What followed was an indeterminate in length period of silence. Bones was distinctly reminded of downtime in The Archive, though with more steaming involved. Scarlet was absolutely still, her glowing eyes the only indication that she was even alive. Twilight wasn't much better. Bones became increasingly uncomfortable, and finally cleared his throat to speak.
"So, Twilight, this is my partner, Scarlet Shade." he gestured to his motionless companion.
"Pleasure." Scarlet said without moving her jaw. She did at least put effort into making her voice sound friendly though, it wasn't Twilight she was angry with.
Twilight nodded to her. "Glad to meet you. I assume you already know my name." It was more of a statement than a question. She looked up at the now star speckled sky and spoke again. "So, did you two need a place to stay for the night?"
"Well, I don't need sleep, but Bones probably needs someplace." Scarlet turned her head to look at Bones, and stiffened when she saw his panicked expression.
Twilight latched onto that bit of information. "What do you mean you don't need sleep?" Bones noticed she was staring at him, and was smiling deviously.
Scarlet hastily attempted to correct her mistake. "I meant I don't need sleep right now. Wide awake." she straightened up, and failed miserably at being convincing.
Twilight continued staring at Bones, who tried to give her a reassuring smile, and probably failed at it.
There was another few moments of silence before Twilight spoke up.
"Well, I'm going to bed." she declared, standing up. "Bones, you are welcome to the guest room. Scarlet, you may browse the library is you want, just put everything back where you found it." She left them there, levitating the sleeping dragon with her into the library.
As soon as the door closed behind her, Bones turned to Scarlet. "Nice one."
"I'm sorry, I just assumed when you said you were talking all this time you were explaining-" She trailed off, then remembered she was supposed to be angry. She shifted to the offensive. "So what were you talking about all that time then?" She glared at him, accusingly.
Bones scoffed "It wasn't anything like that. Celestia just told me to distract her." he sat up straight and folded his hooves across his chest.
Scarlet was not convinced. "Celestia told you that, huh?" She snorted and looked away, her mane falling over her mask.
"Yes, it was in a letter." This wasn't technically true, as her letter said nothing of the sort, But he felt it was implied. Bones watched her for a moment, her mane swayed in the slight breeze. He could feel his resolve crumbling. He sighed and stood up, moving closer to her. "Hey, I'm really sorry about leaving you back there. There was a lot on my mind, you know how stressful it can be to stay undercover." He sat down next to her.
Scarlet spared him a glance before looking away again, head held high.
"Look, I'll make it up to you. When we get back to Canterlot, I'll get you all the flowers you want. Okay?" He put a hoof on her shoulder.
After a few seconds delay, Scarlet finally decided she could grace him with her gaze. She poked him in the chest.
"I better."
"You will." Bones reassured her.
It was quiet again for a few minutes, Scarlet had pressed up against him as they sat together and watched Luna's sky.
"So, did you leave everypony just lying in front of the town hall?" Bones asked, his eyes fixated on the moon.
"Yes, yes I did." She didn't seem bothered by this in the least, in fact she appeared to find it highly amusing.
"I wonder how we are going to explain the lost day to them" Bones wondered aloud.
Scarlet shrugged. "Localized Discord event aftershock?"
It was nonsensical enough to work.
"Somepony should probably go relieve the night guards." Bones said, absentmindedly.
Scarlet stared at him.
Bones stretched. "I'll do it."
---
Bone's really didn't like the sun in the mornings. Really. He rolled out of bed with a groan. The groan occurred when his back made contact with the floor, and was promptly followed by a whimper as the place where Applejack had kicked him flared with what Bones would describe as 'agony' at the time. He proceeded to writhe on the ground for a while before he noticed Scarlet watching him from the doorway.
"Are you enjoying my pain?" He asked, only half jokingly.
Scarlet chuckled "I wouldn't know, I cant remember what it feels like. Need some help?"
"No, thank you very much." He grumbled and slowly got to his hooves, wincing as he felt the inevitable soreness in his legs. "Is Twilight awake yet?"
Scarlet nodded "She's reading a letter she just got from Celestia."
"Oh, good." Bones let himself feel optimistic about the future, a rare occurrence in the mornings. He walked into the main room where Twilight was reading a scroll on her writing desk. Bones noted the royal seal upon it.
"What does it say?" Bones dared to be hopeful.
Twilight looked up from the letter, just now noticing him. "Good morning to you too. Its from Celestia, she wants to speak with me, alone." She actually seemed pretty cheerful about the whole thing, as was apparent by the smile on her face. Quite an attractive smile Bones had to admit. In fact most things about her were attractive, he wondered why he hadn't noticed earlier.
Relief almost cut through Bones's morning mood. "Wonderful news, guess that means you're no longer my problem." that had come out so wrong. Scarlet giggled in the corner of the room.
Twilight's smile vanished "What is that supposed to mean?"
The day had been going so well too. Bones attempted damage control "That isn't what I meant to say. I didn't mean it like that."
Twilight narrowed her eyes like she had the day before. "Sure sounded like you meant it."
"What I meant was, part of my job is secrecy, and if the princess wants to see you herself, that means she is going to take care of things personally, which means I don't have to. Its a load off my mind." Bones began to notice how incredibly dry his mouth was.
Twilight continued her leer, but decided that his explanation wasn't quite as insulting, and went back to her reading.
Bones was suddenly aware that the only thing he had eaten in the past day or so was a couple of carrots. He wondered if any of that feast was still there near Rarities boutique, though Scarlet had claimed she cleaned it all.
"Is there anyplace I can get some food around here?"
Twilight recommended a local tavern called The Apple Trapper, which along with having a stupid name, was also the same place the two night guards had elected to stay for the night. Bones wondered how many buildings in this town had the word 'apple' in their names, or how many ponies for that matter. He almost missed Canterlot.
The streets were far from empty, most that were up and about seemed to be gossiping about what they thought had occurred yesterday.
"Did you hear that princess Luna's chariot is outside of town?"
"I know! Nopony has seen her though, what could be happening?"
"Its a conspiracy."
Bones smirked, he had heard much worse over the course of his life. He know once an official statement was released the rumors would dwindle into a few conspiracy theories held by the more eccentric ponies. The more amusing part was that usually the conspiracy theories were closer to the truth.
"So what did you think of her?" Scarlet was looking at him intently.
Bones raised his brow. "What do you mean?"
"I thought my question was pretty straightforward." Scarlet cocked her head to one side.
"Oh, right." Bones stared straight ahead "She was pleasant enough, too curious for her own good though. Absurdly powerful too." he considered Twilight for a moment "I liked her."
"Is that all you liked?" Scarlet seemed to be getting at something.
"I don't understand." He began watching her now, trying to gauge her body language.
Scarlet sounded slightly nervous, and her voice fell to a whisper. "You know."
Something clicked. "Wait, you mean like physically?" Bones was taken aback for a second. This was a topic that had never come up before. What had gotten into her?
She seemed almost reluctant to discuss the topic she had brought up. "I was thinking about last night, and, well, I know that stallions have-"
"Scarlet!" Bones interrupted. "I'm nearly a decade older than her!"
"So?" She shot back hotly. "You're still in your prime, and I know you haven't been with anypony since-" she stopped, seeing his crestfallen expression. "Look, I'm sorry. I've been trying to-"
Bones interrupted her again. "Can we just go home?"
Scarlet reeled for a moment, then nodded.
They were silent for the rest of the way to the tavern.
This promises to be one of my favorite fics when all is said and done. The blend of comedy and a little bit of darkness is excellent. Keep at it, I love where this is going!
Okay, now I'm seeing two MORE things Celestia might have in mind with all of this! One serious, one less serious.
787160
ah, okay, cool!
By the way I thought I should at least let you catch a glimpse of what you have seeded in my poor old nogen.
PREPAIR FOR A LONG POST FOUL BEAST!.... jk, though it may be long
I am unsure of title and basically all that I have is the character creation bits, and its all still sort of chopped up so you will have to ignore that.
Just before the royal wedding the CMC just feel they have to go, they don't know why but they feel they have to and after some convincing they manage to convince rarity and applejack to take all three of them.
They do their flower fillie bits and all seems normal but then the attack happens and they try to hide feeling like they are being drawn to somewhere and some how end up in a dark spooky part of the castle where they eventually find three things.
Sweetie: Is drawn to an old looking book with funny writting, but when she touches it she could swear the writting changed, and it is now in something she can read and does so finding it almost reads like a song book with no notes.
Apple Bloom: a weird thin metal loop that fits right over her hoof and has a claw like thing comming of it which she finds is fun to draw on the ground with.
Scootaloo: finds a thin thread necklace with pendant, it seems to be like an eagle foot clutching a clear glass ball.
When the invasion is over they hurridly put everything back and go home.
Then comes the day when sweetie is all alone like in your story and she just hums to herself and tries to think up something then remembers the wierd book in canterlot,
- she sings some spooky song about wishing others would notice her and there is a bunch of lighting and the odd book just "poofs" infront of ber but she is quickly distracted as Rarity suddenly opens the door saying she will do,
"anything the princess desirers...."
After it is all over she finds she has a wierd cutie mark, its a black music note that looks to be on rageing up-swept black fire, but then it "fades" back and fourth from that to a pretty purple note with a light pink haze until it stoped on the cute pink one though she can still feel the other dark one hiding just beneth if she wants to call it out.
Next day Scoot and Rainbow are talking and Scootaloo learns that pegusi have special eyes and ears so they can see and hear stuff from way up or see things at a fast pace if they are near the ground.
Scoot soon finds this to be benificial to her scooter tricks as she can see so many more angles to bounce around, gage exact distances to jump and so fourth.
She stops at the tree house on sweet apple achers and still useing her sight and hearing finds an old orangey stalion at the tree house, they talk for a bit then go their seperate ways.
Later she tells sweetie and Apple bloom about it and discribs the stalion and Apple starts laughing then saying thats impossible because Grampa smith has been dead for ages.
Shortly there after scoot finds she has a cutie mark of a wheel on fire! looks just like her scooter ones, but then it begins to fade back and fourth from a wheel with orange flames to an eye with black ones but eventually stops at the wheel one, then as she turns to leave she finds that wierd necklace on the ground.
Day after that they are in school and apple bloom is half listining to cheerilie as she talks about how earth ponies powers come from the ground itself.
Later at recess silver spoon and diamond tiara are picking on her for being the only crusader to not have a mark.
Feeling angry and defeated she goes to a quite corner and moves her forehoof on the ground. Slowly she draws a picture, but its kind of unusual and as she finnishes putting the final touches on it, a big circle around the entire art she still feels mad and slams her hoof into the center out of rage. She jumps back as the circle ignites with a green flame.
She walks backwards from the strange fire then notices the same green flame all over the wood pile by the school house. From it imerge three freaky looking timber wolves that dash as quickly and as silently as shadoes until they reach diamond tiara and silver spoon. As they tower over the bullies said bullies look up wimpering tails high in fright and then
there is a sudden *fissssssss* from silver spoon as she promptly wets herself and a
*flop- plop- plop* from diamond taira as she has the crap scared out of her.
Though a moment ago Apple bloom was scared to death that she might be about to watch two fillies (though be it nasty ones) about to be torn up by savage beasts with green glowy flames about them she can't help but laugh and point as they foul themselves.
At this laughing the wolves flicker and shake then fall apart as heaps of brush right before every pony else (save for apple bloom and sweetie who were also already watching) turns to look at what has apple laughing so much only to see the two bullies standing infront of a bunch of lumper having broken the sanitation rules.
After this the other two quickly point to Blooms flank that has a alternating mark just like theirs.
The mark appears as a pencil sketching out a blooming apple tree with a blazing circular sun behind it then switches to a flaming circle with a branch like diagram steming to strange shapes where the flowers on the tree had been moments ago.
Oh and when she looks back to the circle she finds the weird metal loop thing with the drawing claw at the end.
and so far thats all I got.
I KNEW IT!!! You regularly visit the SCP site don't you.
I should have put my thoughts down the last chapter that way I could shout "I CALLED IT", but hindsight is 20/20.
Now that my geeking out of how you named the last three chapters is over, I shall now read the latest release.
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THE SHORTNESS!!!
IT'S SO...
...SHORT!!!
WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!
788207
Ah'm typin as fast as my hooves will let me!
Probably have the next chapter up by midnight.
Also
788133
This is all actually taking place before the royal wedding.
788292
oooooh! gotcha! though say no more, I don't like spoilers
And wonder what I could do about the CMC's finding the artifacts then as I would like it to be an off shoot of your story, fan fiction of a fan fiction as it were.
Perhaps Scoot reads some Daring Do books and gets interested then somehow talks with Dash about it who mentions the weird ruined castle deep in the everfree forest where they battled nightmare moon.
All three go out to get their adventure cutie marks and find the artifacts there perhaps?
Would you say that sounds still reasonable?
788292 Oh, don't break the golden hands on my account mate!! I NEED THAT AWESOMENESS TO CONTINUE!!!
Weirdness moment aside, this is a good story mate. I hope you live long a prosper for it!
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Since... I am guessing... the lich with his last name.