The sound of the hissing brakes jolted me from my sleep. My head knocked against the side of Glacie's wing, in turn startling her awake. I blinked, my glasses sitting crookedly on the bridge of my nose and leaving me temporarily blind. I heard Nuke yawn loudly, and slip from his seat onto the floor with a small click.
All three of us pegasi stretched out our wings, the plumage slightly ruffled and the teeniest bit dull from our sleep. We heard the light and brisk clip of another pony coming from the far end of the car. The silhouette on the other side of the door was familiar, and my assumption on who it belonged to was proved correct. Our Alicorn escort from earlier in the trip was back to fetch us.
"Alright, everypony! We've arrived in Canterlot! Follow me so we don't get lost on the way through the castle. We've still got a bit of a walk until we get to the actual castle itself, but I do hope you'll like the scenery."
Twilight smiled at us again, plumage shiny and uniform against her sides. The mare turned and started a brisk trot out toward the door of the train car. I headed the group as we followed, groggily stepping along and watched the exit draw closer and closer, wondering what was outside. Our view from the train car had been blocked off by a concrete wall littered with posters.
Twilight slipped fluidly from the car, going down the small staircase in one quick sweep. I carefully looked at each of the three steps, trying my best to go down them and not hold up the rest of my group. The bright sunlight greeted my eyes, causing me to quickly raise a wing and block it with an irritated hiss.
My eyes adjusted, and I was instantly speechless. A long and winding cobblestone path flanked by manicured lawns and trees led to a large moat. The water was crystal clear and wavered slightly with a gentle flow, and I followed the stream to magnificent pond and waterfall snaking down from the large and steep purple mountain. And that's just the scenery beside the castle.
I heard the rest of my little pack give audible 'wow's along with me as we saw the pristine white, gold, and purple structure jutting from the side of the mountain. There were a whole lot of swirled rooftops and bi-color stripes along them, nearly each and every one if not all topped with some form of sun, either an artist's rendition or a compass-rose shaped variation thereof. Pink banners lapped gently at the breeze, and the largest spire obscured the bright light of the sun. The white ivory of the walls counterbalanced the gold and royal purple of their roofs, some simply the colors, others underlines with extravagant designs of swirl and paisley.
We were jolted from our awe by our escort, who's cheery, chirpy voice stated, "Beautiful, isn't it? Just wait until you see the inside; come on." She started to again trot briskly toward the entryway. We shook ourselves out, and followed suit.
Clipping past the puller stallions, Twilight, Glacie, and I gave soft 'thank you's and bowed our heads, to which they returned a head-dip and a few small grins. Our two stallions in turn did the same, minus the small speaking. We straightened out, and then continued down the cobblestone road, populated by various ponies of various species.
The sound of the flowing water drew closer, and the dauntingly large and shiny castle grew even greater in size. The Alicorn ahead of us gave us yet another smile, and began to speak to us again as she saw our expressions of daunted awe.
"It's not as big as you think, at least the city before the castle isn't. The opening has a long bridge that leads over the pools that circle underneath the whole thing, so it takes up more space than an actual city." She said, the gave us a look back over her wings.
The entryway was towering overhead, and the large bridge over the water was the gate, laying horizontally down and brushing the top of the stream by a hair width. Our hoofbeats resounded gently over the water, the sound of the waterfall reminding me of the many streams and outlets of my hometown. Two sentries outside of the actual gate to the cities straightened up as our escort passed.
"Morning, Princess Sparkle." one of them, black and gold, greeted our Alicorn friend. I practically stopped in my tracks, and Nuke bumped into me as I did.
Princess? So this Alicorn was a royal. Why was she sent to come and greet us?
"Why did you stop, get moving!" Nuke hissed, brushing past me and following the escort.
Twitching my ears, I did a quick gallop to catch up, and promptly hissed in his ear. "Did you hear what that sentry said?"
Nuke gave me a quick look, trying to dismiss conversation for the sake of absorbing the light and look of the city. "What? He said hi."
I butted my head against his neck to get his attention. "He called her Princess."
Nuke pushed me away, and whispered. "I kind of figured that, Ginger Snap."
I quickly punched him with my left wing, sending him off balance a few feet. "It's Scribble." I hissed, and sped up to a trot to get ahead of him, my curly mane bouncing in ringlets as they shined in the sun.
I heard Glacie flutter up behind me, and her soft landing next to me as we reached the end of the gatehouse. "It's okay, just calm down. Don't get your feathers ruffled before we meet the Princess."
I gave her a sideways glance, and then looked ahead at our escort. Her neat and uniform mane and tail were flowing gently as she broke into the cityscape. I sighed, and then closed my eyes as we fizzled into the sunlight of the city.
The white walls of the houses were only broken by the golden doors ad balconies. A few upper-class ponies waved down at us, their heavy jewelry and fancy clothes chiming gently as they moved. Neo heavily landed next to Nuke, and then looked back at me with confusion and disgust.
I looked at the pegasus-stallion questioningly, and trotted up to him. "What's the matter?"
His navy coat rippled as his neck tensed. "These ponies are aristocrats. Got way too much and didn't work for one single bit of it." His wings were quivering, as if he just wanted to rocket into the sky and fly all the way back to his gaming bar in Starling Bay.
The floor dropped out from under us and we instinctively started to hover as we gave a loud yell of surprise. Our wings beat against each other as we failed to gain any balance, and we fell forward down a crunchy concrete slope.
I kicked out off of it, and opened my eyes as I fluttered rapidly again. I saw that there was a large, slim bridge curving in a soft hump down to another entryway. Our guide as well as Nuke and Glacie were looking up at me as I hovered above the slump that caught me by surprise. Neo meanwhile had gained his footing as quickly as he had lost it and was cantering downhill.
I followed the bridge with my eyes, and almost locked my wings as I saw the wall it connected to. The castle was magnificent , stretching into the sky like the spine on a dragon's back. The door had magnificent sconces, and the marble flooring inside only led to a courtyard, which I could not see from there.
My group had already started to cross the threshold, so I quickly glided to try and meld into their vicinity. Folding my wings again, I tried merge back into the fold, and began to take in more and more of the scenery surrounding me. Most of it was white marble, but there were paintings so detailed you could practically see the movement of the water, the gleam of the sun, or the twinkling of the stars.
"Okay, everypony. We're going to walk through the courtyard and meet up with the other two ponies that Princess Celestia has summoned. After that, we're going to the Throne Room to meet her." Twilight said in the sickly sweet tone I had attached to her since we met her this morning. She gave her tail a quick flick, and trotted out to the other side of the door.
The courtyard itself was comprised of a large white concrete circle attached to the side of the castle. It had a few manicured trees, and a wonderful view of the surrounding land that would make any pegasus' wings shiver with want to fly out over them into the sky and never look back. I also noticed where the stream we had crossed earlier fed into: an enormous circle connected underneath the castle, pooling the water and then letting it fall perilously into the chasm below, but beautiful all the same.
There were two shapes looming at the edge of the giant balcony-like structure, both with horns, but one with wings large enough to rival the circular floor on which we all stood. Their silver fur glittered in the harsh sunlight, and the larger of the two was tall enough to have painted the whole of the castle a sparkling chrome the way his coat reflected the bright light.
"Well, this is where your groups will meet. This is Silver Luck and-"
"GREAT GRAY!" I couldn't help but interrupt our Alicorn escort to go and see the Alicorn of my own. I burst out of the cluster of blue and gray, past the purple standing in front of it, and flew toward the looming gray shape.
His head turned, and I saw the fatherly old eyes I had grown accustomed to over the years. They shone blue, and a smile slipped onto his face as he rotated to greet me. He leaned down and spread his two front hooves, almost like a dog waiting for play.
"Ginger, nice to see you again!"
"I've missed you, Gray."
I gently butted the side of his head so as to avoid the horn he sported, and backed away. I had the biggest goofy smile on my face, and my wings were held high and proud, something I was unaccustomed to.
I heard a clear and somehow snobbish voice, accompanied by a gleaming coat and skinny frame. I looked, and to Gray's right stood a unicorn mare with his coat color. Her mane was mostly white, but there were a few swipes of red throughout, giving the illusion of a peppermint. Her Cutie Mark completely stood out from the rest of her coat: a four leaved clover, forest green with paler highlights.
"Dad, who's this?" she looked down her nose as me, which is an odd feat to say the least, because I was just as tall as she was.
Gray straightened up, and nudged me back toward my group. He kept his voice cool and smooth as he addressed his daughter. "Silver, this is Ginger, writer at Crimson Castle."
"Pleasure." I say, voice dripping with fake sincerity.
"Likewise." Silver answered equally as fake, and trotted on past me.
I straightened up, feeling the hairs at the base of my mane bristle. I quickly clipped back over into my cluster of friends next to Glacie and Nuke. Glacie tried to pat my shoulder with a tentative wing. Then she looked at me confused, and whispered in my ear.
"Have you not seen him in a while? I thought you worked for him at the castle."
I shook my head, casting a cold stare at the silver mare ahead of me. "I work for him yes, writing my books and organizing his libraries full of paperwork, but I don't see him that often. He still teaches geography and cartography."
Glacie nodded, and then gestured at the Alicorn ahead of us. Well, the purple Alicorn ahead of us. "Alright everypony, let's get going to the Throne Room."
I clipped again, following behind Neo and Twilight, trying to dismiss her bad attitude, as well as mine. We left the courtyard in a mostly gray and blue pack, going inside to meet the cold marble flooring on our hooves. The lights overhead were a nice change from the brutal sunlight we escaped from outside, as they were soft and dim.
The reality of what we were going to do hit me headlong in the face. I felt my stomach leap into my brain and got the instinct to preen myself better than any diva known to pony-kind. The corridors were long, filled with lights and paintings too gorgeous for anyone but royalty. Gray eventually slipped back and nudged me, a smile on his face as he covered my body with an enormous wing.
"I'm sure she's lovely, don't worry about it, Ginger."
I gulped nonetheless as he migrated back toward the front of the group, and looked ahead to the seemingly endless hallway we walked down. I saw two royal guards dressed in golden armor, spears at their sides, and I knew that the door they held was the Throne Room.
All the pegasi instinctively started to preen through our feathers and make our plumage shiny and presentable, and the unicorns slicked back their fur and manes. The two guards straightened up, their armor and spears clinking together as Twilight knocked against the door. It opened like a vacuum seal with a heavy clank, and more light gleamed from within to make our fur several shades lighter.
We refrained from shielding our eyes from the bright light within the room, and began to trot shakily forward through the door. The hall was grand and slickly done, the floor's marble pure white with the middle cut gently by tiles leading up to the throne. On either side of the middle path were extravagant stained-glass windows, each depicting a moment in Equestria's history.
One told Nightmare Moon's accent to power, another the unity of both Luna and Celestia. The next showed the reawakening of Discord, and the Elements of Harmony and their wielders turning him back into stone. Then the… turning of Twilight from unicorn to Alicorn. Huh, so that's why she has wings…
And at the end of all the stained glass windows and white marbled tiles stood an even whiter mare. Her hair flowed endlessly in an aurora of colors, and the heavy necklace of gold some around her neck. Her purple eyes were somehow soft and sharp at the same time, and she greeted us with a small dip of her head.
"Greetings from Equestria, Thicians."
We all bowed as Great Gray stepped forward to greet her face to face. "Hello, Princess Celestia. Greetings to you as well."
We all stood upright and looked up at her as she surveyed each of us in turn. She looked back up at Gray, and smiles softly at him. "Thank you for coming all this way to the castle." and she added with a look to her Alicorn escort. "And thank you for bringing them here, Twilight."
"Your welcome, Princess."
Looking back up at her, she had taken Twilight's notes from earlier, and began flipping back to the beginning. She then stepped up to Glacie, who visibly shrank into her feathers.
"Hello, Glacie. I see here that you are… a seer." Princess Celestia looked gently down at her, and then her eyebrows creased questioningly.
"Yes ma'am." Glacie said, and gulped again.
"I see you're a pegasus. How are you a seer?"
"Well…" Glacie looked down, and her wings quivered breifly.
Gray stepped up, holding a wing over her back breifly before addressing Celestia. "The letter came before she mastered it, Princess. She's unsure, but I'll train her before time goes past too long."
Before moving any more pages, she glanced at the navy snowflake on her flank. She went back to her pages.
I looked curiously at her, and silently questioned why she could 'see' into the future, if that was what the letter had meant by 'seer'. I had pondered over that for the longest time, as I had known Glacie long enough for her to be my sister in all but blood, but she had never mentioned any seer-like ability to me on our chats up in Atmosphere City on her off days.
I tensed and folded back my wings as the Princess approached me, flipped to my page and then gave me the same soft smile she had given my friend. "Ginger Scribble. You are the…" she looked down my page. "Scribe and the Weapons Designer. According to what Gray's told me, you are indeed a wonderful writer."
I looked up, and straightened my wings. "I-I'd like to think so, ma'am."
"How does that make you a weapon designer?"
I thought for a second, and tried to stand even straighter, if possible. "In my studies of the animal and plant life during cartography class, I've observed their advantages and disadvantages. What makes them tick, so to speak. I've seen what birds fly fastest and why, and what plants have poison spores to preserve their species. I'll try and take these elements to form weapons and use them to our advantage."
Celestia gave me a slow nod and the same slow smile. "I see. We'll welcome your insight in battle."
I dipped my head. "Thank you, Princess."
Looking at the sky-blue, aqua, and purple feather on my flank, she moved on to the unicorn-stallion friend on my left, and flipped to his page.
"Nuclear Horizon. Interesting name."
"My parents were interesting people, ma'am. But you can call me Nuke, if you'd like."
"Thank you. I see that you are the battle strategist."
"Yes ma'am. My brother and all of his friends play as dirty as the Diamond Dogs. I've tested my skills time and time again, and they haven't faltered."
"You do know that battle mechanics of games operate differently from real life?" Princess Celestia said gently, lifting her head back up momentarily before looking back down at the ash-gray unicorn next to me.
"Yes ma'am. I'll train for it as best I can." Nuke puffed out the soft fur on his chest. I'd never seen him so proud.
"Thank you, Nuke. I'll see to it that you do." As she walked on, I shivered on that last line of speech. She'll see to it then…
"Neo Retro. Thicians do give ponies interesting names."
"Interesting isn't bad. Uh, respectfully, Princess Celestia." the navy pegasus said, voice as clear as he could manage.
"Of course. And I see… historian. Rather different from what we've seen so far. But I do see that you have studied war history." She turned her purple and rose gaze toward him again, the white sheen of her fur tinted with pink.
"Every battle. Even the ones barely scoured over."
"What caused the Battle of Cihlderoy?"
Neo stood straight up and answered matter-of-factly, "The earth ponies and unicorns were having a dispute over the territory of a river and a field. The earth ponies won, and have had the land ever since."
Celestia nodded, and breifly fluttered her wings, as large as Great Gray's. She glanced at the gray and black rectangle on his flank. Then she turned to the next in line, Silver Luck.
"Silver Luck, I've already met you."
"Yes ma'am."
She handed off the notebook to a servant, a yellow-tinted mare with a horn the same color. Twilight had apparently left during the introduction proceedings. Celestia turned toward the servant and said, "Please take them to their corridor in the East Wing."
"Yes ma'am." the mare said, and then gestured for my group of four to follow.
I looked at Silver Luck and her father follow Celestia up to the throne, and the stained glass windows seemed to pass by exceedingly fast. The door again closed with a loud clunk, and my four followed the small yellow unicorn through the seemingly endless hallway.
I must have looked down, because Glacie nudged me with her wing. "What's wrong? At least you had something to talk about." she nickered, referencing her earlier explanation of her title.
I looked at the pinkish-purple carpeting against the marble floor, and shook out my mane again. "Not that. I know Great Gray is leader, not to mention.. Ya know, King of Thicia… but…"
"It's hard seeing his daughter and knowing you aren't first priority."
I felt an indignant chill run up my spine, and my wings lifted of their own accord. But I knew it was true; while we were close, he was still first and foremost, the ruler, a teacher, and a father. While he was metaphorically a father to me, we all saw he had an actual daughter, and some sort of fighting prodigy at that. I was second page, and I didn't think I was.
"Yeah, I know." I sigh, and put my head down to try and cover my face with my mane.
We soon came to a large corridor, and the yellow mare at the front pushed the door open with a hoof. It creaked into a single room with four doors and a window, and she gestured for us to go inside.
"These are your rooms. The Princess will be expecting you tomorrow at seven in the morning sharp. Until then, you have run of the gardens and library, fly where you will. Dinner will be brought to your rooms at eight o'clock." the mare said, and walked out of the corridor, closing the door behind her.
We all looked at each other, dazed. We all stood there awkwardly, shuffling our hooves and fluttering our wings. Nuke took a gulp, and broke the silence.
"Well… that happened."
We all laughed our nervousness and fear out, eventually heaving for breath and wiping tears from our faces. Neo was practically flying up into the top of the room and swinging from the elegant chandelier. Glacie was the first to hush the hysterics.
"I guess we should pick our rooms, huh?" she whinnied, and dashed hastily to the first door on the left.
With a playful glimmer in my eye and a nudge so Nuke could have a fair chance, I propelled myself forward with my wings to the room next to hers. I pushed the door handle and tumbled in a brown, black, white, and orange ball. In a flurry of feathers and curls, I stood and shook it all out of my face and trotted back to the door. I craned my head to the left, and called out.
"Who's on my left?"
The ashy gray face and blue eyes peered back at me. "I am, so Neo's stuck on the end."
"I don't mind, are you kidding?" the blue stallion called, and peeked out with ears pricked.
"Well, what now?" Glacie asked loudly, and clipped back into the corridor itself.
I followed her example, and sat down. "I don't know; anyone know what time it is? We were on the train for so long, I have no idea."
"You normally have no idea, Ginger Snap. So what?" Nuke playfully purred, and gave me a swift and firm punch on the shoulder.
I, on the other hand, cuffed him over the ears with my wing. "I haven't 'snapped' yet, if that's what you're implying."
Glacie trotted back from the window ledge and informed us, "It's late afternoon, around four. We still have a while before dinner gets here."
"That waiting-mare said something about a library. I bet they have every book known to pony-kind in there." I said, swiping a few feathers back in place.
"I'm going for a fly. Get my bearings around the castle." Neo said, and beat his wings in the air a few times, and began to trot out towards the doors.
"I'm coming with ya!" Glacie called, doing a sprint to catch up.
"Don't get lost; this castle is huge!" Nuke yells out behind them, his voice echoing in the tall hallway after the two blue pegasi. Neo gave a dismissive flick of one of his wings, and he and Glacie continued to pander down the hallway.
I look at him as I stand, stretching out my legs and wings. "What are you gonna do? Canter around the gardens or run around the pathway?"
Nuke shook his head and arched his back like a cat. "Nah. I'm gonna take a nap while you guys do that. Have fun." he said, and turned to his room.
I rolled my eyes and decided to find my way to the library. After the directions of a few servants and guards, I found it, a floor down and two or three doors over from mine. I brushed quickly past the section labeled 'romance' and into the 'adventure' logs.
For the first few shelves, here was nothing but titles written by A. K. Yearling: 'Daring Do and the Griffin's Goblet', 'Daring Do and the Rings of Scorchero', 'Daring Do and the Emerald's Eye'.
Not finding any to my taste, I drifted into my favorite: the 'horror' section.
I flipped through the first few titles, none of them or the authors grabbing my interest. I finally reached someone of substance: Steve Bachman, one of the greatest horror tale-spinners in the whole world. He had written as many books on spooks as A. K. Yearling had written on her Daring Do.
I looked for something that wouldn't take too long to read, and settled on a short story book titled 'Life is Eventual'. I plucked it from the shelf, and having seen no librarian whatsoever, decided to simply take a load off in one of the done-up window seats.
The circular seat was extremely cushy, and I settled in nicely against the pillows (Most of them purple, as I found the rest of the castle to be.). With the sun creeping in through the stained-glass window and me nestled into the cushions, I dug like a tick into the book.
Several stories passed, each of them exceedingly more gruesome than the last. A stallion paralyzed in the autopsy room, unable to speak as the surgeons prepare to cut his 'cadaver' open. Another stallion unsure whether or not he's losing sanity as a finger, a horrifying sight for a pony on a good day, stretches from his bathroom drain, scratching at the sink and walls as it grows, knuckle by knuckle.
After about an hour of reading, my eyes grew droopy from the lack of sleep. Alright, granted, it may seem like a normal amount of sleep I'd been getting, but when my schedule gets hectic and my times get switched, it's like no sleep at all. So I slipped off with the book laying against me into the cool pillows under the window.
I paid for it though. I was rudely awoken by who assumed to be the librarian at 8:30, and shooed back to my room without the book. Sore I had missed a hot meal, as soon as I reached my room, I looked at the dining cart outside each of ours.
Apparently, it had been some sort of clover and sesame salad with water and some sort of bread-cake topped with vanilla sauce for desert. I hated vanilla.
While I did take the cart into my room, I looked outside to see everyone's door shut. I even tried Glacie's knob to find it locked. So after eating the salad and drinking the water, I was puzzled on what to do. I saw the waiters who brought the cart back out, and thanked them for the food. Afterwards, I started to walk the hallways aimlessly as the moon rose and the sky grew darker. At some point I had ended up outside on the courtyard, and saw the soft blue lights planted on the pond near the gatehouse we had entered by.
I breathed in the warm summer night air, and thought maybe a quick fly would alleviate the awake-ness in my muscles. Quietly fluttering my wings so as not to wake the rest of the castle, I rose silently into the night sky. I rose as high as the tallest spire, and looked out over the land I now rested in. I saw the huge valley, and far away in the distance the dim homey lights of Ponyville. I smiled, and thought of Tom and his tavern. Doing a few swoops and twirling in the wind, I looked up to the moon, and felt a pressure that I knew only magic could exert.
The glowing rock seemed to rise into the sky at a previously unknown speed, and I hovered confusedly in the air. It reached its peak and rested lazily within its nest among the stars, and I wondered what that magic pull had been. As I turned to do a few more swoops and reawaken my feel for flying, I saw a pair of eyes the color of the blue around the moon from the peak of the highest tower. Startled, my wings faltered and I fell a few hoof-lengths before looking back to make sure I still held my sanity.
I was correct, and saw the eyes attached to a face similar in shape to Celestia's, only instead of a pearly pinkish-white, was the color of the night sky. Her mane was the epitome of the stars, instead of resembling them, the purple flow looked as if it actually housed them. She wore a silver necklace emblazoned with the moon, striking against the deep blue of her skin.
My mouth gaped, and I hastily did a mid-air bow as I realized: this was Celestia's sister, Princess Luna. Just as much responsibility rested on her shoulders to lift the moon as Celestia's to lift the sun, and I had flown right through the middle of it like a moron. I let myself drop a few more lengths, feeling the burning blue gaze of the Alicorn above me. In a moment of haste, I shouted out.
"S-sorry!"
I saw the eyes slowly close, and the head give a graceful dip as I heard a voice as smooth as silk. "It's quite alright." And watched as she slipped back into the castle.
Letting out a major huff of breath, I flew clumsily down to the pond that fed into the moat over the bridge. I landed in the manicured grass, and padded up to the edge of the water. I was still breathing quickly and heavily, but my mane didn't look more out of sorts than it usually did. I huffed again, and collapsed against the ground in a nervy pile.
I just made a fool of myself in front of one of the Princesses… not the first time I've done something this stupid.
As I watched the wavering light of the moon dance on the surface of the water, I got the strangest urge to go swimming. I don't usually swim because of my mane and tail being so curly, and whenever they dry from swimming I haven't fixed them, and they frizz out so that they're bigger than I am. But since I just twirled in the moonlight like a moron, I saw no harm in going for a dip.
The water was so clear I could see the bottom; or so I thought. When I went straight for the center, I was consumed completely by the pond, and it swallowed me in one huge gulp. I sputtered up to the surface, mane in my eyes and my wings pedaling water in place of my front hooves. I shook it out of my face and started to dog paddle around the pond, kicking out against the non-existent bottom.
"The air tastes sweet tonight. Like honey." I heard Nuke's voice from somewhere behind me.
"So gingers can swim." I heard the crack from shore, and looked back over.
Nuke was sitting on the pebbly shore, tail curled neatly around and his head cocked to the left. I paddled up and pushed the first half of my body from the pond. I angrily shook the water from my mane, some of it frizzing out, as expected.
"Of course we can. We just choose not to." I respond matter-of-factly, watching as he shifted over.
"Did you see the moon go up too?" He asked, swiping one of his hooves over the front part of his mane.
I bit my tongue as I was reminded of my clowning during the lifting. "Yeah, really pretty."
"Where were you? Neo and Glacie were wandering around trying to find ya."
I gave him a 'really?' look as I crossed my front hooves. "Did any of you bother to check the library?"
He shrugged. "We couldn't find it." And I bit his arm to promptly drag him into the pool. He gave me a startled yell, and clamped his mouth shut as we went under.
I used my wings to swim back so he wouldn't hit me when he lashed out, but I knew he could swim, so he was fine. When he eventually got his balance back, he glared at me and lunged forward. I dived under and weaved behind him as he tucked a few feet into the water. He turned around and dived under with his horn glowing green. I felt a tug on my ear, and saw the olive hue emanating from my head. I gritted my teeth as he held me in place before butting my ribs with the side of his head.
My ear was released and I plunged under water again. I gripped his head with the arm of my right wing as I sank, and as my tail grazed the bottom, I kicked back up and released him. Bursting out of the water like a balloon, I stepped onto the shore, all of the moisture in my hair weighing me down. I huffed and puffed and I angrily shook the water from my main and tail.
Nuke climbed weakly out of the water, sputtering and mad. "What in Gray's name did ya do that for?!"
I puffed again, my mane in front of my face. "You looked bored." I said with a grin, and turned to see the valley and lights within it again. A sudden though hit my; another one of my epiphanies.
"Ya know what?"
"What, two face?"
"I just realized I never paid Tom for the funnel cakes."