//------------------------------//
// Skip 
// Story: The Immortal Dream 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

Skyscrapers broke up the horizon like rectangular teeth, the sun merrily shining on their glossy windows and into the broad streets that bounded them. Billboards were dim, their customary neon advertisements unable to compete with the light of day, and a few dirigibles hung in the background, one trialing a banner with an advertisement for fruit juice.

Papyrus stepped from a dilapidated dumpster onto the rooftop courtyard of a tenant building, surrounded by strings of drying laundry and a fat stallion who had fallen asleep while sunbathing. The only similarity to Kinmari in sight was the sea; it glistened beyond the final row of buildings, festooned with ships of all sizes.

"Apologies," Egdelwonk said, brushing an apple core off his shoulder as the others emerged as well. "I would have made it nighttime to better fit the stealth-noir vibe of your business here, but Woona would have my hide for a rug if I infringed on her domain."

"Meh. Doubt this place would look that edgy even if it was night. It's no Gyre, that's for sure." Papyrus waved a hoof, casting his mind back to the Griffon Empire's most-corrupt and least-livable province, and its gloomy metal fortress of a capital city.

Larceny shaded her brow with her good wing. "Never knew a metropolis could look so cheerful."

"It's a facade," Senescey warned, looking out over the city with a frown. "There's just as much money and ill-gotten influence here as anywhere else."

Egdelwonk raised an eyebrow.

"Do you know what industries this city is known for?" Senescey asked, walking to the edge of the roof, where a chain-link fence provided an effective, if ugly, way to keep careless ponies from falling off. "Music and fashion. Things that should be matters of artistic expression... but instead, they turn it into social hierarchies and hero worship. Whoever lines up the biggest licensing deals and publishing contracts gets famous. Ponies here get venerated for nothing more than being well-connected, and entire industries crop up to convince the public that their tastes, their body types, their ability to sing is superior. They decide what 'good' is to fit what they already are. It's-"

"What is point of rant?" Braen interrupted, sounding legitimately curious.

Senescey blinked at her. "What?"

"Look at all those ponies," Braen said, joining her at the edge and pointing down to the colorful specks dotting the road below. "Probably, each one of them have own answer about what is point of living here, in city. Same as ponies in Ironridge. Many different ponies. Many different answers."

Her mechanical eyes adjusted as she surveyed the cityscape. "Leitmotif not sound happy about own answer. So rather than wallowing, why not find another?"

Senescey looked at her in bafflement. "You can't just choose a different way of looking at it to change what's going on down there."

"That pessimistic answer," Braen admonished. "Same answer mother Shinespark arrive at. So, not acceptable answer to settle on."

"Alright, kids, break it up," Papyrus announced, elbowing in between them and earning a rude look from Senescey. "Enough philosophy! Let's talk shop." He nodded back at Larceny. "We know with modest accuracy that Felicity came to this city for some sort of witness-protection program a little less than twenty years ago. There's no possible way they don't have records on where she went next, assuming she isn't even still here. So I propose we hit up some government offices and figure out who would be involved in a thing like that."

"Do we know what she was a witness to?" Larceny asked, laying down on the warm concrete. "Could make this a lot easier if we knew."

"Presumably, to what happened in the Griffon Empire," Senescey said, frowning. "When it all fell apart. Think about it: Chrysalis captured and enslaved the entire sarosian population of the eastern continent, turning us into changelings. And to this day, she doesn't know how to make more of us once we've been enslaved. Anyone who slipped through her grasp is a valuable resource. Chrysalis has also been active in Equestria. I see plenty of reasons why Felicity could have needed protection... and as a first-hoof witness to Chrysalis's ascension, she would have had valuable enough knowledge to prompt them to want her alive."

"Actually..." Papyrus raised a hoof, about to mention it was more likely she was a witness to his own deeds at Kinmari.

But then he thought better of it, and lowered his hoof. "Yeah, I bet you're spot on. You brainy bat, you. What's this about Chrysalis in Equestria, again?"

Senescey didn't seem to pick up on what he had been about to say, which he took as confirmation that she really didn't know. Of course, he didn't know what became of her after Chrysalis attacked, either, so fair was fair, right?

"She and an army of changelings attacked Canterlot about three years back," Senescey explained. "It was a highly visible military offensive meant to disguise an infiltration operation, with the end result of installing Chrysalis as an impostor in the royal family. Ultimately, both prongs of the attack were rebuffed, and many drones were lost in the process. It also served to awaken most of Equestria to her existence, and the existence of changelings as a whole. Nothing less than a catastrophic failure for her, no matter how you look at it."

"So I've heard," Egdelwonk yawned. "That does tend to happen when you mess with Twilight Sparkle and her friends."

"In other words, Felicity maybe closest to whatever place keep eye on changelings?" Braen asked, tilting her head.

Papyrus hesitated further. Keeping his silence wouldn't cause them to go off chasing a false lead, would it?

"Sounds likely," Larceny said. "So, how are we doing this?"

Papyrus patted his chest. "Same as last time, of course! You're a cripple, Braen gets all sorts of looks and I'm horrible at feigning innocence, so we all hang out up here while Sen... Err, Leitmotif does the dirty work?"

He fluttered his eyebrows in his best pretty please.

Senescey gave him a level look, and then sighed. "Well, at least you're aware of your team's limitations."

"No wonder Halcyon ditched us," Papyrus mused, sitting back and rubbing his chin. "...Except you, that is. What did you do to tick her off, again?"

"Gave her good advice," Senescey groused. "That she wasn't inclined to follow. Are there any objections? To you just camping here while I do everything by myself? Barring as exemplary of luck as Kinmari, this could take a week."

"What even are you talking about?" Papyrus spun in a happy circle. "That was all calculated! Pure skill on my part, pointing you in the right direction. Besides, as fun as it was, making a fool of myself in front of those college kids, keeping a low profile might actually be the wiser course. You know, given who we're dealing with."

Egdelwonk nodded sagely. "You do have a bounty on your head. Then again, whoever had fun by staying home when adventure came to call? I'm starting to regret giving you these free rides. You did worse at biting the plot hooks in Kinmari than Halcyon did during the Barnabas Weapons Emporium incident."

"I'll pretend to know what you're talking about and ignore you anyway." Papyrus waved a wing at him. "We've got a goal, and we're not going to see it through by getting distracted at every little side opportunity. Leif, dear, you won't actually take all week, will you?"

"No promises until I get a little closer," Senescey said. "And don't call me 'dear,' either. But for now, I don't even know where the nearest police station is."

"Alright. Duly noted." Papyrus bowed. "I believe in you, shrub! Good luck!"

Scowling, Senescey took wing and soared away.





"So, old chap," Papyrus said, elbowing Egdelwonk in the shoulder, "about that spying thing you did last time..."

Egdelwonk looked at him in annoyance. "It's been thirty minutes. Have you no ability to entertain yourself by simulating near-miss catastrophes in a pocket dimension while waiting for anything?"

Papyrus raised an eyebrow.

"Stinks to be you, I suppose." Egdelwonk pulled out a coin and flipped it. Tails. "Well, there goes another nascent civilization."

Larceny gave him a worried look.

"Eh, they were barely microbes anyway," Egdelwonk said with a shrug.

"Egdelwonk doesn't like microbes?" Braen asked also worried.

"For crying out loud, I'm kidding!" Egdelwonk threw a hoof up in the air. "Can't even make a joke these days without it getting taken too seriously, I swear."

The sunbathing stallion grunted in his sleep.

"...Oh." Egdelwonk snapped the spokes on his bat wing, and with a flash of chaos magic, the stallion was teleported down below. "Probably should ensure no bystanders get infected by our senses of humor."

"Yes, but about Senescey..." Papyrus pushed.

"Is this truly your idea of a good time?" Egdelwonk gazed at him levelly. "Interacting with the world from behind a screen, no stake in the matter, safe from any and all repercussions?"

At a look from Larceny, Papyrus quickly explained what he had done during Senescey's hospital crawl.

"Better than doing nothing," Larceny admitted. "I'll watch."

"You have an excuse, in that you can barely move," Egdelwonk pointed out. He turned to Papyrus. "You, on the other hand, are perfectly capable. Strong, sly, eminently manipulative. You should be suited perfectly for this! Why is your first instinct to stay back and watch, hmmm?"

"Pragmatism," Papyrus smoothly said. "We stand a better chance of success if I'm not there to get in her way. What more to it does there need to be than that? If I'm to do better than last time, I can't allow hubris to cloud my judgement of my own strengths and weaknesses."

Egdelwonk's eyes bored into his. "And will you allow cowardice to do the same?"

"Shut up, old stallion," Papyrus scoffed. "Turn on the scrying thing, already!"

Egdelwonk rolled his eyes and snapped his spokes again, prompting a static-filled window to twist itself into existence. But before it could resolve, Braen said, "If can really make this show anyone at any time, why not look at Felicity?"

"I can't spoil the story like that!" Egdelwonk looked aghast. "Even if this bucket-head here is determined to take the least-interesting route to his goal, that's no excuse to short-circuit a good character arc."

"That's what our lives are to you?" Larceny asked tiredly. "A story?"

"Some have expressed exasperation at the conclusions my worldview leads me to draw," Egdelwonk admitted. "As it stands for you, I'd strongly advise taking my help when it comes and not asking questions when it doesn't. Try too hard to figure this out, and you're liable to twist your brain bone."

"I think you just told me all I needed to know," Larceny grumbled. "You can watch anyone, anywhere, for entertainment? No stakes? You don't see us as people, but sources of fun? The realization of our desires matters less to you than whether it 'makes a good story'?" She shook her head. "You probably think my escape from the Griffon Empire makes for a fantastic one."

Egdelwonk put a shocked wing to his chest. "I would never purposefully embody a bad example to give someone a taste of what he doesn't want to be." His eyes sharpened, and he looked at Papyrus with a smile. "Would I?"

Papyrus gave him a sketchy look.

"All I mean to show is that unchecked use of a power like this can give rise to some dangerous worldviews, little prince." Egdelwonk smiled back. "She is right, you know. It would certainly be safe to observe your friend's adventure from a distance. Might even be fun, participating in her story. Nudging it along, checking in with her during breaks, but never putting your own comfort on the line. In fact, with a power like that, why bother doing anything else ever again?"

"You're giving me a lesson I don't need," Papyrus warned. "I didn't come to Equestria and seek out Starlight for entertainment, or for safety. I'm not planning on taking back my empire because I get a kick out of watching all the lesser ponies running around."

Egdelwonk raised an eyebrow. "I was under the impression you were doing it because you had nothing better to do."

"So I'm still figuring out the reasons for my life." Papyrus shrugged. "I don't think I'll find them in sitting back and getting addicted to watching other ponies strive for things... if that's even what you're trying to warn me about. Following Senescey will improve our coordination and spare her from needing to make a lengthy report. Or, we could do what Larceny suggested and go check in on Felicity, right here and right now."

Egdelwonk sized him up.

"Come on," Papyrus goaded, the screen crackling with formless static over Egdelwonk's shoulder. "Do we pass the test, or do we pass? Turn that thing on already!"

Egdelwonk reached forward and tapped Papyrus on the nose.

A cold static briefly flooded his body, and then nothing. "That was the same as last time!" Papyrus complained. "And it didn't do anything then, either!"

"I gave you ten minutes," Egdelwonk said. "Ten minutes of that screen listening to you... as much as it listens to anyone. You think you can control it? Go ahead. See what it's like."

Papyrus blinked. "Really?"

Egdelwonk bowed and stepped aside. "The clock is ticking..."

"Find Felicity," Larceny urged. "Sidestep this whole chase. Look for her, see if she's alright, find any background-"

"Way ahead of you," Papyrus promised, reaching out a hoof and acting on instinct. He didn't know how you controlled a magical construct like this, but Egdelwonk usually didn't resort to pranks where the punchline involved nothing happening...

As he stepped closer and closer to the picture frame, it grew at a disproportionate rate in his vision. And suddenly, the city was gone.





Voices.

Hundreds, thousands, millions of voices, pouring through Papyrus's being in a ceaseless tide, a monochrome canvas of overpowering mutters and feeble, distant screams, voices of restlessness, cries of joy and wails of loss, casual contentment and camaraderie, frustration and rage, voices coming and going like a crowd on the widest and busiest street in the world.

That static wasn't chaos, it wasn't the randomness born of a lack of signal. It was every signal at once. And yet they were muted, forced down into a frame of reference that he could comprehend, all of the meaning and purpose of their words being lost to the blackness of space, until only the muttering remained.

Papyrus tried to grab at one, reaching for the top of the flow, pulling at threads like he was attacking a mile-wide canvas made without a loom. A particularly powerful one caught on his hoof, and he pulled.

It was a crowd of foals in a lightly-wooded area, the sun shining merrily overhead. The one in the center had a glistening cutie mark, and by the reactions of the others crowing around them, it was brand-new.

Papyrus let that knot of voices go and reached for another. In a wooden shack, rain spattered the windows and wind shook the rafters, a storm blowing by overhead. A stallion stood by one wall, a diagram propped on an easel next to him, explaining its contents to a group of younger, attentive stallions. Some sort of school? Perhaps a planning committee? Papyrus couldn't hold onto the voices long enough to tell. His grip slipped, sliding along the strings that the voices were a part of, and within the vision he was pulled through one of the windows, out into a valley where a cold, soggy mare was dancing ecstatically in the rain, reveling in the power of the storm.

He dropped the thread entirely, and was back in the sea of static, the muttering of the world passing him by. How could you find anyone in this? There had to be a trick to it. Something, some sort of...

Here was a thread that was different from the rest. It felt sticky, or perhaps larger, or... Words didn't exist to describe how it was different. Just like they didn't exist to describe how he could touch a voice at all. But it stood out; he could see it from farther away, and it felt stationary in the tide, not coming and going like the rest of them.

Papyrus reached out, and found himself on an airship he had ridden before, a long time ago.

Occupying the cabin next to him was Corsica, fast asleep.

Papyrus scratched his head. Unlike the others, Corsica's thread wasn't hard to hold onto. She also wasn't saying anything, due to being asleep, and he realized her voice wasn't part of the great muttering as a result. And yet still, he had found her. Her thread was different.

What were the odds of randomly settling on a pony he knew that way, instead of anyone else? What was different about her?

Frowning, he pulled out of her vision and back into the tides.

The next vision he grasped turned out to be a mare in a business suit, sitting at a desk and listening with a tired expression as someone at the front of a conference room took questions after a lecture. She had just finished asking her own question; that must have been how Papyrus found her. Now that she wasn't speaking again, her thread had gone silent. If he dropped it, he knew he wouldn't be able to find her again... and he didn't have the skill to stop it from sliding out of his hooves regardless.

Funny, though. He could still see Corsica's.

Focus. Search for Senescey. Or Felicity.

But the voices pounded against him, and Papyrus started to flag, wondering if he wasn't just another soul in the tide. He tried to speak, and the moment he did, his words were ripped from his lungs, carried off along the strings to join the ceaseless mutter, before he could even choose what they would be.

He knew this sensation, and he couldn't hide from it any longer. This... reminded him of how it had felt to be a god.

"TIME IS UP," Egdelwonk's voice said from on high, and a talon reached to pull him out.





Seated once again on the warm concrete of the rooftop, Papyrus felt that sense of cold static return, and then drain away through his nose as Egdelwonk tapped it again. "Had fun, did you?"

"That's a bit unsporting of you," Papyrus complained. "You knew I wouldn't be able to get anything productive out of that with so little time to learn how to control it, didn't you?"

Egdelwonk smiled a too-sharp smile.

"Many pictures appeared," Braen offered. "Even saw Corsica! Just, never useful picture."

"Figures," Papyrus said. "So, now that I'm certain you'll never let me try that again, what's the trick? How do you work that thing?"

Egdelwonk chuckled darkly. "Do you still want to work it?"

Papyrus folded his forehooves. "You haven't changed my mind about it being awfully useful to my... I mean, our cause, if that's what you mean. And if you mean your earlier admonishments not to get caught up pretending it's a toy, I think I'm even less inclined to do that now than I was before. It was creepy in there."

Larceny nodded. "I'm sure someone appreciates whatever it is you're up to. But I'd appreciate it more if you were convincingly on our side."

Egdelwonk rubbed his chin. "Give me your honest opinion, Papyrus. Having tried to work this thing..." He tapped the nebulous frame of the screen, which once again showed only static. "Who do you think made this system?"

"Frankly, I couldn't care less," Papyrus swaggered. "Do you have a reason for being so obtuse about this thing? If you want us to know something about it, why not just say it? I dig your cryptic trickster thing, but all we really want is to find Felicity, get on with restoring Larceny's body, and then move on to the fun stuff in the Griffon Empire. Would it kill you to get with the program?"

Egdelwonk stomped a hoof, the screen shattering in a burst of magic. "Fine, then! Skip your stupid plot hooks! Worse than Halcyon, I swear!" He pulled out a scrap of paper and seared a few words onto it with his eyes, then plastered it against Papyrus's face. "Go on. There's Felicity's current address. You'll find Senescey loitering in the laundromat at the base of this building listening to gossip while pretending to wait for her clothes. See how well the Empire treats you when you skip out on all the foreshadowing for what you'll find there and arrive too early in your character arcs. Mark my words, you're about to get dunked on worse than the show writers did for giving Twilight wings in Season Three. Airhead. Protagonists these days, urgh, seriously..."

He climbed into the trash can and pulled the lid shut so viciously that it almost fell over. And then he was gone.

Papyrus peeled the paper off his face and read it. "...Anyone know how to read addresses in this city?"

"Not sure what make Egdelwonk so mad," Braen said, worried. "But help from him very useful so far with fast travel. Maybe not good thing that he decide to leave..."

"Eh. He'll be back." Papyrus shrugged. "We're entertaining enough that he's practically got no choice. Though it does seem we should be catching up with the shrub right about now, doesn't it?"

Larceny nodded. "If you want to hurry, I could use a lift..."





True to Egdelwonk's word, they found Senescey in an open-air laundromat. She raised an eyebrow as she saw them coming.

"Been making yourself useful?" Papyrus asked, winging her a salute. "Because we sure have."

"Do I even want to know?" she asked, no other customers standing in the immediate vicinity.

Papyrus held out the scrap of paper. "Check this: we bullied Egdelwonk into letting us skip the search and giving us Felicity's address. And into leaving us alone for a bit, as a plus!"

"Actually, bullying was mostly done by Papyrus," Braen corrected. "And seemed to consist more of ignoring warnings than bullying. Though, could not tell what warnings were about."

"Eh, something related to going on a power trip." Papyrus shrugged. "Honestly, he wasn't very coherent to me, either. So, think you can find this place?"

Senescey looked up at a large map of the city tacked to one wall.

Papyrus, Larceny and Braen crowded around.

"Right here," Senescey said, tapping a street with a wing. "And we're here." She tapped the other side of town, then sighed. "If we want a trench coat or something for Braen, this would be an excellent place to buy one."

"You mean lift one, right?" Papyrus leaned against a washing machine. "Because I'm flat broke. Like a bitless pancake."

The washer entered its spin cycle and threw him off with its rattling, as if to protest the joke.

"I have some money," Senescey admitted. "Not a lot, and certainly not for your use, but some. I'd be willing to spend it on her."

"And feed into the gregarious fashion empire that enriches the rich and destroys true artistic freedom?" Papyrus teased, leaning in. "I thought you were just telling us about-"

Senescey punched him, sending him sprawling.

"Fine, fine, I deserved that," Papyrus started to say, pulling himself to his hooves... when he was interrupted by a shrill whistle. Across the street, a constable had witnessed the altercation and was charging toward them, whistle in his lips and baton drawn.

Senescey swore. "Stop talking, let's get out of here."





"I like how your first reaction upon getting into trouble is to run," Papyrus declared, several blocks away and hopefully with the constable off their trail, "when we could have perfectly easily framed this as a domestic violence dispute or something and sent him on his way with smiles and waves."

Senescey stared at him in concern. "The fact that you consider that an innocuous activity says even more about that plan's chances of success than your general demeanor."

"And you're the one who punched me. So there." Papyrus shrugged. "Let's just try not to do anything else to attract the ire of the law and get where we're going swift-like, shall we?"

"Let's have you try not to do anything that will make me do that," Senescey sighed. "Why did I even sign up with you again...?"

Papyrus waggled the paper with Felicity's address. "Because you'd be lost without me?"

"If you're waiting for me to say thank you, keep waiting until I see that paper isn't a joke," Senescey told him. "Anyway, we need to cross town, and-"

"I'm about at my limit," Larceny warned. "My second limit. Already past the one where I'll need to sleep all this off for a day."

"That," Senescey finished. "There are streetcars that offer free public transit through the city on fixed, limited routes. I think there's a station just around that corner. We can try to take one if everyone is confident our team can pass the Papyrus-acts-normal-for-an-hour challenge?"

She stared at Papyrus. So did everyone else.

"If I must," Papyrus sighed.

"Is trench coat still in cards?" Braen asked hopefully.

Senescey hesitated. "...If anyone asks after you, I'll explain. And everyone else will leave the explaining to me. Okay?"

Everyone nodded.

"Good," Senescey sighed. "Holding my breath for this incredibly simple and normal plan for getting from one side to the other to work."





It worked.

Papyrus stepped off the streetcar after forty minutes of radio silence. He hadn't made a joke about the geeky stallion whose shirt was inside-out, and when a young mother gave him an abashed apology after her foal crashed into him while running around, he managed to keep his response to a distracted nod. In fact, he almost felt proud of himself for that one, particularly since the curvature of the foal's cheeks had reminded him of the folds on a pumpkin and an excellent gourd joke had been on the tip of his tongue.

"I'm impressed," Senescey said as the streetcar rattled away. "And a little proud of you, Papyrus. Who knew you had it in you?"

"Oh, shut up," Papyrus managed, reddening slightly at being called out. "Need you remember, I'm no longer obsessively chaotically compelled to make a bad situation worse. I merely enjoy it from time to time."

"And if you could keep that enjoyment in check more often, you might not have to leave all the dirty work to me, like on Kinmari," Senescey added, shaking her head. "Whatever. We're almost here."

Internally, Papyrus groaned. In a way, this was worse than being a sphinx: he could no longer blame his bad behavior on his nature. He wasn't excused from actually trying anymore. And if he did slip up, at a time where it mattered...

Well, so far, he had done a good enough job of avoiding situations where his behavior actually mattered to find out.

The annoying part was, when he had been a sphinx, he never thought like this. He didn't even realize, until the final days before the Empire's collapse, that he had been in the wrong. And afterward, he had learned entirely the wrong lesson from it.

They were in a high-walled street that turned left up ahead and didn't continue straight, its elbow boxed in by a five-story terracotta building painted a yellowy off-white.  A grid of windows dotted its street-facing walls, more residential than official. Inside the elbow was a fancier tower with an open-air food court and a small shopping mall on its exposed first floor, and nondescriptly fancy office suites stacked above.

"I think," Senescey said, turning to the terracotta building, "she's in there. This might even be the corner penthouse suite."

"Fancy," Papyrus said. "Do we just roll on in unannounced, or is there a more polite way to break it to her? Asking on the off chance I'm not an expert at this."

"I don't know." Senescey shook her head. "Trying to draw something like this out sounds like it would just be frustrating for no reason. I say we look for a front office, tell them we have a personal invitation, and are trying to confirm this is her address."

"Just in case," Larceny added, "you go in first, in a disguise. If she's still under any sort of witness-protection program-"

"Right," Senescey sighed. "I'll be right back."





Moments later, Senescey returned, wearing the same guise she had used to infiltrate the hospital in Kinmari. "Mixed results," she announced with a quiet voice. "She's there. That penthouse is hers. She also has a legal waiver absolving all responsibility for anything that happens to solicitors or other intruders knocking on her door."

Larceny let out a slow, stunned sigh.

"Figures she'd never lose her paranoia," Papyrus remarked.

"I didn't think this would be real," Senescey admitted. "Really. I thought you were pulling our tails."

"Don't thank me too early," Papyrus reminded her. "Wouldn't want old Felicity to miss out on the rude joke I make in return."

"Shut up and listen," Senescey snapped. "I... No, never mind. You're right. You wouldn't appreciate it. Let's just go, and take care not to get blasted if her door is trapped."

"Specialty Braen armor almost impervious to damage," Braen offered. "If blasting is to be had, Braen can take it!"

"Or we could sacrifice Papyrus," Larceny proposed.

Papyrus winked. "Well, I didn't know you still had a sense of humor! But I like Braen's idea best..."

They continued their chatter as they entered the building, made their way up a tight staircase and into a fifth-floor hallway. And soon enough they reached a door with a metal knocker cast in the shape of a heart with several vibrating lines protruding, like the strings on an instrument. It was otherwise unadorned.

"That's her brand," Senescey said, discarding the earlier plan and lifting a hoof to the knocker. "This is it. This is..."

Knock.

Immediately after she dropped it, a frantic scrabbling sounded from the room beyond, like hooves on a hardwood floor, except even more so. It drew rapidly closer, until something thumped into the door. And then, after the sound of no less than five locks being undone, the door cracked open, revealing a curious face on the other side.

The creature that greeted them had no less than three bows in its cherry-red mane, and a silky silver-gray coat that had been groomed to grow far longer than natural. Slitted garnet eyes stared out above a whiskery muzzle, and the floor beneath it bore countless scratches and claw marks from incidents just like this one.

"Hey," the sphinx said, her plate-shaped ears wobbling as she spoke. "Are you the paparazzi?"