Stellar and Crystal walked out of the clock store with Click Clock watching them from the entrance of her shop. The two mares had a long talk about what Click Clock truly was, and the talk actually was interesting. It turned out that she was an ancient entity that watched the Dream Realm, as she mentioned herself quite often. She came to Equestria for a bit of 'vacation' for a week or two, which equated to sixty-five million years, rounded up, for the common pony. Fortunately, she was one of many million, so she had nothing special about her. That is, she did seem to regress when thinking of her past. She was hiding something, but Stellar didn't care. She was finally feeling a true sense of joy.
"Stellar?" a stallion called out.
Life jumped out of a corner, looking around in a panic and panting. When he spotted Stellar, he immediately went next to her and sighed in relief, although this didn't solve his lack of oxygen.
"Oh. You're here. Thank goodness. I thought you would have disappeared or hurt yourself or something."
Crystal looked closely at his face, analyzing it for a short while. Click Clock decided to butt in at this precise moment by shouting, as loud as she could:
"Ha! He likes Stellar."
Her voice was loud enough for three blocks to hear. The stallion slowly moved aside of Stellar, his face slowly coming into view of the purple pony leaning against the doorway and holding a mug of alcohol. His face of disapproval slowly morphed into that of horror when he saw what she looked like. She just lift her mug to him, smiled, and took another swig of her elixir.
"I do like her, but as a friend."
Crystal erupted in laughter and looked at Click Clock. Tears of laughter were pouring from her eyes like an open faucet.
"He does like her," Crystal laughed.
Life's tomato meter rose to an astounding level that day, and not only did his face turn the deepest red you ever did 'saw', but the cracks along his fur grew as bright as the lava veins of an active volcano. Stellar said nothing. Instead, she moved uncomfortably close to his face, her breath just mere millimeters away from his left cheek. Every exhale made him stiffen up like a marble statue of Ancient Crease, and his face began to darken to a black hue, and his fur began to tingle and straighten up from stress. Every second that passed forced many questions and thoughts through Life's mind as Stellar slowly opened her mouth, making a gross clicking noise done when someone opens their mouth with their tongue on the roof.
"Blah!" Stellar said.
The mare had stuck her tongue out and spun her eyes as a way to amuse herself and startle Life. His breathing became a still work of muscle movement. The black mare hopped away in a foal-like manner, but also hinting at something else. Crystal looked at her with an amused grin and a cocked eyebrow and returned to looking at Life who hadn't moved at all.
"What's the matter? Life?" she wondered as she poked him. "She broke you. Ha! Wait until I tell this to Cadence!" The mare turned and pretending to gallop away, but barely had she stepped a few feet away that she turned around, expecting him to be angry and chasing after her. She was disappointed. "Pfff. I think he really stressed her out completely. I'll go tell Cadence anyways."
Life was left in the street alone. Well, he would be alone if Click Clock wasn't still leaning against the entry of her shop and drinking her brew. Only a few coughs from her part broke the silence, but only for a brief moment. Really. Nothing much happened, but it wasn't weighing on the purple pony at all. She could, quite literally, stay there and watch, which is what she did.
"Hem," she cleared her throat. "Just gonna stand there all day?" she asked Life. The stallion didn't answer. While he remained silent and immobile, Click Clock pushed her head forward and looked down the various streets. "You know, people are going to come soon. That execution thingy is over and there's not much else to do...Hello? Okay." Click Clock shrugged. "I'll just wait here to trim your leaves once you've taken root."
Back at the Crystal Tower, the crowd had practically completely dispersed with a few stragglers still standing around and discussing with the guards. Quite a few more were inspecting the execution stand, confusion reigning in their thoughts. Crunchy was looking around in confusion until Stellar finally came back. The stallion rushed to her whilst calling her name at the same time.
"Stellar! You're back."
"What's going on? What happened to my dad's...well..."
"That's the thing. He wasn't executed," Crunchy exclaimed.
Stellar's ears perked up and her eyes widened with a hidden joy. She shouldn't be happy, but she was. Deep within her, she still loved her father, but she could never forgive him for what he did, or rather, what he tried to do to her. She had to know.
"What happened to him?"
"We don't know. He just...when the blade came down, he was engulfed by a weird black, smokey goo. Nopony has managed to find him and we've searched high and low."
"Did you try the prison?"
"Yes. That's the first place we looked."
Stellar tapped her chin and frowned slightly. "I knew he'd do something like this. It's definitely like him."
"He yelled in horror and begged for us to save him from that...thing, but it was too late. He was gone."
"Oh. I'm not sure how I should feel about this." Stellar put a hoof to her chin and turned away slightly, worry besetting her features.
"I don't know either. He's not my father, but I wouldn't be proud of having such an individual as my parents."
While the two continued to speak about the incident, Crystal started sneaking around the various benches, crystal pillars, and ponies while on her way to see Cadance. When Crunchy caught sight of her, she gestured for him to ignore her. The stallion's response was a head shake and an eye roll.
"What?" Stellar asked.
"Nothing. One of the guards tripped and fell onto a few others."
"I want to see--"
"No." Crunchy grabbed Stellar's head in his hooves and forced her gaze back to him. "You don't want to embarrass them further, do you?"
"N-no."
"Good."
Finally home free, the dragoness quickly scampered up the stairs to the throne room, hoping to see Cadance there. The guards were few within the castle-tower, so she didn't have much difficulty going through it. They wouldn't recognize her despite being the daughter of the 'Hero'. When she saw they weren't there, she scampered quickly to the balcony where both Cadance and Shining were standing and talking.
"Princess Cadance!" Crystal shouted when she opened the doors.
"Crystal Clarity? Wat are you doing here?" Shining asked.
The mare's eagerness quickly devolved into a sort of shame with her rubbing her foreleg.
"I kinda...ran away from home to get a break from my little brother. I'm still looking for a university, and he's just annoying."
"Crystal," Cadence spoke in disapproval. "Well, I'll tell your parents you're here."
"I'm an adult, Cadence." Crystal frowned.
"You're still under their guardianship until you officially leave their home and acquire your own, first property as well as a job."
"I know."
"Still, what is it?"
"Life has a crush on Stellar."
Cadence's serious expression immediately turned into that of a giddy school filly talking about 'stahleons, oh my gosh'. Her eyes radiated and sparkled, and she even gave a little squeal of delight. Shining just whispered 'oh no' and facehoofed.
"So, what happened?"
"Well--"
The Grinning Shadow watched Stellar smile while talking to Crunchy. While she was pleased, and Crunchy seemed satisfied with her change of emotion, the shadow was not, and it gnawed on its nonexistent nails. It even ground the 'nail' by moving its lower jaw from side to side in frustration.
"Unacceptable! How did she suddenly become so positive and happy? I was certain that she would have remained broken from the trauma of seeing her father in that whole set. I would have been able to finalize everything! Curses! Wait...Maybe she's the one who saved him? No. That's not it. The shadows didn't do anything, and they wouldn't have saved him anyways. My whole plans have been ruined! Now I need to resort to plan C. The brute method is horrid, and I hate it, but I'll need to try it as much as I can. I've almost gathered enough energy...I just need to peel off a bit more from the residents here."
"He what?" Cadence laughed.
"Yeah. He's been stuck there the whole time. He hasn't moved. At least, I don't think he moved since we left him there."
"That's so cute, but, did Stellar do anything when she walked away from him?"
"She looked over her shoulder and looked at me while smiling."
Cadence rubbed her chin pensively. "Did her tail flicker a bit when she left?"
"Ummm...Yeah. A bit."
"I see."
"What, is that good or bad?"
"That's for me to know and you to find out," Cadence teased with a wink.
Crystal simply frowned.