//------------------------------//
// Unveiled 
// Story: Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot 
// by Equimorto 
//------------------------------//

The Sun was low on the horizon, down past the mountains at that point. What light still was there was merely evening twilight, and soon that too would be gone. For a while longer though, no magic was yet needed to see things around, if shrouded in heavy shadows and the light blue of late hours.
"There used to be an ice-cream shop here," Paper Letters noted. He stood amidst the rubble of a building indistinguishable from all the others. "I really liked their stuff." He wasn't wearing his armour, a rare sight since the day he'd joined the Empire's Guard.
Twilight walked closer to him. The wind was even lighter than it had been that day, a gentle breeze that better suited the darker hour and still gave enough respite from the dwindling, but not disappearing heat. "They'll rebuild," she said. She had a look around. "They all will. It'll take a while, but they all will. There's nothing to do but to go on." She focused on the stallion there. "Shining said you had something to tell me. What is it?"
"Yes, Your Highness." Paper turned to her, and gave a small bow. "You see, for reasons that should very soon become clear to you, I will be resigning from my position as a member of the Guard. You'll forgive me for bringing the news to you, but I could not bear myself to present them to His Highness, your brother, and neither to Her Highness his wife." He bowed again. "It is with a sad heart that I leave them, but greater events in my life impose that I do. I did not have it in me to break the news to them directly, nor will I sadly have the time to say goodbye. Please, do inform them of my departure. I shall be leaving tonight, as soon as I can." He knelt, looking down.
Twilight was a little surprised, and taken aback, but not entirely bothered by the stallion's attitude or actions. While a peculiar thing to do, not that it wasn't in line with Paper's many other oddities, it wasn't entirely unjustified in his specific situation. "I have heard of how you saved my brother's and sister's lives today, and of how close you'd grown to them through your service, in your own ways. Very well then. I shall deliver the news, and I am certain they will be as saddened by it as you are." She gave a small bow as well. "Thank you for your service, and for everything you have done within and beyond your duty." She stood and smiled. "Consider yourself dismissed, I will take care of everything. Go now, if your life calls to you, and I hope we may meet again one day."
Paper smiled too, and standing he gave one last small bow. "Thank you, Your Highness." He looked out at the ruins again. "Do not wait for me. I am sure pressing matters call for you as well."
Twilight looked at him a little longer. "Goodbye," she whispered, then she turned and walked away. She did have more business to attend to, and-
"And three. Two. One. Curtain."
Twilight stopped.
"I did say I like to play the actor, when I get the chance to. And that was quite fun. Pretty good exit too, what do you say?"
Twilight turned. It wasn't Paper standing there, but she recognised him regardless. She couldn't forget that voice. The stallion barely looked at her, busy licking on an ice-cream cone he held in a hoof. "You," Twilight said, a word almost hissed out with how dry and breathy and full of shock her tone was.
At that, the Charioteer turned properly towards her. "Who else?"