//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 - Efferent // Story: Steady as She Flies // by Witching Hour //------------------------------// Three months later… Witch sighs as she sets the letter back in her desk drawer and closes it. “This is just bad luck…” she grouses, looking over to where Monkey is packing her own bag. “What do you mean? It’s perfect timing… This way, you’re not dealing with Tricks on your own while I’m at the Flight Academy, and I’m not rattling about this huge place like a lone pea in a tin can!” Monkey retorts as she carefully places a picture of the strange hodge-podge family she’d accrued over the last nine months in her bag. Looking at the picture of her with Witch, Tricks, Fine Brew, Holly Sweep, and Leaf Wind, Monkey thinks it had to be a little strange to be so readily adopted into her doctor’s family, but it’s a strange that Monkey likes. “I feel terrible about this… Tricks should be staying with one of us… Not with some strange pony in a town he’s never been to…” Witch frets, even as she too starts gathering up the books Leaf had brought her. “Relax Witchy,” Monkey replies, the consolation almost a knee-jerk reflex now. “I’m sure the princess’ friend will take good care of Tricks and he won’t think that either of us have abandoned him. Besides… I’m only going to be gone for two weeks. If you’re not done with your mystery solving by then, I can swing by on my way home and pick him up. Does that make you feel better?” she asks, raising an eyebrow at Witch’s frustration. Sighing, Witch nods as she puts stray notes into a binder and sets it atop her books.. “Okay… Yes. It does… and don’t tell me I’m being overbearing again. You know full well why I worry about that.” Setting aside her bag gently, Monkey comes over to Witch’s desk and gives her friend a playful shove. “I know… but he’ll probably have too much fun making new friends… Didn’t the princess mention a trio of kids his age related to her friends?” “But what if they make fun of him for not having his cutie mark yet?” Witch asks, her voice raising in panic. “Forget it, I’m not going!” Monkey sighs, pressing a hoof to her face before giving the back of Witch’s head a light smack with her wing. “You have to go!” Monkey insists as the unicorn glowers at her while fixing her now-mussed mane. “You said it yourself! You’ve hit a block! You’re not getting any further, and you need someone to help you. Celestia knows I tried, but I just don’t have a head for this ancient history stuff outside of a Daring Do novel.” Witch sighs again. “But what about work?” “You said Luna already cleared it with your superiors.” “Tricks’ schooling?” “Princess Twilight said she had that sorted out. He’ll go to school in Ponyville while you’re there.” “Um… Housework?” Monkey laughs outright as Witch runs out of arguments. “No housework to be done if we’re all not here… Besides, Fancy and Fleur always send their maid over twice a week no matter what we do.” Deprived of all reasons to back out of her trip, Witch flops into her desk chair, staring with unfocused eyes at the mess that still remains there. “Sorry… Thanks Monkey… I just… I’m really nervous…” “I know, Witchy… But that’s why you keep me around I think,” Monkey replies with a grin and a half-hug. “To talk you out of silly things like this…” she adds, ruffling Witch’s mane again with her hoof. Not bothering to fix it this time, Witch simply sighs and starts levitating the books over towards a suitcase she’d left open. “You’ll write though, won’t you? At least to Tricks?” she asks as the tomes are neatly placed in her luggage. “Of course I will… and you’d better write to tell me how everything’s going!” Monkey responds, scooping up several balls of crumpled paper and putting them in the waste bin beside the desk. Witch smiles in return. “Definitely.” “Hey… You gonna take this too? The princess might be able to help with it too.” Witch looks up at Monkey’s question and her heart nearly stops in her chest as she sees the pink crystal, still seeming so innocent, in its case held up by Monkey’s hoof. Without thinking, Witch speeds over and snatches it from her friend, making Monkey recoil away half a step. “Sorry… Forgot you don’t like ponies touching that… Even if it is in that weird-ass case…” Monkey says, heading off the flood of apologies that would inevitably flow if she didn’t. Witch mutters several curses under her breath before adding it to the luggage. There was just enough room for it without it possibly damaging the books. “Dammit Monkey… Stop heading off my apology with one of your own…” she grouses, good-naturedly, as she closes the suitcase and moves it closer to the door. Monkey simply laughs as she starts heading for her room upstairs. “Get over it Witchy… You can’t apologize for me screwing up this time,” she calls over her shoulder before she disappears into the stairwell. Casting one last glance at her desk, Witch decides there’s nothing else for her to pack there and follows Monkey upstairs. Ignoring the sounds of things getting tossed about in a search through the door immediately to her left upon reaching the upper level, Witch goes to the end of the hall and enters her room. The large room, decorated in rich blues and golds, had needed little alteration to suit her tastes from when she’d moved in four months prior. Going to her closet and pulling out her travel bag, she starts filling it with the non-book necessities for the trip. After a moment’s consideration, she packs her Wonderbolts uniform. Sure, she was officially on leave, but it could come in handy… Witch isn’t sure how, but it might. That bag packed, Witch settles it on her back and goes across the hall. She knocks twice on the door before opening it, peering into the room. “Tricks? You ready? We have to get to the train station soon…” Witch asks, looking for her ward. She spots him over in his play corner so she enters and walks over to him when he doesn’t respond. “Tricks? You okay?” she asks, putting a gentle hoof on his shoulder. He looks up from his toy blocks, the cubes clattering to the floor as his magic suddenly drops them. Witch smiles down at him. “Why can’t I stay with Nana Brew and Pappy Sweep?” he queries in a tremulous voice that makes Witch’s heart break. “I wish I could have you stay with them, Tricks… But they’re getting ready for that ale festival in Germaney,” Witch explains, trying valiantly to keep her own anxiety from her voice. “Do you really not want to go?” she asks softly, her hoof stroking his mane reassuringly. “What if the other foals don’t like me? What if they tease me about my horn?” he asks, turning his fretful gold eyes on his guardian. Witch sighs, pulling him to her in a hug. “Just give it a try for me? Please? I’m sure Princess Twilight’s friend, Fluttershy, will adore you as much as I do…” she says, not addressing the issue of the children his age. “If you have any problems at all, you can tell Fluttershy, and she’ll bring you straight to me at the Golden Oak Library,” she adds, laying the reassurances on thickly. Witch finds herself becoming more confident as she comforts her ward, as though saying the reasons Monkey had just given her are finally made believable by her speaking them herself. After a long moment, Tricks nods. Witch stands and coaxes him over to his own closet, where his travel bag lay discarded with only a few books and article or two of clothing haphazardly shoved into it. “That’s my big brave colt… Let’s finish packing up. We’re all getting breakfast at Rusty’s, remember? You don’t want to miss that.”