Aguamelon away from home

by Khampostel

Chapter III

In one of the study rooms at the Golden Half library.

"Gifts, think about gifts! Think about the wonderful gifts you received on your birthday!" Lia thought desperately, sitting on a bench, trying to distract herself to avoid falling asleep in the middle of the sermon she was receiving.

In front of her, the supervisor Aguamelón kept talking about friendship, respect, discipline... and other topics that didn't matter to her.

"What nonsense..." thought the young filly, adjusting her posture.

Bored, completely bored. How did an adult mare become so boring? Lia wondered while pretending to pay attention.

"I feel so sorry... could it be that her parents were just as boring?" Lia thought. A sudden chill ran down her spine as she imagined how miserable her life would be if she had also been born into such a boring family.

"Rubberlia, are you listening?" Aguamelón asked, seeing Lia shake her head.

"Yes, friendship is magical!" Lia exclaimed involuntarily.

"I wasn't talking about friendship but about the respect you should show to others, especially your elders. It's part of..." Aguamelón continued speaking, futilely. After just one sentence, Lia had once again stopped paying attention.

Lia rolled her eyes with disinterest. This was getting tiresome. Where was Kit?

Before being dragged into the torture she was experiencing, Lia and her brother Kit had planned to carry out the biggest mischief of all: stealing the master keys from Supervisor Aguamelón and entering the forbidden section of the library.

It was a daring plan, but Lia was confident that she could distract Aguamelón enough while her brother stealthily entered her private office and took the keys from her desk. Kit was skilled at cutting objects; opening the desk drawers shouldn't be a problem for him. However...

"That fool..." Lia thought, worried that Kit might be taking too long. Her brother had a good talent with magic, but sometimes he was too absent-minded.

"Uff," Aguamelón sighed, stopping her speech. She turned around, poured herself a glass of water, and proceeded to drink it immediately. For a moment, Lia was relieved, thinking that the torture had finally ended. However, suddenly, Supervisor Aguamelón turned around and, with a very serious look, said something Lia hadn't been expecting.

"I'm sorry, Lia. I didn't want it to come to this, but you leave me no choice. I'll have to talk to your parents about your misbehavior. I hope you understand it's for your own good."

Lia blinked and then exploded.

"UNDERSTAND WHAT!?" exclaimed Lia indignantly. In one leap, she left the seat where she was and stood firmly in front of the supervisor. The entire facade of the innocent girl she had maintained up to that moment disappeared in an instant. Very surprised, Aguamelón tried to respond, but before she could say a word, Lia continued.

"EXCUSE ME, MISS AGUAMELÓN. PERHAPS YOU DON'T KNOW, BUT MY PARENTS ARE THE CURRENT OWNERS OF THE GOLDEN HALF LIBRARY. THEY ARE THE PONIES TO WHOM 'YOU' OWE 'YOUR JOB,' AND CERTAINLY, THEY ARE VERY BUSY TO WELCOME A STRANGE PONY THAT NOBODY KNOWS. SO, PLEASE, COULD YOU END THIS THEATRE OF THE GREAT MORALITY TEACHER AND LET ME GO?" the young filly finished with a piercing look and an air of superiority totally inappropriate for someone her age.

The atmosphere in the narrow room was tense. Aguamelón did not respond immediately; she remained still, with wide-open eyes for a moment. Then, she took her glass of water and finished drinking from it without looking away, closed her eyes, and sighed.

"This is very disappointing, Rubberlia, truly very disappointing," Aguamelón finally responded with a grave tone.

"Do I disappoint you? What are you talking about? Who are you to...?" Lia said but was interrupted.

"I thought I was wrong, but now I know I am right," Aguamelón continued in a thoughtful tone, then turned her gaze back to Lia. "I will talk to your parents early tomorrow; you and your brother must also be present."

"YOU...!" Lia exploded in anger again. But before she could finish her words, a sudden object whizzed past her side, interrupting her.

"OW!" Aguamelón shouted in pain; a tiny dart had hit her right flank, and she quickly removed it with her tail. "A sleep-inducing dart? But where...?"

Supervisor Aguamelón did not finish her words; suddenly, she staggered as if an invisible force were pushing her. With a growing dizziness that began to take hold of her, the young supervisor tried to approach Lia while dragging her limbs that were starting to fall asleep.

"Lia... go to the first aid kit... quickly! I have..." Aguamelón spoke interruptedly with a great effort to stay conscious. Lia watched with panic as the supervisor gave her last words before collapsing on the floor.

A chilling silence enveloped the room. Lia, who until a moment ago had been furious with Supervisor Aguamelón, now only observed her with a stunned expression, still unable to understand what was happening.

"Wow, the supervisor is really tough! That dart would have put a manticore to sleep in a blink," exclaimed Kit, entering the room carrying a large blowgun.

"Wait, what?! Did you shoot that dart?" asked Lia astonished, seeing her brother with the weapon.

"Yes! Incredible, right? The supervisor had one in her office, also spears, swords, and crossbows. Can you believe it? Crossbows!" Kit exclaimed excitedly.

"Is she...?" Lia asked shakily.

"Asleep like a snail!" Kit happily replied.

Lia wasn't joyful; she was in panic. Her small but agile mind was trying to process everything that was happening; her imagination was already running wild with the terrible consequences of her brother's irresponsible actions. Playing pranks with markers on the supervisor was one thing; attacking her with a potentially deadly weapon was another.

"WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN SHE WAKES UP? WHAT IF WE GET ACCUSED?! IF OTHERS FIND OUT!" Lia shouted to herself with growing panic.

What was happening now was precisely what Supervisor Aguamelón had warned her about at the beginning of her sermon that could happen if they continued with their pranks and dangerous games. Although Aguamelon believed that Lia would never go this far, she couldn't say the same for Kit. So Aguamelon warned Lia that she needed to control her brother more or reprimand him if he went too far.

Of course, Lia was not willing to heed such advice and downplayed them by saying that her brother was more responsible than she was and that it was the supervisor who was underestimating him.

Certainly, that was true; she had been underestimating him too...

Lia exhaled successively, her mane swaying with her breath. In front of her, Kit aimed the blowgun in all directions, fantasizing that he was in the midst of a hunt.

On the floor, the body of Supervisor Aguamelón remained motionless.

"CALM DOWN, EVERYTHING IS FINE, IT'S NOT SERIOUS, MOM AND DAD SHOULD NOT FIND OUT ABOUT THIS. NO ONE SHOULD FIND OUT ABOUT THIS! AND NO ONE KNOWS. EVERYTHING IS FINE!" Lia repeated to herself, showing a false calm smile.

"Lia, are you okay? You look a bit shaken, sister," worriedly said Kit, noticing the sweat dripping from Lia's forehead.

In response to Kit's innocent words, Lia's false smile broke. A face so full of fury appeared on her that made Kit jump back.

"AM I OKAY?! AM I OKAY?! YOU, YOU...!" Lia snorted like a volcano about to erupt. But she restrained herself, turned around with a face twisted from the effort of keeping her emotions under control, then closed her eyes for a moment and let out her fury in a long sigh.

"Uhmm, sister...?" said Kit, scared, looking at Lia's back.

"Nothing, everything's fine!" Lia replied with a forced smile, but with her emotions still suppressed. She still wanted to scold Kit, but she knew that wouldn't change anything. Kit was her dear younger brother, her soulmate, her flank companion, her golden horseshoe. She really cared about him a lot, and it was precisely on occasions like this, when things went wrong, that she had to behave like an older sister and be there for him. Yes, because that's what older siblings who truly care about their younger siblings do.

However, even with such noble feelings for her brother, things wouldn't magically resolve.

"Okay, let's do this. Help me take the supervisor to her room, alright?" Lia said, already determined with a plan in mind.

Kit looked at her confused.

"Why?" he asked somewhat puzzled.

"Leaving her here would look suspicious," Lia responded somewhat impatiently.

"Suspicious, why?" Kit repeated.

"Because she's passed out here since you shot a dart at her..." Lia responded somewhat impatient and annoyed.

"Ahh, right..." Kit replied with the expression of someone remembering some distant memory. "... wait, was that wrong? Why?"

By that point, Lia's patience had already reached alarmingly low levels. With a twist of her horn, she magically grabbed a pencil from the desk and snapped it in half. The raw crack of the pencil breaking echoed in the room.

Kit, nervous, swallowed.

"Haaaaa, yes, you're right! Let's go! We need to take the supervisor to her room right away!" Kit exclaimed with a fake smile, as if everything were under control.

"Exactly. Let's go," confirmed Lia, calmer and also with a smile.

The pair of siblings jointly lifted Supervisor Aguamelón's body with their magic and placed her as best as they could on a rolling desk. After several struggles, accompanied by Lia's shouts of caution, Kit and his sister managed to maneuver the desk with the unconscious supervisor into the hallway. And although they had accidentally bumped her head several times during the transfer, the unconscious Supervisor Aguamelón hadn't reacted.

"Phew, finally. Now we just have to take her to her room," Lia exclaimed hopefully.

"Uhmmm," Kit responded dejected.

"What's wrong now?" Lia replied tiredly.

"Well, it's just... uhmmm," Kit hesitated, unsure of how to talk to his sister.

"Come on, if you have something to say, just say it already," Lia exclaimed impatiently.

"Well... where is her room?" Kit asked, looking down the ends of the hallway.

Lia opened her mouth and froze. She didn't know either.