STALKING IS SUCH AN UGLY WORD
I watch Kicky go about pouring herself a cup of tea on the other side of the kitchen table. In the two days since Azalea talked us both down from the ledge we’ve managed to establish a certain armistice once again. The kiss-and-make-up sessions helped.
Well, more accurately, the kiss-and-grope-and-lick-and-nibble-and-writhe-and-scream-and-make-up sessions helped. My healing process is freakin’ amazing, even if it does mean all three of my spare sets of sheets are in my laundry hamper this morning. Totally worth it, though.
“So,” says Kicky as she steeps the last dregs of a teabag in the boiling cup.
“So,” I reply, and silence descends once more. We’ve tried to rip off the bandage a couple times and broach the topic that’s still hanging between us. Never quite seem to manage to do it. I doubt this time is going to be any—
“I’m joining the Guard again, Cloudy.”
Then again, I’ve been wrong about that sort of thing in the past. I force back the initial knee-jerk wave of revulsion at the idea before I reply to her. “Well, you already know what I think about that.”
Seems she’s not willing to let it go that easy. “I’d like to know that you were okay with the idea, at least.”
“Don’t know if I can give you that. Not unless you’re fine with me lying to you. It just... I really think you’re abandoning this new life of yours without really giving it a fair chance or thinking about what’s right for you.”
She wrinkles up her muzzle and opens her mouth to fire something back at me, but then closes her eyes and struggles through a couple of deep inhales and exhales. “Mine to abandon. I just want to know that you aren’t going to freak out again.”
“I didn’t freak out.” Kicky regards me with an openly skeptical glare. “Okay, maybe I freaked out a bit. I just see you about to make a huge mistake and it breaks my heart that you’re going to throw away a good thing.”
Kicky actually chuckles at that for some reason, pouring two mugs of tea and passing one of them to me. I blow over the surface, dissipating the steam rising for the ceiling and staying quiet while I wait for her to go on. “You know who you sounded like just then? Mom.”
It’s a good thing I haven’t taken my first sip of tea yet, because otherwise I’d have spit it up all over the kitchen wall at that. Low blow, Kicky. Low blow. “No I don’t, for reasons that I’m sure will come to me later.” I sigh. “There’s nothing I can say that’ll change your mind at this point, is there?”
“Not really. Besides, I sent my acceptance letter to Glinting Steel with the rest of the mail yesterday. So unless you get Derpy to go digging through the mail to pull it out my fate is sealed. Into the Guard for at least the next couple of years once they start calling us up.”
I have half a mind to do exactly that, but Derpy would never go along with it. There are three ways to make an enemy of that mare for life: Threaten her daughters, tamper with one of her deliveries, or engage in the senseless waste of perfectly good muffins. “Well, I’ll worry about you, and it’ll be a bit weird to go back to living on my own again, but... I guess you’re going to do what you have to do. Come here.” She walks around the table and we get to share a hug. I don’t like the prospect, sure, but I’m not going to make the same mistake Mom did and love her any less. “Don’t go getting yourself killed doing something stupid. You’ll make me look bad by proxy.”
I feel her gentle chuckle rising and falling in her chest and the little puff of air that tickles my coat as she snorts. “Hey now, don’t start writing my eulogy just yet. I don’t know if you’ve forgotten because of your cushy civvy life, but we’re kind of a pair of awesome, flank-kicking whirlwinds of destruction when we want to be.”
Have to roll my eyes at that. “You haven’t even shown up for training and you’re already talking down to civilians? My, how the worm has turned.”
“Worm. Changeling. Same difference.” The hug ends, and I don’t know which one of us appreciated it more. “You know, if you really have gotten used to having a former changeling for a roommate...”
“Absolutely not, Kicky.” Ah, yes, the other little spat we’ve been having ever since I stumbled on... okay, fine, eavesdropped on her chat with Scootaloo. “I’m not going to basically adopt a foal. Talk about cramping my style. With the stuff that I get up to with the friends I bring back here? I wouldn’t make it three days before she walked in on something she shouldn’t.”
Kicky, infuriatingly, shrugs. “So? It’s not like she doesn’t know about that kind of thing. She probably knows a few tricks that not even you’ve tried yet.”
Bad mental picture. Bad mental picture! “Luna’s plot, Kicky! Don’t say stuff like that! That’s the kind of comment that gets you banned from coming within 500 feet of schools and playgrounds.”
“Well she wasn’t a young filly at the time. At least not usually.”
That gives me a little comfort, or at least it does until the second sentence registers fully. “What do you mean, ‘not usually?’” I suspect that I’m not going to like where this is going.
She shifts uncomfortably on her hooves. “Ponies with certain... socially unacceptable preferences are naturally secretive about them. And usually desperate. And easily blackmailed, if it comes to that. Do the math. Not all love is wholesome.”
“Are you seriously telling me that some of you used to feed by—”
“Cloudy.” The tone of her voice is flat and harsh as she cuts me off. “Be very, very, certain whether or not you really want to know the answer to that question before you ask it.” As if that wasn’t answer enough on its own.
“Are there any ponies like that here in Ponyville?” The lingering silence is deafening.
“Come on, it’s getting late. You need to get ready for work.” She turns to walk away, but with a few beats of my wings I vault over the table and land in front of her, cutting off her escape.
“Not okay, Kicky. Who?”
“Look, it’s being dealt with, alright? I don’t like the idea either, but I’m not about to go around flinging accusations about that sort of thing without any evidence to back it up. Especially not based on some vague, faded, secondhand impression I got through the old hive mind. Let’s say I tell Rainbow Dash that there’s some stallion who has a thing for Scootaloo, putting aside for the moment whether there actually is or not. You want to see a repeat of Flight Camp? Because you know she wouldn’t hear the part where I tell her that I’m not entirely sure.”
I shake my head. It all sounds good, and she’s probably right about Dash. Hell, if Kicky gave me a name right now I probably wouldn’t hesitate to bust through their front door and start asking some very pointed questions, at least. But she isn’t getting off the hook that easily. “This isn’t like keeping the names of other ex-changelings from me, Kicky. I’m not letting this one go that easily.” She stands firm, though. Did she inherit that thick-headed stubbornness from me? “Look, you said it’s ‘being dealt with.’ Can you at least tell me how and by who?”
She hems and haws for a few more seconds, but her resolve is starting to crumble. I briefly wonder how exhausting it must be to carry around so many secrets and so much baggage all of the time. “Fine. I turned everything I know over to Princess Luna when I talked to her. Good enough?”
Wow. Hadn’t been expecting that. “You talked to Princess Luna? When was this?”
“Me and the others... it’s not always easy to sleep through the night when you start remembering. Luna showed up in the middle of a nightmare I was having about some of the bad times, and it wasn’t hard for her to put two and two together and figure out what I’d been before the Elements did their thing with me.”
My anger softens just a bit. “You didn’t tell me you were having nightmares. Is it something you want to talk about?”
“Hey, I consider myself to have gotten off lightly. Especially compared to...” Damn it. She catches herself right before she was going to let slip a name, and her rueful grin tells me she knows it. “Nice try. They’re getting better, and Luna’s helped. She’s helping all of us, I’m sure. Not sure how she makes the time to be in so many dreams at once, but that’s princess magic for you. Anyway, before the Princesses decided to let us stick around, Luna had all kinds of questions. Information about bases of operation, where the ponies we’d cocooned were hidden, that sort of thing. We weren’t exactly in a position to keep anything from her.”
Now that I think about it, the Guard had managed to uncover all those hidden caches and infiltration cells awfully quickly after the invasion. With everything else going on, I hadn’t really thought to question just how they’d done it so efficiently. The fact that all the untransformed drones had gone a little nuts with the loss of their Queen hadn’t hurt either. They hadn’t retreated, they’d been routed. Shoved back into the darkest corners of Equestria, the places nopony wanted to follow them into. So there had been strings attached to the offer of sanctuary, not that I could consider them to be especially objectionable ones. “I guess if the Princesses are satisfied I can’t really complain.”
“Not that you won’t anyway,” mutters Kicky. “Seriously, though. You need to go to work. Let me worry about Scootaloo and the others, at least until I get called up for training. After that, well, we can cross that bridge when we come to it. Ask Dash if she’s seen her lately; she was supposed to meet me last night but she never showed up.”
“I will. And Fluttershy too, in case she’s still doing odd jobs over there for room and board.” I head for the door and take off like a shot as soon as I'm over the threshold. Kicky wasn’t wrong about one thing; I’m going to be late. Sure enough, when I stumble into the office Blossomforth is all settled at her desk. Luckily for me, Rainbow Dash is even later. “Morning, Blossom.”
She takes a sip of coffee from the beat-up, stained ceramic mug that’s a permanent fixture of her desk and waves to me before turning her attention back to the forms in front of her. Dash rearranged the entire weeks weather schedule with barely any notice so that the skies would be clear tonight, coincidentally right after Applejack set up the blind date between Twilight and Azalea. I’m glad she wants their evening to be just right, but it does mean a lot of extra last minute work gets dumped on our team. “Morning, Cloud. Could you take care of the scheduling this morning? I’m up to my wings in fog reports.”
“Sure.” I reach for my calendar, but then I pause. Replaying the conversation with Kicky from a little while ago in my head, I find myself unable to force the idea of Scootaloo alone and fending for herself away. Experienced changeling or not, she’s just a foal. Kinda surprising she’d have picked Rainbow Dash to feed off of when it was the Apples she was keeping an eye on. Unless changelings can feed on how much she loves herself, the poor thing could’ve starved to death waiting for Dash to notice her. “Blossom? Can I ask you a question?”
“Shoot.”
I weigh a few different phrasings in my head before I settle on one that won’t give too much away. “For orphans, or ponies who don’t have their parents in general...” she tenses up. Still kind of a touchy subject for her, I guess, “...do you think that it makes you more independant? I mean, do you guys learn to take care of yourselves better than other foals your age?”
“Gee,” she grumbles into the forms on her desk, “I’ll have to do a poll at the next meeting of the orphan convention we all go to every year.” She sighs. “There’s not really any one answer. Everypony’s different, obviously. In general, though, I guess... you hold on to the relationships you have a lot tighter? Does that make sense? You do dumb stuff to keep those connections even if it isn’t necessarily the rational thing to do.”
I grin. “I guess that does explain why you still put up with me.”
“Must be.” She smiles back, earlier crankiness already forgotten. “I knew plenty of foals who would act tough and claim that nothing bothered them, but they all cracked every once in a while. And the longer they tried to fake being okay the worse it was when they finally did. This one filly I knew there went through four foster homes in six months and didn’t shed a single tear. Then one day she dropped her ice cream sandwich off a seesaw and she just completely broke down sobbing for ten minutes. Nopony really gave her a hard time about it, though. Me, I cried all the time over normal stuff, stubbed hooves, break ups, that kind of thing. Never like that, though. Why the sudden interest anyway?”
“No specific reason, really,” I lie, “just had it kinda stuck in my head and thought I’d ask.”
Blossom shrugs and seems to believe that as she turns back to her work and I do the same. Soon enough other pegasi are showing up to get their assignments and there’s no time to dwell on it. Rainbow Dash’s office is still dark and empty. It isn’t so unusual for her to sleep in and stumble in mid-morning, but when we’re coming up on lunch time with no sign of her I start to wonder if something’s wrong.
When the office door bursts open to reveal a panting, sweaty Rainbow Dash my worries are confirmed. “Hey, have either of you two seen Scootaloo since yesterday morning?”
I hate being right sometimes.
“I haven’t,” says Blossomforth. “Why?”
“She asked me to come do some tricks over by the school during recess. Guess she wanted to make sure all the other foals appreciated how awesome I am,” says Dash. Even in a crisis, she’s still herself. “She wasn’t there and Cheerilee said she’s been absent the last two days. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle haven’t seen her either. Know anything about it?”
I can think of one pony who might, but explaining why I need to talk to Kicky right bucking now would probably lead me to a road that I’m not quite ready to travel down just yet. I did promise her I’d keep my trap shut about Scootaloo, for now. That’s starting to look like one promise I won’t be able to keep. “Want me to take a quick pass around town and see if I spot her?” Not that I will if she doesn’t want to be found, but it’s almost-kinda the truth about where I’ll be going. “I’m mostly done with paperwork, most of it just needs your hoofprint and it’ll be official. Plus I can get a jump on other stuff while I’m out there."
Rainbow looks like she’s about to tell me to buck off, but then she glances at Blossom’s worried face and the pile of documents on her desk. “...Fine. But if you find her, tell her she needs to find me or Cheerilee or... I don’t know. Just tell her she can’t disappear like that. It freaks other ponies out.” She starts pacing back and forth across the room, her wings twitching in irritation. “I mean, she knows she can talk to me about stuff if something’s bugging her, y’know? Anything. She totally knows that. Totally.”
Obviously not about anything, but dangling a lead like that in front of Dash would be like holding bloody meat in front of a tiger. And even if I were to out her like that, I’m not sure how it would help us track her down. Maybe Kicky will have some ideas. I leave the job of soothing Dash’s worries to Blossom and head for my house, only to find it empty. Bon Bon’s shop is a dead end as well. It isn’t until I show up to Azalea’s house that I finally find her.
“Oh, hi Cloud,” says Azalea when she answers the door. I’m distracted by the assortment of foil and strange protrusions sticking out from her mane, and she notices. “Just thought I’d touch myself up a bit for the big date tonight. Ooooh I’m already getting nervous, and it’s not even starting for hours! If Kicky weren’t here helping me pick stuff out I might just explode.”
“It’s gonna be great, Az, Twilight’s not going to be able to take her eyes off of you. Kicky’s here, though? I’m actually looking for her.”
“Come on in,” she says, stepping aside. Walking into her living room, I realize that this is the first time I’ve been in Azalea’s house since the night of the invasion, and the first time I’ve seen it fully decorated. A couple of things jump out at me. I hadn’t ever noticed before, but all the furniture is new and very clearly store-bought. I guess she didn’t load any of the furniture from her old house onto that wagon she dragged all the way from Trottingham. I can’t blame her for wanting to save weight, but it’s odd not to have anything. Even I managed to snag my favorite chair when I left Canterlot, and I didn’t exactly leave on the best of terms. Before I can puzzle out the significance of that Kicky appears from the bedroom door. “Hey Cloud, what’s up? Shouldn’t you be at work?”
Azalea pushes past her, her mind elsewhere. “I’m still not sure about the dress. I want to try the blue one on again. If the two of you need me, I’ll be in the closet.”
“I’m telling you, the red one’s a winner,” says Kicky as Azalea disappears again, muttering to herself about ribbons and colors. “Everything alright, Cloud?”
I want to jump right into the missing former changeling, but something stops me. “Ever notice Azalea doesn’t have any pictures of her family hanging anywhere? What’s up with that?”
“Did you seriously skip out of work to come over and ask me that?” asks Kicky, raising a skeptical eyebrow. “Probably doesn’t mean anything.”
I guess she’s right, and there’s more important stuff to talk about. “Scootaloo’s missing.”
Kicky bites her lower lip. “Horseapples, I was afraid she might bolt after you... you know. I talked to her the other day, though, and I thought I’d talked her out of it. Still, forty years of experience as a changeling is telling her ‘uncovered equals get out’ right now, and that’s not easy to ignore.”
“Any idea where she’d go?”
Kicky shrugs. “She was the highest-ranked drone on our little team. With a full day’s head start she could be halfway to Fillydelphia by now, Celestia knows she’s resourceful enough. Honestly, if she doesn’t want to be found...” she trails off.
I’m not accepting that answer. “You want to explain that to Rainbow Dash? Because I’m sure not going to.”
“I can ask around. Maybe one of the others knows something.” Kicky glance over her shoulder to the closet where Azalea’s trying on outfits for tonight, probably just to make sure she’s not listening in. “If she told anyone, it would be...”
“Who? Come on, Kicky, this is important.”
Kicky just shakes her head. “Just keep an eye out around town.” She calls back over her shoulder. “Azalea? I have to go check on something. I’ll be back in time to help you with your braids, though.
Her head pops out from the closet, wearing a worried expression. “Why? Did something happen?”
“Scootaloo’s missing,” I explain. Azalea’s face flashes with genuine surprise and... something else I can’t place. “Don’t worry about it, you’ve got a date to focus on and we’ve got this covered. If she does come to you, though, let somepony know.”
She chuckles, but it’s a nervous chuckle. “Why would she come to me? I barely know her.”
“Just covering all the bases,” I say. She gives me a curt nod, then disappears back into the closet.
Kicky and I walk outside, but I stop her before she can take off. “So where are you going?”
“Fluttershy’s.”
“I’ll lead the way.”
She shakes her head. “No way. I already have to figure out a way to sneak over and have a conversation without Fluttershy realizing it. You know the drill.”
“The drill is starting to hurt ponies. Dash won’t admit it, but she’s freaking out. Now you’re lying to Fluttershy, and who knows what kind of danger you’re putting Scootaloo in?”
Kicky doesn’t answer for a long moment. “Do you think I enjoy this? All the sneaking around and hiding? Because I don’t. It’s the exact opposite of what I’m trying to become, but it’s not just about me. I’m not putting my family in danger.”
“That may have been true before, but things are changing, Kicky. At some point you’re just keeping secrets for the sake of keeping them. And if that’s going to get ponies hurt it’s not something I want to be a part of.”
She shakes her head and glared, then lifts off and starts hovering above me. “It isn’t your call to make. Don’t follow me.” She puts on all the speed she’s got and streaks away towards Fluttershy’s cottage, leaving me alone and feeling useless. I sigh and head for the lake to start putting together a mid-afternoon drizzle. Maybe I can push it up a few hours so things will have a chance to dry out before Azalea’s date with Twilight.
An hour later I’m pushing a few rainclouds into position over the schoolhouse when the bell tolls, marking the beginning of recess. Fillies and colts pour out to play, and I’m about to leave the clouds for the time being and come back once they’re done. No sense raining out their playtime, after all, and Cheerilee will appreciate not having a couple hundred muddy hoofprints to clean up later. Then something catches my eye. At the rear of the pack, their shoulders slumped with melancholy as they trudge outside after their classmates, are Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. The usually exuberant pair trots over to the swing set and just sit down there, more still than I can remember ever seeing them. Another colt comes up with a ball and asks them something, but Apple Bloom just shakes her head and he walks away disappointed. A minute later, as I watch, Sweetie Belle sniffles and wipes at her eyes.
Buck this.
------------------
“Oh, Cloudy,” says Fluttershy as she opens her cottage door. “I didn’t know you were coming by. My goodness, I can’t remember the last time I’ve had two visitors come all the way out here on the same day just by coincidence. We’re just sitting down for tea if you’d like to join us.”
“I’d love to,” I say, flashing that winning Kicker smile as I step inside. She blushes. Nice to know I’ve still got it. I step into her living room and Kicky looks up at me from the table, her muzzle wrinkling when she processes that it’s me. “Hi Kicky. Fancy seeing you here.”
“What are the odds,” she says through gritted teeth. “Especially since you’re supposed to be at work.”
“I’m sure Rainbow Dash wouldn’t mind me taking a break to visit a friend, would she?” My plastered-on smile doesn’t waver in the face of her barely suppressed irritation, but she’s keeping it in check for now.
“Let me get you a cup and saucer, I’ll be right back.” Fluttershy disappears into her kitchen.
That’s all the opportunity Kicky needs. “What the buck are you doing here, Cloudy? I told you not to follow me.”
“Tough. If there’s information that could help us find Scootaloo here, I’m not letting you cut me out of the loop like this. And if this drone is dangerous to Fluttershy I’m not going to put up with you keeping it a secret from her.”
Kicky groans, frustrated, but I’ve made up my mind. “She’s not... look, the Elements changed us, and we ended up picking up all the social conditioning, nature, upbringing, all the stuff on how to be, well, nice from the pony lives of the ones we were copying, right?”
I nod. The details on just how that worked escape me, but I can wrap my head around the end result easily enough. “Yeah. So?”
“So not all species are as nice as ponies are. And the changeling we put here—”
“I hope that jasmine is fine,” says Fluttershy, reemerging as Kicky clams up again. She balances a cup and saucer in her hooves and slowly carries it over to where I’m seated. “I was just giving Kicky an update on some of my critter friends. She’d just asked about—”
“Wow, isn’t it scary how Scootaloo just up and disappeared like that?” interrupts Kicky, ignoring the small frown on Fluttershy’s face as she retreats behind her mane. “Fluttershy, those cookies were delicious. Are there any more?”
“Um... I can check.” Fluttershy leaves the table again, and we pick up our emphatically whispered argument right where we left off.
“So you had an animal watching her? I didn’t know you could copy those.”
Kicky shrugs. “Most of us can’t. The Queen put a specialist on it. My point is, he didn’t get pony morality from the Elements.”
Wow. That’s way worse than I thought. “So you mean there’s some kind of predator out there with drone-level intelligence and a grudge against Fluttershy? And you weren’t going to tell me? What the actual buck.”
“Would you shut up and let me explain? I’m telling you, she’s not in any—”
“I found a few more cookies, if you don’t mind splitting them.” Fluttershy returns to the table and places two big oatmeal cookies between us. “As you were saying, yes, I heard from Rainbow Dash that she was missing. I hope everything’s alright.” She hangs her head. “If only I had tried harder to get her to talk to me.”
“You’re the last pony who needs to blame herself over this, Fluttershy,” I say with what I hope is a reassuring pat on her back. Then I glare across the table. “Isn’t that right, Kicky? I can think of a few other ponies who should be feeling worse about her going missing. Any thoughts?”
Kicky abruptly stands up from the table. “...I need to use the restroom,” she eventually says, walking deeper into the cottage.
“Oh my, did I say something to upset her?” asks Fluttershy.
“I’m sure she’s just a little stressed out right now, it’s nothing you did.”
“She was sneaking around behind the cabin when I found her. I tried to get her attention, but, um, I think I may have snuck up on her. She nearly took off when I tapped her on the back.”
I smile at the mental image. Only Fluttershy could out-quiet an ex-changeling by accident. “Do you know who she was looking for?”
She shakes her head. “I’m not sure.”
I sit there enjoying the tea and the company until Kicky finally returns. “Sorry it took so long. Fluttershy, I noticed there’s a loose board in the wall of your chicken coop. Want me to fix it while I’m here?” She gives me a pointed look. “You don’t need to stick around for that, Cloudy. I know you’re busy.”
“That board’s loose again? I hope Elizabeak hasn’t been pecking at it. She’s just been so much trouble lately.
I bet she has, especially if she’s figured out one of the other animals has it out for her owner. “Any idea why she’s doing that?”
“I think it’s probably because she’s upset about not being a changeling anymore,” says Fluttershy. Stunned silence falls over Kicky and myself, bringing silence to the cabin as Kicky and I both gape at Fluttershy, who’s sitting there quietly sipping her tea. “This needs a bit of sugar, I think. Would either of you like some as well?”
Kicky ignores the question. “Wait, you know?”
Fluttershy wilts a bit at her tone, and I shoot her a warning glance. “Was I not supposed to know? I’m sorry. She just started acting so oddly after I came back from Canterlot and the invasion. It wasn’t hard to figure out.”
The china rattles as Kicky’s forehead meets the surface of the table. Repeatedly. “She doesn’t know that you know.”
“She doesn’t?” asks Fluttershy, genuinely confused. “She’s been so rude lately, I’m not sure who she thought she was fooling.”
“So... you’re okay with this?” I ask. “I mean a bunch of ponies were freaking out when they found out about Kicky here.”
“I don’t mind. Is that why you really came here, Kicky? To talk to Elizabeak?”
Kicky sighs. “Yeah, I think she might know what happened to Scootaloo, or where she is.”
Fluttershy gasps, and gets a rather angry and disappointed look on her face. “And you didn’t tell me right away? Kicky, I’m surprised at you. I’ll go get her right now.”
“Sorry Fluttershy,” Kicky calls after her as she walks out the front door, leaving the two of us alone. Well, alone other than the pair of otters watching us from where they’re perched on the arm of a nearby couch. “Well, so much for all the secrecy, I guess.”
“So that’s what you were worried about me finding out? That Fluttershy is raising an evil chicken?”
“More or less, yeah.”
Huh. I’m starting to see why she didn’t really feel like I needed to know. “So, when you say she’s evil, what exactly does that mean?”
Before Kicky can answer, Fluttershy returns with Elizabeak on her back. “Now Elizabeak,” she begins in her most authoritarian tone, which just barely raises her statement to the threshold of ‘gentle suggestion,’ “I’d like you to answer these ponies’ questions. I know you know Kicky, and they’re both good friends of mine, so please be on your best behavior.”
From her perch, Elizabeak lets out a cavalcade of hoots and squawks, spreading her wings for added emphasis. Fluttershy’s mouth makes a hard, thin line across her face as she frowns.
“No Elizabeak, we do not threaten to disembowel our friends and wear their intestines as a necklace. It’s very rude.” Another long series of clucks. “Nice ponies don’t bathe in the blood of a thousand foals. That wouldn’t even get you clean, and it would be a waste of all that blood that ponies were nice enough to donate to the hospital.” She turns to us. “Kicky, you can go ahead and ask your question whenever you’re ready.”
“Umm...” It’s pretty obvious that this isn’t quite how Kicky had expected this to go. “Did Scootaloo tell you where she was going before she ran off? She’s missing.”
Fluttershy translates the answer for us. “She says no. Well, no and that you and the rest of the race-traitors will face judgement and destruction before the might of the reborn swarm. I think she’s a little cranky.”
Kicky sighs. “Well, this was a dead end then. Sorry for wasting your time, Fluttershy.”
She smiles. “Not at all. It was wonderful to see you both. I just wish Elizabeak and I could have been more help.” Another cluck. “Elizabeak says goodbye too. More or less.”
“Yeah I need to get back and help Azalea get ready for her date tonight, and Cloudy really should get moving on the weather.” I nod my agreement. All this worry over Scootaloo has me behind schedule.
“I can’t tell you how much Twilight’s been looking forward to that. I think she had a bit of a rough time in Canterlot, and a happy night is just what she needs right now.” Kicky and I move to leave until Fluttershy speaks up again. “Kicky.” She freezes in her tracks. “Scootaloo’s one too, isn’t she? Like you and Elizabeak. And you knew, but you didn’t tell me even though I could have helped her.”
She winces under the simple statement of fact, but there’s no point in denying in. Instead she just nods.
“I see. Once we find her and we know that she’s safe, the three of us need to sit down and have a very long talk. Understand me?”
“I was just trying to respect her privacy, Eepy,” she replies.
“We’ll talk about it later. Go help Azalea.” She waves goodbye to us, and Kicky closes the door behind us before visibly deflating. That mare has a way of sucking all the wind out from under your wings with a few well-placed words.
“So we’re back to square one, I guess,” I say. Kicky sighs, and I feel a little twinge of pity for her situation. “Hey, we’ll find her. But first we have a friend we need to get laid.”
Kicky lets out a little chortle, and a bit of her old swagger returns. “She just needs a pep talk and a helping hoof getting her mane ready. Twilight’s barely gonna know what hit her. She’s got this.”
“Yeah, probably,” I agree. A moment passes. “We are going to spy on them though, right?”
“Well, obviously.”
-----------------------
And so, one lone cloud manages to find its way over the Golden Oaks library just a few minutes before Azalea’s set to arrive to pick up Twilight. The ideal platform for concealing the two of us within its fluffy depths without being noticed by anypony who might happen to look up. The surface ripples as Kicky lands on it, while I’m already wrapped up in its underside looking out a window in the bottom while I munch on some popcorn. “Am I late? Is she here?”
“Nope, right on time,” I reply as I scoot over to make room for her. “How was Az when you left?”
“Nervous, but gorgeous,” says Kicky.
“Alright, then let operation ‘Bang the Bookworm’ commence.” I pass her the popcorn and she wordlessly takes a hoofful and chomps down on it. “Any new leads on Scootaloo?”
She sighs. “I wish. There’s no sign of her around town. She’s definitely not here anymore, but I don’t know where she went. Call it a hunch, but I doubt she bolted to start over in a new city, though. Not without more planning and support.”
I think about that. “Is there somepony else she might have talked to? You said there were six, and we know about Bon Bon, you, Scootaloo, and...” I just barely suppress a snigger, “...Elizabeak. What about the other two? I’m not asking for names, but would either of them have access to money or resources to give to her?”
“Sorry, Cloudy. No hints. Privacy is important to me. Now be quiet; Azalea’s coming and I want to watch her and Twilight flirt.”
Azalea is indeed walking up the road towards the library. She must have settled on the red dress Kicky suggested, and her mane is tied up in two braids with ribbons on the end of each. She looks fantastic. If Twilight passes her up, that parrot was a dirty, dirty liar. “Wow, you weren’t kidding. You must have pulled out all the stops.”
“For Azalea’s dream date? Of course I did,” says Kicky. “I just... she deserves this. Everypony deserves at least a shot at landing their dream mare, and she’s had a rough couple months.”
I frown at that. “She has? She didn’t say anything to me about something like that.”
“Just take my word for... oh for Celestia’s sake!”
I follow her gaze down to the ground. Azalea is standing in front of the library door and hesitating. Her hoof hangs in midair, but she’s not knocking. “What’s she doing?” My question is answered a second later as she lowers her hoof to the ground and takes a slow step back from the door. She’s chickening out.
“No, Az, come on,” whispers Kicky, trying to will her to make a different decision. “She’s gonna love you, just knock on the bucking door.”
I don’t bother whispering. I’m more of a mare of action, and she’s just turning away from the library when I drop down in free fall and land next to her. The loud ‘thump’ startles her enough to look over at me. “Cloudy? What are you doing here?”
“What am I doing? What are you doing? Knock!”
She sniffles and shakes her head. “This was all a mistake. Twilight isn’t going to—”
She probably has a whole self-pitying monologue all ready to go, but rather than listen to it I just raise a hoof and rap three times on the door. She openly gapes at me, but I just grin back. “Good luck,” I say before I shoot back into the air right as I hear the latch click from the inside. I disappear from sight and just hear Spike greeting her below before I nestle myself back up in the cloud next to a stunned Kicky. “Alright, Azalea. Showtime.”
------------------------------
One successful date later, Kicky and I catch up with a beaming Azalea just as she hops up and does a little midair pirouette, dancing to music only she’s hearing. Her eyes are closed, and Kicky and I swap goofy grins as we wait for her to notice us. After five full minutes of waiting we decide to hurry it along a bit. “I take it you had a good night?”
Her eyes snap open, but the smile doesn’t go anywhere. “I was ready to kill you when you knocked on that door and then disappeared like that, you know.”
I shrug. “Sometimes the best way to learn to fly is to get thrown off a cliff. You’d never have forgiven yourself if you’d bailed on her.”
“I almost did again there in the restaurant. I’m in the middle of telling her about the time my roommates at the university accidentally released a colony of salamanders into the walls of our dorm when she stops paying attention, shouts something about a fork, and starts scribbling formulas on her napkin. She’s just....”
“Look, Azalea,” says Kicky, “if you’re going to date her, you need to understand that she’s completely bonkers. Not, like, in a bad way. But she’s nuts.”
Azalea bristles at that. “She’s not crazy, she’s just smart.”
“Do you know what she was doing right after you kissed her goodnight and left?”
“What?”
“She started talking to the bush next to her front door.”
She pauses to consider that. “Okay, so maybe she’s odd. But she’s also... I mean, wow! After we left the restaurant and went to the park it was just... I’ve never felt like that before. Ever. Like I mattered to a pony who’s important.”
Kicky scoffs. “What are we, chopped liver?”
She goes a bit pale, and shakes her head so hard that her sole remaining braid finally gives up the ghost and comes undone. “Of course not! But I thought she’d be this impossible, unapproachable pony and she’s not. It just blew me away how normal she was. I mean, we went out to dinner and for a walk in the park like any couple might.” It doesn’t escape my notice that a little shiver of glee runs down her spine at the word ‘couple.’ “I can wrap my head around that. I half expected she’d take me to retrieve some ancient artifact from an underwater temple or something as our date, but she’s not like that once you get to know her.”
My grin gets wider. “Wow. You’ve got it bad for her, don’t you? You should have asked if you could come inside and spend the night.”
Azalea’s earlier glee vanishes, and with the facade of confidence stripped away all the energy and nerves she spent the night suppressing rise right to the surface. “She asked if I wanted to, actually. I turned her down.”
“You turned her down? Why?”
“I just...” she trails off.
“Some ponies don’t bang on the first date, Cloud. Lay off,” says Kicky.
Their loss. “I didn’t feel like spending the night. Maybe after a couple more dates I’ll feel ready, but not yet.”
I just shrug. While I’d assumed that she would have jumped at the chance to get Twilight between her legs based on the way she talked her up these last couple weeks, it’s her choice. “Are you two going to see one another again?”
“Yep! Do you think I should come over tomorrow and set something up?”
Kicky shakes her head. “I’d give her a few days so you don’t look desperate. Three days is a good general rule.” Then she gets a proud smile and trots over to hug Azalea. “Told you that you could do this. This is who you are now, okay? Don’t forget that.”
“I won’t,” says Azalea, returning her hug. “Thanks for everything, girls. Now if you don’t mind, I need to get home. I’m beat.”
“Of course,” says Kicky, releasing her. She starts to walk away.
“Oh, Azalea? One more thing,” I say. She turns to look back at me. “I told you that the ‘checking out the librarian’ thing was a good line.” She groans, rolls her eyes, and continues on her way leaving Kicky and I standing in the middle of the road. “Tonight was a good night.”
“Yeah, it was,” says Kicky. We turn down a side street to head back home ourselves. “Tomorrow, though? Tomorrow we have a filly to save.”