//------------------------------// // Arrival // Story: Eris's Riddle // by hahatimeforponies //------------------------------// Knock knock. "She's here! She's here!" Scootaloo sat up excitedly, knocking an elaborate marble run set flying. Cheerilee squeaked, and most of the pieces clattered over her head. The pegasus filly bounced to the door of the schoolhouse, throwing it open to find Rainbow Dash standing in the doorway, looking a little weary, but smiling nonetheless. "Rainbow Dash!" "Heya, squirt!" Her grin broadened as the younger pegasus tackled her stomach with a hug. Either she's getting big, or the trip back was really long... Dash thought, staggering a little from the assault. A quick glance down at the filly, barely up to her bust, and another up to the last remnants of the day's sunlight answered her question. "I missed you so much!" "I missed you too, Scoots," Dash beamed, ruffling her mane a little. Cheerilee appeared at the door with a suitcase, drawing Dash's attention. "I trust she hasn't been too much trouble?" "Oh, you know her!" the earth pony chuckled and waved dismissively, before muttering through gritted teeth, "The little rascal..." Dash just snorted a laugh, and took the bag, towing it alongside her own. "Again, I can't thank you enough, I had no idea I was gonna be away so much so soon..." "Don't worry about it, it's practically her home away from home, right Scootaloo?" "I guess, kinda..." the filly mumbled. Rainbow Dash chuckled and pulled an envelope out of her jacket, and held it out to Cheerilee. "D'oh, I can't accept this!" "Please, it's the least I can do." "You do enough for all of us already, you deserve the bits more than I do." She pushed the envelope back. Dash shrugged, and put it away again. "Okay, suit yourself." She made a note to have Scootaloo leave it lying around next time she was over. "C'mon Scoots, let's get us home! I'm beat." "Alright!" Scootaloo took her suitcase, grabbed her guardian by the hand and charged away. Dash barely had time to wave goodbye. "... and then Dinky was all like 'nooooo!' And she caught Sweetie Belle before she fell!" "Wow, sounds like you might have competition in the awesome department!" "No way!" "I dunno, Scoot, that sounded pretty awesome to me." "I'm way more awesome than Dinky!" "You can prove it another time, we're ho-" Dash stopped just short of their cloud home, looking over it carefully. She raised a finger, and Scootaloo frowned. "What's wrong?" the filly whispered. "There's a hole in the wall. Somepony's been in here... recently." She narrowed her gaze, and silently lowered her bag to the ground. "Stay here." Scootaloo nodded, and Dash fluttered up to an upstairs window. Inside seemed to be mostly as she'd left it - Derpy and Fluttershy could usually be trusted to keep her house in one piece. The whole thing seemed to be very slightly tilted to one side, probably a storm a little while back, but there didn't seem to be any actual damage. As she crept along the corridor, she could hear occasional whoops and giggles coming from her living room. She poked her head down the stairs first. She saw her rainbow fountain flowing and illuminated - the intruder must have turned it on - and a figure in the shadows on the far side of the room. Every now and then it would jump in the air, spread its wings, and emit a high-pitched giggle. After observing a couple of repetitions of this, she could pick out something unusual on its face - a beak. Not somepony... some gryphon! She tucked her wings in tight and tipped down the stairs. At the bottom, she crouched and flared them out again. She kicked against the floor and threw one arm out to the side, simultaneously launching her into the air and hitting a switch. A canned spell lit several lanterns at once, lighting up the room, bright as day. By the time the intruder turned, Dash was already leaping towards her. Only too late did she realise something from the interloper's petrified squeak, big eyes and diminutive stature - this was a gryphlet. Thump. She was too late to call off the tackle, and pinned it to the floor. Being clouds, it wasn't going to hurt much, but gryphon or not, Dash was still concerned about jumping on a child. As soon as she hit the floor, she pushed herself up and sat back, giving her a moment to look at the intruder more closely. It was clearly female, and based on size, the remnants of a few downy feathers on her chest and comparison to her experience of Gilda, she'd say she was about Scootaloo's age too. Much to her surprise, she didn't cry. She wasn't even winded. She just brushed it off and sat right back up. Heh. Tough kid. Maybe all gryphlets are like that. "Are you okay, kid?" "Hi! Are you Rainbow Dash?" The little gryphon just blinked and tilted her head. "Uhm..." Dash hesitated. This was a child, but it was still a gryphon. Then again, even if it was a spy, she wouldn't have any problem apprehending her. She felt bad about that logic, but it still held. "... yeah, why?" As soon as she identified herself, the gryphlet's eyes lit up, and she pounced, not to attack, but to embrace. She was as confused as she was startled. "I'm so glad I found you!" "Okay, hold up a second." Dash gently pushed her off. "What are you doing here?" "Looking for you!" the gryphlet chuffed. Dash just boggled at her. "Why?" "You killed Gilda, so you must be strong!" "How..." Dash put one hand to her forehead and sighed. "How did you know I killed her?" Thanks for reminding me. "'Cos she was my sister." Dash's jaw dropped slowly. Did she really hear that? This somehow made even less sense than before. "And I knew it was you 'cos I found this here!" The gryphlet picked a feather off the floor and held it up. Dash instantly recognised it as one of Gilda's feathers - it was part of a pair of mementos they had exchanged at the end of the Junior Speedster's camp. Dash had given one of her own in exchange. She knew now it meant nothing, but sometimes she liked to pretend. "Hey, careful with that!" She snatched it off her and inspected it for damage. Once she was sure it was unharmed, she put it back on the cloud shelf, and turned back to her visitor. "So... let me get this straight. You, Gilda's sister... came all the way to Ponyville, because I killed her..." She got a nod in response. "... Why?" "You must be a much better sister than Gilda!" The gryphlet walked up and hugged her leg again. When Dash stood upright, she only came up to her knee. "Wait, wait wait... so you came here, because you want me to adopt you... not for revenge, not for some weird gryphon justice thing, but because you want me to be your big sister..." "Mmmhm!" She nodded sincerely. I guess Gilda did say they were raised to be cold-blooded. Man, gryphons are weird... "Rainbow Dash, why is there a gryphon on your leg?" Dash looked over her shoulder to see Scootaloo, panting. She'd brought both bags inside by herself. "Honestly? I have no idea." "My name's Kalza by the way!" The gryphlet cheeped. The two pegasi just stared. Twilight groaned and stretched as she approached the library. She'd fallen asleep on the train, and wasn't fully awake again as she stumbled home. The light was fading, and she wanted to get in bed with a book as soon as she could. Ah, bed sounded so nice about now. So warm and comfortable, and soft... and warm... "Hey, Twilight... are you okay?" "Hmm? What?" The unicorn shook herself awake and looked up to see Derpy Hooves standing next to her. She noticed that she was leaning against her front door, drooling slightly. She pushed herself off and rubbed one eye with a chuckle. "Oh. Yeah, I'm fine, musta just... fallen asleep there! Had a really long day..." "You're gonna work yourself to death one of these days." The mailmare smirked, raising a brow. "Pffft, it's fine, it's just until this succession thing gets worked out. Anyway, you're out pretty late for your rounds, don't you think?" "Actually, I just got a couple of urgent letters that needed to get to you right away." Derpy pulled two scrolls from her bag and handed them to her. One of them was sealed with blue wax, imprinted with a pair of wings, and the other in white, with an eight-pointed star. "Ugh, not more letters!" Twilight groaned, and sank her head into her hands. "Hey, don't blame me, I'm just the messenger." "Alright, let's have a look at them." Twilight took the white-sealed one, picked off the wax and unfurled it. "Since Blueblood and Jetstream obviously can't wait until morning, oh no! Let's see here... Dear Twilight Sparkle..." "Don't!" Derpy cringed. "Don't read your mail to me!" "I really don't mind, their letters are actually kinda funny, in an ironic way. At this point there's barely anything to keep confidential in these things." "Okay, I guess..." "Dear Twilight Sparkle, I grow weary of this correspondence. This matter is too big and too urgent to be worked out at long distance. I will be arriving in Ponyville tomorrow to enter talks with you and Mayor Mare. That is all. Blueblood, Sovereign Prince of Canterlot'... Oh. Well that was..." "A little less funny than you expected?" "Yeah..." Twilight sighed, rolling the scroll up again and unwrapping the other one. "Dear Twilight yadda yadda... arriving in Ponyville tomorrow afternoon... Consul Jetstream of Cloudsdale. Just perfect. Exactly what I needed to hear." She sank her head in her hands, and leaned back against her door. "I... this might just be a hunch, but I'm guessing there's a little more than the Summer Sun celebration on your mind." Derpy folded her arms. Twilight emitted a breathy snort and straightened up. "You're too good. Can you keep a secret?" "I did it before, didn't I?" "Of course. Come in." The two ponies ducked inside, and Twilight closed the door gently behind her. She could hear Spike snoozing, so she kept her voice down. "Alright. We found something near Trottingham earlier today. We're not sure what it is, but it's powerful, mischevious and calls itself Discord." "Discord?" The mailmare quirked a brow. "Yeah, it's confusing me too. It set us a riddle, and gave us until the Summer Sun celebration to solve it, or 'Equestria will burn', so he said. What does a recipe of three days, two thousand years and one angry pony make?" "Uhm..." Derpy screwed up her face, thinking. Twilight couldn't help but giggle a little. "Don't worry about it, I need to do some research anyway. Which is why this..." She held up the scrolls. "... is the last thing I need right now." "I can imagine... listen, if I can help you with anything, just holler, okay?" "Thanks... I know I can count on you." The unicorn smiled and nodded, and Derpy returned the gesture. She paused, before making motions towards the door. "Listen, I should probably..." "I understand. Take care!" The mailmare waved, and quietly exited the library. Now alone, Twilight tossed the two letters aside, and started digging through some of the piles of books around the room. The whole place was a mess - she hadn't had time for reshelving in months, only adding to her stress. Piles clattered and collapsed, and tomes flew across the room as the librarian rifled through them, occasionally making a frustrated grunt. After a few minutes, she heard a voice yawn and call to her from the mezzanine. "Twilight, what are you doing..." She gasped and looked up, to see Spike leaning over the side, clutching his blanket. "Oh! Spike... I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to wake you, I..." Spike just raised his eyebrows and blinked. "Sorry. I was looking for the Planeswalker's diary..." "It's up here, I kept it by your desk, on the 'important and memorable' shelf." "Of course!" Twilight cringed, pulled herself out of the rubble of books and scampered upstairs. "My head is just all over the place today..." "Something wrong? You look pretty stressed. I mean, more stressed than normal." "I... yeah, there is. But it can wait until morning. You need your sleep." She smiled, and levitated him back to his basket. "What? I..." As soon as the dragon's head hit the pillow, he yawned, and was falling asleep again in seconds. "... alright..." Twilight giggled, and turned back to her desk. She pulled Diaries of a Planeswalker from the shelf, and settled in to read. "This is gonna be a long night..."