“So once we talk to the mayor, what are you going to do?” asked Fireflower and he followed Sonata through the city.
“Well, if I can figure out what she was enchanted to do, that’d be totes helpful in determining what’s going on,” replied Sonata after thinking about it for a moment. “We might even be able to figure out who did that to her, which would be doubly helpful. After that, um…I guess we play it by ear!”
“Do you think we should tell her about my siblings? I mean, I’m proof that we’re not bad, and if we can convince her of that and have her make an announcement to call them out of hiding, I bet we could all sit down and figure everything out!” He looked excited at the thought of resolving things, directing a hopeful gaze at Sonata, clearly wanting her to approve his idea.
“Yeah, about that…” Her face didn’t reflect his optimism, and it was enough to make him halt in his tracks. Sonata likewise stopped, turning to face him with a sigh. “Listen, I know you want everything to work out, but…I don’t think that’s a very good idea.”
“But why?” protested Fireflower. “If we can just make her listen to reason…!”
Sonata shook her head. “The whole point of enchanting someone is so they’ll do what you want, even if it’s not reasonable. If I’m right and she is under a spell, then that means we might not be able to persuade her to change her mind about all of this.”
The look on Fireflower’s face as she said that could only be described as “crushed,” and it made Sonata wince to see it. She opened her mouth to try and cheer him up, but he rallied on his own, beating her to it. “Then…what about undoing the enchantment on her? Then she could go back to normal and we could explain things to her, right?”
Sonata adopted a guilty expression. “Er…the thing about that is that I’m, like, super awesome at laying enchantments, but not so much at removing them.”
“You can’t-” Fireflower cut himself off, screwing his eyes shut and turning around. Sonata folded her ears back at the sight, feeling like she’d let him down.
Uncertain if she was doing the right thing, she moved up and put a hoof on his back. “C’mon, let’s just talk to her first. Who knows, maybe it’ll turn out that she’s been enchanted to hate puppies or love banana bread or something like that.” She doubted that was the case, and didn’t think that Fireflower would think it was either, but she was hoping that would at least get a laugh out of him.
It didn’t get quite that much of a reaction, but he did manage to look up at her with a wan smile. “Okay,” he sighed. “Let’s meet with her and see what we can figure out.”
Giving him her most encouraging smile, Sonata led him towards city hall.
“I think we might need a new plan,” deadpanned Fireflower.
In front of them was city hall, the entrance of which was surrounded by a crowd of unruly ponies. The door was currently being blocked by a pair of large earth pony stallions, while a few equally tough-looking pegasi were shooing flying visitors away before they could land on the roof. Judging from the shouts that could be heard from the crowd, Sonata and Fireflower weren’t the only ponies that wanted a word with the mayor.
“Geez, what’s gotten into everypony?” wondered Sonata as she gingerly approached the back of the crowd, Fireflower following closely behind her.
Slowly pushing her way through the mass of ponies, the pair managed to reach the front, where one of the earth pony stallions held out a hoof. Unlike the friendly bump Sonata had shared with Fireflower earlier, this one was quite clearly a warning to stay back. “That’s far enough, you two. Nopony gets in unless you’re supposed to be here.”
“But we need to talk to the mayor!” protested Fireflower. “It’s important!”
“That’s what every other pony here has said,” grunted the stallion. “‘It’s important that I be on the first boat out of the city. It’s important that I not be on the first boat out of the city. It’s important that I have room to take all of my stuff out of the city with me.’ I’ll tell you what I’ve told all of the other ponies here: just follow the instructions that are in the special bulletin that’s being handed out this evening, and everything else will be fine.”
“This isn’t about that,” pressed Sonata. “It’s super important that we talk to the mayor right away! Can’t you let us through, pretty please?” She batted her eyes, turning so that she was standing slightly more in profile to him.
The stallion glanced over her for a moment before snorting. “Nothing doing, missy. Go shake your flank somewhere else.”
“Hey!” squawked Sonata indignantly. “Oh that does it! In just a minute you’re not going to be able to take your eyes off of this flank, buster!” Raising a hoof, she started to gesture and chant before Fireflower grabbed her, giving the stallion a very fake-looking grin before dragging a cursing Sonata back through the crowd.
Once they were free of the throng, she shook Fireflower off before giving him an angry glare. “Why did you stop me? Another second and I would have had him eating out of my hoof!”
Fireflower cringed a bit. This was the first time that he’d ever made Sonata upset, and it was exactly as unpleasant as he thought it would be. Nevertheless, he stood his ground. “I don’t think it would have been good if everypony there saw you do your thing and make that stallion start kowtowing to you.”
“Hmph! Like they’d even have understood what I was doing.” Sonata put her nose in the air haughtily. She only held the pose for a moment though before she let out a sigh, knowing that Fireflower was probably right to stop her. “I just got frustrated, you know?” she admitted in a quieter voice.
Fireflower let out a sigh of relief. “I’m just glad you’re acting like yourself again. For a minute there you sounded just like Lex.”
He’d made the comment off-handedly, but Sonata’s eyes widened in surprise at the comparison. She’d been acting the way Lex usually did? So then…did that mean the way she’d felt just then – frustrated and angry because she was trying to do something important, while other ponies that didn’t understand what was going on got in her way – was how Lex felt all the time? Was that why he was always in such a bad mood?
Fireflower watched, perplexed, as Sonata slowly sat down, a blank look on her pretty face. “Sonata? Hey, come on…I was just joking. You’re nothing like him.”
“No,” she replied softly, her ears folding down. “No, I’m not.”
Before Fireflower could ask what she meant, she seemed to get over whatever had been bothering her, standing back up. “Okay. That didn’t work, so well need to think of something else.” She looked back over at the crowd of ponies, which was apparently unperturbed by their inability to get inside city hall.
Fireflower pointed. “Hey, look over there.”
Sonata looked where he was pointing, and saw an earth pony mare in a delivery uniform approaching the building. Squeezing her way through the crowd, she got to the stallions guarding the doors and had a brief exchange with them, culminating in the guards nodding their heads and ushering her inside.
“Hmm,” Sonata rubbed her chin with a hoof, feeling an idea starting to form. “They let that courier into the building.” She felt like that was important, and closed her eyes to concentrate. Fireflower’s comparing her to Lex was still fresh in her mind, driving her to look at the situation the way that Lex would.
“Okay, so what we need to do is disguise ourselves as couriers to get inside! That means we need to go buy some uniforms and, no, wait.” She frowned as a wrinkle became apparent in her plan. “We didn’t even have the money to pay for breakfast. Okay, instead we follow one of the couriers back to where they work and ‘borrow’ some uniforms. I’ll create a diversion, and you sneak in and take-” She stopped as she felt Fireflower tap her shoulder.
“Um, Sonata? What are you talking about? I was pointing at that fire escape in the alley.” He gestured to the folded metal ladder connected to a metal walkway snaking up the side of the building. “See?”
“Oh.” Fighting down a blush, Sonata nodded. “Right! Let’s go then!”
Circling the building, they crept down the narrow alley. Despite the ponies massing the front of the building, the two of them were the only ones there. Once they were below the fire escape, which was currently folded up and almost ten feet out of reach, Sonata glanced up at it with a frown. “Now what?”
“Just stand back and make sure that nopony sees us,” grinned Fireflower confidently. “I’ll take care of the rest.”
“If you say so.” Sonata glanced around, even looking upward to be sure that no pegasus was watching them from above, before signaling to Fireflower to go ahead.
Nodding back to her, Fireflower’s form shifted, and suddenly there was a giant white-and-yellow spider where he had been. Quickly scurrying up the wall, it nimbly climbed into the metal ramp before it blurred again, becoming the pony that Sonata had grown accustomed to. With a push, the heavy ladder swung down to the ground.
“Wow! I’d almost forgotten that you could do that!” Sonata grinned up at him, not at all put off by his transformation, before she started to climb.
“If you think that’s something, just wait until my spinneret heals,” said Fireflower as he led her to the fire door, which was up on the building’s fourth floor. “We used to have web-spinning contests among ourselves, and this one time I made a…a…” he trailed off as he tugged on the door handle, only to find that it refused to budge.
“Oh my gosh, is it stuck?” Sonata couldn’t keep her exasperation down. “That’s a fire hazard!”
“I think it’s locked from the inside,” grunted Fireflower, trying futilely to force the door open.
“Oh. You know, come to think of it, that makes sense,” mused Sonata. “I mean, if it wasn’t then it’d be pretty easy for any old pegasus to just land here and walk right in. Or for that matter, for a unicorn to just grab the ladder and pull it down with their magic.”
Fireflower didn’t answer, still trying to force the door. He groaned in effort before finally giving it up. “Okay,” he panted, “brute strength didn’t work, time to try a different tactic.” Stepping slightly back, he waved his hooves and uttered a brief chant before pointing at the lock. Instantly, a small red beam shot out from his hoof and struck it. The lock and door handle slowly grew bright red, sizzling softly. A moment later there was an audible “click” as the door swung open a few inches, the lock having melted.
Fireflower turned to give Sonata a wry grin. “Fire hazard,” he said simply.
Sonata didn’t try to hide her impressed look, and Fireflower pulled the door open, heading inside. He was grateful that he was in front, because he didn’t think that he could hide his ear-to-ear grin at having finally gotten to show off in front of her!
The pair walked down a hallway, hearing a flurry of activity coming from offices all around them. At one point a door opened and a harried-looking unicorn pony scurried past them, not giving the pair a second glance. Apparently it was taken for granted that they were supposed to be there.
The duo stopped as they noticed several important-looking ponies exiting one particular office, all talking to each other as they filed out. Elbowing Fireflower, Sonata nodded towards the door, which read “Ribbon Cutter, Mayor” on it. Waiting until the other ponies had left, the two walked into the mayor’s office.
The mare behind the desk, the same pegasus with the brown coat and red mane and tail that they had seen giving the speech earlier the day, looked up and frowned as the pair walked in. “You’re not my 11:45. Who are you? Did my secretary let you in? Lucy!” She tilted her head as she looked past the duo, shouting at the open door. “I told you not to admit anypony that didn’t have an appointment!”
Sonata closed the door, silently demanding her attention. “Mayor Ribbon Cutter, I presume?” She sat down in one of the chairs opposite the mayor’s desk, Fireflower doing the same. “We have something we need to talk to you about.”