Izzy sprung up next to Remi as the latter walked down the road. "Posy cancelled," she reported with a bit of a pout. "But that means I get to see some state secrets, so not all is lost."
Remi swerved an ear at the sudden pony. "It's a good thing I don't really have any 'state' secrets for you to hear that you shouldn't."
"Aw, don't be like that. You have to have at least one little secret." Izzy bounced around to Remi's front. "I have a good feeling about it, like you're some kind of crazy time traveler from another world! No, that'd be silly." She waved off the idea casually. "Tell me!" Her pleas were interrupted as she backed right up against another pony. "Oops, sorry." She quickly twirled to see who she had run into.
"It's alright," assured another unicorn with a frizzy mane and an unsure smile. "Hello, Izzy... Um..." She peered at Remi with some amount of confusion.
Remi held up a hand. "Heya. Remi's the name, and I come in peace, promise."
Izzy grabbed the uncertain unicorn close. "Remi! Meet Misty!" She pulled Misty forward a step. "Don't be shy. Two new friends, together! That's even better. Oh, I bet you both have secrets for me. Who'll tell me first?" She grinned at the two nervous creatures.
Misty laughed tensely. "No secrets here."
"Sorry," joined Remi. "Not a one."
"You're close," came the distant whisper in her ear. "Find out about that pony."
Remi dropped into a crouch, smiling at Misty. "So, really, nice to meet you. You have a unique hairstyle and I kinda dig it."
Misty smiled, shrinking with some coloring. "It's... Um... My mane doesn't do the long and flowing thing," she weakly murmured as if embarrassed by this. "What are you?"
"That's a popular question!" Remi put a hand on her chest. "I am a kitsune, a fox creature." She wagged her vulpine tail for emphasis. "And you are a unicorn. And your mane's pretty long by my view, but not straight. Who says it has to be straight?"
Misty considered the kitsune and her not-long hair. "I guess not..." She dared to reach up and Remi didn't stop her from gently brushing at the kitsune's hair, shoulder length at best. "Yours is nice and straight."
"I've experimented with other fashions." Remi shrugged with a grin. "This one just works, for me."
Izzy bounced with a sudden thought. "Oh! You should ask Pipp! She has this salon that can take your mane to another dimension of awesome! They'll color your hooves while they're at it. They know what they're doing." She squinted suddenly. "Maybe they know too much..."
Remi patted Izzy with her right hand, a thing the unicorn didn't object to. "Misty, is that your whole name?"
Misty peered at Remi suspiciously. "Is Remi yours?"
"Nope." Remi drew her hand back to point at herself. "Remington Melody, pleasure to meet you."
Izzy's eyes widened. "You have a last name? Why didn't you tell us?!"
"You didn't ask." Remi shrugged, still smiling at Misty. "And yours?"
"Misty..." Her eyes darted between the calmly smiling Remi and the bouncing Izzy. "Brightdawn!"
Izzy giggled. "Did you almost forget? I hate when that happens." As if forgetting her last name was a thing that happened often. "Since we're revealing last names today, I'm Izzy Moonbow. Can you imagine a moon with a big ole bow on it? That'd be so cute!"
Remi offered a hand towards Misty. "See, now we all know each other a little better, hm?"
Misty placed a hoof against Remi's hand, squeaking when Remi took hold of the end of her hoof and began to shake the arm slowly up and down. "Y-yeah!" She leaned off to the left suddenly. "Wait... Do you have a cutie mark?"
Izzy waved at Remi. "She's not a pony. Ponies get cutie marks, which she isn't, so she doesn't have one. That's just how that works."
Remi raised her hands. "Guilty. No mark for me." She turned in a shuffle without rising to display her rump. "Nothing but fur, no fancy picture." Her smile became a bit of a grin at Izzy. "And if that's so obvious, why didn't you notice I didn't have one back when I was pretending to be a pony?"
Izzy laughed nervously, called out. "I didn't notice! You're so energetic and I love it and I just wanted to be friends and didn't even look... Which is not very nice I guess. You should look at your friends, new or old." She leaned in, staring at Remi with sudden intensity. "You are a fox, a very nice fox stallion!"
Misty blinked slowly. "Stallion? She sounds like a she."
Remi colored faintly. "I am a she."
Izzy inclined her head. "Alright, she-stallion. Neat." She didn't argue the chosen gender.
Remi laughed, though, not seeming to be upset at it. "That's about right. I'm a lady with extra."
Misty looked between the two with a blink. "What?" She was shivering with some unspoken emotion. "This... I should go."
Remi brought down a hand on Misty's shoulder. "Hold up. Izzy, can I chat with Misty a moment?"
"Sure! I'm not stopping ya." Nor did she move away, just sitting and watching.
Remi resisted the urge to bury her face in a palm, barely. "Alone, I meant."
"Oh! Ohhh... Right. Have fun." She trotted away at a spirited jog, leaving the two behind.
Misty shied back a little. "Why do you want to talk to me?"
"Because you strike me as an interesting pony." Remi fired a finger gun at her. "And I don't know you, yet. Maybe we should change that?"
"Ha... ha." Misty forced out a strained laugh, eyes darting wildly. "I'm not interesting at all, just a unicorn..."
"Which is already interesting." Remi leaned forward on her paws. "Most of the ponies around here are earth. You from out of town too?"
"Oh, yeah!" She pointed at the departed Izzy. "Unicorns are not from here... Um, maybe that'll change, since there are a lot of unicorns now..."
Remi raised a brow. "Maybe. That'd be nice, right?"
"Y-yeah..." Misty managed a little smile. "So is me being a unicorn why you're here?"
"Nah." Remi leaned in close enough to almost touch noses, which sent Misty scurrying back. "There's something about you, something... big."
"Big?!" Misty was shaking like a leaf. "Not me! I'm just a regular unicorn with nothing going on, promise!"
A sudden ringtone distracted Remi. "Oh, one second." She stood up, grabbing her phone along the way in one smooth motion. "Yello?"
"Remi," came Pipp's happy voice. "Enjoying the town? Mom's almost here. It'd be really nice if we could meet her together. You up for it?"
"You look busy." Misty took a step away to the right. "I'll just..." And she erupted into a full gallop away.
Remi watched the unicorn flee. "Hm, well, I just became free, so sure, where?"
"I'll text an address, meet you there." Pipp kissed into the phone with a loud mwah, then the line went cold, the phone showing that the call had ended.
A soft jingle alerted to the arriving text. "And..." Remi tapped at the address, conjuring the map service to direct her there. "I am on the way."
"On the way where?" When did Izzy get back?! There she was, walking alongside Remi. "Did you have a fun talk with Misty? You're both from out of town, so I bet you had loads of things to talk about."
"Yeah... Heading to Pipp for that--"
"Oh! Then I'm really glad I'm still here." She bounced forward. "I wanna hear this. I bet three of Sunny's smoothies this is gonna be good."
"Three of them, huh?" Remi walked along, phone in one hand with the directions updating as she walked. "That's a pretty serious wager."
"That's how confident I am." Izzy tipped the hat she wasn't wearing. "Oh, do you like them? Everypony likes them, but you're not a pony, so..."
Remi thought back to the creation. "It surprised me how much I enjoyed it. She has other flavors too, right?"
"So many!" Izzy looked ready to fall over herself, thinking about it. "Strawberry, banana, licorice, chocolate, vanilla, pear, apple, and so many others! Like veggies? She has those too. Which one did you try?"
Remi folded her phone away, the target in sight. "I think it was grass? She didn't say."
"Grass?" Izzy perked an ear. "She was testing you."
"What?"
"Testing you." Izzy giggled with renewed force. "And you got an A+! She only gives ponies grass to see their reaction, and to see if they're being honest. But you actually liked it. I bet she was super duper surprised."
Remi made a face, tongue extended with a noise of disgust. "I thought I was trying a local favorite! I ate grass for a prank?"
"Yeah, great huh." Izzy seemed joyfully unaware of any potential problems. "So here, huh?" She stepped up onto what appeared to be a helicopter pad. "I don't need to come here often."
"Because you don't fly." Pipp came for a smooth landed, folding her fluffy wings away. "But mom does, and she has company, so..." She turned towards the center of the pad as the pegasus royalty came in, flanked with a small cadre of other pegasi that all stopped smoothly. "Hey, mom!"
Queen Haven rushed to Pipp. "I've missed you!" They shared a fond nuzzle and warm hug. "Now is that?" She was looking past Pipp to the only fox in the area.
Izzy clapped her hooves together beside her head. "Aw... But didn't you visit like a few days ago?"
"Shush dear." Haven marched past Izzy towards Remi. "A pleasure to meet you."
Remi offered her hand, and soon had a hoof in it. She cradled it properly. "A pleasure to meet you, Your Highness."
Haven seemed pleased, ears up. "What a polite creature you are. Now, Remington was it?" Remi nodded. "Queen Haven." She waved over herself even as she began walking past Remi. "And I hear some thought of your identity has already been fixed. I would love to hear the true tale, hm?"
Remi glanced at the quiet guards. "Are they coming?"
"Don't mind them. They're just doing their job." Haven stepped off the landing pad. "Which currently includes getting my supplies safely to the brighthouse.
"Yes, ma'am!" Several saluted and got right to work getting the various bags off the pad and on towards the bright column of light that formed an easy landmark.
Remi fell in with the royal pony. "Your daughters have been great to me so far. I'm not an ambassador, which I gather you already heard."
"That I have." Haven kept Remi in view from the corner of her eye. "So what are you, Remington? I'd like to know."
"Things got quieter..." noted the hippogriff in Remi's ear. "I think you passed whatever it was, for today. Keep intel gathering."
Remi clapped her hands firmly together and kept them tied, fingers over fingers. "I'm a kitsune. A fox creature." she twitched the end of her tail. "And I come in peace. I can't claim to speak for 'all the kitsune' or anything."
"You're still a creature, and not a pony. That's a rare sight... very rare... The only one I've heard of recently is that little dragon. Have you seen him?"
"Little dragon?" Remi hiked a brow. "Can't say I have. Any relation to Spike?"
"W-what are you doing?!" demanded the voice in her ears.
"Spike?" Haven turned to Remi. "Who, or what, is Spike?"
Remi tensed, realizing she had taken a wrong step. "Just an old story, about dragons. I'd love to meet one, if they won't burn me to a crisp in their fire."
Haven laughed gently. "This dragon is very friendly, but also an infant, so is prone to all the follies of infancy. Which means you may get burned, but it won't be out of malice. Now, let's have a chat." She led Remi off with Pipp towards a hotdog stand, though it was unlikely any dogs there had meat.