Introductions

“And now, for the Great and Powerful Trixie’s last trick—the greatness and powerfulness shall be doubled!”

There was a flash of magical light, and suddenly the image of the azure unicorn had split in two, to the awe and applause of the onlooking audience.

“Looking good there, Trixie!” the Trixie on the left praised to the one on the right.

“You too, Trixie!” the other returned. “You look very great and powerful tonight!”

“But we aren’t stopping there!” the first Trixie then told the audience. “Because why stop at just two Trixies, when you can—”

“—double them again!” the two Trixies declared together, and with another flash of magic, there were then four Trixies on stage. This was immediately followed by yet another flash, and then there were six Trixies. By this time, the audience was applauding and cheering loudly in awe at the feat.

The Trixies then each spent a moment introducing themselves and greeting each other, before the centermost Trixie declared “But as wonderful as Trixie is, Trixie concedes that there can only be one Trixie, so without further ado!” she stomped her forehooves twice on the stage floor, and immediately the other Trixies all combined back together into one, as seamlessly as if they had never been there in the first place.

And they probably weren’t. Starlight Glimmer knew for a fact that her friend Trixie lacked the magical power to be able to conduct any sort of cloning spell. Nonetheless, whatever illusion Trixie had used to pull off the trick, it was still very impressive, so Starlight didn’t hesitate in joining the rest of the audience in applauding the magician for the show.

“Thank you!” Trixie declared, bowing in acknowledgement of the ovation. “You’ve all been a wonderful audience, and Trixie hopes you all have a good night!” With a flash of light and smoke, she then vanished from the stage.

The show over, the crowds began to disperse, chatting excitedly about the feats they had seen. Starlight, however, lingered longer, trotting around backstage to where Trixie had already begun putting away a few of her props.

“Well?” Trixie asked as Starlight came into view. “How was that one?”

“That was great, Trixie!” Starlight praised with a grin. “You really are getting better at a lot of these tricks. Even I was seriously impressed by a few of them!”

“What, you mean Trixie’s great and powerful acts weren’t already impressive to you?” Trixie asked with a raised brow.

Starlight merely rolled her eyes, unfazed. “You know what I mean,” she said. “But seriously, some of what you performed tonight was pretty impressive. Especially that last one—what was that, some form of the similo duplexis spell?”

“A good magician never reveals her secrets!” Trixie replied with a smug grin. “Besides, I gotta leave you with something to keep you guessing on.” She then nudged Starlight on the shoulder. “Anyway, thanks for letting me have this chance to take part in Ponyville’s stage performance festival this year. Trixie doesn’t get much chance to do shows like this now that she’s also a great and powerful student counselor, and I know you’re already short-staffed with Sunburst currently away.”

But Starlight rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well, good thing the new headmare happens to be such a good friend, huh?” she gave Trixie a wink before chuckling. “Actually, things have been rather quiet, so miraculously I’ve been keeping atop of it enough that I can spare you for this. Whatever the case, congrats on another successful performance, you’re really knocking it out of the park. Wanna celebrate by go getting a hayburger or something? My treat!”

“Tempting!” Trixie said, but then turned apologetic. “But unfortunately, Trixie already has plans for tonight.”

Starlight blinked, surprised. “Really?”

“Yes, you see…”

“Trixie! There you are!” The two mares turned to see a brown unicorn stallion approaching, dressed in a shirt and vest with a top hat adorning his head. Starlight wasn’t sure she recognized him. “Another wonderful performance as usual!”

“Well, what did you expect?” Trixie replied with a smug expression as the stallion came to her side. “This is the Great and Powerful Trixie we’re talking about!” But then softening a bit, she unexpectedly pulled the stallion into a warm hug. “But I’m glad you liked it, all the same.”

By this time, Starlight felt out of the loop and regarded the two ponies with a confused expression. “Uh…”

“Oh, right!” Trixie said, suddenly remembering her. “Starlight, this is Theodore Startup. Theo, this is my best friend, Starlight Glimmer.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Miss Starlight,” the stallion, Theodore, greeted politely, extending his hoof to her. Seeing she still looked confused, he added, “I’ve, uh, been helping sponsor some of Trixie’s shows.”

“Oh!” Starlight remarked, shaking his hoof.

“We’re also dating,” Trixie then brightly added.

Caught completely off guard, Starlight sputtered for a moment. “Say what?” she declared, while Theodore visibly tensed. “Since when?”

“Since a couple of weeks now,” Trixie confirmed, still with a pleased grin.

“Uh, Trixie?” Theodore interjected here, leaning closer to her. “Are we sure we want to be publicizing this? We did agree to keep it quiet for now and…”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, you didn’t want to make a big hullaballoo about it,” Trixie replied back. “But word’s gonna get out eventually anyway, and I figure we can start telling a few friends now…can’t we?” She gave him a pleading look.

Theodore hesitated and didn’t immediately reply, clearing not wanting to dismiss her request just out of hoof.

Starlight, meanwhile, was still processing the reveal. “So…wait…you two are actually dating?” she repeated for confirmation. When they both nodded, she continued. “How did this happen?”

“Well, we got to talking after one of Trixie’s shows, and…one thing led to another…” Theodore sheepishly explained. He looked uncomfortable and put on the spot.

Trixie, however, had few qualms about it. “Trixie doesn’t have to tell you about everything the moment it happens,” she reminded Starlight before giving her friend a look. “And what’s with the tone? I was hoping you’d be happier for me than this!”

“I am!” Starlight assured, quickly backtracking. “It’s just…so sudden!”

“Is not!” Trixie argued back. “We’ve been taking this slow! Promise!”

“Right, right, I didn’t mean to imply otherwise, I’m just…caught off guard,” Starlight said with a nervous laugh and started over. “Look, maybe we began on the wrong hoof there, sorry.”

“That’s entirely okay,” Theodore assured, relieved. “I just hope that with a little time to familiarize everybody with this, everything will work out okay.”

“In fact,” Trixie interjected, getting an idea and playfully bopped Starlight on the shoulder, “Theo and I are going out to dinner, but since you suggested dinner too, Starlight, how about you come with us—use it to get to know Theo a bit better?”

“Ah…” Theodore again started to interject.

“That is unless you have any objections,” Trixie added, looking to her date.

Theodore looked from Trixie to Starlight for a moment, undecided. He definitely looked uncertain about it, but he nonetheless relented. “All right,” he said, managing a small grin. “Trixie’s probably right about it being time to make this known anyway. We’d be, uh, happy for you to join us, Miss Starlight.”

Starlight debated for a second, still coming to terms with this news, but then forced a shrug. “All right then,” she said, wanting to be supportive despite her initial misgivings. “Let’s go to dinner!”

They went to one of Ponyville’s local restaurants, got a relatively inexpensive meal, and chatted amongst themselves. Starlight spent most of it observing this new stallion in Trixie’s life, still taken aback by how suddenly he’d seemingly appeared. That and something else about him bothered her, but to her frustration, she couldn’t point to a clear reason why. Near as she could figure out, this brown unicorn was a decent fellow and relatively normal. A bit quiet, but he seemed to be a good listener and very polite. Still, there had to be a reason, and the fact she knew so little about him didn’t help. She ended up dedicating a lot of mental power trying to fill in these blanks as they ate.

Which suited Trixie and Theodore just fine, and at least there was little doubt that they liked each other’s company. While Starlight spent most of the evening quietly processing them, the couple spent most of their time conversing, at times becoming so lost in it that it was like Starlight wasn’t even there.

“So you were right, the slaunan spell works much better for the laser beam and mirror act than the filmei spell,” Trixie was telling Theodore at one point.

“What did I tell you?” Theodore replied back with a kind grin. “The slaunan spell has much better power management for that act.”

“Oh, absolutely,” Trixie agreed. “I don’t know why I never thought of it before! I mean, sure, I had to rework the whole act a bit to fit in the slaunan spell instead, but because it frees up some of the thaumic power I can then use elsewhere, it really helps to refine it and make the illusion look as convincing as possible. So, seriously, thanks for suggesting it. Your input on all of my shows has really helped improve them overall.”

“Oh, it was nothing,” Theodore humbly assured, “Just me helping out a fellow illusionist.”

“You’re familiar with illusionary magic too, Theodore?” Starlight asked, perking up at this potential piece to the puzzle in her head.

“Oh, he’s more than just familiar,” Trixie assured with a smug grin, while Theodore sheepishly averted his gaze. “I kid you not, Starlight, the first time he came and saw my show, he was able to figure out how I performed most of my tricks, nearly to the letter, just from the one viewing! Not even you can claim that!”

“Oh, Trixie’s exaggerating,” Theodore said a little quietly. “I’m no expert in magic.”

Trixie snorted in good humor. “He keeps saying that because he’s too humble,” she said. “But seriously, he’s some kind of secret expert in illusionary magic.” She leaned her head on her hooves, looking at the stallion happily. “It’s kind of nice, though, having somebody I can just sit down and talk shop with for a change.”

“I’m sure it is,” Starlight said, then turned her attention back on Theodore. “So what brought you to Trixie’s show in the first place?” she asked him. “Did Trixie invite you?”

“No, I just heard the show was performing and swung by to see for myself, since it interested me,” Theodore explained a little nervously, looking put on the spot. “Then, when Trixie showed interest in hearing my input about it, we starting exchanging notes about how we could improve it, and…well…like I said, one thing led to another…”

“And you started sponsoring her show too,” Starlight added, who admittedly did find that a little too convenient, but told herself it was probably just him being…overeager…to impress Trixie.

“It’s mostly just to help Trixie meet a few ends while she tries out some of these suggestions,” Theodore quickly assured her. “But I’ll happily keep doing so even after that. It…wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Theo’s company, Startup Financing, sponsors all sorts of projects across Equestria,” Trixie said, picking up the explanation. “He’s told me he’s helped sponsor things like the spring equinox celebration in Canterlot last year, and even a few town renovation projects here in Ponyville!”

“Oh, well, no need to get into all of that, Trixie,” Theodore sheepishly interjected before quickly changing the subject.

And now that Starlight thought about it, Theodore was fairly hasty to change the subject whenever the conversation veered too close to his personal life, business, and most importantly, his past, which he didn’t seem eager to talk about. The only real time he gave any real details about his history, in fact, was when the subject of family came up. And not only was he scant on details about that, Starlight felt he was inconsistent—at one point she was certain he had indicated that he didn’t have any siblings, only to later make mention of an older brother. When Starlight attempted to comment on that, Theodore responded, again, by changing the subject. It struck her as odd.

But Starlight was trying to think positively for Trixie’s benefit, so at the end of the meal, when they all parted ways, Starlight was encouraging with her goodbyes. “You seem a…nice enough stallion, Theodore,” she said aloud as she shook his hoof as they left. “I…hope things work out with you and Trixie.”

“I hope so too,” Theodore replied. He seemed relieved to have Starlight’s approval.

After he left, Trixie then stepped in and eagerly asked, “So? You liked him, then?”

“Well…” Starlight hesitated then conceded, “I liked him well enough, I guess?” Seeing Trixie’s frown, she quickly added, “But I’m sure I’ll warm up to him even more once I’ve had more time to get to know him better.”

But by the next day, Starlight found herself still trying to come to terms with it. On one side, she was angry at her inability to show more support in Trixie’s new relationship, but on the other, something about Theodore just…perplexed her…nagged at her. At face value though, he really did seem like a nice enough guy. It wasn’t hard to see why Trixie had taken a shine to him. But he also didn’t seem that…open.

“I don’t know…” she muttered to herself as she wandered the halls of the School of Friendship while between classes. “…maybe I’m being too quick to judge? So he wasn’t too open—so are a lot of other ponies, so that doesn’t necessarily mean anything, right?” She bit her lip. “But what if it does, and he proves to be…I don’t know…bad news?”

“I dunno, can’t really say without knowing more of the details. Should I stick around to hear more of your mumblings, maybe?”

Starlight, startled by the new voice, looked up suddenly. “Huh?” she involuntarily blurted out, not realizing she was being overheard. Her vision was immediately graced with a blinding camera flash, causing her to squint her eyes, trying to blink away the momentary blindness so to see the camera’s operator. “What the—Silverstream?”

“Hi, Headmare Starlight!” the hippogriff student greeted happily as the photo slid out of the instant camera with a whirl. She pulled it out with her talons and proceeded to watch it develop. “Like my camera? I got it at a yard sale over the weekend. I’ve been using it to catalog everything about my time here at the school! See?”

She pulled out a makeshift photo album she’d made out of an old school binder and opened it for Starlight to see inside. Starlight took it in her magic and examined a few of the photos. They were all fairly amateurish and it was clear Silverstream was still figuring out how the camera worked. One was even a picture of the hippogriff’s thumb, which she was pretty sure was taken by accident, but had been stuck into the album all the same. A number were of things that made sense to take photos of, like pictures of Silverstream’s friends, professors, and common places on the school’s campus. Then there were photos that didn’t seem as sensible, like pictures of what looked like Silverstream’s breakfast, a storm drain, the inside of classroom desk, and a whole section on staircases.

The most baffling one was a random picture of nothing but an empty corner somewhere in the school. “…Why did you take a picture of this?” Starlight asked uncertainly, tapping the photo with her hoof.

“Oh, because I really, really, like that corner!” Silverstream answered without missing a beat. “It’s such a good and cornery little corner!”

“…uh-huh.”

“I’ve been taking pictures of all my favorite things here at the school, so I can take them home and share them with other hippogriffs and so I can always have them with me so to remember them!” Silverstream took back the album so to slide her newest photo—featuring the rather unflattering, blank-faced, face of Starlight herself—in with the others. “I wanna do the same back home at Mount Aris, especially Seaquestria, so I can bring photos of there back here!” She frowned as she regarded her camera uncertainly. “I don’t know how well this would work underwater though.”

“Yeah, the water would probably damage the magic that makes the photos develop,” Starlight reasoned with a wince, agreeing that was probably a bad idea.

Silverstream shrugged and tucked both under one wing. “Anyway,” she continued, turning back to Starlight. “You were mumbling something about someone being bad news?”

“Oh that,” Starlight blushed, feeling caught. “That’s…that’s not really anything you need to worry about. It’s personal, and Trixie would probably object if I talked about this with anyone.”

“Okay,” Silverstream said as they both resumed walking down the hallway. “I understand.”

But Starlight had already gotten the ball rolling and found she couldn’t keep quiet. “It’s just…” she sighed. “Look, Trixie—have…have you really gotten to know her yet?”

“Well, we did have a little counselor meeting not long ago…she kept talking about herself like she wasn’t even there, though…”

“Yeah, that’s Trixie all right…anyway, I found out last night that she’s been…dating someone.”

“Oooooh!” Silverstream perked up immediately at this and snapped another picture of Starlight. “An important moment for the records if I ever heard one! That time when Headmare Starlight found out her bestie is dating a special someone!”

“Yeah, well, I’m not so sure about that,” Starlight said as she rubbed at her eyes, trying again to clear her flash-blindness. “I mean, I met the guy, and…and he seems okay? Maybe?”

“Is he cute?”

Starlight shrugged. “I guess? I wasn’t really thinking about that, honestly. I was more focused on…I don’t know how to describe it. It’s just…something about him keeps nagging at me…like it all doesn’t add up, I guess. But I’ve been racking my brain all morning for a why, and…I don’t know.” She stopped the hippogriff walking beside her. “You tell me, Silverstream. Am I just being paranoid or something?”

“Ooh! Ooh! The headmare is seeking the advice of the student!” She wrapped one leg around Starlight and snapped another photo of them both, presumably to add to her ‘record.’ Starlight thought that at this rate, she was going to rack up several volumes worth of photos before the week was over. “I guess it depends. What do you know about him?”

“Well, that’s sort of the problem,” Starlight relented. “I know he’s good with illusionary magic and owns a business, but he didn’t seem eager to talk about himself beyond that, so…I guess I don’t really know.” She bit her lip again. “Do you think that’s maybe cause for concern? The fact there’s only so much known about him?”

“Well, either that or you’re feeling a bit jealous Counselor Trixie’s found a nice stallion and you haven’t.”

“No, no, that can’t be it,” Starlight’s dismissal was immediate.

“I dunno…are you dating anyone currently? Not to pry or anything.”

“Well, no, but…look, I’m just not feeling comfortable about it either way, and I think it’s something about this Theodore Startup guy.”

“Theodore Startup? Is that his name? Never heard of him.”

“Neither had I before last night.” But then Starlight sighed. “But…I guess you have a point and that’s not necessarily evidence of…well, anything.” She rubbed at her eyes again. “I don’t know…what do you think I should do?”

Silverstream made a show of rubbing her beak, contemplating it. “I think you need to learn more about this guy before you can really say one way or another. I mean, how can you come to any real conclusions about him if, like you said, you don’t really know anything about him?” She shouldered her camera. “Go see what you can find out about him. Maybe ask Counselor Trixie for anything she might know about him. I mean, she is dating him, so she’s gotta know a few things, right?”

Starlight let out her breath, giving Silverstream a thankful grin. “Thanks, Silverstream, that’s good advice, actually.”

“You’re welcome!” Silverstream beamed. “Now excuse me, I better hurry to my next class.” She hurried off, giving Starlight a hurried wave as she went. “Good luck figuring it out, Headmare Starlight!”

“Thank you!” Starlight called back. “And let’s just keep this between ourselves for now, okay?”

“Okie-dokie!”

Starlight decided that the best place to start was finding more about what this Theodore Startup did for a career. She knew the name of his company, Startup Financing, so that seemed like a good reference point to begin at. She was ultimately glad she did start there, because it wasn’t long before her research found the first very big problem: there didn’t seem to be a Startup Financing in actual existence.

At first she thought it might be because the company was a small-time business and just wasn’t that well known publically, so she kept digging to give it the benefit of a doubt. But there was no denying it—Startup Financing, or anything named similarly to it, didn’t seem to exist. So this only raised more questions than it answered, though Starlight was begrudgingly forced to concede that it still didn’t prove anything—maybe she had misheard the name or was remembering it wrong.

So she kept digging, deciding that if she couldn’t confirm the company’s existence directly, she could try doing it indirectly, through checking some of the acts she recalled Trixie mentioning Theodore had been involved in financing. As it would be the most public, she began with last year’s spring equinox celebration in Canterlot, figuring it’d be easy enough to find a public record of such a financial contribution. Or so her theory went.

In practice, though, this only led to another dead end, not finding anything she could definitely pin down that pertained to Theodore. As pushing the matter would mean visiting Canterlot itself and interrogating relevant officials, Starlight then turned to the more local financing Trixie claimed Theodore had done for some renovations in Ponyville. For this, she went straight to Mayor Mare and asked her directly.

…only to find that Mayor Mare didn’t know what she was talking about. None of any of the town renovation projects had any financing from outside sources for the past several years except from directly the crown itself. The town didn’t need to—there was a fund that set aside excess money from the town budget for explicitly this purpose, and that usually was enough for such projects. She also knew nothing of Theodore Startup or any company pertaining to him, though as a favor, she did pursue the official records to be certain. It didn’t change anything, though—there was no record of Theodore being involved in such affairs, ever.

By now, Starlight was becoming increasingly worried, because not only were her fears proving to be correct, it was going even further than she suspected. If everything Theodore claimed to have done was false, was he really with Trixie for her own benefit, or his own? Starlight even toyed with the uncomfortable idea that he was trying to play some financial fraud scheme on Trixie until she remembered Trixie was getting sponsored by this stallion, directly to boot. And Trixie’s recent performances during Ponyville’s stage performance festival had definitely shown a financial boost, so that money had to have come from somewhere.

So Starlight turned to the Ponyville Bank, where she knew Trixie cashed in her checks, to try and squeeze out more information. Since it was technically in violation of the bank’s privacy rules, Starlight normally wouldn’t have done this, but because she felt there was genuine cause for concern, she made an exception…and told the bank official that it pertained to an ongoing friendship mission, something else she technically shouldn’t be doing without permission from Twilight, which of course she hadn’t gotten. But Twilight would understand, right?

Whatever the case, the bank official would only tell Starlight so much, but he confirmed that Trixie had deposited checks from a third-party and that Theodore’s name was on them. He wouldn’t specifically say where the money was coming from, but Starlight did manage to learn that it wasn’t from a company called Startup Financing, and, potentially even more worrying, that the source of the money was apparently foreign.

It wasn’t proof of wrongdoing, but it was proof that Theodore wasn’t everything he said he was, so during the school lunchbreak, Starlight decided it was time to try and gently break the news to Trixie.

Unfortunately, Trixie’s reaction wasn’t at all what she expected. “I think you’re just jealous,” she said as the magician ran through her checklist for her next performance later that afternoon.

“Jealous?!” Starlight repeated, offended. “Here I am, trying to look out for you, and you accuse me of being jealous?”

“Oh c’mon, you went waaaay out of your way just to try and dig up dirt on Trixie’s boyfriend,” Trixie retorted, giving her a displeased look. “Just because you’re feeling left out for not having a boyfriend of your own doesn’t excuse you from trying to…interfere.”

“Trixie, I might be willing to agree, if there wasn’t clear evidence that Theodore isn’t being totally upfront with you,” Starlight pressed, concerned.

Trixie fehed that point aside, though. “Whoever is when starting a relationship?” she asked rhetorically, before turning to Starlight. “But leave that to me to sort out. Look, Starlight, you don’t know Theo like I do. He’s a good pony. I know he has my best interests at heart. Isn’t that enough?”

Starlight hesitated, knowing how it sounded. “I’m just worried about your safety, Trixie.”

Trixie sighed. “I supposed I can’t complain to that,” she conceded, giving Starlight a one-hoofed hug, but again she brushed the matter aside. “Don’t worry about it, though. Things are going good. You’ll see. Besides, Theodore’s a fairly private pony who doesn’t like making a big hullabaloo over what he does. How do you know that he doesn’t just keep what he does on the down-low?”

Starlight didn’t, and even though she thought the evidence she’d uncovered suggested otherwise, she knew Trixie wasn’t going to bend without more proof. And Starlight supposed all she currently had was just a series of details that happened to fit a convenient theory. It didn’t necessarily prove her fears. Still, unable to let the matter go any more now than before, she retreated back to her office at the school to think. She knew she’d have to get more evidence one way or another, and to that end, her talk with Trixie hadn’t been totally fruitless, having learned that Theodore was staying in a carriage near the stage performance festivities. The proof she needed was probably in there. It was just a matter of getting in without raising suspicions, and for that, Starlight knew she’d need help. But who?

With Twilight being the new ruler of Equestria now, she knew she couldn’t turn to her. Besides, Starlight doubted she’d side with her either, preferring talking it out over subterfuge. Twilight’s other friends weren’t likely to be helpful either. She knew some would refuse on principle, others she couldn’t be certain would actually be helpful—Rainbow Dash, for example, probably would want to help, but Starlight feared her brash attitude and overall lack of tact would only make things worse. Unfortunately, after Trixie (who was obviously out, bias to Theodore’s side as she was), Starlight’s own group of friends weren’t available—Maud and Sunburst were both out of town currently, Maud for a geology convention, and Sunburst in Vanhoover working at arranging a deal for some new school supplies. As both were important, Starlight was reluctant to interrupt them for any reason, so she opted to try and not have to if she could.

But there wasn’t anyone else Starlight thought she could count on that well who’d even be savvy on the matter…until she remembered there was one other creature she had told parts of this situation to this morning…

As classes had finished for the day, she found Silverstream in the student study lounge with, unsurprisingly, her new camera. She wasn’t alone either—Gallus and Smolder were also in the room, the dragon and griffon seated at a small table and playing a board game. Only interested in Silverstream though, Starlight tried to get her attention by standing a few paces back and waving the hippogriff over.

When Silverstream finally noticed her, though, she merely waved back. “Hi, Headmare Starlight!” she greeted happily.

Gallus and Smolder both looked up from their game. “Hey, Teach,” Gallus greeted as well, “What brings you in here?”

Sighing, Starlight strolled closer. “I was hoping to borrow Silverstream for something,” she explained and turned to the hippogriff as the others returned to their game. “Can we talk in private?”

“Can it wait until after this game?” Silverstream asked as she fondled her camera. “I’m helping Gallus and Smolder out.”

She motioned to a series of pictures she had set out in front of her. Starlight looked them over and saw they were all of the game board. “Why are you taking pictures of just the game board?” she asked as she picked one up to study.

“So to keep track of the positions of the pieces, silly!” Silverstream replied, like it was obvious.

Starlight wrinkled her brow as she lowered the photo and studied the game board Smolder and Gallus were pondering over. “Are you two playing chess?” she asked, abruptly realizing what the game was.

“Why, that surprises you?” Gallus asked as he moved a pawn.

“Well…I didn’t think either of you knew how to play,” Starlight admitted sheepishly.

“Sandbar insisted on teaching us sometime first semester,” Smolder explained as she moved her own piece. “We thought it super dull though, so what we’re playing here is only kind-of chess.”

“…how do you mean?” Surveying the game, nothing about it seemed out of the ordinary to Starlight.

“We made a few changes to the rules so to spice things up, namely when you try to take the other player’s pieces,” Gallus explained. “In fact, since I was considering it anyway…” he moved his knight to take Smolder’s bishop, putting both pieces in the same square. “Smolder, I’m taking on your bishop.”

Smolder chortled smugly. “All right, if you really think you can win,” she said tauntingly, then turned to Silverstream. “Sil, if you will?”

“Right.” Silverstream hefted her camera and snapped a new photo of the game board. She grabbed the resulting photo with her talons the second the instant camera spat it out. “Okay, ready!”

No sooner had she said so did Gallus lunge with yell, tackling Smolder and knocking them both to the floor, where they proceeded to roughly wrestle each other. Uncertain whether to intervene, Starlight uneasily watched while lighting her horn, ready to break them apart if it wasn’t for the fact she wasn’t quite certain what was going on and why.

Silverstream, however, looked on with a happy grin as she flapped the still-developing photo with her talons. “Aren’t they such good friends?” she asked sunnily.

“…if you say so,” Starlight muttered, wincing at some of the unforgiving moves the two were using on each other.

“Ack, all right, all right, I give!” Smolder finally forfeited as Gallus got the upper talon and pinned her.

“Yes!” Gallus cheered, planting a footpaw on Smolder’s belly while striking a victorious pose. “Another victory for the Griffon Kingdom!”

“How can you be a kingdom if you don’t even have an actual king currently?” Smolder chided from the floor.

“Beside the point, now shush,” Gallus retorted, refusing to let the moment be spoiled.

“Then take your victory and get your fat butt off of me, you lunkhead,” Smolder said, giving him a shove.

They returned to their seats at the game board. The pieces had been knocked out of place during the scuffle, but using Silverstream’s photo as a reference (proving why such photos were taken in the first place), they quickly had them all back in place, except for Smolder’s bishop which Gallus confiscated, and they resumed playing as before.

“Huh,” Starlight grunted, bemused by it all, then shook her head and got back to why she was here in the first place. “Silverstream, I know you’re in the middle of something, but I can I please pull you away from it for a bit?”

“What’s this about that’s so important?” the hippogriff asked, curious.

Starlight hesitated, glancing at Gallus and Smolder, not wanting them to overhear. “Well…remember what we had talked about this morning? It’s about that.”

“Oh!” Silverstream exclaimed, catching on before blurting out, “Are you saying you’ve found something questionable about your friend’s boyfriend after all?”

“Wait, what now?” Gallus asked, both he and Smolder perking up, intrigued.

Starlight facehoofed. “Silverstream, that was supposed to be a secret, remember?” she hissed.

“Well, too late now, so you might as well tell us,” Smolder said, smugly turning in her seat so to join the conversation.

“Counselor Trixie has a boyfriend she’s dating,” Silverstream explained without consulting Starlight first. “He seems like he’d be nice, but Headmare Starlight thinks he’s not trustworthy.”

“He isn’t,” Starlight persisted, begrudgingly acknowledging that Gallus and Smolder were in on the secret now and pressed on. “I’ve uncovered evidence that shows what he’s told me and Trixie is made up. I’m convinced that he’s got to be hiding something.”

“So?” Smolder asked, unimpressed. “Lots of couples do that.”

“That’s what Trixie said!” Starlight declared. “But that doesn’t mean it’s right!”

“She does have a point,” Silverstream was inclined to agree.

“Yeah, but why do you care?” Smolder asked Starlight. “He’s not your boyfriend.”

“This does sort of sound like it has less to do with the actual boyfriend and more like you’re just jealous it’s Trixie who has the boyfriend and not you, Teach,” Gallus agreed. He then smirked. “Or is this about how this means Trixie’s no longer, you know, available?”

“No!” Starlight declared, catching on to what he was implying. “That’s not--!”

“Ohmigosh, Headmare Starlight!” Silverstream suddenly squealed, also catching on. “Are you lesbian?”

“Wha—no!” Starlight started to get flustered. “This isn’t…I’m not…!”

“Because we’re not judging if you are,” Smolder added. “At least…not totally. Honestly, I don’t really get how the whole gal-on-gal thing’s supposed to work anyway.” She turned to Gallus. “Wouldn’t you kinda be missing a, you know, key part to it?”

Gallus, thinking it over, shrugged. “I guess you could make up the difference by using a strap-on,” he suggested.

Smolder’s eyes bulged, intrigued. “Duuuude, that’s actually a thing?”

Gallus waggled his eyebrows knowingly. “Oh yeah.”

“What’s a strap-on?” Silverstream asked innocently.

“It’s basically a—”

Gallus’s reply was cut short when Starlight used her magic to clamp all of their mouths shut. “Okay, that’s enough of that!” she intervened quickly. She waited until she was sure none of them were going to continue the subject before releasing them and continuing. “And for the record, I am not lesbian, and this is ONLY about me making sure Trixie isn’t getting used by a malicious stallion, as her friend.”

“Oh really?” Gallus asked, raising a doubting eyebrow. He paused for a split second, then suddenly blurted out in a rush, “Quick then, if you could choose anyone in the whole world, who would you most want to bang?”

“Sunburst—I MEAN—!” Starlight clamped a hoof over her mouth, blushing profusely, but the damage from her slip-up was already done.

“Oooooh!” the three students chorused together, exchanging knowing looks.

“LOOK!” Starlight declared, trying again to get back on topic. “The point of all of this is that I need to dig up some more evidence to determine whatever the hay is up with this Theodore guy, but to do that, I’m going to need help!” She motioned a hoof at Silverstream. “That’s what I wanted Silverstream for!”

“Why don’t you ask your vice headpony, seeing you’ve got the hots for him and all?” Smolder asked, smugly leaning her head on her elbow and keeping up the teasing.

“Because,” Starlight stressed, “He’s busy working on a school supply deal in Vanhoover.”

“Ooh, where in Vanhoover?” Silverstream curiously asked.

Starlight rolled her eyes heavenward. “Oh, I don’t know for certain…probably that bookshop he mentioned had the texts we’re looking for…Fly Leaf’s Books and Stationery or something like that…” She waved the subject aside. “Look. According to Trixie, Theodore has a wagon he’s staying in on the Ponyville fairgrounds, where the stage performance festival’s been taking place. Whatever the truth is, I could probably find the answers in there.”

“So what you’re saying is that you need help sneaking in there without anyone noticing,” Gallus surmised, catching on. When Starlight nodded, he turned slightly incredulous. “And you turned to Silverstream for help on that? Really? Sil’s probably the worst choice for this!” He glanced at the hippogriff. “No offense.”

“None taken!” Silverstream assured with a cheery grin.

“Well…she already knew what was going on!” Starlight attempted to justify. “And she’s got a camera, for photographic evidence, so…”

“No, what you really need, headmare,” Smolder then interjected, taking over, “is someone who’s experienced at not only sneaking in and out of places they’re not supposed to be without getting caught, but also someone who can think quick and still escape even if they get caught. And you’re not going to find two better creatures for that in this school than me and Gallus here.” She exchanged a smug fistbump with the griffon at this.

Silverstream was quick to back them up, too. “It’s true!” she agreed. “They’re really good at getting into things they shouldn’t!”

“Oh, I’m quite aware of that,” Starlight assured, having held a staff meeting just a few weeks earlier reminding everyone of the two’s troublemaking, “Which is why I wasn’t eager on getting them involved in the first place.”

“Well, if you’re still not convinced, we could always just go send a letter to Princess Twilight about what you’re planning,” Gallus casually remarked, but the implied threat was clear on his all-too confident face. “Because I’m sure she’d just love to hear how the pony she chose to replace her as headmare is recruiting students in her school to engage in shady, under-the-table, spying stuff.”

Starlight glared at the griffon, annoyed, but he had her there. Letting out a weary groan and worrying this wouldn’t end well, she allowed her resistance to cave. “…Fine. But you had better not make me regret it.”

Investigations

View Online

“Already regretting it, in case anybody’s wondering,” Starlight grumbled in warning from where the four of them hid behind some bushes some minutes later.

Apparently nobody was, because her grumbling was ignored. “The ticket pony’s totally got that entrance covered,” Gallus observed as he peered at the gated fairgrounds entrance through a telescoping spyglass. It wasn’t strictly necessary, as they all could see this for themselves without it, but the griffon had insisted on having it anyway. Starlight suspected it was for show. “He could totally see us try and sneak past, no matter how we do it. Not enough cover.”

“And entirely too much cover at the other side of this place,” Smolder added, who had already scouted ahead to check. “The fairgrounds border super dense forest from that side—it’d be a real pain to try and sneak through and even harder to try and flee through should things go south.”

“That’s not going to be a problem,” Starlight attempted, not for the first time, to explain. “Because you see…”

“Why is the ticket taker even on duty anyway?” Gallus kept grumbling, cutting off Starlight. “They finished with shows for now, and there won’t be any more taking place until tonight! All who’s going to be in there are all the showponies and their staff. And they’re obviously not charging them to be in there.”

“If you will all just stop and listen to me…” Starlight again attempted to interject.

“It’s probably a security thing,” Smolder reasoned, again ignoring the unicorn. “Y’know, so to keep creatures from sneaking in and trying to mess with stuff, or maybe even try and steal something.”

“Makes sense, but it’s going to make it harder for us,” Gallus reasoned, putting the spyglass away decisively. “We just might have to resort to extreme measures.”

“Now before you all go and do that…” Starlight protested once more on deaf ears.

It was then that Silverstream looked to the others. “So you all realize what this means, right?” Her face turned into a determined scowl. “We’re gonna have to break in.”

“…ah, taking a few of the students for a little tour of the performance festival, huh, Starlight?” the ticket taker happily asked, glancing only briefly at the backstage pass Trixie had arranged for Starlight to have at the start of the festival, before nodding them each through the gates without problem. “Enjoy yourselves now, you hear?”

They then proceeded unhindered on past the gate. “We’re in,” Silverstream growled after they had gotten a couple feet, putting on her determined scowl again.

“Enough with the forced drama, already!” Gallus griped.

“Oh, just c’mon,” Starlight groaned, motioning for the three to follow her as she put her pass away. “We need to make sure Theodore’s actually away from his wagon currently, or this will all be over too quickly.”

“And I suppose you know where to check,” Smolder deduced as they weaved their way through the many touring wagons and show equipment filling the field.

“A pretty good guess, at least,” Starlight replied, taking the lead.

She directed them towards Trixie’s wagon, closer to the performance area set up for the festival, only for all four of them to duck behind a series of bushes again to avoid being seen as, sure enough, Trixie was standing outside the wagon, happily conversing with the very target they were looking for.

“Whelp, there they are,” Starlight remarked, pointing at the two ponies while taking in the scene. Trixie and Theodore were completely oblivious to their watchers, and it did look like they would be preoccupied for a bit, working in their favor, but she wanted to be absolutely sure first.

“That’s him?” Silverstream whispered to Starlight meanwhile, pointing a talon at the distant stallion. “That’s the guy?”

“Yes,” Starlight replied firmly, locking her eyes on him as if doing so would suddenly make the mysterious pony reveal all of his secrets.

Smolder, however, was looking him over in an entirely different light. “Huh,” she hummed in approval. “I can see why Trixie’s into him. He’s not that bad looking. For a pony.”

“Eh, he’s okay, I guess,” Gallus remarked, who was less impressed. “I’ve seen handsomer ponies.”

“You know, I didn’t bring you all here just so to assess his looks,” Starlight reminded the three students sternly.

“Actually, you kinda did,” Smolder argued. “The whole point of this is to figure out how and why he and Trixie are a thing, right? Well, obviously, his looks are gonna factor into that.” She made a self-satisfied expression. “So I commented accordingly.”

Gallus, meanwhile, was eyeing the two ponies intently, as if trying to puzzle something out. Both ears were pointing in their direction, upright and attentive. “Wonder what they’re saying…” he mumbled aloud as they were too far away to hear the conversation.

“Something about how to do a particular illusion spell,” Silverstream abruptly answered, almost like it was an afterthought.

The others all turned and stared at her in mild surprise. “How do you know that?” Gallus asked.

“From reading their lips,” the hippogriff innocently replied, like this should’ve been obvious.

Starlight’s eyebrow went up. “You know how to lip read?” she asked, interested.

“Kinda,” Silverstream replied, waving one set of talons back and forth to emphasize the diceyness of this skill. “I found a book about it in the library a while back and I’d never heard of it, so I read it.” She then made a disappointed grimace. “…wasn’t really what I thought it was, honestly.”

“I’m not sure I want to know what you did think it was,” Smolder mumbled.

“Anyway, I guess I picked up the basics in the process,” Silverstream continued. She shrugged. “I certainly didn’t master it, but I can still remember some of it, so…”

“…sooooo, what are they saying?” Starlight finished, jerking her head in the direction of their targets. “Are they going to be busy for a bit?”

“I think so. I’m only getting every other word, but…” Silverstream squinted her eyes at the pair of ponies. “…Trixie’s talking about showing him a spell…something about needing something backstage…I think they’re going to review Trixie’s act or something.”

“Makes sense,” Starlight remarked, glancing at the two ponies too. “Theodore is helping Trixie improve her act.”

“What else are they saying?” Gallus asked next, genuinely impressed.

“Well, I think they’re agreeing to move over to the stage now…yeah, see?” Silverstream pointed. “They’re moving off now…still chatting about it…” she winced when she saw Theodore stumble suddenly, mouth clearly seen uttering something. “…ooh. I…I’m not sure what that was…but, uh, I think that was a, uh, naughty word he just said there.”

Gallus smirked at this. “Guy’s not so perfect after all.”

“Never said he was perfect,” Smolder responded, folding her arms, “Just that I could see why Trixie’s interested.” She then elbowed Silverstream. “Because, c’mon…you gotta agree that for a pony, he’s still got a pretty good butt.”

Silverstream was more sheepish about it, though. “I’ll…just take your word for it. I’m not really a good judge of…that sort of thing.”

“Oh really?” Gallus said with an amused snort. “Why not?”

“Well, you gotta keep in mind,” Silverstream reminded, “because I spent most of my growing up as a seapony, me and anyone around me didn’t really have…butts.”

Gallus opened his beak to reply, but upon thinking it through, he closed it again. “Huh,” he finally remarked, brow furrowed thoughtfully. “I hadn’t thought about it like that.”

“Yeah, it’s a fair point,” Smolder agreed, also intrigued. “I guess when all of your lower body is nothing but tail, there’s not much room left for a conventional butt, is there?”

“If you three are quite finished,” Starlight interrupted with a glare, pointing them towards the west side of the field. “Hopefully they’ll be busy with that for some time, so now is our chance.” She herded them out of their hiding spot so to start crossing back across the field to look for Theodore’s wagon.

“So just how are you planning to do this, anyway?” Gallus asked the unicorn as they went.

“Well…” Starlight said, somewhat uncertainly, “…we go in, we look around for any clues, and we leave when Theodore comes back.”

“So who’ll be on lookout?”

Starlight blanked out, having not thought about that. “Uh…”

“Oh c’mon, Teach, I’m ashamed of you!” Gallus declared, disappointed. “What if they come back early? What if you get caught by someone else? Seriously, this is, like, Mischief 101!”

“I’ve been basically making this up as I go, okay?” Starlight hissed back, not in the mood to argue the point.

“Making up what as you go?”

All four of them yelped in shock at the sound of the new voice, afraid they were caught, and turned to see a familiar grey pegasus mare, well-known to everyone in Ponyville, having trotted up as they passed by. Speaking at once, the younger three of the group all declared the mare’s name.

“Derpy!” Smolder cried.

“Ditzy!” Gallus exclaimed.

“Muffins!” Silverstream declared.

…Or at least a name for her. Starlight turned to rebuke the three students in her company on the correct name, only to stop short, realizing she’d heard all three of those names used for the town’s trademark mailmare interchangeably. “Sorry, is there a particular name you prefer?” she quickly asked.

“Oh, I’ll respond to any of those, so whichever you like,” the eternally cheery but wall-eyed mare replied with a grin. She then continued on, nodding at Starlight. “So what brings you all here, anyway? Some kind of school activity involving the stage performance festival?”

“Uh, yes!” Starlight quickly confirmed, seeing this as a good cover story as any. “Because you know those stage performance festivals, they’re just…brimming with friendship!” She then winced to herself at how unconvincing that sounded.

But Derpy bought it hook, line, and sinker. “Cool!” she declared in approval. “Hope you all have fun with that, then. And if you need anything, I’ll be happy to try and help. I’m going to be here all day today because I volunteered to help move some equipment around.” She glanced over at a nearby stack of such equipment which she had been heading towards when she crossed paths with the four instead. “There’s a fair bit it, so I’ll be at it for a while.”

“Aww,” Silverstream cooed, sympathizing.

Starlight, however, was focusing on other details. “Derpy, how familiar are you with everyone that’s here in the festival?” she asked aloud, quickly surveying the fairgrounds.

“Oh, fairly well, I think,” Derpy replied.

“Do you know a stallion named Theodore Startup?”

“Oh yeah, I’ve crossed paths with him a couple times! Nice guy. I think he’s helping to sponsor some of the acts.”

The others perked up a little at this. “How much do you know about him?” Starlight asked, a little hopeful.

“Well, not an awful lot, really,” Derpy conceded apologetically, to the disappointment of the others. “I just see him every now and then, usually when he’s coming or going from that teal wagon he’s staying in.” She pointed her hoof in the direction of the wagon. They others twisted around to see too, brightening again. “I’m actually moving some of this in that same direction, so maybe I’ll see him again, but like I said, I’ll be pretty busy with moving equipment around, so…”

“Hey, I’ll bet you could use some help moving all of that stuff,” Gallus suddenly interjected, hurrying forward and turning the pegasus back for the stack of equipment. “How about you let a couple of us pitch in and assist?”

“Yeah!” Smolder agreed, quickly following Gallus’s lead and taking up Derpy’s other side as they led her away. “After all, part of friendship is helping out your friends, right?”

“Oh, why thank you!” Derpy gushed, delighted as she let herself be pulled away.

“And that way, we can both lighten the load and help keep an eye out for ol’ Theodore, should we cross paths with him on his way back to his wagon,” Gallus added, speaking deliberately as he turned his head and winked back at Starlight and Silverstream.

But Starlight caught on to what they were doing—Gallus and Smolder would not only keep Derpy preoccupied and out of the way, it’d also give them an excuse to discreetly keep watch. Silently nodding her head back so Gallus knew she understood, she then slipped away to hurry off in direction of Theodore’s wagon. Then doubled back to grab Silverstream, who had failed to follow, happily watching Gallus and Smolder walk off with Derpy and remaining oblivious.

She quickly caught on though as they came into view of Theodore’s wagon. It was indeed a dark blue-green teal like Derpy had described, with a greenish roof and overall roughly similar in shape to Trixie’s wagon. It stood to one corner of the fairgrounds, away from where most of the activity would be and thus few others were around to see them approach. Despite this low chance of detection, Silverstream got caught up in the sneaking around and started to zip from object to object so to keep herself hidden. Without fail, she’d always go to the next hiding spot by tucking herself into a ball and rolling towards it.

However Starlight, casually walking along behind her, watched the hippogriff doing the rolls and was unimpressed. “Must we do the rolling?”

“Yes,” Silverstream replied seriously, planning her next roll. “It helps.”

“How does the rolling help, though?”

“It helps.”

So she kept rolling. The only rolling Starlight did though was that of her eyes, and kept walking casually straight to the wagon. No matter how they did it though, they arrived at it unnoticed and without event. Starlight stepped right up to the door and placed an ear to it, listening to see if anyone was inside. All seemed silent and empty within. However, she quickly noticed that the door appeared locked.

“Okay, Silverstream, cover for me for a second,” Starlight instructed the hippogriff. “I’m going to see if I can get the door open. Since Theodore seems to be a bit magic-savvy, this might take a moment.”

Silverstream nodded and turned so to look out at the fairgrounds and bodily block what Starlight was doing from view. However, Starlight quickly found that while the door was indeed locked, it wasn’t with a complex magic-based lock like she expected but rather a simple and common pin tumbler lock, which she easily unlocked with the most basic of lockpicking spells, allowing the door to easily pop open. Surprised at the lack of security, but not deciding not to question their luck, Starlight motioned to Silverstream and they quickly slipped inside. Closing the door behind them, they stopped to glance around.

“So…what are we looking for?” Silverstream asked finally.

“Anything suspicious, or that might explain the things that don’t add up about this guy,” Starlight replied. “Just…look over anything that seems amiss and point it out to me. If we can use it as proof, then you snap a picture of it with your camera.”

Silverstream hefted her camera up and saluted. “Will do!”

Starlight hurriedly motioned for her to stay quiet. “And keep it down!” she hissed. “Remember, we’re not supposed to be in here.”

They surveyed the wagon for a place to start. As wagons went though, this one was fairly straightforward. A kitchenette stood to one side, a desk and several cabinets for storage stood on the other. In the corner next to the door were a hat rack and a cheval glass mirror. At the back was a standard bed. Moving towards it, Silverstream noticed the bedsheets were all ruffled and disordered to the point that she’d call it more a bedsheet “nest” than a bed.

“Not a very tidy sleeper, is he?” she mumbled out loud.

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t really help us,” Starlight pointed out, turning to the desk and ruffling through the papers left on it. “Keep searching. There must be something that’ll tell us more about who he really is…”

Meanwhile, Gallus and Smolder had been keeping busy helping Derpy move boxes of equipment. As intended, this kept them within sight of Theodore’s wagon, keeping watch for any trouble. But in the meantime, they kept up a friendly and hopefully normal sounding conversation with Derpy while they did this.

“How are you always so…upbeat all the time, anyway?” Smolder asked Derpy as they stacked boxes. “I mean, you never seem to be bothered about anything.”

“Oh, I can be bothered about a lot of things,” Derpy assured with a dismissive wave of a hoof. “I just have a method for dealing with it that seems to work pretty well.”

“What is it?” Smolder pressed, curious. “Because if it works for you, maybe it’ll work for me. Or for Gallus, I dare say he sometimes could use a better way to vent.”

“Hey,” Gallus objected, but was ignored.

Derpy turned to face them. “Okay, so…there’s this karaoke place in town.”

“Oh yeah, we know the place you’re talking about,” Gallus remarked, setting down his box. “Yona insisted on dragging us all down there awhile back.”

“Well, whenever I feel particularly…frustrated…about something, I go down there, put on a particular song I really like and sing along.” Derpy grinned, proud of herself. “It helps me get out those pesky frustrations without any harm done!”

“Huh,” Smolder hummed, picturing Derpy singing some sort of sweet, laid-back and chill song. “What kind of music are we talking about here? Pop rock or something?”

“No, death metal,” Derpy replied, like it was no big deal.

It was to the two students though, who both did a double-take. “Wait, what?” Gallus declared with a surprised chuckle, unable to picture the sweet pegasus singing death metal. “Really? You sing death metal?”

“A little,” Derpy replied with an indifferent shrug.

Smolder laughed. “Okay, this I gotta see.”

But before they could get much further on the topic, Gallus abruptly spied a familiar top hate-wearing stallion walking across the fairgrounds, heading towards his wagon. “Oh, wait, hold that thought,” he quickly interrupted, motioning to the others to wait for a moment. Looking around, he quickly flapped his wings and clambered up to the top of their stack of boxes, turned towards to the wagon some feet ahead and did the first thing he could think of to alert Starlight and Silverstream within without also immediately raising suspicion: “Ka-kaw!” he crowed loudly in a poor imitation of a bird call. “Ka-kaw, ka-kaw!”

Derpy, staring up at him while he did this, furrowed her brow. “Is…he okay?” she asked.

“Oh, yeah, don’t mind him,” Smolder assured with a wave of her claws, seeing what Gallus was doing and worked to cover for him. “He does this.”

“Ka-kaw! Ka-kaw, ka-kaw, ka-kaw!”

Derpy looked from the dragoness up to the griffon, then back down at Smolder. “Really?”

“Yup. It’s just a thing griffons do.”

“Huh.” Derpy was learning so much about griffons that she didn’t previously know today.

“Ka-kaaaaaaw!”

Back in the wagon, Starlight and Silversteam had learned a few things about Theodore while they searched. They learned that his scant food supplies consisted of mostly just hot cocoa mix and a peculiar mint-green cheese neither of them could quite identify, he appeared to be a fan of the book series Sky Trek (which made sense as Starlight knew Trixie was a closet fan herself), he possessed a number of what appeared to be homemade doll-like figurines, he liked disco music and sci-fi radio dramas as he had records of both along with a record player, and possibly held an interest in airships as he had a couple scale models of them lovingly placed on a shelf above the bed.

“Ver-gee-lee-us,” Silverstream sounded out the name printed on one of these models. She frowned. “Vergilius? What sort of name is that?”

“Foreign, maybe?” Starlight reasoned, uncertain as she sorted through things on Theodore’s desk.

She was growing rather frustrated, as little of what they had uncovered helped them much. In fact, if anything, she had only added to her questions. Like how the only food Theodore had in here was the cocoa mix and cheese. Was that really all he had to eat, or had he been bumming meals off the likes of Trixie? Starlight had also noticed that Theodore seemed to have no spare clothes to speak of except for those on his back, which also surprised her. Clothing was optional to ponies, of course, but Theodore seemed to have a favored outfit and clothes still got dirty and needed cleaning from time to time. So…did he just plan to keep wearing the one outfit the whole time he was in Ponyville?

The only evidence she found that really supported anything she’d previously learned was an atlas that had a travel route marked out leading down far south and on past the official southern boundary of Equestria. The map wasn’t big enough to show where that route ultimately led, but clearly Theodore had been traveling somewhere out of country prior to now. It made Starlight think about how the money he’d apparently been giving Trixie was of foreign origin, and seemingly to back this up, all of the formal documents they’d found were all written not in Ponish but in the notched, circular characters of some other language they couldn’t read. Clearly Theodore was bilingual and it seemed to support that he at least had foreign contacts, but because she couldn’t read the text, it did little else for her.

Altogether this didn’t really help prove or disprove anything. But what especially nagged her about it was Starlight felt like she had seen this written language somewhere before but couldn’t quite place where. “Silverstream, are you sure you don’t know what language this is?” she asked again, showing the hippogriff some of the documents.

Silverstream accepted them to sort through. “Pretty sure,” she mumbled. “I can’t read it at least…though I suppose it does seem like I’ve seen it before…”

“I know the feeling,” Starlight mumbled before turning her attention towards the kitchenette window. She could hear what sounded like some bird with a cold trying to caw at the top of its lungs and peered around outside to determine the source.

She instead spied Gallus perched atop of a stack of boxes, cawing in alarm at the top of his lungs and jerking his head towards the front of the wagon. Starlight was just figuring out what he was trying to signal when she heard somebody step up to the wagon door outside and start unlocking it.

“Hey, wait, I think I do recognize this hoofwriting!” Silverstream remarked in the same moment, unaware as she held up one of the documents she was sorting through. “This looks like the sort of hoofwriting Ocell—”

She got cut short as Starlight quickly grabbed her and shoved her into the nearby closet, swinging the door shut behind them. She lit her horn in preparation to teleport them to safety, but before she could, the door to the wagon swung open and Theodore Startup strolled in, humming happily to himself. Starlight immediately doused her horn—there was no way she could teleport them out now without Theodore noticing the flash.

Luckily, Theodore didn’t seem to realize they were hiding in his closet, watching him through the slats in the door as he settled in and levitated some papers over to his desk. Silverstream had gone completely still and silent in light of this development, but nevertheless, Starlight gently wrapped a hoof around her easily excitable beak as a precaution. As they watched, Theodore then turned his attention to the cheval mirror, taking off his top hat and hooking it onto the hat stand beside it.

Then, completely without warning, the stallion disguise vanished in a blast of magical cyan flames, abruptly turning into a reformed changeling right before their eyes. He was tall, much taller than the average changeling, and bore mostly lime green colored chitin, purple faceted eyes, and most telling of all, two tall and curved orange horns protruding from the top of his head, almost like antlers. He could only be one changeling, one they both already knew well.

Starlight’s jaw unhinged in shock. King Thorax?

Then it suddenly struck her why something about Theodore Startup had been nagging at her from the beginning: for someone she had supposedly never met, how he talked and carried himself had still seemed familiar.

And now she knew why.

And from there, all the rest started falling into place—the foreign money, the odd writing, the lack of solid food that an emotion-eating changeling wouldn’t exclusively need…in retrospect, it seemed almost obvious that Theodore wasn’t really a pony. Yet, in testament to a changeling’s skill, those details had flown past the eyes of everyone…until now. But she couldn’t do anything about it right now, trapped in the closest as they were, except gape. As Thorax proceeded to touch up his true face, oblivious, Starlight glanced to Silverstream and saw her jaw had dropped in shock too. But, silently remembering her instruction to photograph anything suspicious, the hippogriff numbly raised her camera and, placing the lens in the open crack of the door, snapped a picture.

Unfortunately, she had forgotten she still had the flash on as well. Startled, Thorax immediately whipped around. “What the—?!”

Starlight hurriedly wrapped her hooves around Silverstream in preparation to teleport, blowing caution to the wind, but Thorax acted first, throwing open the closet door and causing both creatures to tumble onto the floor at his hooves. They gaped at each other for a moment.

“Hi, King Thorax!” Silverstream finally broke the silence, giving the changeling a happy wave.

Thorax sputtered for a moment, trying to find his voice. “What are you two doing here?!” he finally exclaimed, panicked.

“What are we doing here?!” Starlight suddenly snapped, jumping to her hooves as she grabbed with her magic the top hat Thorax had set aside and waved it in front of his snout. “What are you doing here, Mister Theodore Startup?!”

Thorax let out a very forced and unconvincing chuckle as he took the top hat from Starlight, nervously avoiding her gaze as he realized he’d been caught. “It’s…it’s not what it looks like…”

“Oh really?” Starlight asked sarcastically. “Because it sure as hay looks to me like you’re playing with my best friend’s romantic feelings while pretending to be a fake stallion!”

Thorax winced and sheepishly withdrew in upon himself. “Okay…when you say it like that…maybe it is what it looks like…” he relented.

“Then…why?” Silverstream asked confused, as she sat up and joined the conversation. “Why are you doing this?”

“Well…you see…it’s just…” Thorax stuttered uncertainly before his resolve finally collapsed and he stuffed his face into the top hat in his hooves. “…I just didn’t think she’d want to date a changeling!”

Starlight and Silverstream pulled back in brief surprise, not expecting the outburst. It was short-lived though as Silverstream gasped, suddenly comprehending. “King Thorax!” she squealed. “You have a crush on Trixie, don’t you?!”

Though it was mostly hidden by the top hat covering his face, Thorax blushed profusely. But he reluctantly nodded all the same, confirming it.

Starlight gaped at him. “But when did this happen?” she demanded.

“I don’t know…it just sort of snuck up on me,” Thorax admitted, embarrassed and ashamed. “But…after meeting her, I took interest in how she knows all this illusion magic that I could appreciate as a changeling, and…it sort of took off from there.” If it was possible, he blushed even harder as he made a wistful smile and sheepishly twisted his hooves together. “…and I suppose she is pretty…cute.” He shrank even more upon himself, utterly mortified to be confessing it aloud like this.

“Aww!” Silverstream gushed.

“But…but if that’s true, then why the disguise?” Starlight asked, still not sure she followed.

Thorax sighed sadly, studying the top hat in his hooves. “Well…a changeling and a pony? I just…didn’t think it could happen…figured she’d prefer a nice stallion instead…so…”

“So you made yourself one, to hide that you’re really a changeling,” Starlight concluded.

“…I didn’t mean to do it for this long,” Thorax admitted. “You know, just…just to have maybe one date, see what it’d be like, if it’d really go like I thought, and then leave it at that. But instead we kept going on dates, and when things kept going well and not wanting to mess that up, I kept putting it off and putting it off, until…well…”

“…you got in so deep that now there’s no good way out of it?” Silverstream finished.

When Thorax nodded dejectedly, Starlight sighed, annoyed. “Thorax, I sympathize, but you do realize how Trixie’s going to react when she finds out about this, right?”

Thorax’s head jerked upright, eyes bulging in alarm. “You’re not going to actually tell her about this are you?!” he exclaimed.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t!” Starlight snapped back, turning angry again. “Whatever your intentions are, you’re still lying to her face, you do realize that, right?”

“Besides, isn’t there a whole hive of changelings you’re supposed to be ruling anyway?” Silverstream asked, tilting her head at the changeling.

“Oh, well, things have been pretty calm at the hive this season, so I’ve just been having them forward everything to me so I can work on it here and then send it back to them.” Thorax nodded his head towards the paper strewn desk.

“Ooo, so that’s why you have one of Ocellus’s progress report-letter-thingies over there,” Silverstream remarked, understanding.

“And how you’ve been helping fund Trixie,” Starlight added, giving Thorax a leveled look. “The money’s been coming right from the hive’s own funds, isn’t it? I already know it’s been coming from a foreign source, Thorax.”

Thorax chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. “Well, to be honest, now that we’re not using it to sneak around and steal love anymore, we’ve sort of got a surplus of funds building up, and…it seemed like a more worthwhile use than just letting it…sit there. Besides, what I’ve spent thus far is just a drop in a bucket in comparison to how much is still left, and we’re still spending it on other things too…we’ve done this sort of thing before. Some of it gets donated to the princesses, as sort of our way of compensating Equestria for all the trouble changelings have put it through in the past, and I know most of that goes to good causes like helping to fund infrastructure repairs, key events, and the such.”

“So in a way you were telling the truth about all that,” Starlight conceded with a sigh. “Just…not where it was truly coming from.” She rubbed at her temples with her hooves for a moment. “None of this still changes the fact that you’re not being honest to Trixie. No matter what your reasons why are, she still deserves to know the truth, Thorax.”

Thorax fidgeted uncomfortably for a moment. “It’s just…do we have to tell her just yet?” he asked. “Maybe hold off so I can…prepare?”

Starlight raised a skeptical brow at him. “And just how long do you plan to put it off, Thorax?” she asked. “Another day? Week? Moon? Year? Just where will you end it?”

Thorax kept fidgeting. “Well…maybe eventually I won’t…have to?” he suggested hesitantly but hopefully.

Starlight rolled her eyes, but decided to play along for the moment. “All right, so let’s assume you do that and manage to keep your true identity secret for however long you want,” she challenged. “Just how are you planning to make this relationship work in the long term? I mean, considering all you’d have to do to maintain the charade, how would you and Trixie even, you know, do it?”

Thorax, however, just looked at her blankly. “Do what?”

“Oh, you know,” Silverstream offered politely. “When a guy and a gal love each other very much…”

“Oh,” Thorax gasped, blushing profusely again as he suddenly caught on. “You mean that. Ahh…” he rubbed the back of his head, “…honestly, we, uh, we haven’t done that yet. We’re…sort of still working our way up to it, I…I suppose. So, uh…”

“That doesn’t change the problem, though,” Starlight persisted, undeterred. “What are you going to do when you do work your way up to it? Can it even be done while still disguised?”

“Ah, no, not…not properly…” Thorax admitted, his blush still profuse.

“Then I regret to inform you that I’ve found a pretty big flaw in your plans,” Starlight concluded flatly.

“She’s right,” Silverstream agreed, siding with Starlight, and looked to Thorax. “Either you’re going to have to stop and call it off before it gets that far—and in a relationship, I would think it always will get that far eventually—or you have to come clean to Trixie anyway.”

“You already know which one I favor,” Starlight added, giving the changeling a pointed look. “And look at it this way, Thorax. One way or another she’s going to find out eventually. The longer you put it off, the harder she’s going to take it. So if you truly want to have a real chance with her…you’ll go tell her the truth yourself, sooner rather than later.”

Thorax bit her lip. “But…when she finds out the truth…that’s going to end it, isn’t it?” he asked. “I mean…I like her company, associating with her, all the activities we do…I don’t want that to end…but it will anyway once she finds out, won’t it?”

Starlight and Silverstream exchanged looks. “Well…only maybe?” Silverstream replied, trying to find a positive. “Maybe…maybe you two can still make it work…you know, one of those things you both look back on and laugh and laugh…”

Thorax snorted divisively, not convinced.

Starlight let her anger fade. “I’m sorry, Thorax,” she apologized. “But…you realize you’ve brought this on yourself by not being upfront with her in the first place, right? Either way, no matter what happens afterwards, if you really have feelings for her…then you know you still owe her the truth. So what’s it going to be? Come clean? Or continue this silly charade?”

Thorax opened his mouth to retort, but knowing he had nothing he could counter with, he closed it again and lowered his gaze, sulking. It was obvious to all of them that he knew they had a point. But he also made no motion to act upon it, or verbally answer Starlight’s question. After a moment though, he instead silently reapplied his disguise as Theodore, gazing apologetically up at them.

That was answer enough for Starlight. “Fine,” she decided and turned to go. “If you won’t do it, I will.” She motioned for Silverstream to follow. “C’mon, Silverstream.”

Silverstream obediently followed her out of the wagon. Thorax didn’t stop either of them, but Silverstream still couldn’t help but look back and see how dejected he looked. “Um, Headmare Starlight?” she asked hesitantly as they walked away from the wagon. “Are you really sure it’s a good idea for you to intervene like this?”

“If I don’t, do you really think Thorax will do it himself?” Starlight asked back. “Silverstream, the longer this charade is allowed to go on, the worse it’s only going to get for them both.” She sighed. “I fully expect it won’t go over well for either of them, and I know that’s why Thorax doesn’t want to do it himself…but ultimately it’ll be better to just do this and be done with it. In a way, we’re doing them a favor by stopping it now rather than letting it continue.”

Silverstream mulled that over. She didn’t quite like it, but she couldn’t dispute Starlight’s argument either. “I suppose,” she relented finally. “But how are we going to prove this to Trixie anyway?”

Starlight took Silverstream’s camera from her and grinned. “You still got photographic evidence, remember? There’ll be no denying it once we show Trixie.”

However, when they found Trixie, working on some show props in her wagon, she was already less than interested in hearing them out, even as they only just started broaching the subject.

“You really can’t leave this alone, can you, Starlight?” Trixie groused to the unicorn. She nodded her head towards Silverstream. “And now you’re dragging students into this too? Seriously. What have you got so much against Theo anyway?”

“No, Trixie, listen!” Starlight persisted. “I’m trying to tell you that Theodore isn’t who or what he seems!”

“Oh sure,” Trixie said, rolling her eyes. “I supposed you’re about to tell me he’s a vampire or something now, right?”

“Guess again, friend,” Starlight said and looked to Silverstream.

Silverstream pulled out a photo from her collection and triumphantly held it out for Trixie to see. “SHA-BAM!”

Trixie squinted her eyes at the photo. “…is that supposed to be your thumb, Silverstream?”

“Huh?” Silverstream turned the photo around and saw she had grabbed the wrong one. “Oh, wait!” She started to hurriedly sort through her collection in search of the right one. “I’m…I’m sorry, just a sec—SHA-BAM!” She thrusted the correct photo out this time.

Trixie peered at it. “King Thorax?” she repeated skeptically, glaring at the others. “That’s not funny, you two.”

“But it’s true!” Silverstream argued, dejected at Trixie’s skepticism. “We saw it for ourselves, promise!”

“Besides, it all adds up!” Starlight argued. “The inconsistent backstory, the secrecy, the foreign money…he hardly eats at mealtimes! Haven’t you noticed that?”

“So Theo’s a picky eater!” Trixie retorted. “That doesn’t prove anything!”

“Or he hardly eats any solid food because he’s really a changeling who actually eats emotion!” Starlight argued. “Trixie, I don’t like having to say it, but I swear to you, he’s not a pony, he’s—”

But Trixie interrupted, advancing upon them and pushing them back towards the wagon door. “No, you both listen to me and listen good,” she stated seriously. “Theo and I are going to the Café Hay for a fancy dinner date at seven o’clock…”

“But—but…” Silverstream started to object as they were pushed out the door of the wagon.

Trixie kept going. “…and I’m going to be adorable, and he’s going to be dreamy…”

“Trixie, if you’ll just listen…” Starlight also tried to object as they were forced to stand just outside.

“…and I am not going to let you ruin it with one of your crazy CONSPIRACIES!” Trixie then slammed the door in their faces.

Starlight wasn’t willing to give up that easily though and pounded her hoof on the door. “Trixie, we’re telling the truth!” she called. “And we want to help! Now, open up so we can work this out!”

“Go away!” Trixie merely called back.

Starlight kept rapping on the door. “Please, Trixie!” she pleaded. “You need to listen to us!”

“No!”

“Do you really think I’d tell you all of this if it wasn’t true?”

Trixie’s answer was immediate. “Yes!” That made Starlight pause, giving Trixie the chance to throw the door open again and continue. “Starlight, you were against me and Theo from the start. Oh sure, you tried to hide it, keep it to yourself so I wouldn’t notice, but I could still tell. The way you reacted when you found out, the way you tried to pry information out of him…I didn’t bring it up because I hoped you’d adjust and get over it like you said you would, but you clearly aren’t. Why must you be so bent on sabotaging this for me? I mean, I could understand you being jealous…”

“I am not jealous!” Starlight interrupted, incredulous. “Why does everybody keep saying that I am?”

“Well, whatever the reason, you need to stop!” Trixie snapped. “Look, even if I did buy this whole story you’re trying to sell—which I don’t—it’s still not any of your business to even get involved with!” Trixie shot them a dark glare. “So butt out, before I make you butt out.”

She again slammed the door shut, ending the matter.

Silverstream and Starlight stood there blankly for a moment. “Well, that could’ve gone better,” Starlight finally remarked with a sorry sigh, rubbing wearily at her temples.

“So, what are we going to do?” Silverstream asked, concerned. “If Counselor Trixie won’t listen to us, and King Thorax won’t tell the truth himself…”

“Then we’re just going to have to come up with a different plan,” Starlight concluded, turning to go. “C’mon, we better go regroup with the others. Where’d Gallus and Smolder get off to, anyway?”

As it happened, they were currently applauding Derpy, who was sheepishly bowing under their praise.

“Well, I’ll be a slingtail’s aunt, you really can sing death metal!” Smolder declared, impressed by the pegasus’s little demonstration.

“That was awesome!” Gallus praised. “You sounded like some kind of demon!”

“Yeah, how do you do that, anyway? Is it all just sort of…” Smolder attempted to mimic the harsh singing, but ended up sounding more like she was being strangled.

“No, no, you’ll hurt your throat trying to sing it that way,” Derpy gently coached. “Just…put some tension in your vocal cords and…” she gave another demonstration, the harsh but on-key screech-like singing a sharp contrast to her usual bubbly demeanor.

“See?” Gallus said, motioning to her. “Like a demon!”

“Is that what you’ve been doing this whole time?” Starlight asked flatly, butting into the conversation as she and Silverstream strolled up.

Smolder either missed Starlight’s tone or, more likely, chose to ignore it anyway. “Hey, Teach!” she greeted with a wave. “Derpy here was just showing us her crazy singing skills.”

“Oh, it was nothing really,” Derpy said bashfully.

“Uh-huh,” Starlight said, not particularly interested. “Well, thank you for keeping these two preoccupied anyway, Derpy, but it’s time we all got going.” She shot a look at Smolder and Gallus who got the hint and quickly rose to leave.

“It’s no problem!” Derpy assured as they turned to leave. “And thanks again for the help moving the equipment! Buh-bye!”

They waved back at they left, Starlight a little more half-hearted, until they were out of the pegasus’s earshot. “So you actually did help her move all that equipment then,” she remarked flatly to Gallus and Smolder.

“Well yeah,” Gallus replied. “What, you really thought we wouldn’t? Us, the premier students at the School of Friendship?”

“Premier? Not with your grades currently,” Starlight fired back with an arched brow.

Gallus winced and averted his gaze.

“Either way, we finished moving all that equipment a while back,” Smolder said, continuing the original point. “So we were just chilling, waiting for you two to come back.”

“I thought you two were keeping watch,” Silverstream piped in.

“We were,” Gallus said. “Tried to alert you when we saw the Startup guy heading for his wagon, but we never saw whether you left in time or not. After he went in though, we figured you’d either got out and we just didn’t see, or had gotten caught. Either way, there wasn’t really anything more we could do about it, so…”

“…so you just left us and went to listen to Derpy Hooves sing death metal,” Starlight concluded dryly.

“Well, in our defense, she is seriously good at it,” Smolder said with a shrug. “I mean, who knew, right?” Catching Starlight’s withering gaze, she cleared her throat and quickly changed the subject. “So, uh, how did it go, anyway? Did Startup catch you two or not?”

“He actually did catch us,” Silverstream replied excitedly, digging out their incriminating photo, “But in so doing, we learned he’s not who he seems!”

She held out the photo, which Smolder snatched from her to examine, Gallus leaning in so to see too. She laughed. “Oh, you gotta be pulling my tail! He’s actually King Thorax? Really?”

“I know, right?” Silverstream giddily answered. “Turns out he’s got a huge crush on Trixie!”

Now Gallus laughed too, taking the photo from Smolder. “Ha! I gotta give the dork props then, I never figured he’d have the balls to pull something like this!” he said. “Does Trixie know?”

“And that’s the problem, she doesn’t,” Starlight said with a sigh, getting back down to business. “Or at least, she refuses to believe us. We already tried telling her the truth, even showed her that same photo, but she refuses to accept it.”

“Well, coming from you, it probably would seem a little suspect,” Smolder admitted, rubbing her chin. “I mean, you’ve already tried telling her something was up before, so I suppose coming to her with this now does seem like you desperately grabbing at straws…at least from her point of view…”

“Still, I can kinda see the problem,” Gallus admitted, handing the photo back to Silverstream. “This little relationship they have going on might be going good for right now, but…the second Trixie figures out that Thorax has basically been lying to her…”

“You see why I’m a bit miffed about this then,” Starlight said. She sighed again. “But Trixie doesn’t want to hear it from us, and we can’t convince Thorax to step up and do it himself either.”

“Of course he wouldn’t, he stands to lose out,” Gallus reasoned. “And I kinda sympathize with the guy, he’s gotta be seriously interested in Trixie in order to have gone to all this effort and get this far…”

“…plus, we have met the guy a couple times before thanks to knowing Ocellus, and I have a hard time believing he really meant any harm with all of this…” Smolder added.

“…but he’s not exactly helping himself by not coming clean either,” Gallus continued. “Just like Professor Applejack taught—the best policy is always the honest one.” He then nudged Starlight slyly with his elbow. “See, I am too learning in my classes.”

“Now if only your grades reflected that,” Starlight replied, unswayed and giving him a pointed look before getting back on topic. “Whatever Thorax’s reasons are for all of this, we’re going to have to think of something else to get them both to face the truth and end this mess once and for all.”

“I don’t know, Teach,” Smolder said, hesitant. “Should we really be getting that involved? This feels like something they ought to work out themselves…”

“That’s what I said!” Silverstream chimed.

“But I can’t possibly just stand to one side and do nothing!” Starlight objected, suddenly scaling up a small pile of hay bales sat on one side of the fairgrounds and striking a determined pose. “Not when I could be doing something about it, keep it from getting worse! They may both act like dumb idiots at the moment, but Thorax and Trixie are my friends, and what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t at least try to resolve this?” She spun round and pointed a hoof down at the three students watching her. “So I ask you, what more can we do? For there must be something we can do to fix this! If not for them, or for ourselves, then for friendship!”

Silverstream happily applauded at the end of her little speech while Gallus and Smolder mulled the problem over for a moment.

“Well, what if we made Thorax reveal himself in front of Trixie?” Gallus suddenly suggested. “I mean, we know a changeling, and we know she can’t hold a disguise forever, so I can only assume it’d be the same for the king of the changelings too.”

“So if we were to force Thorax into a situation where he has to drop the disguise and made sure Trixie was there to see it…” Starlight began, climbing down from the hay bale stack.

“But how do we not only make him drop his disguise, but also time it so that Trixie is there to see it too?” Smolder asked.

“Well, what about that one weekend where we were all playing charades?” Silverstream interjected, looking to her friends. “And while we were playing, Ocellus ate some of those nachos Gallus brought, and then she suddenly felt queasy and couldn’t hold a disguise together anymore?”

Smolder snapped her claws and pointed at Gallus, excited. “Yes! I remember that! She said there was something in the chili you had in those nachos that had caused it…some kind of seasoning…?”

“Yeah, it was cayenne powder, so to give it a bit of a kick,” Gallus responded, nodding his head.

“Cayenne powder?” Starlight repeated, moving closer. “In magician circles, depending on how it’s used or applied, that’s known to disrupt or even flat-out break a self-sustaining spell that’s been cast on an object. Trixie’s probably even familiar with that, because I’ve heard of stage performers like her using it in some of their tricks.”

“Well, apparently changelings also don’t react well to it when they eat it,” Gallus said and made a wince. “It eventually made poor Ocellus sick to her stomach. I had to stop putting the cayenne powder in nachos after that, or forewarn her when I did so she’d know not to eat any.”

“She also said it made her unable to concentrate enough to do her disguises,” Silverstream added excitedly. “I remember, because she had been using her disguises as part of the charades game we were playing and I noticed when she suddenly couldn’t do it anymore.”

Smolder perked up catching on. “So if we were to slip Thorax some cayenne powder, just enough to make him loose control of his disguise…”

“But when would we have the chance to do that?” Gallus asked.

Now Starlight perked up. “Trixie said she and Theodore are going out for dinner at the Café Hay at seven tonight!” she declared, starting to see a plan come together. “If we can get in there and discreetly slip some cayenne powder into Thorax’s meal, put it in something we can be sure he’ll eat…”

“And how the heck are we going to do that without being noticed?” Smolder asked, raising a brow. “Because I think the restaurant staff will take issue if they see someone messing with somebody’s order like that.”

Silverstream suddenly gasped, her eyes sparkling. “Not unless we had someone on the inside!” she declared, and motioned for them all to come closer. “Listen, I’ve got an idea…”

Interventions

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A few hours later, the sky starting to dim into evening, they all regrouped not far from Café Hay, the fanciest dining restaurant in Ponyville as well as, according to some, the best dining the town had to offer. It made it a favored spot for lovers to go on dates, and already by that time, a few couples had arrived at the restaurant for dinner. As it was not yet seven o’clock though, Trixie hadn’t arrived with her own date, but they knew she would be soon, and all four of them were keeping an eye out for her and the disguised changeling accompanying her should they arrive early, trying to do so while also looking inconspicuous.

They were somewhat self-conscious of that last part though, seeing they were all dressed for their respective roles in what had quickly become Silverstream’s plan. Starlight was dressed in a sunhat, sunglasses, and a simple silk scarf tied about her neck. Silverstream, meanwhile, was uncharacteristically dressed in a fancy white dress shirt and a black vest and bow tie worn over top of it. Gallus and Smolder, however, were a bit more characteristically dressed in a pair of tight-fitting black catsuits with matching black beanies over their heads, giving them an almost stealthy appearance. They also wore a pair of black sunglasses apiece but this was more for the fun of it than anything.

Smolder, however, had her pair propped on her forehead as she was looking her suit over a bit skeptically. “You know, it’s been awhile since I last put this on,” she thought aloud.

“Yes, I believe caught trying to set up a prank for Rainbow Dash this past fall was the last time you were in them, if I recall the detention records correctly,” Starlight said flatly, not really approving of how the griffon and dragon had previously used the suits in the past.

“Well, the last time that you know of,” Gallus reminded with a knowing smirk. Starlight shot him an unamused look.

Smolder, however, remained focused on her suit, pulling at the seams around her thighs. “It’s just…it doesn’t feel like it’s fitting as well as it should anymore.” She sighed and looked to the others. “I dunno, you guys tell me—does this suit make my butt look big?”

“I refuse to answer,” Gallus replied immediately, “because I rather like living, thank you very much.”

Smolder grumpily bopped him hard on the shoulder regardless.

“All right, all right, it’s getting close to seven o’clock,” Silverstream said as she set up a large pad of paper on an easel. “Let’s make sure we’re all clear on what the plan is.”

“Good idea,” Gallus agreed as he rubbed his shoulder. “Because you still haven’t explained this plan of yours, Sil, at least not in full. Where do you exactly fit into this anyway?”

Silverstream flipped to the first page on the plan, revealing the first of several crude step-by-step drawings she had dreamed up. “I will be serving Counselor Trixie and King Thorax their food!” she said. She motioned to her outfit. “Why do you think I’m dressed like this?”

Smolder eyed her outfit for a second. “I dunno. Why?”

“Well, this is what the waitresses at Café Hay wear!” Silverstream said.

“So…you’re going to be pretending to be one of their waitresses?” Starlight guessed.

“I am one of their waitresses!” Silverstream clarified happily. “They hired me earlier this afternoon and I start this evening shift!”

“Wait, for real?” Gallus asked, surprised. “You legitimately got a job at this place?”

“Yup!”

“Just so to pull off this plan of yours?”

“Also yup! Though I figured the extra income won’t hurt too.”

“Yeah, but you’re also still in school currently,” Smolder reminded skeptically. “So how are you going to still go to classes and work this job after tonight?”

“I have no idea!” Silverstream said brightly before tapping the pad with her talon. “But back to the plan now!” She circled her talon around a crude drawing of Trixie and Theodore entering the restaurant. “Counselor Trixie and King Thorax should be here at any time now. When they arrive, I’ll make sure to be the one to greet them and sit them down at their table, effectively making me the waitress attending to all of their dining needs this evening. That’s phase one!” She flipped to the next page, which showed a drawing of Trixie and Theodore sitting at their table while Starlight was seated at an adjacent one. “Meanwhile, Headmare Starlight will be secretly seated at a nearby table, watching what Trixie and Theodore do while they’re here. She’ll be looking out for any complications and making sure everything goes according to plan and that nothing interferes! That’ll be phase two!”

“Phase two really seems more like just part of phase one, or not even really a proper “phase” at all, just more of a failsafe,” Starlight remarked as Silverstream again flipped pages.

“Well, I called it phase two anyway,” Silverstream stressed without missing a beat before tapping the newest drawing of Gallus and Smolder on the restaurant’s roof. “As for phase three, Gallus and Smolder are going to go up onto the roof and wiggle their way into the restaurant through its ventilation system and drop undetected in the restaurant’s pantry connected to the kitchen.” She flipped through a couple more pages portraying all of this as she talked. “Once there, they’re going to wait undetected and watch what happens with the cook in the kitchen until they get the signal to act.” She flipped to a new page, portraying herself at Trixie and Theodore’s table. “Once everybody’s in position, we then begin phase four. When I go to take Counselor Trixie and King Thorax’s order, I’ll also talk them into also ordering the braised celery side-dish that’s listed on the menu.”

“Why the braised celery specifically?” Smolder asked.

“Because it’s on sale this week, and I get a special bonus for every customer I successfully upsell the dish to!” Silverstream explained before continuing, flipping pages yet again. “Anyway, once Gallus and Smolder see the cook has gotten the order and has started making the braised celery side-dish, they’ll sneak out and slip some cayenne powder into Thorax’s dish, which, when it’s finished, I then take back to their table. King Thorax then eats it, the cayenne power makes him have to drop his disguise, revealing himself to Trixie, and BOOM!” she pounded her fist on the last page she had turned to, depicting all of this. “Mission accomplished!” She turned to the others. “Any questions?” Starlight raised her hoof. “Yes, Headmare Starlight?”

“Did you really have to take the time to sketch out all of this?” Starlight asked, motioning to the mostly filled pad of paper.

“Absolutely!” Silverstream replied without hesitation. “Any other questions?”

Gallus scratched the side of his head. “How are we going to know when the cook’s gotten the order for this bruised celery…dish…thing?”

“Braised celery,” Smolder corrected under her breath.

“Well, that’s why you gotta keep an eye out for it, silly!” Silverstream replied, like it was obvious. “Besides, you’ll probably hear me pass the order on to the cook, so…listen for that, I guess? Any other-other questions?”

The other three exchanged glances for a moment, thinking about it, but ultimately none of them could think of anything else to ask. “Seems pretty straightforward to me,” Smolder finally said with a shrug.

“So do we have everything we need to get started?” Starlight asked. “I mean, we’ve all got our disguises or whatever, but is there anything else we need?”

“Just the cayenne powder, which I’ve got right here,” Gallus said, pulling out a vial of the orangey powder and shook it smugly. “Should be more than enough for our purposes.”

“Just don’t add too much,” Starlight advised. “If you do, Thorax might notice and know something is up. So just apply a little bit. It’ll probably mean it’ll take longer for it to take effect, but that should be fine so long as we do this right.”

“All right,” Gallus said, putting the vial away. “Nobody go and do this wrong then.”

“Great idea!” Silverstream said, before throwing her forelegs into the air. “GO TEAM!”

She grinned happily at the others, waiting for them to join in with her cheering. But they instead just stared at her flatly for a beat then, deciding that the discussion was done, they one by one turned and left to get into their respective positions. Silverstream, unfazed, simply gave herself a high-five and pranced off to join them.

When Trixie and Theodore arrived at the restaurant a few minutes later, neither suspected anything was amiss nor was there a reason to suspect anything, leaving them free to enjoy each other’s company on a hopefully romantic date.

Then their waitress showed up.

“Hello and welcome to Café Hay!” Silverstream greeted as she approached the couple. “My name is Silverstream, and I’ll be your waitress for the evening!”

Trixie immediately locked eyes with the hippogriff, surprised. “Silverstream?!”

“Hi, Counselor Trixie!” Silverstream greeted with a wave. “I got a job here!”

“I can see that, but why?” Trixie demanded before her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Did Starlight put you up to this?”

“Nope!” Silverstream assured without missing a beat. “Headmare Starlight absolutely did not tell me to go get a job here so to carry out any sneaky plans or anything like that!” Which was technically true—it was really more the other way around.

Trixie was less than assured though, and she turned her head to start scanning the restaurant for any sign of the unicorn in question or anything else suspicious. Theodore, looking suddenly nervous, did the same. Some distance away at table where she had been trying to discreetly watch, Starlight quickly ducked her head behind the menu she’d been using as cover, trying to make like she was considering what to order. Theodore overlooked her completely, but Trixie’s gaze lingered on her for a moment. But nevertheless, even Trixie finally shrugged with a sigh and turned back to Silverstream, apparently mollified for the moment.

“Fine,” she conceded to Silverstream and motioned for her to continue. “Just get us a table please.”

Silverstream squeed and motioned for the couple to follow her. She, quite deliberately, took them to a table sitting directly centered with the room’s front window, where they had the best view in the restaurant, but they were also easily seen by nearly all of the other diners in the restaurant. Most specifically, Starlight, who had taken to discreetly watching again as Silverstream got the couple settled, was relieved that thus far everything was going well, especially considering the haphazardness of the plan and, frankly, who her coconspirators had ended up being.

So far so good, she thought to herself.

But then it wasn’t.

“This seat taken?” another patron, a fairly non-descript slate-grey stallion, asked in a deep gravely voice, approaching Starlight’s table suddenly.

Starlight jumped, surprised, but at best only gave him a passing glance. “Yes, sorry,” she murmured in his direction, keeping her eyes on Trixie and Theodore, “I’m, uh, saving it for…”

But the stallion sat down in it anyway before she had finished speaking. “Good,” he simply stated, scooting himself up to the table like Starlight had said nothing.

She gaped at him. “Excuse me, but I didn’t give you permission to sit there.”

“I wasn’t really asking,” the stallion replied, giving her a cold look that reminded her of something she couldn’t quite place. “I was going to sit here regardless of how you answered.”

Starlight frowned, starting to feel weirded out and tried to piece together whatever his intentions were. “Look, sorry, if this is your attempt at trying to make a pass at me…”

The stallion laughed mockingly. “Oh please, don’t flatter yourself!” he declared. “I couldn’t be less interested in such nonsense. No, the only one here trying that with a pony, of all creatures, is Thorax over there.” He nodded his head in Trixie and Theodore’s direction, who were now listening to Silverstream list their options for the evening. “Speaking of, I can’t help but notice how much attention you’re still giving them.”

Starlight’s brow furrowed, but quickly tried to cover. “Look, I don’t know what you’re…” but then the exact phrasing the deep-toned stallion’s sentence sank in. “…wait a minute…” she leaned closer, taking off her sunglasses so to squint her eyes at the stallion. The stallion simply raised an eyebrow at her, as if waiting for her to put two with two. And soon, after spying a faint magical flicker in his eyes, she had. “…Pharynx?”

“Did you really think I’d let my brother, the daftest ever king of the changelings, go wandering off to Pony Land without at least someling to keep an eye on him?” the disguised changeling replied. He leaned back, a smug grin tugging faintly at his lips. “He hasn’t ever truly been on his own since he left the hive because I’ve always been close by the whole time he’s been here.”

Starlight felt her chest clench, starting to realize where Pharynx was going with this. “The whole time?” she repeated softly.

“Mm-hmm,” Pharynx confirmed. She could tell he was amused by how he was making her squirm. “Which means I’m totally aware of how you’ve been trying to blow his cover all afternoon today, and I’m sure the fact you’re here now in a frankly unconvincing disguise is no coincidence either.” He nodded his head towards Silverstream, who had left Trixie and Theodore’s table so to attend to other guests. “So you’re here and she’s over there…where’s the other two, the griffon and the dragon?”

“Oh,” Starlight said unsteadily, tapping her hooves together as she avoided eye contact and anything that might give away their plans, “I don’t know…I’m sure they’re…around…”

Specifically, they were currently on top of the restaurant’s roof, having spent the past several minutes trying to pry off the grill covering the ventilation system. They had hoped to have gotten it off and into the vents already, but it was taking a little longer than anticipated. Gallus had spent most of that with a screwdriver, trying to loosen the grill’s bolts, but they were stiff and stubborn and didn’t want to unscrew. So after taking entirely too long to undo just one bolt, Smolder got fed up and used her dragon claws to forcibly rip out the remainder. This mangled the bolts beyond repair, but at that point she couldn’t care and they didn’t exactly have all the time in the world here.

Once they had the grill off though, they peered into the dusty vent to gauge how to best proceed. Gallus swallowed uncomfortably. “Gonna be kinda…tight in there…isn’t it?”

Smolder glanced over at him, knowing small spaces weren’t really his thing. “You gonna be all right doing this, then?” she asked, figuring she better find out now before they went much further.

Gallus took a deep breath. “Yeah, yeah, sure,” he assured, mustering an honestly fair bit of bravado. “I mean, it’ll be a small squeeze, but…it could also be smaller, right?” he chuckled half-heartedly. He then gazed more seriously back into the vent. “Besides…it’s for the good of a friend…right?”

“I suppose,” Smolder said, surveying the issue. She didn’t have much issue with small spaces herself, but instead of opting to go first, she instead had a better idea. “Tell you what, you go first.”

Gallus looked at her questioningly. “…really?”

“Yeah, that way you can know that I’ve got your back and will always be right behind you,” Smolder said. It was almost touching and comforting hearing her say this, until she added, “So if you get stuck, I’ll be right there to shove your butt back into moving again and we can just get this over with already.”

Gallus’s eyes narrowed and he sighed. “Wherever would I be without you, Smolder?” he asked sarcastically as he started to reluctantly wiggle into the vent.

“Probably stuck in some vent somewhere for the rest of your natural life, if we’re being totally honest,” she replied as she followed him.

Luckily, once inside the vent, Gallus didn’t have much more issue with it. Certainly, it was cramped in the vent and he wasn’t totally cool with that, but it also proved more spacious than it appeared, more than one would expect for a vent like this, giving them sufficient room to move around. Knowing he wasn’t alone helped. So soon Gallus managed to calm down his nerves a little focusing on the task at claw, and they both started to get a bit caught up in the moment, moving quickly and effectively.

“You know, this is seriously awesome, us getting to do this,” Smolder remarked keenly as they wiggled their way through the restaurant’s ventilation system. “It’s like we’re spies or something! Rocks, I keep half expecting some dramatic theme music to kick in right about now.”

Gallus glanced back at her as they thumped along through the narrow metal vents, smirking, before looking back ahead. “Dun duh,” he began to sing the deep baseline of a song, “Dun-dun dun duh, dun-dun dun duh, dun-dun dun duh, dun-dun…”

Smolder, sharing his smirk, joined in as she recognized the song, picking up the main melody. “Dun da daaaaaa, dun da daaaaaa, dun da daaaaaaa, dun-dun! Dun da DAAAAAA, dun da DAAAAAA, dun da DAAAAAAAAAAAA-DUN-DUN!”

They kept singing like this as they wiggled through the vents, unaware that the vent they were crawling through went across the ceiling of the restaurant’s back store room, where a janitor in the middle of wrapping up his shift for the evening could clearly hear them singing and thumping through the vent above them. He stared questionably up at said vent.

“Is somebody up there?” he finally called.

Silence abruptly fell as the two intruders went still within the vent. “Uhhhh….no?” Gallus was heard replying after a moment’s hesitation.

Not impressed, the janitor merely raised an eyebrow at this. However, glancing at the clock, he saw that his shift was almost up and knowing that he wasn’t paid overtime, he therefore decided this wasn’t worth wasting his evening over. “Well, all right then,” he said, continuing to clean up and leave like nothing was amiss. “Have a good night!”

“Thank you!” Gallus and Smolder both called back from within the vent, before continuing on their way without further delay.

After several more moments of their clambering through the ventilation system, Smolder spoke again. “Is this going to take much longer? Because I’m getting tired of staring at your fat butt.”

“Aw, whaaat?” Gallus replied back. “Are you really saying that you aren’t enjoying the view?”

“Got a newsflash for you, Gallus—you’re not as well-endowed as you think you are.”

“Well, then, if it’s really gonna be such a problem, I’m more than happy to let you take the lead.”

“Really. You’re okay with that despite your claustrophobia.”

“Yeah, because then you’ll be ahead of me, and personally I could stare at your butt for however long as…”

He was cut short as Smolder tackled him from behind, leading to a series of loud bangs within the vent as they banged about, wrestling, until a grill they rolled over suddenly popped open and they both tumbled out, crashing with a thud to the floor of a new room. Untangling themselves with some collective groans, they sat up and took in the shelves ladened with food serving as their new surroundings.

“Pantry?” Gallus guessed aloud.

“Pantry,” Smolder confirmed decisively.

They then both retrieved their sunglasses, put them back on like nothing had happened, and resumed their mission. Going to the pantry door, they carefully cracked it open and peeked into the kitchen beyond. There, they could see the restaurant’s chef at work putting together an order, unaware he was being observed.

“Whelp, we’re in position,” Gallus murmured softly to Smolder. “So now, we wait.”

To her credit, Silverstream was actually doing fairly well as a waitress, who went and assisted other guests rather well while waiting for Trixie and Theodore to decide what to order. Eventually though, she came back to the couple’s table to see if they were ready, and they were soon deep in discussing their choices. Unfortunately though, Starlight struggled to pay too close attention to this due to Pharynx sharing her table, keeping an eye of his own on her every move.

“I don’t understand you ponies and all this weird stuff you’re always cramming down your throats,” the disguised changeling mumbled as he perused a menu of his own that another waiter had given them in the meantime. “I don’t even know what some of these so-called foods even are…truffles, asparagus, au gratin potatoes, cilantro…what in the name of acorns is cilantro?”

“It’s an herb,” Starlight replied as she half-listened to his grumbling, disinterested. “I thought the hive had been trying a larger diet of solid foods since everyone reformed though.”

“Nothing as…exotic…as all of this,” Pharynx replied without looking up from his menu. “Just the basic things, as it should be. You know, leaves, mushrooms, changeling cheese, hive beetles…” Starlight pulled a face at that. Pharynx must have noticed because another smirk flickered onto his face for a moment. “And none of that still replaces good ol’ nutritious emotive energy because we all still feed on that, of course. All that changed was how we went about getting it.”

“I’m aware,” Starlight assured. She leveled her gaze at him. “I’ve been thinking about something, though.”

“A dangerous pastime, considering it was your so-called thinking that got you into this mess in the first place,” Pharynx reminded crossly.

“That’s sort of what I’ve been thinking about, though,” Starlight said. “You said you’ve been in the background, watching over Thorax, this whole time, right?”

“Yes…”

“And so you’ve been aware of what I’ve been doing in response to that from the start as well, right?”

“That is what I said, yes.”

Starlight leaned closer, giving him a questioning look. “Then…why are you only now trying to intervene?” she asked. “You could’ve tried to stop me well before now.”

“There wouldn’t have been any “tried to stop” to it if I had,” Pharynx assured confidently.

Starlight rolled her eyes but conceded to his ego pandering. “Fine, whatever, but regardless, you still didn’t. So why not?”

Pharynx was very good at showing no reaction to her questioning, but the fact he paused before answering seemed telling. “Before you kept it to relatively private areas where others wouldn’t be witness to it happening,” he eventually but evenly replied. “You can’t claim that here though, not in this public restaurant.”

“True,” Starlight replied, “But that’s partly because I found out the truth. If you had stopped me sooner, I might have never found out, and then we probably wouldn’t even be here now, talking about it.” Again Pharynx paused, so now Starlight was the one raising a knowing eyebrow at him. “Pharynx, did you want me to find out?”

Pharynx leveled his gaze with her a long moment, but Starlight could tell she had hit on something he’d hoped she wouldn’t. “Clearly, it didn’t make much of a difference whether you had or not in the end,” he cryptically replied instead, not exactly answering. But before Starlight could press him further, he nodded his head towards Trixie and her date. “Speaking of, you have anything you want to tell me about what’s happening over there?”

Starlight turned and saw that Silverstream’s taking of Trixie and Theodore’s order had devolved into her begging the flabbergasted couple. “Pleeeeaaaaassseee order the braised celery, pleeeaaaasssseeee!” she pleaded, giving them both big puppy-dog eyes.

“Fine, we’ll order the dumb side-dish already!” Trixie said, pushing her away. “Just…stop doing that!”

“Yay!” Silverstream cheered, jumping back up and jotting it down on their order. “That’s two bowls of braised celery! Anything else?”

“I…think we better leave it at that, if that’s okay,” Theodore placated gently.

“Sure!” Silverstream said with a grin and turned to go. “All you had to do was just say so!” Behind her back, Trixie rolled her eyes.

Pharynx watched the hippogriff cross the room towards the kitchens. He looked back at Starlight while pointing a hoof in Silverstream’s direction. “Any ideas what that was about?” he asked.

Keeping it casual, Starlight just shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe she gets a commission for everyone who orders the braised celery or something.”

“Mm-hmm,” Pharynx hummed, not looking very convinced.

“You know,” Gallus muttered as they waited in the pantry, “It occurs to me that we could’ve just given Sil the cayenne powder and had her slip it into Thorax’s food as she’s bringing it to him. Then we wouldn’t have had to sneak around and wait like this.”

“Shush,” Smolder said, elbowing him in the gut as she peered out at the chef working in the kitchen. “And personally, I’m more focused on how this guy who thinks himself a chef of a fancy restaurant keeps doing these dishes wrong.”

“Oh really?” Gallus asked skeptically as he peeked out at the chef putting the final touches on some kind of noodle casserole dish. “Like what? It looks plenty fancy to me.”

One could almost hear Smolder scowl. “He keeps putting the garnish on the wrong side of the plate,” she hissed.

Gallus’s eyes narrowed, unimpressed. “Oh no, how will we ever survive?” he groused sarcastically. This earned him another elbow in the gut. He ignored it. “What do you know about this, anyway?”

Smolder tensed suddenly. “Uhhhhhh…”

Fortunately, she was spared from having to answer by Silverstream’s head appearing in a little window through which prepared dishes came and went from the kitchen. “Ordering!” she called happily. “I need two mushroom melts with braised celery sides!”

As the chef conveyed that he heard and set about making the requested dishes, Gallus and Smolder perked up from where they were quietly observing in the pantry.

“Finally,” Gallus grumbled, straightening. “It’s about time their order came in.”

“We sure that was Trixie and Thorax’s order, though?” Smolder asked, who realized something. “I mean, Sil never did say how we would be able to tell.”

“It’d better be,” Gallus said, who wasn’t willing to keep waiting to find out. “Besides, it’s the first parsed celery dish we’ve heard get ordered the whole time we’ve been here, so who else could it be?”

“It’s called braised celery,” Smolder muttered under her breath, but she couldn’t deny Gallus’s logic, so they settled down to wait for the chef to prepare the dishes, appearing to start with the braised celery, and looking for their chance to act. As the side dishes started to take shape while the main dish continued cooking though, Smolder had another thought. “How are we going to do this, anyway?”

“Without the chef noticing?” Gallus asked. He bit a talon, pondering the problem. “Good question…he never really goes far from the dishes as he’s making them, does he?”

“Only when he’s handing them off to waiters,” Smolder said. She bit her lip thinking it over too, watching the chef start putting the prepared food on their respective plates and bowls. “Well, maybe if we can catch him while his back is turned and moved quickly—oh, now what is that idiot doing?” She shot daggers at the unknowing chef as he decorated the bowls of braised celery by placing a pair of celery sticks next to them. “You don’t put the celery sticks at the bottom of the dish that’s just—graugh!”

She moved as if she was about to run out and set him straight, but Gallus quickly held her back. “Don’t,” he warned simply, “Our job’s just to slip some cayenne powder into one of those bowls, nothing more. He can arrange the food however he likes after that for all I care.”

“Yeah, well, I care,” Smolder hissed, shrugging him off, “and so should he, but he’s just…” she stopped as the chef proceeded to do the same thing with the second bowl. “…oh slag, he’s doing it again!” Smolder moved again without thinking, and this time Gallus wasn’t quick enough to stop her as she irately burst out of the pantry, quickly stomped across the kitchen, shoved the surprised chef aside, and fixed his error herself. “You should always put the celery sticks on the left side of the bowl, NOT along the bottom,” she reprimanded as she went, “they’d just be in the way there and hard to grab by the proper hoof or claw, you should know that already, you scorching ninny!”

She then whirled upon the chef to chew him out further, only to see his confused and alarmed face and sudden realize just what it was she was doing. “…who the hay are you?” the chef asked, finding his voice as he looked the dragoness up and down in bewilderment. “How did you get in here? It’s employees only back here, and you are certainly no employee!” Recovering his nerve and with Smolder’s tongue tied as she realized in horror she’s blown her cover, he started to chew her out. “And who are you to go telling me how to do my job? I have been working this job for—!”

CLANG!

The chef went abruptly silent and dropped like a sack of potatoes on the floor, revealing Gallus standing behind him, hefting the frying pan he had just banged over the pony’s head. They both stared down at him for a second then Smolder shot her gaze back up at Gallus.

“Really?” she snapped at the griffon. “You knocked him out?”

“He was going to get us both caught!” Gallus argued back, lowering the frying pan. “I had to do something! Though I wouldn’t have had to if you hadn’t just rushed out and confronted him like that! And over food arrangement, no less!”

“This is a fancy restaurant!” Smolder argued back. “He should’ve known better than to get it wrong, here of all places!” She kicked the unconscious chef on the floor grumpily. He grunted but otherwise didn’t stir. “If he wasn’t so bad at his job…”

“Well, if you had a bit more self-control, we wouldn’t be in this mess!” Gallus hissed. He then sighed and forced a grin, trying to find an upside, any upside. “Well…at least this’ll make it much easier to slip the cayenne powder into Thorax’s food, right?”

Smolder gazed down at the chef lying between them and winced. “Yeah…it’s not like he’s not going to get back up from that anytime soon, is he? So what are we going to do now?”

It was then they again heard Silverstream’s voice behind them. “Ordering!” she called while popping her head up in the kitchen’s little serving window. She was immediately distracted upon seeing Smolder and Gallus standing inside though. “Oh! Hey guys! In position and everything already, I see! Great to know the plan’s still going good!”

Smolder and Gallus moved to stand in front of the fallen chef, blocking him from view, while Gallus hid the offending frying pan behind his back. “Suuuuure!” Smolder replied unconvincingly. “And…what are you doing, Sil?”

“My job as a waitress!” the hippogriff replied cheerily. “Ooh, speaking of, I need three stuffed pepper combos, extra haybacon on the side, two chili cheese samplers…”

“Oh, no, no,” Smolder attempted to interject, waving at Silverstream to stop.

She didn’t seem to notice and kept going with the lengthy order. “…a basket of lentils and onion rings, a catch of the day, and a tofu steak cut in the shape of trout.” She grinned at them, oblivious to the blank looks they were giving her. “You guys got all that?”

Smolder started to reply no but Gallus abruptly saluted first. “Three stuffers wearing pants, a plate of hot air, basket of Grandma’s breakfast, and change the soy to a koi, got it,” he confirmed resolutely before rushing over to the stove, starting to set out pots and pans.

“Yay!” Silverstream cheered. “Lemme know when it’s ready!” She then vanished again from the window.

This left Smolder standing blankly in the middle, looking back and forth as she tried to understand what just happened. “Wait,” she began, seeing Gallus was really starting to prepare the meals, “You’re actually going to make the order?”

“Somebody’s gotta,” Gallus replied as he gathered ingredients and started putting them in a pan. He was doing so with surprising speed and efficiency. “Besides, the chef didn’t finish Trixie and Theodore’s mushroom melts.”

Smolder was taken aback by Gallus’s unexpected skill at this. “You sure you can do it?”

“Well, it can’t be too different from when I worked in that diner back in Griffonstone…”

Smolder’s eyebrows went up. “You worked in a diner?” she declared, further surprised. “When?”

“About a year before coming here for school.” Gallus shrugged as he left one pot to simmer while starting to chop up onions to put in another. “I worked a whole lot of odd jobs growing up, because I needed the funds to keep me fed.”

“And…one of them was working at a diner.”

“Yeah, but I eventually left there to work with Gilda and her scones cart instead, which was how Grampa Gruff even knew I existed so to send me here at all, and…”

“So wait, you can cook? Like, actually cook?”

“Well, I can follow a recipe,” Gallus replied, holding up the chef’s book of recipes from where it was left open in front of the stove. “Which is more than you can ask of most cooks back in Griffonstone, so that’s something. Actually, I was the first cook that diner had in a long while who actually followed the recipe, so…y’know…” He pointed a talon suddenly. “Hand me that bottle of olive oil, will you?” Smolder numbly handed it over. “Anyway, I figure once we throw in your apparent knowledge of how all of this is supposed to go on the plates, we can get by. If we don’t, someone’s going to wonder what’s keeping the food and come investigate, and then this whole jig’s up.”

Smolder rubbed her claws together uncertainly but had to concede to Gallus’s logic. If he could really provide the food, then she definitely could arrange it as needed for serving. And she’d do a better job of it than that chef certainly would’ve. Remembering him suddenly, Smolder decided she better get his limp body out of the middle of the floor, dragging him over to a broom closet to lock him in. When she finished with that, Gallus was in full swing cooking and certainly did seem to know what he was doing. “I still can’t believe you know how to do all this,” she remarked, somewhere between befuddled and impressed.

“And I still can’t believe you got us into this mess because you disagreed on where a celery stick should go on a plate,” Gallus snarked back, stirring a pan of cooking vegetables. “How did you even know that’s a thing, anyway?”

Smolder blushed, avoiding eye contact. “Uh, well…”

“Does it have anything to do with all those frilly dresses and the fancy tea set you’ve got in your dorm?”

Smolder froze, eyes bulging. “How did you--?”

“Look, if you really don’t want anyone finding out you’ve got all that, you probably shouldn’t leave your closet door open for all to see every time they step into the room.”

Smolder blanked out for a long moment, before replying in the form of a facepalm, angry at herself.

Eventually, Silverstream brought Trixie and Theodore’s finished order of mushroom melts and braised celery to their table, wishing them a happy meal. The couple then spent a moment or two sampling their food.

“Mm, these mushroom melts seem tastier than normal,” Trixie noted aloud in mild surprise.

“I’ll take your word for it, seeing I’ve never had them here before,” Theodore said, who was more savoring dining with good company like this. He suddenly had an idea. “You know what we could use for this?” he asked Trixie with a grin. “Some romantic music!”

“Oooh!” Trixie said, blushing a little. “Not beating about the bush tonight, are we?”

Theodore smirked confidently and pulled Silverstream aside as she passed by again. “Hey, Silverstream, can you give us a song to set the mood with?”

“A song?” Silverstream repeated, and glanced uncertainly in Starlight’s direction across the room. Starlight quickly averted her gaze to dissuade Pharynx from seeing, but he seemed to catch on anyway as he gave them both a suspicious look. Silversteam didn’t seem to notice him though. “Oh, I dunno…”

“Oh c’mon, surely you of all creatures can sing a good song,” Trixie prompted, joining in.

Silverstream bit the edge of her beak for a second. “Well…I do know one song…but the last time I sang it, all of my friends sorta pleaded with me to stop and never sing it again…”

“Oh, I’m sure it can’t be that bad,” Theodore insisted. “All we need is a song to set the mood.” He glanced in Trixie’s direction and they shared a look.

“Well, alright then,” Silverstream said, setting down her tray. “Here goes!” She took in a very deep breath, and then started to sing: “This song’s gonna stuck inside your—this song’s gonna get stuck inside your—this song’s gonna get stuck inside your heeeeaaaaaad!…”

Pharynx tilted his head in her direction as she kept singing, as did several other patrons in the restaurant as they overheard, but he then shook his head and turned to Starlight. “So are you ever going to explain what the scheme is anyway?” he asked knowingly.

Starlight mirrored his look. “Who said there was any scheme at all?” she asked.

Pharynx’s look morphed into one that silently screamed are you kidding me? “There’s a scheme. Unlike my brother, I’m not an idiot, Starlight Glimmer.”

“But you love him anyway, right?” Starlight asked sweetly, leaning her head on her forehooves.

Pharynx snorted and rolled his disguised eyes. For a moment he looked like he wouldn’t reply, but then he relented. “He is still my brother.”

“So it probably drives you up the wall knowing there might be anything that could potentially harm him, or at least give him trouble, right?”

“He’s our king, so I’d still be concerned about that anyway, seeing the future of the hive apparently depends on him.”

“Yeah, but if he was just the king, you could’ve just sent any ol’ changeling to keep an eye on him. But instead, you came personally.”

“So?”

“So, you’re his brother. That means if anything were to happen to him you’d be next in line to rule, which further means your safety is rather important to the hive too.”

Pharynx snorted and averted his gaze. “I can take care of myself.”

“That’s not my point.” Starlight leaned closer, gaze softening. “Pharynx, I’m not an idiot either. If you really knew I was onto him from the start, then what’s the real reason why you didn’t try to stop me before tonight? At the very least, why didn’t you stop me and Silverstream when we were snooping around his wagon, because I’m sure you knew about that too, didn’t you?”

Though his annoyed expression didn’t change, Pharynx only averted his gaze further.

Starlight eyed him for a moment, trying to read his thoughts. “…were you hoping I’d be able to talk him out of the charade?”

Pharynx finally met her gaze again. “It didn’t work, did it?”

Starlight leaned back, folding her forelegs on the table. “No more than when you tried it, I’m guessing.”

Pharynx snorted. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised,” he remarked, glancing at Theodore in a way only a changeling could see him. “He’s head over hocks for her, has been for a while now. But he’s also so terrified she’ll reject him if she knew the truth…he’s not letting himself think.” He made a low grumbling noise as he lowered his gaze, shaking his head. “The one time he actually listened to one of my suggestions, and…”

“Wait, this was all your idea?” Starlight exclaimed, momentarily surprised before she remembered the changeling she was talking to and scowled. “Oh, that absolutely figures! I knew someone as kind-hearted as Thorax couldn’t have thought of something like this on his own!”

“I didn’t actually mean it!” Pharynx hissed in his defense. “Let alone that he’d actually do it, either! But once the idea got in his head…” he trailed off, slumping backwards in his seat, wearily massaging his brow with one hoof.

“Sounds to me like we both want the same thing then,” Starlight observed. “So why keep me from intervening in the first place anyway?”

“Because you want to force a confrontation between them!” Pharynx replied, shooting a hoof at Trixie and Theodore who were still enduring Silverstream’s song, “Regardless of who it might hurt in the process!” He leaned closer. “And you recruited foolish children to help you do it, to boot!”

On any other day, Starlight would’ve agreed with him on that last point, but today she felt she owed her students a little defense. “Hey, no, Silverstream, Gallus, and Smolder might all still be young, but they’re way more capable than you’re giving them credit for!”

“Oh really?” Pharynx challenged. “You think they’re really mature enough to handle subterfuge such as this?”

“Absolutely,” Starlight stressed. “I have no doubts at all that they’re being professional about this.”

“Whoa, look at the size of some of these buns,” Smolder remarked aloud as she explored the kitchen while Gallus worked at the stove. She surveyed a tray of cooling buns set to one side. “They’re absolutely huge! This one’s probably bigger than my head!” She picked up one in her claws and held it up in front of her head so to compare. Catching sight of her reflection in the shiny bottom of a nearby stainless steel pot though, she chuckled. “Hey, Gallus!”

“What?”

“Check this out!” She held up the bun in front of her face, covering it entirely, and started to sing. “I’m a bun, I’m a bun, I’m a tasty, tasty bun! To be baked and kneaded, oh, what fun! You can have me with—”

Fortunately, the bun in front of her face worked quite well as a cushion from the saucepan Gallus then threw at her head.

“Well, regardless of your choice in helpers,” Pharynx continued, unconvinced, “No matter what the either of us think about it, this is still something they have to sort out themselves at their own speed, and eventually they’re going to have to and you know it!”

“But the longer they let this go on, it’s only going to get worse!” Starlight argued back. “I can’t possibly just stand to one side and do absolutely nothing about it!”

“We’re not. We are trying to nudge and encourage them into taking the steps to fix this themselves, as it should be.”

“I already tried that!”

Pharynx scoffed at her. “You didn’t want to wait on them, you wanted to do it all yourself! Why else would you have gone straight to Trixie and tried to tell her the truth the moment you found out?”

“I was trying to be a good friend!” Starlight hissed dangerously. “Not that it mattered, because she didn’t believe me!”

“Of course she didn’t!” Pharynx snapped. “To Trixie, she cares more about who he is on the inside not the outside, and with Thorax, we both know what lies inside of him is the same no matter what disguise he tries to hide it behind. You focused on what Thorax looks like. She focused on who he truly is.”

This made Starlight pause, taken aback. She looked towards Trixie sitting at her table, looking at her best friend in a slightly different light now.

“Basically, she didn’t take too kindly to you trying to defame someone she had already figured out for herself is a good creature,” Pharynx concluded, “All without knowing he was pretending to be something else. And it rubbed her the wrong way that you refused to see what she could see.”

Starlight lowered her gaze, running her hoof along the edge of the table and feeling slightly ashamed. “This still can’t go on,” she tried to protest. “Thorax still has made no effort to fix this himself, and I fear he’ll try to never do so if we let him.”

“He’s an idiot for letting this continue despite knowing he should end it, yes,” Pharynx unapologetically agreed. But then he leaned closer. “But you know why we all let him be our king anyway despite being an idiot? Because at the end of the day, even if it takes a bit for him to get there, Thorax always pulls through, and always does what needs to be done anyway.”

He pointed a hoof at Starlight. “You should already know this, because you personally have seen him do it. Leaving the hive to go befriend you silly ponies? Standing up to Queen Chrysalis and finally giving her what she had coming, and again against her, Tirek, and Cozy Glow? Devising plans to defend the hive from that maulwurf? Making powerful allies in Equestria, the Dragon Lands, and more?” For a brief second, Pharynx’s rock-solid composure cracked slightly. “Making even the likes of me see the good in reforming?” The crack vanished as quickly as it appeared as Pharynx drove his point home. “That was all him. Not me. Not someone else. No one told him to do these things. He decided to stand up and do them.”

Pharynx leaned back, thinking his point made. “Thorax may not always figure it out right away…but he always does sooner or later. He’s done it before. He’ll do it again. And sooner or later…he’s going to do it here with Trixie too. I know he will. We can nudge him in that direction as much as we want, but in the end…he’s the one that will make the choice.”

Stunned by the passionate argument, Starlight could only just sit there, mouth slightly agape, as she slowly realized Pharynx had a very fair point, but she was at too much of a loss for words to say so. In the prolonged silence that fell between the two of them, Starlight gradually became aware again of Silverstream still singing her song.

“…’cause it’s so catchy, catchy, it’s such a catchy song! Gonna make you happy, happy, don’t try to fight it, sing along! This song’s gonna get stuck inside your—” Silverstream was then abruptly silenced when magic clamped her beak shut.

“…I think that’s enough of that song, thank you,” Trixie remarked with an annoyed grumble as she released her beak again.

“Oh, okay,” Silverstream remarked, completely unfazed. “If you like, though, I could try singing a different song I know—Everything is awesome! Everything is cool when you’re part of a team—!”

“No, no, that’s okay!” Trixie assured quickly, ushering the hippogriff along and away from their table. “I think we’ll just do without music after all.”

“Alrighty then!” Silverstream remarked as she headed off.

So Trixie and Theodore resumed their meals in silence.

Then Theodore started humming under his breath. “Huh,” he remarked aloud. “That song really does get stuck inside your head!”

Trixie merely groaned.

Meanwhile, things had calmed down a little in the kitchen as new orders stopped flowing in for the moment and the food already in progress was either wrapping up or waiting to finish cooking. Gallus was paying particularly close attention to a pot of cheese soup, tightly covered and simmering on the stove. Glancing around and confirming the moment was going to last though, he suddenly spoke up.

“Hey, there’s a bathroom in this place, right?” he asked Smolder.

The dragoness looked up from the pyramid of measuring cups she had been stacking, not having had as much to do as Gallus had. “Well, I saw the door for one around that corner back there,” she offered, pointing a claw past the kitchen’s storage shelving, where the corner of the room jutted outwards forming an L shape. “Why?”

“C’mere and keep an eye on this cheese soup for me then,” Gallus instructed, motioning her over. She walked up while he continued explaining. “If it hits a full boil, take it off the heat immediately. You don’t want to see what happens if you don’t, trust me.” He patted her on the shoulder before proceeding to walk off. “Meanwhile, I gotta go drop a deuce.”

Smolder pulled a face. “Oh, thank you so much for sharing that with the rest of us, Gallus,” she remarked, words dripping with sarcasm.

“No problem!” Gallus smugly quipped back, absolutely unrepentant.

Smolder rolled her eyes as he vanished around the corner and was heard stepping into the bathroom. She remained by the stove, watching the pot and listening to it simmer, for a few moments undisturbed. She was just beginning to think this would continue without event when she heard the service bell ding behind her, announcing Silverstream’s return.

“Ordering!” the hippogriff called then spied Smolder through the little window and brightly giving her a wave. “Hey, Smolder! I need the summer salad special whipped together, lickety-split! Can you do that?”

“Uhh…” Smolder glanced at the soup pot then back where Gallus had vanished into the bathroom, uncertain. “I guess? But…”

“Great! Lemme know when it’s ready!” Silverstream then vanished again before she could finish explaining the situation.

Smolder glanced around again, debating. The food preparation had been Gallus’s thing, but she didn’t know how long he was going to be. The pot of cheese soup seemed like it was going to be fine for a few more minutes, though…maybe she could spare the time to do it herself…

“Aw heck,” she finally declared, leaving the stove to grab the recipe book and a mixing bowl, “how hard can it be to make a salad?”

As Trixie and Theodore continued eating their meal in peace, Starlight turned over everything Pharynx had told her, suddenly having second thoughts about all of this. She still felt Thorax should come clean on the truth and still remained feeling…extremely annoyed…that he had been deceiving her best friend and had done so with romantic intent no less…but Pharynx’s comments had at least made her better appreciate why he himself hadn’t intervened like she was trying to, and made her think that maybe he was right, and that her attempts to meddle might only make an already unfortunate situation even worse. But there was still one thing that didn’t quite add up to her.

“Pharynx,” she began slowly, the first time she had spoken in a couple minutes of silence, “If you’re really so confident that Thorax will eventually end this charade on his own…why were you hoping I’d talk him into doing it?”

Pharynx sighed. “Because you, despite everything, still have one point, and that’s the longer this goes, the worse he’s making it for himself and Trixie.” He pinched the bridge of his snout, squeezing his eyes shut in frustration. “You already determined that I wasn’t able to convince him into ending it, so I hoped if you tried too, that’d…nudge him to stop putting it off. But obviously that hasn’t worked either.” He hummed to himself thoughtfully. “Maybe if we both tried to convince him together…”

“So it sounds like he’s taking his dear sweet time realizing what he needs to do,” Starlight said knowingly.

“Oh, he’s already realized that, I can tell,” Pharynx assured. “He knows perfectly well he needs to come clean. He’s just trying to put it off for as long as he can.” He sighed again. “Like I said, he always figures out to do the right thing eventually…he’s just also an idiot that can put it off for too long sometimes. Like now.”

They both sat there for a few moments quietly watching Trixie and Theodore, who had amazingly still not noticed they were there observing them despite having stopped any effort of being discreet about it due to the heat of their discussion.

“Of course, it might not matter with whatever mad scheme you’ve devised to try and force them to end the charade,” Pharynx added, shooting Starlight a look. “Still waiting for that to drop, by the way.”

“Oh, well,” Starlight coughed sheepishly, no longer feeling as confident about the plan as she had going into it but still not wanting to admit that there even was a scheme, “You’ve had me basically pinned here the whole time and you’ve seen everything I’ve done, none of which is really going to affect them in any meaningful way, so…”

“Yeah, still not convinced,” Pharynx assured. He jerked his head in the direction of Silverstream who was busy helping another table. “Especially as you’ve got helpers, two of which I have yet to see where they are this whole evening, and you still haven’t told me just what this plan even is.”

Starlight had no comeback to that, and instead just chuckled nervously, forcing what she hoped was an innocent-looking grin. The silence that then followed suddenly allowed some of the conversation between Trixie and Theodore drift their way.

“Hey, does this braised celery taste kinda spicy to you?” Theodore asked Trixie.

Trixie chewed thoughtfully on hers for a moment. “Not really. Why, you saying yours does?”

“Yeah,” Theodore replied with mild puzzlement. “It has a bit more…zing…to it than I would’ve expected…” he shrugged. “Maybe the chef got a little too overzealous with seasoning mine…”

Pharynx glanced briefly in the direction of his disguised brother before looking back at Starlight. He raised a suspicious eyebrow at her.

Starlight just chuckled nervously again.

As it turned out, making a salad was a lot harder than it looked, and it wasn’t long before the kitchen was in slight disarray as Smolder hurriedly worked, feeling the pressure increasing on her the longer this took.

“How the heck did Gallus ever do this sort of thing at all?” she mumbled as she struggled to chop a carrot. “He makes it look so easy!”

She glanced at the salad as it currently stood out of the corner of her eye. It wasn’t finished yet, but already it didn’t look right and instead appeared quite messy. Smolder wasn’t sure she could fix it, but she pressed on anyway, considering herself past the point of no return. She only stopped when she heard a thumping clatter somewhere behind her and turned around to survey the kitchen, thinking Gallus was returning from his bathroom break. Not seeing anyone, though, she shrugged and turned back to working on the salad.

Until she felt a pair of hooves tightly grab her shoulders. “What are you doing in my kitchen?” the voice of the chef, clearly conscious again and having escaped the broom closet, growled darkly in her ear.

Smolder tightened her grip on the salad tongs in her claws. “…making a salad?” she offered lamely.

The earth pony glanced around her at her pitiful salad-to-be. “Not very well,” he noted aloud in disapproval.

Smolder scowled, offended at the lack of support. “Yeah, well, at least I know the proper arrangements for it,” she retorted.

She could feel the pony scowling at her. “Well, it wasn’t your place to intervene,” he reminded sternly. “And now I think it’s time you left.”

“Yeah, about that,” Smolder said, before abruptly spinning around, ripping herself out of the chef’s grip and brandishing the salad tongs at him like a sword. “Can’t leave just yet.”

The chef was momentarily taken aback, but then he grabbed a stirring spoon and clacked it against her salad tongs, mirroring her gesture. “We’ll see about that.”

And with that, he lunged, stabbing the spoon at her and forcing her to deflect it with the salad tongs, thus beginning a rather odd fight for control of the kitchen.

“What did you do?” Pharynx pressed as he continued to gaze suspiciously at Starlight.

“I haven’t done anything,” Starlight quickly but unconvincingly tried to assure, “you’ve been watching my every move this whole evening, so…”

“What did you do?” Pharynx repeated, his tone getting increasingly dangerous.

“Pharynx, I promise, I wasn’t the one who did anything malicious,” Starlight again tried to assure, even though she was basically admitting she knew something technically malicious was planned.

It only seemed to rile up Pharynx more. “What. Did. You. DO?”

Before Starlight could try again to give a non-answer, they suddenly heard a low moan from the direction of Trixie and Theodore’s table. They both turned to see Theodore rub at his belly in discomfort.

Trixie, noticing, grew concerned. “You okay, Theodore?”

“Yeah,” Theodore initially assured, but after he failed to hide a wince from a fresh wave of aching in his belly, he revised the statement. “Well, maybe…I think something I ate might not be agreeing with me…”

Trixie started to rise. “Do we need to get help?” she asked, worried.

“No, no,” Theodore quickly assured her, trying to shake it off and resume eating like nothing had changed. His face had become worryingly pale though. “I’m fine. I just need to—ooh!” he suddenly doubled over, clutching at his stomach.

“Theodore!” Trixie declared, quickly hurrying around the table to try and help him, the commotion starting to draw the attention of other restaurant patrons and staff members, worried there was an emergency.

Starlight looked on with growing horror, not thinking the added seasoning Gallus and Smolder had clearly succeeded in adding to Theodore’s meal would cause so much discomfort, or else she wouldn’t have ever agreed to it. But before she could really do anything more to react, a pair of hooves roughly grabbed her by the scarf around her neck and turned her to face Pharynx, looking none too happy now.

“Explain,” he growled dangerously. “Now.”

“Pharynx, I swear, I didn’t know it would have this bad an effect, or else—”

“STARLIGHT!”

“—I was just keeping watch!” Starlight finally blurted out, “While the others added it to his food!”

Pharynx’s grip on her tightened painfully. “Add what?”

“It was supposed to just make him have to drop his disguise, that’s all! Gallus and Smolder weren’t even supposed to add all that much…”

“ANSWER ME, PONY!” Pharynx’s bellowing was starting to make for a second scene that was drawing the attention of others in the room too, wondering what was going on.

So Starlight relented. “…Cayenne powder.”

“Cayenne pow—cayenne p—” Pharynx was too furious to even speak properly as he angrily shoved Starlight away, knocking her to the floor and hurried to go help the probably-not-disguised-for-too-much-longer Theodore. The most he coherently managed to get out was a brief curse of “balani devoveo!” in the changeling language as he shoved onlookers aside to reach his brother.

And there were a good number of onlookers by that time, all gathering to ogle at Theodore, now out of his chair and doubled over while at the same time trying desperately wave off all the attention for fear it’d get him revealed. Even the head supervisor of the restaurant hurried over, trying to get the onlookers to back up and inquire to Trixie if they needed to call for an ambulance.

Starlight just laid there, sunhat having toppled from her head, looking on at the scene in horror until Silverstream, coming over, pulled her upright again. But even the hippogriff looked decidedly worried. “Gosh!” she murmured as she stared at the scene unfolding before them, “Ocellus hadn’t reacted this badly to that powder, and she probably ate way more than Thorax has, ’cuz Gallus really likes his nachos extra spicy, see…”

This told Starlight that they probably couldn’t have predicted this outcome then, but it hardly reassured her as she pressed her hooves to her temples, wondering if this plan could go any more disastrously than it already was.

The kitchen was filled with the sounds of clacking kitchen utensils as the chef and Smolder ducked, weaved, and parried each other’s attacks, sparring around and around the room with growing intensity. The chef at one point nearly got the drop on the dragon when he managed to feint and stab downward at her front. But Smolder twisted out of the way and grabbed the chef’s extended foreleg, using that as leverage to throw him backwards onto the counter and then hopping up on top of him, pointing her salad tongs threateningly at his snout.

It was then that they heard a toilet flush and a few moments later, Gallus strolled out of the bathroom at last. He stopped and stared when he saw Smolder had the chef basically pinned down on the counter.

He motioned to the scene incredulously. “I was only gone for five to ten minutes!” he protested.

“Yeah, well, it was a bad time for you to have to go take a crap!” Smolder snapped back from where she was keeping the chef pinned.

“Sorry!” Gallus responded. He jabbed a thumb at his belly. “It’s not like I can help that whatever I put in here doesn’t want to stay in there forever!”

“Oh, don’t even try and blame your stomach for—”

She would’ve gone on, but the chef, seeing they were distracted, used that chance to wrench Smolder’s salad tongs away and then buck her off of him, knocking her onto the floor. He then jumped to his hooves and moved to go after her when Gallus tackled him from behind.

“Oh, no you don’t!” he shouted angrily, wrapping his forelegs around the chef’s barrel and trying to get him pinned again. “You do NOT do that to her and get away with it!”

The chef responded by trying to buck the griffon off again, but to little avail as the two bumped into the kitchen storage shelves with their grappling, knocking several things off of it and onto the tile floor with loud clatters.

Though still looking rather ill—having broken out into a hard sweat, panting hard, and looking like he was trying not to throw up—Theodore’s condition had stabilized a little, enough that the initial alarm over the matter was starting to wind down some. But before anyone could really do more than that, a loud crashing sound was heard back in the kitchen, drawing everyone’s attention.

“Sacré bleu!” the head supervisor declared at the sound, the well-being of his restaurant taking priority now that the immediate emergency with Theodore seemed to have passed for the moment. “What is all ze commotion?!”

He hurried towards the kitchen doors so to investigate, passing Silverstream and Starlight in the process, who turned to stare after him, also wondering what was going on in the kitchen.

“Huh!” Silverstream remarked. “Gallus and Smolder must’ve dropped something back there.”

Starlight felt her heart seize. “Gallus and Smolder are still in the kitchen?” she asked with dread.

“Uh-huh!” Silverstream replied innocently. “I’ve been giving them orders to cook all evening! And from some of the compliments I’ve been getting from the guests, sounds like they’ve—”

Starlight didn’t stick around to hear the rest as she quickly hurried after the head supervisor to do any needed damage control, almost afraid of what she’d find in there.

She was right to be afraid, as they arrived one after another in the kitchen to see Gallus and Smolder, somewhat scuffed up, having pinned the chef to the floor and were hogtying his hooves together. They froze and started at the head supervisor like foals with hooves caught in the cookie jar, but when Starlight burst into the room immediately after him, they both warmed up a little at the sight of a familiar face and sheepishly waved in her direction.

“Hey Teach,” Gallus murmured, shamefaced.

Starlight, taken aback by the scene before her, failed to reply right away which gave the supervisor the chance to put two with two and whirl upon her. “Do you know zhese two riffraff?” he demanded angrily. “Are you responsible for zheir abhorrent actions?”

Starlight winced and grinned sheepishly herself, knowing there was absolutely no good way to explain this, and making only a weak chuckle. It was then that they heard a loud POP followed by a low whistle growing in volume as they turned to look at a large covered pot on the stove. It had begun to shake and rattle as if under pressure.

“Ah,” Gallus remarked stiffly, realizing what was going on. He glanced at Smolder. “Let that cheese soup come to a full boil anyway, huh?”

Smolder winced. “Kinda got distracted,” she admitted. “Is that…bad?”

The pot popped again and its rattling increased. Except for the chef who was too bound up to move (to his clear dismay), the others started backing away from the stove.

“Bad isn’t quite the word I would use,” Gallus replied as they did so.

“So…what should we do?” Smolder asked next.

“Well, one perfectly logical course of action comes to mind.” Gallus stopped to take in a deep breath before bellowing, “EVERY CREATURE FOR THEMSELVES!”

Dragging Smolder along with him, he ran for the kitchen’s walk-in freezer and hurried inside, slamming the door shut behind them. Realization sank in after that, and the supervisor hurried forward to try and do something—anything—to stop the oncoming catastrophe. It was clear it was much too late for that though, so Starlight, dismayed, turned around and ran back out of the kitchens at a full gallop, heading right for where Trixie and Pharynx still were, trying to help the ill Theodore, all of whom looked up in alarm as Starlight surged towards them.

“I’M SOOORRRRRYYYYY!” Starlight wailed as she galloped at them, bodily throwing herself upon them in hopes of shielding them.

Then there was a loud and wet bang followed by an explosion of molten cheese bursting out of the kitchen doors.

Introspections

View Online

There was cheese everywhere.

On the ceiling, on the floor, all over the tables, all over the other restaurant patrons—everywhere.

Some had tried to shield themselves from the blast, such as Silverstream who had held her waiter’s platter in front of her face. But there still hadn’t been much point as everyone and everything had gotten hit and covered with cooling cheese soup in some fashion.

Starlight’s attempt to shield her friends from the blast hadn’t even worked out all that well, as her body wasn’t big enough to cover all of them, and her running leap at them had only knocked them over onto the floor, falling into more exploded cheese soup. And unlike Starlight who had her back to the blast, the others had been facing the blast, and so instead of a back completely caked with cheese soup like Starlight, they had molten cheese covering their fronts.

Probably the worst part of it all though wasn’t the cheese but rather the glare Trixie was now giving her, having pieced together a rough idea of who was responsible for all of this.

Starlight giggled nervously under that glare, hurriedly letting Trixie back up, before turning around to leave before the shouting began. But before she got more than a couple paces, Pharynx grabbed her and bodily turned her back around, shoving her back towards Trixie. Pinned, Starlight forced a grin at the other mare. “Trixie!” she declared with fake enthusiasm. “Heeeeey!”

Trixie just kept glaring at her, cheese dripping thickly off her mane.

“This…this…” Starlight began half-heartedly as she surveyed the damage, honestly not sure how to even begin to explain. “…so I didn’t mean for any of this to happen, first of all…”

“I’m sure,” Trixie growled, but her attention was finally drawn off of Starlight as Theodore, still looking pretty ill, worked to right himself and was wiping cheese off of himself.

“Oof,” he grunted, swiping a large portion of it off of his face, “That was certainly—”

He was interrupted by a large series of gasps from many of the onlookers now that his face was visible again. Starlight’s pupils shrank to pinpricks. Pharynx facehoofed. Most telling of all, Trixie’s eyes bulged in shock. All eyes were locked on his face. Slowly, he reached up with one hoof to feel the side of his face he just uncovered and realized that, in the blast, part of his disguise had collapsed, revealing part of his real changeling face underneath.

“Oh,” Thorax murmured as his already pale face somehow went even paler, “Ohhhhh.”

Everybody was staring at him, but it was Trixie’s stunned expression of realization that caught his attention the most. “But…” she struggled to utter, trying to find voice to the flood of thoughts in her mind.

Pharynx then stomped up and slapped a cheesy hoof on Thorax’s shoulder. “Well, there you go then!” he snapped at his brother, who flinched away. “Your cover’s been blown for you! Are you happy now?”

“Please…let’s not do this now…” Thorax tried to beg, turning to his elder brother.

“No!” Pharynx declared, who had gotten himself quite riled up. “Because you know what the worst part of it is? You could’ve avoided it! With Starlight running up to you screaming her head off, you had plenty of forewarning to try and react! You remember all that physical training I put you through to teach you how to dodge any and all threats that might come at you, right?”

“Yes…” Thorax replied wearily, appearing to wilt.

“So why…didn’t…you…DOOOOOODGE?!” Pharynx bellowed, jabbing him in the barrel.

Thorax suddenly swatted the offending hoof away. “Give me a break, Pharynx, I’m not exactly feeling my greatest already! I don’t need you rubbing it in!”

Trixie’s gaze wandered to Pharynx, realizing the stallion he currently still appeared as was just an illusion too. “…Pharynx? But….”

“Besides, this is all only a problem because she tried to mess things up!” Thorax continued, jabbing a hoof at Starlight.

“Hey, no, you brought this down upon yourself!” Starlight snapped back, now joining the argument. “If you had just told the truth when I told you to, I wouldn’t have felt obligated to try and intervene!”

“You shouldn’t have tried to intervene at all!” Pharynx snapped back at her, getting between her and Thorax. “This wasn’t your business to—”

“Will somepony explain what the HAY is going on here?!” Trixie suddenly exploded as the last of her frayed nerves finally snapped.

This silenced all three of them as they whipped around to look at her then sheepishly averted their gaze in shame, even Pharynx.

“Well?” Trixie stressed when no one moved or spoke.

Thorax sighed. Meeting Trixie’s gaze at last, he silently released his disguise in full, fully revealing himself as he really was.

Trixie inhaled with a sharp hiss as she took it in. She couldn’t bring herself to look Thorax in the eye. “…the whole time?” she simply asked.

Thorax sadly nodded. “I’m sorry,” he murmured.

“It’s not totally his fault,” Pharynx suddenly butted in apologetically, also revealing his normal form. “I was the one who first gave him the idea.”

“I…should probably take some blame too,” Starlight also chimed in. “I made everything worse by trying to force him to reveal himself.”

“Well, it worked,” Trixie snapped at Starlight before turning to face Thorax again, staring at him for a long moment. She picked up her drink from off of their table, miraculously not knocked over, and stopped to take a drink from it.

“I really am sorry for all of this, Trixie,” Thorax apologized again, mustering as much heartfelt emotion into it as he could.

Trixie replied by chucking the rest of her drink into his face before silently turning and pushing past all of them so to leave the restaurant.

“Trixie,” Thorax called after her in a bemoaning voice, starting to give chase. “Trixie, I—oh.” He abruptly halted, suddenly looking queasy. He tried to steady himself again, but it quickly proved to be a losing battle as he gagged a few times and finally, quickly righting an ice bucket that had fallen, proceeded to throw up.

“Ohhhhh,” Pharynx groaned, starting towards his ill brother. “See what you’ve done?” he snapped at Starlight as he passed her before turning to glare at all of the other onlookers. “What are all of YOU looking at?”

Everybody else suddenly had much more interesting things to look at as Pharynx aided his brother voiding his stomach into the bucket. Starlight, meanwhile, just sat herself down where she stood, staring down at her hooves in shame. Silverstream, just as covered with sticky cheese as everyone else, came over and placed a comforting paw on her shoulder.

Starlight managed to give her a small grin of thanks. “Made a real mess, haven’t we?” she asked.

Silverstream started to peel her paw off of Starlight’s cheese-covered back, saw the tendrils of cheese still sticking to it, and then thought better of it. “Maybe just a little,” she admitted simply but in understanding. She may have said more, but she became distracted when there was a sudden thump behind them and turned around to see a vaguely pony-shaped blob of cheese come lurching out of the kitchen. “AHHH! CHEESE SOUP ZOMBIE! EVERYBODY PANIC!” She and most of the other patrons in the restaurant then started to scream and run in circles while Starlight facehooved, up until the supposed “zombie” swiped a hoof over his face and revealed himself to simply be the irate head supervisor. “Oh!” Silverstream declared, realizing her error. “Never mind everybody! False alarm! It’s just my boss!”

As everyone went back to what they were doing then, the supervisor stomped his way towards Starlight. “You!” he declared threateningly while pointing an accusing hoof at her. Starlight, alarmed, wondered if she might be better off quickly teleporting out of there. “You are responsible for zhis! I do not yet know how, but you are! And I will make sure you are responsible for cleaning up zhis whole mess!”

Silverstream laughed unhelpfully. “Yeah, we sort of made a mess of everything, didn’t we?” she asked.

Her supervisor then whirled onto her. “We?” he repeated accusingly. “What do you mean, we? Are you zaying you were involved in zhis too?!”

“Mm-hmm!” Silverstream nodded happily, completely unfazed by his temper. “How else do you think a griffon and a dragon got in the kitchen unnoticed like they did?” She playfully bopped him on the shoulder. “Silly!”

The supervisor fumed and sputtered for a moment with such intensity that Starlight thought he might explode himself. Finally he jabbed a hoof at Silverstream and exclaimed “ZHEN YOU ARE FIRED!”

Silverstream gazed at him blankly for a spilt second. “Okay!” she then brightly whipped out her camera, apparently having been carrying it on her unnoticed this whole time, wrapped one foreleg around her now former (and very furious) boss, pulling him close, and snapped a picture of themselves before the supervisor threw her off of him, fumed for another moment, then stalked off, muttering about going to get a mop. Silverstream waved at him as he left.

“Sorry about the job, Silverstream,” Starlight apologized once he was gone.

“Eh, it’s not a total loss,” Silverstream replied and pulled open one of the pockets on her vest with her thumb, revealing it was filled with bits of particularly large denominations. “I still learned that the customers here leave really good tips!”

Starlight stared at the unexpected amount of money then heaved a heavy sigh, feeling like she had enough excitement night for one day. “Let’s just regroup, get out of here, and call it a night,” she said, rubbing wearily at her temples.

“Okay!” Silverstream said and looked around. “Where did Gallus and Smolder get off to, anyway?”

Starlight suddenly straightened in alarm.

Gallus’s choice to seek shelter from the cheese explosion in the walk-in freezer had been a good one, as it successfully spared him and Smolder entirely from the blast. The only drawback was the blast of cheese had also plastered the freezer door, sealing it shut from the outside and making it impossible to open from the inside. So until someone came to rescue them, they were trapped there.

Fortunately, being from mountainous city of Griffonstone where the winters were harsh, Gallus was no stranger to cold environments and knew what the best ways to converse heat were. Also fortunately, Smolder was a dragon. Even though she hailed from a land that simply didn’t get cold weather and she hated having to be trapped here and suffer the cold, her internal body heat was also much higher than that of most other creatures, making her the warmest thing there. So to try and keep themselves from freezing, they snuggled together so to share that body heat between them. They, of course, ribbed each other a bit over this detail, but eventually they grew bored of that and were left sitting in the freezer trying to keep themselves entertained, awaiting someone to free them.

“How long do you think it’s going to take until they get us out of here?” Smolder asked, watching her breath condense in small clouds of fog in front of her snout.

“Dunno,” Gallus admitted. “I guess it depends on how bad the damage is outside and how long it’ll take for help to get to us. Hopefully not too long.”

“Well, at least we won’t starve in here,” Smolder remarked, surveying all the stored food the freezer contained.

Gallus snorted. “Easy for you to say—it’s all frozen.”

“Oh yeah,” Smolder said, chuckling at herself for forgetting this. “Hey, by the way, thanks for tackling that chef guy when he got the upper edge on me back then,”

Gallus shrugged. “Eh, you would’ve done the same. So thank you for having my back too.” He elbowed her. “Even though you’d still give me sass for it every step of the way.”

“What are friends for?” Smolder replied, and they both shared a chuckle over that.

Quiet fell for a moment in the freezer.

“You know, this is kind of nice,” Smolder remarked aloud as they sat there. “I mean, sure, it’s colder than Yona’s backyard in here, but it’s still quiet, nobody to bug us…” she nudged Gallus in the side with her elbow, “…and at least I have good company.”

“Oh, so I’m good company now,” Gallus quipped.

“Well, let’s just say that if I had to get locked into a walk-in freezer with anyone, I’d rather it be you.”

Gallus shrugged, taking the compliment, but also adding, “I don’t know…if you had gotten stuck in here with Yona, she would’ve already smashed the door down and gotten out of here.”

Smolder rolled her eyes and smirked. “Okay, yeah, I’ll give you that. But I think she’d rather get locked in here with Sandbar, if you know what I mean.”

Gallus snickered. “Yeah, they’ve been getting to be total lovebirds lately, haven’t they?” He shifted positions in an attempt to keep his butt from freezing to the floor. “Think those two can really make it work?”

“What, Sandbar and Yona?” Smolder shrugged. “Why not?”

“I dunno. I mean, I’m still happy for them and all, and I wanna support them, it’s just…he’s a pony, and she’s a yak…”

Smolder snorted. “We’ve seen stranger things. Trixie and King Thorax, apparently.”

“Yeah…except they’re part of the reason we got stuck in here at all.”

“Okay, bad example.” Smolder wiggled a little closer so to better exploit the griffon’s body heat. “Uh, how about Spike and Gabby then?”

Gallus shot her a look. “Spike and Gabby,” he repeated skeptically. “As in Spike the dragon and Gabby Griffon. Really.”

“Oh c’mon, you’ve had to have seen them hanging out and making cow-eyes at each other plenty of times by now.”

“I’ve seen them hanging out, but I thought they were just being friends.”

Smolder rolled her eyes knowingly. “Oh, I don’t even need to ask Ocellus to know those two like each other just a little more than as friends. Honestly, I’m not sure who’s more guilty of it—them or Yona and Sandbar.” She smirked, watching Gallus’s brow furrow as he mulled on this. “You really hadn’t noticed that?”

“Well…” Gallus sputtered, then waved a set of talons about dismissively, “Does it matter if I did or not? If they’re into each other, that’s their business, I guess.” He thought on it a second longer then snickered again. “Though if it does go that way, then I don’t think Gabby realizes what she’s getting herself into, dating a dragon.”

Smolder snorted again, this time offended. “And just what is that supposed to mean?”

“Well, no offense, Smolder, but you dragons are all so rough and tumble, and Gabby’s so…bright and cheery to a very annoying fault.” Gallus kept snickering. “It’s just…amusing to think of two creatures like that trying to date, y’know?”

Smolder rolled over so to face him, holding up a claw. “Okay, first of all, Spike’s not your typical dragon,” she reminded firmly. She then jabbed that claw into Gallus’s beak. “Second, like you’d really know what it’s like to date any dragon! When was the last time you did that, hmm?”

Gallus rolled his eyes and pushed the offending claw away. “Sheesh, sorry!” he groused. “I didn’t think you’d get so worked up about it! What makes you the expert, anyway?”

“I know dragons! Rocks, I am a dragon!” She jabbed her claw into Gallus’s chest now, leaning close so to glare into his eyes. “Personally, I think that if there’s going to be any problems, it’s going to be with the griffon!”

“Hey, no, you can’t say that,” Gallus retorted. “You don’t have any more experience than I would. You’d have to date a griffon first before you can go saying stuff like that.”

“Well, right back ‘atcha then, feather-butt! But I betcha you’d totally blow it on the first try!”

“Oh, you’re that confident then, huh?”

“I dare you to prove me wrong.”

“Fine, then! You, me, tomorrow night at seven, down at that pizza place. Then we’ll settle this.”

“You’re so on.”

“Good!”

“Fine!”

A long beat of silence passed before reality sank in and their smug looks slowly faded.

“Did we just--?”

“Yeah…yeah, we did.”

Another beat of silence passed before Smolder shrugged her shoulders in acceptance. “Eh, we could do worse,” she said.

Gallus returned it with a chuckle. “Yeah, we certainly could.”

They were able to keep looking into each other’s eyes for another few moments before being interrupted by the freezer door letting out a creak and then popping open, swinging aside to reveal Silverstream and Starlight Glimmer, the latter using her magic to tug the stuck door free.

“Aww!” Silverstream cooed the moment she laid eye on Gallus and Smolder snuggled up to each other, whose expressions immediately turned into ones akin to deer caught in headlights. “Just look at you two! How adorable!”

Gallus and Smolder immediately sprang apart, scampering to other sides of the freezer. “This isn’t what it looks like!” they shouted together.

It was lost on Silverstream, who immediately started snapping away with her camera, snagging pictures of the embarrassed pair while Starlight stood behind her, wearily rubbing at her temples and past ready to just call it a night.

The mess in Café Hay was such that the restaurant had to stay closed for all of the following day so to finish cleaning and conducting minor repairs. As it was a popular and iconic spot, this of course was noticed by pretty much everybody in town, and its head supervisor was all too happy to vent about who was responsible. But even without that, the other patrons who’d witnessed the night’s events quickly told their friends, who told their friends, and so on, making word of the incident spread like wildfire. Naturally, by the time classes began the next morning, Starlight found that everybody in the school already knew about it, as well that she had been directly involved. And of course, her students just loved gossiping about how their new headmare had managed to cause so much trouble.

But the trouble she had put herself in was one thing—she was more worried about how much trouble this would put her cohorts Silverstream, Gallus, and Smolder in. That, however, was left up to their respective guardians. To that end, Grandpa Gruff couldn’t care less what Gallus had done, and Dragon Lord Ember only thought Smolder’s role was hilarious and praiseworthy, as per the dragon way. Silverstream was a little less lucky, as Queen Novo herself personally came to the school so to “discuss” the matter with the young hippogriff. But once Silverstream had explained her side of the story, Novo agreed to let her off with a very stern warning, on the strong understanding that such an incident would not be allowed to happen again.

The queen was a little less forgiving with Starlight, the two speaking briefly during her quick visit, but Novo also left Starlight largely alone, though only on the grounds that she knew Twilight would be handling that herself. And Twilight definitely made good on it, as she was not too pleased with Starlight either and spent over an hour verbally reprimanding the unicorn that succeeded her as headmare for her actions. Starlight didn’t fight it, feeling it more than deserved at this point. Which might have been why Twilight also agreed to let Starlight off easy, arranged to cover the damages to Café Hay herself, and let Starlight stay as headmare, especially as she could tell that at least everyone seemed to have learned their lesson from the incident.

Nevertheless, Starlight was still to receive a temporary dock in pay as punishment, and Twilight took steps to increase the oversight of the School of Friendship and its staff, so to ensure things like this didn’t become commonplace. She also entrusted that Starlight would play an active role making sure there would be no repeats and no one else trying such a stunt so long as she worked at the school. Otherwise, Twilight promised she wouldn’t be so forgiving next time. Starlight couldn’t argue to any of this under the circumstances, thinking it all fair in light of what happened, and thankful it overall hadn’t been much worse for all involved.

Though this still left the damage she brought between Thorax and Trixie, and that was much harder to know how to address, if it could be addressed. Physically speaking, Thorax at least recovered fine after a good night’s sleep. Emotionally though, Starlight found him quite down in the dumps when she paid him a visit at his wagon, still where it had been yesterday, only now everyone knew who was really staying there. Pharynx was also there keeping watch, and had been turning away visitors, not wanting any oglers. But even though he was still miffed with Starlight over what happened, he and Thorax made an exception for her so to talk. Pharynx never said it outright, but Starlight suspected the changeling hoped the visit might do something to cheer up his depressed little brother.

But Thorax was too busy blaming himself for that. He openly admitted now that pretending to be something he wasn’t just so to date a mare he fancied had been a “stupid idea” he should’ve never have run with like he had. And now he feared he had not only ruined his credibility as king with the public, pony or changeling, he also had ruined any chances of him and Trixie working out, friend or otherwise.

“But I don’t have anyone to blame but me,” the changeling lamented as he lay draped over his bed like a wilted plant, looking melancholy. “I made this problem…now I have to live with it, I guess.”

Starlight wiggled uncomfortably from where she sat beside the bed. “Well, give credit where credit’s due, Thorax,” she said. “Me trying to meddle certainly didn’t help. I see that now, and I’m sorry.” She averted her gaze. “Too late to really do anything about it, but…”

Thorax sighed sadly. “But you wouldn’t have done any of that if I had just listened to you in the first place…or better still, been smarter and not even tried this dumb stunt in the first place.” He looked over at her. “Have you spoken with Trixie?”

Starlight shook her head. “I think she’s avoiding me. I assume you haven’t spoken with her since last night either.”

Thorax shook his head before letting it flop onto his bed. “But can you blame her? She probably wants nothing to do with me anymore, not after I lied to her.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “All she ever knew was a pony I made up, who had never been real…oh, why did I ever think this was a good idea?” he bemoaned.

Starlight heard Pharynx suppress a groan behind her and glanced back at him. “He’s been going on like this for hours,” he explained pointedly.

“Well, sorry!” Thorax snapped, throwing a pillow at his brother who dodged it easily, “I’m kinda going through something here!” He rolled over, turning his back to both of them, before sadly mumbling, “It’s not like you’d understand anyway.”

Pharynx simply tsked aloud and didn’t comment. Starlight, however, looked thoughtful. “He just might, though,” she remarked, glancing back at Pharynx who glanced back, annoyed.

Thorax was quiet for a moment then rolled back over with a puzzled look. “He does?”

“I do?” Pharynx also asked skeptically.

“Well…in the right ballpark, at least,” Starlight clarified as she considered this sudden thought in her mind.

Thorax grunted and buried his face into the remaining pillow on his bed. “Well, it’s not like it’s going to make much of a difference. Trixie is never going to want to do anything with me ever again.”

But then he felt a hoof gently rest on his shoulder and he looked up to see Starlight giving him a hopeful smile. “I don’t know, Thorax,” she said, optimism beginning to shine in her eyes. “I wouldn’t give up hope on her just yet.”

Thorax sat up partly, brow furrowed but allowing himself a small amount of intrigue. “…what do you mean?” he asked.

Starlight just continued to smile hopefully for a moment. “Well, first I have something I need to go do,” she said, turning to go. She looked to Pharynx as she walked for the door and pointed a hoof at him. “But in the meantime, you tell him what you told me last night.”

Pharynx raised a skeptical brow at her. “You really think it’ll help?” Starlight only replied with a knowing look which led Pharynx into sighing. “All right, I suppose we can try it. I just hope you know what you’re doing, pony, because it sure didn’t end well last time.”

“Don’t worry you two,” Starlight said as she exited the wagon, “I think I’ve got a good feeling about this.”

She found Trixie in her office at the school, sitting at her desk and looking about as glum as Thorax, half-heartedly making aimless doodles on a piece of scratch paper. Starlight had been afraid that she would turn her away, still in no mood to talk to her, but beyond telling her to come in when she knocked, Trixie had barely reacted to her entrance. Starlight watched her sadly as she strolled up to her friend’s desk, feeling her heart clench in sympathy. Though she still felt mostly confident this would only help, she still knew it was going to be rough for them both getting through it.

“Hey,” she greeted her friend, “How are you doing?”

“Meh,” Trixie grunted, non-committal. “All things considered, it was a routine day today. Helped a student here, filled out a form there, that sort of thing.”

Starlight studied her for a moment. “I wasn’t really asking about your workday, though.”

“I know you weren’t.” Trixie sighed, ceasing to doodle and just letting her head thump miserably on the table. “But it was still the highlight of today, all the same.”

Starlight shifted uneasily, feeling guilty again. “Look, Trixie,” she began, deciding to just delve right into it, “About last night…I’m sorry. It wasn’t my business to get involved in and ultimately I didn’t help anyone anyway.” Her gaze turned concerned. “I fear I only ended up hurting you more.”

Trixie sighed again, but slowly shook her head, finally meeting Starlight’s gaze. She didn’t look angry, just…dejected. “No,” she mumbled, “it wasn’t your fault, not really. If anyone should be sorry, it was me. You…you were just trying to be a good friend by telling me the truth, but…I refused to believe it, tried to push you away, and…it made you resort to other tactics. Really, I set myself up for this by choosing not to believe what was already staring me in the face.”

Starlight gazed at her sympathetically. “Did you suspect, then?”

Trixie hesitated. “Maybe deep down,” she admitted. “Looking back, it…did all seem like something was amiss. But I guess I was too lost in the moment to admit it…so I buried it instead. I liked the illusion too much, and lashed out at anything that would shatter it.” She looked apologetically to Starlight. “And in so doing, I said some things to you…I probably shouldn’t have. So I’m sorry, Starlight. I was…being unreasonable, treating your attempts to warn me like I did.”

Starlight averted her gaze, ashamed. “The thing is though…you were still right.” Seeing Trixie perk up in surprise, she sighed and pressed on. “I…hate admitting it, but…you were right. I was jealous. Jealous that you had found a special somepony when I still hadn’t, and I guess…it just made me feel like I was getting left behind…left out. I…didn’t want to face that, so I wanted to see something in Theodore Startup that I could use to…prevent that. And when I actually did end up finding something, I felt vindicated and…it just spurred me on. I got so caught up in trying to bring down the stallion that reminded me of my own failures…I forgot to consider what it might do to you…or Thorax, for that matter.” She shook her head. “Even if my intentions were good…I still shouldn’t have tried to get between you two, not like I did at least. It only got us all in trouble in the end.”

Trixie sighed for a third time, but when she lifted her gaze again afterwards, her spirits had brightened enough that she managed a small smile. “I guess, in the end, we all messed up, huh?”

Starlight mirrored the smile. “Little bit, yeah.” She paused for a second, surveying her friend. “I spoke to Thorax.”

Trixie’s only reaction was her ears perking up a little. “He’s still in town?”

“Yeah. He…he feels pretty bad about what happened and regrets what he did, if it helps any. He hadn’t meant to hurt you.”

“That’s what’s so awful about all of this though,” Trixie said. “I know he never really meant to hurt me, or anyone. It’s Thorax for crying out loud!” She leaned back in her seat, groaning. “He’s just a dunderhead that doesn’t think things through, is all. So…there’s a part of me that feels bad for being so mad at him over this.” She ran her hooves over her face. “But…he still lied to me, didn’t he? Pretended to be someone he wasn’t.”

“Did he, though?” Starlight suddenly challenged. When Trixie gave her a questioning look, she explained. “Pharynx and I talked at length last night just before everything…” she trailed off, looking for the right word.

Fortunately, Trixie had it. “…went cheesy?”

Starlight smiled, suppressing a snicker at the wordplay. “…yeah. Anyway, Pharynx pointed out why my attempts to tell you the truth hadn’t worked.” Starlight looked her right in the eye. “He said it was because you already knew that, no matter what he looked like on the outside, on the inside, Thorax was a good guy. And that was what was more important.”

Trixie’s gaze turned distant as she silently considered that.

“Think about it, Trixie,” Starlight pressed on. “He may have been wearing a false face and going under a false name, but otherwise…was Theodore Startup really any different from Thorax, king of the changelings?”

Trixie took another second or two to consider it before replying. “Do you think I should forgive him, then?” she asked. She sounded hopeful, like she was already willing, but needed to be given permission first.

But Starlight hesitated. “That’s up to you,” she conceded. “I think you should go talk to him about it though, try and at least smooth out what happened, get his side of the story in full, let him hear yours, whatever you need to. Even if this whole relationship you two had still ends here…I don’t think there’s any reason why your friendship has to too. Besides,” Starlight trotted around the desk separating them and put a comforting hoof on Trixie’s shoulder, “right now he thinks you’re going to hate him forever for what happened. He could use the reassurance that won’t actually be the case…unless that’s what you want from him.”

But Trixie immediately shook her head. “No,” she said. “I don’t. I’m…I’m not that upset with him, I guess.” She winced to herself. “Still not that terribly happy with him either because he still messed up, short and simple, but…you’re probably right.” She sighed. “I…we…we need to talk this out more, at least now that we’ve both had the time to…cool our heads.”

Starlight patted her on the back and turned to go. “Then I’ll leave you to it.”

“Starlight,” Trixie called as she left. She grinned at her friend. “Thanks. Maybe you helped get us all into this mess…but I do appreciate you trying to help us get back out of it.” She blushed a little sheepishly. “Honestly…I’m not sure I want it to end like this either. I just…needed to be reminded of that.”

Starlight grinned back. “Just trying to be a better friend than I was before,” she replied, starting to open the door.

“Then…can I have your honest opinion on something else?” Trixie asked. She seemed almost embarrassed to do so though as she shifted awkwardly, tapping her hooves together. “A pony and a changeling…do you really think that could work?”

Starlight considered it for a second while standing in the doorway. “I don’t know,” she finally admitted. She gave Trixie a wink. “Might be your chance to find out.”

Meanwhile, Pharynx and Thorax had finished their own conversation, the former having fully recapped his rather flattering comments about the latter to Starlight the previous night, and now the two sat awkwardly in the wagon, not sure what else to say. Pharynx, as usual, sat there looking grumpy and annoyed at having to discuss the touchy-feely topic. Thorax, however, just sat there on the bed, gazing at him almost a little blankly.

It was starting to annoy Pharynx. “Stop staring at me like that.”

“Sorry,” Thorax apologized. “It’s just…you almost never compliment me like that.”

Pharynx’s snout wrinkled in his annoyance. “Well…you’re such an idiot most of the time that you don’t give me much cause to,” he said, and to cap off the point, teasingly stuck his tongue out at his younger brother.

Thorax grinned a little, amused by Pharynx’s awkward handling of this. “Did you mean it?” he asked, curious.

Pharynx, to his credit, almost looked offended. “Don’t I usually mean what I say?” he challenged.

“So you meant it all? How you think I always manage to do good in the end, and been a good king despite my…being an idiot?”

Pharynx rolled his eyes. “Thorax, if I didn’t think you could handle being king, I probably would’ve overthrown you within the first week of your rule,” he summed up bluntly. “Informis Una forbid, we all know it’d be stupidly easy for me to do.”

Thorax’s grin grew and he pulled his grump of an old brother into a hug. Pharynx squirmed in protest, but Thorax just squeezed harder until he finally relented, grumpily staring heavenwards as he waited out the show of affection.

He was finally rescued when there was a timid knock on the wagon door. “All right, all right, that’s enough of that nonsense,” he said, trying to squirm out of Thorax’s grip again. “There’s somebody at the door. Lemme go turn them away so you can get back to sulking in peace.”

“Eh, maybe sulking’s getting overrated,” Thorax said as he sat back down on the bed. “Let ‘em come on in. I think I need a bit of socializing right now anyway.”

Pharynx opened the door a crack to see who it was and immediately raised an eyebrow. He looked back at Thorax. “All right, but it’s your funeral.” He then pulled the door back to reveal it was Trixie sheepishly standing at the door.

Thorax’s face fell. “…Oh.” Unable to look the mare in the eye, he awkwardly rubbed the back of his head. “Hi.”

“Yeah,” Trixie said with a nod, also unable to look him in the eye. “Hi.” She then drew in a deep breath and stepped inside. “Look…can we talk for a bit?”

Thorax sighed. “Yeah, I suppose we ought to,” he agreed and motioned for her to come closer. “Did Starlight put you up to this?”

“…Sort of,” Trixie admitted. “She…at least made me realize that things might not be as bad as they seemed, but…” she trailed off, glancing uncomfortably at Pharynx.

Thorax understood. “Hey, can you give us a few minutes alone please?” he asked of his brother.

Pharynx made a mock salute. “I’ll do you one better and make sure nobody interrupts you,” he promised as he turned to step outside. “I’m leaving if the wagon starts rocking, though.” He cackled as Thorax’s pillow hit him the back of his head, closing the door behind him and leaving the two alone.

Thorax glared after him for a second before turning to Trixie. “I’m sorry about him,” he apologized for his brother. “But he’s still good at what he does, so…what can you do?”

Trixie, to her credit, giggled a little. “It’s okay, I can’t say I blame him much.”

Thorax grinned, but it was short lived. “Look…I’m sorry for deceiving you, Trixie,” he said, getting right to the point. “That was wrong of me.”

Trixie sighed, stepping closer. “And I’m sorry I ran out last night without letting you explain,” she added. “I was just…”

“…mad,” Thorax finished. He nodded his head. “I understand. I don’t blame you for that. I’m…sure it was all a shock.”

“Yeah, but…that’s not what I came here for.” Trixie looked him in the eye. “Look, I’ve been thinking it over…and I think it’s safe to say we all helped mess up that relationship we had up until last night. And…with that hanging over our heads, I’m not sure we’re ever going to sort it out and turn it back into what it was before, so much so I think it’d just make things worse trying.”

Thorax’s ears drooped sadly at this.

“So maybe we should just forget that and instead…take it back to the beginning and start over from scratch.”

Thorax’s ears then perked up hopefully again. “Really?”

Trixie shrugged. “I mean, at the end of the day, the whole issue with this was just that I was dating a changeling without knowing it, right?” she reasoned. “So…might as well try it, right?”

Thorax thought it over for a moment, then, with an optimistic shrug, stuck out his hoof, offering it to Trixie. “Hello, I am Thorax.”

Trixie regarded the extended chitinous hoof for a second then, grinning, took it in her own azure hoof and shook it. “Hello, Thorax” she greeted, playing along. “I…am the Great and Powerful Trixie! I’m a formally-traveling stage magician, illusionist, and now student counselor.”

“And I’m a changeling,” Thorax offered back in response.

Trixie giggled and nodded her head. “Yes, I can see that.”

They both laughed before proceeding to catch up with one another, resuming the friendly relations they had first started out with as if nothing had happened and anything had gotten between them. Most certainly not the fact that one of them was really a changeling.

By the following day, things had largely gone back to normal. Creatures awoke and went about their day, and at the School of Friendship classes went routinely and without issue. After the events of the past couple of days, Starlight was personally thankful for the return to normality—made it easier to set aside what had happened, clear one’s mind, and move on to focus on new things. She was rather ready for that now, figuring Trixie and the others were to.

She found Silverstream as an excellent example of this when she came across the hippogriff standing to one side of the school cafeteria with her camera, not long after classes had ended for the day. “Hey Silverstream,” Starlight greeted as she approached, watching Silverstream watch something through the camera’s sights. She turned her head to try and see what she was looking at but saw only Gallus and Smolder sitting alone at a table on the other side of the room, conversing over homework. “Whatcha doing?”

“Documenting budding romance!” Silverstream replied, snapping a picture abruptly.

Starlight’s brow furrowed and again glanced in the direction Silverstream was looking. Again, she only saw Gallus and Smolder doing nothing out of the ordinary. “…all right,” she mumbled uncertain then changed the subject. “Hey, while I’ve got you here, you wouldn’t have happened to seen Trixie recently, have you? She’s not in her office at the moment.”

“Nuh-uh,” Silverstream replied, examining her latest photo. “Haven’t really seen her at all today. Why, do you need her for something?”

“Oh, nothing too important really,” Starlight admitted. “I just had next week’s schedule all worked out and I figured I might as well get her up to date while I had the chance. Why?”

“Does that mean you’re free for the rest of the day?” Silverstream then asked as she slipped the new photo into her album before continuing to gaze at whatever it was that had caught her attention.

“Well, I still have some paperwork I could be doing, but I guess it can wait,” Starlight replied, again trying but failing to see what had the hippogriff’s attention. “Okay, Silverstream, seriously, just what is it that you’re looking at? You said something romantic, but I don’t see anything like that.”

“It’s right there, silly!” Silverstream said, and pointed right at where Gallus and Smolder were sitting. “It’s a new romance among my friends!”

Starlight frowned slightly as she surveyed the pair, not sure she understood—let alone saw—what Silverstream was suggesting. But then she saw Smolder hurriedly peek around the room to see if anyone was watching and then, apparently believing no one was, leaned over and stole a quick peck on Gallus’s cheek.

Starlight’s eyebrows went up, suddenly understanding. “Well, I’ll be darned,” she remarked, as Gallus responded by playfully bopping Smolder on the shoulder.

“Aren’t they adorable?” Silverstream cooed while Smolder bopped Gallus back with a bit more force.

Starlight watched as the two proceeded to bop each other back and forth, harder and harder, until finally Gallus tackled Smolder and their squabbling dropped behind the table and out of view. “Well, as adorable as those two can ever be,” she quipped with a smirk. She glanced back at Silverstream with a knowing look. “Yet another unexpected outcome from the past couple of days, I assume?”

“Yup! Ooh, hey, speaking of,” Silverstream turned to look at her. “Is King Thorax still in town? Ocellus was saying she wanted to update him on her school studies in person while he was here but I wasn’t sure if he still was. Hadn’t seen him much since…you know…the incident.”

“I think so,” Starlight replied. “But I haven’t met with him or Pharynx today, so I can’t say for certain.” As Gallus and Smolder emerged from their brief wrestling spat, a little roughed up but looking no worse for wear, she nudged the hippogriff into moving away. “Anyway, let’s stop spying on Gallus and Smolder now and go do other things, howabout?”

“Aw, okay,” Silverstream said, glancing over at the clock on the wall. She then tugged on Starlight’s mane. “Hey, actually, headmare, can I borrow you for a bit? There’s something I want you to come see.”

“Well, I suppose, so long as it doesn’t take too long,” Starlight replied as they headed out of the cafeteria. “Where is it at?”

“The train station.”

Starlight looked at her in surprise. “The train station? What’s at the train station?”

“You’ll see!” Silverstream replied in a sing-song voice. “Oh, but we have to hurry! We’ll need to be there before three-thirty!”

“Okay…but why?” Starlight asked, skeptical.

“You’ll see!” Silverstream only replied again. “But I promise it’ll be worth your while!”

Starlight weighed her options as they stepped into the school’s entry hall, but decided that whatever it was, it couldn’t possibly hurt, and besides, she probably owed Silverstream a little favoring considering how she’d assisted her the past few days. “Oh, all right then, so long as it doesn’t take too long,” she relented.

“Yay!” Silverstream cheered, prancing in place for a moment before starting for the exit. “Let’s get going!”

“Just a second,” Starlight said, heading for the nearby coat closet. “I’d heard that the weather team is bringing a cool breeze in for this afternoon and it might be a bit nippy. Lemme get a jacket first so I don’t catch a chill.”

She pulled open the closet door so to do so, but immediately halted at the sight of Thorax and Trixie already inside, in the middle of a makeout session and a rather intense one by the look of it, enough that Trixie’s magicians hat had somehow gone from her head to on top of Thorax’s. Oblivious to the fact that they’d been caught, they kept right at it while Starlight just stood there and stared, brain slow to catch up to the scene she had just stumbled into.

Silverstream didn’t have this problem though. “Oh hey!” she declared loudly, leaning in so to see too, “You found Counselor Trixie!” Unsurprisingly, she snapped a picture.

This finally alerted Trixie and Thorax and they broke apart a split second too late to avoid being caught forever on film, turning to look at the intruders. Thorax was clearly embarrassed to be caught like this, blushing so hard that he looked more red than his usual lime green. Trixie, however, was much less apologetic about it.

“Hey!” she snapped, lighting her horn, “Privacy!”

She then used her magic to rip the door out of Starlight’s grip and slam it shut again.

Starlight stood there numbly for a second longer before finally about-facing without a second thought. “Actually, it’s not going to be that cold out there,” she covered quickly, suddenly eager to be anywhere but there now, “I can manage without, I’m sure.”

Silverstream looked from her to the closet. “But what about Trixie and Thorax?”

“If they want that closet so badly, they can keep it forever and ever at this point,” Starlight stressed while opening the school’s front door to leave.

Silverstream followed, unperturbed. “Won’t we all still need the coat closest after they’re done with it, though?”

“Honestly, Silverstream? It might be better to just call it a lost cause and build a new one.”

“So are you still feeling jealous about Counselor Trixie hooking up with King Thorax?” Silverstream asked as they walked towards the Ponyville train station.

“Oh, we’re still going on about that, are we?” Starlight groused. At Silverstream’s responding look though, she relented. “Yes, I was feeling jealous about that before.” When Silverstream’s look intensified, she added, “Okay, fine, I’m still kinda feeling jealous about it.” She sighed. “It’s just…it’d be nice if I found a special somepony too, y’know? And with Trixie and Thorax finding theirs…it sort of reminded me just how much I’d like to have that.”

“Hmm,” Silverstream hummed, nodding her head to herself.

They kept walking for a moment. “Why do you ask?” Starlight then felt compelled to inquire.

“Oh, no special reason,” Silverstream replied a little quickly.

Starlight raised a questioning brow at her for that, but didn’t press further. Soon they arrived at the currently empty train station, standing on the platform and looking around. “All right then, we’re here now,” Starlight remarked, surveying the area and not immediately seeing the significance. “What’s here that you wanted me to see?”

“Well, we still gotta wait just a teensy bit,” Silverstream explained, glancing at the clock set on the station wall. “It’s not quite three-thirty yet.”

“Okay,” Starlight said, still not understanding, “but what happens at three-thirty?”

“You’ll see!” Silverstream sang again, but then heard the distant call of a train whistle. They hurried to the platform edge to peer down the tracks and see a train approaching from the north. “Ooh, then again, looks like its early!”

“Wait, the train?” Starlight asked, confused, as the train pulled up to the station. She looked it up and down, but it was just a normal passenger train that always passed through the town once or twice a day. “Silverstream, what’s special about the train?”

“It’s not the train, it’s what’s on the train, silly!” Silverstream replied as ponies started off-loading from it onto the platform.

“On the train?” Starlight repeated, surveying the small crowd of ponies now spilling around them. “But…then what’s on the—?”

“Starlight?” she heard a familiar voice call out from within the crowd, and she turned to see her assistant headpony urgently moving through the crowd towards them.

“Sunburst?” Starlight declared, surprised, as she moved to meet the stallion. “What’s going on, what are you doing here? I thought you were still going to be in Vanhoover for another day or two!”

“I was, but then I got your letter saying there was an emergency and you needed me back here ASAP!” Sunburst explained anxiously, panting and wiping his brow. “So I got on the first train back to Ponyville as soon as I could!”

“Emergency?” Starlight repeated, only further baffled. “What emergency? And what letter? I never sent you any—” But then she cut herself short and turned to shoot Silverstream a look, having figured out what had happened.

Silverstream just grinned cheekily. “I regret nothing!” she assured, in a manner Starlight suspected she’d picked up from the likes of Gallus or Smolder. “And with everybody else pairing up, I figured a friendly nudge to get you to at least ask him wouldn’t hurt! Besides, what are you waiting for, anyway? You did say he was the one you most wanted to ba—” Mortified, Starlight quickly stuffed a hoof into her beak, silencing her before she could finish that last sentence.

“Most wanted to what?” Sunburst asked, obliviously curious.

“Nothing!” Starlight quickly assured before shooting Silverstream a look. “Just a reminder that we all should know better than to meddle in another creature’s affairs by now.”

Silverstream just grinned happily, still totally unrepentant, so Starlight shooed her away. Sunburst looked on with puzzlement. “So…what was the emergency?” he asked, confused.

“Nothing, I’m afraid,” Starlight explained apologetically, turning to face him, “At least, nothing that we weren’t able to sort out ourselves. Sorry about that.”

“Oh,” Sunburst said, blinking to himself for a moment. He looked embarrassed. “I…guess I didn’t need to rush on over here after all.”

“Afraid not,” Starlight apologized. “I hope we haven’t messed up our plans for getting a new supplier for school supplies, then.”

“Oh no, we’re all good there,” Sunburst quickly assured. “Actually, I finished ahead of schedule with that and cut a deal with Fly Leaf just yesterday, who’s totally on board with what we want to do.” He shrugged. “I was just going to use the remaining days to see some of the Vanhoover sights until I got your letter. But it’s probably for the better that I came back now anyway. Seeing sights is great and all, but you can only enjoy it so much when you’re doing it alone.”

There was a flash of a camera off to one side and Starlight shot a glare at Silverstream. She had retreated only as far as the other end of the train platform before proceeding to snap pictures of the two. Starlight again tried to wave her off, but Silverstream misinterpreted it and happily waved back. Starlight groaned and rolled her eyes, deciding instead to try ignoring the hippogriff.

Sunburst looked on at all of this with curious bemusement and some confusion. “So…I take it I missed something while I was gone?” he surmised.

“You could say that,” Starlight admitted, rubbing at her temples.

Sunburst watched her do so sympathetically. “Do you…want to talk about it?”

Starlight initial thought was to say that she really didn’t…but then thought maybe it was better if Sunburst heard the events of the past few days from her first. “Trixie and King Thorax started dating, for starters,” she summed up in brief.

Sunburst’s eyebrows went up in surprise. “Really?” he asked. “How did that happen?”

“You know, it’s all really a bit of a funny story,” Starlight said with a slightly embarrassed chuckle. “You’ll laugh, honestly.”

“Then TELL HIM it already!” Silverstream shouted from across the platform, trying to egg her on. “Quit stalling!”

Starlight squeezed her eyes shut at the shout, frustrated, knowing perfectly well what she was trying to get her to do. But then she decided she might as well jump in and give it a shot regardless. “Tell you what, how about I tell you the whole story from the start,” she said, before adding sheepishly, “…maybe over dinner?” A pause, then, deciding to go all in, added, “…for two? Alone?”

Sunburst calmly blinked at her for a second, taking that in. “Okay.”

Starlight pulled back slightly, surprised. “Wait, just like that?” she asked, not expecting it to be that easy.

“Well, yeah,” Sunburst replied with a shrug. “All you had to do was ask.”

Now Starlight blinked at him for a second. “Huh,” she hummed.

“I told you!”

“Shush, Silverstream!” Starlight then grabbed Sunburst’s hoof and started leading him away in the direction opposite the hippogriff was in. “You know what, let’s go continue this somewhere private, how about?”

Sunburst chuckled. “Good idea,” he agreed.

Meanwhile, Silverstream snapped another picture of them walking off into the distance. “And one last budding romance for the day!” she declared happily as she slipped the latest picture into her album.

Author's Notes:

*later, after showing her brother her finished photo album at Mount Aris*
Terramar: "I'm not so sure this whole tale you've told me is really all that logical, Sil."
Silverstream: "Eh, maybe, but hey! At least it'll still make all the shippers among us happy, amirite?"

And all is well that ends well.

The Thorxie ship specifically pursued in this fic for all of those readers of "Grief is the Price We Pay." They will already know why.

Some Smollus also thrown in too just because I'm pro for that ship (and incidentally was already in the story way before I had even conceived of "Somnambulism", or else I likely would've tied the two together).

And finally ending off on some Starburst, because I felt like Starlight needed to walk away from all of this a winner too.

One final fun fact: the concept and premise of this story is actually very old, dating all the way back to somewhere around season two or three, and was about how Rarity had begun dating a stallion and Spike, feeling jealous, goes about trying to dig up dirt on said stallion to try and get them to break up, only to accidentally discover that the stallion was in reality a mystical kitsune disguising him as a pony because he was lonely and longed for companionship, before transitioning into Spike, Twilight, and Pinkie working together to try and reveal the kitsune during a dinner date with him and Rarity...to hilarious results. I never got around to writing it though, so when I got to looking into doing some fic featuring Thorxie and realized I could use that same premise here, I quickly jumped on the idea.

Anyway, hope everybody enjoyed!

Trixie's Beau

by Scyphi

Introductions

Investigations

Interventions

Introspections