Schwalbe. Do you know what it means back where I come from? Swallow. A bird. It’s even in my cutie mark. Funny how things go.
Swallows are useful birds. Flying around, catching worms... Insects that can eat your food and bring you disease. Ponies don’t appreciate swallows.
Diamond Tiara lowered her head. After killing an assassin, Curtain Call still was in the Canterlot asylum. Even though bright walls in the corridor were supposed to cheer the visitors up, they kept reminding her of the worst years of her life.
“Diamond Tiara?”
“What?” Diamond Tiara asked, snapping out of her thoughts. “What are you doing here?”
Archer sighed, wiping her eyes. “Visiting Scootaloo. She’s getting better, but still doesn’t want to talk about what happened to her.”
“I’ve heard stories,” Diamond Tiara muttered. “The newspapers wrote that her only words after they found her were ‘blow it up!’.”
“Riot told us what happened there.” Archer sighed. “About Fleur and gas... But only Scootaloo knows the ending of the story. And since they blew that cave up and sealed it with concrete, I doubt we’ll ever learn what happened there.”
For a moment, they were sitting together in silence.
“So... how’s Button?” Diamond Tiara asked.
“Better since I got out of the hospital,” Archer replied. “He’s waiting for me downstairs. How about Curtain Call?”
Diamond Tiara shrugged. “She thinks she’s a filly again. The doctors say that it’s her way of coping with all that.”
Archer nodded, but didn’t say anything for a while. Diamond Tiara stood up and was about to leave, when Archer finally spoke.
“She talks.”
“What do you mean?” Diamond Tiara shuddered, remembering her own breakdown.
“‘Arcturus was first’,” Archer replied. “That was the first thing she said...”
Scootaloo thrashed on the bed, but the paramedics held her in place. She was covered in blood, sweat, and dirt. Many of her feathers were broken or torn out, but despite that she was still trying to take off. Her eyes met Archer’s and she leaned towards her cousin, baring her teeth.
“Arcturus was first...” Scootaloo panted, hanging limply in the paramedics’ hooves. “Fleur... I had to do that... I had to... There were lots of them... Over the ages...”
A nurse walked to Scootaloo, levitating a syringe. “You need to rest,” she said. “You’re in a shock...”
“No!” Scootaloo screamed. Archer backpedalled, seeing her bloodshot eyes and reddish teeth. The nurse pinched the needle in Scootaloo’s foreleg and pushed the piston.
“I had to do that...” Scootaloo whispered, breathing heavily. “They were resisting... She didn’t.... I had to... They told me to... Or else... It’d get–” She closed her eyes and lowered her head.
“What happened to her?” Archer asked, watching the paramedics putting Scootaloo on the bed.
“We don’t know,” one of the paramedics replied. “She crawled out of the cave alone. She has some scratches and bruises, but nothing really serious... Her mind, however... We’re gonna call a shrink once she wakes up.” He pointed at a deep bite wound on Scootaloo’s hoof. “It seems that she did it to herself...”
Archer walked to Scootaloo and sighed, patting her sweat-drenched mane. “What did you see there, cousin?” she muttered.
Sometimes, the insects may be helpful. A swallow doesn’t know which ones are which ones. They hunt all of them.
However, some bugs are worse than the other. That’s what swallows like. A big insect is a bad insect... But for a swallow, it means more food.
Princess Celestia’s voice was cold. Most ponies gathered in the throne room could never imagine it being like that. Used to motherly and caring tone, they forgot that Princesses managed to rule the country for over a thousand years, surviving many dangers.
The case was also something unprecedented. One of the richest ponies in Equestria was arrested along with a group of cultists trying to sacrifice a filly in the caves under Canterlot. During the investigation, he was also charged with attempted murder of a guard and various other crimes, some of them unknown to the public. He kept claiming that it was all a plan of his wife, but hardly anyone in Canterlot believed him – especially since his wife disappeared and was never heard from again.
“Fancy Pants,” Princess Celestia said. “For your deeds, which are too numerous to mention them once again, you’ll stay in prison for the rest of your life.” Celestia stood up. “Court dismissed.”
Fancy Pants lowered his head, his eyes resting on the black and white photo of Fleur dis Lee.
Swallows are caring about their children. They build nests in dark places and catch insects for them. They don’t leave a nest. When they come back to it and find that it was damaged – they repair it.
Stellar Dust squealed quietly. Her ears perked up, catching even the subtlest changes in the airflow. She spread her small wings and flew to the couch, resting on it.
“Are we going to stay here?” Stellar Dust asked.
Cygnus nodded. “Yes, sweetie. We’re not going back to the caves.”
“I liked the caves,” Stellar muttered. “And Moonwing liked the caves too...”
Cygnus wiped her eyes. “I’m sure Moonwing would like this place too.”
“But she’s somewhere else now, right?” Stellar Dust asked. “And she feels better?”
Cygnus trotted to her daughter, sat on the couch near her and hugged her. “Yes,” she replied. “Yes, she is.”
Swallows don’t like living in slavery. They may be living in tight nests, but they fly a lot. Every winter they move somewhere where it’s warm. They…
“What are you writing there, Schwalbe?” Boysenberry stood in the corridor and looked through the bars. “By the way, I think we’re gonna have to take your pen away. Your previous roommate is still in the hospital.”
Schwalbe gritted her teeth. “You know what she was trying to do to me?”
“That’s why you’re still here and not in solitary confinement,” Boysenberry muttered. “But one day, Schwalbe...”
Schwalbe smirked grimly. “One day, indeed. And on that day, you’d better sleep with one eye open...”