Juniper woke up to the usual sound of birds chirping in the morning sun. Darn birds. Juniper slowly got out of bed and walked to the bathroom to releave herself. After splashing cold water into her face to wake herself up fully, she walked out of the bathroom to see Inq sitting at the small table in their shared room sipping happily at a cup of coffee.
"Good Morning! Such a nice day outside!" Juniper cursed fate, her best friend was a morning person and she definitely wasn't one.
Inq smiled and continued to cradle her cup in her wings and hummed happily to herself. Sweet Celestia why did she have to make noise! Juniper knew that she was over reacting about what her friend was doing but it was still annoying.
"Did you sleep better after your walk?"
"Not really I me...how did you know I went out? You were asleep."
"I was pretending, I knew you wouldn't fall back asleep so I made it look like I had so you would open yourself up freely. It's not good to keep emotions couped up like that."
"Well thank you for your concern. I didn't have the dream again, I just had a REAL nightmare this time."
Juniper then explained what she saw when she went out on her midnight walk through the city.
"Wow...where is the stallion now?"
"No idea, I kinda feel sorry for him, somehow I don't think that dragon was going to have any mercy on him."
"Probably not. Any-who, you have to be somewhere don't you." Inq already knew the answer and knew that Juniper had forgotten.
"Oh my gosh! I completely forgot!" Juniper looked at the clock and groaned "I have to be there in five minutes! Gottagoseeyoubye!"
Inq snorted at her friends expense, Juniper was fun to be with. Inq had met her when Princess Celestia had introduced Juniper to her family. Inq was an only child of two parents who were now barren, but to make up for that they became a foster home and took in the foals who had the least chance of adoption. Juniper was the only exception, Juniper had lived in their house for the first two years until Celestia asked Juniper to become her new student. That's when Celestia offered this room for the two of them to share, Inq was over joyed to get out of that house with all the whining and crying foals. Inq sighed and went over to her desk to start going through the news for any leads.
Meanwhile Juniper was sprinting through the halls of the castle, dodging and weaving through the legs of dragons and ponies alike. Now-a-days dragons were common throughout all of Equestria. In Canterlot they had built three Manors, Manors big enough to hold an entire family of dragons, the buildings were big enough to let dragons walk around and still let ponies do the same. Each Manor had a treasury or horde room for the families "loot". The only creatures who knew of these rooms were the dragons who lived in that house, it was guarded with a spell so that if any creature found out where it was they would instantly forget. The spell was cast with the power of all the princesses at hoof. However, besides these three Manors, there weren't any personal housing for dragons yet, it took a long time to build dragon sized houses.
Juniper's hooves screeched as she skidded around a tight turn nearly hitting a dragon.
"Woah, slow down before you hurt yourself or someone else."
"Sorry!" Juniper shouted over her shoulder at the dragon who was now shaking her head.
Juniper looked at a clock in one of the halls she passed, one minute! Juniper ran as fast as she could she couldn't be late! Right as the minute hand ticked over to eight o'clock sharp she burst through the doors of Celestia's private rooms. Juniper looked towards Princess Celestia's empty desk in confusion, why wasn't she there ready to give her the new project that she had been told about? She heard a small grunt and then a yawn which drew her eyes to the now rising mass in the bed at the far side of the room.
"Who...what are you doing, Juniper? Is something wrong?" Princess Celestia yawned again and rubbed her eyes with her hooves, trying to get sleep out of them.
Juniper stared at her in disbelief, had she forgotten? Why was Princess Celestia still sleeping?
"I'm here because you asked me to be...don't you remember?"
"Oh I remember -yawn- but I said come here the next time we have class, not a friggin' Saturday morning!" Princess Celestia was slightly annoyed that she had been awoken from a particularly nice dream.
"Saturday? Is it really? Then why did...oh she is sooo gonna die!"
Inq heard the frustrated screech and knew that she had been figured out, oh well, Inq got up and trotted to the window that she had left open so she could fly away. As Inq got closer she heard the running sound of hooves approaching, she chuckled. Her amusement died when a flash blinded her temporarily and when she recovered she saw Princess Celestia towering over her, oops.
~~~
Bumble buzz was a guard for the princesses and he was bored out of his mind. He was currently guarding the doors to the castle at the most relaxed time of day. So with nothing to distract himself he was starting to fall asleep. Bumble eventually did fall asleep and was startled awake by a high pitched scream and a brown blur flying through the sky. The blur was followed by a much bigger white one that looked kinda like the princess...
"GET BACK HERE SO I CAN TEAR THINE HEAD OFF!!!"
Naaah, princess Celestia didn't chase after anypony and didn't get mad, like ever. Plus she was in her private chambers enjoying her first day off in almost three centuries. She had given specific orders to not be disturbed by any ponies outside the castle. Bumble just shrugged and tried to stay awake at his post.
~~~
Juniper felt a little pity for Inq but not much, she deserved whatever she got. Juniper was studying a book called "The Art of Ubstruction." It was quite interesting, it told you all about how ponies...blah blah blah blah...in which case they would hide it somewhere else. (Yes Juniper rambles on and on about stuff) while Juniper was engrossed in her book she heard a knock on the door and a guard calling to her.
"Miss Juniper, you have a visitor shall I send him in?"
"Umm, give me a sec." Juniper looked around the room and gave it a once over to make sure it was clean enough. It wasn't, but who cares. "Send him in."
In walked a Lunar Pegasus who looked familiar for some reason. He walked in and looked around the room before resting his eyes on Juniper.
"You're bigger."
Juniper stared at the Lunar Pegasus with a confused look, how would he know if she was bigger? Who was this?
"Who are you?" The pony just laughed and looked at Juniper with amusement.
"I suppose you wouldn't remember me, we only met for a couple minutes. I'm Watching Fangs, an old friend of someone no longer here..." Watching Fangs looked down at his hooves with a look of sadness all over his face. Then he brightened up a bit and looked back up at Juniper.
"Well anyway I came here because I have found a body at my door and the pony doesn't look like it had died of natural causes."
"Sooo why come to me?"
"Well I came here for you and your partner Inquiring Inquisition. The body had a note on it, more like in it, but it said Sweet Inq."
Juniper shifted in her seat and felt extremely uncomfortable that this pony knew her full name, as well as Inq's.
"Also the princess said that you should get out of the castle so this is a perfect opportunity. You could home your skills in deduction and make the princess happy at the same time, judging by how she sounded when she was flying outside she could use the space."
"I'm sorry but I still don't know who you are, or how you know all this stuff."
"Still don't remember? Do you remember Mockin sage at least?"
~~~
Bumble buzz was about to get off his post, finally. He had some real trouble staying awake but he had managed. Bumble heard the bells announcing that it was now four o'clock. Bumble sighed and turned towards his replacement as he walked towards him. Bumble turned towards the doors and was about to open the doors for himself when they burst open and smacked him in the face. When he looked up he saw a fully grown Lunar Pegasus getting up off his back and backing up from the door.
"Now look Juniper, I know you hate Mockin for disappearing but..."
"HE LEFT ME! HE LEFT ME ALONE AND SCARED!! AND KNOW YOU COME HERE AND CLAIM YOU KNEW ALL ALONG THAT I WAS ALONE AND DIDN'T BOTHER TO HELP?!!!"
Bumble stared at the filly with pure terror, Juniper was depressed sure, everypony knew that but why was she mad at this pony?
"Look Juniper, I am sorry that I couldn't come sooner but I have a family now and I couldn't leave my foals because they were so young. I only have time to be here for a day before I go back, please forgive me?"
~~~
Watching Fangs saw Juniper go from pure anger into grief in almost a second, it was very disturbing. She stopped in her tracks and fell to the ground curled up in a fetal position. Fangs ran forward and hugged Juniper's upper body to his. Fangs witnessed something he didn't understand and hopped would never witness again, he saw a pony who was torn apart from a pony who gave her hope and then left her, tearing away at her love and her trust for others.
Fangs let Juniper spill four years of pent up and ignored grief on his chest. He even let Juniper punch his side as she buried her face in his chest and took her anger out on him. He didn't mind, it didn't hurt much. Juniper eventually gave up and hugged Fangs back. Fangs could feel her hitching breaths shudder through him and it pulled at his own heart. He simply pulled her in tighter and layed his head atop of hers and shed tears of his own.