It was early morning in Manehattan, and Nimbus was (as per usual) the only one awake in his apartment. He cursed his long hours as he sipped his coffee, desperately trying to wake up and shake off his hangover. He had the apartment to himself left night and indulged a little too hard on the hard cider. When his roommate came home, he found him over the toilet emptying the contents of his stomach and crying about how lonely he was.

He bitterly swallowed a bit of coffee at the memory. “Yeahhh…not one of my proudest moments.” He thought to himself. Just then, a knock came from the door to the apartment. Cringing at the assault on his poor sensitive eardrums, he got up and dragged himself to the door, mug in wing. He opened the door, silencing the abhorrent knocking sound, only to be greeted by a small earth pony colt with a saddlebag overstuffed with newspapers.

“What do you want?” Nimbus would normally be nicer to kids, even the ones he doesn’t like but he wasn’t feeling it this morning.

“5 bits for a copy of the newest issue of the Canterlot Times, sir.” The young colt said with a beaming smile on his face.

“5 bits? You trying to rob ponies or something? Not interested.” That was wayyy too much money for a newspaper, especially for one based in another city. The Canterlot Times was always full of cheap gossip pieces and celebrity drama, entertaining but no real news.

“Are you suuuure? Not even to read about Princess Twilight in the hospital?” The colt had the biggest shit-eating grin on his face as Nimbus’ jaw (and almost his mug) dropped.

“What!? Gimme that!” Finding himself instantly awake and sober, he tried to snatch one of the colt’s newspapers.

“Uh-uh, you want the story, pal? Pay up!” The little brat held out his hoof in anticipation.

“Ohh you little sh-“ Nibmus stopped himself before clearing his throat and fetching the money.

“Here you go, kid. Now like I said, gimme!” He said, taking the paper and closing the door. He looked over the paper in sustained shock with his mouth hung open. He rushed to his roommate’s door and kicked it open, waking JJ up with a heart attack in the process.

“Shut up! Look!” The smaller pegasus said as he shoved the paper into his friend’s face, who proceeded to read over it groggily.

Princess Twilight Sparkle hospitalised?!
Equestria’s newest alicorn princess narrowly saved by mystery stallion.

It took a few seconds for the cogs to turn in JJ’s mind before he realised what he had just read.

The two read on, the article talked about the princess recklessly strolling into an ancient and dangerous tomb were she almost died to the traps and defences. Until a mysterious, unnamed stallion came out of nowhere and saved her life before vanishing into the night. It went on to talk about the ineptitude and carelessness of the young royal, and how lucky she was to have a brave, dashing rogue come to her rescue like some fairytale.

“Whoa, they ripped into her here,” JJ said, feeling a little sorry for the princess. She’s well known as somepony who’s saved Equestria multiple times and they’ve made her look like some spoiled brat that’s way in over her head.

“I know, it’s terrible,” Nimbus said, sharing the sentiment. He was pulled from his feelings of pity when he recalled something.

JJ calmly climbed out of bed and walked into the living room, followed by Nimbus. They found the letter sent by Blaze a few days prior. The one that said he was going to Ponyville.

That morning, Blaze’s eyes slowly fluttered open to the usual sight, Coco sitting on his chest while staring into his soul. He reached out and scratched her behind the ear with a hoof, earning a purr from his furry companion.

Knowing that he’d have to get up, he stopped his scratching and sat himself up. Coco leapt off and made a dash for her bowl, meowing demandingly.

He had just filled her bowl when his sending crystal lit up with a flash, a small note landing on his desk.

At that moment, the crystal flashed again and a rolled-up newspaper landed in front of him. He saw the heading before he has a chance to pick it up. With his eyes going wide, he picked it up and read through the article. He had thought Twilight’s friends stopped this from spreading. And this wasn’t even close to what happened! Selfishly, he was grateful that his name was left out of it but immediately scolded himself for thinking that.

Normally he wouldn’t care if a pony of prestige were ever mocked in the news he’d probably laugh at it. But he had gotten to know Twilight, and she didn’t deserve to be dragged like this. He felt himself becoming agitated the more he read.

With a sigh, he rolled up the paper and shoved it into his bag. “I should tell Twilight about this if she hasn’t already heard.” He said as he strapped the bag to his barrel and left his cart, heading towards the Golden Oaks library.

JJ and Nimbus sat in anticipation of their friend's response, he’d gotten them this sending crystal specificity for reaching them quickly. Surely he’d respond soon and be able to explain that this surely, this was just a wild coincidence that he had arrived in Ponyville just when this story supposedly took place. Yeah, he’d explain everything…

Now, to say Twilight was angry would like be saying that the sun was ‘a little warm’, that Celestia ‘kinda likes cake’ or that Lyra and BonBon are ‘really good friends’.

She had been pacing the door for almost an hour by this point, her mane had become a raging fire and she left smouldering hoofprints as she continued to pace. Spike and Blaze watched her seethe, muttering to herself, from a (safe) distance.

Blaze turned his look to Twilight, he looked at her flaming mane and tail and her blood-red eyes. She had a huge scowl on her face, anyone could tell she was beyond angry. But the more he looked, the more he could see. She had a look of hurt and embarrassment as well, her breathing had quickened until she was almost hyperventilating, and looking closer at her eyes he could see what looked like tears evaporating from the intense heat before they could fall.

Without our saying anything he walks up to her, blocking her pacing path. She snapped her gaze to him, scowl still on her face. He looked into her eyes fighting against the heat irradiating her.

“Your ragin and need to let it out. Pretend I’m them, that I wrote the article. Come on, let me have it.”

“I…I don’t know.” Twilight said a little hesitantly, still angry but not wanting to yell at her friend.

“Come on Sparkles, you’re not gonna help yourself trying to keep calm. Get angry, yell at me, tell me everything ya want to tell them.”

Twilight stared at him for a few seconds before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. “W-Well…you can’t just take advantage of somepony who got hurt to sell a newspaper…” she says quietly, looking away from Blaze.

“And just because I’m a princess, it doesn’t give you the right to say such nasty things about me…” she spoke a little louder and more assertive.

“You have no right to doubt my ability to protect myself or those I care about!” She snapped her attention back to Blaze.

“And how dare you question Princess Celestia’s choice to make a princess in the first place!” She got right into his face as she spoke.

“Who do you think you are?! You don’t care about informing ponies at all!!! You selfish, greedy, inconsiderate-“

Blaze flinched at the heat as she got closer and he had to squint his eyes to stop them drying out, but he couldn’t help but smile at Twilight voicing her feelings and frustrations. He knew that this would help her, and possibly save the library from burning down.

As Twilight continued to vent, her hair slowly cooled and returned to normal. Until she stood there, breathing heavily from yelling. She let her head hang as she tried to catch her breath. Now that she was done, Blaze lowered his head to meet her eye-line.

“Yeah…thank you.” She said, lifting her head. “S-Sorry I kinda went a little crazy on you there.” Giving a small sheepish smile, she fidgeted with her hooves.

“Ack don’t worry about it. I’ve got thick skin, I can take it. Besides, you needed to get it off your chest.” With a slight chuckle, he tries to cheer her up. “Though next time, try. Try not nearly setting the place on fire. First yesterday now this? What’s wi you and fire?”

Twilight looks at the scorch marks on the floor and the burnt newspaper Blaze brought. With a slight blush of embarrassment, she lit up her magic to repair the floor. “T-that’s not usually a problem. If fact, that hasn’t happened in a while, promise.”

With another chuckle, Blaze walked over to the table with Twilight and dropped the paper before having her meltdown. His smile faltered, and he picked it up. “How’d this happen anyway? I thought your friends stopped this from spreading.”

Twilight’s scowl came back immediately. “They did, but this reported came to my door the other day and asked for an interview.”

“And you just agreed to it?” Blaze was a little confused, when did they interview her? How’d they find out and send a report so fast? “What happened?”

“She said that if I didn’t tell the truth, other reporters just make up a better story! So I told that…that LIAR exactly what happened. But I guess she thought they’d be better off lying anyway!” Twilight said stomping her hoof at the memory.

“Typical…guess they thought this version would sell better.” As frustrating as it was, it wasn’t particularly surprising that they’d bend the truth like this.

“And to top it off, they completely left you out of it!” Twilight snapped as she pointed to him. “And especially after how ‘interested’ that reporter was in you.” She said in a mocking tone with her anger building up again, after trying to probe information about him out of her. they don’t even mention his name.

“Wait you mentioned me?” Blaze didn’t know how to feel, on one hoof he was grateful that she wanted to give him credit. But on the other hoof, this whole situation was messy and he didn’t want to be a part of it more than he had to.

“Well yeah, you saved me. You deserve to have ponies know that.” She said with her anger subsiding slightly.

“Well I appreciate you feeling that way, but I’m happy to say on the sidelines for this one.”

“Please, I doubt the situation would be any better if my name was in there.”

With a sigh, Twilight let her head hang slightly, she was tired and it was only morning. She had no idea how she was going to deal with this and that stressed her out more than anything. “Well anyway…thank you for telling me about this. At least I can get a head start on fixing it.”

Blaze looked at her and how defeated she looked, he rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. It was difficult to watch, he didn’t know how she could just make this go away quickly. But he did know one thing, he didn't want her to try alone.

“Well, there’s the other princesses. And I’m sure my friends would be happy to help.”

“Not to mention your ‘mystery stallion’ here,” Blaze said striking a dramatic pose and putting a hoof on his chest.

“You want to help me? But what about your next job?” She was a little surprised, she didn’t doubt that he’d want to help her but the scale of the drama of this whole thing.

“Ack it can wait, you’ve already helped me massively with that. Let me help you with this.” He said, putting his hoof on her shoulder in comfort.

“Thank you, Blaze.” Twilight’s smile found it is way back into her face, with her cheeks also turning a very slight shade of pink.

“I didn’t mention anything because it just happened so suddenly, the whole thing felt like it was over really quickly. I think I actually forgot about it until just now.”

Blaze was lost in thought, something about this whole thing bothered him. Regardless of him being a nopony, saving the princess would warrant interviews and lots of invasive questions. One about who he was, why he was here with the princess and of course, what his relationship with her was. Why would they voluntarily give up the opportunity to stir the pot?

Twilight's smile dropped, she remembered back to the reporter trying to get her to talk more about him as though they were best friends. “Yeah, she was real interested I’d hearing about you. She wanted to know what your relationship was with me. And she was just too friendly like she already knew me. Like she knew what I was thinking.”

At that moment, some of the stray pieces in Blake’s mind snapped into place. “No, it couldn’t be…” He thought to himself, but he had to be sure. “What’d she look like?”

“Excuse me?” Twilight said with a raised eyebrow and an almost offended look on her face.

“Huh? Oh! No no no, not like that! I just meant, in case she was someone I know. I…know somepony just like that and if it’s her, maybe I could talk to her.” He half lied to her, he felt guilty but he had to know if it was who he thought it was.

“Wait, what?” Twilight asked with a slight bit of hope. “Okay, she was a unicorn with a alabaster coat and pink mane.” Twilight was really hoping for an easy solution to this problem.

Blaze’s heart sunk into his stomach. “What…how’d she pull this off?! Just who is this mare?” He wondered in frustration as he wracked his brain to try and figure her out, but to no avail given their limited interactions.

Blaze was pulled from his thought process by Twilight's questioning, pleading eyes. He uncomfortably avoided eye contact with her, feeling conflicted between his desire for anonymity and wanting to tell Twilight the truth.

“…No, sorry, I don’t know her.” He had no idea where this was going to lead or why she did this to Twilight, but it’s probably for the best if she’s kept out of it.

“Oh…I see, well there goes that plan.” Twilight’s ears dropped as she hung her head in disappointment.

“Look, I think…I think I need some time to process this. Thank you again, Blaze.” Twilight have a tired smile to a increasingly guilty feeling Blaze.

Twilight left to go and rest, at that moment, Spike finally came out from hiding behind the furniture. “Man, what’re we gonna do?” He asked as he watched Twilight slowly climbed the steps to her bedroom.

“I really don’t know.” Blaze said as he internally kicked himself for lying to her. “It’s for the best…for everyone.” He lied to himself.

A New Adventure

by Late2TheGame

Chapter 13 - I did not cry!