//------------------------------// // Epilogue // Story: Springtime for Sombra // by GreyGuardPony //------------------------------// Most ponies didn’t realize that Princess Celestia had an office. While the mechanics of government required her to listen to petitions in the throne room, most of the rest of the role of Princess involved paperwork and the nitty gritty of governance. For that, Celestia had her office. Devoid of the usual gold and white accents of the rest of the palace, it was decked out in simple wooden paneling and red carpet. The shelves on the walls were full of curios and other little knick-knacks she had collected from friends and adventures over the years. Momentos of important times and important creatures in her life. Sitting behind her desk, Celestia read the report for the third time, just to make sure she hadn’t missed anything, for the tale that it described made little to no sense, even to a being as old and experienced as she. The information about the two thieves Pinkie Pie provided proved to be accurate and head lead a contingent of Manehatten’s guard- and a commander of her own royals- to the bank that was the target. The description that followed more resembled a comedy of errors than anything else. The two thieves had been spotted trying to pick the lock on the back door of the building and had naturally ran when the guard swooped in. In their attempt to escape, the light blue pony of the pair had tripped over his own bag of tools. His partner hadn’t made it much further when a black cat of all things, charged across the alley, got tangled up under his hooves and made him crash into a nearby dumpster. It had been that second thing that pushed the idea of the pair being surprising incompetent out of her mind. A conclusion that only grew as the report continued. As soon as the wagon had had gotten a few blocks away from the bank, there had been a sudden reversal. They had managed to swipe the shackle keys from the guards and escape, in a display that was anything but incompetent. It was an odd coincidence to be sure, but hardly the first one that she had seen swirl round Nouveau Riche and his company. It had grown fast, becoming one of the largest banks in Equestria and invested quite heavily in real estate and railroads. One would expect that with such a varied investment portfolio, there would have been incidents of failed and backfired investments. It was, quite simply, the cost of doing business. But Celestia couldn’t remember Riche and his companies being caught in too many of those situations. These could be more coincidences, of course. But there was also a chance that Nouveau Riche’s wild success in life had other origins. She couldn’t be sure, with what she had now. No. This would take some investigation. - - - - “Pass me another slice of pizza, would ya Pinkie?” Rainbow Dash asked, waving a hoof for emphasis. “Sure!” Eight friends sat clustered together in the ground floor of Skitch-Sketch’s house. While the massive house warming party that Pinkie wanted had been shot down by Skitch, she had proposed another small movie night in its place. And the movie of choice tonight? A human and two robot silhouettes dominated the bottom of the screen like they were in a movie theatre. And as the old Universal-International logo appeared on the screen, the human made a sarcastic comment. “Doesn’t the fact it’s Universal make it international?” Skitch chuckled at the joke. When one wanted a humor pick up, it was hard to go wrong with Mystery Science Theatre 3000. Sure, there was a chance that she might be the only one in the room to get the jokes, but she had just managed to earn her house back. She was entitled to indulge a little bit. “Oh! I get it!” Twilight said, sitting up a little straighter. “It’s a play on words! Because it’s universal it would also include all nations and automatically be international as well!” “Yup, Twilight, that is the joke,” Skitch smiled, snuggling down into her sitting pillow a little more. “By the way, thanks again for helping me move back in everyone.” “No problem Skitch,” Applejack chuckled. “Glad ta see that you have a home again.” Home. That word sounded really, really good to Skitch right now. A word that she had earned from everything she had gone through since The Collector had kidnapped her. While it wasn’t exactly the home she had been born in, earning a place in Equestria…. Well, it didn’t feel that bad. Eventually though, movie night came to an end and everypony got up to shuffle back to their own houses. But to Skitch’s surprize, Twilight hung back after everyone else was out the door. “Twilight? What’s wrong?” “There was something I wanted to talk to you about. What happened with Quill….” Skitch winced. “Yeah...that wasn’t my best moment.” Twilight frowned. “It was a little more than that. You kept pushing him when you really shouldn’t have. Because you were drunk and venting about your home.” “I...I couldn’t help it,” Skitch said, nervously shuffling a hoof. “He just stirred up so many emotions.” Twilight smiled softly, placing a hoof on Skitch’s withers. “Well, I’d like you to do something for me, okay?” “What’s that?” Skitch said, offering her own slight smile in return. “I looked around. There’s a therapist here in Ponyville. Please talk to him. If you keep bottling up your feelings about what’s happened to you....well, I don’t want to think about what might happen.” There really wasn’t any arguing with Twilight’s wide eyed pleading. So, Skitch nodded. “Okay Twilight. I will.”