Chapter 62

Allen, Penny, and Perfect were waiting on the Ponyville Station platform for the Friday morning train to arrive. Allen was sitting on a bench with his arms folded over his chest, his head down and his eyes closed. Penny was sitting next to him, her cast resting gently against the wooden bench seat, while Perfect slowly paced back and forth in front of them.

“So...” began Penny, “how are things going with the tractor?”

Allen gave a non-committal grunt.

“Is that a good grunt or a bad one?” asked Penny, a small smile on her face.

Sighing, Allen lifted his head and replied, “Still won’t start and I can’t figure out why. Well, no, I know why, I just can’t figure out the reason for the why.”

“The battery still won’t hold a charge?” she guessed.

Allen shook his head. “Nope, and no matter how hard I look, I can’t find anything to indicate why that battery won’t work. So I decided to walk away from it until I’m in the mood again.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

“Unless you can magic me up a new tractor, then no, but I appreciate the offer,” Allen tiredly replied.

“The train is coming,” called out Perfect suddenly, interrupting the two’s conversation.

Leaning forward in his seat, Allen peered down the track and saw the ‘Friendship Express’ happily chugging its way along.

Gaudy-looking thing, thought Allen to himself. However, he didn’t figure anyone cared what his opinion on what the local rollingstock looked like, so he kept his thoughts to himself.

With the train drawing closer, Allen pushed himself out of his seat and, after helping Penny get up, joined Perfect near the edge of the platform.

With a clatter of wheels and a shriek of the brakes, the Friendship Express came to a stop in a cloud of steam. A short whistle blast signaled to the passengers that they had stopped at their destination and that it was time to disembark.

As compartment doors opened and ponies filed on and off, Allen and company looked for the familiar dark blue coat of Rune Chisel.

Being taller than the two mares, Allen was the first to spot him.

“Over there,” he said, pointing further down the platform.

Pushing their way through the small mob of passengers, they quickly met up with Rune.

“Good morning, Mr. Chisel,” greeted Penny warmly, a pleasant smile on her face.

“Good morning,” replied Rune Chisel, though his expression lacked any warmth or pleasantness. In fact, he appeared more surly than usual.

“How was your trip?” continued Penny, unfazed by his blunt response.

“Fine,” he bluntly replied.

“Do you need any help with your things?” asked Penny.

“No, my son’s getting the cart unloaded as we speak and will meet us out front,” said Rune as he turned and trotted through the station doors.

“Well, he seems to be in a good mood today,” remarked Perfect sarcastically.

Penny frowned. “I wonder what’s wrong, while not the most cheerful pony, I don’t think I’ve seen him this... prickly before.”

“Well, whatever his deal is, so long as he can give us a good price and get the work done, I don’t really care right now, so let’s go,” said Allen as he followed after the departing unicorn.

Following along behind Rune, Allen, and company stepped outside and quickly spotted Spell Matrix standing near the station’s doors with his father’s cart. Seeing the human and two mares, the young stallion gave them a friendly wave and smile.

“Hello,” he said happily, “beautiful morning, isn’t it?”

“Hello, Spell, and yes it is,” replied Penny with a smile, glad to see at least one happy pony this morning. “How have you been?”

“Oh, could be better, could be worse,” he shrugged. His father, meanwhile brushed past and set to work checking the cart for damaged or missing items.

“How is your mother doing?” asked Allen carefully, his voice pitched lower so Rune Chisel couldn’t overhear.

Spell Matrix glanced back at his father who was still busy rummaging around in a box at the back of the cart and satisfied he was too busy to pay attention, replied, “Better, thanks to you for that large job you gave us. We were able to scrap enough money together to afford the medical treatments. She just came out of surgery last week, and the doctors think the cancer is in remission. However, it is still a little too early to tell. However, we’re hopeful that she’ll be on the mend soon.”

Allen smiled and nodded. “I’m glad to hear that. Have you thought about what I told you when we first met you in Canterlot?”

Spell risked another glance back over his withers and quickly replied, “I have, and both my mother and brothers are on board with the idea... but we haven’t broached the topic with Father yet. We were hoping to wait until after Mother’s surgery results came back to ask him, hoping he would be in a better mood and more receptive to the idea. Especially after hearing that the Canterlot City Council has approved another ten percent tax increase effective next year.”

“I had heard about that,” remarked Perfect, an annoyed look on her face, “those greedy buffoons are going to cripple Canterlot’s economy if they keep hiking up taxes as they are.”

“Yeah well, politicians are short-sighted creatures, so that doesn’t come as a surprise,” said Allen with a weary shake of his head. “The best thing a person can do is either fight it or leave.”

Spell nodded in agreement. “And we’ve decided to leave. Most of our business now is repairing or enchanting things that can be sent to us through the mail service, and what few customers that we get that want us to apply runes to their homes we could easily add a travel fee and they would happily pay it.”

“Well, then it sounds to me that the only thing left to do is convince your father,” said Allen.

Spell’s ears fell flat against his scalp and he kicked a hoof uneasily. “That I am afraid will be easier said than done, but we might soon have no choice, so we will see.”

“Well if you do decide to move out of Canterlot, I would be happy to assist you as thanks for the excellent work that you and your family have done for us,” said Penny with a happy smile.

Spell turned to her with a grateful smile and replied, “Oh thank you, that would be- What happened to your leg?” he asked suddenly upon seeing her bandaged leg.

“Timberwolf attack, thankfully the doctors said it’ll heal with minimal scarring, but it does itch something fierce at times,” she replied with a wince as she tried to use her magic to scratch at an itch that was just out of reach underneath her cast.

Spell looked around worriedly and asked, “I-I didn’t know there were timberwolves nearby.”

“They tend to keep to the other side of the river in the Everfree Forest,” explained Penny, “however a tree fell across the river at Allen’s farm and allowed a few of them to get across. Allen’s workers and I were working to remove the tree when they attacked us, thankfully, Allen arrived in time to save us and I was the only one injured.”

Allen awkwardly scratched the back of his head and said, “I didn’t really do anything other than run the varmints over with my tractor and mower. Besides, the local guard garrison showed up shortly after I arrived and took things over from there.”

“But if you hadn’t shown up when you did, things might have gotten worse before they got better,” retorted Penny.

Allen just shrugged, embarrassed at the praise he was receiving.

“So, anyways, glad to hear that your mom is doing better, and hopefully things will get better on the business front as well,” Allen said suddenly, in an obvious attempt to change the direction of the conversation.

“Right, well thank you and I hope so too,” replied Spell with a small smile.

The closing of a wooden lid behind them signaled that Rune was done with rummaging around, and the group quickly clammed up.

“Alright, everything looks good, and nothing is missing, so let’s get a move on,” announced the elder unicorn.

“Alright, let’s head out then,” replied Penny happily as the group slowly started on their way.

As the group was passing by the Golden Oaks Library, Allen heard someone call out his name. Looking towards the library, he spotted Twilight waving at him from one of the upper windows.

“Huh, wonder what she wants?” he muttered to himself. Turning to Penny he said, “Hey Penny, it looks like Twilight wants to talk to me, so I’ll catch up with you guys at the farm. You know what we need, so don’t wait up on my account.”

“Alright Allen, we’ll see you there,” she nodded in reply.

Giving her a wave goodbye, Allen peeled off from the group and headed for the treebrary.

The front door swung open as he approached and Twilight stepped outside.

Damn, looks like she didn’t sleep very well last night, thought Allen as he took in the bookish unicorn’s frazzled appearance. Her mane was a rat's nest of tangled hair, and there were a few ink stains coloring her hair as if she had fallen asleep on wet ink several times throughout the night.

“Hey... Twilight, are you okay?” asked Allen in concern at her disheveled appearance.

Twilight’s tired, bloodshot eyes gazed up at Allen, and smiling she replied, “I’m fi-” a large yawn interrupted her reply momentarily, “-ine. Just had a late night study session is all.”

Allen nodded. “I see. So what can I do for you?”

“Oh, I just saw you walking by and wanted to see how you were doing after the timberwolf attack,” she replied.

“I’ve been better,” said Allen with a shrug before filling Twilight in on what had transpired since she had seen him last.

“Interesting,” remarked Twilight as she rubbed her chin with a hoof absently. “I’m glad to hear that your thaumatic pathways are getting stronger.”

“Yeah, I’m glad as well,” replied Allen with a nod of his head. “It would suck if I couldn’t process mana like you guys can. Would lead to a very short stay here in Equestria if that was the case.”

Twilight winced at the thought and said, “Yes well, thankfully we don’t have to worry about that. How is Penny doing? You said that she was injured in the attack?”

Allen nodded. “Yeah, she’s doing better, the doctor said that her leg should heal just fine with only minimal scarring.”

“Well, that is also good to hear. Speaking of doctors, you said that Dr. Stable would be running some tests on you this coming Monday at your farm?”

“Yeah, why do you ask?”

“I was hoping to get your permission to attend and take notes. If you can do magic like ponies can, then it could lead to a whole new branch of magical studies to pursue,” said Twilight, a hopeful look on her face.

Shrugging, Allen replied, “I don’t see why not, but you’ll probably want to run it by Dr. Stable before Monday, just in case he has any reservations.”

“Oh, of course, I wouldn’t dream of butting in on another pony’s research without first obtaining their permission.”

“That’s good to hear, speaking of research, have you or Lyra made any progress on sending me home yet?” asked Allen.

Twilight’s ears fell flat against her mane and she idly kicked at a rock in front of her. “I’m afraid it has been slow going. Lyra was able to obtain access to several new archives, and I’ve been working on cross-referencing what she has found with other materials, but we haven’t really found anything concrete yet.”

“But it sounds like you found something possibly?” asked Allen hopefully.

Twilight winced and replied, “Now, Allen, I don’t want you to get your hopes up... but we might have found a lead on an old manuscript that dates back to before the reign of Discord. If this manuscript still exists, it may help us get you home, but...” she trailed off, as if unsure how best to continue.

“But you don’t know where it is,” finished Allen, having already guessed where the conversation was going.

Twilight nodded glumly. “All we know is that this manuscript was last known to be in the possession of a secretive race of shapeshifters, called changelings. Not much is known about them other than one has not been seen since before the fall of Princess Luna to the nightmare.”

“Changelings... where have I heard that word before,” said Allen absently as he scratched his head.

Twilight’s ears pricked up and she excitedly asked, “Do you mean to tell me that your people also have tales of these creatures as well?”

Allen slowly nodded. “Yeah, I think old European folklore says that they kidnap and replace people, mostly children for various reasons. But the details are pretty foggy. Do yours do that too?”

“The records on changelings are scarce and hardly complete, but from what Lyra and I have been able to glean they were a race of shapeshifters that could take the place of a loved one to gather the target pony’s emotional energy. As for why they would do that, the records don’t say, but it is interesting that your world and our world share so many similarities when it comes to creatures.”

“Yeah, it is pretty odd now that you mention it,” remarked Allen slowly. “Do you think there is a connection or something?”

Twilight shrugged. “I do not know. It is possible that perhaps our worlds were connected at one time or maybe during Discord’s reign he could have shuffled people around between worlds. We just don’t know. But considering your presence in our world, there is a strong argument to be made that Discord did something.”

“Yeah, but I guess the only way to know for sure would be to ask him.”

Twilight shuddered and shook her head vehemently. “I’d prefer not to let him out anytime soon if we don’t have to, thank you very much. The last time he was out was one of the worst days of my life, and I’d really rather not repeat that if we have other options.”

Allen nodded in understanding. “Yeah, everyone else has said similar things, so I get it. But other than that, have you come across anything else of note?”

Twilight shook her head sadly. “Unfortunately, no that manuscript is our only lead right now, and we have no idea where to begin looking for it or if it even still exists. As such, we’ll just have to wait and see if another Chaos Event, like that sunflower you found behind the school, triggers soon. If my calculations are correct, there is a high probability that we’ll have another CE soon.”

“How soon?”

“I’m... not entirely sure, a few days to a few weeks, maybe a month. Measuring the background chaos magic is difficult, but from what I’ve found, it appears to be rising at a steady pace. The question is, when will it reach critical mass, and what will it do when it does?”

“Guess we’ll just have to wait and find out, I suppose,” replied Allen.

Twilight nodded and opened her mouth to reply, however, she was interrupted by the sudden arrival of an out-of-breath Perfect.

“A-Allen... come... quick.”

“Whoa, hey take it easy, what’s going on?” asked Allen in concern.

“Penny... sent me... to... get you... Rune Chisel... and... Lock Box... are... fighting...” she panted.

“What? Why are they fighting?” asked Allen confused at the current turn of events.

“Just... come... quickly...” replied Perfect as she turned to try and run only to face plant into the dirt as her legs gave out beneath her.

“Perfect, are you okay?” asked Allen in concern.

“I... am... fine... just not... used to... running so... much,” she replied tiredly as she tried to push herself back onto her hooves.

Shaking his head, Allen scooped the tired pony up in his arms, slung her over his shoulder like a sack of grain, and took off at a fast jog in the direction she’d come from with Twilight hot on his heels.

Squawking at the indignity of being carried around as she was, Perfect struggled for a moment on Allen’s shoulder. However, a quick irritated swat from Allen made her freeze.

“Quit thrashing around, you’re gonna kick me if you keep that up,” growled Allen in annoyance. “Now, tell me where they’re fighting.”

“Put me down! This is so undignified!” squawked Perfect indignantly.

“No, now tell me where they are,” retorted Allen as he jogged along, various ponies were pointing at the odd sight as Ponyville’s resident human jogged by with a mare slung over his shoulder and another rushing along behind him trying to keep up.

Seeing that he wasn’t going to put her down, Perfect sighed and resigned herself to dealing with the local rumor mill gossiping about her for the next few days and replied, “They’re over by the town hall.”

Nodding, Allen adjusted his course.

As they approached the open area around the town hall, Allen could hear the sounds of a heated argument ready to boil over into physical violence ahead. Slowing momentarily, he set Perfect down on the ground and resumed his previous pace with Twilight right behind him.

Catching her breath, Perfect, took a moment to adjust her mane and gave herself a small shake before following as quickly as her sore muscles would let her.

Rounding the last group of buildings, Allen was greeted to a small cluster of colorful ponies blocking his way. Earth ponies, unicorns, and a few pegasi were gathered around an arguing Rune Chisel, and Lock Box.

Pushing his way through the ring of ponies, Allen spotted Penny and Spell Matrix standing off to the side. Keeping an eye on the arguing unicorns in case they started fighting, he approached Penny and asked, “What the hell is going on?”

“Allen! Thank Celestia you made it!” exclaimed Penny in relief.

“Yeah, Perfect found us and I’m here now, so tell me, what the hell is going on? I thought you guys were going to head to the farm?” asked Allen again while the argument behind him heated up further.

“Well, we were heading to the farm when we ran into Uncle Box, and well... it went downhill pretty fast,” replied Spell tiredly before Penny could say anything.

Looking at Spell with a confused expression, Allen asked, “What? You’re telling me that Lock Box is related to you?”

Spell nodded. “He’s my mother’s older brother. He and my Dad go way back. Before Dad married Mom, he and Uncle Box went to school together. Then when my grandfather died, they agreed to go into business together and took over his rune shop in Canterlot. They eventually had a pretty nasty falling out several years later, I’m not sure what about, I was still too young when that happened and Mom won’t tell me.”

Allen shook his head and sighed. “Seriously?”

Spell nodded. “Yep, we only get to see Uncle Lock Box during Hearth’s Warming and Mom’s birthday, and Dad doesn’t attend. Dad holds a grudge for a long time.”

As Allen and Spell talked, Perfect and Twilight had managed to push their way through the small crowd and join them.

“Allen, what is going on?” asked Twilight in concern.

“Family feud from the sounds of it,” replied Allen with a shake of his head.

“So what should we do?” she asked as she watched the two unicorn stallions continue their shouting match.

Spell sighed and shook his head sadly. “Not much, they can keep going for hours. It’s usually best to just let them wear themselves out. They're usually just full of hot air anyway, I’ve only ever seen Dad and Uncle Box fight each other once, and that was after they’d had a few drinks during a family get-together years ago. Mom was pretty upset about it and made Dad sleep on the couch for a month afterward, and she didn’t talk to Uncle Box for nearly a year.”

Rubbing his eyes with a hand, Allen tiredly declared, “I just wanted some damn quotes, not play Dr. Phil.”

“Who’s Dr. Phil?” asked Twilight curiously.

Allen shook his head and replied with a dismissive wave of his hand, “Never mind, it’s not important. Instead, we should work on getting these two separated.”

“Okay, and how do you propose to do that? It doesn’t seem like they are going to stop anytime soon,” remarked Penny.

“A good kick in the ass is always an option,” replied Allen dryly.

“Be careful who you kick, Uncle Lock Box duels in his spare time,” cautioned Spell, “he’s pretty good too, last year he took third place at the National Equestrian Spell Dueling League.”

“Oh, I thought I knew him from somewhere!” remarked Twilight, her face lighting up in excitement. “Oh, I’ll need to get his autograph for my brother, he’s a big fan. He was pretty bummed that Lock Box lost to Frozen Wind last year.”

“Yeah, Uncle Box was pretty put out about it as well. I think Frozen paid off the ref, but nopony can prove it, and Uncle Box only does duels as a hobby in his spare time so he wasn’t going to make a big fuss about it anyway. Besides, Frozen got his tail kicked up between his ears by Solar Flare in the following round anyway so there is that.”

Twilight nodded her head and replied, “Oh I know, my Dad watched the fight and he said that Solar wiped the floor with him. Rumor has it that Frozen is going to skip this year's nationals due to how badly he got trounced last year.”

“Yeah, I think Uncle Lock Box was also planning on taking the year off as well, isn’t that right Uncle Box?” he suddenly yelled out, his horn lighting up with a spell to amplify his voice and cut through the argument.

“Huh? What were you saying?” asked Lock Box, his head whipping around to look at his nephew, confusion evident on his face at having his argument suddenly interrupted.

“I said, weren’t you planning on taking this year off from the National Spell Dueling League?” replied Spell innocently, his voice having returned to normal volume levels.

Lock Box stood still for a moment as the mental gears in his head struggled to shift onto the new topic. After a few moments, he slowly nodded. “Yeah, I’ve got too much to do this year, and I haven’t had as much time to practice. Besides, Frozen Wind isn’t going to be fighting this year, and I want another crack at him after that lame stunt he pulled last time,” he paused for a moment and then asked, “When did you get here by the way?”

“I’ve been standing here since you ran into Dad,” replied Spell dryly.

“Oh, how are you doing, and how is your mother?” he asked, his attention fully focused on Spell as he turned away from a still-fuming Rune Chisel who looked ready to restart the argument at a moment's notice but couldn’t find a good opening to do so. However, a pointed look from his son, stayed his tongue and he instead stood there grumbling to himself at having his argument so rudely interrupted.

“Mom is doing alright, we managed to get enough money together to get her treatment started. She just came out of surgery the other day, and the doctors are optimistic that she’ll pull through,” replied Spell, happy to relay the good news to his uncle.

Lock Box smiled, pleased at hearing the good news. “Oh that is wonderful to hear, I’m going to be up in Canterlot next week. Would it be alright if I stopped by? I haven’t seen Sandy in so long.”

“Sure, Mom doesn’t have any doctor appointments next week, so you can just stop by whenever and she should be home. I’ll let her know that you’re planning on stopping by,” replied Spell with a happy nod.

“Excellent, how does Tuesday sound?”

“Tuesday should be fine, I’ll let her know to expect you.”

“Perfect, I’ll make a note in my calendar and stop by before I head up to my client's place, you guys haven’t moved right?”

Spell shook his head. “Nope, still in the same spot.”

“Good, then let her know that I should be up there around noon,” replied Lock Box with a nod of his head.

“I’ll be sure to do that.”

“Great, now that we’ve got that settled, I really should be going now, it was good seeing you Spell, tell your mom and your brothers I said hi for me.”

“I wil-” began Spell, but he was cut off by his father who had trotted around and put himself between Lock and him.

Poking his brother-in-law in the chest, Rune angrily, spat, “Oh no you don’t! That is my house, and you are not welcome there, not after you backstabbed me like you did!”

Lock Box huffed and rolled his eyes. “For the last time Rune, I did not backstab you! I set you up with an excellent business partner who would help you grow the business better than I could, and you, in your arrogant pride threw that opportunity away! You’ve got no one to blame but yourself for the mess that you are in right now!”

If Rune had looked angry before, now he looked as though he was about to commit violence.

“You traitorous nag! How dare you insinuate that this is all my fault when you went behind my back and tried to sell half of the business to somepony else because you got bored and wanted to do something different without consulting me first!”

Lock Box gave Rune an angry shove and retorted, “Well you wouldn’t let me expand our business, partner! What else was I supposed to do? I was tired of your crap by that point or did you forget that when we took over your granddad’s business we were supposed to be equal partners?”

“We were!” retorted Rune angrily.

“Then why did you end up acting like I was nothing more than hired help most of the time?! Honestly, you treated those two buffoons you hired shortly after we started better than me, your own brother-in-law! Anytime I brought any of my ideas and business opportunities to you as a way to improve the business you shot them down, along with my reputation! Meanwhile, those two idiots were robbing you blind and you just kept hoofing them more and more money and listening to every hair-brained idea that spewed from their mouths, half of which started out as mine before they stole them from me and turned them into get-rich-quick schemes!”

“Hey, Shim and Sham did their best! They might not have been good with rune work, but they were excellent salesponies!” replied Rune defensively, though even Allen could tell that he wasn’t fully buying his own rhetoric.

“Excellent salesponies?! Ha! Don’t make me laugh, they were two-bit hucksters who played you for a fool and you just don’t want to admit you were wrong about them!”

“Well you should have still told me that you were going to sell your half of the business before you did it!” fired back Rune hotly.

“I did you dunce! You just weren’t listening! I even gave you legal notice!”

“No, you didn’t you damned liar!” roared Rune as he butted heads with Lock Box, their horns sparking as they made contact.

“Yes, I did you twat! Do you know how much grief I went through after you blew up on your new business partner, and sank that deal like you did?! The poor mare was in tears, all she wanted was to work with you and help you grow your business! Now she’s your biggest competitor and you’re about to go out of business! You stupid arrogant prick!”

“Oh, I’m the ‘stupid arrogant prick’? Who the flying feather do you think you are?! You think you're so hot to trot because all of the nobles want your wards and spells. Well, who do you think helped you get through artificer school and get started? Besides, unlike you, I can do the whole package! You can only do security wards, and only after brute forcing them the whole time! Meanwhile, I can do pest wards, elemental protection, and hay I can even make a ward to keep motherbucking kudzu under control! Let’s see you do that! Oh, that’s right, you can’t! Because you slept through that class, and I had to bail your flank out with an all-night cram session the night before the test was due so that way you didn’t flunk out of school! And how do you repay me? With snide comments about my wards being ‘basic’!”

“Why I ought to knock your lights out!” replied Lock Box hotly.

“Go ahead and try you stupid pinhead!”

Allen heard a small gasp echo through the crowd, and seeing that things were rapidly spiraling out of control, he decided to do something.

By chance, he had spotted a nearby rain barrel when he had arrived with a small metal pail sitting next to it, and seeing that the two unicorn’s tempers were flaring up, he figured it was time to cool them down. Striding over to the barrel, he picked up the pail, and dunked it in the rain barrel, filling it to the brim. Turning around, he proceeded to dump the pail’s contents of icy cold water over the two enraged stallions.

“GAH!” they both yelped as the icy cold water washed over them causing them to pull away from each other in surprised shock.

Standing between the two stallions, a hand on one hip and the other holding the now empty pail, Allen said, “Alright, I think that’s about enough out of the two of you. It’s obvious the both of you have unresolved beef with each other and at the rate we're going, someone’s gonna get punched, so I reckon it’s time to cool our tongues before we go too far. Alright?”

“Allen’s right, Dad, you and Uncle Box need to calm down before somepony says or does something they’ll regret,” added Spell Matrix gently, a sad look on his face.

“Oh, I’ll calm down alright after I’ve given this sorry excuse for a brother-in-law a good kick in the hea-” Rune Chisel’s tirade was interrupted by a sudden splash of cold water to the face courtesy of Allen.

Hacking and spluttering, Rune Chisel shot Allen an angry look. “Would you stop doing that!?”

“Would you stop trying to pick a fight?” shot back Allen, an unamused look on his face.

Rune opened his mouth to retort, however, the sudden arrival of a pair of armored royal guards interrupted him

“Alright, what’s all this then?” asked one of them, his heavy Canterlot accent making Allen think of a stereotypical Hollywood-inspired London bobby about to ruin some misbehaving ruffian’s day. “Don’t you lot know that causing a public disturbance is a ten-bit fine, and any fighting will add a fifty-bit fine and a night in the local stockade on top of that?”

“Piss off, this doesn’t concern you,” yelled Rune Chisel angrily.

The royal guard cocked an eyebrow and replied evenly, “If you are breaking the law it very much concerns me, and if you keep carrying on as you are then I shall be forced to detain you until you have a chance to cool off. Might I also add that assault of an agent of the law is a serious offense sir, so I would think twice before you do something you might come to regret.”

Rather than heeding the advice of the royal guard, Rune looked as though he was about to start swinging when Spell Matrix rushed up to him and grabbed him in a bear hug.

Leaning in, he whispered in his ear and said, “Dad, please calm down, if Mom found out that you’d gotten yourself arrested she’d cry. Things are hard enough, don’t make it harder.”

For a moment, it seemed as though Rune was going to ignore his son's pleas. However, after a tense moment, the fire left his eyes and his body relaxed. Bowing his head tiredly he said in a quiet voice, “Fine... I give up... you win Lock.”

Gently breaking free from his son’s hug, Rune Chisel slowly walked away towards the train station, his head hung low and a cloud of depression hanging over top of him.

Seeing that the fight was over, the crowd slowly dispersed under the watchful gaze of the two guards.

“Alright, I trust that there’ll be no more issues today then?” asked the guard.

“N-no, sir,” replied Spell, a tear in his eye.

Giving a single satisfied nod, the guard turned and left, his partner silently following along beside him.

With the guards and crowd gone, only Allen, Penny, Perfect, Twilight, Spell, and Lock Box were left standing awkwardly in a semi-circle.

“Well, that happened,” said Allen to no one in particular.

“I’m still not entirely sure just what happened,” remarked Twilight, a bemused look on her face.

Lock Box sighed and shook his head. “I’m afraid this was partly my fault. I should have known better than to let Rune see me when I saw you all walking by. With him, it will almost always end up with the two of us getting in a fight. Usually, though, we just have a quick yelling match, and he trots off in a huff, but then he gets over it. I guess this time was different.”

“Can someone just explain what the hell is going on here? All I wanted was a damn quote on some stupid wards, not play family counselor,” grumped Allen, his arms crossed over his chest.

Lock Box shifted uncomfortably from hoof to hoof. “That’s... a bit of a long story,” he replied hesitantly.

Allen rolled his eyes, threw up his hands in exasperation, and remarked, “Well considering the guy I wanted to get a second quote from has left all depressed and isn’t going to be back anytime soon, I’ve got some time now.”

Lock Box hung his head and replied, “Yes, I suppose you are right. " Pausing, he gestured across the street to a nearby cafe and said, “Why don’t we all get off our hooves and have something to eat while I tell my side of the story, my treat, as an apology for how things turned out?”

Nodding, Allen and the rest followed Lock Box and were shortly seated at a large round table outside. After giving their orders to the cheerful waitress, they waited while Lock Box tried to put his thoughts into words. Finally, after a few minutes of quiet, Lock turned to Spell Matrix and began, “First of all, I want to apologize to you Spell. A lot of the grief that you and your family are going through right now stems from your father and I’s falling out when you were a young colt.”

“That was something I could never understand. Mom said that you and Dad used to be best friends and that you two were practically brothers before he got married... so what happened?” asked Spell quietly.

Lock shook his head. “Money and pride, Spell, money and pride. Those two things have ruined more friendships and families than anypony can hope to count.”

“But what happened?”

Lock Box ran a hoof through his mane and sighed. “Well, your father was right, in that I wasn’t very good in certain classes during school, and I leaned very heavily on him to help me squeak through. Some might even say that I took advantage of him and his generosity, and they would probably be right. However, I think what started us down the path we ended up on was after we had graduated and went to work with your grandfather. You see, your dad idolized your grandfather, as such, he wanted to do what his father did, which was run the family business and shop. Myself, on the other hoof, I wanted to travel around, see the world, and make a lot of bits doing work for nobles and other highbrow types. That’s why I put so much effort into learning security runes and spellwork while putting in minimal effort in other areas. Those types of ponies don’t really care about pest control wards or element protections. They want to keep other ponies from stealing their stuff, and even the most basic rune worker can make an anti-pest or element-protection charm. But not everypony can make a security ward that can stop a dragon in its tracks or a dedicated thief intent on stealing your family heirlooms.”

Spell nodded in understanding. “Alright, so you and Dad wanted to do different things after school, so then why did you both end up working for Grandpa?”

“Money,” replied Lock Box simply, “Your grandfather had it, and we didn’t. Plus, your grandfather also had experience in making runes that nopony else did. So it was a bit of a no-brainer for me at the time. I figured I could go and work with your father and grandfather for a few years and then once I’d saved enough money and honed my skills a bit, maybe even picked up a little trick or two from your grandfather I’d part ways with them amicably, and hit the road for a while to follow my dreams.”

“So what happened?”

“Your grandfather went to sleep one night and didn’t wake up the next morning,” said Lock Box sadly. “It took everypony by surprise as he was only in his mid-sixties when he passed, and his last health physical had come back clean. But, sometimes that is the way life goes. Death comes when it wants to, and it does not care how young or healthy you are.”

“Yeah, I know that feeling,” remarked Allen with a somber nod.

“Anyways, your mother and father had just gotten married the year before and your mother was pregnant with you. This left your father in a massive bind, he didn’t have enough experience to run the shop by himself, and while your grandmother could help with raising you, the sudden death of your grandfather sent her into a deep depression that she never really recovered from.”

Spell nodded softly. “Yeah, Grandma always seemed sad, even when she was smiling.”

“It hit your father pretty hard too. He started drinking shortly after the funeral.”

Spell looked up in shock. “Dad was an alcoholic?”

Lock Box nodded grimly. “Yeah, and he wasn’t a very nice one either. Your mother nearly left him over it, and it took a strong intervention by a lot of ponies to pull him out of the bottle. I’m glad to see that he’s stayed out of the bottle since we went our separate ways, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he sneaks a drink every once and a while.”

Spell shook his head. “If he does, then it’s not at home. Mom hates alcohol, she won’t even keep any in the medicine cabinet to disinfect wounds with.”

Lock Box smiled and chuckled. “I suppose that’s one way to keep your father away from it.”

Spell returned his uncle’s smile with one of his own. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right, but anyways, what happened next?”

“Well, seeing as how your father was going downhill, and not wanting to leave my sister in the lurch should her new husband drink himself into the gutter. I stuck around and kept things afloat... barely. I wasn’t very good at managing the shop’s books and I nearly sank the place a few times because of my lack of experience with finances. However, I somehow managed to help keep things afloat, and after we got your dad dried out and stable, he asked me to become his business partner when he saw what I had done for the shop. Looking back I should have told him no, that I didn’t want to be tied to the shop like that, and that I was planning on leaving once things were stable for you guys, but at the time I was afraid if I did, he’d relapse or something, so I said yes.”

“And just like that you were stuck,” commented Allen dryly.

Lock Box just nodded. “Pretty much, and at first it was alright. Your father and I quickly got things under control, and I passed on to him everything that I had learned running the place while he was sloshed and he picked it up pretty quickly. Though he still wasn’t as good as your grandfather was at balancing the books, and to be fair, neither was I. However, the shop started making money again and we had a steady stream of customers coming in the door. Your mother had you, and your father’s mood quickly improved, even your grandmother started smiling again. Things were looking better by the day... until they showed up,” growled Lock Box angrily.

“Who is ‘they’?” asked Twilight curiously.

“Shim and Sham, though I doubt that those were their real names,” replied Lock Box with a snort of derision.

“And just who were these ponies? I remember you mentioning them during your argument with Rune,” said Penny curiously.

Lock Box opened his mouth to reply, however, it was at this moment that the waitress returned with their food, so he kept quiet until after she had departed.

Once they were alone again, he said, “They were a pair of unicorns who claimed to have graduated from a prestigious New Mareland artificer school and were looking for work in Canterlot.”

“I’m guessing by your derisive tone that they were not what they claimed to be?” guessed Perfect as she took a bite of her salad.

“Hardly, though I will give them credit, they were very good salesponies. They could sell sand to a Saddle Arabian. But as articifers? They were poor at best, and abysmal at worst. I spent more time fixing their mistakes than I did actually working on new runes and wards. The problem was that they were very good at manipulating Rune. Even though he was doing better, he was still in a pretty fragile mental state. Additionally, your mother was pregnant again with your younger brother and your grandmother had fallen ill, though obviously she recovered, but at the time it was a worrying development,” explained Lock Box as he slowly ate his meal.

Spell slowly shook his head in disbelief. “So Dad just believed whatever they told him?”

Lock Box shook his head. “Oh no, you misunderstand me. When I say that these guys were good, I mean it. They didn’t start out robbing your dad blind or driving a wedge between him and me. That wouldn’t have worked and would be cliche. No, what they did was ingratiate themselves by bringing in more business than we could handle, which made your father happy because we needed more money for both your grandmother's and mother’s medical expenses at the time. Nopony probably ever told you, but your mother nearly died when she had your brother, so that put a lot of strain on your father again. A strain that those two... ponies used against us. They quickly convinced him to let them deal with the business’s financial records, suppliers, and sales, while your father and I focused on rune work.”

“Didn’t you suspect that they were up to no good or anything?” asked Spell.

“I... did, but we were in rough shape at the time, the city council had hiked our taxes up several times at that point and added new regulations that required that we install very expensive systems in the shop in order to keep it up to code.”

Allen snorted in contempt. “Sounds like someone was helping line someone else’s pockets.”

Lock Box nodded with a tired sigh. “Yep, that is exactly what happened. Even after the scheme was uncovered and the guilty parties punished, it was too late, the bits had been spent and we needed more, so Shim and Sham became even more important in keeping things afloat. By the time I could have some breathing space, it was too late. They’d already wormed their way fully into your dad’s trust and as you know, he’s a very stubborn pony. He wouldn’t listen when I brought my concerns to him about what those two were up to. I think it was around that time that they started cooking the books and siphoning money out of the shop. Unfortunately, neither your father nor I caught on to what they were doing. They always managed to explain away every unusual expense that crouped up, and when I started pressing them too hard, they would bring in a flood of customers that would bury your father and I in so much work that we couldn’t think straight for weeks.”

“How long did this go on for?” asked Penny quietly.

“For months,” replied Lock Box tiredly, as if the memories themselves were draining him of his energy. “I can’t remember how many late nights your father I and put in thanks to those two villains. Well, eventually I got sick of the grind and told your father that we needed to make some changes. He wouldn’t listen so I told him that I wanted out and that I was going to sell my half of the business to somepony else. He... didn’t take that very well. If it wasn’t for your mother calming things down...” he trailed off, before giving his head a quick shake.

“Anyways,” he said, quickly moving past the memory, “your father didn’t have enough money to buy out my half of the shop, and I sure as Celestia wasn’t going to sell it to those two hooligans, so I cast around and found a sweet young mare named Crystal Facet who had just graduated from both artificer school and Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns and who wanted to go into the rune working business herself.”

At the mention of Crystal’s name, every pony’s ears at the table pricked up. “Wait, are you saying that you wanted to sell your half of the business to Crystal Facet?!” exclaimed Spell in disbelief.

Lock Box nodded. “Sure did, and she would have been perfect. She was smart, good with finances, her rune work was top notch and she was very inventive. Plus, as the daughter of a minor noble, she had plenty of money to pour into the shop and make it better, along with the connections to secure high-class clientele. She would have been a perfect partner for your dad. So I approached her, explained the situation, and asked if she was interested. Naturally, she was because, at the time, our shop was considered the premiere rune shop in Canterlot, so of course being nobleborn she wanted to work with us.”

“So what went wrong then?” asked Allen as he finished off the last of his meal.

“Rune Chisel, obviously, though I have a feeling that Shim and Sham played a key role in scuppering the deal, seeing as they handled all of the shop’s mail and assorted documentation coming in and out by that point. I can’t imagine they liked the idea of a third party stepping in and potentially ruining their little grift by exposing them accidentally or otherwise. So it stands to reason they didn’t let him see the legal notice of my intent to sell my half of the shop to her and in my excitement to be free of that place, I didn’t think to confirm that he’d gotten it, and when the day came to introduce him to his new business partner, he... blew up and stopped the deal from going through.”

Perfect cocked her head to one side, a confused look on her face. “As an equal business partner shouldn’t you have received his blessing before you attempted to make the sale?”

“We... never really hammered out a proper business contract between us. It was all verbal. If we had, things wouldn’t have turned out the way they did, but when you are busy trying to put out metaphorical fires all the time, important details like that get forgotten. Looking back, you are right, I should have talked to him, but after the rollercoaster that had been the last five years of my life at that point, I was ready to get off and start my own journey.”

“So what happened to Crystal? I doubt she took things very well,” asked Allen.

Lock Box shook his head. “No, she didn’t. She was quite upset about the whole thing. She ended up starting her own rune shop across town and quickly made a name for herself in the process.”

Spell laid his head glumly on the table and said, “She’s nearly run us out of business at this point. Her ponies can do everything cheaper and faster than we can and she’s got deep pockets.”

“Plus with her being a noble, I suspect that she has pretty good connections,” guessed Twilight.

Spell half-nodded. “Yeah, that too. No matter what we do, she always manages to snag our customers away with a better deal. I always wondered why she seemed to have a grudge against us, but now I suppose it makes sense.”

Lock winced and awkwardly looked away, shame evident on his face. “Yeah, I’ve tried to help as much as I can from afar, but... your dad keeps making things hard.”

Lifting his head from off the table, Spell fixed his uncle with a steady look and asked, “So what happened after the deal fell apart?”

Turning to look at his nephew, Lock replied, “I tried to patch things up, but between your dad’s anger at my so-called ‘betrayal’ and Shim and Sham stoking the fires of his anger, I had to leave. I just gave up my half of the business for free and set off for Manehatten with only a few bits in my pocket. I did odd jobs for a while until I finally got a lucky break and managed to do a job for an up-and-coming pop star at the time named Sapphire Shores. The rest, as they say, is history.”

“Do you know what happened to this Shim and Sham?” Penny asked, holding a small notepad and pencil in her magical aura as she took notes. Allen wasn’t sure for what reason, but he had a few ideas.

Lock shrugged. “Sandy told me that they skipped town one day after draining their bank account dry. When she told me, I sent her as much money as I could to help keep them going, but from what she told me, it was a tough time,” his face twisted up in anger and he slammed a hoof down on the table, “If I ever get my hooves on those two, I’m going to feed them to the timberwolves,” he growled angrily.

“You’ll have to get in line, uncle,” replied Spell, quietly, his expression one of anger, “Because I want the first crack at them.”

“Do you remember what they looked like?” asked Penny, as she continued writing.

Lock’s face twisted up in concentration as he tried to recall details from nearly twenty years ago. “I remember they were both unicorns and they had red and white striped manes and that their coats were light in color, not exactly sure what color it would be called.”

“Do you have any idea about what approximately it would be?” pressed Penny.

Lock shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe a pale wheat?” He shook his head. “Hay, I can barely remember what their cutie marks looked like. All I remember is that they had something to do with apples.”

“Do you think you would recognize them if you saw them again?”

Lock Box slowly nodded his head. “I think I probably would.”

Penny nodded as she finished jotting down her thoughts.

“What are you thinking Penny?” asked Allen curiously as he finished his meal.

Not looking up from her notepad, she replied, “I cannot sit idly by and allow these two ponies to remain unpunished for their crimes. I am honestly surprised that Rune hasn’t sought legal action against them for what they did.”

“According to Sandy, they hid their tracks well enough that the local police couldn’t find them once it came to light what had happened. Though I doubt the local police tried all that hard in the first place. Even back then, Rune was burning up what goodwill his father had built over his life,” said Lock with a shake of his head sadly, “I honestly can’t understand how Rune does it. He seems cursed to just dig himself deeper and deeper into the pit of misfortune that he has fallen into.”

The table fell silent as everyone idly poked at the remains of their meals or just stared down at their now-empty plates. Finally, Allen looked up and said, “Well, I guess we’ll just need to throw him a rope then.”

“What do you mean?” asked Twilight.

Allen sighed. “Look, I might not know Rune very well, but I’ve been in a similar position to him before, and as such I can’t in good conscience stand idly by and watch the guy waste his life away because he’s too blind to see his salvation in front of him,” pausing, he look at Spell and said, “You guys did a great job with the runes for my barn, and you didn’t charge me an arm and a leg like your uncle here is planning on doing,” he said with a nod of his head in the direction of said, uncle.

Lock Box smirked and replied, “What can I say, my skills are in high demand and my quality is second to none.”

“Maybe, but I don’t need to turn my house into freaking Fort Knox, okay?”

“What’s Fort Knox?” asked Twilight curiously, a quill and paper appearing next to her in her magic, as a hopeful gleam danced in her eyes.

“Not now Twilight, replied Allen, annoyed at the bookish unicorn’s insatiable hunger for knowledge.

Pouting, Twilight poofed away her quill and paper.

Ignoring her, Allen continued, “Anyways, as I was saying, I can’t just stand by and not try and help in some way.”

“You don’t need to do that,” replied Spell quietly, though secretly he was grateful for Allen’s offer.

Allen shook his head. “You’re right I don’t. But I’m going to, because it is the right thing to do, and it would be hypocritical of me if I didn’t when my family received help back home when we went through hard times. It’s called paying it forward and it is the right thing to do. So, I’m going to try and help. Now, where do you think your dad went?”

Spell shrugged. “Probably the train station, to wait for the return train to Canterlot.”

“When does the next train arrive?” asked Allen.

“The next train to Canterlot doesn’t arrive until four-thirty this afternoon,” supplied Twilight helpfully.

Looking down at his watch, Allen saw that it was barely noon. “Okay, then let’s do this, Penny, you and Perfect take Spell and Lock Box to the farm to look things over while Twilight and I go and find Rune Chisel and drag his ass there.”

“Hey, why do I have to go? You already have my quote,” complained Lock Box at being ordered around.

“Because you and your brother-in-law need to work things out between you two, and doing it out at the farm rather than in town reduces the chances of you two spending the night in jail should things get heated. Besides, since you were the one who started this whole mess by fighting with your brother-in-law and causing him to run off, you’re going to help your nephew draw up a competing quote,” replied Allen, a hint of irritation coloring his voice.

Lock Box opened his mouth to retort, but upon seeing Allen’s quickly growing look of irritation, he wisely shut his mouth and nodded. “Alright, fine. I’ll help.”

“Good, we’ll see you guys at the farm,” replied Allen with a nod of his own. “Come on Twilight, let’s go find Rune.”

“Alright, let’s do this,” said Twilight confidently as she and Allen left the group behind and headed for the train station.

“What are you going to do when we find him?” asked Twilight.

“Not sure, talk to him I guess,” replied Allen.

“That’s not much of a plan,” remarked Twilight flatly.

“Well if you have a better idea, I’m all ears,” retorted Allen.

“We should try and at least come up with something other than just going in without a plan.”

“Well, we’ve got until we find him to come up with something, so what do you think we should do?” asked Allen.

“I... don’t know,” replied Twilight lamely, as her tired mind worked overtime trying to find a solution to the friendship quandary that they had inadvertently found themselves in.

The two fell silent as they walked, both quietly thinking about what to do when they found Rune and what could be said to try and heal the rift between the two feuding stallions. However, as the Ponyville train station came into view, neither Allen nor Twilight had managed to come up with anything concrete.

Stepping onto the station platform, Allen looked around and saw that there was no one waiting for the train. Walking up to the ticket window, he asked the station master, “Hey, did anyone come by here in the last hour asking about the next train to Canterlot?”

The station master looked up from his ledger, and adjusting his glasses replied, “Hmm, yes I do believe so. A unicorn stallion was hear about a half hour or so ago. Wanted to know when the next train to Canterlot would come through. I told him four-thirty.”

“And where is he now?” asked Twilight.

The station master replied, “Probably at Berry’s Tavern by now I reckon. He wanted to know if there was a place he could get something to drink while he waited.”

“And where is this “Berry’s Tavern’?” asked Allen.

“Oh, it’s just down the street from Barn Yard Bargains, can’t miss it, now do you need anything else? I’m getting ready to go to lunch here, and I only get thirty minutes to eat.”

Allen shook his head. “No, I think we’re good, thanks.”

“You’re welcome, have a nice day,” replied the station master before he reached up and pulled his window shut, followed by him placing a sign that read, ‘Back in thirty minutes,’ on it and leaving his desk.

Turning to Twilight, Allen said, “Well, crap. We better get over there before he falls too far off the wagon.”

Nodding, Twilight fell in alongside him as the two left the train station behind and hustled back into town. “Agreed, it’s going to be hard enough to get him to reconcile with Lock Box when he’s sober, I’d hate to think how hard it’ll be when he’s drunk.”

Allen grunted in agreement and with nothing further to be said, the two quickened their pace.

Author's Note

Okay, well that got messy in a hurry. This chapter was a bigger pain to write than I anticipated, plus life always seemed to get in the way and take me out of the workflow.

Anyway, apologies if anything looks wonky with this chapter, Google Drive wouldn't let me import it to FiM for some reason, so I had to copy and paste it. Please let me know if you see anything amiss.

As always, please let me know if you spot any spelling or grammar mistakes, and I hope you enjoy the chapter.

Here is to wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!