and Gil squawked while diving behind a fainting couch, holding the egg gently in his downy feathers.
Rarity, on the other hoof, grabbed Snickers and galloped to the stairs, ignoring the commotion, rushing him to his room and shutting the door behind them. “Dearest me, oh my… oh my goodness…” Rarity panted and shuddered, her mascara running down her face now that she had a moment. “Snickers… I’m so sorry.”
Snickers wiped his eye on his sleeve and rushed to Rarity, hugging her foreleg. “Don’t be, I should think before I talk.”
“No, darling, my little prince, I’ve been a poor mother to you and now it’s all over,” she said and hugged Snickers to her barrel. Snickers buried his face in her chest and cried softly with her.
A series of heavy knocks came to the door and Rarity tensed, but Snickers pulled free and looked at the door. “Silver? Diamond?!”
“It’s us, hurry, let us in!” The door opened and let the fillies in quickly before slamming shut and locking again. “Where are you going to go? Did they tell you?” Diamond asked, hurriedly.
Silver glomped Snickers in a hug that almost knocked him over. “Don’t leave us like this!”
Snickers tightly hugged Silver back and looked at Rarity. “Mom, what’re we gonna do?”
“Go to Twilight’s, I’ll keep these ruffians busy. There isn’t anything a classy mare such as I can’t do, especially when a cute stallion is involved,” Rarity stated, standing tall and turning to the door. She inhaled and held it for a few seconds then exhaled and Snickers’s sense of smell was awash with a sweet musk that clouded his mind.
Rarity opened the door and rushed out, closing it behind her. “Snickers, what’s wrong? Are you okay? Speak to me, honey.” Silver said, returning Snickers to coherency.
The colt smirked and looked at Diamond locking the door. “Clever mare… c’mon, let’s go out the window, I think I can make it if we climb down carefully on some rope I got from Apple Bloom a while back.”
Snickers rushed to a toy chest and opened it, practically climbing in. “Why did she give you rope?” Diamond asked.
“She was gonna teach me how to tie knots, and untie them, in case I was ever foal-napped or… well, we were gonna try for tying, and untying, knots marks, too. Ah, here it is. Get the window, Silver, I’ll tie the rope to the bed.”
The filly did as told with Diamond right beside her; the rope was tossed from the window and the three climbed out and began sliding down when the rope came undone and they fell to the grass with a thud in a pile of legs and bodies. “Ouch, I thought you tied the rope off?” Diamond whined as she extricated herself from the pony pile.
Snickers was second up and looked at his window. “I said I was going to learn, not that I knew what I was doing.”
Silver and Diamond walked past him, bumping him between themselves. “Don’t be smart like that again. We could have broken a leg! Then where’d we be?”
Snickers hushed them and lowered to a crouch by the wall.
“...is he, Miss Rarity? Stop distracting me! Keep your tail away from me… ung…”
Snickers motioned with his head for his fillies to take the lead and Diamond led Snickers, who was backed by Silver through Ponyville and to the Golden Oaks Library. They rushed in and closed the door behind them. “Miss Twilight? Are you here?”
Spike looked at the trio and grinned. “Hey, Snickers, bro, you’re back! I didn’t know, otherwise I’d have planned something for you.” He said, hopping from the ladder he was on to the floor and landing in a heroic stance. “Is Rarity with you?”
Snickers looked back at the door and then shook his head. “She’s running distraction for me. I need a place to hide!”
“Hide? Why, are there guards after you or something?” Spike joked, then his smile fell. “There’s somepony after you, isn’t there? Sheesh, you’re a magnet for trouble. C’mon, let’s hide you in the basement. Twilight’s getting the mail and that’ll take a while because she’s expecting a book delivery from Canterlot.”
Snickers and the fillies followed Spike to the basement door and nervously walked past him. “If a pegasus colt and a very large earth pony mare come around, you haven’t seen us for a few weeks, okay?”
Spike nodded and shooed them downstairs. “I’ll make you some snacks, something covert, don’t worry. I won’t give anything away, and if I do, they’ll just think it’s something dragons do.”
Snickers passed Spike and thanked him before rushing down the stairs into Twilight’s little laboratory. They stayed together in a loose triangle, a filly at his sides constantly, while looking at the various devices around the room. “What is this junk?” Snickers asked.
“I dunno, something dumb from a crazy mare, I bet. She probably takes ponies down here to experiment on them.”
Silver broke into giggles and pointed to an open side door. “That must be the secret room I heard my mom talk about once. It’s supposed to be where she experiments with sex.”
Diamond broke from the group and rushed over. “I wonder what kind of perverse things she’s into? I’m gonna check.”
Snickers and Silver rushed behind her and they all peeked into the ajar door. Snickers hummed and walked in, casually looking around. “This looks more like a sex study room than some kind of sex dungeon.”
The small room was surrounded by corkboards with diagrams of ponies, probably drawn by Twilight herself, in various sexual positions. “Hey, this is a copy of the Camel Sutra. My mommy has a copy of this,” Silver said, tapping the red covered book. “Ew, the pages are sticky,” she giggled, “just kidding.”
Diamond pointed to a seat near the end of the room and moved toward it. “What’s this thing? It looks like a pony’s supposed to lay on it,” she moved closer and was about to step onto it and lie down when Snickers stopped her.
“Stop! Look at it, closely.”
Diamond looked at the chair and chortled, stepping back. “Sheesh, she really needs a stallion.”
Silver moved beside her herd sister and looked at the chair. “Oh… it’s got stallion parts that swing up and… oh… weird,” she scoffed and turned away, flicking her tail at the sex seat. “If it’s so important to her, why doesn’t she just join a herd like a normal pony and do it that way?”
Snickers followed Silver from the room with Diamond looking at the wall art as they left. They closed the door behind them and it clicked locked. “Somepony forgot to close the door, I wonder when she went in there last.”
Snickers sniffled. “I didn’t smell too much in there, so probably a day or so, ya know.”
“Whatever! Can we not talk about a weird mare’s sex seat and focus on what’s important?” Diamond snapped. “We have to keep our stallion safe, how’re we gonna keep him close to us if he’s taken to the other side of Equestria?!”
“Hush!” Both foals hushed Diamond. “Look,” Snickers said, “we have to get some stuff prepared and keep hiding out until they leave. They can’t look everywhere in this town, and they still have other work to do; we just have to keep our heads on our necks and hooves on the ground, ready for whatever comes next.”
Silver and Diamond nodded in agreement and they kept busy after that by looking through whatever books they could find and talking about ideas they had, that is until the basement door opened with a slam.
“Spike, I have research to do, don’t bother me for a while.” Twilight’s voice called as she appeared from a teleport in the center of the room, not noticing the foals against the wall as she cantered to her private room. The door clicked and opened, closing behind Twilight before the foals could say anything.
“Twilight, I have to tell you something, though!” Spike announced, running down the stairs. He ran past the foals that were in the center of the room and looked around, his eyes stopping at the closed door, then he sighed. “Great… she’ll be in there for a while, maybe. Just, hang out here and don’t worry, she puts up a sound blocking spell when she goes in there.”
The foals gulped and looked at Spike. “Is she gonna be mad we’re here?” Silver Spoon asked.
Spike chuckled and shook his head. “Nah, she’s understanding, but will probably tell your parents now that you’re back.”
There was an audible moan from the side room and a muffled ‘shlick’ noise, followed by a few muffled words. Spike faceclawed and the foals giggled and blushed. “Wanna go upstairs?” Spike asked.
The fillies shrugged while Snickers shook his head. “No, it’s not that hearing Twilight get spit roasted by some chair she made is in any way disturbing, but knowing my luck, as soon as I get up there there’ll be a knock on the door and I’ll have to run away again. Nope, not going to risk it, so I’ll just suffer for a minute. That’s about how long ponies last, right?”
Spike blushed and nodded. “Yeah, she’ll be done quick, but afterwards she teleports to her room and cuddles her pillow for a while until she feels like normal again.”
“Wow,” Diamond nickered, “she’s a regular sweetie. I’ll go upstairs to her bed and let her cuddle me,” she tittered and bumped her rump against Silver’s. “C’mon, let’s pony-pile the naughty librarian, like in that book we read.”
Silver looked away. “No way, Diamond. I’m not getting into your relationship drama. I have Snickers, and I thought you did too.”
Diamond tapped her crown. “I was just joking, sheesh.”
“Not very funny,” Silver said quietly.
“Well, I’ll go get those snacks; I kinda forgot them because I was practicing what to say when those ponies you told me about showed up.”
Twilight moaned loud enough to be heard clearly and every creature laughed quietly. “I guess she’s done,” Snickers said, bringing the laughter up a notch.
“She’s still gotta clean up, you know. She was in there this morning, too. She gets it really bad every Monday, like clockwork. If there’s one thing Twilight loves, it’s a good schedule.”
The foals agreed and chose to return to their little area they’d chosen to rest.
…
The sun was nearing its zenith when Twilight and Spike finally went downstairs, a glum look on her features. She sat in front of the foals and looked at them in the ensuing silence. “So… foal services is looking for you? I told them I don’t know anything about you, and at the time it was true, but if they come back, I don’t know if I can lie to them.”
Spike nodded with his arms crossed. “Yup, she can’t lie without practicing first, and even then…” he trailed off.
“I’m not that bad, Spike. Anyway, what do you think I should do with you? It’s lunchtime and I can’t just have you running around, playing upstairs, and leaving you to play down here isn’t any better. Spike told me about the room, so I apologize for that, but there’s no excuse if they catch me hiding you in my library.”
“Send a letter to Celestia.” Silver stated.
“Yeah, she’ll fix this all up,” Diamond added.
Twilight shook her head, but Snickers answered. “Mommy can’t help because it’s a different kinda law system. If she helps me out, then why doesn’t she help out the next foal in trouble, and the next? The system she set up just kinda fucked her on this one.”
Twilight frowned. “Don’t use those words in reference to Princess Celestia, Snickers. Also, he’s right; the princesses can’t intervene in public or social matters without good reason.”
“He’s her son!” Diamond shouted. “That’s a damn good reason, isn’t it?!”
Twilight sighed and shook her head. “It’s not proven he’s her son. The same son she admitted to us died two hundred years ago. Short of proving that Snickers is actually Aquelis and that he didn’t die, which is practically impossible, the entire system is set up to believe you’re a lost and abused foal under Rarity’s care, not a long-lost prince.”
Snickers grumbled for a moment. “Then we’ll just stay here for the day and when tonight comes, we’ll go back to Mom’s and see what we can work out, okay?”
Twilight thought it over for a moment, then nodded. “Fine, but you’re not staying the night. I’m not having three foals sleeping on the floor in my basement.”
The trio agreed and sat in front of Twilight. “Can we have lunch, Miss Twilight?” Diamond asked, sweetly.
“Please?” All the foals chorused.
Twilight nodded and looked back to Spike. “Spike, the lunch you prepared?”
Spike patted on his little legs up the stairs. “On it, Twi.”
…
The day waned into the evening and Snickers led the fillies into the library. Twilight peeked out of the front door as they approached. “Okay, the coast is clear. I heard from Fluttershy that they’re staying at the inn, so being city ponies they probably won’t go out at night. You should go quickly, do you want me to send Spike with you?”
“Why can’t you come with us, Miss Twilight?” Diamond asked as she lined up near the door.
“Well, I got this old book that contains one of Starswirl the Bearded’s spells and I don’t know what it does. I was going to look it over and see what it could mean after you left… I’m sorry, but this is too exciting to pass up on.”
Snickers’s ears twitched at the sound of a splash. “Is Spike taking another bubble bath?”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Yeah, another long one, too. He just heats the water because it’s cold and drains it when it gets chilly. A total waste of water, if you ask me.”
Snickers nodded. “Yeah, that stuff’s a precious resource in some places. Anyway, we’ll be fine and you go work on your magic.”
The trio was about to open the door when there was a knock and they panicked for a moment as the unlatched door swung open. “Twilight Sparkle?” Blueblood’s voice rang out and calmed the foals’ hearts. “What an honor to see you again, perhaps I can come in and take some of your time?”
Blueblood stepped in and his foreleg was wrapped in an embrace that brought a startled yelp from him, akin to a mare whose tail was stepped on. “Snickers, my boy?! What are you doing here?” Snickers was nuzzled briefly before Blueblood stood at his full height. “And it’s nice to see you’re safe and sound.
“I had heard from many ponies there’s a social worker out for you, and that’s never a good thing.”
Snickers pouted. “I know, daddy, help keep me safe! Adopt me, or something!”
Blueblood glanced at Twilight, who had a forehoof to her chest. “Son, it doesn’t work that way. If they get you, it could be months before I see you again. Hurry home to Rarity’s and I’ll talk with Twilight for a while, maybe we can come up with a plan.”
Twilight shook her head. “I have a spell from Princess Celestia I just got I was going to experiment with, I can’t just…” she stopped when three foals attacked her with their mightiest puppy dog expressions, Silver Spoon even managed to press a single tear into the corner of her eye. “Oh, fine… the spell can wait a little while, I guess.”
Snickers hopped in place with the fillies and quickly rushed to give Twilight a group hug. “Thanks, Twilight. Have a great night and make good plans for us.”
Twilight nodded and her horn lit, washing over the foals around her. “There, now you should blend in easier with the shadows, just don’t go into any bright light, okay?”
Blueblood nodded in approval. “Nightshade’s Shadow Walking spell?”
Twilight nodded once. “A lesser version of it, I don’t want these little ones to get lost or separated going across town.”
Snickers thanked Twilight and gave Blueblood a hug each as they passed him into the twilight of evening. The door closed and as quickly as they could, the trio rushed to Rarity’s.