Summer opened her front door with a content smile. "Ah'm home," she called into the house as she stepped inside and closed the door behind her. "You two done made dinner already?" It had been a hard day, but the good sort. She'd gotten a lot done, and ponies were pleased as punch to have her around.

She was plenty satisfied with it and ready to do some relaxin'. "Maple? Winter?" They usually responded to her calls long before then, and her good mode began to dim a little. "Are ya waitin' to surprise me? Ain't mah birthday." She shook her head softly as she pushed inwards, imagining the two of them hiding somewhere to jump out at her. "Ya two are a bunch of foals sometimes, ah swear."

But there was no one in the kitchen. With a bit of a frown she moved forward, looking around the seemingly dark and empty place that had seemed so warm just a day before. "Where are ya hidin'...?" She could hear her hoofsteps echoing off the walls. Had they done that before? Before her house had become so full of ponies she cared about.

Summer fled the strange place and poked her nose into the living room. "You two hidin' in here?" That uncanny echo wasn't there, but it was just as empty, just as alone. Peeks behind the couch and furtive glances behind bookshelves revealed no hiding ponies anywhere. "Landsake..."

She peeked into the bathroom on the way past. There were basically no hiding places in there. Even the shower curtain was already open, allowing one to see inside that no pony was hiding, waiting. Nopony was there at all.

She suddenly clopped her hooves, craning her head back. "Maybe!" She hopped up and grabbed the rope in her mouth, pulling down the ladder into the hallway that led up into the attic. "Did something spook you two and chase y'all up here? Silly ponies, it's all safe now." She ascended the latter with a bit of a smile, imagining the two of them huddled together, watching the same ladder with fear. "Ah'm here now, it's alright."

But no pony or kirin faces came into view as she crested up into the attic. She looked behind boxes and even shoved a few piles as if they could be hiding between them, but there was nothing. Not a pony. Not a creature. Nothing. "This isn't funny anymore..."

Where had the two of them gone?!

With heavy metal against metal, the sheriff closed the barred door of the cell. "Now ya jus' cool yer heels in there and think about whatcha done." He shook his head as he turned away. "Really, makin' such a fuss. Ya should be ashamed."

"Yes, Sir," miserably agreed Maple, sitting on her belly on the little cot provided to her. "Do ah get a phone call?"

"Phone call?" He half turned back to her. "Don't go gettin' fooled by the plays. Besides, who ya wanna call that has a phone to answer with?"

Did Summer have a phone? Maple searched her memories but didn't recall a time spotting one laying around the other mare's house. "Reckon not..."

"What ah thought." He walked off, leaving Maple to stew.

"Wait!" She bounced from her cot and into the bars, thudding against them. "There's one pony!"

"Huh?" He turned fully back towards her, raising a hoof to adjust his dark glasses. "Now, if'n yer wasting my time, ah don't appreciate that none. Who is it ya wanna call?"

"Miss Jubilee. Ah promised to tell her somethin'! Ya don't want her being angry none."

He blanched at that, taking a step back before frowning. "If she refuses yer call, ah'm keeping you another day fer lyin' to me. Ya understand?"

Maple reached through the bars, waving a hoof at him. "Just tell her it's about Summer and her boyfriend and she'll wanna talk to me, promise."

"Boyfriend?" He raised a brow at that. "Didn't know she had one..." Despite that, he trundled off with some grumbling something about ponies being involved with other ponies' boyfriends.

"Oh, please let this work." She drew her hoof back to press against her other forehoof in a prayer position.

He had run long and hard and nowhere in particular. Aching muscles and a heaving breath were his reward as he began to slow down. His body was rebelling, no matter how much his mind was keen on continuing the gallop. He slowed to a trot, then a walk, his limbs aching from the inside from the effort he had put in.

His lungs felt like they were on fire and he snorted with every other breath, trying to 'catch up' with the effort he had expended. He couldn't even see the town anymore behind him. He had wandered out into the flat dusty countryside. His only company were lone cacti and a single rabbit that peered at him from on top of a rock barely bigger than it was.

The flame went out and he collapsed forward, hitting the ground as a kirin, gasping for air. The emotions faded away, leaving him feeling numb, but that numbness of the soul didn't at all shield him from the complaints his abused form were submitting in formal objection of his casual neglect of its needs.

He cracked open an eye to behold the darkening sky. It was perhaps late afternoon, with evening just close enough to threaten him. He was in the middle of nowhere in some desert. He pushed slowly off the ground, raising up onto his haunches. His hooves slipped on the suddenly unhelpful dirt and he slammed back to the ground. Pain echoed through his torso and he let out a little wheeze without thinking about it.

How fast could a pony gallop? How long could one gallop? Did that apply to a kirin? He didn't have any of those answers, he just knew he had run until he couldn't anymore. On the positive, he mused, he wasn't a human anymore. Humans were good for endurance, and ponies and kirin were not exhaustion predators as far as he knew. So, he couldn't have run for that long, right? But that left the question of how fast was he going? A horse was much faster than a person, even if the person could eventually catch up, stalking them like unfeeling terminators that seemed unstoppable and inescapable.

For just a moment he wished there was a human following him, that'd find him eventually, sitting there heaving for breath. He'd be caught, hopefully not killed, but being caught and dragged back to town felt like maybe that wouldn't be such a terrible thing. Where were the humans when you could use one?

"Yes?" Jubilee was leaning against a wall, allowing the phone receiver to be perched between it and her head. "Miss Jubilee speaking. If you're lookin' fer a cherry, yer speakin' to the right mare."

"Good evening, Miss," came a familiar male voice. "Sorry to bother you."

"That you, Long Hat?" She cocked a brow. "Weren't expecting no calls from you, but yer not an unwelcome sight. What can ah do fer ya?"

She couldn't see, but perhaps she could hear the blush on his cheeks. "Wish I were callin' fer better reasons, but ah got a pony in a cell what says you'd want to talk to her."

"A naughty mare?" Jubilee shook her head and the phone clattered to the ground. She allowed an unlady like exclamation as she grabbed for it between her hooves and got it back up where she could talk into it. "Pardon me. They really should make these things easier to hold. Who designed these things? Really, ah swear."

"Couldn't agree more. Ah almost didn't call. Hate usin' these things, so ah'll keep it simple so we can both stop. You just tell me you don't want to talk to her."

"Ah can't do that." She smiled softly. "You haven't told me who the naughty mare was or what she wants."

"Ain't nopony important, Ma'am. Ya know Maple?"

"Peer in the orchard business," easily agreed Jubilee. "Not quite on my level, of course, but we do run into one another from time to time, compare tree notes. What'd she do?"

There was a pause, perhaps surprise from her reaction to the name. "O-oh, well, she's been causin' trouble, riling up ponies to attack a creature, insulting law enforcement, incitin' riots..."

"That is quite the list," Jubilee grabbed a hair scrunchy and soon had it around her head, holding the receiver in place. "Ah know she can be a bit... excitable."

"That's bein' a mite bit mild there, don't you think?"

"Ah prefer to see the good side of ponies. Now, what did little Maple want with Jubilee?" She began to walk around the room, freed of leaning against the wall. "She need bail?"

"We're only keepin' her a few days," he assured. "Just long enough to cool down."

"Good. I'd be a bit cross if she were becomin' a jail pony." She raised a brow at the receiver, her threat delivered. "Now what was it she was lookin' fer?"

"She said it involved a mare and her boyfriend? Was kinda vague about it but seemed ta think yo--"

"--I'll be down in a moment, and you'd best have her trussed up and ready to leave with me when I get there." She wrenched off the scrunchy and the phone receiver clattered to the ground. She bit back the curse that time, grabbing it back up. "I'll be right there." Slap, down onto the base it went.

She was there without a delay, carried there on a wagon pulled by four of her loyal stallions. She leaped off just as the carriage arrived at the sheriff's office/jail, bounding inside with a determined look. "Now where is... Ah, there you are." Her expression brightened to a smile, approaching the confused-looking Maple. "Now we have so much to talk about." She threw a leg around Maple, over her withers. "Now don't you worry none." She was looking at the sheriff then. "If she don't have answers I want to hear, she'll wish she'd just spent a few days relaxing in here."

Even as Maple cringed and shrank back, the Sheriff looked suddenly pleased with things. "Good to hear. I'd hate to think a pony was skippin' out on justice. Now, Maple, let's not meet like this again. You keep your nose clean."

"Mah nose is plenty clean," she insisted with some confusion, a hoof raising to inspect her snout.

Jubilee nudged her forward, half-dragging her with a leg. "A figure of speech, darling. Now come along. We have things to discuss, and I'd best not be disappointed in what ah hear. Ah don't much favor ponies usin' me to get out of trouble, so if you just called me fer that..."

Maple was led out, walking stiffly along the way. "It's about--"

Jubilee slid the arm that was over Maple to be over her snout, suddenly shoving Maple into her armpit nose first. It accomplished the goal of silence Maple as she led the mare to the carriage and gestured with her other forehoof. "In." She let up on the pressure that held the mare captive.

Maple could have wrenched away, it wasn't as if Jubilee's armpit was secured very well, but she hadn't dared. When the opportunity, and consent, had been given, Maple veered away, taking a deep breath of the sweet air of freedom, and not another mare's armpit. "Yes'm!" She hopped up into the carriage.

Jubilee was just behind her. "Take us home," she called out before pulling the door shut, the soft jostle of wheels felt by them both as they began to move. "And now you can tell me what you know. I assume this involves Summer Blossoms? Has her stallion done something to hurt her? You need only tell me and--"

"No! No, he's... he's in trouble I think!"

Author's Note

Summer wonders where everyone went. Winter wonders where he went. Maple tries to fix the mess she helped make.

Written early for patreons who got this ahead of everyone else. Want to get early chapters, or even your own story written? atreon!

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