"My my, what a rude way to welcome an old friend of mine." Discord slipped past Fluttershy. "I'll have you know, we draconequuses are very--"
"Hush now, Discord." Fluttershy set a hoof on his shoulder. "You don't want to leave a bad impression on them, do you?"
Spike was next to peek out the door. "Sunny?" He began, glancing at the mare. "I'd like you to meet Fluttershy."
"Fl-Fluttershy?" Sunny stepped closer to the draconequus. "You're... you're still alive! A-and you're a--"
"Draconequus, yes, yes, we went over this before already with mister buff boy over there." Discord pointed a claw at Spike. "Anyhoo, enough with the surprise already, 'kay? Save it for when I invert your sofas."
"What."
"That's the spirit!" Discord stretched a long arm around Sunny. "Boredom is what makes things funnier when they happen!"
Hitch groaned, rubbing his face. "Listen. Spike. Buddy. Is it just me, or is this Discord guy a massive prankster?"
"Oh, he's a prankster alright," Spike chuckled. "You'll get used to him after a while. He really doesn't mean any harm. Or at least, usually he doesn't." He looked to Fluttershy. "Oh, Flutters, anything on your mind? I know it's been a while since you stepped outside, and... well, the whole deal with Discord distorting time and all. Actually, wait, come to think of it--" He pointed a finger at Discord, his earlier grin quickly fading. "Fluttershy's disappearance was the last straw for Twilight. Why didn't you at least tell her what you two were doing? Twilight would've been thrilled to know that at least one of her closest friends could still be by her side!"
"Woah woah, easy there on the pointing!" Discord ducked away from Spike's finger. "I didn't think that she'd mind, okay? When you're immortal, you think of time completely differently. I thought that Twilight wouldn't mind! I thought that, after taking on the responsibilities of Celestia and Luna, she'd know she'd be facing millennia of life!"
"Well you thought wrong." Spike crossed his arms.
An eerie silence set over the group. Not even Timby made a sound.
"...Spike?" Fluttershy was the first to speak again. "Spike, I know it must be hard, learning that Twilight could've still been alive, but moving on is the best choice you have. As Discord said, immortality makes you think about time differently. Twilight..." She let out a long, sad sigh. "I guess Twilight never quite accepted that immortality in the end. Do you know at least remember what happened to her?"
Spike clenched his eyes shut, turning away. A quiet sniffle rose out of him.
"I-I understand. We can talk about it some other time, then."
Discord raised a claw, opening his mouth to speak before being shot down by a glare from Fluttershy.
"You knew about this, didn't you?" Fluttershy scolded the draconequus. "You were the one that always entered and left the cottage! If I knew this would happen, I never would've agreed to this!"
For the second time that day, Discord shriveled up.
Fluttershy took a deep breath, turning back to the other ponies. "Well, I suppose now's as good a time as any to introduce ourselves." Her eyes turned to Sunny. "Spike already mentioned you. You're Sunny, right?"
Sunny gave a timid nod to the draconequus.
"And I'm Hitch." Hitch tapped his badge. "Sheriff Hit--whoa!" He tumbled to the ground as Timby once again tackled him.
"A timberwolf pup!" Fluttershy gasped, rushing over to Hitch. "I didn't know that you were friends with one!"
"Not... so much... friend--" Hitch pushed the yipping bundle of sticks off his flank. "Spike found 'em at the edge of the forest. We put him back, but apparently he followed me all the way here!"
A songbird landed on the stallion's head. "Hey, shoo! Play with Timby or whatever his name is." Hitch waved his hooves over his head. The bird hopped off, perching instead on the timberwolf's own head. Both, however, continued to stare at Hitch.
Fluttershy's eyes sparkled as she grinned the widest she had in years. "You can talk to animals too?"
"I guess so." Hitch rolled his eyes. "What, that something you can do as well?"
Fluttershy nodded enthusiastically. Her wings fluttered on her back for a moment as she regained her composure.
"Interesting..." Sunny mumbled to herself, writing in her journal. "So pegasi... er, former pegasi can also communicate with wild creatu--"
"Aaaaaanyways," Hitch let out a loud, albeit obviously fake, yawn. "We should probably get going now. Find where Zipp and Pipp are and all. Been nice talking to you, Fluttershy, Discord. We'll be off now! Spike?"
A quiet sigh. Spike slowly turned, waddling back down the path away from the cottage.
"I see Zipp!" Izzy suddenly shouted, pointing a hoof at the sky. "Pipp's with her, too!"
Hitch rolled his eyes. "Took you two long enough. Pipp, where were you all that time?"
"Exploring!" Pipp cheered, landing with a soft thud. "There's no network out here, but I was thinking that I could make a vlog on some of the abandoned buildings. My favorite so far's been the old boutique! Everything's still there, even the unfinished dresses!"
"Rarity." Spike sighed. "She was the one that owned that place. Carousel Boutique, she called it."
"Aaand there's yet another historical figure, right there." Sunny flipped through her journal. "Rarity Belle, Element of Generosity, right?"
Spike nodded. "Yeah. Been a long time since I've heard that name being said, that's for sure." He glanced at Pipp. "Why don't we head back to the castle now? We can stop by the boutique on the way there. With Sugarcube Corner now gone, I can't say there's much else beyond those two that we haven't looked at."
"Oh--" Pipp cringed. "I... kinda already explored the castle earlier. It's wicked spooky inside. There's this giant set of pedestals, for one. I even took some pictures!"
Spike raised a brow.
"...I probably should've asked before I barged into your home, shouldn't I?"
"No, no, it's perfectly fine if you did." Spike laughed. "Emphasis on if. I have a feeling that you somehow ended up at the Castle of the Two Sisters. Not sure how you managed to confuse it with Twilight's Castle... or how you managed to get out in one piece from the Everfree... er..." He cleared his throat. "Wait, no magic, nevermind. How did you stumble upon it, anyway?"
Pipp shrugged. "Wind blew me there. I flew back when it died down, though Zipp was the one that saw me first."
"And then you dragged me to the old boutique." Zipp rolled her eyes.
"--Yeah, and that." Pipp tucked her phone under her wing. "Well, on the bright side, nothing bad happened while I was there!"
"Are we just gonna stand around and talk?" Hitch grumbled. "'Cause we could just as easily talk on the go, too. I don't want to leave Sprout in charge of Maretime Bay for any longer than I have to. I'm sure we all remember what happened last time."
Spike raised a finger.
"Big meanie tries to start a war but destroys Sunny's house instead." Izzy deadpanned. "It's not nice to destroy somepony else's house."
"Oh. Okay. Uh..." Spike scratched his head. "Definitely didn't expect that, but I guess since Twi had to deal with a small, racist child who was trying to do the same thing ages ago..." He shrugged. "Don't really know what I'm trying to say, aside from that it's something that's happened before. The starting wars part, I mean."
He fell silent after that.
"So... are we going to Carousel Boutique, then?" Sunny cocked her head.
"Sure."
"Yup." Hitch nodded, staring up at the dilapidated building. "That's a boutique alright."
Sunny pressed a hoof into the weathered door. It gave way with a loud crash, ripping off its hinges and tipping onto the dust-carpeted flooring. Panic in her eyes, Sunny looked to Spike.
"It's fine." Spike sighed. "All the buildings are like that around here. There's no point in fixing them."
"You're acting surprisingly calm over this." Sunny stepped over the fallen door. "My dad used to tell me stories about how you were obsessed with Rarity back in the day."
"Were. She's gone now, just like Twilight."
"...Sorry. I'll stop bringing things up for now."
Spike gave a nod and followed her inside.
"Wow..." Sunny slowly spun in the center of the room. "I can just imagine what it was like when this place was still open. Dresses and suits on display on the ponnequins, colors all around..."
"And glitter!" Izzy held up an ancient-looking can of sequins in her magic. "Come look over here! I think I found the storeroom!"
Spike watched Sunny follow after her friend. Behind him, he could hear Hitch lecturing Sunny about staying with the group. His eyes turned downward to the discarded sheets of paper littering the floor where he stood. They must've fallen off one of the nearby counters at some point.
He bent down, scooping up a few of them. As expected, they were nothing more than old dress designs. A little tacky, in his opinion, but no doubt Rarity's. He shuffled the sheets. There were some traces of Yona's tastes in a few of these designs, though. Not that it was a bad thing, just... different. Fluffier.
A shallow chuckle escaped him. Spike stood back up, setting the designs on a countertop. "Sunny, Izzy, you done back there?"
"Just a moment!" Sunny's voice echoed back. Spike could just barely see Izzy's horn-light emanating from the otherwise dark room.
The light faded away. Sunny sauntered out of the storage room, wearing a sequin-studded dress. Izzy bounced out behind her.
"Tadaaaa!" Izzy exclaimed, gesturing with both hooves at Sunny. "You like it? I tried sewing to practice my horn magic!"
Spike popped a thumbs-up at the amateur effort. "Looks pretty good so far! Maybe one day, you can open a little dress shop of your own."
"Nah, too boring. I wanna explore!"
"Fair enough." Spike snorted. He glanced at Sunny, then to the mirror she was staring into.
He took a step toward the mare. "Hey, something up?"
Sunny shook her head. "No, just looking, that's all. I didn't think Izzy would be able to get this many sequins on in so little time."
"Hm. Yup." Spike nodded toward Izzy. "Unicorns are pretty quick with their horns once they know what they're doing. Anything else you'd like to check out before we leave, by the way? I feel like Hitch is getting pretty annoyed by how long everything's taken on your little trip."
"Y-yeah..." Sunny turned around, walking toward the door. "Probably should get going..."
She stepped over the broken door, leaving Spike and Izzy alone in the building.