INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS FIRED FOR FRAUDULENT REPORTING
Reporters Muck Raker and Mud Slinger have confessed to having fabricated information for their reports regarding the supposed affair between the princesses and the reporters' former employer, Quartz Stone.
According to their confession, the report was an attempt at retaliation against their former employer for firing them. Quartz later testified that they were fired for their insistence on printing a conspiracy theory claiming that Princess Mi Amore Cadenza still is and has always been the changeling queen Chrysalis.
Legal charges against the two reporters include stalking, planting bugs without a warrant, and unauthorized access to records containing personally identifiable information. Their hearings scheduled for later this month.
For printing these stories, the Horse's Mouth wishes to formally apologize to the princesses Celestia and Luna and to the Stone family. We should have verified the nature of these stories for ourselves, especially considering their implications and the secondhoof nature of the claimed evidence. For our failure to do so, we are as much in the wrong as they were, and for this, we apologize.
They were grounded.
Oh, they were so grounded.
They were going to remain grounded for a long, long, long time.
It was fitting, in a way. Their punishment for running away from home was being no longer allowed to leave home, with the exception of going to school. Gneiss even followed them back and forth for the first few weeks to ensure that they went straight there and straight back.
There were a few concessions. Most notably, their mom had finally given up on trying to keep Feldspar and Obsidian off the roof, instead resorting to asking Quartz to put up a fence to at least keep them from falling off.
It was on this roof that they were playing another game of house-rules chess using a footstool perched on the crest as a makeshift table.
Obsidian moved an inverted rook into attack position using a rather lucky roll, and Feldspar countered with two aces and a queen.
Rats, that's the third time in a row she's countered my attacks.
As Feldspar was about to launch her own attack, a muffin with a note tied to it landed between them. They both looked over the edge of the fence to see Derpy walking past.
They waved at the mailmare, and she waved back before trotting off.
They went back to attacking each other for a while. Feldspar finally won by resurrecting a few pawns as zombies behind Obsidian's line. He'd forgotten to guard against that trick.
Just as they were resetting the board, a thump landed next to them.
"Hi kids. Would you mind giving these to your parents?"
Derpy Hooves dug a couple letters out of her saddlebag and handed them to Obsidian.
He and his sister looked at each other, then back at the mailmare, who was busy digging around in her other saddlebag.
"Oh and here, have a..." She looked down at the muffin sitting beside the board. "Did I already give you a muffin?"
The two looked at each other, unsure whether to nod or shake their heads.
"Oh well. Here, have an extra one." She tossed the muffin to Feldspar and flew off.
They looked at each other again, then opened up the note that had been tied to the first muffin.
Gotcha.
KF
They both looked down again to see Derpy Hooves looking back up at them, grinning.
Feldspar flipped the note over and wrote a reply on the back, and Obsidian folded it into an airplane and threw it down.
Cheater
The mailmare caught the plane and unfolded it. Just as she looked up and stuck out her tongue, Masquerade approached.
"There you are. Let's go. You're still in trouble for sneaking off to Canterlot like that."
Obsidian noticed that Kind Face had somehow grown almost as tall as her aunt.
What did she use for that stunt, stilts?
As Obsidian tried to figure it out, Feldspar looked through the letters.
"Hey look! This one's for me!"
She held it up for him to see, then tore open the envelope and pulled out the paper inside.
We are sorry to say we do not have any recommendations for ways in which thou may pass the time. We spent most of our own time mapping out the rock formations and plotting revenge, the first of which is not useful where you are, and the second of which we most vehemently recommend against.
We also spent quite a bit of time drawing pictures and writing messages in the dust. It would be best to be thankful there are no telescopes in Equestria powerful enough to see any of it. Some time, I ought to remember to go back to erase those writings, but good opportunities to do so never seem to arrive.
Thank you for your letter. Reading it did make for a most welcome break from our usual duties.
Sincerely,
Obsidian looked at his sister.
"You didn't..."
A few days ago...
Laughter echoed whether the halls of the palace. As it finally died down, Celestia wiped a tear from her eye.
"She actually wrote that?"
Luna smirked. "Verily she did" -she picked up the letter so her sister could see -"in crayon."