Applejack had a night of no sleep. She did not want to see Luna invading her dreams again, and that combined with the fact that the pony she so desperately wanted as a mate was sleeping next to her.
Twilight awoke feeling rested and, of course, noticed the fatigue in her partner. When pressed, all she said was "Well, I'm surprised you're sleepin' so well when there's somepony tryin' ta keep us together."
Breakfast was simple for palace life, which was still more elegant than Applejack was used to. As she poked her breakfast hay on a silver platter, Twilight spoke.
"Just about everypony we’ll be interviewing had their locations confirmed. We’ve made sure that none of them will move around until we get there.”
Applejack swallowed. “How’d they do that? They didn’t arrest anypony, did they?”
She shook her head. “Different methods. I guess maybe Flim and Flam were. They’re running a shop in Vanhoover. They only rented the space out for a month, so it's probably some quick scam. The Princess has them pulled in for questioning."
Applejack looked up. "Can she do that? I mean, do we have anything we can charge 'em with?"
"They're suspects in a crime, so we can bring them in for questioning. Admittedly, we don't exactly have a lot of evidence on them... we don't have evidence on anypony. But they are ponies who would have a reason to have a grudge against us."
Princess Celestia, who was seated at the end of the table, spoke up. "They might be in jail anyway. We started going through their records since we’ve brought them in, and we’ve found that they’ve made quite a few ponies angry.”
“Ya mean they’ve been scammin’ other ponies?”
“Well, I’m not so sure ‘scamming’ is the right word. They certainly haven’t acted what I would call ethically, but the subject on whether or not it was illegal is something up for debate.”
Luna scoffed. “Laws are too soft these days...”
“Now, Lulu, remember what we talked about.”
The younger alicorn sighed. “I still have centuries of changes to catch up on, I know.” She took another sip of her coffee. “I agree that most of your policies are for the best, dear sister, but if these ponies are truly as dishonest as you say, can we not do something?”
“We shall, Luna, believe me.”
“It just seems that someponies need more forceful tactics to learn how to act.”
Her head didn’t turn a millimeter toward Applejack, but the cowpony ducked under her hat just the same.
“Anyway, they’ve been forbidden to leave town,” Twilight said. “They think they’re under some questioning for the store alone. I didn’t want them to know it was direct from Celestia herself.”
“From what you’ve told us,” Luna said, “they’d flee like dogs with their tails between their legs.”
“I’m already worried they’ll try running now,” she said, “but beggars can’t be choosers. They’re not high on our list anyway. We’re leaving for Manehattan as soon as we finish.”
“I believe that would be for the best,” Celestia said.
“Only one thing, where’s Blueblood? I was hoping to see him before I left.”
Celestia stayed silent for a moment. “Blueblood is... busy, I’m afraid. Top secret.”
“I see,” Twilight said. “Well, I hope wherever he is, he's having more fun than I am."
It was getting harder and harder to count the days since this whole affair began, likely because they had all began the same way. Waking up hungover several days in a row was not pleasant, even if it was next to a beautiful mare.
This time, there had been no accusing shouts, no accusations, merely the sounds of annoyance and resignation. There had been protests of both of their breakfasts being brought to his room.
"Why can't I go to my room and eat?"
"Because Auntie asked us to keep out of sight while Twilight was here, remember. If she or her... wife," a snicker escaped his lips, and Rarity's too, "saw us, she'd get mad. And there would be questions we don't want to answer."
Rarity nodded, then a thought occurred to her. "Couldn't they see us dating in those tabloids? Neither of them read them, but..."
"So what if they do? By tonight they'll be halfway across the country. It's not like they'd come all the way back to Canterlot to interrogate us."
"I suppose," she conceded, eating her breakfast hay. There was another awkward silence. "I hope my parents are taking care of Opal all right."
"The cat? I'm sure they're doing fine. They took care of you for eighteen years, didn't they?"
"Well, yes, but they were rather..."
"Stupid?"
"Scatter-brained. I was going to say scatter-brained."
"Sure you were," he said, taking another bite.
"I shudder to think what Sweetie Belle thinks of my disappearance. Oh, how the poor dear must be missing me."
Blueblood arched an eyebrow. "Your sister spends a lot of time with you?"
"Too much. I love her so, but... she drives me up the wall. She’s always trying to get her cutie mark, and she does all these unbelievable things to get it."
Blueblood was silent for a moment. "How old..."
"Nine years. She'll be ten by the end of the year."
"A late bloomer then. I was about that age when I got mine."
A silence. That sentence was important. Among ponies, mentioning a cutie mark meant that you were giving another permission to ask. "How did..."
"After I... came to live with Auntie... I started poking around the royal library. I saw a map with all these locations on it. Prance, Germane, Saddle Arabia. I didn't know any of them, so I went looking in the books and... what i read, the pictures I saw. I thought they were amazing. I wanted to see them all. A few months later, Auntie took Twilight, Spike, and I to Neighagra Falls in Vanhoover. I was so amazed, I wanted to see everything, to see the whole world. Then, it appeared on my flank..."
She nodded. She had wondered about his mark back when she still entertained the idea that he was a dashing pony, as opposed to a simple stallion.
She stopped at her own thought. She was getting too used to Blueblood. That really disturbed her.
She looked at him and noticed that he was looking back. He was expecting something, not eagerly but simply out of a guess that it was coming.
So she told him her story. When she was finished she nodded. "I'm glad you got yours without too much trouble. When was this?"
"The same day Twilight got hers." Blueblood looked at her. "We put two and two together and realized the same rainbow explosion happened at the same time."
"Oh yeah... what was that? Did Twilight ever find out what that was?"
"She did. But... it's another pony's story."
Blueblood nodded. "I remember Twilight poking through books on all kinds of phenomena trying to piece it together. I was curious too. That had been just before I came to live in the castle."
"Well, maybe you can meet Rainbow Dash someday."
There was another awkward silence.
"How is Spike, these days? I haven't heard from him."
"He's fine. I suppose right now Twilight has him running around doing some manner of work.”
Spike still hadn't gotten all the grime off his skin. He also hadn't gotten all the stiffness out of his muscles, or the ringing in his head to stop. He didn't think he could feel any worse.
Until Apple Bloom burst into the guest room, hopped on the bed, and happily declared that it was time for a new day of crusadin’.
"No! No! No!" he cried as the filly dragged him across the house, his tail in her teeth.
"Now you cut that out!" Granny Smith said. "You're gettin' claw marks in the floor!"
"But your granddaughter's trying to kill me!"
"Aw, quit being such a baby!" Spike hadn't noticed Scootaloo arrived. She and Sweetie Belle were standing in the doorway looking impatient.
"I'm not being a baby for not wanting to be killed."
"We're not doing anything dangerous. We were just going to head over to Fluttershy's cottage..."
Spike stopped. "That doesn't sound so bad."
"Yeah. She said her bear likes to wrestle, so we figured..."
Spike redoubled his efforts.
"Now, really, Twilight's going to have to pay fer the new floorboards."
Spike looked at her. "Didn't you hear her? She going to wrestle a bear! Shouldn't you stop her?"
"Eh, if it's one o' Fluttershy’s critters, he's probably harmless. You go on and have fun."
"But... but..."
Spike was now out the door, resorting to trying to grasp onto blades of grass. "Come on, can't we do something else? We could go to a carnival! I could send a message to Princess Celestia and have her send a chariot to take us."
That actually got them to stop. Apple Bloom released him. "Hey, that doesn't sound bad!"
"Yes, yes, it is! I went to them a lot back when I lived in Canterlot. There are rides, cotton candy, games, hayburgers, Blueblood always had to try a kissing booth..."
"Kissing booth?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Yeah. It's where you pay to get a kiss."
"Ew," Scootaloo stuck out her tongue, "who would pay for that?"
Her fellow Crusaders didn't share her sentiments. "You can do that? That means we can get a cutie mark in kissin'!"
"Ew, no way!"
"I think it sounds so sweet! We should try it!"
"But where are we gonna find somepony ta kiss?"
There was a pause. Then three heads turned to look at Spike.
He was no longer there. He was thirty feet away and getting farther away.
"After him!" Apple Bloom pointed toward her prey.
"Ew, no! Let's try bear wrestling."
"Come on, Scoots, you know th' rule. Two outta three voted. Now come on, the sooner we kiss Spike, th' sonner we can try bear wrasslin'."
"...Fine."
And thus the three ran after Spike, with the cry of "Cutie Mark Crusader Kissers!"
It was followed about thirty seconds later with "Curse these stupid stubby legs!"
Angel rubbed his paws together. Today was the day. Today was the day that Rainbow Dash got kicked out.
<What are you up to?>
Angel jumped ten feet in the air, turning to see Owlowiscious looking at him. Somehow, with several mouthfuls of feathers missing on his body, he looked more intimidating than ever.
<Why, whatever do you mean?>
<Don’t. Play. Dumb. You wouldn’t have pulled your little trick with Winona unless you were going to do something horrible to Miss Dash.>
<He didn’t have the ball, Angel, but Miss Fluttershy gave me one!> Winona's howls reached them both.
<Hey, come on, Owly...>
<Don’t call me that.>
<Owly, listen, I care greatly about Fluttershy. Is it so wrong that I want to screen all her suitors and drive away any that won’t let me live out my insane power fantasies?>
<Yes.>
<Now come on,> Tank said, flying his way up to the group. <Don’t be so hasty. If Miss Fluttershy and Miss Rainbow Dash live together, we can all be a family again. It’ll be like when I still lived here, only Miss Dash will be here too.>
<Yeah, not that sharing a house with you for the rest of my life wouldn’t be such an interesting proposition, I’m afraid I must disagree.>
<Listen you,> Owlowiscious said, leaning in, <if you try anything, I’m going to make you...>
The sounds of hooves coming down the stairs interrupted him. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were walking down, with the latter limping a little.
“Ow... Fluttershy, you need to be more careful. I think you broke one of my ribs...”
“I’m sorry, it’s just... that movie you picked was so scary! I needed something to hold on to.”
“Well, I’ve gotta get to work.”
“No time for breakfast?”
“‘Fraid not. But if I get my work done quickly enough, I can be back by lunch.” She kissed her marefriend on the cheek. “You stay beautiful.”
She went over to the pets and gave Tank a quick nuzzle on the nose. “Be good, Tank.” Then she turned to Angel. “And nothing funny out of you, got it?”
Angel motioned that he was crossing his heart. Giving one last suspicious look, Rainbow Dash left.
“Oh, don’t worry, Rainbow Dash, I’m sure he’ll be good. We’re going to have lots of fun together.”
Angel smiled. Yes, fun indeed.