I enter the small apartment room and fall on the bed; I'm too tired to do anything else.
*
"Wow! Another baby dragon!"
Bleach turned at the sound. He'd been hoping to get straight up so that he could join Dime. He had some poetry to finish.
A little purple dragon with green spines and eyes was toddling towards him. He seemed fatter than Bleach, but then again, Bleach ran around the castle every day with Golden Sparkles to see if he could beat a pegicorn with flying difficulties.
"Who are you?" Bleach asked, narrowing his eyes.
"I'm Spike!" The little dragon grinned. "I'm here with Rarity" - the dragon's eyes clouded over dreamily for a second - "to find some Canterlot-exclusive dress materials."
Bleach nodded carefully. "Okay."
He turned to walk up the stairs to Dime's room, but the purple dragon, Spike wasn't it? called, "So who are you?"
"Bleach." Bleach didn't turn. Instead he kept walking up the stairs.
"Wait!" Spike called. "Whatcha doing in Canterlot?"
"I'm here with my queen." Climb the stairs and he'll probably get bored and go away. He's not exactly fit.
"Your queen?" Spike puffed behind him.
"Yes, my queen. Her name is Dimerius Molocti."
"Wow," panted Spike. "Can I meet her?"
"If she wishes you to."
"How'd you get here?" Spike asked.
"We came via a purple-winged escort, who seemed very arrogant. She did not have a horn." Bleach was trying to be as formal as possible so that the dragon wouldn't think Bleach was interesting.
"Plumage," Spike replied. "She's okay once you get to know her. Kid of the weather pony. Feather."
"No Rainbow Dash?"
"She's busy right now. Training to be a Wonderbolt. She can't do weather as well."
"A...wonder what?" Bleach asked blankly.
"Wonderbolt."
"Sorry?"
"Most Talented Flyers in All of Equestria? Where've you been? Under a rock or something?"
"You could say that," Bleach muttered.
"What?"
"Well, actually," Bleach replied, "Dime, Golden Sparkles and I have come from my home planet. Fërulia."
"Wow! But you don't look like you're from Fërulia." He pronounced it Feooliah. "You look like you're from here."
"Here? No. I serve my noble queen as well-ly as I can and-"
"Well-ly isn't a word."
Bleach narrowed his eyes and climbed faster.
"How do you know?"
"I live with a librarian."
They'd reached the top of the stairs. "This is where I am staying." Bleach said to the purple dragon.
"Can I see your queen?"
Bleach nodded. "But be careful. If she believes you have to go, then you have to go."
Spike nodded seriously.
Peeking inside, he almost fell over.
"What are you doing?! She is asleep! Do not disturb her!"
Spike nodded furiously. He tiptoed into the room. Bleach looked inside. Dime was sprawled across the bed, her loose mane and tail moving as if in an invisible wind. She breathed heavily; there would be no waking her.
Bleach sighed in relief.
"Spike..." Bleach warned. "If Golden Sparkles sees you in here she'll kill you."
"My queen's Maiden Of The Hoof," he explained at Spike's blank look.
When his blank look persisted Bleach said, "Oh, never mind, you just have to go!"
Spike let Bleach usher him out of the door. He sighed again and shook his head, curling up on his comfortable sparkly red bed.
*
Yawning, I open my eyes to see that surprisingly Bleach is still in bed. He's usually up and running about by now.
I open the door and smile into the sunshine. It's a beautiful day, just ready to be spent.
I look down at the Gardens. I will visit them today.
Not today. Now.
Wings spread, I land lightly in an alcove holding a big statue. Its label reads, 'Victory'.
The statue on the pedestal in the middle seems very real... I keep avoiding it subconsciously, as if it's something I shouldn't see.
I force myself to look at it.
And gasp.
Fall backwards.
Shock.
No.
No.
No.
It's Discord.