When my dream faded away and I opened my eyes, I found myself once again surrounded by Cadance, Shining Armor, Sunburst, Paladin, and a little away, a few other ponies who were already on their way out. It was the middle of the night again, judging by the darkness on the other side of my window, but this time, the ponies’ faces were sporting faint smiles rather than concerned frowns, except for Shining Armor, who was frowning and rubbing his face for some reason. Also, my pillow and blanket were arranged neatly, which usually wasn’t the case whenever I would wake up.
“Um… hello?” I said.
“Luna succeeded, didn’t she?” Cadance asked as if she already knew the answer.
“Yes, how did you know?”
“You were screaming again, and begging someone to stop, and thrashing so hard that you flung your bedding all over the room, and fell out of bed. We couldn’t wake you up, but then you suddenly calmed down completely.”
“We figured it was Luna,” Sunburst added, “so I made the bed for you and put you back in it. We were about to go back to bed ourselves when you woke up.”
“You also slapped me while thrashing,” Shining grumbled. I winced. Well, that explained the face-rubbing, at least. “Quite a punch you’ve got. Consider yourself lucky that you weren’t aware of your actions or I-”
“Shining!” Cadance interjected. “Must you always?”
“I’m just saying!”
“Yes, you’ve said it a million times already! And since we’re repeating ourselves, let’s go back to our room so I can say something to you for the millionth time, in private.” She fixed a stern glare at him and pointed her hoof at the door. “Actually, I think I have a thing or two to add this time!”
He grumbled something under his breath but obeyed.
“I’m sorry about this, Thorax,” she said to me. “I trust you are feeling better now?”
“Yes, Princess, Luna was very helpful! You don’t have to worry about me!”
“I’m glad to hear it! I’ll let you sleep now. Good night!”
“Good night to you too, Princess!”
She left. Sunburst and Paladin once again remained there a little longer.
“Okay, now that Luna knows what you were screaming about, mind telling us about it?”
“It was Chrysalis, “ I told them. “She… are you sure you want to know this?”
“Yes, Thorax. You’re our friend! We want to know what’s troubling you!”
“I don’t know, guys… it was pretty bad…”
“None of that! Tell us!”
Luna’s voice echoed in my head again. You have been blessed by a group of friends anypony could wish for, she had said. I have every confidence that they can help you… if only you will allow them. And no matter how hard I’d tried to deny it, I did need help! So why not take Luna’s advice and finally accept the help that had been offered to me time and time again?
“Okay,” I sighed. “Chrysalis invaded the throne room somehow and held ponies captive in it. There were Cadance and Shining, and Starlight, and the two of you, and my other guards-”
“Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence,” Paladin interjected.
“I’m sorry, Paladin, I-”
“Hey, relax, I’m teasing you! So what happened?”
“She tortured you,” I said bitterly. “She kept blasting you all with torture spells and she made me watch. And I couldn’t help you!” I buried my face in my hooves.
“There, there,” Sunburst said, patting my shoulder, “it didn’t really happen. We’re fine!”
“There’s more, isn’t there?” Paladin asked after a moment.
I nodded. “Then she moved on to my brother and did the same to him.” I unexpectedly burst into tears.
“He was there too?”
“Yes, trapped in slime like the rest of you. I’ll never forget it! He’s the toughest, most fearsome warrior I’ve ever known, and there he was, screaming and crying like… like…”
“Like what?”
“...like I always did when subjected to the same spells. Maybe even louder!”
They cast a glance at each other.
“How do you know they were the same spells? Couldn’t it have been a different spell, or a… a variation that makes the spell more painful?”
“I’ve been on the receiving end enough times that I find it hard to believe I haven’t experienced her full spectrum. She isn’t one to withhold punishment and disciplinary measures. In fact, she often combined spells with physical means of torture. Spells hurt more, but they don’t leave injuries that would hurt in the days following the ordeal.”
They cringed.
“...fair enough. Is that when Luna got there?”
“No, she came after I told Chrysalis to kill me in exchange for letting the rest of you go… except that I realized too late that she wasn’t going to let you go.”
“I don’t like where this is going,” Paladin muttered.
“I haven’t liked it from the start,” Sunburst countered. “So… she killed us?”
“No, Luna got there at the last moment.”
I noticed some tension from their postures disappear.
“Well, better late than never,” Sunburst sighed.
“I thought you said it didn’t really happen?” Paladin asked him.
“Yes, but now I see that Thorax had every reason to scream the place down! We all would!” He turned back to me. “What about your other nightmares? Do you want to talk about them?”
“Same basic premise,” I shrugged. “Chrysalis finds me or lures me into a trap and does things to me. The last time, she blasted me with spells - I might have told you that already - and I also remember dreams that ended with her stabbing me with a sword or ripping my throat out or commanding a changeling swarm to maul me to pieces…”
They cringed again.
“Okay, I’m definitely glad that Cadance got Luna to help,” Sunburst said after a moment. “I don’t want to know what would have come up next time! She will snap you out of it again if necessary, won’t she?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. She didn’t say.”
“I bet she will,” Paladin said. “I had nightmares after Sombra’s return - not nearly as disturbing as yours, Thorax, I have to admit - and she kept returning for as long as it was necessary.”
“Then I guess you’re settled,” Sunburst nodded. “And no more keeping things like this to yourself, okay? Don’t wait for your fears to build up until they give you nightmares that make you scream so hard that the whole castle thinks someone is killing you for real!”
“It was that bad?”
“Yes. Do we have a deal? Whatever you need - a conversation, a hug, an advice, a shoulder to cry on, some comfort food - come to us and we’ll do our best. And write to Ponyville about how you feel if you aren’t doing it already. Spike and the girls will come running if you need them!”
“That’s pretty much what Luna told me,” I mused. “I guess I really have been too stubborn for my own good...”
“That’s putting it mildly,” Paladin chuckled.
“There you go. We’ll let you sleep now. Unless you still need something?”
“Well…” I fumbled with my blanket. “Now that you mention it, a hug would be nice…”
They made good on their promise.
The next day, Sunburst lingered in my room after our lesson for the day was finished.
“You’ve been awfully absent-minded today,” he said. “Something troubling you?”
“Is it that obvious?”
He glared at me, saying nothing. Okay, stupid question; he’d poked me out of a reverie four times… or five? It was obvious! I hadn’t drifted off in class since my last day in basic training! Okay, that had been a long time ago, and Pharynx had never allowed me to drift off whenever he attempted to hold one-on-one drills with me in a futile hope it would compensate for my prematurely-terminated official training, and I hadn’t had any education since then until Sunburst had decided to take it upon himself to teach me things I should know, but still! I’d never before drifted off in his lessons!
“Okay, yes, I’m guilty as charged,” I said, hanging my head. “Forgive me?”
“I’m listening.”
“Remember tonight when you and Paladin promised to help me to the best of your abilities whenever I needed help, or however you phrased it?”
“Thorax, if you’re thinking of backing out on that, I’ll-”
“I’m not,” I hurried to dissuade him. “The thing is, you also listed a bunch of other ponies you think would do the same, and in all honesty, you and those other ponies have been helping me all along! Yes, I do realize that I needed that help and that I might have brought all this misery upon myself by refusing your offers to help me.”
“I wouldn’t quite put it like that, but I get what you’re trying to say. So what’s the problem?”
“The problem is that, with so many ponies helping me in one way or another, I feel like I’m leeching off on all of you, and I can’t in good conscience accept all that generosity without offering something in return.”
“Hey, no worries, I’m sure you’ll be in a situation to help us some day!”
“Well, yes, I might end up helping some of you, but all of you? I’m not sure that’s a realistic thing to expect! Don’t get me wrong, Sunburst, I have every intention of helping any and all of you as best as I can whenever you need it, but that’s not really my point right now. What I’m trying to say is, I’ve been wondering if I could, to put it that way, repay my debt to you all at once by contributing to the society in a way that’s more tangible than painting mildly-passable pictures. Uh, some kind of duty that I could adequately perform with the skills I have, or at least one that wouldn’t take me too long to learn to perform adequately?”
He grinned. “You want a job! Yes, of course, I’ll ask Cadance right away if we can find you something!”
He got up and cantered out of the room.
“Uh, thanks… I hope…” I said to the open door of my empty room.
He was back a little over half an hour later with Cadance and Shining Armor in tow. Shining was carrying Flurry on his back but left her in the hallway with Sentinel. I sighed inwardly. Still not trusting me around his daughter even when he was there himself to blast a fresh set of holes in me if he got the impression that I was trying to pull something? At the rate this was going, I’d never get him to trust me! Was this going to continue into Flurry’s adulthood, even if she herself would find it ridiculous and unnecessary? Would she have any say in how she was supposed to treat me? Would I even live long enough to see her become an adult?
“Sunburst said you’re thinking of finding a job,” Cadance said, drawing my thoughts away from hypothetical scenarios of the future.
“Yes, if I can.”
“Isn’t it a bit sudden?” Shining asked, eyeing me suspiciously. “Not that long ago, you were claiming to be useless, and now you’re getting ambitious overnight!”
“I don’t have any ulterior motives, if that’s what you’re thinking! It’s just that I came to realize that I’ve been basking in your kindness and generosity without offering anything in return, and I really should have! I know I haven’t shown much potential, but there has to be some way I can contribute to the world!”
“Yes, by dying,” he muttered.
“Shining!” Cadance protested. “I thought we agreed to give him a chance? And why is it that you didn’t grumble at Sunburst when he told us the same thing as Thorax did now?”
“Sunburst was only repeating what the bug told him. If he’s so stupid to believe the thing-”
“I’m not stupid, and he’s not a thing!”
“Aren’t you? Then why are you always on his side?”
“And why do you have to be so stubborn?”
“Can we please stop arguing about me all the time?” I blurted out before I could stop myself. Not that it hadn’t worked; all eyes were on me instantly and I got a slight flashback of the first time I’d asked drill instructor Carnage why it was so imperative that we continue to be in war with other lands when we could befriend them, causing him and all of the recruits to display the exact same did-you-just-dare-to-say-what-I-think-you-said expression on their faces. That hadn’t ended well! I’d never managed to get Pharynx to tell me how long I’d been in a healing cocoon after Carnage was done with disciplining me for the impertinence to ask such a blasphemous question… but at least the drill instructor had allowed me to be placed in a healing cocoon, which couldn’t be said for any of my encounters with Chrysalis. But then again, I’d developed a reputation by the first time she had to intervene on me, so maybe that was that.
I cowered under Shining’s glare. “I’m sorry, I just… I can’t stand to watch you bicker like that, and it feels like it’s all my fault!” I slumped onto the floor. “Oh, who am I fooling? I’ll never be any good for anything if I’m stirring up strife all the time simply by being around!”
“Now look what you’ve done,” Sunburst muttered to Shining. “No, Thorax, don’t be like that! You’ve been making some great progress; you shouldn’t let yourself get discouraged if a few ponies find it harder than others to like you!”
“Yes, please ignore my husband’s grievances,” Cadance added. “Now, were you thinking of any job in particular?”
“Well, not really, Princess. I’m not sure what I’d be good at. I thought I’d-”
“So we’re really doing this, are we?” Shining grumbled. “Just like that, huh? What about the ponies more qualified for the job they wouldn’t get because of him?”
“I didn’t mean to-”
“Yes, you ‘didn’t mean to’! You didn’t even bother to consider the implications of what you want! You think you can come up with any random idea and have it instantly accepted regardless of how it might affect the ponies?”
“That’s not what I-”
“Who in their right mind would even hire you, even if they have a long-lasting shortage of staff and you’re the only candidate?”
“Shining-” Cadance groaned.
“And even if they do, you can’t expect the customers to approve!”
“Shining!” Cadance tried again. “Do I have to go look for silencing spells to keep the conversation civil?”
“I know a few if she wants them,” Sunburst whispered in my ear.
“Cady-”
“We could have gone over your complaints before coming here, but you never said anything! And why would the ponies disapprove of a changeling worker? Because he isn’t a pony? Because he’s from an enemy land? Let me remind you that your own sister’s personal assistant is a dragon and Equestria has only recently begun to ease the tense relations with the Dragon Lands, and it’s never once been a problem for Spike, not even in the old days! Why is it so hard to believe that it can’t work just as smoothly for Thorax?”
“That was different!”
“How? Because Spike grew up in your house? Because the dragons weren’t the ones to disrupt our wedding? You know as well as I do that there have been reports of fully-grown dragons eating ponies, but that hasn’t stopped you from seeing a dragon as your own little brother!”
He huffed and grumbled, but didn’t argue the matter further.
“Well, then. Thorax, you were saying?”
“Um. What was I saying?” I replayed the conversation in my head. “That I don’t know what I’d be good at?”
“Do you have any previous working experience?”
“I was a janitor while living in the hive, if that counts.”
“How did you end up being a janitor?” Sunburst asked.
“I failed to become a soldier and persisted at harboring ideas of friendship, so Chrysalis assigned me to the most humiliating duty she could think of. Didn’t I tell you that already?”
“You told Sentinel and me,” Shining said.
“Right. So… maybe I can try that if you weren’t thinking of anything else?”
“We can work something out if that’s what you want,” Cadance said, not sounding very sure, “but if being a janitor is considered a disgrace in changeling culture, I’m not exactly comfortable with giving you such a job here, even though ponies don’t see anything disgraceful in it. I hope you didn’t have any… er, inconveniences… while performing your duty?”
“You mean like getting beaten up with a broom or having a dirty rag stuffed down my throat or a bucket of muddy water dumped on my head or finding a royal stinking mess in a hallway I just finished cleaning or-”
“All that actually happened?” Sunburst interrupted me.
“Yes, every so often.”
“Okay, you’re not becoming a janitor again,” Cadance said with a grimace that had gradually grown as I recounted my experiences. “I can’t send you to work at something that has given you such bad memories!”
“My entire life in the hive is a bad memory. As for specific incidents, if they hadn’t happened the way they did, I’m sure the drones responsible for them would have found some other way to make my day miserable.”
“That may be the case, but I still don’t like the idea of you going down that road again. Unless you absolutely want it?”
“Now that you’re giving me a choice, no, not really,” I admitted.
“Then that’s settled. We’re finding you something else! You told Sunburst you preferred something that doesn’t take a long time to figure out?”
“Mostly because I’d like to start contributing as soon as possible, yes. But I’m not excluding the possibility of moving on to something more complex at a later time for any reason.”
“Any preferences as to what kind of work?”
“Well… something that doesn’t hurt, maybe? Or at least not too much?”
“No job is supposed to hurt, Thorax,” Sunburst interjected. “At least not unless you get injured at work, which can happen, but there are safety measures that lower the risk.”
“Or unless you’re a soldier,” Shining corrected him with a hint of annoyance in his voice. “Some drills are supposed to hurt in order to build the soldiers’ resistance to pain, and of course, battles often hurt too.”
“I knew that,” I muttered, remembering my own training injuries and the massive blast that had catapulted me from the besieged Canterlot.
“I think we all know by now that Thorax doesn’t want to be a soldier,” Sunburst shot back.
“Good, because no way would I recruit him!”
“We know,” Sunburst and Cadance replied in exasperated unison.
A few moments of tense silence passed.
“Okay, so no army, and nothing that involves cleaning,” Cadance said eventually. “Any other ideas?”
“You could sell stuff,” Sunburst suggested.
“Who’d want to buy anything from him?”
“I would! Or maybe he could entertain ponies? I think I saw a poster at the theatre that they’re looking for new actors…”
“Acting?” I said. “I’m not sure how good I’d be… it feels an awful lot like infiltration, and I’ve never mastered those techniques…”
“Not necessarily. The audience knows you’re playing a part and just want to have fun watching you. Though, you’d probably have to be in disguise while on stage, as I don’t think there are many plays where one of the roles is meant to be a changeling.”
“I wouldn’t recommend it for a different reason,” Cadance interjected. “Theatrical plays are public gatherings that attract a lot of interest, and ponies sometimes travel from far and wide to watch one. There’s no way to know that some of the ponies won’t be changelings in disguise, and if Thorax shows his true face either accidentally or deliberately…”
“...and even without disguised changelings in the audience who could surrender him to Chrysalis, not everypony might be aware that a member of the cast is a friendly changeling, which could cause a panic, and some such ponies could later tell their friends about it, and the rumor of Thorax’s whereabouts could eventually reach the hive,” Sunburst caught on.
Shining looked like he was itching to say ‘good riddance’, but to his credit, he remained silent this time.
“You have some artistic skills, too,” Cadance said. “You could try something related to that! House-painting, maybe? Or woodwork?”
“I could try that, but is anything being built around here that would require my services?”
“...you got me there. I don’t think there is, but maybe somepony is renovating? I can check over the next few days if you aren’t aiming to start working tomorrow.”
“If we haven’t dismissed other possible jobs, I can ask around the castle if anypony needs any help,” Sunburst offered. “Or if they have a friend who needs a worker.”
“Thanks, everypony!”
“Aren’t you going to offer any suggestions?” Cadance asked her husband.
“Hm. I’d be happiest if I could send him to dig in the crystal mine, but something tells me that suggestion wouldn’t be well accepted.” He looked sideways at his wife, who was already frowning.
“I can take it into consideration, but I should warn you that I’ve never had a lot of physical strength.”
“That last night’s slap says otherwise!”
“He was fighting a nightmare, for Celestia’s sake!”
“So? His idea of a nightmare is probably getting shooed by a pony he’s trying to drain!”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Sunburst said.
“And you know better?”
“Is it okay to tell him?” he asked me.
“I don’t see what good it’ll do, but if you think it can help…”
He told him the gist of it. Cadance’s face scrunched into a pained grimace, but Shining wasn’t moved much.
“I’ll ask Luna about it next time I see her,” he simply said.
“Was it really that bad?” Cadance asked me. A worry-saturated love aura was coming off her in droves.
“Yes,” I said.
“Then I’m glad to have urged Luna to help you! If it happens again, do tell me, will you?”
“Of course, if that’s what you really want. I don’t want to burden you!”
“For the thousandth time, Thorax, you’re not burdening me! If something’s troubling you, I want to know it!”
“Okay. I’ll tell you if it happens again.”
“Good! Now let me see what I can do about getting you a job!”
“I better go too,” Sunburst said. “Enjoy your afternoon, Thorax!”
BOOM!
I snapped my eyes open and sat up in bed, startled by the loud noise and a little disoriented. It took me a moment to realize that I was in my room, alone, and that it was the middle of the night.
Was this another dream? Another nightmare? It didn’t feel like one; but then again, neither had any of the worst ones I remembered! So how would I know? If this was indeed a dream, Luna might show up if things start going bad, but I didn’t want to have to depend on her every night! There had to be others who needed her!
Besides, what if this wasn’t a dream? What if something bad had happened?
I sprang out of bed and got out into the hallway. Sentinel was there, all strung up, looking around herself, as if unsure what to do.
“Did something happen?” I asked her.
“Yes! Something exploded, and it sounded like it came from Sunburst’s room!”
Sunburst?! Oh no! What could have happened to him? I sensed some love in the general area of his room, therefore he was presumably alive at least… unless that was somepony else’s love…
“Come on!” I said as my hooves rushed me to the nearest stairwell without me telling them to, and Sentinel didn’t need to be told twice. “Why didn’t you go there right away?” I asked as we half-galloped, half-flew up the stairs.
“Because Shining would have blasted me to pieces if I’d left you unsupervised! I also wasn’t sure that you weren’t caught in the explosion! I was about to check on you when you got out!”
“I’m sure Shining would have-”
We arrived at Sunburst’s room. The door was wide open, and the room itself looked like something had exploded as we’d suspected: the table was missing and a shallow crater stood in its place, objects were strewn about, mostly lying in piles against every wall, and most of the piles were burning; a figure that could only be Sunburst lay unconscious next to the remains of his bed, and Cadance and Shining were there already, examining him.
“-understood,” I squeaked the rest of my sentence. “At least he’s alive!”
“How do you know?” Sentinel asked as we rushed to his side.
“I can sense love from him,” I explained.
“Thorax, Sentinel!” Cadance noticed our presence. “Are you alright?”
“Yes-”
Shining shoved me away. “Get away from him! Or at least make yourself useful!”
“What should I do?” I asked nopony in particular.
“Get the firefighters here!” Sentinel suggested. “The fire department is in Obsidian Street, across the road from the stadium!”
“On it!” I buzzed my wings and flew toward the open window, only to collide with a purple force field and tumble onto the floor.
Shining extinguished his horn and pressed me down with a hoof. Behind him, I could see Cadance busy casting spells on Sunburst. I didn’t know what they were; healing spells, maybe? I hoped they were!
“Who said you could leave?” he roared at me.
“Uh… you told me to make myself useful…”
“Not by running around loose! She can get the firefighters!” He tilted his head at Sentinel, who took the hint and flew out the window. “You’re staying here where I-”
“Okay, I think I’ve stabilized him,” Cadance said, levitating Sunburst onto her back. “I’m taking him to the hospital. Don’t kill Thorax!”
Great. Don’t kill Thorax, but what about inflicting pain on him or frightening him into wishing he was dead? But it was too late to protest, even if I would have dared to; she’d already teleported away.
In the meantime, a few more ponies had gathered up and were trying to put out the fires and to salvage anything that wasn’t burning yet. It didn’t look like they were making much progress. At least Shining had gotten off my chest and gone to issue orders to them!
Wanting to help, I coughed up a blob of slime onto one of the fires. I was hoping it would extinguish the flame, but instead, the fire burned it to a crisp, and a very foul-smelling one at that! Everypony started coughing, and Shining put up a force field around the mess I’d made. It helped a little… not much, but at least we could breathe more or less normally again.
And I didn’t need to see Shining’s scowl to know that this hadn’t won me any favors; if I had any favors, I would have lost them!
“What was that for?” he yelled, getting in my face. “Are you trying to kill us?”
“No! This was supposed to extinguish the flame! I don’t know why it didn’t!”
“It didn’t because you’re an idiot who doesn’t know what he’s doing! Now get out of the way and sit there where I can see you!”
“But I want to help-”
“Help?” he scoffed. “When the firefighters and the rest of us are done here, I’ll let you clean up if you behave yourself.”
Clean up? I looked at the ponies. Sentinel and the firefighters had arrived by now and they all looked like they could use some help now, and I still hoped I could do it right if only somepony would tell me what needed to be done! I didn’t want to make an even bigger mess than I already had!
Shining misinterpreted my gaze.
“You’re not going to claim that you can’t clean, are you? A former janitor not knowing how to clean up a mess?”
“No, it’s-” I sighed, giving up. “Yes, of course, I’ll wait here until it’s my turn to clean.”
Before long, I’d been in the firefighters’ way enough times that I decided to retreat to the ceiling. I watched the ponies wistfully as they worked, wondering why Shining had refused to let me help now when it was needed most. Did he suspect that I’d had something to do with the explosion? But how could I have? I’d been asleep in my room, and Sentinel and the spell he’d cast on my window could vouch that I’d never left! Unless he suspected her of lying?
One of the firefighters noticed me hanging from the ceiling and asked Shining if I could lend a hoof. He shot back a ‘no’ that left no room for negotiation, and the firefighter returned to his task.
Could it be pure spite? It was this very afternoon that I’d asked to be given some kind of duty to contribute to society with, and Shining had been very much against it! Had he refused to let me help because I’d made it clear I wanted to? Would he have made me help if he’d thought I didn’t care?
My eyes filled with tears. It was probably because of all the smoke, but I wouldn’t bet that some of them weren’t the result of knowing I could at least try to help but being denied the chance to.
Eventually the firefighters were done and left the premises. Shining teleported a mop and a water bucket into the room and I took it as my cue to disengage myself from the ceiling and fly down. I took the mop without a word and started cleaning up, and he watched me for a little while as if doubting my ability or intention to do an adequate enough job. Sentinel stood at the door, as if unsure whether or not she should be doing something too.
Cadance returned soon after.
“The doctors say he’ll live,” she announced to my immense relief, “but he’s still unconscious. They don’t know when he’ll wake up.”
“Is he going to recover?”
“I didn’t press for details, but I got the impression that they hope so but that it’s too early to be sure of it.” She noticed me and frowned slightly. “You’re cleaning?! Didn’t we say-”
“Let him,” Shining barked.
“You made him, didn’t you?”
“It’s alright, Princess!” I said. “I would have offered to anyway!”
“I might have known…” she muttered.
“Can’t we go to bed and discuss it in the morning?” Shining protested.
“We might as well,” she agreed. “You too, Thorax.”
I hesitated. “I don’t think I can sleep after this…”
“Try to anyway. There’s no emergency anymore and we can pick up the pieces later.”
“...maybe just a little while longer,” I suggested. “Just to tire myself out a bit?”
She gave an unconvinced nod and left with Shining.
When they were gone, Sentinel finally loosened up.
“Need help?” she asked.
“It’s okay. I’ve been doing this for years, and this isn’t the worst mess I’ve seen. I don’t want to trouble you!”
“It’s no trouble.” She left and returned with a mop and bucket of her own. “You aren’t just tiring yourself out, are you? You intend to have the room spotless by the time Shining wakes up.”
“How did you know?”
“I’ve seen the way he looks at you and the way he treats you, and you always have that ‘I’ll-do-anything-please-don’t-kill-me’ look in your eyes whenever the two of you are in the same room. It isn’t that hard to guess that you’re expecting a lot of pain unless you can return the room to its former glory by sunrise. The worst thing is, you’re probably right to expect it with his attitude, and I don’t like it! And since I’m supposed to be watching you anyway, why don’t I help you out a little?”
“Won’t you get in trouble?”
“He never said I couldn’t help you,” she winked.
“Thanks,” was all I could say.
Now that there were two of us, the work was going much faster than it would have if I were alone, but we were still very much at it when I realized the sun had risen at some point. I wondered how I’d failed to realize it was morning already, but there was little time to waste on guesswork; now that visibility was better than under the light of a few torches, it became obvious just how bad the damage was: very few objects were relatively intact, the walls were cracked in a few spots where a heavy piece of furniture must have hit them, and shards and splinters were everywhere! If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought this was a warzone, and Sentinel and I had barely made a dent in cleaning it up!
Warzone…
A dreadful thought hit me: we’d all taken this for an accident, but was it? What if the explosion had been deliberate, planted there with a murderous intention? But who would have wanted to kill Sunburst? I wouldn’t put it past Shining to try to incriminate me for a horrible crime, but he wouldn’t have gone as far as to sacrifice his daughter’s crystaller for the sake of getting rid of me!
Unless… maybe it wasn’t Shining. What if the changelings had discovered my hiding place and planted the bomb for me? Sunburst’s room was one floor above mine; they could have miscounted the floors and blown Sunburst up by mistake! Or was it deliberate after all, on their part instead of on Shining’s, with the intention of making me suffer the untimely death of a friend? That was more likely; my instantaneous death in an explosion wouldn’t have satisfied Chrysalis’ bloodlust!
But if that was her plan, she wouldn’t stop at just one of my friends… Oh dear, who would be next? And when?
Hoofsteps echoing from the hallway snapped me out of it momentarily.
“Thorax, you’re back alrea- wait.” Cadance eyed me inquisitively. “You’ve been working all night, haven’t you? I told you to go to bed!”
“I… I must have lost track of time…”
“Both of you?” Shining asked dryly. “Sentinel, I didn’t say you could help him!”
“You didn’t say I couldn’t, either!”
“We’ll discuss this later. Go home!”
“Yes, Sir.” She set the mop aside, cast me an apologetic glance, and left. Trusty Shield was already there to take the next shift.
“We’re on our way to visit Sunburst,” Cadance said. “We’re hoping he woke up by now.”
“Oh.” I fumbled a little. Should I ask? I decided to try, come what may. “I don’t suppose I could come too?”
“Of course!”
“Are you sure, Cady?”
“Why not? He’s friends with Sunburst!”
“We can’t take Flurry along if he’s coming too!”
She stared him down.
“Ugh, fine,” he groaned. “But you’re not going in that condition. Clean yourself up first!”
I hurried to make myself more presentable, and they waited. The walk to the hospital was spent in uncomfortable silence - even Flurry wasn’t in the mood for playing and babbling - but at least Sunburst had woken up like we’d all been hoping!
He was bandaged up, his mane was singed, and he seemed to have a hard time focusing his eyes on us for a minute or two, but he was alive, and that was the important thing! The rest, I was sure, would get better eventually, as the doctor we’d talked to upon arrival at the hospital ward had informed us.
“Hey guys,” Sunburst rasped. “I’m sorry I had to drag you here on such a fine morning…”
“Never mind that,” Cadance said. “How are you feeling?”
“Like one would expect after an alchemy experiment blowing up in my face. It isn’t the first time, though it doesn’t normally knock me out cold. Is it true that my whole room blew up?”
“More or less,” Shining said. “Is that what happened? You were doing alchemy?”
“Yes. I brewed the potion correctly, but the spell needed to activate the reaction was more complicated than my horn could handle… I should have known it would backfire! How bad is the damage to my room? I hope the walls at least are intact?”
“Don’t trouble yourself over it-”
“Are you sure the potion was fine?” I interjected, trying not to show alarm in my voice.
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“The ingredients were alright? And you didn’t make an error in measuring or mixing them? Or-”
“Gee, Thorax, what’s gotten into you? I used some of the ingredients in a different potion just before making the one that exploded and everything went exactly as it should, and the others were freshly brought from the pharmacy. And I have yet to make an error in brewing things! I never do that carelessly or in a hurry or anything! Really, the spell was what went wrong!”
I sighed with audible relief. “Thanks, Sunburst.”
“What’s all this about?”
“...just my paranoia getting the best of me,” I confessed without going in detail.
“You thought Chrysalis had something to do with it, didn’t you?”
“Yes. I thought earlier that a bomb had been planted in your room, meant to kill you, or that it was meant for me and planted in your room by mistake… but when you mentioned the potion, I got an idea that the ingredients might have been messed with… but if you’re sure it couldn’t have happened…”
“I am sure! Relax, you’re not in danger!”
“Did the doctors say how long you’ll have to stay here?” Shining changed the subject.
“They’re guessing about a week. Maybe a little longer, but probably not more than two weeks.”
“Then I guess we’ll have to find a foalsitter for Flurry until you return.”
“Ruby Rattle is still sick?”
“Yes, and Hokey Pokey won’t be back from her vacation soon enough. Why did she have to go all the way to Saddle Arabia?”
“Shining, dear, we shouldn’t bother Sunburst with all that now!”
“Maybe not, but we still can’t leave Flurry unattended! You think Berry would be willing to foalsit? Or Whirligig?”
“They might for one day, but we can’t ask them to abandon their jobs! Maybe the kindergarten could help us!”
“Except that none of the nannies there have any experience with alicorn foals! What are we supposed to do, tie Flurry in a harness and carry her through one of the magic-dampening gates in the stadium to prevent chaos?”
“Of course not! What would you rather do? Leave her with a Royal Guard member like you left her with Sentinel last afternoon? Ruby and Hokey have neither a horn nor wings, and they manage just fine! So will the kindergarten!”
“After how long?”
Sunburst fired off a spark to get their attention.
“Ahem. Do you have to argue?” he asked. “Why don’t you let Thorax foalsit?”