Nothing At All

by Chimpso

Chapters

Chapter 1 - Starlight
Chapter 2 - Ennui
Chapter 3 - Atypical
Chapter 4 - Jest
Chapter 5 - Deliberation

Chapter 1 - Starlight

Nothing At All

~Chapter 1 - Starlight~

By Chimpso

“Life isn’t fair, and that’s good. If life were fair, life wouldn’t be interesting.”

Cities sleep.

No matter where one is, from the lofty constructions of Manehattan to the surplus of showy lights that is Las Pegasus, they will find that every city sleeps.

Las Pegasus sleeps you say? Ha! What a nonsensical musing. The city is always alive and on the ball, filled with an energy that fluctuates between the joys of a lucky seven and the despair of a Blackjack bust. But please, I urge you to look deeper. While they may call it the city that never sleeps, Las Pegasus indeed slumbers. Away from the Casinos and general blunder of the strip, the dainty suburbs rest. Or at least they try, their neighbors never seem to stop partying, always awake, fueled by money and coquettish charm, never taking a moment to sit down and embrace the night, never thinking to stop and enjoy a fleeting moment of peace.

Where am I going with this you ask? I care not about pathetic personifications of cities you say. What relevance does this serve? Well my friend, my reasoning here is simple, almost too simple for such purple rumination.

My point is that cities sleep, there is not one that is ever fully awake. And strolling through the lamp-lit streets of a sleeping city is like taking a long, revealing walk through a familiar being’s soul: you recognize everything, but it all seems... different.

Canterlot at night was a very different city.

While the sunlight hours saw much jubilation and praise from the denizens of the mountain fortress, its nights were, for lack of a less morbid word, dead. The upper echelons of society who rightly chose Canterlot as their home city quite enjoyed their sleep after what they would call ‘busy days’, as if lifting teacups and gossiping around the drama between or within Canterlot’s many rich families was a huge tax on their energy reserves. As a result, Canterlot’s night scene was virtually non-existent, and the streets and sidewalks were always empty in the late hours of the night. The only thing that would even assure you that the whole city hadn’t been abandoned in preparation for some horrible natural disaster was the fact the the street lamps still glowed faintly to assist the moon in providing some illumination to the quiet night.

Under one such light, a white pegasus mare with a yellow-striped mane so long it was surprising that she could even fly, adjusted her cloak to better warm her body against the evening chill. Her wings were tucked away under said cloak, there was no need for flying tonight. There was no rush, her destination would not run away, and there was nothing to hinder her on her way there. The only thing that time affected was the duration of the night, which was no worry as it was the very early hours of the morning, long before the bustle the city slowly filled the streets and buildings with its common, repetitive routine, the same for everyone, everyday.

The night was something few cared to notice, and most decided to skip it entirely, slipping into unconsciousness willfully to take a shortcut to the beginning of the daytime hours. What what was so different about the night? Nothing really changes, evil spirits don’t roam the streets murdering anyone temeritous enough to walk out. Gravity doesn’t decide to flip you onto your head if you don’t stay under the covers of your home’s warm and cozy bed. The only thing that changes is the light, but is that really cause for ignoring the phase of the day which lasts for almost a third of its total duration? Is lack of interest for the night so prominent that a day is sundered and the gap filled by simply lying in bed and disabling your critical faculties, just so you can take a break from the life which you claim to enjoy so much?

Aurea slept very little. Her stance saw it as a waste of time, a great inconvenience that ponykind through all its achievements in magic and technology should have already transcended. Her grey eyes, though always in argument with her eyelids—which insisted on closing—remained open, feasting on the knowledge of the world around her, not so much as to satisfy a deep thirst for such knowledge, but more to fill a gap in between the seams of knowledge in her mind. Sleeping would certainly not help with that.

The silent streets of Canterlot's more posh commercial districts echoed the faint clopping of Aurea’s hoofsteps as she passed row upon row of quiet shop fronts, The interiors were so dark that looking through the window was like staring into a void. These shopfronts continued, one after the other, blackness without end, the light from the streetlamps treading only a few inches into the windows before halting, not bold enough to dare venture further, only providing a reflection off the glass windows in which to see oneself painted against the blackness beyond. Aurea could not imagine herself standing in a place so dark and quiet, without the gentle touch of the moon, with nothing but the blackness and the noise of her own body to keep her company.

And yet she knew that the darkness and silence were merely a phase of the district’s existence. The stores were not always silent and opaque. For during the time of the day when the sun was highest in the sky, those dark shopfronts and empty streets were filled with ponies going about their business. And then, come night, a place so welcoming and full of light turns into a haunting, lifeless place.

She was nearing her destination now, leaving the light of the street and walking into what would seem to the burdened tourist like one of Canterlot’s many fabricated parks. Not that Aurea could blame them for jumping to such a conclusion, from the outside the park indeed appeared uninteresting. A simple strip of green with a single cobblestone path leading to several park benches shaded by a few delicate trees that rustled gently in the midnight breeze. It was a piece of nature sandwiched between two commercial business buildings, and seemed quite out of place. But Canterlot is a bigger city than most thought, most of the time you didn’t know where you were. You could be walking down any street and not know if you were in the center of the city, or on its outskirts with the breathtaking view of Equestria just down the road.

This park was more special than most believed however. It was backed by a tall hedge, which to most would appear to be the back wall of the park. Aurea herself had thought this at first after she had stopped there to rest one evening, but after looking around, she found a piece of Canterlot to call her own.

To the far left of the hedge, hidden due to poor planning by an untrimmed bush, was a gap in the green wall. No path lead to said gap, and the only way it could be noticed is if someone rested on the grass nearby. But even then it would be unlikely that they would spot it, as the bush that prevented it from being noticed from center of the park was in dire need of some serious trimming. Most of the gap in the hedge was covered by the bush, and walking through was not pleasant. Aurea usually would have to remove the leaves and twigs from her hair after emerging on the other side. The discomfort however was well worth it.

The gap opened up to a short flight of plain grey stone steps which lead down to a very small patch of greenery with only a lone tree and a park bench, made of the same stone as the steps, to adorn it. But that bench was backed by the hedge wall which ended the original park, what formed the back border of this small extension was the most stunning view of Equestria Aurea had ever laid eyes on.

Leaning on the short stone wall that separated the park from a deadly fall down the Canterlot mountain, Aurea checked the land below her for the usual and familiar landmarks. Peering over to the left, she saw the town of Ponyville, only just distinguishable from the Everfree Forest by the few lights left on in the town at such an ungodly hour. There Cloudsdale was, sitting above Canterlot far off to her right, its rainbows dimmed and faded from the dark and its waterfalls shimmering with the glow of the moon. When she looked forward, the canopy of a luscious forest and the encroaching facade of mountains that didn’t nearly match the size of Canterlot stood before her, dominating the landscape as far as the eye could see.

But although the view was beautiful, and worth coming to the secluded haven for, Aurea’s night trips to the little patch of green on the outskirts of Canterlot were to stare in wonder at an entirely different view. Unfastening the cloak from her neck and pulling it off her shoulders, she draped it on the overgrown grass, several years worth of growth present for what had to have been years without a trim. The chill of the night washed over her as she unfurled her wings, glad to have them free again after the long walk with them tucked away under the cloak. She evened out her cloak, the thick grass bulging the fine material which soon gave way under her weight as she sat down, fell onto her back, and looked skyward.

No city in Equestria, not even Cloudsdale, provided an as profound, immersive and outright mesmerising view of the night sky as Canterlot did. While Ponyville was too low on the ground to provide the best view of the sky over the clouds and Cloudsdale’s constantly active weather factories produced too much light pollution for the stars to be visible, Canterlot’s position high above the ground and its dark and dead nights provided the clearest view of the sky in Equestria. Stars, rows upon rows of stars, dominating the blackness, impossible to count or even comprehend the number of glowing white specs that were visible with a pony’s naked eye. Aurea had tried several times to count them, but always gave up several minutes after starting, there were just too many. How, she wondered, did ponies from cities where the stars could never be seen, such as Manehattan with its ever-present skyglow, react to the realisation that their eyes had never shown them the full picture after looking up while standing in a long, empty field. She had always been brought up with the night sky in Canterlot, and had never taken it for granted or treated it as mere commonplace. Ever. But it seemed that most residents of the city were more than happy to skip the night phase and slip away into sleep, like the city they lived in, and avoid the night sky all together.

She would never have been satisfied with that. After reaching the age where she could understand the beauty of the night sky, Aurea fell in love. It wasn’t all that surprising. Her parents were both esteemed Canterlot astronomers at the time. What was surprising was the same surprise her parents had when they first saw her.

Everyone expected a unicorn. There was no doubt. Her parents were unicorns, her grandparents on both sides were unicorns. There hadn’t been a pegasus in the family for as long as most of them had remembered. Even the doctors had been surprised, and her father, though he’d never admit it to the mother, was concerned and arranged for a paternity test. The results were conclusive, he was indeed the father.

Aurea took her wings in stride though. Pegasi were a rare sight in Canterlot, and as such she didn’t find much need for her wings often, and finding clothing that would comfortably accommodate them was difficult and expensive, but that wasn’t necessarily a concern. Neither was her family. While surprised with the outcome of her birth, they never took it out on her. Her family had been just as loving and accommodating as they would have had they had any other child. And, being an only child, her parents love for her was strong.

The main frustration that Aurea had with being a pegasus was her chosen profession. Ever since she was old enough to be able to fully understand what her parents told her about the grandeur of the night sky and the infinite universe it showed, she had wanted to follow the same path they did. She wanted to become an astronomer. Unfortunately, pegasus astronomers were about as common as unicorn athletes, calibrating and angling a telescope generally required the gentle touch of a Unicorn’s magic. Hooves and wings were believed too clumsy to perform this task, and removing and changing expensive lenses with one’s teeth posed a great risk of ruining them. Despite being a stellar student with impeccable grades, Aurea was turned down. She was turned down by every school and university with any type of astronomy course. While they agreed that her knowledge of the subject was exceptional for her age, she ‘just didn’t fit the prerequisite’. Despite trying desperately to make the schools allow her to enrol, Aurea’s parents met with no success. With no chance of an actual academic pathway to her career of choice, Aurea, with the urging of her parents, pursued the profession on her own.

With time, her skills developed. Magic became a mere tool, not a requirement, the delicate operation and maintenance of an expensive telescope became as simple as extending a wing, and the deep knowledge accumulated through hours of study transformed into diligent and confounding practice. It didn’t matter anymore that her head did not protrude a rod of alicorn, it didn’t matter that the prestigious professors and teachers of astrology were all unicorns, all that mattered was the night sky, and what it could give her. And what it gave her were hours. Hours and hours of observation, hours of theorising, hours of recording, and hours of frustration. Frustration not only at the amount of work, but at the breathtaking realisation that the infinite amount of stars she saw above here were only the tip of an iceberg. The background of the white dots, hued a bright purple, was simply more and more stars, too far away for her eyes to possibly distinguish. It hurt her, knowing that she would never possibly be able to understand the nature of every celestial body in the universe, but it was a pain that she lived with, knowing that as long as she could achieve the goal of understanding all that already set before her, she could proceed forward from there. With that goal set, she received her cutie mark, the shooting star she one day hoped to emulate.

Stretching her wings out across the cloak to relieve the tension in the cramped muscles, Aurea stared skyward, watching the gentle tinkling of the thousands of boiling suns. She quickly identified the constellations she had found, and after spending many nights lying on the same cloak on the same grass under the same sky, she had found many. Giving constellations names was usually considered pointless. Yes, there were famous constellations that anyone could identify, but apart from them most astrologers simply assigned numbers and letters to the arrangements of stars respective of their location in the sky. She had decided against that however, the stars deserved more, the planet she sat on now was merely a grain of sand compared to the combined size of the stars in a single constellation, what gave her the right to treat them as mere statistics.

She quickly singled out 'Indomitable', a cluster of brighter-than-average stars that formed the frame of what she concluded could only be a mighty and stunning Equestrian airship. Discovering the constellation was only half the trouble, naming it was almost as difficult, as a constellation could be interpreted many different ways, but Aurea's conclusions were her own, so she named them on her perception, with only her own mind scrutinizing her work, at least for now.

The feeling that she would one day have to share her work with others made her stomach churn. It was in her mind comparable to a child telling his parents that he has just received a severe punishment from his teachers. She had for the longest time kept her profession strictly to herself. Her parents prodded of course, and she shared many of her findings, showing her parents the constellations and patterns she had identified. Much of her work she kept to herself however, trusting that she would be able to critically scrutinize her own findings, but she knew that it would not be enough to simply do that. An artist can look at his work and call it magnificent all he pleases, but until others share his view then that is all it is, his view. Aurea wanted that praise, she wanted her work to be seen and reviewed by scholars and students alike if it ever became worthy of such. Her life of privacy was slowly becoming less and less satisfying, and she knew that soon she would have to share her knowledge if she was ever going to feel content with herself.

Arching her back with a yawn as her body tried to force her to sleep, Aurea smiled, her trivial problems were irrelevant, at least for the moment. Right there, on the luscious grass in front of the stone bench in the small, secluded piece of Canterlot she called her own, the only problem was sleep, and she had had plenty of experience fighting that off. Right there, life was fine.

Cities may sleep, but as long as her sky was there, she would try her hardest to not.

Chapter 2 - Ennui

Nothing At All

~Chapter 2 - Ennui~

By Chimpso

“When it comes to argument, vigor usually trumps evidence.”

A chill, brief and sharp, ran along Aurea’s side. She rolled over with an ungenteel grunt, where did that breeze come from?

Eyes closed, she pawed around, trying to find the blanket that must have slipped off of her during the night. Her hoof brushed against something soft and wet, almost like... grass?

She sat up with a start and opened her eyes to see only a blur. Rubbing them to reorient them with reality, she quickly looked around, her eyes darting back and forth, not knowing where she had woken up. But as her brain realized that she was now actually awake, she recognized her park around her.

Sighing and running a hoof through her disheveled mane, shaking loose a few blades of grass that had gotten stuck in it, Aurea looked down at what was underneath her. Her cloak was still functioning as an impromptu picnic mat, protecting her from the grass which sparkled with dew in the early morning sun.

It wasn't the first time she had fallen asleep in the park in the two years she had frequented it. The total silence of Canterlot's night and the twinkling stars above had caused her to slip away on two previous occasions. The first passed without incident, but the second time she found herself being rudely awakened by a squirrel rummaging through her mane. She chuckled at the memory, although when it occurred her reaction had been slightly less merry.

Yawning and stretching out her legs and wings before slowly getting to her hooves, she moved over to the viewpoint. It was later in the morning now, the glow of the sun projecting onto the landscape below her as it rose on the opposite side of Canterlot Mountain. Cloudsdale’s rainbows were beginning to sparkle, and the colorful houses of Ponyville were now clearly visible.

Yawning again, she realized that the few hours of sleep hadn't been enough, and although it pained her, she knew she’d have to sleep when she got home.

Gathering up her damp cloak, Aurea plopped herself down onto the stone park bench. Bringing a hoof up to her nose to wipe away away some of the accumulated mucus, she sighed again. Several hours exposed to the chill of the early morning had likely given her a cold.

Moving her frustrations to the back of the mind, Aurea noticed her appearance and the fact that she was at least a half hours walk away from home. Her mane was a mess, weaved with blades of grass from the tossing that had likely occurred during last nights sleep, and her fur was damp and cold from the dew of the grass she had inadvertently rolled in. At the risk of garnering stares from the early morning residents of Canterlot, she gathered herself, hoping to return home unnoticed while the morning was young.

Hopping off the stone bench after removing as much of the grass from her mane as her hooves could manage, she gave one last glance to her park before leaving through the bush, which only sought to nullify her previous efforts as sticks and leaves joined the grass nesting in her mane.

Despite herself, she smiled. At least she had nothing to do today.

Aurea was not a morning pony. Waking up was always the low point of the day, but she lived through it. Waking up twice in one day however was unprecedented.

Aurea's eyes refused to open even after she managed to will herself out of the silken bed sheets that she hated being under at any time other than right at that moment. The trip to the bathroom was no less groggy, with the walls of the hallway supporting her every move. Finally making it, she stood on wobbling legs in front of the mirror and attempted to open her eyes.

They shut again as a crusty feeling irritated her eyeballs. Leaning on the bathroom counter and wiping the sleep out of them, she opened her eyes again, and this time they were more compliant.

Her grey irises stared back at her as she examined her current appearance in more detail. The draining walk back home after just waking up hadn't helped her feel any more energetic once she arrived, so the bed was the first destination, not the bathroom. Now that she was in the bathroom however, it's conspiring reflective surface projecting herself back, she was unimpressed with the state of her mane. Although she had removed most of the grass and twigs on the walk home, the tangled and dull hair would definitely need some work.

That could wait however, the night without food had left her stomach on empty, so it seemed that the bathroom would be shunned once again in favor of the kitchen.

The house was quiet, which was often the case. Aurea’s parents were constantly busy, some days waking up early, some days leaving later. Today it seems they had left early.

Opening the fridge and removing a half-sandwich cut diagonally as a triangle, she checked the bench for the usual note her mother always left when they would not be home. It was their joint plan, whenever her parents would leave her home alone they would be sure to leave a note telling her where they were going and what time they would be back. It had mainly been to make her feel safer when she was much younger, but it was a tradition that they never seemed to cease finding use for. The note was on there on the bench where it always was:

“Had to leave early to the presentation at the Royal Canterlot University this morning. Staying for the dinner afterwards. Will be back late. Love you. :)”

The smiley face was basically synonymous with her signature.

The sandwich was dry, leftovers from several nights ago, but she finished it off. There was nothing planned for her today, and she couldn’t do much of her own work until nightfall, so the day and house were hers.

Feeling her messy mane resting on her shoulder halted her train of thought. She would decide what to do later. But first: the bathroom.

“I’m telling you Aurea, this colt is an enemy of compromise."

Turfy Plains’ head rested on the table, idly maneuvering a salt shaker around with her hoof as she sat and sulked.

The outside sitting area of the Café took up most of the sidewalk width in Canterlot's main street. In the early afternoon of the busy weekend the sidewalks were filled with hordes of ponies jubilantly window shopping. Their endeavors cut a swath through the sitting area however, making getting back into the Cafe difficult without at least a dozen "I'm sorry's" and "Excuse me's". Aurea rolled the near-empty glass of apple juice on the table between her hooves. Not worth it to go back and get a refill.

"You've worked with him your entire career, I'm sure you'll both pull through."

"The concert is tomorrow night Aurea, we don't have time to modify the song!"

Turfy Plains. She had the most despondent demeanor when she had problems. The world would initially be ending, but that would quickly soften until she was simply left with someone spitting in her sandwich before she took a bite. Aurea had patterned her ranting cycle with the time and experience she had with it; despair, quickly followed by indignation.

"Are you rehearsing tonight?" Aurea asked, before trying to suck up the last pockets of apple juice through her straw.

"Tonight? I've been rehearsing all day! He only pulled this nonsense out of his flank yesterday and now expects us all to spend the whole day fixing it up. I just needed a break." There was the anger, "And someone who would listen to my raving."

"Am I really the only one who listens?"

"You stay up all night staring at stars Aurea, no one listens better than you."

Aurea raised an eyebrow at the remark, but the smile on Turfy's face told her it was a compliment.

Turfy Plains was a fair pony in an unfair world. Her green coat and chestnut mane constantly on the floor in frustration due to some unfavorable circumstance. Turfy knew however that she always had the capability to overcome her problems, but they just seemed... unnecessary. Her complaining was equally unnecessary, but she would never pass up the opportunity to vindicate herself, even over trivial matters. It hardly meant that she was unreasonable, but Aurea knew from past experience that arguing with Turfy was usually a bad idea. Her status as one of Canterlot's slightly more distinguished vocalists was to her a mixed blessing. She got to do what she enjoyed, but with people she didn't. Pursuing her musical career had certainly not been as easy as getting her cutie mark–a simple upwards-pointing quarter note–and competition had been no less accommodating

“If he’s causing so much trouble, why don’t you get rid of him?” Aurea asked, causing Turfy to jolt up in surprise.

“I can’t do that! Ember has been by my side this entire time, I couldn’t just get rid of him.” Turfy’s eyes were firm, but the slight wane in her voice showed Aurea that she was thinking.

Leaning in closer to speak more softly, Aurea corrected her, “Actually, you could. He works for you remember?”

“Yes, but...”

“Oh come on Turfy, you have all the power here.” Aurea stated with a rush of annoyed enthusiasm, “That stallion is a perfectionist, he wants everything done to the standard that satisfies him! You need to make him work to satisfy you.”

Turfy raised her eyebrow and smirked at the last remark.

“Not like that,” Aurea quickly clarified, frowning at her friends wayward imagination, “I mean, look, I’ve talked to him. I know he’s a nice pony and I know that when you two aren’t squabbling you get along well, but you’re the boss Turfy. You need to make the rules. He doesn’t think the song’s perfect? Then to hay with him! Tell him it’s fine and that. He needs to stop harping on about it.”

“I already tried that,” Turfy sulked, drooping down again, “He won’t listen.”

“Then order him to stop,” Aurea said, emphasizing the word ‘order’ with a jab of her hoof, “He works for you.”

Aurea sat and watch Turfy consider what she had said. Her eyes moved to different tables and people as they passed by, trying to amuse themselves while her brain was at work deciphering the pros and cons of the plan. Her eyes began to wane down however, and as her head and ears began to follow, Aurea knew she had to speak up.

“Turfy, he is not the problem. The only problem is that you can’t deal with the problem.”

This brought her back up again, albeit slowly.

“You really think this I should do this? What if he...”

“He won’t quit Turfy. You’ve been his pride and joy for years. He doesn’t want to see you fail. But he needs to be reminded that you know what’s best for you.”

The transformation of Turfy’s face from it’s sullen state to the one of more repressed confidence she now bared was slow, but as she held her head up her Aquamarine eyes shone with a calm acceptance.

“Alright, I’ll do it.”

Aurea lit up. “There you go!” She held her hoof up in the air for Turfy to tap back, “Do it as soon as you see him.”

Turfy nodded. “I will. You will be there tomorrow won’t you?”

“Are you kidding? Front row seats, I’ll be there Turfy.”

Aurea recoiled as her friend took her in an unexpected but otherwise pleasant hug from across the table.“I’ll see you tomorrow night then. I need to get back to rehearsing now.”

With a final nod of thanks, Turfy got up from the velvet cushion and disappeared into the train of people transiting the sidewalk. Aurea watched her go, the city swallowing her up into it’s horde of minions, until she could no longer be seen.

She smiled as she stared into the crowd. Turfy Plains may have been feisty when she was angry, but when faced with a dilemma she often seemed to fall apart. Aurea’s time as her friend had taught her to be patient however. Turfy had her goals, she just needed her confidence, and a little nudging to get started.

Craning her neck to look over the crowd of ponies between her and the Cafe, she spotted the clock. It was just past midday, the catch up with Turfy hadn’t even put a dent in the time she had on her hooves for the day. She considered returning her glass, but navigating through the crowd would have been like stumbling through an ancient trap-filled temple that only Daring Do could conceivably make it through intact. Leaving a tip, she got up and stepped into the surging crowd herself.

Home was familiar, home was where you started, home was where you planned your adventures and set forth, home just had that feeling; there was nothing like it.

Home for Aurea was a rather lavish household in the heart of Canterlot, close to the city, but still distant enough to be free of the clutter. Canterlot was never quiet during the day, a large city like it was active like an earthquake; disastrous at the epicenter, but easier to miss if you were at the very edge. The living city could still be heard, but if the mind was preoccupied elsewhere, it would be filtered out.

Her family's house was split in two, a public section and a private section. Downstairs and upstairs. Guests never saw upstairs, that wasn’t their place. Downstairs had everything one would look for in a house; a kitchen, an overdrawn dining area and lounge all combined with free flowing access between the three unrestricted by walls or doors. All very modern, with just the slightest hint of Canterlot’s elitist snobbery present in the presentation and arrangements of the furniture.

Upstairs however, was a totally different world.

The three separate bedrooms for herself and her parents were set in the past. Dark wooden furniture adorned with cloths an entire array of colors from the darker end of the spectrum. Dark green bed sheets, maroon couch cushions, dark blue curtains, everything was dark. The rooms almost never saw daylight, opening the curtains and allowing light to flood in just made the rooms seem... off. They were designed as secluded, spacious and personal abodes, natural light was not welcome.

Walking to the end of the corridor and entering her own room, Aurea felt a wave of comfort and security flow through her. Activating a switch on the wall with a flick of her nose, the room glowed a soft and warm yellow, emanating from a small crystal of light inlaid in the wall above the dark-wood antique work desk. Scattered papers and ink quills littered the desk, a testament to only a single session of work still left untidy from several nights before. She sighed, it seemed as though she had found something to do.

Sitting down on the comfy, cushioned desk chair, she swept all the papers to the side of the desk, leaving a spot in the middle clear for the sorting. As she opened the desk drawer which doubled as her filing cabinet, she felt a giddiness as the familiar smell of old and new paper seeped out into the air.

Sorting was a methodical task. The goal was simple, the method was simple and easy to figure out, and it required minimal effort. It just took a long time. It kept the body busy, and provided it with a sense of usefulness as it got something productive done, but it allowed the mind to be free and drift off into pockets of the imagination that could only be exposed while the body is in action and on the move.

Aurea swept paper after paper from the messy pile into the center of the table. Star charts, notes, constellations maps, all filed into their relevant sections in the cabinet, ready to be taken out again if needed. The pile of papers slowly decreased in size, and the occasional pencil and eraser fell out only to be snatched up and put back into their holders.

The desk was now clear, with only the relevant stationery holders resting atop it. Sweeping a foreleg over the table to remove the accumulated dust, Aurea let out a invigorated breath, if it wouldn’t have meant messing up the desk again, she’d have busted the papers out and continued her work anew.

Marveling the clean desk for a short minute, the invigoration slowly faded away, being replaced with the remainder of the comfortable chair she was sitting on and the equally comfortable bed behind her.

Rubbing a sleepy eye with her hoof, she retracted it when she felt something wet brush the side of her cheek. Surprised, she brought the leg down, and spotted the small cut.

A paper cut. They didn’t come often, but occasionally paper found itself on just the right angle going at just the right speed to do a little bit of damage. The cut was nastier than she expected, and had obviously bled for a short time, staining the white fur around it a deep crimson. She brought a wing over and brushed the cut gently with a feather. No pain. it had probably happened in her initial joviality while sorting the papers.

Pushing herself off the chair and onto the plush carpet, Aurea opened the door to her room and stepped back into the dimly lit hallway. As turned to go back downstairs and wash the blood off of her leg, she heard a faint tap coming from down the hall. Turning her head around to face the source, she noticed that the door to the main study was ajar, and the wind from the open balcony was ever so slightly pulling the door open and closed.

Moving to close the door, her hoof on the handle, Aurea had the sudden urge to enter the study. She had been in many times before, it was after all the gateway to the balcony which housed the family telescope. But the room was primarily her father’s study. While the three rooms on the top floor were designed as bedrooms, her mother’s study was where they both slept, which left the master bedroom free. She pulled the door open, the creak of the old hinges echoing through the hallway.

Instead of a bed, the room was mostly empty with the exception of several wooden bookshelves crammed with tomes of astronomical knowledge and a rather grandiosely designed desk that almost took up an entire wall. On the other side of the room, directly opposite to the door, was the archway that lead to the household’s semi-circle grey marble balcony and the resident telescope. The carpet was a solid dark green, matching the rest of the top floor and hallway.

Moving over to her father's desk, she noticed that it was, as always, clean. He was always the clean one in the family, contrary to both his wife and daughter. While Aurea and her mother would often wait until the morning after to reorganize and clean their workplaces after a night’s work, her father ensured that if he was to leave the room at any point in time for any period of time, the desk would be left tidy and neat. An assortment of pencils and quill of various sizes and states of use sat in a wide holder carved in an ornate pattern from dark mahogany wood. Several desk trays were stacked on top of each other to the far right, filled to the brim with neatly organized papers.

Aurea always noticed that her father had a quirky obsession with maintaining the neatness of a piece of paper, if it was crumpled or part of an edge was ripped off, he would not write on it. The paper had to be smooth and unmarred, and as a result of his methodical process of weeding out the unfit paper, it was filed so neatly the tray could be taken and put on display as a commercial for how effective it was.

Curiosity took her, pulling the desk chair over to the paper tray, she set her sights on the papers within. She didn’t normally snoop around in her parent’s work, but they often did snoop around in her’s, just out of curiosity. She was sure that she’d be able to use that excuse if they questioned her for doing so.

The top tray was filled with star maps, each one immaculately maintained and mapping a portion of the night sky. The second tray comprised largely of shorthand notes on everything from telescope focus gems to Ursa Minor. The third tray was much the same, neat but shuffled notes on pretty much everything, except for a few dozen or so bound pages at the bottom of the stack.

She removed the papers from the tray, double checking to ensure that she left no evidence of perusing them. The front page of the stack was blank. Her father had kept compendiums of his work before, most of which were filed away on the bookshelves. Bound papers outside of the bookshelf usually indicated it was a current piece of work.

Turning over the front page, there was a phrase on the next one, placed small and center in his neat handwriting: “Earth and Sun”

Aurea raised an eyebrow, intrigued. Moving her hoof to turn the page again, she noticed the cut on her leg. It was bleeding again, more so than before, and the trail of crimson was getting dangerously close to rolling off her leg and landing on the desk.

She sighed and picked up the papers. Resting them on a wing, she returned to her bedroom and placed them on her desk, she could read it later, the bathroom was once again the priority destination.

The night was cold. Looming edifices and the constant chirping of crickets the only point of focus in the empty streets. The nighttime had, as per routine, brought about the ominous silence of Canterlot and transformed it into silent ghost town.

The nighttime was not Police Chief Fallweather’s time.

It was late, too late. The night was far colder than he had prepared for, and his autumn fur didn’t insulate him enough. Had he known, he would have brought a coat to wear over his uniform. The fact that the only light reaching into the dark alleyway was the moon didn’t make him feel any more at ease.

“Chilly evening Chief?”

Startled, Fallweather spun around to face the brown trench coat clad earth pony stallion who had appeared behind him.

“Must you do that?” Fallweather censured him, “I thought I was meeting two of you.”

“Lexic should be arriving shortly,” the stallion replied, dusting off his coat. “I take it everything has checked out.”

Fallweather nodded, “You’ve got some friends in very high places. Too high for my liking.”

“You don’t have to like it Chief, you just have to do what you’re told. Shouldn’t be too hard,” He over the shoulder of the Police Chief, “Well, look who’s here.”

Turning his head to assess the new arrival, Fallweather noted the similar trench coat and mane style of the approaching stallion. He was a unicorn however, with a coat of dark silver.

“Apologies gentlecolts, I was held up,” Lexic turned to the brown trenchcoat, “I have some good news.”

“Everything went according to plan?”

Lexic nodded, grinning mischievously, “They intercepted the parents, no trouble at all, they’re turning them in now and will be back by morning.”

“Excellent,” brown trench coat replied, “The Chief here also has good news; we’re clear to go tomorrow, we won’t see any interference from the authorities.”

The silver pony chuckled, “Gotta love this assent, almost no challenge getting away with everything.”

“Who gave you this assent?” Fallweather asked, eyeballing the brown stallion, who looked at Lexic disapprovingly.

“It is none of your concern Chief, what is of your concern is information on the daughter. I take it you have that information?”

“Yes,” Fallweather said, not at ease in the slightest as he handed over a file filled with papers to the brown trench coat. “In there is the map with the route that you asked for. It’s the shortest one from the house to the theater, so it’s most likely the one that she’ll take.”

“Excellent,” the brown pony said again, pocketing the file into the folds of his coat, “What other information do you have on her.”

“White. Yellow striped mane,” Fallweather listed, “Did I mention she’s a pegasus?”

Lexic raised an eyebrow, “A pegasus? That’s not going to make things easy for us.”

“It’s inconsequential,” the brown pony said, waving a hoof dismissively at his partner, “The whole point of surprising her is so she doesn’t attempt to escape. Wings won’t help her.”

“I have made all the arrangements,” the Police Chief said, eager to leave as soon as possible, “Nothing about this incident will be mentioned anywhere, you can tell your... client that they shouldn’t have any problems.”

“That is good news Chief, mostly for you.” The brown pony turned to Lexic, “Our business here is done, we need to get everything prepared and ready for tomorrow night.” He faced Fallweather, calm neutrality apparent in his tone and face, “Goodnight Chief.”

As he turned to leave, Lexic in tow, Fallweather spoke up, “I don’t believe I got your name.”

The brown pony stopped. “Neither do I, Chief,” he said, looking over his shoulder to face the officer, “Neither do I.”

Chapter 3 - Atypical

Nothing At All

~Chapter 3 - Atypical~

By Chimpso

“The greatest fear is a failure yet to come.”

Trenchcoat was a pony of the shadows. It wasn't his real name, but it might as well have been. No one knew his real name, or if he even had one. But his clients were not concerned with names, they were concerned with service, and Trenchcoat offered a far less traditional service for those who required it. A service that required a special operator.

He did not operate alone however; clients hired a team, not an individual. Famous for their brief execution and their long signature trench coats, his team, though a mere four in total, had been responsible for some of the most high profile crimes in all of urban Equestria. They made an appearance often enough to earn notoriety, but not so often as to be considered a serious threat. They were hired by anyone, or anything. They were not concerned with who the client was, only if they could deliver. That was all that mattered.

Or at least, that's all that usually mattered, Trenchcoat had certainly been given a shock with his latest client.

The door creaked open behind him.

"They're back Lexic?" He asked, turning away from the papers he had been mulling over to face the pony who had entered the room.

"Yeah boss, they're back," The silver unicorn replied, "Seem mighty pleased with themselves too."

"I wouldn't expect anything less, it was a job well done. But..." He indicated the papers on the desk, and Lexic moved to scoop them up, "We still have work to do."

He pushed open the door, walking into an unimpressive dining room with plain white walls and carpet and a small, cheap table with equally small and cheap chairs. Two ponies, whose upbeat conversation he had interrupted with his entrance, we’re seated on the two chairs on the side of the table not facing him; an olive green pegasus mare with a mane of light pink, and a blue stallion, small in stature and demeanor, who had been sitting coyly listening to the mare’s boasting.

“Well, well,” Trenchcoat grinned, “Look who’s back. I hear everything went well.”

“Heh, it was too easy,” the mare replied in a caustic Manehattan accent, clearly satisfied with the results of her day, “The mother was scared senseless, the father gave us a bit of trouble, but he wasn’t hard to deal with.”

“I take it you did all of the work Bristle,” Trenchcoat interjected, the sarcasm simmering her down somewhat.

“Nah, Tinker done his little act after I jumped ‘em. But he damn near hit me with that paralysis spell of his,” Bristle said, glaring at the smaller unicorn sitting next to her.

“You have wings Bristle, when I say jump, you jump off, just like we practiced.” The unicorn’s voice was soft and indirect, but carried apparent annoyance.

“Yeah, jumping off two other ponies who I’ve just tackled to the ground. You make it sound real easy tinker.”

“Charging a paralysis spell is no picnic, and you know all too well that it conducts...”

“Ok, that’s quite enough.” Trenchcoat interrupted, raising a hoof for silence, “If you two start arguing, we’ll be here all night. And we’re not done yet. Lexic, if you please.”

The silver pony placed the pile of papers held in his magical aura onto the dining table. Trenchcoat went to work sorting out the papers, placing any that were unnecessary to the side and moving a road map of Canterlot to the center, facing the two ponies opposite him. It had several streets and locations highlighted in yellow.

“Now, as you know. We’ve been paid to carry out two grabs. First the parents, then the daughter,” he removed a picture from the now much neater pile and slid it over to the other two ponies, “This is her.”

Bristle picked up the picture and raised an eyebrow, “Looks like a cupcake to me,” the brazen pegasus remarked, “How does she even fly with that hair?”

“Shooting star cutie mark, wouldn’t happen to be in any astronomical field like her parents would she?” Tinker asked, indicating the mark on the flank of the pony in the image.

“Yes, an astronomer,” Trenchcoat replied, “Her parents as well. That’s irrelevant however, what is relevant is that later this evening she will be going into town to see a performance at the Gallivant theater. We know that she’s off to see a friend perform, and I found out that said friend’s performance will take place just after 9. Which means she’ll probably be leaving at around 8 to walk there in ti...”

“Wait, walk?” Bristle asked incredulously, “The girl’s got wings and she walks?”

Trenchcoat nodded. “Yes, and that’s all the better for us. It means that you’ll probably not need to take wing Bristle, if everything goes to plan that is.”

The pegasus scoffed. “Now that’s just no fun. I’d rather chase the little cupcake a little, its been awhile since I’ve been in some air-to-air combat,” she grinned, punching Tinker playfully in the shoulder, “And you could try to aim that paralysis spell at a moving target.”

“Need I remind you both that you’ll have free reign and no involvement from the police on this street only,” Trenchcoat said sternly, tapping the longest highlighted street on the map with the tip of his hoof to drive the point home, “Anything that goes on outside this street, we can’t guarantee our immunity from the law. So please, for the love of Luna, don’t let her run away, or worse, take wing. There’s no way we’ll be able to get her if that happens.”

“It won’t,” Tinker said, “There shouldn’t be a problem.”

“What about you two?” Bristle asked, nodding to Trenchcoat and Lexic, “I don’t suppose you two will be sitting here playing cards while we’re gone?”

“While you are busy with her, Lexic and I will be searching her house.”

“We will?” Lexic asked, surprised at the new information.

“Last minute addition by the client, a higher price if we search the house for anything that may interest them. I’m sure they listed some keywords on a note here somewhere...” Trenchcoat rummaged through the stack of papers and pulled out an envelope. He tilted it, and a rough piece of paper fell into his waiting hoof, “It’s work that’s beneath us, but why not? Money is money. Now, we’ve got a few hours to relax, and then go time. By the way, don’t hurt her, at least not too severely. We’ve been ordered to bring her in unharmed, so try not to do anything drastic,” he narrowed his eyes at the pegasus, “I’m looking at you Bristle.”

She just laughed, “Hey, if the walking marshmallow wants to do things the hard way, I’m not gonna hesitate to toast her a little.”

“Are you sure this floral pattern works Ember?”

“I think it looks magnificent.”

“I know you do, but does it fit? You know, is it suitable?”

“It’s a short, casual performance Turfy, I thought It’d be great, not too flash, but not too plain.

Ember Spark moved to stand beside Turfy Plains, the two of them reflected in the ceiling-high mirror. His orange coat and dashing blonde mane appearing as if it were to set fire to the floral dress and it’s green and brown living mannequin.

“Well,” she huffed, giving him a sidewards glance, “You’ve been mistaken before.”

Ember sighed. He was going to have to say this sooner or later.

“Turfy, look. I don’t want this night to be... negative. It’s a big one for you, and... we need to get this off of our chests.”

"Mmhmm," Turfy hummed.

“I, um...” the blonde unicorn was apprehensive, running a hoof through his mane, he looked up at the mirror again, “I know I have been a little... pushy recently.”

“Mmhmm,” Turfy hummed again, longer this time.

“And I know you didn’t appreciate it, especially with what happened yesterday. So, I’d just like to say I’m sorry.”

Turfy turned to face the somber stallion this time. Ember Spark may have been a magician and deceiver in the past, but at heart he was a genuine soul. His history was laden with great acts of illusion and conjure, mystifying audiences with complex arcane trickery or even simple, physical trickery, but when he would step down and remove the robe of his trade, he was a trustworthy individual. He was a bastion of support for the downtrodden and a pillar of inspiration for the impressionable. He was the friend everyone wanted to have; the friend who just knew. His career was an illustrious one, filled with marvel and prestige, and he never made a mistake. Not one. From the day he had entered the scene, he was a performer of unparalleled accuracy on the stage, starting with a bow and ending with a flourish. He was a profound manifestation of the dream of any stage performer in Equestria.

Such a shame he had thrown it all away.

“I don’t know what was even going through my head, trying to mould you and your performance like that, like you were some piece of clay for me to shape until I saw it right. I know you are, but I’m telling you not to: don’t feel bad about what you said yesterday, I deserved it.”

He had stared at himself in the mirror the whole time, but he hung his head again.

“Ember...” Turfy placed a hoof on his shoulder, concern evident on her face as he looked up to meet her gaze.

“Ember you dolt, you’re so dramatic!” Turfy laughed, and Ember recoiled in surprise at the sudden outburst of mirth from the singer, “I forgive you, I forgave you the moment I had finished demolishing you, because I knew you would understand.”

“Really? You don’t hold it against me?” Ember asked, managing to finally smile.

“Well, that’s a different story,” Turfy replied, “But I know you Ember, I know you care. So don’t worry, it’s fine.”

She had been smiling at him the whole time, and he recoiled in surprise again as she quickly enveloped him into a hug.

“Just don’t let it happen again, okay?” she said, letting him go, but still staring into his eyes. He nodded, the full smile finally showing itself, and she grinned back, a grin that threatened to split apart her face.

“Well, now that that’s over with, where were we.” Turfy turned away from him and moved to the other side of the dressing room, to one of the smaller individual mirrors. “It looks like the dress won’t be an issue, but now I have to work out what to do with this face of mine.” She stuck her tongue out playfully, and Ember caught the action in the reflection of the mirror, he did not want to be around when she jumped into her makeup, he barely had the courage to be around for the end result.

“I’ll leave you to it then,” he laughed, walking over to the dressing room door, "I'm going to go make sure that everything's sorted out with the theater staff. By the way, is Aurea coming tonight?"

"Of course! She got front row seats." Turfy replied merrily.

"Lucky her, I thought they'd have sold out by now."

"I'm not that popular Ember."

"Regardless, I'm sure you'll do great, better than I would have made you do." He said, reaching for the door knob.

She swiveled the chair around to face him, makeup tools ready to go, "Well, I guess only time will tell."

“Of all the nights to do this, it had to be hot night.”

Rubbing at his forehead with a hoof, Tinker frowned at the sweat he felt there. Trenchcoats and hot weather were not a pleasant mix. And with the weather team of Canterlot’s seemingly random manipulation of the local weather it was never something that could be predicted easily.

He looked up just in time to catch Bristle land in the alley behind him, her hooves hitting the ground with an audible clop.

“Showtime?” Tinker asked.

Bristle nodded, “She’s on the way, only two blocks away by the looks of it, you ready?”

“Yeah,” he said, shifting uncomfortably in his coat, “Is it hot out, or is it just me?”

“It’s hot, but I don’t feel a thing up there,” Bristle replied, pointing upwards, “Wind and all.”

“Well, lucky you,” Tinker grumbled in response, peeking outside the alleyway and spotting a figure approaching down the sidewalk at the end of the street, “She’s coming.”

“Right then, I jump on your call, remember that.”

Leaping up into the air and flapping her wings, Bristle disappeared over the roof of the adjacent building, her position for the ambush. Tinker quickly peeked out the alleyway again, the white pony was less than a block away...

Her parents had not come back yet.

They said they’d be back later. Yesterday. It wasn’t the first time it had happened, sometimes they finished up later than expected and got a hotel to stay the night, sometimes they stayed up all night working, but they always came home the next morning or afternoon. It was dark now. And hot.

Stopping under a streetlight to give herself a breather, Aurea silently cursed the muggy weather. After spending the day inside due to the heat, she had been looking forward to the walk during what she believed would be a cool night. No such luck, while there was no sun in the sky, there was heat. The only reprieve was the occasional fleeting zephyr, but while she waited for another one of those, she felt as if she was roasting under her fur.

Concerns about her parents forgotten as she once again began to trudge onwards through the obstinate heat, Aurea reflected on the status of her friend. Turfy Plains’ performance at the Gallivant was nothing particularly special. But although the theater was small, she had apparently almost sold the place out. Ember was likely to be the one responsible for that, his past experience promoting his own shows through poster advertising was what had skyrocketed him into the public spotlight in the first place. His methods were clearly working with his new interest as well. Aurea chuckled. Ember Spark always delivered.

Her face hit the pavement.

Haze. Haze and pain, that’s all her world was at that moment. The burning sensation in her nose, the weight of hooves on her shoulders, the light flooding her vision as she opened her eyes.

The light.

Looking up, a unicorn, brown trenchcoat, horn glowing furiously as beads of sweat slid down his forehead. The sparks flying from the horn, some sort of electrical spell. Powerful?

The uneasy weight on her shoulders, the two hooves, the weight not so severe, distributed to the front more than the back, like a predator waiting to pounce.

Pounce. Electricity. And with electricity comes conductance, and to avoid conductance you’d...

“Now!”

Now.

As soon as she felt the weight come off her shoulders, Aurea rolled to the side. The unicorns horn erupted as a bolt of light hit the sidewalk where she had just been tackled to the ground, exploding in a shower of sparks. The unicorn’s mouth fell open, unable to comprehend what had just happened. A pegasus, hovering above where she had just been laying, looked at the unicorn, clearly as surprised as he was, but as her gaze turned to Aurea, the astronomer's blood ran cold.

Scrambling to her hooves as fast as she could. Aurea turned down the street and ran. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her. There was a shout from behind, probably from the other pegasus. She heard the sound of said pegasus running after her. It was now or never, she was glad now that she hadn’t needed to bring her coat.

Unfurling her wings and diving into the hot air, she again heard a shout behind her, a shout of anger this time, but she didn’t look back. Flapping her underused wings, flying straight ahead down the empty road, slowly gaining altitude and distance, she heard another takeoff behind her.

“Come here, cupcake!”

A powerful burning sensation hit her backside as she felt as if her tail was going to be ripped right off. Yelping in pain, her wings flapping twice as fast to keep herself aloft, she turned to face her antagonist.

The other pegasus, her short pink mane falling over her eyes, had Aurea’s tale gripped firmly in her teeth, flying backward to try and bring her back to the ground. Aurea attempted to fly upwards, but the other pegasus’ pull was too strong and the pain of her tail being pulled was making her eyes water.

Twisting her body around, her wings still flapping profusely in an attempt to keep her in the air, Aurea kicked a hind leg out in desperation. The strike was pathetically weak, but the other pegasus hadn’t been expecting it. As her tail was freed from the jaws of the other pony, Aurea rocketed forward, forcing herself to slow down and fly over a small shop before she crashed right into it’s display window.

Putting as much energy into her wings as possible, she turned her head once more, and whimpered as she saw the other pegasus speeding towards her again. She was gaining too fast.

Aurea braced for the impact, ready to most likely be tackled and fall into the suburbia below her.

A shout from below stopped the pegasus in her tracks. She looked to the ground, where the unicorn was frantically yelling at her and gesturing downwards. She looked back at Aurea, then at the unicorn, then back to Aurea again, giving her a snarl that made the terrified pony’s fur stand on end before flying back to the ground to rejoin her ally.

Aurea realized that she had been frozen in place. He wings moving on instinct to keep her airborne. As reality slapped her in the face, she turned around and flew off as fast as she could into the night.

Chapter 4 - Jest

Nothing At All

~Chapter 4 - Jest~

By Chimpso

“Why me?”

“Why not?”

Aurea touched down in a mess of shaky hooves and heavy breaths. Collapsing onto the ground, her eyes clenched shut as every pain and ache suddenly became evident. Her wings burned, her nose was scrunched up in pain, and she shivered despite the sultry weather. Her body was discontent. It tried to bunch itself into a ball, to make itself smaller, to shield itself from the pain, but as her muscles tensed up, the pain flared. She felt her eyes beginning to water, her lips began to quiver, her breaths became heavier and more frequent. The emotion was ready to take her.

But as she lay there, her dismay threatening to overcome her senses, a tiny inference in her mind gave her an inkling of support; halting her, locking her in place. It calmed her down. It pushed her instinctive urge to curl up aside, and gave her the reality free from exaggeration: she was not safe before, but she was now. She needed to calm. She needed to think.

Her body responded to the calming of her mind. It slowly left it's protective position and gave itself space. The muscles still burned and the pains still ached, but they did so without further exacerbation. Her eyes were closed, and her face still tensed up in an expression of pain, but it had been assuaged, and her rapidly moving chest fell into a gentle rhythm as her breathing slowed.

She lay on her side, one cheek resting on the cold pavement. In the free time she now had, her mind finally had the time to decipher the happenings of the last few minutes. There had been a Pegasus, and a Unicorn. Both had jumped her. The co-ordination had been elaborate. Both knew when to act. It had been premeditated. It had been planned.

But why? Why did they try to get her? What had she done?

She opened her eyes again and let out a long, pained sigh. The pavement stretched out across her vision: monotonous grey leading to a cleaner beige wall; the side of a building. The wall ascended, reaching skywards towards the twinkling night stars. Staring at those little white specks in the sky, Aurea felt her sense of calm return. She was out of danger now, she had been in it, but now she was not. She had to...

Where was she?

She sat upright, and winced as the pain in her backside smarted as she put her weight on it. There wasn’t much around, she was behind some sort of large building. There were several dumpsters resting against the wall, and further down there were several small doors with a larger door nestled between them. The latter of which was probably used to deliver cargo into the building. She recognised it, she had gone through that door with Turfy Plains many times before. It was the loading bay of the Gallivant theater.

Getting to her hooves, her legs no longer jittery, she began walking towards one of the smaller doors. She didn’t know what time it was, she had left home at around 8 o’clock and it couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes since she had left.

She stopped as one of the smaller doors opened. Turfy trotted out, and Ember followed close behind. Turfy was dressed in a simple yet effective floral-patterned dress, while Ember was adorned in a black tuxedo and matching black bowtie. The two of them caught sight of the Pegasus, and stopped in their tracks.

“Aurea? What are you doing out here?” Turfy asked, confused. “This is the loading bay.”

“I... um...” Aurea couldn’t really find the words to respond to the unmitigated question.

“Are you alright? You don’t look too good. Did you fall into a ditch or something on your way here?” Ember asked he eyed her dusty white fur and mane. “And what is that under your chin?”

Not knowing what he was referring to, Aurea ran a hoof over the underside her chin and was rewarded with a stinging pain as she irritated the graze there, a result of her face’s meeting with the pavement no doubt.

“Aurea, are you ok?” Turfy was more concerned now than confused, and as she walked up to her friend and noticed the dreary state of her coat and mane, both of which were stained a light brown from the pavement she had crashed onto as well as the graze under her chin, she gasped. “What happened to you?”

Aurea felt the anxiety she had almost succumbed to upon her landing creeping slowly back into her conscience. She once again tried to curtail her breathing, but all she could do was stare at the ground in front of Turfy’s hooves as her heart began to race again. Her shaky voice could not find words.

“I... well...”

“Wait, come inside.” Ember interrupted, noticing her state. He moved to her, and Aurea raised her head as he did so, showing eyes that were on the verge of tears, “Tell us about it inside.”

Wrapping a leg around the distraught pony’s neck, he lead her to one of the smaller doors. Turfy exchanged a look with Ember, one of both confusion and concern, as they both guided their friend through the Gallivant’s back door.

With the telling of the interesting events of the last half-hour of her life, Aurea remained calm. The sedition of her emotion failed to overcome the words of reason that her mind kept feeding her. The emotion was forced to sit back and observe as the mind poured out the details of the events without it’s ties. It tried to interject on occasion, but could barely make it’s presence known with a mere catch in the voice or a brief falter of the stream of words from her mouth. The intelligence shut it up. Her mind silenced it. And the turbulent emotion could only sit idly and listen as she pushed it away.

The two ponies in front of her listened to her description of the events. Turfy Plains had done her best to dust off her coat and mane and try to restore some of it’s natural purity, but she had only been partially successful. Her fur was still stained with blotches of light brown that tarnished it’s default white.

When she was done recounting the events, Aurea forced herself to raise her head. The whitewashed table of the Gallivant’s dressing room had kept her eyes occupied for the duration of her narration, but failed to hold her interest anymore. Turfy and Ember’s faces greeted her. Turfy looked aghast, her mouth had fallen open in disbelief, “I... I don’t believe it. You were what? You were just... attacked? In the middle of the street?”

Aurea nodded slowly. By now her emotion’s will to rebel against her had been calmed. And she no longer needed to actively fight against it. “Yes.”

“Well why are we sitting here then?” Turfy stood up from her seat. “We need to report this to the police right away.”

“Turfy, your show starts in less than half an hour.” Aurea replied, her tired tone making Turfy’s enthusiasm seem out of place.

“Nonsense. It was just a little technique that Ember cooked up. It actually starts twenty minutes later,” she said dismissively, “But more ponies would be willing to come at nine o’clock then at nine-thirty. We have plenty of time.”

“I’ll go with her Turfy. You can finish getting ready.” Ember said, also getting up from his seat and moving over to Aurea.

“Absolutely not. We’ll all go together.”

“But Turfy, you’re in your stage dress. If it gets dirty on the walk...”

“Ember, there are more important matters to attend to than this performance right now.” Turfy said sternly, giving Ember a disapproving look.

The orange stallion turned away, “Right. You’re right.” He muttered.

“Besides, the Police Station is only a few blocks down the street. We’ll be there in no time,” She walked to the door to the loading bay and held it open, "Come on then!"

Aurea and Ember exchanged a look at the drive of their friend. Aurea gave him a half-hearted shrug she started moving towards the door.

Sighing, Ember shifted uncomfortably in his tuxedo. “It’s too hot for this.”

The walk to the police station had been uneventful, although Aurea had to admit that watching Turfy's struggle to keep her dress from getting dirty was mildly amusing considering the events of the day. Ember ended up having to carry the back of it in his teeth to prevent it from dragging on the ground as Turfy towed him along.

Canterlot wasn't exactly a city that was notorious for it’s crime, quite the contrary was actually the case. As a result, the police stations of the city were considerably spaced out. The nearest one to the Gallivant happened to be one of the larger of the city, but it’s small waiting room betrayed the overall size. It was simple and white, with comfy chairs backed by a row of green ferns. The reception desk was staffed by a yellow unicorn mare with a blue mane in a police uniform who appeared to be doodling on a sheet of paper, her expression one of pure boredom. Looking up, the receptionist came face to face with a lavishly dressed Earth Pony, a snappy tuxedo-clad Unicorn and a dirty, scruffy looking Pegasus.

“Is there a problem?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at the unexpected arrivals. Turfy opened her mouth to speak, but the door behind the reception desk clicked open and stopped her. A lanky unicorn wearing a similar uniform with an autumn coat and a brown mane approached the receptionist with a stack of papers held in his magical aura. He looked over her at the trio of ponies in the waiting room, and he stopped.

The autumn unicorn’s eyes darted back and forth between the dirty Pegasus and her dapper looking companions. He was shocked initially, and Aurea caught the flicker of apprehension that passed his face, but he regained his composure quickly. "They are here to see me Lieutenant, there is an important matter we need to discuss. Make sure all this is sorted out for me if you please." He said, putting down the stack of papers he had been carrying onto the desk in front of her.

"Okay, chief," the receptionist shrugged, ignoring the stack and returning to her doodling.

"Come on in,” he said, Motioning for the three confused ponies to follow him behind the desk and through the door he had come in through.

Entering the small office of the police pony, Aurea took in the traditional wooden theme and walls plastered with certificates, commendations and photos of the autumn pony. She was confused, he had recognised them, that was for certain. But how? Aurea had never met the officer – whose desk plaque identified him as 'District Chief Fallweather' – and she was fairly certain that Ember and Turfy had never mentioned having been acquainted with a police chief. The confused looks on their own faces confirmed that.

Sitting himself on the chair behind his desk, the Chief rummaged around as if looking for something important. Ember turned to Turfy, who simply shrugged. He was the first to break the silence. "Uhh, we're here to..."

"They're called The Trenchcoats," Fallweather interrupted, still going through his drawers, "And you, I presume, are Aurea."

Aurea was taken aback, “How do you...?"

"Long story. And if I’m going to make a long story short there’s no time for that." He continued to search around and inside his desk for whatever he was looking to find as his guests watched in silence. He soon gave up, slamming a hoof on the table and groaning in frustration.

"To make a long story short, you're not safe. You may have escaped them once, but I've been after these guys before. They're tenacious, they won't give up that easily, especially considering that they're being paid handsomely," Fallweather was still looking around the office, as if hoping to spot what he had been looking for just lying around anywhere.

"And... who are they?" Aurea asked, out of the hundreds of questions swirling around in her mind at the moment, that one was the most pressing.

"The Trenchcoats," Fallweather repeated, "Hired help. They’re contracted to perform delicate criminal activities; kidnapping, robberies, you name it. These guys do it all. We've never connected a murder to them though.”

“But why? Why are they after Aurea?” Turfy asked, exasperated by the Chief’s uneasiness.

“Are you even listening to me?” The Chief replied, furrowing his at Turfy. He resigned his search for good and sat still, “They are hired. They receive contracts and they carry them out. She was a contract.”

“Again, why?” Turfy pressed.

“I don’t know! I’ve been trying to figure it out, there are the instructions I was given somewhere around here, but I can’t find them anywhere.”

“Instructions?” Ember asked, eying Fallweather suspiciously, “What are you talking about?”

“This client was no ordinary client. Usually it’s just big time crime players who hire them to do dirty work, but this time it was someone with far more influence. The moment I’d have seen these Trenchcoats I’d have taken them in – they are a menace – but I had orders not to do so. I got a message from the Head of Security in the Castle himself, saying that I needed to co-operate with the Trenchcoat’s demands, he said it was a matter of...” the Chief swirled his hoof in front of his face, trying to find the right words, “Internal security.”

Fallweather rubbed his temples as he stared around the table, talking more to himself then the guests in his office; “But I didn’t buy it. Something didn’t seem right. I tried to go over your record, but you don’t have one and neither do either of your parents. There is nothing to connect you to any internal security threat, so I don’t understand why they are after you.”

“Wait a moment,” Aurea stepped forward, placing her hooves on the desk and standing on her hind legs to be eye-to-eye with the Chief, forcing him to finally pay attention, “What about my parents? What’s happened to them?”

“Same thing almost happened to you I presume,” Fallweather shrugged, “I wish I could tell you more, but I honestly don’t have a clue. I was told to help them. I had your family watched and all your arrangements worked out. I just told them where and when they would be able to find you. They told me nothing.”

Ember stepped forward now, glaring at the autumn pony, “So you are saying that you actually abetted a group of criminals?”

Fallweather was not fazed by his stare, “I didn’t have a choice. These orders came from the Castle itself. I can’t be sure who from, but they didn’t come from the Head of Security, he was just a messenger. They could have come from anyone higher than him though, but that could be over a dozen different ponies, it could have come from the one of the princesses themselves even. But like I said, I don’t buy it. I don’t get why you could be considered a threat. Your parents are rather well-known, but their work has been nothing but constructive and has only strengthened the academia of Canterlot. You’ve done nothing wrong as far as I can tell. I understand that you are mad that I helped them, but now I am helping you, and you need to get out of here.”

“What?” Aurea blinked, “You mean, your office?”

“No. I mean out of this city, as far away from these Trenchcoats as possible. These guys don’t give up, I’ve been after them before. They’ve snatched ponies from under the protection of our most experienced officers so even if I were able to put you under police protection it wouldn’t do you any good. All I can do is tell you to stay one step ahead. You need to leave. You need to leave as soon as possible. I don’t know what they are planning, or where they have taken your parents, and I know that this may be a lot to digest, but for all I know they could be on their way here right now to ask me if I have any information for them. You need to get out of here. Take the nearest train. Go anywhere but here, and if they follow you then keep running, but I have to be honest, they’ll probably catch you eventually. They always do.”

Aurea stared hard at the police chief. Her eyes searching his expression to try and locate any sign of a smirk, or the tiny curve of a barely conceivable grin, or anything to try and convince her that this was simply some elaborate joke. But as his green irises stared solemnly into her grey, they gave nothing away, but they looked tired. He was quite young, definitely younger than those who would normally have his job, but the empathetic yet serious stare he gave her showed no signs of a young sense of humor. There was no joke here.

Aurea looked away. She felt her rump hit the floor and her hooves followed after. She lifted her head to look up at the police chief behind the desk, who was considering her with an expression that was almost sad. She only had one more question to ask now, her voice trying to remain even as she did so: “Do you know anything about my parents? Do you know where they are?”

Fallweather shook his head slowly and sighed, “No, I don’t. And I am pretty sure that the Trenchcoats don’t either. I know what orders they were given; they were to take your parents and later you to an undisclosed location where they were to be picked up by the client. They probably have no idea where they ended up. And I’m sure that they don't care. They care about the payment, and that’s why they’re going to keep going after you.”

Aurea raised her hooves to her temples and rubbed them fiercely, trying to efface the conversation and the events of the day from her mind. Said mind wasn't disingenuous enough however, it called for a reaction, not a denial.

"I... I need to go back home," Aurea said getting to her hooves.

"Back home?" Fallweather scoffed, "That is the absolute worst place you could possibly go! If they are smart – which they most certainly are – they'll be waiting for you to do something just as stupid as that. Going back home would be like giving yourself up the them."

"He's right Aurea," Turfy said, placing a hoof on her friend's shoulder, "Your house is not safe, you can stay with me until we get this all sorted out."

"That's not a good idea either, that would be the second place they’d look: a friends house," Fallweather said, shaking his head, "I said it before, nowhere is safe for you right now."

"I don't want to go home to be safe," Aurea replied angrily, causing Turfy to remove her hoof from her shoulder and back up apprehensively, "I just want to go home to... I don't know." She sighed, and took a deep breath, "I just need to go back. This all makes no sense. My parents are astronomers, how can they be threats to ‘Internal Security’? I just... It makes no sense."

"And how is going back home and exposing yourself to more danger going to do to help?" Ember asked.

"I need to figure out why this is happening Ember. I need to figure that out first. Knowledge is power, my parents knew this better than anyone else I've known. Maybe they knew something that they shouldn't have. And maybe that's why someone from the Castle is going after them." Aurea was talking more to herself than to the other ponies in the room, but they certainly heard what she had said. Fallweather raised an eyebrow.

"Perhaps you are right, but your parents are astronomers. I understand that they have some prestige, but what could they have possibly discovered that could make the Castle do something that I'm sure it has never done before?” He scratched his chin, trying to piece together the puzzle she had just given him, “Then again, It may have only been the Chief of Security and not the Castle themselves, he was the one that sent me my orders after all. But once again, what could your parents have done to make the Chief of Security go after you? And even if they were a threat to internal security, why hire the Trenchcoats? Why didn't they just put a warrant out for your arrest? Why would they...?"

The police chief stopped talking and reflected on his words for a moment. Realization dawned on his face as it clicked.

"Because then there is nothing to connect your parent's disappearance to them. If the police hauled your parents off, others would know that they had a part in it. But if they mysteriously disappeared..."

Ember stepped forward, completing his sentence, "Then there would be nothing to connect them to the disappearance of Aurea and her parents."

"That’s right," Fallweather nodded, "Her parents must have discovered something that the Castle really doesn't want anyone to know. But what? What could they possibly have discovered?"

Aurea has been in a state of deep thought herself, and wasn't aware that a question had been directed at her. She looked back up at the police chief and just shook her head, "I don't know, but I need to find out."

As she walked towards the door – her hoof poised to open it – Fallweather straightened up in his chair and spoke directly to her, "Aurea, once that door opens, this conversation never happened. You never came to this station. I know nothing about where you are or what you plan to do. Likewise, I never helped you. You've never met me before in your life. Do you understand?"

She turned to face the Police Chief for what she assumed would be the last time. "I understand, and thank you."

The chief still looked troubled, and he was sitting rigid in his seat now. He just nodded, and watched as the white Pegasus left his office, her two friends following closely behind.

Books of all size, books of all stature, books of all status. Books, books, books. The father’s study housed shelf upon shelf of books. There were books on every subject conceivable. The first self contained tomes of knowledge on natural science, the second held the most diverse range of fiction Trenchcoat had ever laid eyes upon, and the third was half stocked with books on Astronomy, with the other half being folder after folder of longhand writing; the father’s own work.

Lexic and Trenchcoat had pulled apart that section, meticulously screening every paper for two co-occurent keywords: “Sun” and “Earth”. Of course, skimming through the titles of the father’s papers had netted them dozens all alluding to those very bodies in space, and they had been set aside on a pile behind the two ponies. There was nothing that Trenchcoat could see that was particularly out of the ordinary however, and he briefly wondered if this waste of time was really worth the extra bits that had been thrown their way. Lexic wasn’t helping all that much either.

“…and then they found that Marble’s flask had been filled with water, not the brew! So while Break was drinking himself silly, Marble was just having a nice little bit of refreshment!” Lexic threw his head back and laughed; a laugh that threatened to escalate into him toppling over onto his back and having a hysterical fit that would rival that of a little filly. Not paying much attention to it, Trenchcoat instead pulled out another folder of work and opened the first page to begin sifting through.

Lexic’s laughing subsided as he sniffled and rubbed a hoof across his nose, noticing that his boss’s reaction to his outburst had not been as intended, he raised an eyebrow and stared at him incredulously. He hadn’t expected him to laugh along, at most he usually received a chuckle or or a small smile, but he’d gotten neither this time as Trenchcoat simply resumed his work as if his colleague wasn’t even there.

“Uhh... Boss? Is everything okay?” Lexic asked. When Trenchcoat didn’t respond, he prodded his shoulder with a hoof, “Boss? You in there?”

“Yes Lexic, I am.” Trenchcoat grumbled, turning the next page of the folder, “I believe we have a job to do.”

“Well, yeah, but... Is something wrong?” Lexic asked again, picking a random folder off the shelf and frowning when he realised it was the biggest one yet, “You look a little under the weather today, not that that’s such a stretch considering how hot it is.”

“Perhaps it’s because you are talking to me,” Trenchcoat joked, chuckling as Lexic appeared to be genuinely hurt, “I was just thinking about our client.”

“Some sort of big shot is he?” Lexic asked, beginning his own methodical screening of the folder, “Not many ponies have got the cops in their pocket.”

“Perhaps,” Trenchcoat replied, “But I don’t think so, Fallweather didn’t seem too happy to work with us. If he’d been paid off directly then I’m sure he’d have been more willing to cooperate. No, he must have been ordered to work with us.”

“What are you trying to say? That this big shot with a load of bits paid off someone in the government or something?” Lexic asked, “I don’t see why they’d need to do that.”

“I’m trying to say that this big shot with a load of bits is someone in the government, I don’t see any other possibility,” Trenchcoat ran a hoof through his mane, trying to work out the quandary he had imposed on himself.

“Even if they are, so what? We’re still getting paid, aren’t we?” Lexic shrugged, not sure what his boss’s point was. They received contracts from a whole range of ponies. If they were able to pay, The Trenchcoats would do the job.

“We might be working for the government on this one Lexic, and I don’t like that,” He shut the folder in front of him and placed it back on the shelf, “How many more of these do we have to go through?”

“Looks like it’s just the bottom shelf left. Find anything particularly noteworthy?” Lexic asked.

“Nothing. It would help if they were more specific with what they are looking for,” Trenchcoat replied, pulling out another volume, “They haven’t given us much to work with.”

“Maybe they just don’t want us to know what they’re looking for, and they’re hoping we just stumble upon it,” Lexic shrugged again.

Trenchcoat stopped flicking through his volume. Lexic wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but sometimes he was sharp enough to carve up a point, “You’re right, why else would they give us two broad keywords that every book on an astronomers shelf would allude to?”

Lexic was about to respond, but the sound of the downstairs door closing caused them both to jolt. They were alone in the house, and Bristle and Tinker were meant to deliver the daughter to their liaison immediately after they captured her. Lexic turned to his boss and Trenchcoat nodded. The two of them jumped up off the floor – scattering papers as they did so – and ran down the hallway as quickly as they could without making noise. Lexic moved into the room on the right side; the parent’s bedroom, and Trenchcoat took position in what he assumed was the daughter's room. If the intruder was to enter one of the rooms, they would catch them. If they moved down the hallway into the study, they would catch them.

“Come on Tinker, they’re only stairs,” came Bristle’s harsh voice from downstairs, “Boss, you up there?”

Lexic and Trenchcoat exchanged another look, and it clicked in Lexic’s head that there was only one reason they’d be here this early.

Stepping out first and exiting the hallway, Lexic descending the stairs that lead to a rather annoyed Bristle and puffed out Tinker. Trenchcoat followed him, but stopped on the balcony of the stairs instead of going down. Lexic approached them, Trenchcoat knew what would happen when they were asked them what had happened, and braced himself.

“She got away,” Tinker said, his head drooping down as he stared at the floor.

“Yeah, because you took way too long to ready your damn paralysis spell, she had time to think!” Bristle said to the deflated uniform, causing him to gasp in indignation.

“It was hot Bristle! It was hard to concentrate. Besides, if you had actually managed to not be beaten by that little wimp in a fight we would have her right now!”

“What? I’ll have you know...!”

Their bickering continued for a few moments, with Lexic trying to interject and bring some order back into things, which just lead to him becoming angry himself and adding to the din.

Trenchcoat watched as his three subordinates argued and sighed with a smile. It wasn’t an unusual occurrence, but it never failed to be amusing. The three bickering ponies finally noticed the absence of their boss’s censure. Trenchcoat still stood at the top of the stairs, and the three ponies ceased their arguing upon seeing him standing there silently, the small smile still present on his face.

“Uhh, boss, any input would be nice,” Lexic said, as Bristle and Tinker both nodded, ceasing their bickering, “What should we do?”

“We still have a job that needs to be done. This is unfortunate, but she still doesn’t know who she’s dealing with,” Trenchcoat began to descend the stairs to join his cohorts, “She’ll go to one of two places, the closest police station: Fallweathers, where he’ll hold her and notify us to come pick her up, or back here; where we will be waiting for her.” Trenchcoat nodded, chuckling to himself, “Yes, it won’t be a problem.”

“I don’t see why you’re so happy boss, this situation sucks,” Bristle said, spitting onto the white tiles of the downstairs dining room, “That little pansy is slippery, what makes you think she won’t escape again?”

Trenchcoat raised an eyebrow and gave her a sly grin, “Well we certainly wouldn’t want you chasing her again Bristle, it seems that ‘pansy’ can one-up you just fine.”

Bristle growled at the quip and Tinker snickered as Trenchcoat continued, “Now, I’m guessing you came straight here once she got away, so that means that she’s either at the police station or on her way back here. Since the police station is covered, all we need to do is sit tight and wait. If she’s not here by morning, then we’ll assume that Fallweather has got her and head to the station. Any questions, children?”

The three ponies stared at the smiling Earth Pony, and then at each other. Bristle shrugged.

“Good,” Trenchcoat nodded, “Make yourself at home then, but try not to make any noise.”

Bristle and Tinker moved off into the kitchen, likely to go and bicker some more. Trenchcoat made his way back up the stairs, and Lexic followed him up, “Why are you so cheerful boss?” He asked, confused.

“Because Lexic, now things are getting fun.”

Aurea had no idea what she was going to do.

They were outside the police station now, Ember and Turfy were discussing something while Aurea sat some distance away from them on the lush lawns of the police station. Greenery was uncommon in the more commercialised districts of Canterlot, but the government buildings always tried their hardest to appeal to those not from the city, even the police stations: a place where no tourist hoped to end up, was embellished with plants and lawn.

It was still too hot. The time that had passed had not cooled down the night in the slightest. It was so hot she could have mistaken the street lamps for miniature suns, shining brightly into her eyes while the weather cooked her under her coat. Against her better judgment, she found herself wanting to sleep – to shut herself down for a while and let the events of the past day wash away and be gone by morning. She wanted nothing more than to hide under some covers despite the heat; to rest on that fluffy, wooden piece of furniture back home.

Home, she remembered that place. She remembered it from the morning; it was a place of safety and serenity then, a starting point from where she plotted her adventures. Home now held a different weight in her mind.

Home now was a place of danger, the words of Fallweather echoed in her mind, she wasn’t safe. Home wasn’t safe. Nowhere was safe, but why? ‘Why’ was the question she asked, the question was not when or where, it was why. Why had a group of hired thugs attempt to capture her? Why were her parents taken away? What had caused such a reaction? Why, why, why.

The question was a grand one, and it was not one she could answer. Why would come later, action would come now.

After contemplating her choices, she tried to formulate a plan. Fallweather couldn’t help her, and if a Police Chief was not able to assist her than what chance did she stand with any other officers. Home was dangerous, and going to her friends homes would put them in danger, which was the last thing that she wanted. Despite her best efforts, a logical, coherent plan with a desirable outcome would not surface. There was nothing in the future for her but danger.

So what did she have to lose?

Home may have been a danger, but it was the only logical option in the absence of a plan. If she were to find refuge someplace else, she was likely to be found eventually. The police chief may have been somewhat peculiar, but she believed him: running would just end up with her eventual capture. But confronting the problem, that might just work. She would either end up in the hooves of the Trenchcoats, which Fallweather had convinced her was an inevitability, or she’d find an answer at the house that could lead her to a solution.

There just wasn’t any other option to take, it made sense in her mind. But a small part of it was nagging her, it was telling her that something was wrong and that this was the wrong reaction. It was arguing against her rationality, but it was dwarfed by said rationality’s current momentum. It went unheard. There wasn’t room for inaction now.

Standing up, Aurea moved to join her two friends who seemed to be deep in conversation with each other. They stopped and turned to her as she approached, their innocent expressions not betraying the nature of their discourse. Ember almost looked like he was being roasted under his Tuxedo while Turfy was shifting about uncomfortably in her performance dress. They were uneasy, but then again, so was she, and the weather was only an excuse for their discomfort.

“Have you worked out what you’re going to do, Aurea?” Turfy asked, rubbing one foreleg over the other as she tried to see if there was anything on the dress that she could lose to permit her body some more breathing space without defacing it entirely.

“Yes, I think I have,” Aurea replied, the shaky uncertainty present in her tone despite her mind’s agreement with her plans, “I will be going back home, I need to find some answers Turfy.”

“But what will you look for? What will be different about your house apart from the fact that there are bad guys who want to kidnap you in it?”

“I’m not sure, but now I know I need to actually look. I’ve never been through any of my father’s work, perhaps looking through that will give me answers,” Aurea’s voice still maintained that uncertain tone. Everything was a guess, a chance. No guarantees except trouble.

Ember sighed and shook his head, “You’re really going to go back there aren’t you?”

Aurea’s eyes narrowed, Ember’s tone made it clear that he thought it a ludicrous idea. She couldn’t blame him, she thought it was a ludicrous idea, but her pride took a hit from Ember’s reaction. Turfy likely thought the same. Although she knew her friends were trying to keep her away from harm, the dissonance wasn’t doing her unnerving situation any favors.

“Yes Ember, I am. I’m going to head back now.”

He and Turfy both looked at each other, then back at her, “Let’s get going then,” he said.

“You... you two don’t need to come along if you-”

“No Aurea,” Turf said firmly, shaking her head much like a mother would a begging child, “We are your friends, we don’t want anything to happen to you. If you must insist on doing this, we are coming with you.”

“But... it’s dangerous-”

“Well, what are friends for?” Turfy retorted. Aurea got the point, they were not going to say no.

“Well then, we’d better get going, the sooner we get there, the better,” Ember moved between them and towards the street sidewalk, “And the sooner we can get out of this heat! I don’t mind being attacked by a group of thugs, but hot weather? That I cannot stand.”

Turfy chuckled half-heartedly, “And I wouldn’t mind getting out of the street myself, come on Aurea, let’s go. We’ll try to work something out on the way there.”

Aurea nodded, there seemed to be no other option at the moment – action was all they had. Planning would come later, now the only path lead to danger. To her own home.

They stood on the sidewalk and stared at the house for a good few minutes. Nothing seemed off, the house looked to Aurea like it would look any other night that she came home when her parents were not there; windows dark, curtains drawn, the willow tree in the front garden swaying gently in the muggy wind. Everything was normal, but they knew that it was anything but.

There was nowhere in the front garden where any assailants could hide, everything was lowly shrubbery and green grass apart from one large shrub under the second floor balcony. Aurea flew quickly around the willow tree, trying to spot anything hiding inside with the aid of the pale moonlight, but could see nothing. There was no danger waiting for them in the front yard.

The three ponies made little sound as they moved down the stone path to the front door, the only noise being the faint clopping of their hooves. The front door lay in front of Aurea; the same front door she had entered and exited hundreds upon hundreds of times, but it looked different today. Today, it’s wooden facade dared her to enter, the whole edifice of the house goaded her, challenged her. It challenged her to come inside, into the same, familiar, yet different building, and embrace the danger within.

Aurea shook he imposition out of her mind. It was a house, her house. She had done this hundreds of times before, just turn the knob and walk in.

She reached apprehensively for the golden doorknob, but before she got there a magical aura wrapped itself around, silently and slowly twisting it. Looking behind her, she saw Ember nod, his horn glowing in the night as the door gently opened without a sound.

Aurea braved the first step, placing a hoof inside the doorway and allowing the others to follow suit. The open first floor was upon her, and it was dark save for the single lamp that she must have forgotten to turn off when she left earlier. Ember and Turfy briskly followed her in, and Ember immediately began darting around the first floor, checking behind the kitchen counters and living room couches for any sign of intruders. His search netted him nothing however, and the first floor looked untouched, just like she left it.

The second floor still needed to be checked. The stairs lead up to it’s hallway, which Aurea could already visualise as pitch black. Anyone could be hiding in the rooms above, ready to strike out at them as they proceeded through. Ember moved up the stairs first, Aurea and Turfy following close behind as his horn cast an eerie glow down the hallway and provided a faint illumination. There was no one in the hallway, but then again, they didn’t expect anyone to be.

Ember backed away from the entrance to the hallway, and the trio found themselves standing in the middle of the staircase. Ember turned to them, his voice so imperceptibly quiet that they had to lean their ears towards his mouth to even hear him correctly, “Aurea, is your father’s study still at the end of the hall?”

Aurea nodded, not willing to chance a vocal response.

“Then we make a break for the study, they could be in one of the other rooms and they’d catch us quick in there if we looked, if we run into the study however, that is bigger, there would be more room for error, right?” Ember asked the Pegasus.

She nodded again, the brief calm of finding the first floor safe being washed away and replaced with a nagging fear once again.

“Then we go on my mark.”

The girls both nodded. Ember peeked around the hallway again, making sure that the coast was still clear. The door to the study was still open and she could feel the hot breeze wafting through the open balcony door. Did she leave that door open when she left? She wasn’t sure.

“Now!” Ember whispered sharply as he ran down the carpeted hallway with Aurea and Turfy following close behind. They practically dove into the study, and Ember telekinetically shut the study door with a little more noise than would have been desired.

They stood in the room, tense and waiting. The other two doors did not click open however, there was no belligerent reaction to their dash to the study, it was still just as quiet, the only sound being their calming breaths from the short run.

Ember exhaled with relief and turned to the two mares who were also visibly calmed at the silence, “Guess we’re alone then.”

“Yeah, but we weren't before,” Turfy said, indicating the other side of the study with a hoof. Aurea followed her gaze and saw dozens of papers scattered around the bookshelf on the far right; the bookshelf that mostly contained her father’s work.

“Somebody clearly got here before us,” Aurea noted, stepping gently towards the bookshelf as not to crush any of the fallen papers, “This is all my father’s notes and work. He kept it on those bottom shelves there.”

“So you were right then, it does have something to do with your father’s work,” Ember moved over to join her as she poked around the shelves, moving around half-emptied folders and bound papers.

“Yes, it seems so. I’m going to go and check my room.” Aurea said, opening the door to the study.

“Be careful, anyone could still be in there.”

Nodding, Aurea left the door behind her open as she exited the study, walking down the hallway to her own room. Opening the door gently and flicking the light switch, she was relieved to see that it hadn’t been touched, her desk was still relatively neat, and there were no signs of any cupboards being opened.

She hopped onto her bed and rested her head on the sheets, sighing contentedly as she felt the soft quilt conform to her shape. A bed provided the greatest deal of comfort known to any pony, and it was that which sucked them in. She risked closing her eyes for a moment, feeling the heaviness in her eyelids as they implored her to rest, but the situation nagged at her once again, there was work to do. But what work exactly?

Sliding off of the bed, she almost slipped over a stack of papers and had to grab hold of the end of the bed to prevent herself from ending up on the floor. Steadying, she looked down disapprovingly at whatever caused her fall; she wasn’t one to leave things lying around on the floor. Picking it up, it was a bound stack of papers, much like the one's that her father kept on his now besmirched bookshelf. She flipped it over to face the front cover, and there was the title “Earth and Sun”, in her father’s neat writing.

She had forgotten to read it the night before, it must have fallen off of her bed at some point. Picking it up, she moved over to the desk and plonked herself down on the chair. Placing the papers in front of her, she turned several pages, and came face to face with a diagram that she did not recognise.

It was a fairly straightforward depiction of the solar system, but yet it was entirely wrong. It was all pencil-drawn, and rather eloquently so in fact. It could not have simply been a mistake on her father’s part. Feeling her intrigue skyrocket, her hoof moved to turn the next page.

The sound of shattering glass downstairs pierced the silence. From the study, she heard Turfy squeal with an “Eep!” and Ember’s horn flaring up.

“Let’s go!” He shouted, before rushing down hallway and back towards the stairs.

“Ember, wait!” Turfy shouted, bolting after him and down the dark hallway. Aurea quickly tucked the stack of papers under a folded wing and ran out of her room, following her friends. She was not sure why Ember was running towards possible danger. But then again, wasn't that what she had been doing all along? They ran through the hallway entrance and onto the balcony of the stairs, the dark hallway laying silent behind them.

On the first floor, there were four ponies. Four ponies in trenchcoats.

Aurea recognised two of them immediately. The pink-maned Pegasus who had almost ripped her tail off, and the unicorn who had nearly managed to hit her with what she assumed was a paralysis spell. They were standing there, emblazoned in their trenchcoats, along with two other stallions who shared their attire. The four of them stood on the bottom floor, staring up at the three ponies at the top of the stairs. A broken glass vase lay at the hooves of the smaller unicorn who was staring at it disapprovingly. A silver Unicorn with a black mane stood next to a brown Earth Pony with a mane of dim grey. The door to the backyard was open, they must have been hiding out there.

“Well, well, look who decided to come to us instead,” chuckled the Earth pony, “You truly are an elusive one Miss Aurea.”

“Who are you!?” Ember shouted down at them, his horn aglow once again, “What do you want with her?”

“I don’t want anything with her, I just want her. Now, if you would kindly step out of the way, we’ll just take her and be on our way.” The Earth pony began to ascend the stairs slowly, obviously trying to bait a reaction.

“Yeah, like we’re going to do that,” Turfy scoffed, moving to next to Ember and block the top of the stairs, “You just run along now, and you don’t come back.”

“Our business here is with the mare behind you,” the Earth Pony said, this time serious and direct, “There is no need for you to get involved. Now, step aside.”

Before he could take another step, he was halted by a splaying of flame that missed his muzzle by mere centimeters. His shock at the flare sent him reeling backwards, almost losing balance and falling off the stairs. As quickly as the flame materialized, it vanished, leaving a scorch mark on the wall, but not burning.

Aurea and Turfy both stared in shock at Ember’s arcane feat. Aurea had never seen one of Ember’s shows before, but she had heard that he had employed fire in some of his tricks. Ember took note of the silence behind him, and chanced taking his eyes off of the still shocked Earth pony to look over his shoulder, “Well, I am Ember, aren’t I?”

“That was a nice trick. A very nice trick indeed. Perhaps I could take you all in, I could get a bonus for that, considering that you three are obviously colluding together,” The Earth pony, clearly the leader, began to slowly ascend the stairs again. This time his gang followed him however, Aurea could see the eyes of the pink-maned Pegasus locked right onto her with an evil grin plastered across her face, and practically withered under her gaze. “Yes, that sounds like a great idea,” continued the Earth Pony, “And you’re even all dressed for the occasion. I say, that must have been a rather taxing piece of magic. Care to try it again?”

“Run.” Ember said flatly.

“What?” Turfy gasped.

“Run!” Ember turned and ran between the mares behind him, bolting down the hallway and back towards the study. The girls reacted quickly, turning and darting after him as the sounds of the Trenchcoat’s hooves vibrated through the floor as they gave chase. Ember once again dove through the study door. Aurea and Turfy were not a second behind, but Turfy tripped over the hem of her dress and fell into the Pegasus in front of her. With a yelp, they both fell hard onto the floor of the study, but they had made it through the door.

Ember slammed the door shut. Having noticed the lock on it previously, he quickly turned it with his magic as the door shuddered with an impact, and another. The sounds from the other side of the door could only be described as purely terrifying. The taunts and jibes coming from the ponies on the opposite end slapped Aurea in the face. And for the first time, it hit her.

She was in danger.

She’d know that. She’d known it the moment she made the plan to come back to the house. No, she’d know it the moment she landed on the concrete earlier that night, but she had never realized it. She had known, but not realized. And now she did.

There were ponies on the other side of that door who wanted to hurt her. It was not that they didn’t care for her or about her, she could live with that. Many of the shopkeepers she had met espoused that attitude. But an apathetic shopkeeper just wanted to get things over with. They wanted to move along to the next effigy of flesh and bone to come to them with their groceries, or newspaper, or toy, or whatever bundle of pointless objects they desired. They knew nothing about the ponies they served, and they didn’t care. They just wanted to move things along. But they didn’t want to hurt.

Aurea finally realized. Those ponies on the other side of the door were a danger. They were not the apathetic shopkeeper dealing with another customer, they never were. They were a threat, and a threat that she had no means to combat. No intellectual witticism would stop them in their tracks, no scathing censure would halt their belligerence, they were after her, and with all the strife she had already given them, she hardly thought they’d be too gentle.

Thawed from her state of surprise and terror, reality was once again upon her. The door was still being pounded, hooves and bodies slammed against the wooden frame and threatened to push it open at any time. That lock would not hold.

Turfy and Ember backed away from the door, but maintained a focus on it. Aurea thought that perhaps they were finally realizing the graveness of their situation as well. They were in her father's study on the second floor of her home. There was no other way out but the door they had come in through, which was currently in the midst of a heroic last stand against it’s aggressors. The only other link to the outside was the balcony.

Aurea suddenly remembered the wings at her sides. She bolted through the open doors that lead to the stone balcony. The family telescope was still there, deceptively simple looking but augmented with enough magical talismans to be far more effectual than it’s size suggested. She could have flown off that balcony and fled in an instant. But what of her friends?

Ember and Turfy hadn’t noticed her change of position, and were still exchanging looks between each other, trying to find a solution to the problem that was about to be upon them. Turfy turned to where Aurea stood previously, then looked further back to find her standing on the balcony.

“Over here!” Aurea shouted to her before jumping into the air and putting her wings to work, hovering just above the ground and groaned in frustration as “Sun and Earth” tumbled out from it’s resting place, “This is the only way out! And Ember, grab those papers I dropped!”

Ember and Turfy both ran onto the small balcony, Ember picked up “Sun and Earth” and stuffed it into his Tuxedo jacket, then stared at her incredulously, his face displaying his fear, “Aurea, we’re on the second floor! You can fly down, but we can’t jump!”

“Yes you can!” Aurea hovered over the balcony railing, and indicated the ground below, “Look!”

Turfy and Ember both ran to the railing, peeking over to look at what she was pointing at.

“Aurea, that’s a shrub! It won’t break our fall!” Ember objected, eying the pale blue plant that was easily the height of the first floor resting below the balcony.

The thumping on the door was becoming more and more methodical. One hard thump. Another. They were no longer trying haphazardly to smash the door down, they were about to do it. “It will help! It’s the only way, I can’t carry you down. Just cover your eyes and... just jump!”

The sound of splintering wood jolted them all once again. The door was barely holding up. Only a few more rams...

Turfy grabbed Ember, “She’s right! It’s the only way out, come on!”

“Turfy! That’s not...!”

“Fine then, I’ll go first!” Turfy did not sound amused, Aurea watched the squabble with growing frustration as the door once again splintered under another impact.

“Come on you two!”

Without another word, Turfy hooped over and off the railing of the balcony. Her dress flared in the wind as she fell with a yelp. The shrub rustled and shook as she landed right on top of it, the center caving in under her weight. She scrambled around, trying to get herself out of the bush, something that her dress did not make an easy task. But as the door shuddered once again, Turfy was on her hooves, unharmed on the ground below.

“Come on, Ember!” Turfy shouted up at him, “It’s fine, just jump!”

Ember groaned as one of the hinges of the door blew off under another impact. They couldn’t have needed more than another solid hit. The jeers were louder now, they were about to break through.

Ember backed up and then ran forward, leaping over the railing and throwing his forelegs over his head as he fell onto the shrub. His landing was somewhat more haphazard; landing on the edge of the shrub, he tumbled out and rolled along the ground to Turfy’s hooves.

Turfy smiled and helped him back to his hooves, “See, that wasn’t so bad wasn’t it?”

“Ugh... Don’t make me do that ever again please,” Ember mumbled as he stood on shaky legs. Aurea flew down to them as the sound sound of the door finally smashing open emanated from the balcony.

“Still got those papers?” Ember prodded his jacket with a hoof and then nodded, “Let’s go then, come on!” Aurea implored them as they started running back towards the sidewalk, “It won’t take them long to be back on our tails.”

“Wait, where are we going?” Turfy shouted back at her as she and Ember galloped along behind.

“I know a little place, it’s not too far from here.” They were making good distance from the house, but a shout pierced the silent night again, and Aurea sighed as she was once again forced to run through the hot air. She could barely imagine how Turfy and Ember were feeling in all their additional clothes. Chancing a look behind her as they ran further down the street and away from her home, Aurea could just barely make out the balcony of her house as the pink-maned Pegasus flew out and looked around, trying to gauge the direction in which her prey had fled. But with several different possible routes they could have taken, it was unlikely that they would be able to follow anytime soon.

“Oh no, Turfy!” Ember suddenly blurted out between his heavy breaths.

“What?” Turfy asked, looking over at him, confused, as they turned down the next street.

“I think we missed your show.”

Chapter 5 - Deliberation

Nothing At All

Chapter 4 - Deliberation

By Chimpso

"Plans are our way of making ourselves think we are in control."

Even though her own forelegs did not make the most comfortable of pillows, she had grown tired of resting on the grass, and there was no cloak to put herself under that morning.

Morning? Yes, Aurea concluded that it must have been morning, at least half a dozen hours since they had arrived at her park, but she had not spent those hours the same way as her friends. They had elected to sleep on arrival, after agreeing that they would face their problems the next morning. Aurea on the other hand didn’t find herself desiring rest, especially considering what she had been reading in those many hours.

With a good book came a great sense of obligation. There could be no half jobs when the words had a direct link to your mind, imparting with you the knowledge and wisdom they contained. The link needed to remain intact, and so Aurea never put a good book down until she was done. There had been countless times where she’d sat on her bed, never being able to find a comfortable sitting position, and turned page after page as the hours drifted by. When she reached the end, or made a compromise to call it quits at least after finishing the section she was reading, she’d dive under the covers to gain a few sparse hours of rest, half of which would be her tossing around as her mind regaled her with the information she had just consumed.

Last night however, her turbulent mind gave her no time for rest. The amount of knowledge that it had been imparted over those last few hours kept it constantly asking questions and raising point after point after point. Aurea turned onto her back and rubbed her temples fiercely. Her eyes wanted to close and she wanted to let them, but they just kept flying open, insisting on action and thought.

Giving in, she sat up on her haunches, only a little too fast. Rubbing her forehead to ward off the dizziness, her eyes stung as they adjusted to the light of the rising sun now just making its way above the mountains. Crawling over to the chest-high stone wall that separated her from the fall below, she slumped her forelegs over and rested her head on the cold stone surface. It was a new day. A new, unpredictable day; almost something she would have wished for previously had she already not grown tired of the events of the night before.

Sliding off, she sat back and rested her head against the wall. Turfy and Ember were asleep on the other side of the park. Turfy had taken off her dress, ruined from the jump into the shrub, and the two were curled up on it, fast asleep, though they wouldn’t be much longer. Once the sun rose high enough to hit their closed eyes, they would likely stir.

Aurea reflected on Ember and Turfy for a moment. Their relationship had been a long one; she had known him before Aurea knew her, but time had certainly not eroded them. They had their differences, but that had never been a bad thing, and there were times when Turfy’s stubbornness and Ember’s drive for her to succeed clashed, but it was nothing that would stay sour once a new day rolled over.

Aurea thought about that for a moment. Perhaps that was one plus to sleeping: waking up less sour than you went to bed.

Shifting her focus from the sleeping pair to the grass under her haunches, she let out a sigh as she gently brushed her hooves along the greenery. She never thought she’d ever have use her park as a safe haven, nor had she ever believed that she’d bring another pony into it. The mere thought before had been sacrilege, but then again, much had changed in the last day.

Finally managing to stand up and not fall flat as soon as she did so, she hobbled over to the grass patch that she had attempted to sleep. Since it fortunately had been so warm a night staying in the open air hadn’t been uncomfortable, though the lack of sleep certainly had been.

Scooping up‘Earth and Sun’ again, her mind drifted once again onto how she would explain it to her friends; it would have helped if she were able to explain it herself. Most of her father’s longhand sentences ended with question marks despite explaining things in great detail. It had clearly been a long project of his, and it documented conversations and meetings that he’d had discussing the work in the papers. Most of these meetings, he noted, provided him with nothing substantial.

It was a diary and a compendium of the work he had done on the topic. It not only contained notes of information, but locations and people he went to meet, followed by what information they had provided him with. The last thing that had been written, sitting innocently at the top of a blank page, simply read: “See Shearfield, Shearfield Apparel, Ponyville”

Shearfield, that was most certainly a Canterlot name, and Aurea was fairly certain that only a distinguished shop in a village as small and down-to-earth as Ponyville would title itself ‘apparel’. It wasn’t a name that she’d recognised. Her parents had traveled to Ponyville many times and she herself had gone along on several occasions to enjoyed the vibrancy of its community. Ponyville’s greenery made it a relaxing reprieve from the stone and concrete of Canterlot, but its night sky wasn’t as impressive.

His work ended on that last line, that was what he planned to do next. Aurea flicked back through the previous pages, being met with diagrams and labels. They were powerful on their own, but she knew what her father was trying to do: prove himself wrong, trying to falsify his hypothesis as he should. But if the work and notes were any indication, his theory had held up to observation, and he was looking for an explanation.

An explanation, the contents of the papers most certainly obligated one. Once again, she wondered how she was going to explain what she had found to Turfy and Ember. If sleep was going to avoid her, she might as well focus on that. Having three minds working on the issue would be better than one.

Trenchcoat could barely remember the last time he had watched a sunrise.

They were always inspiring occurrences, though he couldn’t understand why. Watching the blazing orb slowly rise over the horizon had helped him many times in the past, being a gateway for ideas when things went awry.

It had been a long, long time since he had needed a sunrise’s help.

He recalled the last time he had observed one; a foggy morning on the roof of that Manehattan skyscraper, waiting to deliver more bad news to their wealthy client whose office sat up there. That was a long time ago, but he remembered that job well; how could he forget it? They had been contracted to hunt down a thief who had stolen a necklace belonging to the client’s wife. They were to bring back both the necklace and him, though why the client had wanted the thief he didn’t know. Following several leads, he and his team constantly tracked down the thief down, but every attempt at capturing him was foiled; he had one-upped them every time. It took an incredible stroke of luck for them to finally snag him, but not after an exhausting and frustrating few weeks which tarnished their previously flawless record. They had turned the necklace and thief over to the client. What became of that elusive stallion, Trenchcoat did not know.

He remembered it all too well and was in no mood to see it happen again. The pegasus they was after had eluded them twice, twice. She couldn’t have possibly seen them coming the first time, and her venture into the house the night before was incredibly foolhardy and should have been an easy snag for them, yet she had escaped again.

But that wasn’t his primary frustration – yes, she had escaped, but things like that happened. What frustrated him most was the key difference between the pegasus and the thief: The thief knew what he was doing. He had played them for fools, setting them up to fail again and again. He obviously had a great deal of experience when it came to fleeing and had manipulated them again and again to further the distance more and more. The pegasus, she was not like the thief. She had no skill; was not a criminally savvy and agile pony, she was an astronomer. How could an astronomer have escaped them not once, but twice?

Trenchcoat could only think of two possible explanations. The first was that the pegasus had simply been lucky, that her escapes were mere flukes and not of any direct fault of him and has team. The second – the one that troubled him the most – was that he and his team were messing up. He knew that he couldn’t fight against luck, so that left only the second option to work on.

Stepping off of the balcony and back into the study, then over the splintered door into the hallway, Trenchcoat knew he had to pull his team together if they were going to catch this pegasus. He had let them get overconfident, he had let himself get overconfident. He remembered the days when they would pursue each contract with an almost undue amount of prudence. It was time consuming, but they always got the job done properly. Now, time had eroded their patience, and their cutting corners was coming back to bite them in the flank.

As he began to descend the steps back to the ground floor, he noticed the scorch mark on the wall. He was sure that unicorn’s spell had signed some of the hairs on his nose. Perhaps that was another one of their failings; this pegasus had friends, and their tunnel vision wasn’t doing them any favors. Where had their prudence gone?

Bristle was asleep, sprawled out haphazardly on her stomach on one of the large lounge sofas. Tinker looked as if he had just woken up, and had helped himself to some of the food in the captured house. Trenchcoat had decided the night before that going after the pegasus on a whim would likely lead to further disaster. With so many routes their prey could have taken it would have been near impossible to find them, not to mention they had no idea where they could be going.

Trenchcoat moved over to the kitchen table where Tinker was munching lazily on a breadstick, his mane a frazzled bedhead. “Plain breadstick? I never took you for the lazy one Tinker,” Trenchcoat remarked, Tinker grunted as he took another bite.

“This house has nothing good to put on it. I swear, these prissy Canterlot ponies are...”

“Where is Lexic?” Trenchcoat asked, cutting off Tinker’s groaning.

“Upstairs, I think. Got up hours ago, searching for some clues in the parent’s room.”

Trenchcoat was surprised. Lexic may have been his second, but that because he knew his magic, not because of his initiative. Briskly taking the steps two at a time as he hopped back into the hallway, Trenchcoat heard a shuffling sound that he hadn’t noticed on his first trip down. It wasn’t coming from the parent’s room however.

Pushing open the door to the daughter’s room, he looked down to see Lexic sitting on the floor, papers arranged neatly around him as he looked up from what he was currently reading to see Trenchcoat standing in the hallway, “Morning boss.”

Trenchcoat just nodded as he entered the room. The small light crystal illuminating the room gave off just enough light to allow reading from wherever one was sitting. “Actually working Lexic? What’s got you so fascinated?”

“I was just looking through her stuff. Know your enemy and all,” he replied.

Trenchcoat moved over to him, glancing at the paper in his hooves. “What have you found out?”

“Well, her name’s Aurea as we know. Astronomer; took after her parents. I tell ya’ boss,” Lexic indicated the charts on the floor around him, “This girl is good. I don’t know what any of this even means, but it looks really complicated.”

“A zip-lock bag would look complicated to you Lexic,” Trenchcoat remarked. “Did you find anything that is actually useful?”

“Well, uh... No boss. Nothing,” Lexic admitted. “Room’s very bland as you can see. If this is where she spends most of her time, she really hasn’t personalised it that much.”

“Which is of no concern to us,” Trenchcoat said. “Our job is to track her down, not find out her life story.”

“Oh, come on boss. You’re not even the slightest bit intrigued? That’s not like you.” Lexic eyed him inquisitively; an almost condescending look that Trenchcoat wasn’t used to seeing from him. He nodded.

“Yes, quite right, and that is because our situation has changed. We have no time to waste pursuing paltry matters. I need you in the main room.”

Lexic sighed and placed the paper he was holding back onto the pile. “Alright then, alright. I’ll be down in a minute.”

Satisfied, Trenchcoat exited the room. Instead of heading straight down the corridor and back down the stairs however, he lingered around the door for a moment, just long to hear Lexic scoff quietly to himself; “‘Paltry’. Heh.”

Returning to the first floor, Trenchcoat walked past the couch Bristle was snoozing on, giving it a swift kick with one of his hind legs that jolted the pegasus out of her slumber.

“Wha–?” Pushing her pink mane out of her face, her eyes cracked open to see her boss staring back at smugly.

“Hurry Bristle, you’ll be late for school,” he teased, the quip visibly ruffling her feathers before she groaned and groggily got to her hooves.

Tinker looked a little more perked up, his breadstick now near finished as he levitated a cup of water to his mouth and took a sip. “Come on now you two, we’re not on vacation,” Trenchcoat said, before raising his voice so it could be heard from the above floor, “Lexic, hurry up.”

“What’s the occasion boss?” Tinker asked.

“Occasion?” Trenchcoat replied incredulously, “We’ve got a job to do, that’s the occasion.”

Lexic marched down the stairs and joined the two at the table, and Bristle, still rubbing her eyes and adjusting her coat, joined them as well.

Trenchcoat took a moment to take stock of his team. Bristle looked half-dead, Tinker seemed bored, and Lexic appeared to be only mildly in tune. He sighed, first things first.

“Look at you lot, you act as if we’ve just hiked up Canterlot mountain. We don’t have time to sit on our flanks in this house. We’ve got to get moving.”

“Aww, come on boss,” Bristle moaned, “It’s hot out there today.”

“I don’t care if the sun is about to crash into the Earth Bristle,” Trenchcoat replied, “We’ve still got a target to catch who – I’ll remind you again – has eluded us twice. Now, if we’ll all stop acting like children for a few moments, we need to decide on our next course of action.”

“You got a plan boss?” Lexic asked, sounding a little more attentive this time.

“Unlike you lot, I didn’t spend all morning sitting around,” Trenchcoat said, before prodding Tinker with a hoof. “Tinker, hypothetical situation for you. Let’s say you and Bristle are out on a date.”

“Hey!” Bristle shouted, glaring at her boss who simply chuckled. Seething, she sighed, “I thought we weren't going to act like children boss.” He dismissed her with a wave of his hoof.

“Unless it is to illustrate a point, which I am doing. Now, Tinker, you and Bristle are out on a date. You care very much for each other and want to keep each other safe. Now, on your way to the fancy restaurant you plan on having dinner at, you are ambushed by a group of ponies who seem intent on kidnapping you. But you both escape. Now, what is the first thing you would do?”

TInker shrugged, “I’d go to the police.”

“Good,” Trenchcoat said. “Now, what wouldn’t you do?”

“Uhh... What?” Tinker asked, struck dumb at the question.

“Lexic,” Trenchcoat turned to the silver stallion. “What wouldn’t you do?”

“I don’t know boss, what?” Lexic shrugged and Trenchcoat saw that he had finally got his team focused.

“You wouldn’t throw yourself back into danger, wouldn’t you? And you certainly wouldn’t drag your date along and endanger her too, right?” He asked them, watching them all shake their heads. ”Alright, so we all know what we would do; we would go to the police and they would handle it. We would most certainly not go back to our homes and endanger ourselves more, we’d let the authorities handle it. Correct?”

His team nodded, he continued. “Our pegasus went back to her home...”

“Aurea,” Lexic interrupted.

“What?”

“Her name’s Aurea boss.”

Trenchcoat’s hoof met his forehead as he sighed, “Yes, thank you Lexic. Now, our pe– Aurea, went straight home instead of to the police. This is a girl who we can assume is reasonably intelligent, and who almost certainly recognised that she was in danger. Does that strike anyone else here as odd?”

“Well, yeah,” Tinker said, “But what does that have to do with anything?”

“Well, I think she did go the the police station, the closest one to her: Fallweather’s.”

“If she had, he would have held her there and told us. That was our plan, right?” Bristle asked, “So if that didn’t happen then she wasn’t there.”

“Or she was, and Fallweather didn’t tell us.” Trenchcoat corrected her. “I fail to believe that she would be so impulsive. She either came back to her house at his urging, or after consulting her. Fallweather knew our plans and our methods, and he knows that there is only one thing she can do. Run.”

“So what, you think he told her to leave the city?” Lexic asked, raising an eyebrow. “That means we’ll have to get a move on, it’s already early morning.”

“Correct,” Trenchcoat said, “We don’t know where she is now, but we know where she will most likely end up heading: Canterlot Station. She’ll take the train out. Walking would take too long and I doubt she’ll fly all on her own.”

“That’s it then,” said Lexic, nodding. “We wait at the train station.”

“Not quite.” Trenchcoat turned to Bristle. “Fly down to Fallweather’s station. Tell him to provide the addresses of Aurea’s two friends. Then come back here.”

“Whoa, whoa, wait a minute,” Tinker interrupted, standing up from his chair. “If Fallweather helped her escape, how can we trust him?”

“And what are we going to do about him?” Bristle asked, grinning mischievously and clopping her hooves together.

“Bristle, if you want to beat up a police chief in the middle of his station then be my guest,” Trenchcoat said. “But to answer the question, no, we can’t trust him. So make sure you take a look at his archives yourself and ensure that he’s giving you the right addresses. Don’t bring anything up about him helping her. If it’s true, letting him know that we know won’t help us. We’ll hopefully be done with him soon.”

Trenchcoat sat down on one of the dining room chairs and leaned back, letting out a breath of air. “Go Bristle, and be back quick.”

The Pegasus nodded and did as she was told, exiting out the back door and taking off into the humid morning.

“So... what is the plan then boss? Are we gonna take her friends and use them to lure her in?” Lexic asked.

Trenchcoat chuckled, “No Lexic. Her friends are a bonus. If we are going to grab the three of them, we are going to need them to be together. We need information, for all we know, the three of them could be doing the exact same thing we are right now.”