The Ponyville classroom sat empty, save for a single mare. The grey earth pony sat at the teacher’s desk, deeply involved in her work. She paused, mouthing the words as she read a paper.
“Dinky and Silverspoon have been doing much better lately,” she chuckled as she scribbled down some corrections and a grade, “Zipporwhill must be helping them.”
“Oi, Rara.” a coarse voice called out.
The teacher looked up from her papers as several ponies entered the schoolroom: a green pegasus mare with a spiked mane, another pegasus with beige fur and a black mane, and a younger pink unicorn with a purple mane.
“Something I can help with?”
“You heard anything weird from Moon Dancer?” the beige pegasus asked.
“...Not particularly, why? Is she still complaining about the whole thing with-”
“No, she’s over that,” the beige pegasus cut her off, “Even though it is all Lightning Dust’s fault.” she muttered.
“I heard that, Fire. You still wanna go over that?” Lightning Dust growled.
“Can you not do this again?” the unicorn groaned, “I hadda listen to it then, and I don’t wanna go through it again.”
“Is there something pressing, or are you just here because you want to talk?”
“Moon Dancer’s been acting weird.” Wildfire responded.
“...Could you be more specific?”
“Like, weird for her weird.”
Colurara pursed her lips, “Wildfire, that still doesn’t help.”
“She went to the Spa and got cleaned up.” the Unicorn interrupted.
“...And?”
“She never does that.”
“Amethyst, she’s had a rather rough week, perhaps she finally decided to treat herself.”
“She went to Coco Pommel’s shop.”
Colurara paused, “And?”
“She bought a dress.”
“I think you all are over thinking things,” Colurara replied, “Now, I have work I still need to grade. If you all run into her, tell her I said hello and I hope we’re still on for next week.”
Wildfire and Lightning Dust frowned and flittered out, while Amethyst lingered behind.
“...Something else on your mind, Amethyst?”
“You really aren’t interested?” Amethyst asked.
“If she wants to bring it up, let her. If she feels uncomfortable, then I’m not going to force it out of her. I suggest you all do the same,” Colurara responded, not looking up from her papers, “Anything else?”
“No.”
---
“What if we ask Coco?” Lightning Dust pounded on the table.
“She won’t tell.” Wildfire grumbled.
“Seriously?”
“I tried asking her already. She said something about customer confidentiality. Probably because of what happened with the Cakes.”
“...You never did explain that to me,” Amethyst grumbled.
“I told you, I’ll tell you when you’re older.” Wildfire grumbled.
“I’m a teenager, I’m not stupid.” the unicorn huffed.
“What about asking Tree Hugger?” Wildfire ignored her.
“What’s that gonna do?”
“What’s what gonna do?” another voice cut in.
Lighting Dust and Wildfire jumped back as they realized Tree Hugger was at the table, between the two of them.
“Where did you come from?” Lighting Dust spat.
“Oh, you know that. I was born in….”
“No, not that. How long have you been sitting there?”
“After you mentioned the Cake’s-”
“Ok, got it,” Wildfire cut the mare off, “Has Moon Dancer been acting weird?”
“Man, everypony’s got their own thing going on, who am I to say it’s weird?” Tree Hugger waved a hoof, “she did come into the spa for the full princess set.”
“The what?” Lightning Dust paused, “Wait, you work at the Spa?”
“Yeah, I had offered to cleanse Aloe and Lotus’ chakras. I was dropping off another batch of my homemade hoof rub and I had noticed they were, you know, tense. They enjoyed it so much that they offered me a job and now I work there,” Tree Hugger paused, “It’s nice. It’s good to help so many people fix up their inner harmony and embrace tranquility.”
“Whatever.” Lightning Dust grumbled.
“...What’s the Princess set?”
“Full treatment. Spa, massage, pedicure, horn waxing, preening, realignments and replenishing of the chakras…”
“That’s not important,” Lightning Dust interrupted, “Why?”
“Well, I suppose now that she’s princess and has the whole responsibilities thing going on, that might be getting pretty heavy. And then there’s her niece. I gotta say, you need to spend more time with her sister and the baby, they’re adorable.”
“I hate kids,” Lighting Dust grunted. She paused for a moment and hastily added, “Z’s an exception, not the norm.”
“Oh, she did mention she was gonna meet someone today, so there’s that as well.” Tree Hugger added.
“Who?”
“Dunno, but she was really excited about it,” Tree Hugger shrugged, “Not my business unless she wants to tell me.”
“Anything else?”
“You both need to relax,” Tree Hugger patted Wildfire and Lightning Dust, “I can feel how tense you both are and all the anger inside. You should come and ask for a massage and cleansing, I could probably talk to Aloe and Lotus about a discount.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Lighting Dust muttered.
“Can I bring Clover?”
“Sure, there’s the couple’s discount,” Tree Hugger paused, “We don’t get to use it very much. Wonder why they had it to start with.”
“You know if she’s going anywhere today?”
Tree Hugger scratched under her chin.
“No idea. Why don’t you just go to the library and ask her? Seems really, y’know, easy. Like, You three have been really creepy, going around asking all these weird questions….”
She shrugged.
“Whatever,” Lighting Dust grumbled.
“Well, I gotta go see Filthy Rich. Might have worked something out to sell my natural shampoo.”
The mare smiled and trotted off.
“...She has a point,” Amethyst noted, “Spike would probably tell us.”
“And it would have been a lot easier.” Wildfire added.
“Shut up.”
---
The castle door groaned open as the three mares entered. They glanced around, looking for the mare.
“Hold on!” A male voice called out. After a moment, Spike came out of another room, wiping his hands on a towel.
“Oh, hi everypony. Moon Dancer’s not here.”
“Where’d she go?”
“She’s going to the Cafe….” Spike trailed off as the two Pegasi shot out of the room, “What was that all about?”
“They’re trying to find out why Moon Dancer’s been acting weird,” Amethyst grumbled.
“Oh, that? Her coltfriend came to visit.”
“...She’s keeping that a secret?”
“Well, you guys get all weird when her old friends show up. Especially that whole thing with-”
“Ok, we get it.”
---
“Table for two,” Lighting Dust told the waiter. A moment latter, Amethyst popped into existence next to the waiter, her mane and fur singed.
“Make that three.”
“Right this way,”
“You finally got that teleportation spell down, good job,” Wildfire congratulated the unicorn.
“Well, less of my mane got burnt. I guess that’s a success.”
Elsewhere in the restaurant, Moon Dancer giggled.
“It sounds like things are going well,” the Princess replied.
“It has it’s ups and downs,” her date replied, “The hiring process is tedious, but I think Lyra will do well.”
“What about Trixie?”
“We asked,” the colt shrugged, “She said she’s happy at the library. I heard she’s taken a student?”
“Amethyst Star.”
“The Element of Kindness. She’s a bit rough. Great potential.”
“You didn’t help her?”
“I did, but...I’m not that good of a teacher,” Moon Dancer sighed, “It doesn’t bode well for my princesshood.”
“It’s a learning process,” the Colt shrugged. He paused, staring at someone behind Moon Dancer.
“...Those mares are staring at us.”
“What?” Moon Dancer turned to look behind them. Two of the offending mares quickly dipped back behind their menus, while the third got out of her seat.
“That’s Amethyst,” Moon Dancer frowned, “Which mean the other two are Wildfire and Lighting Dust.”
“Huh, I thought you said you didn’t tell them about me.”
“She didn’t. Spike did.” Amethyst responded as she held out a hoof, “Hi, I’m Amethyst.”
“Sunburst.” He grinned as he shook her hoof, “Moon Dancer and I were just talking about you.”
“Why are the three of you spying on us?”
“Lightning Dust and Wildfire noticed you were acting weird and they wanted to know why.”
“...And it never occurred that you should just ask?”
“You get really weird when we do.”
“She has a point, Moony,” Sunburst chuckled.
Moon Dancer sighed, “Can we do this later? I promise I’ll introduce him to you all, just not now.”
“Well, we ordered, so we’re staying,” Amethyst shrugged.
“...Why do you smell like burnt hair?”
“Teleportation spell. Still getting the hang of it.”
“Ah, those can be tricky,” Sunburst nodded, “I can give you a few pointers, if you’d like.”
“That would be nice…” Amethyst scratched at the burnt hair on her leg, “This is really annoying. Anyway, we’ll talk to you two later.”
The mare trotted off, leaving the couple alone.
“I hope the other two you mentioned are going to be less creepy about meeting me.”
“You have no idea.” Moon Dancer sighed.
