Twilight and Rarity stood side by side at the rail of the Friend Ship's forward platform, basking in the golden sunlight of Equestria's west coast and enjoying the heady feeling of adventure that could only be gotten from soaring over the treetops in a hot air balloon. Far below, the lush expanse of Whitetail Wood drifted past in the gentle glow of late summer, the countless leaves of the maple trees rustling in the warm breeze from the distant coast.
Rarity closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, allowing herself to luxuriate in the feeling of the wind in her mane in spite of a nagging certainty that when they finally put down in Vanhoover her coiffure would look like Twilight's first attempts at building birds' nests for Winter Wrap Up. After a night that started in steerage and ended in a jail cell, the caress of fresh air and freedom overshadowed her innate desire to have every hair in place.
Twilight nudged her and pointed toward the north. "Look, there's the Smoky Mountain!"
She let out a sigh and crossed her fore hooves on the railing as she rested her chin on top of them. "That takes me back. Remember that dragon that we had to shoo away because of his snoring?"
Rarity let out a chuckle. "How could I forget, darling? That diamond he had in his collection was absolutely stunning."
A wry smile spread across her wind kissed alabaster face as she gazed at the towering black mountain. "Although I can't help thinking that another dragon is on your mind right now, n'est ce pas?"
Twilight gave a wistful nod. "Yeah. I can't help it. I hope he's doing all right."
She looked across the gently waving greenery of the woodlands toward the row of unchanging peaks, made insubstantial by the blue haze of distance. "He's grown so much in the past few years. Part of me really misses that sweet, innocent little hatchling that the Princess and I took care of."
Rarity laid a comforting hoof on her dear friend's shoulder. "That's why we ponies treasure friends and family, and not gemstones or gold. It's the constant change that makes them precious. Every moment a facet that shines brighter than the last."
Twilight gave her partner a fond smile, that faded from her face as her eyes fixed on something passing the Friend Ship on the starboard side. With a cocked eyebrow, Rarity turned to look, letting out a gasp as she spotted the billowing black contrail cutting across the clear blue sky.
She raised her hoof to her mouth in shock. "Is... is that..."
Twilight leapt for the telescope mounted on the rail and brought it to bear, her jaw dropping in disbelief as she focused the powerful lenses on the source of the smoke trail. "It is! I thought Sir Concord said the guards had captured them! How could they have escaped from a whole battalion of Air Cavalry!?"
Her alabaster companion wheeled and levitated a pair of opera glasses to her eyes. "Good gracious, will you just look at that... that thing they're flying."
The lavender scholar's ears laid back as she stared incredulously through the eyepiece. "I'm looking, Rarity."
She gritted her teeth as she stared at the hurtling aircraft. "I can't believe they got that preposterous contraption to work. Just look at it. Look at it!"
Rarity squinted through her opera glasses as she replied. "I'm looking, darling."
Apple Bloom craned her neck out the hatchway from the balloon's cabin. "What's goin' on?"
Twilight stepped back from the telescope, waving Harmony Aeronautics' chief engineer forward. "You have got to see this, Apple Bloom. Just look!"
The young handymare stepped up to the eyepiece and peered through it, letting out a low whistle as she did. "Gotta hoof it t' them Flim Flam boys, y'gotta have some kinda grit t' jerry rig a mess like that n' then strap it t' their backs and fly it."
Twilight pawed at the rattan lattice of the Friend Ship's forward platform. "That thing's a flying bomb just waiting to go off!"
She started to lightly jog in place as she scanned the horizon. "Ooh. I wish Spike was here so I could send word to the authorities."
Apple Bloom pursed her lips as she angled the telescope to the south east. "I think the boys in bronze are in th' loop, boss."
The other mares pricked up their ears as the distant echo of hunting horns and shouted battle cries rolled across the broad expanse of sky. A few moments later, a hurtling column of beating white wings and gleaming armor came into view, filling the sky with determined pegasi hot on the trail of the fugitive unicorn brothers.
The three mares watched in amazement as the sputtering jet of black smoke made for the northern horizon with the vast, airborne cavalcade in hot pursuit.
***
Prince Blueblood made his stately way to the ornate elevators that led to the royal suite, surrounded by solicitous members of the upper tiers of Canterlot high society. He wore a band of black satin around his left foreleg and an elaborate bow of black ribbon pinned to the lapel of a somber suit collar. Every few steps he would give a mournful sigh and pose for his companions as they nattered their condolences and praised him for bearing up so stoically against the tragedy that had befallen his household.
As he paused at the gilded elevator doors, he gave a toss of his mane. "Yes, yes. It is indeed a tragedy. A terrible, terrible tragedy. But we vow, on our royal honor, that we shall do our utmost to see that our poor, lost darling is found and returned safely home."
The assembly of upper crust ponies nodded sagely and lightly tapped their hooves on the floor to muted cries of "Hear hear." and "Quite so."
Blueblood drew himself up further. "And failing that, we shall make sure that Princess Tiara will always be remembered as the warm, caring, benevolent mare she was."
At this the small crowd exchanged uncomfortable glances, murmuring uncertainly among themselves and shrugging noncommittally before giving him a smattering of polite applause. The unicorn prince bowed his head as the elevators opened with a soft "ding" behind him. "And now, if you kind friends will excuse us, we must retire to our suite, our empty, lonesome suite, and brood upon our bereavement."
A pretty young countess stepped forward with a perfumed handkerchief clutched in her hoof. "Are... are you certain, your highness? Perhaps it would be better not to be alone in such a trying time." A few of the other mares in the group exchanged knowing glances and glared daggers at her for her audacity.
Blueblood's lips compressed slightly at the corners as he suppressed a smirk, before he gave her a gracious bob of his horn. "Perhaps later, Lady Climbing Vine. For now, we wish to be alone with our thoughts. We bid you all, adieu!"
With that he wheeled and stepped into the elevator, turning to face them with a final magnanimous nod before the doors slid shut.
The pale unicorn prince stood in stately silence, feeling the slight pull of gravity as the elevator car rushed silently upward toward his destination. Slowly, the corners of his mouth curled up into a smug grin, that soon spread into a broad, triumphant smile. He began to tap his hoof on the floor, and then he began to whistle to himself.
By the time the doors slid open to the soft "ding" of the chime in the royal apartments, he was strutting out the door in a jaunty high stepping rhythm and singing to himself. "At the Gala! By our lonesome! We'll be going stag this year! Oh there'll be no nags to drag us down at the Galaaa!"
He stopped dead in his tracks, his slightly bloodshot eyes going wide as a throat was pointedly cleared in the lounge, followed by a dryly deadpan masculine voice. "Ah, it's good to see that your highness is taking this whole dreadful business so well."
Blueblood's ears laid back as he wilted a bit. "Er... F-fancy Pants. What... what b-brings you to our private chambers so... so... unexpectedly?"
The distinguished older stallion got to his hooves from the couch and gave the Prince a formal bow. "Merely looking in on your highness as an old and faithful friend of the royal family..."
He arched an eyebrow as he brought his head back up and met Blueblood's bleary eyed gaze. "... as well as a representative of several prominent minority stockholders in the Royal Blue airship line. I do hope I'm not intruding."
The younger stallion pawed at the ground. "Um... well to be honest..."
Fancy Pants cut him off with a short bark of laughter. "That's the spirit, your highness. Honesty is the best policy."
With a flick of his horn, he levitated two snifters from behind the wet bar, uncorked a bottle of brandy, and poured a measure into both glasses as he raised a hoof to beckon the dissolute unicorn stallion over to a chair. "Of course, in light of this recent, deplorable turn of events befalling our dear, erstwhile princess, I'd rather expected you wouldn't be in much of a state to talk business."
He gave a faint smile as he floated the snifter like a golden balloon toward the Prince. "But, since I find your highness facing his loss with such... ahem... aplomb, perhaps it would do both of us, and the company of course, some good to discuss things in a deliberate and sober fashion."
Blueblood tugged nervously at his collar. "Er... Y-yes... One supposes that that would be a salutary course of action, s-sir."
A tight smile spread across Fancy Pants' lips as he fixed the younger stallion with a searching gaze. "I'm gratified that you would take the time to indulge me, your highness. There is much that has gone on over the past few days that is highly... irregular. I would very much like to increase the clarity of my understanding on these matters, both for my benefit, the royal family's, and the board of Royal Blue as well."
The chair edged forward in a shimmering cloud of icy blue magic, as the distinguished unicorn's smile faded. "Now, perhaps we can start by discussing how it escaped your highness' notice for so long that his wife and chief executrix of the family firm had been replaced by this ghastly impostor. I should very much like to know what you knew and when you knew it, my Prince."
Blueblood nervously averted his gaze, let out a sigh, took a deep swallow of brandy, and slouched unsteadily toward the waiting chair with his ears and tail drooping.
***
The morning mist rose softly from the Saddle River at the southern outskirts of Ponyville, drifting between the cattails to the gentle dawn serenade of the countless, namesake denizens of Froggy Bottom Bog.
A modest little cottage stood on the riverbank, its adjoining dock stretching into the placid water beneath a striped awning hung with currently empty firefly lanterns. The house itself was a study in contrasts, sturdily built, utilitarian, and rustic, but showing signs of a mare's touch in the fine lace curtains and carefully cultivated flower boxes in the windows.
A trail of wide, muddy hoof prints led in a winding path from around the back and across the structure's large porch, stopping at a well used welcome mat at the door, where a quartet of hip waders had been carefully removed and set aside next to a dainty set of blue galoshes. These had their own trail of smaller hoof prints out to a newspaper box that hung beneath a tin mailbox stamped with "The Silvers" in ornate letters, over pictographs of a snail and a spoon.
The little house shook with the thud of something large and solid against the frame, followed by a deep, plaintive voice. "Honey! I need the pepper shaker again, eh? Where is it?"
A few more thuds, and a looming unicorn stallion hove into view in the archway between the living room and dining room. He was a strapping young pony in his prime, long of limb and muscular, with a nut brown coat and a blue green mane slicked back with pond water. He wore a damp khaki shirt with the emblem of the Equestrian Fish and Wildlife Service emblazoned on the shoulders, with a similar crest on a floppy fisherpony's hat. A large, gnarled, primevally angry alligator snapping turtle hung tenaciously from his horn, completely obscuring his face behind its spiky, mud colored shell.
He called out again, trying and failing to peer around the furious reptile that was blocking his vision. "Spooney? Is the pepper shaker in here? I uh... I got a little careless feeding Mister Nips again. I know I'm not normally allowed to bring him or any other critters into the house but this is kind of an emergency, eh?"
His young wife's low, listless voice sighed in response. "It's on the table, dear."
The brawny unicorn gave a nod and his horn sparkled with dull, yellowish magic, causing the turtle to bite down a bit tighter and wave its clawed, paddle like feet defiantly in the air. A pewter pepper shaker rose from the damask tablecloth and hovered over both turtle and pony's head.
The nut brown stallion laid his ears back and spoke in a stern voice to his intransigent passenger. "I don't like this any more than you do, buddy. This is gonna keep happening 'til one of us learns his lesson, eh?"
With that, he shook a generous portion of pepper out of the shaker, filling the air around his and the turtle's head with a small, billowing imitation of a storm cloud. He reared back with a deep breath and a shudder, as the powdered spice irritated the tender depths of his sinuses. Mister Nips' glassy stare of reptilian rage became even more fixed as it thrashed its legs and tail more violently.
After a pregnant pause, both unicorn and turtle exploded with a mighty sneeze, sending the angry reptile spinning through the air like a disgruntled frisbee, straight across the room toward a cabinet full of fine china and glassware.
A split second before impact the inevitable disaster was averted as Mister Nips stopped short, suspended in midair in a cloud of dull golden sparkles. He paddled his feet and let out a throaty hiss as the unicorn strode up to him with a glint of triumph in his eye and a grin on his freckled face.
The stallion reached up a foreleg and drew it across his copiously running nose with a sniffle. "Okay, that was pretty awesome, but I think you've gotten both of us in enough trouble for one day, eh? Into the mud room tank with ya, for now."
He trotted through the kitchen door with the angry snapping turtle hovering over his head like a halo, desperately trying to snap at his long ears or get another grip on his horn. After a muffled splash could be heard a couple rooms away, the unicorn came back alone.
The smug look of triumph on his plain features faded as he got a look at his wife. "Uh... Honey, are you okay? Did... did I do somethin' that I don't know about yet?"
The soft grey earth pony mare sat slouched at the dining room table in a frilly bathrobe, her long mane unbound and hanging in a loose curtain of spun silver over red edged, tearful eyes. Her glasses lay folded next to a cooling cup of coffee and the morning edition of the Canterlot Chronicle. She bit back a sob and dabbed at her cheeks with a napkin as she shook her head. "No..."
He pawed at the ground and gave a flick of his close cropped tail. "Um... Did I not do somethin' that I should have?"
The young mare let out another weary sigh. "No, Snails. It's not you..."
The muscular stallion's brow furrowed in sluggish thought. "Then what's..."
Silver Spoon cut him off with a tsk, slouching despondently in her seat. "Just get over here and hold me, you big lummox."
A look of certainty settled on the youthful stallion's features as he came around the table and reared up behind his wife's chair, gently wrapping her in his forelegs and nuzzling her neck. She let out a sigh as she turned her head and kissed him on the cheek.
After a sweet interval of silence, save for the chirping of the frogs and the low rustle of the river rolling past outside, Snails spoke softly in a deep, warm tone of voice. "Better?"
Silver Spoon nodded, wiping the tears away with her napkin. "Y-yeah. Always better."
He gave her a gentle squeeze. "Is there somethin' I can do to make it betterer?"
She shook her head, and nodded toward the paper spread out in front of them. "No. It's just... that..."
The freckled stallion cocked an eyebrow. "Uh.... Farm bill up for vote in Ministry of Agriculture?"
The young grey mare rolled her eyes and let out a weary huff. "No... The headline, dear..."
Snails craned his neck to read. "Rich Heiress Abducted by Changelings, Feared Lost Forever..." A series of expressions washed across his nut brown face as he slowly read the article, from shock and dismay to confusion before finally settling on a hardening of his eyes and a pursing of his lips.
He let out a soft snort and looked away from the photo of Diamond Tiara that grinned a smug grin and gazed with narrowed, gloating eyes from beneath the headline. "Serves her right..."
Silver Spoon stirred in his embrace, her glistening, tearful gaze pointed down at the dampened napkin in her hooves. "She used to be my best friend."
The line of Snails lips bent into a frown as bitterness welled in his eyes. "Best friends don't do what she did to you... What... what she did made you almost..."
His young wife shushed him, reaching up to caress his cheek. She gave a rueful nod as she smoothed back her silvery mane. "I know, sweetheart, I know. That's ancient history, though. In the end, after all these years, it's all just more sad than anything else."
She stroked his foreleg with one of her soft grey hooves, her brow furrowed pensively as she spoke. "She didn't have somepony to pull her out of the river like I did."
He hugged her tighter, a slight tremor in his voice. "It was her fault that you were in there, it's probably her own dumb fault for bein' in whatever mess she got herself into."
Silver Spoon nodded wistfully. "Probably, knowing her."
She gave him a fragile smile. "But in a way, it's thanks to her that you and me are together."
Snails let out a huff. "I'd sooner thank the catfish, eh? If I hadn't skipped prom to go noodling that night things woulda turned out a whole lot worse. And it would have all been on her stuck up, heartless head."
She rubbed her cheek against his. "Yeah, probably, but it turned out for the best. I wound up in your embrace and that's where I've been happy ever since."
The young mare laid a gentle hoof on the black and white photo of her estranged foalhood friend. "And no matter how heartless they are, a pony that doesn't know that sort of happiness is to be pitied."
Her husband gave her a peck on the cheek. "Well, since you bein' happy is what makes me happy, Spoons, I guess I'll pity her too, wherever she may be. I'll have probably forgotten all about her by the time I get done brushin' ol' Gummy's choppers."
At this Silver Spoon drew herself up. "Oh! That's right, it's Wednesday!"
She shrugged out of Snails' embrace with a final nuzzle and got to her hooves. "I gotta go in early to help Truffles get ready for the lunch crowd today. Twist's got an appointment with Doctor Muffin about getting so queasy every morning." She gave him a knowing wink.
Her face fell as she received a blank stare in return. "You think it was something she ate?"
The young grey mare rolled her eyes. "Snails... she's getting sick... in the morning... and seeing the town obstetrician. Hello?"
She lightly stomped a hoof and huffed in exasperation. "You're the mud bucking biology expert here, connect the dots for Celestia's sake!"
The nut brown unicorn blinked, a look of dawning realization blossoming on his face. "Oh! Ohhhhh. Right. Riiiight."
He met his wife's cross pout with a sheepish grin. "If you'd dropped hints about her digging a burrow to lay a clutch of eggs, I would have caught on right away. Mammalian reproduction isn't my strong suit, eh?"
A sly grin accompanied by a blush flickered across the young mare's face. "Well, I wouldn't say that. I think you know a thing or two."
He waggled his eyebrows with a chuckle and a grin of his own and leaned in to kiss her on the lips. "Well, I might be a little slow, but I'm not stupid..."
They parted with a smile, gazing deep into each other's eyes. Silver Spoon let out a contented sigh, her heart set at ease by the adoration she saw behind her dim reflection. "Life goes on, doesn't it?"
Snails nodded, his deep voice in tune with the hushed voice of the river outside. "Life goes on."
***
Soarin and Pip touched down on a pebbly expanse of beach, windblown and weary but smiling from a day's glorious flying over rolling green hills and wooded vales that had shifted from deciduous forests to hillsides covered in stately pine trees as they made their way north. Across the bay, the white pavilions and towers of Vanhoover could be seen in the blue green haze, the distant, snow capped peaks of the Unicorn Mountain Range seeming to hold up the vast, cloud streaked sky.
The youthful earth pony proceeded to shrug out of the Luna Moth, a gleaming smile on his face. "I say, old sock. That was a jolly good run, eh what? Absolutely spiffing."
The veteran flyer gave a nod as he stretched his wings. "Yeah, kid. Really makes me regret all those years riding trains and airships from show to show. When you're on tour, it's all about getting to the next destination, not enjoying the trip."
He cast a wistful look at the distant mountains. "I especially wish the trip could go on right now, since it may well wrap up at this particular destination for me."
Pip's face became serious as he cracked his neck and withers. "Worried about your upcoming contest with the Baron, mate?"
Soarin nodded. "Yeah, kinda. Redtail seems like a solid kinda guy, but he plays for keeps. His griffin code of honor won't allow him to do any less. I don't want either of us to get hurt, so I gotta really be on my game if we're both gonna come out of this with our feathers unruffled."
The spotted stallion shook his head with a gravely furrowed brow. "Bally bit of rum business, having to keep twice as many chaps unscathed as the competition. It's almost like fighting two to one, only the other way round."
The sky blue pegasus nodded ruefully. "Yeah, this is gonna be a tough stunt to pull off."
Pip gazed west toward the afternoon sun. "So where and when is this ruddy dogfight going to happen."
Soarin shrugged. "Dunno yet. I guess we'll meet and talk terms of the duel at the Pegathalon waypoint check in."
His youthful companion shouldered the folded flight harness onto his back. He nodded toward a cluster of tents that were abuzz with pegasi and other earthbound but no less enthusiastic ponies in the distance. "Well, if that's the case, lets get a move on. It's only a short jaunt up the beach, mate."
The veteran pegasus took a final long look around him, breathing in the brisk salt air, and fell into step behind Pip with a sigh.
***
Diamond Tiara lay curled on Cherry Jubilee's couch, half dozing, and half listening as her hostess busied herself around the house, quietly singing to herself as she worked. She was unused to somepony knowing she was around and being that happy with themselves, being more accustomed to a certain cowed, wary silence from anypony in earshot.
As she thought about it, she began to realize that that wasn't completely true, what she was unused to was somepony else being happy and not resenting it, not feeling somehow slighted that somepony was getting something that she wasn't. That didn't make a lot of sense, though. She'd always gotten everything she ever wanted from the cradle onward. What was missing?
For some reason, the fact that the mare who'd brought her back from the brink of death was happy somehow made her feel happy as well. She couldn't quite understand it, and her brow furrowed as she stared pensively at the filigree of golden dots that the late afternoon sun cast on the hardwood floor through Jubilee's lace curtains.
Her ears perked up, and she lurched to an upright position at the sound of hoof steps on the porch, one set slow and heavy and a couple more small and staccato in pace. She winced as the screen door slammed open with a crack, accompanied by the squeal of a pair of young fillies in sun bonnets, who capered and swirled around the hooves of a large, reddish orange earth pony stallion in a grey stetson and a dark vest bearing the star of an Equestrian Marshall. He wore a set of saddlebags marked with his cutie mark, a bronze lawpony's star.
Cherry Jubilee's remonstrating voice called out from the kitchen. "Cherry Cordial! Brass Button! Y'all keep it down, y'hear? Our guest is sleepin' in th' parlor."
As Diamond Tiara peered furtively over the arm of the couch, the red maned mare came out with pursed lips and a wryly cocked eyebrow. One of the fillies, plum colored with a mane of the same fiery red as Jubilee's mane with dark brown streaks instead of white pawed at the ground with a hangdog expression on her face. "Sorry, Ma."
Her friend, who was a tawny gold with a pale yellow mane, assumed a similar attitude. "Sorry, Missus Cherry."
Jubilee took them both into a hug, kissing them each on the forehead. "Aw, don't fret about it none, gals. Just try t' be considerate n' keep it to a low roar, okay?"
The fillies both grinned and said "Roar." in unison, pitching their youthful voices as deep as they could before subsiding into a fit of hushed giggling. The red headed mare laughed and shook her head as they squirmed out of her embrace and went tip-toeing rapidly up the stairs with more giggles and whispers.
Jubilee stepped up to the stallion and kissed him as he removed his hat and held it in the crook of his hoof. She smiled at him fondly as she greeted him. "Howdy, Red. Y'all have a good day?"
He gave a slow, affable smile and nodded. "Yep. Pretty quiet, all told. The regulars down at th' Cherry Branch all said they missed ya. Sarsaparilla said t' tell ya everythin' was well in hoof."
She gave a shrug. "Well, I had a pony here who was a lot thirstier than any o' them jokers."
He glanced toward the stairs. "Speakin' o' her, there was somethin' 'bout her in th' paper today."
The earth pony stallion gave a mild start as Diamond Tiara drew herself up so that he could see her over the couch cushion and called out to her host and hostess. "Um... H-hello?"
The marshall gave a polite bow as he and his wife made their way into the parlor to greet her. "Howdy, ma'am. I don't reckon we ever got properly introduced. I'm Jubilee's husband Marshall Cherry Red. I'm right glad t' see ya pulled through."
Diamond gazed back at the couple with unaccustomed shyness, feeling a twinge of self consciousness at her weakened state and disheveled appearance. "Th-thank you. For... for being glad I'm okay... and... and for being the ones who took me in and gave me water and food and cleaned me up and treated me so nice for no reason and made sure I was okay and... and well, thanks."
She tapped a hoof nervously on the couch cushions, anxiously clearing her throat. "Um... So... uh... So what did they say about me in the papers?"
Red gave her a searching look. "Not much more than me n' th' missus here already know, that y'were ponynapped by them changeling critters. They hauled off th' one that took yer place and tossed her in th' slammer. Folks are givin' ya up for lost, though yer husband says he's gonna devote every possible resource t' findin' ya."
A flash of her old venom flickered in Diamond's eyes. "Oh, I'll just bet he did."
At this Jubilee chimed in, laying a fore hoof on top of one of Diamond's outstretched hooves. "Darlin', we gotta get on th' horn right away and let 'em all know yer alive n' well! Yer loved ones must be just worried sick about ya."
The pink earth pony mare's ears laid back as her pupils shrank, and a wavering pool of tears began to well up in her eyes. "I... I d-don't... I don't have any. Nopony loves me. I'm a miserable blight on the lives of everypony around me." With a mournful wail she collapsed in tears, blubbering into Jubilee's shoulder as the older mare surged forward and took her into a hug.
The red headed matron rocked the sobbing castaway and rubbed her back as she cooed into her ear. "Aw... That's just horse hockey, darlin'. Ya gotta have somepony who loves ya, even if'n y'all don't know it. Nopony's got nopony."
Her husband cleared his throat uncomfortably and spun on a hoof to head for the kitchen. "Uh... I reckon I'll get y'all a washcloth. Back in a minute."
A clatter of little hooves on the stairs intercepted his progress as his daughter and her best friend came thundering down the stairs, their school bonnets replaced by cowpony hats. Cordial had done her mane in jutting pigtails, while Brass Button had braided hers.
The plum colored filly hopped on her hooves as she smiled at her father. "Brassy n' me are gonna go over t' Purple Sage's place t' see if'n we can help her n' Concho git their cutie marks."
She paused and cast a look of concern into the parlor. "What's goin' on in there, Pa?"
The stallion moved to interpose himself with a shake of his head. "Nothin' y'all need t' worry 'bout, sugarplum. Just run along n' play, now, n' make sure ya get back fer supper, y'hear?"
Cordial pulled her curious gaze away and reared up to give her father a hug and a kiss. "Okay, Pa. Love ya."
He hugged and kissed her in return with a gentle smile. "Love ya back, darlin'. Forever n' ever."
The little filly disengaged from the hug and trotted toward the door where Brass Button was waiting. She paused and shouted to her mother. "Love ya Ma! I'll be back fer supper!"
When she reached her friend's side, the two fillies faced off and began to clap alternating fore hooves together in rhythm as they chanted in unison. "One, Two, Horse Shoe, Friends Forever, YaHOO!"
As they finished they kicked up their heels and went galloping out the door, letting it slam behind them as the three adult ponies winced in unison at the sharp report.
Diamond Tiara stared over Jubilee's shoulder with a stunned expression on her face. After a long pause, a look of resolve made itself manifest on her sunken features. She pushed her hostess back to meet her gaze, speaking to her with a tremor in her voice. "You're right."
She made to climb to her hooves, helped by Jubilee as the older mare looked at her in confusion. A distant look settled in the young mare's eyes as she stood unsteadily and drew herself up with newfound purpose, as if she were about to take the first step on a long journey. "I understand now. I get it. There's a lot that I need to do."
The pastel pink mare slumped sideways, her eyes spiraling in opposite directions, as Jubilee braced her upright. The red headed mare shook her head with a dubious arch of her eyebrow. "Maybe ya better rest a li'l longer 'fore ya set to doin' it, darlin'."
***
A sharp clang of a reinforced door opening echoed down the concrete halls of the Los Pegasus municipal dungeon, followed by the echoing sound of hoofbeats. In a corridor striped in red from the sunset light streaming through the bars, a second set of doors slid open with a faint glow of blue and gold magic, revealing the elegant, star speckled silhouette of Princess Luna, flanked by an escort of four yellow eyed negasi guards and a pair of burly unicorns in prison guard tunics.
The procession made its way to the very end of the corridor, where the two unicorns stepped up to a third steel door with a brutally clunky horn actuated lock on either side. After inserting their horns and flashing a brief sequence of magical dots and dashes, the double doors swept aside with the clank and rattle of concealed gears.
The princess of the night stepped forward as the two guards bowed, entering the space beyond with her escorts in tow. The bars of a cell carved out of the living rock lay beyond, its sole occupant slouched on her angular black shelled haunches facing the back wall, her tattered, membranous wings and ragged green mane and tail trailing limply behind her on the polished floor. An iron collar hung around her neck, a light chain leading from it to a ring set in the floor, and a magic suppressing cork was stuck on the tip of her jagged horn.
Princess Luna gazed levelly at the back of the captive changeling queen's head, noting the wilted filaments of the crown like structure that normally jutted from behind her bladed horn. "Well well well, if it isn't the lead love locust herself. Long time no see, Chrissykins. Everypony was hoping they'd seen the last of you and your henchbugs after that little fracas at Neighagra Falls. I hope you enjoyed your barrel ride at the very least."
She was greeted with stony silence. After a few moments she gave a flick of an ear and lashed her glittering tail. "So... Since we're reminiscing, how about you let me in on what your scheme was this time. It stands to reason you've got it in for Twilight Sparkle and her friends, but I can't quite figure out your angle on this one."
More silence filled the claustrophobic space. Luna pawed at the ground, her turquoise glare fixed on the sullen black form crouching in the cell. "Not much to say, huh?"
She huffed in irritation and ruffled her dark feathered wings as a billowing black cloud started to coalesce over her starry maned head. "I guess I should mention that my sister sends her regards. She's been in kind of a mood recently, so we both thought it would be best if I came to talk to you alone. As princess of the night mysteries are kind of my thing anyhow. So you wanna clear some up with me?"
The diminutive changeling queen remained immobile, staring stoically at the wall without even flicking an ear or shifting her position.
The dark princess' eyes narrowed dangerously. "You should count yourself lucky that I'm so patient, queenie. You'd probably be on fire by now at the very least if you tried this silent treatment on Celestia."
She let a small crackle of thunder and a flash of strobing lightning echo off the walls of the cell. "So I'd speak up if I were you. You don't want me getting loud on ya."
Chrysalis sat stock still, unmoving and unresponsive. Princess Luna's indigo brow furrowed over a piercing glare, and she drew in breath to bellow in her loudest royal Canterlot voice of command when one of her negasi guards softly cleared his throat. "Begging your highness' pardon, but something's not right here."
The regent of the night flicked an ear and turned to him with a cocked eyebrow. "What is it, Sir Meadowlark?"
The negasus narrowed his eyes. "Sonar picture's weird, your highness. Would you kindly still the royal thunder for a moment?"
A pensive look settled on the night princess' face as she allowed her personal black cloud to disperse. Her guard stepped up to the bars and shifted his tufted ears as a staccato clicking issued from his throat.
His lambent yellow eyes flared as he turned to one of the unicorn prison guards. "Open this cell right now!"
The burly stallion turned to the princess, and receiving a nod turned and stepped up to the cell door, inserted his horn in the lock, and threw it open. Sir Meadowlark rushed into the space and swiped at the huddled form of Chrysalis with a fore hoof.
She toppled stiffly over, still in a seated position as she hit the ground with a hollow rattle. The head separated from the body and rolled across the hard stone floor, the cork tipped horn snapping off with a brittle crack before the hollow shell came to a rest facing the delegation of guards and their princess with a slack lower jaw and empty eye sockets.
The unicorn guard who'd opened the lock reared up and started screaming incoherently, as his fellow prison warder wheeled and started galloping down the hall in a clatter of hooves, shouting at the top of his lungs. "ALARM! ALARM! THE CHANGELING QUEEN HAS ESCAPED! ALARM!"
Princess Luna brought a hoof to her face with a weary sigh as a shimmering trail of silver stars sprang forth from her tail, snaking down the hallway after the galloping guardpony. It wrapped around his hooves and brought them together, flipping him over and hanging him in midair as another loop closed around his muzzle, silencing him. A second stream of stars shot across and wrapped around the snout of the unicorn who'd unlocked the cell door, stilling his shrieks. The inverted guard was brought back to the cell and set gently down on his hooves next to his comrade.
The dusky princess of the night gave them an apologetic smile. "Sorry, colts, but I need a couple minutes of peace and quiet, okay? Thanks." To emphasize their mistress' point, three of her negasi escort turned and fixed the two prison guards with a yellow eyed glare that would brook no further protest. The two burly unicorn stallions nodded meekly to their co-sovereign and gave her a bow.
Luna ducked into the cell and stepped up beside Sir Meadowlark, who ruefully turned the blackened, chitinous husk over to reveal a long, ragged edged slit running from the base of the throat all the way down the belly. The taciturn negasus met his princess' gaze with a frown. "Looks like she shed her shell, just like a big cave cricket."
The moon's regent hung her head and let out a growl echoed by a faint peal of thunder from the cloud over her head. She glanced at the oil lamps illuminating the cell, willing them to go out and plunging the space into darkness. The flighty unicorn guard let out another clipped scream that was stifled by a negasus guard's hoof.
A moment later, Luna sparked her horn to life, causing it to glow a deep purple as the whites of her eyes and her crescent moon cutie mark gleamed in the dark light. An invisible pool of dried slime appeared, fluorescing a sickly green around the spot where Chrysalis' discarded carapace had been seated. A trail of dainty, foal sized hoof prints led from it over to and up the wall, the trail terminating at an air vent with more dribbles of dried slime rolling down the stonework. She reached out with her magic and lifted the grate away, revealing that it had been unscrewed and just hung from the brackets.
Meadowlark spoke up, gazing with his faintly glowing yellow eyes at the opening. "Huh. That's a pretty small vent, even for something filly sized."
Luna's lip curled in mild disgust. "Well, she was probably all squishy until her shell dried." She let the grate drop with a clatter. "Ugh. Could she be any more gross?"
With a nod, she lit the lamps again with sparks of lightning from her horn, and wheeled to duck out of the cell. "Okay, lets roll, kids. We need to talk to the warden, and then get the Lo Peg city guard to set up a dragnet."
She paused, casting a pointed glare at the two unicorn prison guards. "Discreetly, okay? No need to start a general panic."
Her quartet of escorts and the two jailers fell into step behind her as she pursed her lips and furrowed her brow beneath her black diadem. "I may need to stock up on sunglasses for when I tell Tia about this."
***
A cool breeze blew across the bay as Soarin stood on a small tuft of cloud that hovered over the bulbous silhouette of the Friend Ship, watching the sky toward the south with an anxious look on his face. His employers and the rest of the team had shown up a few hours after he and Pip had arrived, and had proceeded to make camp as the other racers and their cohorts had arrived one by one.
Spike and Quillina had arrived, flying wingtip to wingtip to much rejoicing from Twilight and Rarity, who proceeded to buttonhole the two young dragons around their campfire and mercilessly grill them about their flight. The Wonderbolts had been waiting at the camp, with boisterous greetings from Dash and Spitfire, and even a reticent nod of respect from Shootin' Star. There were warm greetings from Flies Like Thunder and Long Range, a chagrinned apology from Golden and Granola Bay about the reception their hometown crowd in Los Pegasus had given them, and a few tense exchanges of glares with the stallions from Cloudsdale. There had been much chatter throughout the camp about Professor Destiny and Doctor Insanity, who'd been dubbed the Wrong Brothers by general consensus, as well as the huge column of Air Cavalry that were pursuing them. Their black contrail was visible over the spires of Vanhoover as darkness fell across Equestria.
Only the Baron and his retinue hadn't arrived, and as the day faded to night and the sun ceded it's place to the moon and stars and the watchlights from the Pegathalon campsite, the former Wonderbolt had been feeling a knot of tension growing in his chest.
Was he going to win by default? That didn't sound like the proud griffin's style at all. It was too good to be true, and set the hairs in his mane prickling, like standing on a black cloud and knowing any second it might snap off a lighting strike.
He ruffled his wings and shivered, letting out an exasperated huff. "Is suspense a legal weapon for a duel, 'cos it's loopty loopin' killing me right now..."