“What do you want, Amethyst?” Boulder said, after a second of silence. He regarded me coldly from across the room, sinking into a cautious stance. A moment later Flare came down the stairs. He looked rather indifferent about my reappearance.
“Yes, what are you doing here?” Marmalade demanded, still brandishing the pan.
Their accusatory eyes drove me to the floor. My soul cowered under the growing flames of their anger. It hurt, like a thousand punches to the heart. When you live off emotions, the peaks and depths become all but physical.
“I’m... I’m sorry,” I said, staring at the knot in the wooden board just below my muzzle. “I just wasn’t thinking.”
“You think?” Boulder asked. “How did attacking the princess seem like a good idea at the time? Hell, have you even thought what you are doing here? You said you wanted to fix things when we first met, but all you're doing is making it worse!”
“I know,” I muttered glumly.
“Sure doesn’t seem like it,” he retorted, snorting testily. “All you’ve done is cause pain, so why don’t you run back to–”
“Boulder,” Flare interrupted, his voice calm and level, “give him a chance to speak.”
“Why should I give him the chance?” his brother demanded.
“Isn’t that the problem?” Flare asked, raising an eyebrow. “Would any of this have happened if they had just given Amethyst or his family the chance?”
Boulder fell into a guilty silence. He nodded slowly, solemnly.
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I steeled myself against my emotions. “Flare, Boulder is right. You shouldn’t have to give me another chance given what I did. It wasn’t right of me to abuse your trust to the extent I did, and still expect you to forgive me. I just wanted to say I’m sorry for everything I put you through, and everything I did. Thank you for everything... I’ll be leaving now.”
Boulder sighed. “Amethyst, wait... Can you at least tell us why you did what you did?”
As I said before, I owed them an answer. “I was just hurting too much to think straight,” I said. “My parents meant so much to me, and even though she promised to return it, I could not bear the thought of letting the locket out of my sight–”
Marmalade’s nose twitched as she sniffed the air. “Alright, we get it: you’re sorry!” she interrupted, raising a hoof to her nose. “But can you please stop the self-pity act and go take a shower?”
Only then did I realize how we looked, practically dripping with rotting fruit and compost.
“Um, do you have a shower?” I asked, moving to rub the back of my head with a hoof, but thinking better of it as I saw the state of my leg.
“Yes, just use the one in the first room upstairs,” she replied, her voice muffled behind her hoof.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rivlets of hot water dripped down my body, ridding me of the filth the crowds had lashed upon me. I fiddled with the dial, making the flow of water as hot as it was able. What would be scalding for a pony was comfortable to a changeling. The fires which wound over our bodies whenever we took on a disguise were not simply aesthetics. The flames were hot, yes, but merely painfully hot to a pony, not scalding.
However pleasant the shower was, I knew it had to end. Turning the tap off, I stepped from the shower, drying myself off roughly. I took a moment to rub the steam from the mirror, stepping back. My reflection barely recognized me, and I it.
Physically, I looked the same as I always had. The change was in how I held myself; what my soul sung. That was different. I appeared battered and beaten, my will to continue just about hanging by a thread. Had I really fallen that far? The mirror fogged up before I could get another look.
I emerged from the haze of fog, trotting downstairs to rejoin the others, praying they would at least give me another chance.
“Next,” I called, ruffling my mane dry.
Starlight stood favoring her left foreleg. “I guess that’s me,” she said.
A somewhat awkward silence filled the room as she left, none of us knowing what to say. They obviously knew why I was here, so it bore little need for an explanation.
“Alright, Amethyst,” Boulder sighed heavily. “We’ll give you another chance. Only if you promise never to do something like that again.”
“I promise,” I swore instantly. “Where’d Marmalade run off to?” I asked next.
Boulder waved a hoof in the direction of a door. “She’s started on supper, complaining about cooking for six.”
“But we–” I began to protest.
“We’re not staying,” Ocean Wind interrupted. “Once myself and Starlight have cleaned up, we are going back to the castle.”
“Hold on a moment,” I protested. “They never said that we had to come back right away.”
Whatever retort Ocean had in mind died when he heard a pained screech from upstairs. He was already halfway up the stairs before I realized what had happened. Having taken such a hot shower minutes before, the water in the pipes would still be particularly scalding. Flare seemed to pick up on this, raising an eyebrow in question.
“Think I left the water a little too hot.”
Marmalade stormed from the kitchen a moment later, an apron tied around her neck. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing worth getting worked up over,” Flare said calmly.
She snorted disbelievingly, but let the matter go. “One of you want to give me some help making supper?”
“Sure,” I volunteered before either of the brothers could. I would rather not be here when Starlight came back down.
My vision was suddenly darkened as Lemon Marmalade tossed something over my head.
“Put that on,” she said, her voice receding towards the kitchen. “Don’t want you making a mess of yourself.”
I took the cloth off my head to find another apron, bordered with pink frills. “Don’t you have anything else?”
“I’m sure I still have my old foal bib buried somewhere,” she answered, grinning with a glint in her eyes.
Boulder and Flare chuckled, hiding smiles behind hooves. “Perhaps you should take it,” Boulder joked, struggling to keep a straight face, “I mean, I can picture it perfectly.”
Rolling my eyes, I followed Lemon Marmalade lead and entered the kitchen, ignoring the laughter I left behind. The chemistry of cooking and preparing food was not alien to me, but I had never exceeded a standard beyond fine or acceptable. I could cook, but compared to my mother or father... Well, there was no comparison to make.
The kitchen was somewhere between that of a restaurant's and any home’s kitchen. It was neither as large as the former, nor smaller have the later, having a modest layout and provisions to cook a variety of meals. There were a few steel countertops for cutting, but the remainder of the cabinets, outside the stove and burners, were made of lightly stained maple. Marmalade was already at work, tugging loose a pot from the cupboards, while finely dicing a few tomatoes at the same time.
“So, what do you need my help for?” I asked, tying the straps of the apron.
“If I’m going to be making chili for six, I’m going to have to double the recipe. I need you to keep an eye on the pot while I chop up everything else.”
“That’s it? Really?”
“Well, there is one thing,” Marmalade said, pursing her lips. “Could you hold your leg out, please?”
“Um, ok, why?”
I sputtered indignantly as she hooked a few ladles through the holes in my leg, making me a little more than a cutlery rack. She shot me an amused smile before turning back to her chopping. I wasn’t just going to let her leave me standing here, balancing the ladles carefully. Plus, they were beginning to tickle.
“Hey, Marmalade?” I said, “I have a question.”
“Yes?”
“Would you mind holding these for me?” I said, throwing a bunch of dish towels over her head.
“Hey,” she chuckled, tugging them lose and setting them over my back. “I need to see what I’m doing. Hold them yourself.”
“What about a can of beans?” I asked, trying to balance one I grabbed from an open cupboard on her head.
“Now hold on!” she laughed, enveloping my aura of magic, with her own, trying to force it away. “I’m being serious, Amethyst. Stop!”
“What about the tomato?”I persisted, drawing it away from her knife. “Perhaps you wouldn’t mind holding it either?”
“Why don’t you hold on to it,” she replied, pushing it towards me, overpowering my own magic with her own.
I redoubled my own efforts, halting the movement of the two objects. Narrowing her eyes, Lemon Marmalade increased her own output, creating a standoff. However with the recent strains I had placed upon my own dwindling reserves, I knew I was bound to fail in a contest of strength. The half tomato impaled itself of my horn, as I turned my focus solely to the can. What would have gone on for another few minutes was shattered as the can buckled and broke, coating the immediate area with beans and their juices.
Marmalade and I stared at each other in shock as the can tumbled to the ground. Having heard the noise, Flare stuck his head in through the doors, long enough to take a look, blink, then wisely withdraw. The moment that the door shut, we broke into laughter. Not the sort of light chuckle you share at a funny joke, but the side splitting bellows that brought tears to your eyes, and hurt when you couldn’t stop. I staggered over the few steps towards her, leaning against her shoulder, struggling to stay upright. Marmalade fared no better than I did, and a second later she fell, sending both of us to the floor. Neither of us could care less.
The door opened once more, and this time Boulder looked in, stepping around the counter to see what the fuss was all about.
“Are you two going to finish making supper or should I take over?” he asked, staring at us in disbelief. “No, you know what, just go clean up, Flare and I will take over from here.”
Both of us flushed in embarrassment, as we stood up and took stock of ourselves: covered in crush beans and, in my case, a tomato impaled on my horn. Boulder saved me the trouble and plucked the fruit off my horn, lending his cousin a deadpan glare.
“Really?” he demanded. “No,” he exclaimed, cutting off her cousin’s explanation off. “I don’t even want to know what you did. I know you’ve been–”
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence,” Marmalade growled quickly, her face crimson.
“How about you go get cleaned up then, and try not to cause any more problems?” Flare suggested testily, shoving us both towards the door.
Three sets of eyes fell on us as we stepped out into the room, but all that was offered was Ocean’s ultimatum.
“We’ll talk later.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Once more the sound of running water filled the room I sat just outside of. Given I had already been through it once, and that I had been the cause of the mess, I let her have first dibs on the shower.
“So what was that about?” I asked, speaking though the door.
“What was what about?” she questioned in reply from within.
“What Boulder was saying before you interrupted him.”
A pregnant pause.
“So what do you think of the inn?” she queried, shying away from the subject.
Judging her earlier reaction, I wasn’t about to press my luck. “It’s nice I replied, You build it?”
“Kind of,” she answered. “My dad is an artist, and he originally bought this place as a gallery and home. The entire bottom floor was his gallery, and growing up, he made sure I did not play around down there. We lived upstairs, and it was nice for a home. A few years back though, a few of dad’s paintings sold for an awfully lot of bits at an auction. They moved up to a bigger place in Canterlot, and they left me this place. It took about a month to figure it all out, but with my savings, I managed to finish the renovations.”
“So do you run this place by yourself?”
“Celestia no,” she chuckled. I gritted my teeth at the use of that bitch’s name, but held my tongue. “I’ve hired eight ponies to help me run this place. With the recent changeling inv–” Abruptly she halted.
It was nice to see someone considerate of things which might offend me. “Changeling invasion, yes continue,” I prompted.
“Well, anyway, with Canterlot so riled up I knew we wouldn’t be getting any business, so I closed for a week or two till everypony calms down, or somepony comes knocking, whichever comes first.” The water shut off and the door to the bathroom opened. Just like before, she tossed the towel over my head, leaving me in darkness. “Come down when you’re finished.”
I lifted the towel from my eyes in time to see her pale yellow tail disappear around the corner. A moment after the buzzing in my head abated, something I had missed entirely, I realized that I was staring at the space she had left.
~~~~~~~~
For the second time that night I trotted down the stairs, following the second shower of the day.
“Your clean, good. We’re leaving,” Ocean declared, rising to his hooves.
“Hold on a moment,” Marmalade protested, “Why?”
“This is not a debate miss,” he responded curtly. “We will be taking Amethyst back to the castle.”
“Hold on a moment!” she repeated irately.”I just want to know why.”
“Amethyst requested to come here to apologize for his actions. I was willing to let him stay for supper, provided he didn’t cause any more problems, however, he’s clearly shown that that is not the case.”
“How?” she demanded.
“His actions in your kitchen and–”
“Wait a minute,” she interrupted, “You’re blaming that on him?”
Ocean Wind blinked, a monstrous display of surprise for the guard. “You’re saying it wasn’t?”
“No!” she exclaimed. “Well, not entirely,” she admitted after a moment. “But it’s still no reason he has to leave.”
“There are other reasons, but as before, this is not up to discussion.”
“Just because your marefriend didn’t bother to check the water temperature doesn’t put me at fault,” I exclaimed angrily.
All forms of politeness disappeared from Ocean Wind’s features. “Get to the door,” he snarled. “We’re leaving.”
Starlight didn’t hesitate to follow the command, storming to the door to tug it open. My heart leapt in shock at the sheer hate and malice which rushed through, chilling my soul. The door cut the flow as abruptly as it begun.
“Ocean, we have a problem!” Starlight hissed, her eyes wide with fright.
“What is it?” he asked, walking over to the curtains to peek between them. “... Shit!” he swore.
“What!?” I demanded.
“Seems the ponies from earlier have decided to try their luck again,” he answered, tightening the straps of his helm. “They’ve surrounded the building, and I’d bet my spear against a pebble, they aren’t going to let us leave easily.”
“So what are you going to do?” Marmalade asked, an edge of fear creeping into her voice.
“What we’re trained to do,” Starlight answered, tugging the door open once more.
Marmalade and I ran over to a window, peeking through the window. The murmur of a crowd grew to a sudden roar as the two stepped into the open. Ocean Wind flared his wings, forcing the crowd into silence.
“By order of the princess Celestia and Luna, you are ordered to disperse! This gathering has been deemed unlawful, and subject to immediate action! Failure to comply will result in your immediate arrest and incarceration until the time your case be brought in front of the courts! This is your first and only warning!”
“Give us the changeling!” came a shout from somewhere in the crowd. Other ponies shouted their agreement, in a tide of noise.
“The changeling is under the custody and supervision of the Royal Guard.” the Solar Guard declared. “This order came directly from the princesses, and is not open to interpretation. Disperse at once.”
“Why don’t you kill that thing?”
“Why is it running free?” came another cry.
“The situation is different the we initially believed,” Starlight explained. “It is no longer a simple–”
“You expect us to believe that crap!” came a familiar shout somewhere within the crowd.
My heart froze in my chest; I had heard that voice before. I craned my neck, trying to catch a glimpse of the speaker, but I couldn’t see anything.
Marmalade said something, but in my horror, I didn’t even recognize it as speech. The stairs greeted my hooves as I sprinted to the second floor, looking for a better view. The distance to the window at the end of the hall grew as each step took me closer, the seconds growing into hours. To see if the possibility was true, as horrifyingly improbable as it may be, became an obsession. It couldn’t be him, it just couldn’t. It took me a moment to cast my eyes over the crowd, and another to identify the speaker, setting my blood boiling in my veins.
It was.
The night of my parents death came back to me, as I stared at the beige stallion with the fedora who stirred the crowd into a frenzy. He raised a hoof, the same hoof he had struck my mother with, swinging it in a dramatic fashion to further infuriate the crowd. Had I been able, I would have struck him dead where he stood.
“You know what I think?” he proclaimed to the crowd. “I wonder if they are even Royal Guard! I know for a fact that the Royal Guard would never shelter such vile creatures from justice. I think that they are changelings themselves.”
The suggestion alone would have normally done nothing, his beliefs viewed as nothing more than paranoid ramblings, but under the circumstances, it was held as an absolute fact. His cry was taken up by others, the crowd encroaching against the two guards. Ocean Wind and Starlight tried to restore order, but their commands were drowned out by the shouts. They barely pried the door open, slipping inside and slamming it shut, before the mob pounded against it.
That beige earth pony with a fedora, didn’t join the push against the doors, or the calls of the mob. Instead, he stepped back, examining the scene, smiling to himself as he looked over what he had begun. It may have been a fluke, or some freak occurrence, but as he stared up at the building before him, his eyes met mine recognizing his opponent. He wasn’t shocked, or even disgusted, merely satisfied. Tipping his hat in infuriatingly polite gesture, he turned around, leaving the riot to the masses.
“Amethyst, get down here!” Marmalade shouted from below me, shocking me into action.
I pounded down the stairs, nearly losing my footing as I skidded to a halt. Flare and Boulder were already hard at work, placing tables in front of windows as objects rained in through the broken glass panes. The Lunar and Solar Guards struggled to hold the door shut, the lock having failed in mere seconds.
“Dammit,” Starlight groaned, as the door painfully bulged inwards from a blow. “Amethyst, don’t just stand there,” she shouted, “help us!”
A quick glance revealed a broken lock, shattered by the force of the blows. Given how quickly it had failed, finding something to prop beneath the handle of the door was out of the question. But if the barricade was tailor made...
“Get back from the door!” I shouted.
“Are you crazy?” Starlight hollered back. “They’ll bash through this door, the moment we let go!”
“Can’t you just hold it with your magic or a moment?”
“Why?”
“Trust me!” I begged.
Starlight met my gaze for a moment, then nodded. “Ocie, one the count of three, let go of the door.”
“What, you can’t be serious!” he exclaimed.
“Whatever you are going to do, do it quickly, Amethyst. One.”
“Star–”
“Two.”
“Dammit,” Ocean cursed, preparing to leap from the door.
“Three!”
I delved into my mind, searching for the few strands of magic remaining. Even though I had nothing left to give, I would take apart my mind if it meant protecting my friends. Thankfully, it did not come to that; I had the few thread of energy I needed to work the fires of change.
My intention and goal was simple, but no less complex. I intended to fuse the door to the frame, creating one solid piece of wood. The problem was that if I let my concentration stray, even for a moment, the spell could have the opposite effect. The wood could become nothing more than loose particles, vulnerable to even wind, let alone the battering hooves of a horde of ponies. With a flick of my horn, I betted our lives on a spell, and a facet of magic I had only barely begun to understand.
Green fire danced around the join of the door, tickling the the knots and rings of the wood. My breath froze in my chest as the glow faded. Had it worked?
A seamless piece of wood now stood in place of two. It had.
“What did you do?” Marmalade asked in wonder.
“Sealed the door,” I explained, slumping to the floor in exhaustion. “Only thing is, we can’t get out that way.”
Glancing around I noticed Flare and Boulder had finished covering the windows with makeshift barricades. For the moment, I guess we were safe.
“So what are you going to do now?” I asked Ocean Wind. Surely he had a plan.
“We wait,” he answered simply. “Once the sun sets guards will be dispatched to search for us.”
“So why are you even here then?” I asked, in annoyance. “We didn’t need you just so we could wait.”
“Princess Luna expected nothing like this.”
“So does this mean I can say ‘I told you so?’”
“Stop, both of you,” Starlight interrupted. “Lemon Marmalade, is there anywhere with clear view of the sky? I might be able to signal the guard.”
Marmalade shook her head, “No, I don’t think so, At least, not that I know of.”
“What about–”
A tinkling of glass sounded as a slender piece of wood, wrapped at one end with a cloth, was shoved through a gap. Only thing was, it was also alight with glowing tongues of fire. Without thinking, I rushed forward, and shoved it back out, ignoring the heat. There was no way this building was going up in flames, not if I could help it.
“I don’t think they are going to give us that time,” I declared. “If you can’t figure out something in the next few minutes, they may turn this into our funeral pyre.”