“Well look who decided to turn up early,”
Xarzith just sniggered and rolled his eyes as he walked, the stallion not even having to look back to know who it was that had since decided to follow him; the sound of wing beats and a new scent on the wind had answered that question half a minute prior.
Despite having gotten to know her over the previous two weeks, Flitter was still something of an anomaly to Xarzith, which was truly saying something, given that the usual ‘Ursa in the room’ was nearly always him. It wasn’t that he found the pegasus to be strange, she was nice and easy going when it came to getting along, and virtually paid no attention whatsoever to his horn, which was an added relief… but that was what had also confused him.
Part of him still believed that it was just due to Ponyville being notorious for attracting all sorts of strange things, and hence anything that was generally seen as ‘odd’ was instead considered ‘normal’ by just about everypony and anypony, Flitter included.
Either way, he couldn’t help but smile when he heard her voice. Anomaly or not, she was still a kind pony he thought of as a friend, and a good one at that.
“You know, I do technically work for Applejack, Flitter, so you can’t expect to see a lot of me around town every day of the week,” Xarzith replied, chuckling to himself as he trotted along. “Good to see you too, by the way.”
The mare giggled as she fluttered down beside him, before giving him a friendly poke in the side. “You seem to be in a surprisingly good mood for this time of day, what’s up?”
“Had a meeting with my project manager this morning, so my house is now officially under way in terms of building.”
Flitter’s face brightened. “So you’re actually going to put down some roots here in Ponyville huh?” she grinned, her prior poke being replaced with a friendly nuzzle along the neck. “You better be prepared for Pinkie Pie; once she hears about this, there’s no way in Tartarus that you’re sidestepping a party.”
The stallion rolled his eyes again and huffed. “Don’t remind me; every meeting I have with that pony makes me question more and more of the established laws of nature… she probably knows already.”
Flitter giggled, and Xarzith quickly found his own laughter joining hers.
The next few minutes were spent in idle chatter as the pair walked through the waking streets, greeting the few risen ponies they came across, and with Flitter mostly just filling the stallion in on what had transpired in the small town and her life in his absence; the name ‘Ditzy Doo’ and the word ‘destruction’ seemed surprisingly prevalent in her stories.
In turn, he told her about how life on Sweet Apple Acre’s was going, along with the house details he was mulling over and putting together in his head, from the interior cladding to ideas for the fixtures, hoping to gain some advice on who to turn to when the time came.
The two ponies made their way through town at a steady pace as they talked, stopping once when Flitter had decided she was craving a hay smoothie.
Xarzith grinned as he waved a good morning to Lyra and Bon-Bon while he waited for her, two ponies who Flitter herself had introduced him to the week prior, and they happily waved back.
It felt good to have friends, and have ‘simple’ problems to worry about for once.
“You’ll probably need to go see Rarity for some interior advice,” Flitter said, a hoof finding its way to her chin. She was now hovering at his side again, her wings keeping her a hoof or two above the ground. “And Davenport for furniture… but his stock his kind of limited…”
“Isn’t he the guy who owns that Quills & Sofas place?” He asked.
“Yep,” Flitter grinned, her tail giving a stray flick. “And that’s virtually all he sells as well, so you’ll probably need to source most of your stuff from Canterlot… which will probably cost you more than a few bits.”
“Eh, bits aren’t an issue. When you’re family have access to ice diamonds, you tend to do pretty well outside of the Crystal Empire.”
“What about in the Empire itself?” she asked after taking another drink, now sounding curious.
Xarzith sighed and shook his head. “Ice diamonds… carry a bit of a stigma in the Crystal Empire. They’re what Sombra wanted the crystal ponies to mine for when he enslaved them all, so they don’t really want anything to do with them. The small supply makes them worth a lot outside the north, but up there… well, you wouldn’t want to get caught trying to barter at the market with them.”
Apparently sensing his unease at the topic, Flitter changed the subject as they continued walking, looking perhaps a little annoyed at herself even.
“You know… I don’t think you’ve ever mentioned why Ponyville caught your attention. I mean, sure, it’s a nice place and all, but so are places like Manehatten, Trottingham, and Canterlot…”
“So you’re wondering why I picked you’re little town?” he asked, drawing a nod from the mare. Xarzith exhaled. “Hmmm… I guess… because I liked it. It’s quiet and out of the way of things, and you don’t have to ‘fit in’ like you’d have to in places like Canterlot or Manehatten.”
Flitter’s brow arched. “Really? You make Ponyville sound boring when you say it like that.”
The stallion gave her a flat look. “And that’s coming from the pony who lives in Ponyville.”
The pegasus rolled her eyes. “Fair enough,” she giggled again as he snickered and mock face-hoofed. “Hehe, you feel like finding something to eat? I’m famished.”
“Did you not buy that smoothie five minutes ago?”
Flitter playfully cross her front hooves and stuck her tongue out at him. “I had weather duty this morning,” she said, smiling and turning her attention to his side. “And you look like you could do with something besides apples.”
Xarzith couldn’t help but glance down at his barrel, a very slight sting finding its way to his cheeks; if there was one thing that could be said about living in the north, it was that ponies tended to eat as much as they could when they could…
…And if there was one thing that could be equally said about working on Sweet Apple Acres, it was that it slimmed ponies down. Fast.
“Alright, I guess I could go for something… oh! By the way, do you know where I can find a zebra named Zecora?”
Flitter’s ears flattened back and gave Xarzith a strange look, as if he had something unfortunate splattered across his face.
“She lives just past the edge of the Everfree forest, I can show you the path after we’re done if you want… but why would you want to go see her?”
Xarzith just waved a hoof dismissively. “Just need a few things, and Twilight suggested her,” he answered.
Flitter nodded, though she still looked a little uneasy.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
“Remind me why we’re doing this exactly, Twi,” Spike said grumpily, a quill and pad clasped in his claws. “Because if I’m right, the last time we did something like this we ended up having to outrun a hydra.”
“Because, Spike, no mystery is solved without intense fact finding and investigation.”
“Because spying on ponies is considered investigation right? I’m pretty sure it’s called harassment, and that’s illegal, even for a princess.”
The mare’s response was to simply turn and momentarily glare at him, before redirecting her attention to the road outside their bush-turned-hiding place, all the while murmuring things under her breath.
Spike just groaned to himself and buried his face in his claws; and Twilight was supposed to be one of the rulers of Equestria?
It was official, they were all doomed.
He’d tried, Celestia knew he had tried to reason with Twilight, but there had never really been any point.
It was a trait in her that hadn’t changed or waned since her filly years; if there was something the alicorn didn’t understand or was curious about, or if there was some knowledge to be found or gained in something, she wouldn’t relent until her hunger for answers was sated.
The attempt to understand Pinkie Pie’s ‘Pinkie Sense’ was one such example.
“Twilight, do you really think…”
“Quick! They’re moving down Bridal Street!”
One loud snap of purple magic later, a now very startled and confused young dragon found himself perched on the roof of Daisy’s house, growling and holding his head as the ringing in his ears subsided.
Twilight, all the while, lay on her stomach staring at the street, watching the pair of ponies like a manticore readying to pounce on something.
“Could you give me some warning before you do that next time, Twi,” Spike sighed, rubbing his stinging eyes.
His pleas, however, appeared to fall on deaf ears, as Twilight did nothing whatsoever to acknowledge him.
Spike huffed and folded his arms; life with Twilight was always interesting, if not chaotic.
In Twilight’s own mind there was only one thought in focus, and that was to find anything that could suggest an answer to Xarzith’s… well, Xarzith in general.
So far there was very little to suggest anything new about him, or anything that provided answers to her questions; he’d begun talking to Flitter about twenty minutes earlier, and had so far done very little that was abnormal as the two walked around town together.
She made a mental note to speak with Cloudchaser at the first opportunity, just to see if she’d noticed her sister acting strangely.
A hoof found its way to Twilight’s chin. Was this perhaps all a ploy? Was Xarzith just acting nice and normal as other motives swirled out of sight? It didn’t seem very likely… but seeing as she had virtually nothing to go on anyway, nothing could be ruled out.
“Just what are you…”
“Twilight, what are you doing?”
Knowing exactly who the voice belonged to, gingerly and with her cheeks now stinging in no small amount of embarrassment, Twilight looked back to find Rainbow Dash hovering beside her, the mare’s front hooves crossed while an expression that seemed stuck between curiosity and annoyance crossed her face.
Spike was still sitting a little higher on the roof, his head presently buried in his claws while he muttered to himself.
Twilight blushed and sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. “Well, Rainbow, um…”
“We’re you spying on one of my weather ponies?” Rainbow asked, leaning forward and snorting. “Because that is not cool, Twi, not cool.”
“No, Rainbow, we’re investigating Xarzith,” Spike added in, sarcasm dripping from the words. “Which is totally different from spying and in no way illegal.”
Rainbow Dash’s face quickly took on a more confused look as she rapidly glanced between the two, and then shifted attention to the pair of ponies on the road below, her face giving the impression that she was now either curious, or seriously questioning her two friend’s sanities.
“So… you’re spying on Xarzith?” She asked, now sounding unsure. “Why?”
“Because Twilight is convinced that there’s something weird up with him,” Spike groaned, holding up the quill and pad he’d been carrying around to emphasize his point.
He fell silent when Twilight shot him a glare.
She then turned to Rainbow. “Dash, one way or another, I am certain that there is something up with that stallion. I don’t know what it is, and I don’t know how serious it is, but one way or another I’m going to find out.”
“What exactly do mean when you say ‘up with’ him?”
“Something… suspicious,” Twilight said eventually, the word leaving a bad taste on her tongue.
Much to Twilight’s surprise, rather than laughing her head off, Rainbow dropped down and landed on the roof beside her friends. “So… you think he’s, like, dangerous or something?”
“Oh come o-mph!”
Twilight gave Spike another glare as he undid the zipper over his maw, the dragon growling under his breath, but otherwise falling silent.
“I don’t know Dash. I would go so far as to say dangerous, but…” Twilight chewed her lip. “I can’t say no to that, as much as I want to.”
“And you have proof of this?”
The alicorn shook her head. “If you mean physical proof… not exactly; what we do know is that he’s been taking something which he claims to be ‘medication’ for climate adjustment… but I looked through all my books and found no reference to anything like that.”
Now it was Rainbow who looked uneasy, her wings giving a nervous quiver. “What are you getting at, Twi?”
“He’s hiding something, that much I know for a fact. If he was willing to lie about something as trivial as a potion, then there’s got to be more that he’s not telling us.”
Rainbow then went quiet for a moment, as if juggling a number of thoughts as she swapped her gaze between her close friend, and the stallion at the centre of the situation.
After a long moment, she sighed and held up a hoof.
“Say no more, I think I understand where you’re coming from; kinda why I didn’t trust him in the first place… something about him rubs my wings the wrong way,” she said, before she took on a more firm look. “But I’m not letting you do this alone; if somepony needs to give that stallion a hoofing, I’d be glad to.”
Twilight winced. “Don’t you think that’s a little… extreme, Rainbow?”
Much to the alicorn’s surprise, Rainbow Dash’s muzzle split into a smirk. “Hey, if somepony comes into Ponyville looking to cause trouble for my friends, they answer to me.”
All the while, Spike could only watch on as the two mares began to hatch their plan, the young dragon’s jaw loosening with each passing second and every word they said, especially when Rainbow suggested ‘getting the girls involved’.
All the while, he tried to ignore the fact he was presently sitting on somepony’s roof.
Could this day get any more crazy?