//------------------------------// // Chapter 16. Little Ponies in the Big City // Story: The Epsilon Pegasus // by Sparky Brony //------------------------------// With a final puff from the forward thrusters, the ship eases its bulk back towards the elevator. The docking clamps extend from the station and make contact with the airlock on the ship, pulling it closer and securely sealing the lock with the station. A hiss of air announces the equalization of pressure between the station and the ship, and in a scant few moments, the airlock doors open, disgorging the crew of the ship. A half dozen ambulatory robots stand up from their resting spots and walk towards the disembarking crew, only to be passed by pegasi heading in the other direction, their wings drooping in exhaustion, with the exception of one. Lightning Storm pronks along, humming a happy tune, stopping only when she finally spies the human she’s been looking for. In a flash, she spreads her wings and zooms forward, knocking him onto his back as she sits on his chest. “Hiya!” she says. Steven laughs, grinning at his feathery attacker. “Hi, yourself.” He reaches up a hand and cups her cheek, earning him a long moment of quiet nuzzling on his palm. His smile widens. “Missed you.” Lightning Storm wraps her forelegs around his torso and hugs him tightly, wings spread behind her. Turning her head to the side, she rests her face against his chest, nuzzling him. “Missed ya’, too.” After a long moment of their quiet embrace, she rolls off of him and he stands up, placing a hand on her withers as they walk. He can’t hold his curiosity back any longer. “How did things go?” She giggles, grinning as widely as he’d ever seen. “It was awesome! The engines performed flawlessly. The pegasi were able to start the reaction, and it was fully controllable. It completely validates our theoretical models! This design is solid, love.” He smiles as they walk up a flight of stairs, taking his hand off her withers for a few moments so that he can grab the hand rail. “So, your innovations will work for our newest design?” She nods, carefully making her way up the steps beside him. “Oh yeah, they definitely will. Once we get the new test engines validated, we are going to be putting the design in the Celestia.” He stops for a moment, mid-flight, and cocks his head at her. “You’ve decided on a name?” Lightning Storm nods and nudges him back into motion as several humans and ponies try to navigate past them. “You didn’t listen to the radio traffic, did you?” Steven shakes his head, nearly tripping over a pushy pegasus making his way around the two of them. “No, I didn’t spend any time in the control room.” “We spent a lot of time debating it. In fact, most of the humans were pushing for the Celestia, in honor of the great advances that have come about because of the ponies. Her name, though, means something special to all of us. It took a lot of convincing, and an actual video conference with the princess herself, to get it cleared, but in the end, it’s the only thing we could call her— the only name that fits: The SIV/R Celestia. As you know, she is listed as a Space Ion Vessel Research, not because she’s a research vessel, but because she is the test bed for the new engines. The engines that take a pegasus-created ion storm to start the fusion reactors that make the plasma used for thrust. But we aren’t just using Newton’s third law with them… electromagnetic energy created by the engines is being used to push against space itself.” “Love, you’re expositioning again. I already know all of this.” She smiles sheepishly. “Sorry, have to explain how it works so often that it’s to the point of an actual speech now.” He shrugs and pats her on the back. “So, when do you want to go back?” She scrunches up her face and shrugs her wings in return. “Probably tomorrow? The elevator is at ground level right now, so we’ll have to wait anyway. I think it’s scheduled to come up late tonight, so we can get on it in the morning.” He looks down. “Oh… I was hoping to have a couple of nights up here with you.” She looks at him, cocking her head and perking her ears curiously. “Seriously? It’s pretty expensive to stay up here in the hotel. You were staying in the crew bunks while I was out on the ship, right?” He nods. “Well, the hotel is pretty premium, but having a space view is very nice.” He grins at her. “You know I can cover it.” She rears up and puts her hooves on his chest, her ears suddenly pointing forward aggressively. “Oh no, the mare pays.” He reaches up and rubs her ear, getting it to flick around. “You know this is Earth. I want to pay for once!” Her wings spread a bit and a genuine frown starts to creep onto her muzzle. “Love, we’ve gone over this: I’m going to pay for such things. You don’t need to worry about anything.” He leans forward and kisses her snout. “But I will. I’m human, I want to pay.” She lands on her hooves, snorting and looking away. “Humans. Don’t know why I like you so much.” “Because I’m a panic in the sack.” He says, getting a giggle from her. *** Deep in the dark heart of the city, Night Tide types softly on his keyboard, his midnight blue coat shining in the glow of the monitor before him. He’s working his beat… the life of a police officer in the Big Apple is lots of paperwork—though most of it is now on computers and tablets rather than him having to hold a pencil in his mouth. It’s a living. “Detective Tide.” Comes a voice through the darkness, getting Night Tide to look back as a shaft of light splits the darkness of his commandeered office. The light flicks on, and the detective blinks in the sudden glare. “I don’t see how you can stand to sit in this room with the lights off. It’s like a tomb in here!” The newcomer shakes his head as he steps toward the pony at his desk. Night Tide looks up at the man walking towards him, “What is it, Lieutenant?” The lieutenant frowns. “We’ve got another body. SVU doesn’t want it, so they bumped it to homicide.” He steps forward and crashes heavily down into a chair beside the desk. Night Tide’s ears flatten and he narrows his eyes at the lieutenant, turning in his chair. “SVU bumped it?” The lieutenant nods his head softly. “No evidence of sexual assault, and they don’t see enough to qualify it as a hate crime.” He pauses a moment, then continues, “Look, I know that…” Cutting off the lieutenant, Night Tide cocks his head dubiously and asks, “And why are you giving it to me?” There’s a long pause before the human speaks, “The nature of the victim.” Night Tide looks at the man for a long moment, then bares his fangs with a snarl, “A pony?” A nod is his answer. “Damn it!” Night Tide shoves his hooves against his desk, jolting his chair backward as he jumps off and lands on his hooves. “That’s the second one in as many weeks!” He extends his leathery wings and takes to the air, streaking out the office door and over the desks in the nearly empty squad room, heading towards his partner. “Roland, we’ve gotta go. You wanna drive?” Roland Espinoza stands up, his coffee cup in his hand and a confused look on his face. “We got a case?” Tide just huffs and flicks his tail while walking towards the exit, getting a roll of the eyes from the human. Passively watching his sour partner stalk towards the elevator, Espinoza looks at his coffee and finally takes a sip, shrugs, dumps his mostly-empty mug by the coffee machine, and hustles to follow the batpony. He finds Tide waiting at the bank of elevators, his hoof tapping impatiently, and gently nudges him on the withers. “Another pony?” Tide just grunts, getting a grim chuckle from the tall human. “You know, there are about ten thousand ponies living in the New York metropolitan area. There’s bound to be some crime involving them.” Night Tide’s tufted ears flick in annoyance. “I was never this busy as a royal guard. You humans are so uncivil.” “Now now, that’s not fair,” Roland says, familiar with this ongoing argument between the two, “Humanity certainly has its share of nasty characters, but your population of ponies, worldwide, wasn’t much more than just the population of the metro area. You’re saying that among about thirty million ponies, there weren’t any true scumbags?” Tide looks up at his partner, swishing his tail. “I didn’t handle the entire population.” “That’s my point, my friend. I mean… it’s easy to see that you ponies are generally more peaceful than humans, but you definitely had bad elements as well. Given your population, I would think that the numbers here would be higher, but at least somewhat comparable…” He drifts off the topic with a shrug. Tide stares at the doors of the elevator for a long time, before the elevator finally dings softly and the doors open. Tide takes to the air and hovers slowly enough for Roland to keep up. As they get into their car in the precinct’s underground garage, the pony finally speaks. “You may have a point.” Roland presses his key against the car’s ignition switch, enabling the motor. He puts it into gear and pushes the pedal gently, and the electric motor obediently starts the vehicle rolling forward. He turns to head up the ramp outside the building, and in a matter of minutes, he’s turned down the street and has directed the car to follow the GPS directions that Tide had inputted. Traffic is light at this time of day, and they soon make it to the area of Manhattan known as Hells Kitchen. Roland pulls in and cuts the motor, turning to look at his partner. Tide is sitting in his seat, stock still and breathing shallowly, but very fast, almost panting. Roland reaches out his hand, placing it on his partner’s withers, getting a flinch in response. Tide looks down. “Sorry.” Roland smiles and pats his partner’s back. “Don’t be, Night. It’s always upsetting to deal with death, but we are homicide detectives… let’s go do our job.” Tide opens his door. “Well, since we are investigating the death of a pony, I would call it simply murder,” He huffs. Roland rolls his eyes as he gets out of the SUV himself. He follows his hovering partner as they make it around the building into the open lot between two buildings. The space is marked off with caution tape and several other police vehicles are sitting there, their lights flashing brightly. Tide holds up his badge. “Detective Night Tide, Manhattan Homicide.” The uniformed officer grimaces. “It’s not pretty, detective—she was found a few hours ago. The morgue has been called, but they’ve been delayed, so they'll be here pretty soon. The lab boys just got here, and have taken their initial photographs.” Tide nods tightly, steeling himself. “Thank you, officer.” Roland follows as they make their way through the trees to the body. Tide lands next to the crime scene and somberly looks at the tail that is visible from the roll of carpet sitting there. Roland kneels down next to him. “So, it’s good to see no one disturbed the scene. Might get some usable trace here.” Tide nods, and Roland pulls on his gloves. He reaches out and pulls the carpet off the body. Tide reaches into his day bag and pulls out his tablet. He takes a moment to enter in the information, and takes a picture of the visible cutie mark. “Okay, let’s see what pony this is, given her coloring. Light yellow with a blue and white-streaked mane and tail. The cutie mark is a bunch of flowers.” He continues with his work, and after a few moments, he sighs. “We’ve got another Equestrian native here, and a unicorn to boot.” Roland hmms and frowns. “That’s becoming a pattern. The pegasus was a native of Equestria, too.” “Her name was Honeysuckle. She came through the portal two days ago.” Night continues working on the tablet, “From there, she flew to JFK, and apparently went by hoof to wherever she was killed.” He looks down at the body, spreading his wings so he can get closer without disturbing anything else. He reaches out a hoof and parts her mane. “Ah, damn.” Leaning forward, Roland asks, “What?” “Her horn. It’s gone.” Roland parts the unicorn’s mane further to see. “Damn, it’s cut off right next to the skull.” Night Tide looks to be turning slightly green. “Before or after death?” The human sighs. “Can’t tell. That will have to be determined at autopsy.” “The pegasus had her wings taken pre-mortem. If that is the case here…” Roland growls under his breath, looking around suspiciously, as if the murderer is just lurking behind a nearby bush. “Two isn’t truly a pattern, but it’s shaping up to be one here.” Tide looks intently into the eyes of his partner. “That means we likely have a serial killer… one who likes ponies.” Roland nods as he stands up to gesture for the morgue workers to approach. *** It’s another beautiful day in the sky above the Gulf of Mexico coast as Kendra and I glide into the airspace of the Houston Metropolitan area. Even the air traffic controllers seem laid back as I radio in to make a landing at Galveston Island’s small airport. Too soon, really, my wheels sing as they meet the tarmac, and I reach up a wing and pull back on the throttles, letting my rear wheel kiss the concrete as well. A quick push on the rudder pedals directs my plane towards general aviation, where it takes only a few minutes to my Widgeon tucked in for the night. Stretching our legs as we walk away from the plane, I follow Kendra as we head out of the airport to the parking area, where our rental SUV is waiting for us. We have to deal with the traffic of Galveston, but we end up making it to our destination, a large campus, and park to hoof it to our destination. Along the way, the humans all end up slowing down as they are walking, watching the pony in their midst. “They have a pony settlement just a few hours from here.” I muse, waving my hoof at a little boy who’s pointing at me with a huge smile on his face. Kendra looks around at the gawkers. “I guess they don’t visit here very much.” I shrug and we trot on, eventually heading into a building and looking around the reception area. My hooves ring on the granite floors as we head to the large desk. I rear up and put my hooves on the desk. “Good afternoon!” I say to the distracted receptionist. “Welcome to Holy Family Catholic School,” the young woman sitting there says casually, then looks up, noticing me. She blinks owlishly a few times, then leans back and asks, “A pony?” I sigh, scrunching my muzzle at her. “Yeah, like the ones from the show.” I spread my wings a bit. “I’m a pegasus; my name’s Loop de Loop.” She looks at my wings for a long time, then sighs. “I’ve heard about ponies, but I’ve never seen one in real life before, just on the net. Is it true that you can all sing?” That gets a smile out of me. “I wouldn’t really know, and I’m sorry, but… I’m here about a student. Can you help me find her?” She cocks her head to the side, folding her hands on the desk in front of her. “Really?” I nod. “Her name is Maria Castillo. She’s sixteen and a student here.” She reaches over and pulls up a computer. The screen glows as she does a quick search. “I see a student by that name in our directory. I usually wouldn’t, but you hardly look…” she pauses, eyeing me before continuing, “threatening….” I look at Kendra with an eyebrow quirked, then back at the receptionist. “We really need to speak to her, it’s in regards to her maternal great grandfather. It’s important.” Her face takes on a guarded look. “I’ll have to clear it. Could you wait over there, please?” She gestures toward a line of chairs against the wall, facing the reception area. I shrug and, with a quick flap of my wings, glide over and settle in on one of the larger chairs as Kendra walks over to join me. I fidget anxiously in my chair as the receptionist speaks softly with someone on her computer, occasionally looking up as if to inspect us. Kendra rests her hand on my withers, gently pressing downward, which makes me feel a little calmer. “Patience, Loopy. Not of all of us fly at the same speed, you know.” I sigh, giving Kendra a frustrated scrunchy face, look at the woman talking on her computer, then look back at Kendra. “We really need to talk to her. You know how important this is.” Kendra nods and pulls out her tablet. “I’ll get started looking for her home. Worst case is we wait until school is done with and meet her there.” I nod, then, “Miss?” comes from the woman. I hope off of my chair and trot up to her. “I’m sorry, but all I am able to do is put you in contact with Miss Castillo’s guardian. I’m sure you understand. This is a high school.” I paw anxiously at the floor, then cock my head to the side and ask the woman, “Can’t you call her guardian?” She smiles at me. “I did, and she wants to talk to you first. I told her what you told me, about Miss Castillo’s maternal grandfather. She understands, and asked me to relay her invitation to join her at her home. She said for me to give you her address, and to tell you that you should visit before Miss Castillo is done with school.” I sigh, thank the receptionist, and follow Kendra out to the SUV. It only takes about twenty minutes for us to drive to Maria’s home. As Kendra parks, I exit and bound up to the door, practically quivering with the frustration that comes from a day of waiting for things. I knock as Kendra slowly walks up to join me. A moment later, the door cracks open, revealing a woman who immediately looks me right in the eyes. “Loop de Loop?” I nod excitedly and she opens the door, beckoning for us to come inside. I wipe my hooves on the mat, which gets a small, gentle smile from her. “I’m Rosa Alvarez, Maria’s aunt. The school said you wanted to talk with her?” I look around at the modest home of Ms. Alvarez. She directs us into a living room and motions for us to make ourselves comfortable. I hop up on the sofa and sit, folding my wings at my sides. “It’s about her great-grandfather.” Kendra takes a seat next to me, placing her hand on my back. Ms. Alvarez sits down on the loveseat and takes a breath, clearly steadying herself. “I don’t share my brother’s rather…” she looks down for a long moment, then at me, “extreme views on magic.” She wipes away a tear from the side of her eye. “But he did not let Maria be taught the ways of her people. She’s half Navajo, you know. I visited Gallup a few times before they moved to Corpus Christi.” I nod, feeling Kendra’s grip on my back tighten slightly. “He did love her, fiercely.” She says softly. “I understand.” I murmur as my ears flat in understanding. “I didn’t know him very well, but he did something… miraculous for a friend of mine. He was full of love.” Rosa smiles at this, tears welling up in her eyes. She sniffles and wipes her face with a tissue from a nearby box, then asks, “Would you tell me about it?” I bow my head solemnly. “It would be my pleasure.” *** To the front of the house, the door rattles and we hear it open and close. Rosa, Kendra, and I have been talking for over an hour about Running Thorn, first sharing the story of Dust’s recovery at the bonfire, then hearing some about his younger years in return. In a moment, the sounds of socked feet softly head into the kitchen, and a young woman calls, “Auntie, I’m home! Do we have guests?” After a moment, the source of that voice appears, my first view of Maria and her after-school snack—an apple. She’s not tall, about as tall as I was before I became a pony, and she’s thin, with the dark hair and brown eyes I remember from Lightning Dust’s photographs. Kendra tenses up slightly beside me, looking at the young lady in shock, but Rosa promptly gets up and hugs her niece. She looks at Kendra and I and then walks out of the room, leaving Maria standing at the counter, looking into the living room at us. I look back at her, trying to give a friendly smile, but my ears betray me and fold back. “Hello, Maria. My name is Loop de Loop, and this is Kendra.” I gesture toward my sofa companion with my wing. “I’m here with news for you. Would you like to come and sit down?” She cocks her head to the side a little and doesn’t budge. “News?” I fold my wing back at my side and sigh. “A few weeks ago, your great-grandfather held a ceremony. That ceremony restored the ability to fly to a pegasus who had been unable to fly for over twenty years. It was… a miracle, but unfortunately, he died while doing so.” She furrows her brow. “My… great-grandfather?” I nod, unsure about her utter lack of response. I perk myself up a bit to try to get her to open up. “Yes. I’m so sorry for your loss. I want you to know, he was a great man, and…” “I’ve never met him.” She stares at me impassively, her expression impossible to read. That seems to pull Kendra out of her shock, and she pulls out the tablet, bringing up the pictures that I had been given by Dust. She holds out the tablet, offering it to Maria. “Would you like to see? You spent time with him as a baby. Your mom and dad should have told you about this.” She steps into the living room, taking the tablet from Kendra and sitting down in a chair across the room from us. She’s quiet for a moment, swiping between the pictures and taking a bit of her apple. After a moment, she seems to have gotten her fill of both. “I’m sorry, but I was a baby. I don’t remember any of this.” She looks up at me. “I barely know who my great-grandfather was. I never knew him.” Her voice shakes slightly as she stares at me intensely. “What’s going on here? Who are you?” I start back and my ears fall flat again as my tail thumps against the back of the sofa. “Well, his will was read shortly after he passed, and he named you as his successor.” Her face sours as she sits back and quirks her head at me. “What are you talking about? Successor? What does that mean?” “He was the spiritual leader for his people. And when he passed, he wanted his duties to fall on you.” She stares at her hands in her lap. “Is this some kind of sick joke? I don’t know what’s going on here!” I know that feeling all too well. My wings ruffle in frustration. “Well, we need to get you to New Mexico, and they can tell you what you need to know.” Instead of standing up, she just looks at me. “If you think I’m going anywhere, you’re nuts, Miss Pony.” I look at Kendra, then back at Maria. “Obviously, I can’t make you go. But the people there need you, Maria. You’re an important part of their culture, even if you’ve never met them.” She shakes her head, gesturing with her hands. “I’ve never met these people, so how can they know that they need me? What makes me important to them?” “Because you are a descendant of the deer of the Everfree Forest in Equestria.” Kendra pipes up. I glance between them again as Maria blinks owlishly and deadpans, “What.” Kendra stands and walks over to an ottoman, next to Maria’s chair, sitting on it and taking both of the teenager’s hands. “You are directly descended from a tribe of deer, shamans, from Equestria. I can see the power in you. You have powerful magic, Maria.” She shrugs off Kendra’s hands and stands up to start pacing through the living room. “Oh, no! That’s impossible—I know about the weavers.” She holds out her hands to me. “See, no magical markings! I’m not a witch! Daddy always said, ‘Only unicorns and witches have magic!’ and I’m not either one.” A moment of silence hangs over the room as Maria plops down into the loveseat that Rosa had been sitting in. I breathe for a moment, thinking, then softly say, “I have magic… all ponies have magic, Maria. I couldn’t fly without my magic. Earth ponies couldn’t do what they do without their magic. Magic is a part of our world—Equestria—and it’s a part of this world, now, as well. Humanity lost their magic long, long ago, but with everything that’s happened in the last twenty five years, that magic has started to wake back up inside of them. Inside of you.” She scrunches up her face—It’s kind of cute, but I can tell she’s struggling. “But humans that have magic are marked. I don’t have that mark.” Kendra holds out the back of her hands for Maria to see. “I don’t have any marks but I have magic now.” she says. Maria looks on in rapt confusion as Kendra’s hands glow softly and the tablet is lifted off the coffee table. Kendra looks steadily into her eyes, saying, “The marks do come in, and I’ll get one, but I have magic already, and you wouldn’t be able to tell unless I used it in front of you. I’m not all that good with it yet, but I’m learning to be a dreamer.” “But I can’t do any of that!” Maria nearly screams. She jumps out of her seat and sets off pacing around the room. I smile reassuringly at her, trying to get my traitorous ears to stand up. “Yes, you can! I grew up with the deer of the Everfree Forest in Equestria. They taught me how to do their magic. It’s not the same as unicorn or weaver magic, but it’s amazing! They use the elements of nature to make nature work for them.” “And, Maria, you have that magic, too.” Kendra adds with a smile. Maria continues her pacing, putting her hands to her temples. “No, no, no, no, no! That’s not possible! Normal humans don’t have magic.” I look at her, repressing the urge to roll my eyes. “Surely your mother would have taught you the old ways; she was full blooded Navajo! She must have taught you your culture.” She shakes her head. “No, my father forbade all of that mumbo jumbo. My mom never really taught me any of that stuff.” “It’s not mumbo jumbo!” I say, stomping the sofa with a hoof. “Your culture was important, it was, and is, a part of you. How could he give it up?” She looks at me, lifting her arms in exasperation. “Because I didn’t grow up with it!” She sighs and walks slowly towards the hallway. “I really wish I could help you,” she looks back, “but you have the wrong person.” I watch as she disappears around the corner, then hear steps going up the stairs. I look at Kendra, who smiles at me. “We can get her to join. I know it.” I frown, resting my head on my hooves. “How?” “She has the power of the deer in her. The magic of nature that they possess. It’s in her blood, and she’s already conflicted about it. I could feel how powerful she is… she may be more powerful than Running Thorn was.” “Huh. How could you know that? You never met him.” She gently places her hand on my back, between my wings. “I saw his dreams, Loopy. I think her nature will draw her toward a life of magic, but I don’t think she’s going to understand why, or what to do about it, without help.” “But how do we….” I think out loud. After a few moments, I smile. “Follow me!” I hope off the sofa and gallop out of the house, realizing on the way out that we’ve neither seen nor heard from Rosa in quite some time. Kendra’s feet pound as she hustles to follow me. I do a ballistic arc to land next to our rental car, wings spread wide as I grin back at Kendra, who is giving me a very droll expression from the front door. She rolls her eyes, grimaces, and in a flash of light, teleports directly into to the driver’s seat of the car. I blink at her in shock, and she giggles back at me. “I’m getting better with site to site transporting. Beam me up!” She pushes unlocks the doors and starts the motor. “Where to?” Ancient science fiction? I can do that. “The airport, of course, Miss Sulu. We have some shopping to do in Dubuque.” Kendra looks at me for a long moment. “Shopping? For what?” “Stuff that can only be bought in Equestria, of course!” She smiles and presses the accelerator. The car leaps forward. *** Night Tide pushes his way through the door into the medical examiner’s office. “So, Wade, what do you have for me?” He calls to the human working on the body on the stainless steel table. The deputy medical examiner for the state of New York looks up. “I’ve got a lot of similarities with the pegasus that came through last week, Night.” Night Tide sighs. “Yeah?” Wade nods. “Sorry to tell you this, but I’ve found an injection site on her neck.” He pulls the mare’s coat back a little bit, showing a small puncture wound. “Just like the last one, and her bloodwork is identical. She was incapacitated with an inhaled drug, too, the same as last time.” My ears flat and I look away from the poor mare’s body on the table. “What was injected with?” He covers her with a sheet and steps away from the table. “A MAOI inhibitor. This guy knows his stuff, about how those drugs have a negative effect on pony magic.” Night Tide growls. “It’s not something that is commonly known.” “Well, this guy knows that, and he uses it to his advantage. Without her magic, she couldn’t untie herself.” He points at her hooves. “She was tied down quite effectively. I guess he learned from the pegasus how strong ponies are. She wasn’t able to slip out of her restraints this time.” Tide sighs. “So…” He looks up at the human. “Cause of death?” “Shock, due to her horn being sawed off.” He shakes his head. “She was alive, and likely awake, as it was removed. I can’t imagine what that would be like, but she couldn’t have lasted long at all.” Tide’s hoof slams on the floor. “Damn.” “Yeah, just like the pegasus.” Tide whirls around and slams through the door, his wings powering his reckless speed away from the morgue. He skips under the ceiling to avoid a couple of humans walking along the corridor, leaps up the stairs, and ends up on the roof of the precinct building. He sits there, looking out at the City for a long time. He jerks as a hand lands on his withers. “Oh, Roland.” “Hey.” Roland says, taking a sip of his coffee. “Bad news?” Tide scuffs at the roofing material for a moment, then looks up at the human. “It’s just like the last one, the pegasus.” Roland sits down next to the pony, and they both watch the sun heading for the western horizon. After a while, Tide stands up. “I’m going to head home.” “See ya’ in the morning. And don’t worry, Tide…” The thestral takes off hot, powering away from the building as fast as his wings can carry him. “We are going to catch this mutt.”