Canterlot City.

The road to Canterlot had been long, if uneventful. While I could have taken a short way and simply crossed the Everfree, something within my capabilities and which I'd done before, in the end, I decided not to as I didn't want to risk any of my merchandise or materials being damaged in any way.

In the end, while it stretched my travel time I went around, taking the road to Appleloosa spending a night there, and then I took the road north directly to Canterlot.

Now, I was walking through the busy streets of Canterlot towards the upper ring, where the noble sector and the Palace were located, so that I could meet up with one of my friends and maybe if we had the time I could at least say hello to the other one.

As I reached one of the many gates on the wall surrounding the upper ring I was briefly stopped by the guards manning it with the usual round of questioning, while I was well-known anypony who didn't reside in the upper district received the same questions as I and from what I knew the royal guard was very strict on protocol and I wasn't going to get annoyed at somepony for simply doing their job. Thankfully I had the forethought of leaving my cart back in my shop on the way here so I wasn't delayed very long.

Once inside the noble sector proper the difference between it and the rest of the city became readily apparent, especially the sheer difference in the quality of materials used on the buildings and of course the fact that most of them were multifloored mansions with decorations that probably cost more than what an average pony earned in their entire lives.

It didn't take long to reach my friend's "house", a familiar tall fence and gate greeting me, behind it a path of white brick cut through the front yard, perfectly trimmed bushes following it to the doors of a massive white building.

Being neither awed nor intimidated by such a sight I opened the fence's gate and stepped through, closing it behind me before walking straight towards the mansion doors nocking on them. I didn't have to wait long before a slit on the door slid aside, allowing a pair of eyes to see me for a moment before they widened in recognition, the sound of the slit sliding close followed by the sound of the door itself unlocking and opening.

As I stepped through I was greeted by an elderly unicorn butler bowing to me.

"Greetings Lord Igneous, my lord is currently in his study and I was just about to prepare his lunch, do you desire for me to prepare some food for you as well."

"I already know the way to his study so no need for an escort as for the food add some fish if you could please." Hearing my response the butler nodded before giving me another bow and trotting away.

The study in question was on the second floor and after a short walk, I reached it and without bothering to knock opened its doors and stepped in.

What greeted me was a room with bookshelves covering the left and right walls, a coffee table in the middle with couches on either side, and a window was most of the back wall in front of which was a nice wooden desk and leather chair with a unicorn sitting on it looking over some papers.

The unicorn in question had turned towards me a raised eyebrow at the sound of my entrance but his expression turned into a happy one as he saw me, smile wrinkling his blue mustache as he got down from the chair and stepped around the desk with a greeting.

"Octavio, my good friend it's good to see you, how are you, I was expecting you sooner."

"Marquiss F-" Whatever I was going to say was interrupted as the unicorn waved his hoof in a dismissive gesture.

"How many times do I have to say it Octavio, no formalities when you are in private with friends." At his good-natured tone, I could only sigh and smile before responding.

"As you wish, it's good to see you too Fancy Pants, and I apologize for the delay but my materials were a little bit too valuable to risk them in the everfree so I had to take a long way around." At my words, Fancy Pants let out an understanding "Ah" before nodding.

"Perfectly understandable my friend, besides we still have some time before we need to leave so in the meantime how about we eat some-Ah just in time Gerard." He was interrupted as the same butler who greeted me walked in pushing a cart with the food on it.

Sometime later we were wiping our mouths with some napkins after a delightful meal.

After a moment I cleared my throat and spoke.

"So, how is our little business venture going." Fancy Pants eyes narrowed as he understood what I was referring to.

"Hmm, quite well I'd say, currently we have control of around sixty-three percent of all distribution in the kingdom but on the other hand we have almost complete control over production, if we keep up with our current rate of growth we will completely control all distribution as well within two to three years." As he finished speaking he took a sip from his glass of water.

"I see, that is good news, and tell me, any news about our friend, last I heard he was at Griffonstone."

Fancy Pants nodded before continuing. "Yes, he is still there, and in fact, I received a letter from him not two days ago, according to Blueblood, Semion has been getting more and more aggressive lately, there have even been some conflicts between our "workers" and he doesn't really have the time to talk him down, a diplomatic envoy can't really be left alone and his time in Griffonstone is going to end sooner rather than later." Then Fancy Pants snorted. "Well the good news is Blueblood has actually made some headway with the griffons, on the legal side at least, I'm sure his aunt will be oh so proud of him."

"Oh leave him alone Fancy, there's nothing wrong with wanting some parental affection, Faust knows his actual parents didn't give him a lot of it before they kicked the bucket."

"Yes, that was somewhat mean, I apologize." Then Fancy's expression turned serious as he continued. "On another note, it appears the Syndicate may be reneging on our deal, one of our facilities was raided by the guard after they received an anonymous tip about its location, while nothing too important was lost during the raid the administrator there decided to confess in exchange for a lessened sentence, that lead to the loss of four other facilities one of which was a refinery."

I set my glass down and exhaled through my nose, trying to control my rising temper as I spoke.

"This may not be a big loss in the long run but it's still an insult towards us, if we let them walk away without consequence other groups will get bolder, after the festival, I will return here and deal with them personally, the only reason they lasted this long was that we didn't think they were worth the effort of getting rid of them, it seems now they want to convince us otherwise and they succeeded."

I took a moment to catch my breath before continuing in a calm tone.

"As for Semion, leave him to me, a month from now I have official business in Griffonstone so I'll deal with him then." Grabbing my glass once more I raised it towards him.

"For the Triumvirate." Fancy Pants smiled before mimicking me and knocking his own glass against me.

"For the Triumvirate."

Timeskip.

An advantage of being not only noble but rich was that we had access to the pegasus chariots, but that we got not only guards to pull the chariot but also an extra chariot where my materials were being carried.

The flight was less than two hours and Fancy and I spent it just making small talk and appreciating the scenery.

Our arrival to Ponyville wasn't met with much fanfare and we both took a moment to take in the sights, Fancy commenting on the homey feeling the town had while I warily looked around, the only real thing of interest was a purple maned unicorn mare that had seemed to freeze mid-step someway from us and was staring at us mouth agape, while I appreciated her lustrous mane and fur which showed a great level of care and I could admit she was quite beautiful I ignored her in favor of looking around the immediate area for any sign of my sister, if I was lucky I would see her before she did.

I love my sister, really I do, but Pinkamena and I are simply on a completely different rhythm and I didn't have any way of slowing her down, if I found her first then I would only have to deal with a crushing hug and some squealing instead of something worse if she caught me by surprise.

I absentmindedly nodded to Fancy Pants as he told me something about finding the perfect spot for the arch and some festival supervisor coming in later.

Finishing my little "Where's Pinkamena" session I called out to Fancy as he trotted away.

"What's the supervisor's name again."

"Twilight Spa-" Whatever he was going to say was interrupted as a prowling monster took my momentary distraction as its chance to pounce.

As for me, I didn't have enough time to react before a pony-shaped mass of sugar, cotton candy, and sisterly affection crashed into me.

"OCTAVIO."

CHAPTER END

Author's Note

Welp here's a chapter, like before please point out any grammar mistakes I may have missed and comment your thoughts.

And feel free to check out my other story as well.