"Aw! Com'on, Chestnut! L'me out!" Cletus begged. But his fellow deputy just glared at him with the prominent black eye he got during the riot for a moment before going back to his reading.
"Com'on, Chestnut! Ah've gotta do mah rounds this mornin'!" Cletus said, trying a new tactic.
"Ah'm donin' yer shift, Cletus," Chestnut said, absently flipping a page.
"Lahk hay, yer are!" Cletus protested. "Yer ain't out there yonder lookin' fer no break-ins or troublemakers!"
"Yep," Chestnut responded. "Ah'm doin' the same job you'd be doin' if Marshal Mustang left some varmits in the cage ifen they'd caused a ruckus—which is zackly whaja did!" he said, flipping the next page. "Gots ta keep an eye on ya two."
"Ya ain't even readin' that there book!" Cletus exclaimed, pointing a hoof at his partner.
"Hmf! Says the pony who cain't even read numbers, much less words," Chestnut snarked back, not even taking his eye off the book. For good measure, he flipped to the next page.
"Then what's that book 'about'?" Cletus demanded.
"This here's a Mane Grey novel, called 'The Rainbow's Tail'," Chestnut responded by lifting the book up to show Cletus the cover. "It's the sequel to his 'Riders of the Purple Sage'."
"No it ain't! Yer just makin' that up!" Cletus yelled.
"Are ya colorblind, too, Cletus?" Chestnut asked with a snort, pulling the book back to resume his reading. "Cain't ya see the cover? It's got the pegasus with the rainbow tail right there."
"What'sit 'bout?" Cletus yelled. Cletus blinked as he felt his face redden a touch. Then he looked over to Cletus and smiled.
"Learn ta read, an' ya can find out fer yerself," he said with a grin. Right at that moment, the door opened, and Doc and Filly Rustler came in, bringing everypony's breakfast.
"Good mornin', Miss Filly! Good mornin', Doc!" Chestnut exclaimed with joy as he slammed the book down on the desk and leapt to his hooves.
"Morning, Chestnut!" Filly happily greeted in response. "Morning, Cletus, Francis," she said with a little less enthusiasm.
"Morning, Miss Filly," the two prisoners both cheerfully returned.
"Here's your breakfasts," Filly said, setting trays for them on the table standing by two cells.
"Thank you, Miss Filly," Francis said. "Sorry about the ruckus."
"Perfectly understandable, Francis. Wasn't your fault," Filly said, before giving a glare at Cletus.
"But AhI didn' start tha' fight!" Cletus insisted. "HE did!" he exclaimed, pointing at the occupant of the adjacent cell.
"You're in there because you can't read! You were giving ponies sarsaparilla when they was wanting whisky!" Doc criticized him.
"Well, Tumbleweed liked it," Cletus protested.
"Nopony else did, you durned fool!" Doc exclaimed. "Even you should've been able to see the difference between a bottle of whisky and sarsaparilla. Peco's has a picture of the last thing you'll see before a mule bucks you in the face—no offense, Francis," Doc offered to the mule sitting in the other cell.
"None taken, Doc," Francis replied.
"While the bottles of Sarsaparilla has a bunch of foals pronging about on the label!" Doc yelled, finishing his argument.
"How 'bout tha' brand of vodka wi' th' picture of th' pegasus filly ona scooter towin' a wagon tha' has them unicorn and earth fillies ridin' it as they all sail over that-there canyon?"
"…. Oh, well, you've got me there," Doc sheepishly muttered, rubbing the back of his mane.
"Plus, you were giving out incorrect change," Filly complained. "Although most of those errors were in their favor. But so far, all the ponies we've tracked down are coming clean and returning the money or 'fessing up their tabs."
"Yes, sorry 'bout that, Miss Filly," Cletus apologized. "By the way, how's the princess doing?"
"Princess?" Chestnut inquired, pausing in his meal. "What princess?"
"Where ya been, ya danged fool?" Cletus grumbled as he pulled his tray in through the slot in the cell's bars made for meal trays. "The Long Tree's got themselves a genuine princess stayin' there." Chestnut glanced from Filly to Cletus to Doc to Francis.
"Since when?"
"Since a couple nights ago," Filly admitted. "Seems Princess Celestia wandered into town after walking through the desert for who knows how many months. We were thinking it was as long ago as ten years, but Chrysalis insisted it had to have happened sometime after she arrived."
"So what's goin' on with her today?" Cletus inquired.
"Chrysalis and Mack are taking her around town," Filly said, sighing. "With her spectacular appearance last night, we all figured it'd be better to let everypony get a good look at her this morning, so they don't go busting down the Long Tree trying to see her."
"Are you okay, Marshal?" Chrysalis quietly inquired as the farrier shop owner was busy explaining his wares to the tall alicorn. "You're putting out a lot of unpleasant feelings right now."
"I've never felt comfortable with the idea of shoes," Mustang Mack quietly replied. "Just the thought of having nails pounded into one's hooves just—" He trailed off with a shudder, and Chrysalis had to add a few more feet of distance between them for the intensity of his dislike.
It wasn't that Mack was ever hostile with Foaly. In fact, they considered themselves good friends. After all, there were more than a few times Foaly stepped in to help Mack when both Cletus and Chestnut had been away from town. But he just couldn't stomach the idea of Foaly's job, not that Mack ever thought of denying other ponies a set of shoes.
Foaly, the shop owner happily looked forward to having a new customer, especially one as challenging as such a tall pony like her would no doubt be. Celestia, however, didn't seem interested in any of the horseshoes on display. Instead, her eye was constantly going to the two anvils Foaly used for his work.
And Foaly's explanation for what all the different types of shoes were doing for the wearer finally trailed off as the princess stepped over to give one of the anvils a closer look and rubbed a hoof over the surface in an appreciative manner.
"Uh—Princess?" Foaly hesitantly asked when she picked the anvil up from its pedestal with her hooves and set it on the ground. She was still eyeballing the hunk of metal, moving her head around to view it from different angles.
"Hmmm?" Celestia asked as she once more pawed at the anvil with her right hoof over the flat surface in the middle of the mass.
"Is—is there something—I can help you with?" Foaly asked. He looked nervously to Mack and Queen Chrysalis for advice, but they could only shrug.
"Hmm," Celestia absently replied as she speculated.
Then, she did the totally unexpected thing. Raising her right front hoof over the anvil, she stomped down upon it, driving her hoof deep inside, eliciting screams of surprise from the other ponies, and a snort from the changeling queen.
"Yesss…" Celestia cooed lifting her right front leg up to inspect the anvil now wrapped about her hoof. "I like this!" Before anypony could react or think to try and stop her, she picked up the other anvil, set it on the ground, and gave it a stomp with her left front leg as well. Then she was walking about, looking down at her forelegs appreciatively as though they were regular shoes.
"Oh! These are perfect! I'll take them!" she happily exclaimed. "Do you have the rest of the set?" she eagerly asked Foaly, obviously thinking of having matching shoes—or anvils—for her hind legs.
Unfortunately, for the farrier, his mind had stopped about a minute ago when she had turned the first anvil into her own personal horseshoe.
"Eeep!" he squeaked as a hoof lifted to point at where the first anvil had been before dropping back to the floor.
"I'll—go—get my children to start reinforcing the floors of the Long Tree," Chrysalis said walking out the door.
"Eeep!" Foaly squeaked again.
"That—would be a good idea!" Mustang Mack quickly agreed as he stared at the sight. "A very good idea! Filly will really appreciate that!"
Foaly's mind continued to try rebooting.
"Eeep!" he squeaked again, and this repeated several more times.
Even Mack could emphasize for the farrier, seeing the poor pony's source for his livelihood suddenly disappear like that. No doubt, Foaly was trying to think of where he was going to get replacement anvils—assuming his mind was ever going to get to the point where it could think again. He still seemed stuck in shock as the princess continued to prance about the shop, happy with her new shoes.
But then, Mack remembered: the railroad!
There were several siding tracks where one could be shortened by a rail length or so, from which Foaly could make replacement anvils, once he cut off enough and melted it down, as well as make a couple more for the princess' rear hooves.
Chrysalis flew back to the Lady Gay.
"Listen up! I need a team to report to the Long Tree and begin reinforcing the floors. ALL the floors!" she emphasized. "That crazy alicorn has decided to make anvils into a fashion statement." As the regular team of drones left, she truly regretted what she was going to do next.
"Xerox, Phauxtaux, Klauxn, Doup LeQat!" she called. As they were named, the changelings instantly leapt to their hooves. "I have a very dangerous mission for you. You are to take a message to Canterlot directly to Princess Luna. You will fly under a flag of truce and expose yourselves as changelings when you arrive. You are to tell Luna we have her sister here. Tell her that we are treating her well and are helping her recover from the ordeal that caused her to find her way out to us, but that Celestia has amnesia and cannot remember who she is, where she comes from, or who I am. We wish to have no hostilities with Equestria, but we ask they come right away to recover Princess Celestia.
"We'll prepare to go right away, Mother!" Xerox responded for them.
"Be ready to fly out tonight," Chrysalis instructed. "I deeply regret asking you to do this. You all know the crossing will not be easy. Travel at night will be easiest, but also the most dangerous time to be out. Help each other as best as you can, but delivering the message is vital! You must not fail!"
"We will get through, Mother!" all four shouted. "And we will return! We promise!"
"Best of luck to you, my children," she said before turning to leave and fly back to the farrier's store.
Mack finally managed to help Foaly recover enough to pick up on the idea of getting replacement steel from the railroad. After paying for his anvils and the new sets Foaly would have to make, Mack led the princess outside. There, she continued to hop about and prance with her new shoes, gleeful at the square divots the bottoms of the anvils made in the dirt street.
Down the street, he saw Filly and Doc leave his office to make their way back to the Long Tree that stood between them. Further back, he saw the dark form of Chrysalis flying back toward them from the Lady Gay.
Mack waved to them, and Filly waved back.
But just then, behind him, Mack heard a pony scream the two words that always filled his heart with dread.
At that shout, everypony on the street was in a panic.
Mack turned and looked.
"Oh, roadapples!" he cursed, seeing the gang of diamond dogs walking into town, with the hulking brute everypony feared in the lead.