//------------------------------// // Darkening Skies // Story: Equestrian Joe // by HellRyden //------------------------------// Chapter 9: Darkening Skies Waking up the next morning was quite the new experience, I found. This being the first time I’d had a taste of what royal bedding felt like, I nearly found myself suffocated on all sides by the ridiculously soft upholstery of the suite’s luxury bed when I woke up - seriously, the damn stuff was so impossibly pliant that I must’ve sunk at least a full foot into it before finally stopping. I had to claw my way out of the sheets and the pillows before I finally managed to fumble my way out of the bed, and when I’d finally done so, I’d proceeded to unceremoniously roll out the side, fall straight out of bed, and land on the floor below with a pained grunt. Real dignified exit, yeah. “If I may say so sir, that was a most grand exit from the bed. Will you be needing any further assistance for the rest of the day, I wonder?” A wizened, cultured voice came from the side, mirroring my thoughts almost perfectly, and I immediately scrambled to my feet to salvage any vestiges of grace I had left, turning to look towards the source of the voice. What greeted me was a sight that had me experiencing a curious sense of déjà vu. A tall, composed, grey-coated unicorn pony stood next to the door leading out of the suite, standing at attention and clad in an immaculate butler’s suit. His steel-gray mane was neatly slicked back, and he was sporting the most British moustache I swore I had ever seen. Yet despite the outward servile airs that he was putting on however, the dryness and sarcasm that he had laced his earlier statement with didn’t get past me. I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d seen someone like this guy from somewhere before. “Don’t mind me, that was just a one-off. I don’t usually sleep in beds like this,” I grunted anyway as I rubbed at my eyes, trying to boot my brain back up. I seriously wasn’t ready to entertain a visitor this early in the morning. “I take it you’re the contact Celestia has assigned to me while I’m staying in here?” “A most astute observation, sir.” The stallion nodded, the barest hint of a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth as he bowed slightly towards me, not seeming even the slightest bit fazed by my appearance or my attire, even as I stood before him in all the non-existent glory of my morning pajamas. “Sir Bitworth, at your service. I am - or rather, was the vice-manager of the castle’s domestic staff, before I was assigned by the Princess herself to attend to your material needs for the duration of your stay here at the castle. A rather important, crucial assignment, she quite impressed upon me, so I see no reason to believe it otherwise.” Bitworth? I thought incredulously to myself as an eyebrow raised itself while he spoke, and my brow scrunched up in thought as the sense of déjà vu intensified. Okay, now I know I’ve seen someone like you somewhere before… but where? “As of now, my duties are to ensure that all meals are delivered to these chambers on time anonymously, that your material needs for your personal comfort are seen to, and that the servants remain none the wiser to your identity.” Bitworth continued as though completely oblivious to my expression, though the knowing glint in his eye seemed to indicate otherwise. “I can also make arrangements for any furnishing or redecoration requests you may have to the adjacent room connected to this suite should you wish to make them, as the room is currently unoccupied and not being put to any use.” “The adjacent room’s empty?” I blinked the sleep out of my eyes as my brain seized upon the fact. Immediately, I strode over to the door leading next door, finding it surprisingly unlocked, and opened it up to confirm it. As I peered through the door, I blinked in surprise as I realized that yes, the adjacent room was very much empty, and it was a lot bigger than I’d thought it would be. The room had to be the size of a full-sized gymnasium, or even larger - I suspected that it could have held an entire tennis court, and still have enough room leftover to add on a dojo’s sparring floor on top of that. Well, I certainly hadn’t expected that. I closed the door and turned back to Bitworth, who was giving me the same kind of smile that one would patiently give to a particularly slow child, as though waiting for me to come to a conclusion myself. “So, will sir be wanting to make any furnishing request for the adjacent chambers?” “Not… quite right now, Bitworth, thanks.” I held up a hand, shaking my head and still trying to come to terms with how quickly this was all moving. This was just… way too convenient. Did Celestia actually plan on placing me here? And if she did, then what for? “Just… give me a minute to think things through. I’ll let you know when I have some ideas.” “Very good, sir.” The old butler nodded in deference. “Now, while you are busy pondering whatever ideas you may have, perhaps you may wish to indulge in some food first. I took the liberty of preparing breakfast for you before I arrived - I was uncertain as to what diet you may prefer, so I erred on the side of caution and prepared something I know you have eaten before. I understand that you have been residing at Sweet Apple Acres for the past week, so some apple pastries, a few slices of buttered bread, and a glass of orange juice should be just fine.” I blinked again, for the first time noticing the tray that he had been almost imperceptibly levitating behind his back, surrounded by a faint gunmetal gray aura as it floated silently behind him and carrying the aforementioned food items that he’d just described. My stomach immediately rumbled in agreement with his suggestion of breakfast, reminding me of just how hungry I was, and I grabbed the tray as it floated towards me, eagerly digging in. As I ate, I began pondering on my next step, chewing thoughtfully on the slice of apple pie I’d been brought - so far, the goal had been to find a way home, and as far as Princess Celestia’s promise had went, the fulfillment of that particular wish was entirely in her hooves now. Which left me in a curious state of waiting right now - I didn’t exactly want to spend the entire time doing nothing, and living in the lap of luxury was a fast track on the way to becoming lazy and complacent; something I knew all too well thanks to the years in my youth before the rude awakening that was National Service. If I didn’t want to fall into that personal trap of mine, I needed something to occupy my time with, something productive; even if it was something as repetitive and gruelling as the hard, physical labor I’d been going through at Sweet Apple Acres the past several days. … Come to think of it, the gears in my head ground as my train of thought continued chugging along, I could actually think of several things to keep myself busy with. I haven’t been training much lately ever since I moved to the States, and if my trip through the Everfree is any indication, I am really out of practice. Well, there was no denying that particular truth - before I had moved to America, I’d dabbled a little bit in practicing Wing Chun back in my home country, certainly pandering to the stereotype that All Chinese People Knew Martial Arts. But ever since my migration halfway across the world, I hadn’t had the time, energy, or the reason to practice it, or bring the topic of my knowledge of martial arts up in conversation. The same went for what few kendo and parkour lessons I’d informally received from a friend of mine; other than that, most of what I already knew about swordsmanship and freerunning had been self-taught. But judging from how many close calls I’d been through in the Everfree, it sure as hell still wasn’t enough. I’d only barely survived my run-in with Wolfzilla in the Everfree thanks to what I’d learned in running the hell away as fast as possible through the most direct route possible, and my reflexes had been barely enough to react sufficiently quickly to take down my wolven attackers, only thanks to the combat training I had previously undergone, but neglected to maintain. Not only did that worry me, but Celestia’s words from yesterday echoed ominously through my head as well as I contemplated them again, their meaning growing more and more ominous by the minute. Hopefully, your stay here will be as short and uneventful as we can make it - it would pain me to have to put you through any unnecessary trouble... Well, call me paranoid, but it sounded like she had been hinting at something else entirely with that sentence, and I wasn’t about to let myself get caught unprepared. I didn’t survive the Everfree by not listening to my survival instinct, and right now, it was screaming at me to batten down the hatches, because it was only a matter of time before shit started going down. Now the only question was how I was going to do that, and as the gears in my head finally clicked into place, an idea began to solidify. “Say, Bitworth,” I said as I turned to look at the old, wizened butler curiously. “You wouldn’t happen to have any experience in putting obstacle courses and training areas together, would you?” --- Over the next few days, the suite’s adjacent room underwent its gradual transformation into a makeshift obstacle course and training area, and Bitworth showed just how scarily competent he was at getting shit done without me noticing. Seriously, the room was right next door, and you would have thought that setting something up as large as an obstacle course would at least give off some noise, but the old butler and the servants he had undoubtedly called to shift the stuff up didn’t make even a whisper. I’d woken up two mornings later to a tray of buttered pancakes with maple syrup, and once I’d finished wolfing it all down, I’d gone to check on the adjacent room, to find to my awed disbelief that at least half of the obstacle course had already been set up. By the time I’d finished picking my jaw up off the floor, Bitworth had appeared next to my shoulder as soundlessly as he always did, levitating the empty breakfast tray and looking at me expectantly. "I take it that sir is satisfied with the improvements we have been making to the adjacent suite?" "It's uh... going up a lot faster than I expected." I nodded, leaving out the part about how freaked out I was on how quietly they were doing it too. "How much longer before everything's set up?" "It shouldn't take longer than two more days at the most," Bitworth replied sagely. "In the meantime, shall we continue with your attempts in learning how to decipher written Equuish?" I gave the old butler a deadpan look as I registered the subtle jab, but I took it in good humor and shrugged, walking over to the nearest bookshelf and picking out the book on Equestrian law that we had been going through translating yesterday. Over the past two days, while waiting for the training room to get set up, I’d decided to at least try to give the books that stocked the suite’s spacious bookshelves a read, but the meanings of their flowing, alien script that looked like some strange cross between Spanish and Japanese continued to elude me. Bitworth, in all his generosity, had offered to teach me how to read written Equuish in an attempt to offset my apparent illiteracy, which looked very strange to a pony; according to him, I spoke perfect Equuish, yet for some odd reason I was simultaneously incapable of reading even a single word of it. Of course, I didn’t speak my thoughts out loud, but to me, they were speaking something that sounded exactly like English, which had somewhat rather disturbing implications now that I thought about how Celestia seemed to have personal knowledge of humanity itself, but that was besides the point. Still, when in Rome, do as the Romans do, right? I’d taken the old butler up on his offer, but my attempts at learning to read Equuish had been… lacklustre, at best. I’d somehow managed to stumble around learning the language’s written script even worse than a newborn, butchering the transition from written to spoken word badly enough that I think I would have given Twilight an aneurysm had she been here; seriously, I’d read something as simple as “no” and translated it to “do not want”. Despite my fumbling attempts at mastering their written language, Bitworth had shown a herculean amount of patience as he coached me hour after hour in deciphering Equestrian texts, shrugging off my mistakes patiently despite my embarrassment each time I mangled the translations beyond all recognition. Of course, that didn’t stop my attempts at continuing to master it either, despite all the embarrassing mistakes that I kept on making time and again even two hours into our fifth lesson a full week into my residence at Canterlot castle, when he had already finished setting up the training area and I was intending to test it out after we had finished our translation lesson for the morning. “Sir, that word is ‘freeze’, not ‘cheese’.” Bitworth explained patiently again as I stared embarrassedly at the mistranslated word so hard I was surprised I hadn’t burned a hole in the book yet. “I don’t think that a guard shouting ‘cheese’ at a fleeing criminal would be all that common a sight, after all.” “Ugh, right…” I let out a tired sigh as I shut the book, pinching the bridge of my nose in frustration at my failed efforts once again. “Well, I think that’ll be all for me for today, Bitworth. Barring those translation spells you told me about, and you said that they were pretty advanced, learning Equuish on its own is just bloody hard. This is just... aggravating." “There is actually a saying amongst us Equestrians, sir.” Bitworth suggested as he dutifully levitated the book out of my hands and returned it to its bookshelf. “‘A watched flank never receives its Cutie Mark’. It takes time to learn things new things that you haven’t grasped yet. There really is no rush in this, so there is no need to be so hard on yourself. But I suppose you don't really need me telling you what to do - shall we be moving on to your test run of the training room then?” Well, that certainly sounded like something I'd do a lot better at than my recent flailing attempts to master reading written Equuish. Bitworth’s little piece of wisdom bounced about in my head for a bit as I considered it briefly, but I was still too frustrated and sore over my failings at reading Equuish to really consider it. Instead, I simply nodded, and got off the chair to change out of my shorts and tank top into my more rugged hiking attire, something more suited to physical activity, as Bitworth understandingly vacated the room to go check on the training room’s equipment while I switched kits. Once I was done, I stepped into the training room proper, and took a moment to admire Bitworth’s work for the first time since I had commissioned him to get it set up for me: an obstacle course that could have easily contended with the interiors of some of the parkour gyms I’d been to decorated at least three quarters of the room, putting to shame the obstacle course I'd run through during my time in Basic. In addition, the last quarter of the room off to the side held a smaller training area where a number of punching bags and practice dummies in various positions stood, along with a rack of wooden practice swords that I had requested. The practice swords came in various shapes and sizes, mostly in the form of medieval European weaponry with your typical shortswords and longswords, though to my surprise they even had a few Eastern analogues as well, Bitworth having managed to produce the very distinctive daishō pair of a katana and a wakizashi, both of them as wooden practice bokkens. Apparently, they did use those kind of swords in the Royal Guard, as a mark of respect to their officers who hailed from the Neighpon province of Equestria, with other types of swords signifying the heritage of other provinces (i.e. Cavalry Sabers for those hailing from Manehatten, Spathas and Gladius’ for officers from Cloudsdale, Viking Swords for officers from Stalliongrad, and Jians and Daos for officers who were born in Chineigh. Don’t look at me like that, even I think the horse pun on ‘China’ was cringe-worthy), and very often you could tell where in Equestria an officer hailed from simply by looking at his sword. Bitworth had explained as much to me upon seeing my raised eyebrow, and I decided not to look at a gift horse in the mouth - there’d never been a Neighpon or a Chineigh province featured in the show, another sign that this was a living, breathing world that I was residing in, not just a vivid hallucination cooked up by a fever-addled brain, and there was more to this place than just what canon seemed to dictate. And hey, if they had what I was looking for, who was I to complain? I went through several practice drills on the dummies to test them out, and nodded in satisfaction once I was sure they weren't actually old surpluses that were on the verge of falling apart. Bitworth had seen fit to outfit the room with equipment that seemed like it was fresh off the metaphorical factory line, because the wooden longsword that I set back on the weapon rack barely bore any marks of having been used before me. I gave the old butler a thankful, approving nod, and moved on to the obstacle course, stretching and warming up for what was going to be my first practice run in at least three years. "Will you be needing me to put the first aid kit on standby just in case, sir?" Bitworth suggested as I stretched out my back, and it let out a particularly wince-worthy crack, showing just how stiff and rusty I was. "It seems like you've been out of practice for quite a while as it is." "I'll be fine, Bitworth." I shrugged his concern off casually as I tugged on my half-fingered hiking gloves, and tried to ignore just how blatantly I was tempting fate. "How bad could it be?" --- *CRASH* *BANG* *TUMBLE* *CRACK* “JESUS CHRIST OW, WHAT THE FUCK!?” --- "Well I did warn you, sir," The old butler said as he crouched over me, binding the sprained ankle that I'd scraped out of a bad landing, wearing the purest expression of I told you so I'd ever seen a pony wear on his face, and I furiously tried not to think about the fact that I'd barely even made it past the first half of the obstacle course before my epic fumble. "No need to fret, really; it does take a while to get back into the swing of things." I didn’t say anything, but my ears still burned anyway as I beat the embarrassment off with a mental wooden stick, and I merely nodded with a grunt. As Bitworth finished binding up the injury and helped me to my feet, I realized something a little strange: despite having kept at a sustained sprint throughout my entire run, I wasn’t as tired as I thought I’d be at the end of it. Granted, I was still rather winded by the time I’d hit the halfway mark and made my epic fumble, but I wasn’t doubled over while gasping for air and clutching at the muscle stitches in my sides - a sensation I had become intimately familiar with throughout my earliest parkour training sessions when I had just picked it up, as well as my mad dashes throughout the Everfree. Odd, but certainly not unwelcome. Maybe all that work at Sweet Apple Acres hadn’t been a total waste of time after all, I reflected mildly to myself as I accepted the proffered glass of water that Bitworth passed to me and drank deeply from it, setting the empty glass back on the silver tray he held out once I was done with it. “So, barring the injury you sustained, are you satisfied with the work on the training room, sir?” Bitworth enquired, and I nodded emphatically as I limped back to the suite’s main room. “You did a great job, Bitworth.” I acknowledged as I set my hand down on the doorknob leading back into the main room and twisted it to pull it open. “Thanks for the effort, really. I’d probably go stir-crazy if I didn’t have something to keep myself busy with aside from reading those Equestrian texts. Anyway, I-” I pulled the door open, took a step forward, and my sentence immediately screeched to a halt as I registered the alabaster-white alicorn that stood towering over me in the doorway, looking over my head with a curious expression on her face. “My, my… This is certainly unexpected,” Celestia mused to herself with a bemused grin as she glanced over my shoulder into the adjacent room, and I stared agog up at her in surprise. “Has he been keeping you busy, Bitworth?” “It was nothing I couldn’t handle, Your Highness,” Bitworth replied with a hint of pride in his voice, and though it seemed physically impossible given his typical posture, he seemed to stand even straighter at attention. “Master Joseph has been most reasonable with his demands so far - it certainly is a refreshing change of pace from having to oversee an entire castle all at once, needing to attend to only a single pony’s needs.” “It certainly must be.” Celestia let out a matronly chuckle, and she directed her gaze towards me. “If you don’t mind, Bitworth, could you excuse us for a moment? There is something I need to speak to young Joseph about.” “Of course, Your Highness. Do let me know if you need anything.” Bitworth nodded in acquiescence, and the old butler retreated out of the room in silence, leaving me alone with the immortal alicorn goddess that had decided to house me here. “Well, I see that you’ve certainly been busy preparing,” Celestia remarked, eyeing the training room behind me as Bitworth closed the door behind him. “Expecting trouble, are we?” “Well, I’ve been through a few hard knocks. Life has taught me to… take precautions whenever I can,” I replied carefully as I shut the door behind me, stepping back into the suite’s main room. “But you don’t need to know my entire life’s story for that, Princess. I take it that you’re not down here for a social visit?” The corner of Celestia’s mouth quirked upwards in a smile, and she chuckled lightly. “Very well, let us cut to the chase then, since I can tell from the past few days that you’re not one to be caught up in pleasantries if you can help it.” I raised an eyebrow at that - had Celestia been watching me? Still, the princess didn’t say anything else regarding that, and she merely gave an enigmatic smile as she strode back into the main room, with me following close behind her. “I have your means to walk incognito amongst us, but there will still be limitations that you have to abide by, both for the safety of my subjects as well as your own.” I nodded in compliance, understanding where the princess was coming from. “All right, I can deal with a few restrictions, though would largely depend on what exactly they entail.” “Not a big fan of rules, are you?” Celestia laughed, and her horn sparked as a simple, silver amulet suspended on a chain flashed into existence before me. “Well, I’ve tried my best to keep them as reasonable as possible, but the fact remains that it would be an ill-advised course of action to let you roam around the castle unguided.” You mean ‘unsupervised’. The traitorous thought slithered into my mind unbidden, but I held my tongue as Celestia levitated the amulet towards me, gesturing for me to take a hold of it. “This amulet was personally crafted by myself for your own use, and you will have to wear it whenever you step outside of this room.” She explained as I grabbed the amulet out of the air, holding it closer and scrutinizing it carefully. “It will layer an illusion over you whenever you wear it around your neck, and make you appear as an earth pony to anypony who lays eyes on you. I spent quite some time tweaking the intricacies of the illusionary enchantment I layered on the amulet, so it will accurately mimic many of your actions and translate them into the movements a normal pony would make, and it will also feel as though you were a flesh and blood pony were they to lay hooves on you." “Interesting…” I murmured to myself, impressed with the level of work that had gone into the amulet, despite how simple and unadorned it was. Slipping the silver chain over my neck, I felt a curious tingling sensation briefly wash over my skin before it rapidly faded, and I strode over to the standing mirror next to the wardrobe, examining my reflection closely. From the other side of the mirror, a relatively tall (for their species), lanky earth pony stared back at me. His messy jet-black mane hung lazily over his hazel eyes, partially concealing them from view and barely providing a contrast to his dull, ash-grey coat, making me appear as though I was Octavia's long-lost brother or something. Well, this was probably the most low-profile appearance I could assume while walking out in public, because the only thing about my illusionary disguise that stood out was its cutie mark: that of a bright, silver sword, flanked on both sides and partially covered by a pair of folded wings. I eyed the Cutie Mark on my pony self’s flank curiously, wondering just what had prompted that sort of imagery, but dismissed it after a moment - Celestia had been the one to put the illusionary enchantment together; it was probably just a result of her work, rather than supposedly being some sort of symbolic omen. “All right, what else is there?” I asked as I lifted my hand and rolled my wrist around in an experimental movement, watching my pony reflection in the mirror do the exact same thing with his foreleg, mirroring my own movements perfectly as he rolled his hoof around in a circle, his lips moving in perfect sync with mine to mimic my words. “You haven’t said anything about those restrictions I’d have to abide by first.” “Well, for one, you would always have to be escorted around by a personal guard each time you leave the room, and I’m afraid you will have to be barred from leaving the castle’s grounds for the time being. For your own safety, of course,” Celestia hastily added, and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at the restriction I’d seen coming from a mile away. Of course she would assign me a personal guard and keep me inside the castle; wouldn’t be very smart of her to let me run around the city unsupervised now, would it? “The guards will be in plain clothes though, because we would not wish for you to attract too much undue attention by always walking around with a guard in full uniform. In that regard, I believe it would be best for you to get to know your guards personally as friends, if at least to just maintain a convincing cover.” “You want me to make friends with them?” I raised my eyebrow in skeptical disbelief as Celestia finished her explanation, scarcely able to believe what I was hearing. What was this, the pilot episode of My Little Human: Friendship is Survival? Still, despite what the rules that Celestia was proposing looked like, I had to admit that the princess had a pretty sound reasoning. If the guards accompanying me everywhere were going to be out of uniform all the time, it would hardly look like a convincing cover if we hardly spoke a word to each other and maintained strictly professional distances at all times. Such displays would certainly invite curious stares and equally curious questions, but a bunch of friends walking around and talking amicably would hardly attract a second glance. If anything, it was worth the effort, so I decided to humor Celestia’s request… at least for now. If I found myself unable to get along with the guards that she had assigned me, well, I could at least still say that I tried. Shrugging after a moment’s thought, I nodded at the princess. “All right then, I guess I can work with that. So who will these guards be?” “Oh, I hoofpicked them personally, so I’m quite sure you will get along splendidly with them.” Celestia smiled with a twinkle in her eye, and she gestured towards the door. “In fact, they’re waiting right outside.” Before I could say anything else, the solar princess turned towards the door, and she called out, “Lieutenant! You and your soldiers may step inside now.” “Of course, Your Highness.” A cool, relaxed, female voice answered, one that I didn’t recognize, and the door swung open to admit inside three unarmed, unarmored ponies, all of them missing the distinctive golden armor that dictated their position as a soldier of the Royal Guard. The first pony that strode inside was a unicorn mare, tall, lithe, and graceful, the feminine contours of her figure accentuated by the toned muscle that belied the steel hidden underneath the red silk jacket that she wore, covering her forelegs and upper body. Poking out from underneath the edges of the sleeve covering her right foreleg were dark purple streaks that I couldn't begin to identify, inked into her light yellow fur and skin, but I quickly got distracted by the shock of scarlet-red hair that was her mane, blown to the side in a very distinctive manner that revealed a captivating pair of golden-yellow irises. Then the mare strode through the doorway, admitting the next pony through, and I just stared at the monstrous hulk of an earth pony stallion that shouldered his way through. I'd thought Big Mac was large for a pony, but this white-furred stallion, with his neat buzzcut, absolutely put Applejack's brother to shame. I could say with complete honesty that this guy's biceps had biceps, and he nearly matched Celestia both in height and stature. Yet despite the imposing figure he cast, the stallion wore an open, friendly smile on his face, and he regarded me with the same look one might give a potential new drinking buddy before he followed the first mare to stand by Celestia's side, leaving the third and final pony to stride through. And when I saw who it was, I froze. Orange fur, electric blue mane standing up and blown backwards, with a single lock of stray hair falling in between his eyes, the lean pegasus stallion that came in gave me a curious look before he walked to join the rest of his comrades by Celestia's side, and I just stared at him impassively, unable to comprehend what level of cosmic coincidence would have enabled this particular stallion to actually be a part of the group of guards that had been assigned to watch over me. "Joseph, I would like you to meet Lieutenant Starfall, and her subordinates." Celestia gestured at the ponies standing by her side. "Staff Sergeant Brick Wall, and Corporal Flash Sentry." --- Twilight knew that Rarity was the kind of pony who could easily get caught up in her work whenever the mood struck her. Honestly speaking, the young bookworm knew exactly how her fellow unicorn felt. More than once, she had gotten caught up in her own academic projects more than once, completely deaf to the world around her and forgetting about her own physical needs until she had ridden the wave out and finished what she was working on, and she knew just how Rarity felt about her projects. So when she strode through the door into Carousel boutique on a morning one week after Joseph had been whisked away to Canterlot by Celestia, she was not surprised at all to find the fashionista unicorn fast asleep at her work table, snoring daintily (something that Twilight had no idea how Rarity managed), with her head resting over the half-finished pieces of her latest project. Neatly folded on the table next to her workstation were several other completed pieces, and at first glance, none of them looked like they had been tailored for pony anatomy, but before she could examine them more closely, Rarity abruptly jerked awake, stammering out a greeting. “Oh, welcome to Carousel unique, where everything is fique, boutique, and magnichi- Oh, what am I saying!?” The unicorn tiredly slurred out by reflex before she shook her head and gave herself a slap across the face to wake herself up. Looking up and realizing that her visitor was only Twilight, Rarity quickly got out of her chair with an embarrassed cough. “Oh, it’s just you, Twilight. I’m so sorry I couldn’t answer the door, darling, I think I might have overextended myself a little on my latest project…” "I can tell," Twilight giggled lightly as she embraced her friend, looking at her concernedly as they walked towards the dining room. "You've been pulling all-nighters again for the past several days, haven't you?" "Indeed, and as much as I would love to sleep right now..." Rarity's sentence was interrupted by a massive yawn, and the fashionista hid her open mouth behind a hoof before she resumed talking. "Terribly sorry, dear. I'm just really tired, but designing this new line of clothing for our new friend was too good a challenge for me to pass up on! I didn't even realize I was pulling all-nighters until the third day, and even then it was just too much fun to stop!" Realizing that she'd started squealing, Rarity quickly reassumed her daily posture of collected grace with a dainty cough, and turned to face Twilight again, who was giving her an amused grin. "Oh, but enough about me. I appreciate the visit, Twilight, and it's always a pleasure to see you, but given what's been happening lately, I suppose you're not here just here to check up on me. Is something the matter?" "Well, you're not wrong there." Twilight bit her lip in slight hesitance, and then placed the newspaper she had been carrying on the table before Rarity. "I just saw this in the papers this morning, and I thought it was something I should let you and the others know about." Her curiosity piqued, Rarity leaned forward, peering closer at the headlined article that Twilight wanted her to read. On it, the picture of a large, heavyset griffon clad in a suit was plastered all over the front, showing him standing in front of a podium, addressing a teeming mass of his fellow citizens who all had their claws and forelimbs raised in an evident show of cheering and support. The griffon's stance was wide, and powerful, his gestures passionate and energetic, and his audience seemed to return that energy tenfold as they roared their approval. And right above the picture, the headlines screamed in large, block letters: 'GRIFFON COUNCILLOR CALLS FOR ANNEXATION OF EQUESTRIAN TERRITORIES - RECEIVES OVERWHELMING SUPPORT FROM GRIFFON CONSERVATIVE PARTY'. Rarity stared at the headlines, unsure what exactly it was that Twilight wanted her to see. "I'm sorry darling, but I don't quite follow." The fashionista shook her head sadly. Twilight sighed, and retrieved the newspaper, turning it back to face her. "Princess Celestia asked me to keep myself updated on the political situations in the other nations, and putting it simply, one of the Councillors of the Griffon Hierarchy, Sigrid Stormbrewer, has been lobbying for the expansion of the Hierarchy's territory into Equestria’s lands for the past several years. His political movement never really garnered any support until recent months, but even then he’s never really received this kind of response from the masses before.” Rarity brain latched on to the most important part of Twilight’s explanation, and the unicorn’s eyes widened in surprise. “Wait, this Councillor wants the Hierarchy to expand into Equestria? But that’s insane! Equestria has had a standing peace treaty with Griffonia for decades! Half of our material imports come from there - in fact, many of my fabrics come from Griffonian suppliers! Acting to break the peace treaty is tantamount to madness! Why would this Councillor Stormbrewer want to challenge the status quo so suddenly?” “That’s just it - I don’t know,” Twilight said gravely, her eyes scanning over the headlines’ picture again. “I can't understand what his motivation is, or more importantly, how he was able to garner so much support, and so quickly. And the timing of it all is just too convenient…” Rarity blinked. “I’m sorry, what?” “Don’t you think it’s a little coincidental that the right-wing conservatives of Griffonia suddenly get up in arms in response to Councillor Stormbrewer’s call to expand into Equestria, just as our new friend pops up in our town?” Twilight replied questioningly. “It’s either a very unlikely coincidence, or he has something to do with it, which… actually sounds just as outlandish, if not less unlikely than coincidence, now that I think about it.” Rarity looked at her lavender-furred friend worriedly, already seeing the gears grinding along inside Twilight’s ahead. She recognized the familiar pattern the studious bookworm went through each time she went beyond the realm of speculation and started climbing epileptic trees in a fit of wild mass guessing, and she knew she had to quickly intervene before Twilight started getting ahead of herself again. “Twilight, darling, relax. You’re thinking too much.” Rarity quickly set a hoof on her friend’s shoulder, stopping her in her tracks before she could go any further. “If you want to think about how unlikely it is that Joseph has something to do with this sudden uproar in Griffonia, then why not think about the things that he’s done for Applejack so far? I may not have been there, but I heard what happened nonetheless from her, and it sounds to me that he's certainly a morally upstanding pony and an absolute gentlecolt, don't you think? Do you think he would really be involved with whatever that dreadful griffon councillor is planning?" As she listened to Rarity's explanation, Twilight's eyes flattened against her head, obviously chagrined at how quickly she had jumped to conclusions. "Yeah... Yeah, you're right, Rarity. I really shouldn't be so quick to judge, but all the same..." The lavender mare bit her lip, and she stared at the article again, her thoughts still churning. The timing of it all is really too convenient. If Joseph doesn't have anything to do with this, then... what does? --- As Twilight walked through the streets of Ponyville on her way to Rainbow's, it became apparent to her that Joseph's departure from Ponyville had been anything but overlooked. Even in the wake of the Princess' order that his presence be kept a secret, gossips would be still be gossips, and as she passed by Roseluck's stall in the Ponyville market, she heard the crimson-maned mare chattering with her friends Daisy and Lily on their sighting of the strange human. "I don't think he's been staying at Sweet Apple Acres all this time, you know." Twilight overheard Roseluck say. "Who knows when exactly he arrived? I think he'd been slinking around town at least a few times - I thought I'd been imagining things when I saw that silhouette darting into the alleyway next to my house last week!" Daisy and Lily let out astonished gasps at that, but before Twilight could hear what their replies were, the market's late morning crowd swallowed her up again and she fell out of earshot. All around her, she could hear similar topics being discussed in hushed tones, all regarding their mysterious visitor, and how Celestia had been so quick to whisk him away. Ponyville may not have been showing it overtly, but the little countryside town was practically in an uproar about it. Well, then again, it probably wouldn't last either. As long as he doesn't show up in public again, they should forget about him in a week or two. Twilight thought as she passed by Lyra and Bon-Bon seated at an outdoors cafe. The mint-green unicorn was gushing to Bon-Bon about the human she had sighted over a slice of pumpkin pie, and her companion was simply enduring her rambling with a long-suffering look. As she passed by the cafe and continued down the road towards Rainbow Dash's, Twilight tried not to dwell too much on the events of the past several days, and took comfort in the fact that this too was probably just a phase that the town would pass through, and everything would soon be back to normal. Ponyville is a weirdness magnet, and strange things keep happening here every other month, if not by the week. She tried to reassure herself. This craze should die down in a while, just like everything else that's happened here. Or at least, it should... shouldn't it? So why am I getting the feeling that this isn't going to blow over just like that? --- Whenever somepony was knocking on Rainbow Dash's door, she usually expected to see one out of three different faces when she answered it: either the mailpony, Fluttershy, or Pinkie Pie on the odd day that her fellow prankster decided to be particularly random with how she wanted to get in touch with her. Visitors weren't something she got often, seeing that she put her spacious cloud mansion to use only as a place to sleep at night, and spent most of her time soaring about in the air outside putting herself through her aerial exercises. Most ponies who wanted to find her during the daytime knew they were more likely to find her in the vast expanses of sky above Ponyville than checking her own residence to see if she was home, and they always acted accordingly. So when a series of knocks on her front door roused her from the bliss of the one morning of the week she had reserved for sleeping in, the cyan speedster got understandably agitated as she let out a blistering string of curses and dragged herself out of bed the answer the door, grumbling to herself every step of the way. There were no mail packages scheduled to arrive today, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie both knew not to disturb her on those mornings barring emergencies, so all in all there shouldn't have been a disturbance like this rousing her to begin with. "I swear to Celestia, this had better be good," Rainbow Dash muttered as she trudged down the steps into her living room, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "If it's another one of those Nightmare Moon's Witnesses, I am going to stick my hoof so far up their-" She swung the door open, blinked once at her visitor, and all mental processes immediately ground to a halt as she registered who it was. "Gilda?" "Hey Dash," The female griffon standing outside her doorway looked distinctly uncomfortable, the way her canted yellow eyes seemed to dart from side to side, but she seemed relieved to see Rainbow Dash nonetheless. "You, uhh... Got a minute?" "Uhh... Sure?" Rainbow simply blinked, completely nonplussed as she numbly stepped aside to her old friend inside her home. Where had this suddenly come from? "Come on in." "Great, awesome." Gilda practically sighed in relief, and she quickly darted in, showing an uncharacteristic amount of apprehension that Rainbow was not used to seeing in her otherwise hot-headed friend, her eyes still darting about nervously even as she stepped inside. "Sorry about popping over unannounced, but I don't have much time. There's something that I need to let you know about, and I can't stick around for long." Now the mental alarms were going off in Rainbow Dash's head. Gilda, apologizing? Gilda, scared? The young griffon looked like a foal that had her hoof deep inside the cookie jar, desperately hoping that her parents weren't watching, and that alone was enough to signal to the pegasus that something was very, very wrong. Gilda usually didn't care about that sort of thing. "All right, what is it?" She answered carefully as she took a small, measured step back and eyed Gilda. "You'll excuse me for being a little less than warm, G, but the last time you were here, you left in a storm of insults aimed at my friends without even saying a word to me, and now you've suddenly come slinking back looking like the foal who has her hoof in the cookie jar. What gives?" Gilda looked like she was expending a Herculean amount of effort not to roll her eyes, but she resisted the urge anyway, and looked at Rainbow Dash square in the eye. "Look, I don't have time to justify myself or apologize to you, Dash. I shouldn't even be here right now. I came here to warn you about something: If you've been reading the papers, you should know about what's going on in Griffonia right now." Rainbow Dash simply stared at her - okay, now she was really confused. "Uhh, no, I actually don't. Is there any reason why I should?" This time Gilda did roll her eyes, and she let out an exasperated groan. “Okay, then let me give you the short version: Something big is going down back home, and Equestria is in the line of fire. I can’t say any more than that. I’m here to offer you a way out - I don’t want to see you hurt, Dash. But if you’re still in the neighbourhood when the fire comes down, I can’t guarantee you’re going to be safe.” Rainbow Dash’s eyes narrowed in thought as she took in Gilda’s explanation, and she immediately picked up on what the griffon had in mind. Gilda still considered her a friend, that much was apparent, but if she went ahead with what her old friend was proposing, that would mean that she would probably have to leave her friends in Ponyville behind. Rainbow Dash didn't know exactly what it was that Gilda wanted to keep her out of the line of fire from, but if she was going to have to leave her friends behind in harm's way, there wasn't any question as to what she was going to do. "No can do, Gilda. Whatever is going on in Griffonia, I'm not going to be ditching my friends just to keep myself safe from it. You should know that by now," Rainbow said firmly, shaking her head. "What is going on back there anyway? I thought things back home were pretty solid for you. Why the sudden nervousness?" "I... really can't say." Gilda clicked her beak nervously, averting her eyes. "I promised not to tell anyone. But things back home have been changing, and rather radically too. I’m not counting on it to remain peaceful for long, so I’d rather we all battened down the hatches and got ready for a storm." The griffon looked almost regretful for a second, before she turned back to look at Dash, her expression resigned. "So you're sure you don't want to come back to Griffonia with me? I’m not going to be able to give you another chance like this." “G, don’t get me wrong here. You’re one of my oldest pals, and believe it or not, I’m still cool with you despite what you did the last time you were here.” Rainbow Dash placed a hoof on Gilda’s shoulder, her expression resolute. “But my place is here, with my friends. I’m not leaving them behind even for the world.” “So I guess your mind is made up, huh?” Gilda said, her mouth set in a grim line. “All right, then the most I can do is wish you luck. I've already overstayed my welcome. Stay safe, Dash - you’re going to need it.” Before Rainbow Dash could think of a reply, Gilda had already turned around and exited the house, leaving in no small amount of hurry. By the time Dash had made her way to the doorway, she was only just in time to watch the griffon dive off the edge of her cloud mansion, taking flight a moment later and soaring into the clouds above, disappearing from sight. “Now what the hay was all that supposed to be about?” Rainbow Dash wondered absently to herself as she cocked an eyebrow at the spot where her friend had disappeared through the clouds. “And what has got her so spooked that she couldn’t say a word about it, even to me…?” Lost in her thoughts, the pegasus didn’t notice that she had another visitor until she realized that somepony was yelling her name repeatedly from down below. Peeking over the edge of the cloud balcony, she saw that Twilight was looking up at her mansion, and in her telekinetic grip, the unicorn held on to a copy of the day’s papers. “Rainbow Dash! Come on down here, there’s something I think you need to see!” Gilda had mentioned something about how things were pretty much in an upheaval back in Griffonia - Dash was never one to keep up to date with current affairs by reading the papers, but if the griffon’s behaviour was anything to go by, it would be foolish of her to not keep herself informed in this case. Taking flight with her wings and soaring down to where Twilight waited, Rainbow Dash thought about the underlying fear that she had unmistakably heard in Gilda’s voice, and desperately tried not to think about just what it was that might have inspired such anxiety in her brash, hot-headed friend. Because whatever it was that was headed their way, if it had Gilda of all griffons scared of it, then she had very, very good reason to be ready to meet it head on, before it started coming for her and her friends instead.