//------------------------------// // A Good Idea Indeed // Story: A Pegasus Horn // by Ignimbrite //------------------------------// Saturday morning, the three gathered by the creek again to apply their disguises. Obsidian wore his new saddlebags, slipping all of Feldspar's gear into them to hide his wings from anypony who did peek inside the bags. He also wore a blue contact lens that Kind Face had brought along to cover his green eye. He spent several minutes trying to get it in right, while the other two went about their own disguises. When he could finally see again, he found that his sister had turned purple and that her mane was now bright green. "Hey check it out! I'm the library dragon! RAAAAR!" Kind Face, meanwhile, had gone back to her blue unicorn disguise. "How do we look?" "You look convincing again, and you... aren't spitting fire if that's what you want to know." His sister looked up from an arrangement of pine cones and acorns on the ground. "That's what you think." She returned her attention to the arrangement below her, at which point she stepped on an acorn and scattered a couple pine cones. "How dare you mess with my hoard! BURN, TINY TOWN! BURN! AH HA HA!" Kind Face stared a moment, then shook her head and turned back to Obsidian. "There's one thing you still need." With that, she picked up a couple fur dye bottles and proceeded to paint out his cutie mark. "This was visible in a few pictures, so we'll have to swap it with something else... Hmm... What would be good here?" "How about an erupting volcano? Ooh, I know! A chalice filled with the laughter of small foals!" As Kind Face turned to Feldspar in confusion, Obsidian stated his own opinion on the matter. "You've been spending way too much time around Pinkie." After ruling out constellations, masks, and a barbed-wire question mark, they ended up going with a pair of pens crossed like swords. "Vengeance by reporting" they called it. With that, they headed off to the train station. The trees flew past the windows in a constant blur. Inside the car, the trio were making plans on how to find the reporters. Splitting up was out of the question; none of them wanted to get lost. Feldspar suggested starting near the castle since the newspapers would be able to cover events there easily. Obsidian, meanwhile, didn't want to go anywhere near the castle on the grounds that somepony might recognize him. Kind Face simply suggested finding a copy of the yellow book and looking through the companies in it. As boring as the solution sounded, it was at least the best option they had. They all continued their discussion for some time, occasionally pausing to look out the windows. It was during one of these pauses that Feldspar left to use the filly's room. As she was about to leave, she saw something stuck in the corner between the toilet and the wall. She gripped a loose strap in her teeth and pulled, but it was stuck pretty tight. She pulled again and stumbled backwards as it finally came loose. In her teeth was a fancy set of pegasus saddlebags. She didn't see a name on them, so she slipped them on and headed back to join the others. Upon arriving in Canterlot, they all went to nearest booths they could find and started searching through the books. "Look's like most of the companies are near the center of town." Obsidian frowned. Maybe they could still keep a low profile, but he couldn't help the feeling that they'd all get caught sooner there. They headed off in that direction. As they did, Kind Face looked around at every passing face with increasing concern. "You're not afraid we'll all get caught, are you?" Snapping back to attention, she noticed that Obsidian's question had been directed at her. "Oh sorry... I guess I am a bit nervous." "Don't worry. You said yourself that you're good at disguises. Look around. So far, they're working. Nothing's gonna happen." She smiled. "Hi! I'm Green Flame, and I was wondering if you knew who first wrote that story on the colt from Ponyville." If anyone could radiate innocent curiosity while asking about royal scandals, it was Feldspar. Unfortunately, the papers they had been visiting had all claimed to be first and had all cited "anonymous sources" for their information. The one she was visiting now was no different, but that didn't stop the other two from hiding just beyond the edge of the door, tape recorder and camera in hoof, just in case this was the right one. It was getting late, and as they walked away from yet another disappointment, they realized that they had no place to stay. As Gneiss flew around the town scanning the streets, Quartz asked everypony in sight if they had seen the kids. Glad as they had been that the two were getting out among the other kids more these days, it was getting late. They should have been home by now. He wasn't as worried as Gneiss was, not yet anyway, but the longer they searched, the more he hoped that the two had simply lost track of time and that nothing had happened to them. He remembered the stories about the Everfree Forest. He didn't even realize that he had picked up his pace. Unreliable Narrator stepped out onto the balcony. She had come to Canterlot to find inspiration for her next story. So far, she had been enjoying the atmosphere, but hadn't found anything of note to write about. As she was about to head back into her hotel room, she noticed three foals climbing the fire escape of a building across the street. They opened their saddlebags and started pulling out blankets. Homeless ponies! It was certainly tragic, but it would be perfect material for her story. As she watched them set up their camp, she wished she could see better... oh wait, of course! She pulled out her camera. The telephoto lens would be perfect for an impromptu telescope. As she adjusted the focus, she noticed one of the unicorns pulling wings out from under his saddlebags. She zoomed in, then went back into her room to check the hotel newspaper, then went back out to the balcony. She hit the shutter button several times. This would be a story. The police scanned the edges of the forest with their lanterns. There hadn't been any unusual activity for some time, but with at least two missing foals reported, they were checking all the places that made the most sense. Quartz and Gneiss were told to go home and rest for the night, but they both knew rest would never come until the kids were found, so they asked the police to let them help with the search. The police tried to tell them that they had the situation covered, but their efforts were ultimately futile. Quartz shook his head. It wasn't like those two to just run away; he was certain of that. Then again, circumstances lately haven't been exactly normal.