That was a really dizzying night yesterday. I think I've managed to see a new side to drunken Rarity that I've never seen before. I end up having a head-to-head chat with Gabby's current situation. I traveled all of creation to find Rarity's key to her room, only to come up short. And I end up spending a few bits on getting a room to myself... at one of the dingy hotels near the front gate of the city, after searching for an open room for three hours. Just to think that I would end up buying a room after Twilight made sure that I had one to sleep in, that's irony. Still, I had much more peace and quiet outside of hearing about two couples getting their romp on.

How long has it been since that was me and Ocellus?

Yet again, it's another short night of sleep, four hours before I get a phone call in the early morning hours asking me where I am. I tell Twilight what happened and explain to her why I separated myself for the time being. She goes on a rant over how I could've called her, and how quick she could've arranged for concessions to be made. I halfway tune out over twenty seconds in before she calls me out for that. Then she urges me to come to the castle in a hurry before the breakfast slot comes to a close.

By the time I get there, the royal cooking staff have already started to close up shop and make preparations for the general lunch rush. There's a plate available for me to eat, but I have to rush through it just to be able to make Twilight's stupid deadline. And as I come to a licking finish, the guard informs me that the party is about to leave the courtyard. I dart through the halls, flying and narrowly dodging staff and guards alike to catch up to the trio of coaches moving past the castle checkpoint. I reach the checkpoint in just enough time to find the coach Twilight's inside of. She makes note my late arrival, while I quietly sneak on board.

Not a fun way to start the day with an adoptive sibling nagging your ear off.

Our early morning runs completed, we take to our next stop. It seems we're supposed to have a few more with us on today, and our little caravan is going to be traveling every bit of the way to pick up our additional passengers. It's too bad that they'll be riding with Blueblood, since his carriage is only consisting of him at the moment.

Meanwhile, the ride in ours is quiet. I can see Twilight veering off to the distance, she appears pretty happy. Seems like her little meetup from last night went better than expected. Maybe I should probe her on the subject, just to break the monotony of this quiet ride. "So, Twilight."

"Yes?" Her vocal inflections are pretty soft today. Guess she had a real good time.

"I heard you had a special evening planned out last night. How'd that go?"

Almost instantly, she starts to take up a defensive position in the conversation. "Who told you that?"

"Rarity might have dropped that nugget of information while she was drunk." I inform her.

She groans a comment under her breath. "Of course, always going overboard with the smallest interaction I get."

"So what, you ain't get lucky?" I tease the princess.

"That's none of your business." Twilight goes right back to looking at the outside world passing us by.

I continue to tease at her expense, at least happy that she has her own business to get into so that she doesn't start delving into mine too heavy. "So you did. Congrats, I should probably work with Pinkie and throw you a party."

She rolls her eyes and explains with a tired sigh. "It didn't even go that far!"

"Seriously?" I tilt my head at her. "You two did nothing while you were together?"

I can see the warmth in her ears, for her it's the first thing I can tell when she starts to have flashbacks of passion. It's not the first time she's done it either, usually she tries to hide her ears by flattening them, but if she's really happy about it, she'll forget to do so. This morning is an example of the latter. "We just had a moment, that's all."

"Kissing?"

She promptly remembers her habit and folds her ears down in response as she continues to look away. "Why is it that you're even bothering me about this?"

I playfully talk as though I'm mimicking her usual cadence of speaking. "I mean we're both at an age where we should be able to talk about this comfortably. So I don't see why it is that you're so bashful about it."

Now she's growing annoyed. "As if my intimate life won't possibly repulse you."

I continue to mirror her inflections, hopefully getting under her skin a bit as annoying little brothers would. "I'm not asking for details, I'm just seeing if you scratched that seven year itch is all."

She drops her head, showing how frustrated she's getting with me. "Ugh, just one weekend with Nondis and he's already showing to be a bad influence on you."

I mutter underneath my breath as I turn away. "I'm not the one who took him for a ride."

"SPIKE!" She screams at me.

I giggle to myself as I fire back at her. "I mean you got me on this raggedy-ass schedule, I might as well make the best of it."

"Um..." As Shining interrupts, I'm suddenly reminded that the two of us aren't the only ones in this coach. "I know it's not of any real serious consequence, but..."

"Uncle Spike, what does 'raggedy-ass' mean?" Flurry asks in curious fashion, causing her mother to gasp at her daughter's acquired language.

"Flurry!" She chides the young alicorn. "That's a bad word, we don't say that."

"Daddy says it all the time when he screams at the guards. He tells them to get their raggedy asses in shape before he does it for them." I'm mildly amused over her young voice flawlessly swearing much like her father, Cadance is more mortified than anything, and Shining's just embarrassed that he's getting put out on front street.

Twilight however, she politely smiles while informing her daughter to clean up her vocabulary. "Well, princesses don't say that word. Only those nasty boys say that filthy language."

"That's right! You say that!" Cadance cosigns.

Shining takes great offense of his wife trying to align with his younger sister. "Oh don't you start. Didn't you have me learn bubble of silence for certain times of the month? Our scheduled 'love summits'?"

Cadance doesn't like getting ousted by her husband, pinning her ears back for a different reason. "Shining Armor."

"I mean she had to be the most foul-mouthed princess before Flurry was born." He states.

"And don't let her get in front of Chrysalis' statue again." I add to cosign with him as a show of solidarity. I'm starting to feel pretty happy that he came along for the ride today.

Cadance adjusts Flurry while holding her ears shut with her magic. "Boys, can we not right now? Flurry's here with us."

I continue to jab along with the Crystal Emperor. "I know you love being a dad, but don't you miss the times when you weren't one and you could have her to a room by yourself?"

The stallion waxes over the fresh years of his marriage. "Yeah, back when my left hindleg was in top shape."

The aforementioned empress stares back at her husband with a threatening aura. "Keep talking and I might shatter the right one."

"Girls make life so unfun sometimes." Shining smiles as he figures himself to satisfy the requirement of briefly annoying his wife. "Honey, you used to be so fun. Now you're so boring. Where's the pageantry, the spectacle?"

"Probably on the fairer side of twenty-five." I joke lightheartedly.

The emperor chuckles before adding to the joke. "Twenty-five, I wasn't even a thought at the time she was thirty! She's over three hundred years old!"

"I guess I meant to say before she started to look like she went past that." I add, causing both Shining and I to laugh at the pure absurdity of going past the well-established line.

She definitely took that personally, her horn started to crackle with a very ominous and familiar aura. The empress stares daggers at her husband as their daughter takes notice of the magic manifesting in her horn. "Mommy, why is your aura turning black and purple?"

Shining takes notice of her anger and puts an immediate halt to his jesting. "Nothing dear, just thinking of your father."

Meanwhile Twilight, who's already looking down the barrel of year twenty-seven later this year shows her indignation towards me, and in equal fashion. "Auntie Twilight, why is your aura turning black and purple?"

"I'm just thinking of your silly uncle here. Pay me no mind." The fact that she says it with a smile is already unnerving as it is. And judging from that smile, she probably might have some reenactments on the brain, something akin to seven years ago.

Laughter has ceased, commence operation dandelion. "Daddy, Uncle Spike, why are you both so quiet."

In other words, we're going to politely shut the fuck up, and keep our skins firmly attached to our bodies before these two find interesting ways not to. The both of us stare out the window, looking at the sky and hoping that we might either live to see another one, or not see the doom countdown over our heads. "Lovely weather today."

The both of us wear plastic smiles over our faces, knowing any other comment would give either of us an early trip to the morgue. "Our Twily always knows how to really set it up. She's so brilliant." Shining adds with a peaceful expression.

Flurry looks over to me, seeing that I too have resigned myself to being at peace. "Uncle Spike?"

"Ah, the air is quite crisp today."

"It's almost a good day to suddenly expire at the hooves of a spiteful alicorn." Shining says with a peaceful smile.

"Indeed." I reply to his comment.

Flurry grows confused with our antics and questions her mother and aunt. "What's with those two?"

"Boys are sometimes dumb." Twilight answers.

"So daddy and Uncle Spike are big dummies!?" And now her expectation of any and all perspective males have been set to a low bar. We love to see it.

Cadance points back at Twilight with approval. "She said it, not me. I just agree."

Both Shining and I whisper under our breath in unison. "Stupid alicorn magic."

We hear the cackling auras of their dark alicorn magic starting to manifest again as Twilight questions the both of us. "Dummy says what?"

Shining comes through with the quick save. "We meant super alicorn magic, sweetheart!"

While she accepts her fathers reasoning, Flurry calls me out over it instead. "That's not what you said, Uncle Spike!"

I try to distract her from that, at least to save my own life. "Flurry, look, the birds are so high today!"

"We might get blasted up to join them!" Shining adds.

The young alicorn quirks a brow at her resigned father. "Daddy, I thought you always get airsick!"

"That won't matter where your mother's going to send me, sweetie."

One life-threatening coach ride later, we find ourselves in the fairly affluent neighborhood in the Fringe District, an area that's high in residential density and filled with ponies with a comfortable means of wealth. Many of the homes here are either two-level townhouses or five-story condominiums. The area is a familiar allocation of the former, notably it's the neighborhood Twilight and Shining both grew up in before their lives started moving towards the fast lane and in separate directions. The walls may be shared between the units, but they are soundproofed to give intimacy for when it may be needed.

Flurry is the first to jump out of the coach, flying over to the door with a familiar crest of a magenta star with six points. Poor Shining Armor and Cadance can barely keep up with their daughter as she starts to bang the knocker against the door loudly. The door opens to reveal both Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle, my adoptive parents that feel more like actual parents than the very mare that quite literally magic'd me out of the egg. I refer to them as Mrs. V and Mr. C.

Both grandparents snag the young princess from the air, bringing her in for a hug. Then they of course drag all the rest of us over in their magic to embrace us in a large group hug. "Mom! Dad!" Twilight's happy to see them as always, just as long as Mrs. V doesn't nag her about her dating life.

Meanwhile, Mr. C hugs on all the girls, including Cadance. "Ah, and here's our three little angels!" He playfully gives a dismissive greeting to his own son. "Oh hi, Shining."

"Et tú, dad?" Shining understands his father is playing jokes on him. If anything, Mr. V more than realizes how much of an adult his son has become over the years, even sometimes acknowledging him by his formal title.

Meanwhile, Mrs. V has always been partial to her first-born, babying him in spite of him holding significant status. "Aw, don't worry about your father's shenanigans, dearie. You're still my little baby boy."

He still gets embarrassed by it from time to time. "Ma, I'm an emperor now. You're embarrassing me."

"Emperor or not, you are still my darling little colt in Shining Armor." Meanwhile, she'll never change. "Spike, dearest! Keeping Twilight in check?"

"Yes ma'am."

Naturally, she doesn't mind me being around, but lately she's been pretty pushy on one aspect in particular, one I'm not inclined to indulge nor entertain. "That's good! You know, I would love to really be able to have a good one-on-one with you about a few things."

"No thanks." I decline softly.

"Oh, you!" She appears defeated, but that's only for a short while before she'll look to try and push the offer again. "I guess you haven't opened up to the idea yet, but maybe with some more time, you might grow to change your mind and see things differently. I suppose you'll grow into it one day." Again, not even going to entertain the offer.

The pair, while already having me to consider as an adopted child, they also make note of another who they've grown to look after on occasion, especially throughout the past years. "Coming by to pick up our usual candidate for affection?" Asks Mr. C.

"Of course." Twilight answers. "How is she doing?"

Mrs. V nods slowly, slowly thinking more on it. "She's fine. Still a bit concerned for the things in her cabinet, but she's fine."

Just on cue, one of the neighbors walk out of their front door, seeing all of us gathered and waiting. She especially notices me. "Oh, is that who I think it is!?" She teleports over and gives me a tackling hug that almost knocks me off of my feet. "SPIIIIIIIIIIKIIIEEEEE!"

"Oh my word." Mr. C blinks in surprise as Ms. Royal links onto me fairly tightly.

The billionaire heiress, as it turns out, is also a neighbor of the Sparkle family, as she has been for the better part of some nine years. It's just that she's grown close to the family over the past seven because they look after her. While our association has been limited in that time, it's only recently expanded past me seeing her as the drunken neighbor down a few units from the home. "I know it's been a week since you moved in! How's the house!?"

"Loving every inch." I answer with a thumbs up.

She mutters under her breath as she gives me a quick glance up and down, as she usually does nowadays. "I'll take 'Something I'd do' for five-hundred."

Flurry, however, isn't privy to the mare's close connection to the family. "Mommy, who's that?"

"Oh! Little miss princess!" Ms. Royal bends down to formally greet the young mare. "I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there! How's it going?"

"Mommy almost made daddy into a ghost." She excitedly announces, causing everyone to look at the married couple with some concern.

Ms. Royal sits on her haunches as she quietly calls out the princess. "Mommy."

"He started it." Cadance points back at her husband with absolutely no shame or guilt.

She redirects her attention to the aforementioned husband. "Daddy, now why would you start trouble with mommy? You know better than that."

Shining snickers as he gives his wife a kiss on the cheek. "Sometimes living on the edge has a certain thrill to it."

As everyone gathers, Blueblood greets the mare with a smile. "Ah, I see we're back into the throws of old habits."

The greeting is mutual between the two, she returns his smile with one of her own. "Sir prince, didn't expect to see you coming around today."

"I had to show, otherwise I'd be haunted by the ghost of the past for not checking in on you." He replies with a wink.

She shakes her head with a slight chuckle. "Well I greatly appreciate it. You know I do."

The two turn around to look at the castle in the far distance. The blond-maned prince sighs as he thinks of the past. "You know, it's been years since the three of us stood before that checkpoint up there."

"The last line of defense between the element bearers and a mad doctor with unholy intentions." She replies with a saddened tone. "If only my brother could've seen us in that moment."

"That whole week was a nightmare." Shining joins in, looking back up in the distance. "It's one I'll never forget, but it's one that thankfully came to an end the way it did." He then turns to Ms. Royal and ask her of herself. "I know we're about to take off and all, but aren't you forgetting something in your usual ritual?"

Her ears perk up as she realizes that she had bypassed some part of her departure from home. "Oh right, I almost forgot! I'll be right back out in a sec!"

As she darts off, I feel a slight tug at my ear. "Yoo-hoo!" I look to see Mrs. V's horn glowing with a warm blue aura as she waves her hoof to motion at me. "Spike, a little word a dear old lady, if you would."

"Sure thing. What's up?"

As I get in close, she whispers under her voice. "Now I couldn't help but to notice that Blue has apparently taken a bit of a liking to you."

"I think it's more casual than anything." I answer, trying to downplay the situation.

She laughs as she brings me closer to whisper in my ear. "Now, I don't want to alarm you, but I do need to tell you that she's a mare with a good amount of baggage." Excuse me, and your daughter isn't? "And I do mean a LOT of baggage."

To be fair, Ms. Royal already clued me in on that part about some VIP lounge from some years back. "I think I've gotten the hint a few times before."

She's all smiles for appearances, but Mrs. V really stresses the matter. "Well if you want to know just how much baggage we're talking about, why don't you go check in on her right now and see for yourself. I just want you to know what you're dealing with, okay?"

"Uh... okay." It's not like I'm going to date her, I don't even know why she's being this protective.

Either way, I notice that it's been a little while for whatever ritual that's supposed to be taking place. She hasn't made it back yet. So far, it's been over ten minutes. So I humor Ms. V and head over to the townhouse with the cracked front door. As I get closer to the porch, I hear her voice engaging in what sounds like a one-way conversation. I poke my head into the unit, seeing Blue standing in front of a glass cabinet filled with an assortment of items, including a small decorative ceramic phial.

She seems pretty crestfallen but still relatively upbeat as she's engages in her one-sided conversation with the cabinet. "Fine, I promise I won't get as drunk as I usually do. This isn't that kind of thing anyhow." She pauses for silence. "Yeah mom, I hear you." She pauses again, but her tone darkens to a more dismissive one. "Mom, can you please shut dad's mouth?"

As she's seemingly waiting for a response, I speak out to get her attention. "You okay?"

"FUCK!" She nearly jumps completely out of her skin, turning to see me standing in her doorway. She catches her breath and recollects herself. "Oh, it's just you."

"Yeah, just me." I say as I'm quietly weirded out by her very robust one-way engagement with her cabinet.

Her magic swells in her horn as she manipulates the space around my arm, dragging me inside as she speaks. "Well don't fucking sneak up on me like that! I could've beamed you straight in the head! Hasn't anyone told you about knocking?"

"Sorry, I just wanted to check on you. You've been in here for a while."

"Aw, you're such a sweetie." She drags me down my my shoulders, bending me forward as she gives me a quick and unexpected peck on the lips. "I wish I had a little more time, maybe I'd entertain you a little more, maybe brew you some tea or something. Sure would've loved to have you over to explain things a little more instead of you walking in on me talking with the family over there."

"Over there" I ask as she points to the cabinet. Sure enough there's a small portrait sitting at the top of the cabinet, it appears to be a brown, plainly unicorn mare holding her forelegs around a pair of foals, the blue one obviously being her, the other is what I assume to be her brother. There's also a fourth, a very familiar gray unicorn stallion who's posed a bit away from the otherwise happy family. He appears stern and disinterested, almost impatient with the photo. It's Senator Count DuMoneé alright, and he's pissed. "Huh, so you really are his daughter."

"Sadly, not by my choice... or his." Even while she tries to seem upbeat, I feel a deep sadness in her confession, especially when she points out his preference of her status.

I wonder if there was any history of abuse, probably not my place to ask but... "If you don't mind me─"

"Who was I talking to, right? I get it, it's something you're not used to." She's pretty quick to pivot away from the general topic, going straight to the portrait. "So yeah, that's my mom holding me and my big brother. And you already know who it is looking off to the side there."

"Can't imagine you looking straight forward and talking to this picture here." I point out.

"Yeah, I know you're tall. But try looking down at my eye level instead." She clarifies.

I do as she instructed before I see a trio of items that sends a slight shiver down my back. "Uh... those are... faces."

"Death masks, to be specific." She bluntly explains. "You get a clay or bronzed mold of your loved-one's face when they die, it's a special request. I managed to get mine for free. Don't ask how."

You know, the 'how' part of the equation doesn't really ring as loud as the main thing that's front and center. "Why would you do that?"

She's quiet for a moment, her foreleg shaking a bit as she pieces together her response. "Well I guess you could say it was more sprung up on me than anything. I can't really explain it any further than that. Sorry, some things are better left unsaid."

I see the one on the right that looks like Senator Count, the other two aren't as familiar. The one on the left looks like a mare. Meanwhile the one in the middle seems to have a gruesome quality to it. I can't put my claws on it, but it feels terribly off. "This one in the middle looks... different."

She grows a bit uncomfortable throughout her explanation. "That's my mom. She didn't have a... um... how can I say it... a comfortable passing. So hers is a little more organic, namely in the sense that it doesn't hide much of what she went through. Poor thing, she went through everything my father did to her up to that moment."

So there was some abuse. "Well... yikes."

"The one to the right is my father... it's more of a recreation of his senatorial bust than anything. They couldn't use his face after, even if I wanted them to."

If I recall correctly, he fell out of a fifth story window at the castle, landing head first in the garden. I think Mrs. V was there at the time. "Yeah. I remember."

"And the one to the left is big bro." THAT'S YOUR BROTHER!? I seriously thought that was a mare of some sort, not so much a male! Then again, I don't remember the face of the hologram at the museum too well, just that his personality was a bit flavorful. Still, he's a looker, and a strange draw for some. "I know he's a little distressed, but he's mainly worried about me and my drinking habits, as he usually is."

So one mask is the reminder of abuse, the other is a result of that abuse, and the last one can pass as an androgynous model. It's unsettling to say the least, but it's her way of mourning. I can't judge her for it. "Such a collection of personalities."

"Aren't they?" She takes a deep breath before clopping her hooves together and snapping herself to the present in what could best be described as a serious case of mood whiplash. "Alright, let's get a move on!"

While I cannot judge her for her method of mourning, I can still respect her home and participate to some degree. It's not like they'll be offended by the gesture, after all it would be rude for me to not introduce myself. "Well... I'm Spike, nice to meet y'all. See you guys later."

She gives me a nudge, sweetly bumping me out of the way to say her farewells. "Bye mom, bye bro." Then she turns to her father's face. "Sperm donor." She says nothing else and walks out of her home. I follow behind her and we walk towards the carriages. Blueblood kindly guides her into the carriage before he and her take off. The Sparkle family say their goodbyes before we all load into our carriage.

As we move along, two words ring out in my mind about Blue's interaction with her dad. "Sperm donor?"

Shortly after our departure from the Fringe District, we run into a series of checkpoints leading through a few tunnels that seem to bury deep through the mountain. And they were surprisingly hard to get through considering our royal status. I can tell this part of town doesn't seem to like having royalty in their business, much less a visit from one. But after the fourth checkpoint, I soon realize why.

We break through into a fairly open plot of land, one with large mansions speckling the landscape. Each estate seems to be walled off by a combination of greenery and brick masonry. The road is winding and fairly smooth. Compared to the cobblestone streets of the city proper, which has it's bumps and knocks, it feels like we're simply gliding along the trail. I don't even think there's roads like this in any place in the kingdom. And with as massive as a collection of land this is, I'm more surprised it hasn't been discovered sooner by any wayward-flying pegasi.

We come to a complete stop once more, finding ourselves before a wrought iron gate. Sitting at the far end of the walkway is a large Victorian-style mansion standing three stories high with a brick and wood exterior. It looks as though we've stumbled into Ms. Royal's tax bracket of wealth, at least someone with that similar amount of funds. It wouldn't surprise me at this point that this pony might be one of Canterlot wealthiest figures.

I look up to see the massive standing structure with a swimming mass of expectations. "What in the actual high fuck?"

"SPIKE!" Twilight calls me out for cursing, knowing that Flurry might pick up the language.

"Oop, sorry." I apologize while covering my mouth. "This place is stupidly huge."

Ms. Royal giggles as she walks by me. "I forget this is your first time on the back end of the mountain."

"Yeah, why is this house so damn big?" Twilight looks back at me to quickly adjust my language again. "Sorry, let me rephrase that."

Ms. Royal promptly explains. "It's just the affluent part of town that's away from the hustle and bustle. And that's how they like it, to be away from everyone and have their own piece of land, something you obviously don't get in the main parts of Canterlot."

Much like the condos and townhouses that litter every single district. Everything is either sharing a wall or a floor plan. This seems more like if there were a small bunch of houses situated out in Sweet Apple Acres. I didn't even know land like this existed here. "So I've noticed."

Ms. Royal approaches the wrought-iron gate, pressing a button on the side of the access. There's a speaker above the button, it clicks on to reveal a voice. "Hmmmyes, who is it?"

"Handy, it's me." The mare casually replies.

The voice replies with excitement abound. "Ah! Young madam! Why I'm absolutely in awe that you would come by to visit! Please wait, I shall answer the door for the madam of the home!"

As the gate opens for us, I make note of the system that's currently in place. "This doorbell must be the precursor to the one on my house."

The mare smiles at me and explains. "By function, you could say that. But this system's been here for over a decade."

Twilight overhears the conversation and looks to get some clarification. "What do you mean like the one on your house?" I forget that Twilight's not supposed to know that my place is decked out with human tech. So the two of us grow mum until an elderly stallion walks out with a warm smile and an even warmer embrace of the mare I was talking to.

"Young madam!"

"Handy!" She coos longingly as she hugs the elderly butler. "It's so good to see you're still up and at it. Oh my heart is so happy to see you."

"Likewise my dear, there isn't a day where I don't worry for you." He raises one of her hooves and kisses it much like a gentlecolt would. "Ah, so beautiful you still are. Thank Faust you've found strength."

She turns over to me, eager to get us both to greet each other. "Spike, this is Handy Dandy! He's was on my brother's serving staff back when this plot of land used to be our family's estate."

Flurry calls out to the stallion as she flies over. "Wow! You're pretty old, mister!"

All of us freeze up in hearing the young filly blatantly call him out for his age. The stallion, however, laughs it off and greets her with a smile. "Why yes, I am a sprinkle past prime, but I am very much immersed in my golden years. And you, my beautiful little filly, who might you be?"

"I am Princess Flurry Heart!" She boldly announces.

"Of the Crystal Empire!?" His eyebrows raise a significant amount. He looks past the filly to see her approaching parents. He bows before them and reverences the young foal. "Your highness, this pretty old gentlecolt is more than honored to be of service. Do you wish to come in?"

"Yeah!" She exclaims loudly.

"Flurry, calm yourself." Cadance corrects her daughter, taking her in and holding her close. "Sorry, she's a bit excitable at times."

As we are given access to the home, we walk into a magnificently decorated foyer, a crystal chandelier hangs high in the air, refracting lights sourced from some of the crystals themselves. The refractions produce a number of prismatic shimmers throughout the room. Meanwhile, Handy makes note of his experience while looking to Ms. Royal. "Quite alright, you excellency. I deal with the young masters and madams all the time. Some never quite grow out of it."

A familiar mare walks from the top of the staircase, a zebracorn with crimson eyes coming to greet us. Meanwhile Ms. Royal shouts at the top of her voice and darts towards the mare. "KALIIIIIIIIII!"

Cadance's eyes widen but not by much. The butler smirks as he nods his head towards the mare that ran from his side. "As such."

While the two mares embrace each other, I ask the zebracorn of her home. "Holy crap, lady, you live here!?"

Mrs. Kalimba replies while still being mobbed by the billionaire heiress. "Well to be fair, this place is more of a gift bestowed upon me by this one here."

"Yeah, I wasn't gonna stay here after my brother passed, way too many emotions, way too much space for poor little me, and I wasn't comfortable here anyways. We tore down the old home and rebuilt it from the foundations shortly after. Was gonna pass it all off to a certain captain, but he told me to give it to someone else. So I just left it to Kali, she deserves a place like this." Ms. Blue snuggles against the zebracorn, much to her minor annoyance but eager acceptance.

A young filly pops in from the top of the stairs as well, a zebracorn much like his mother. "Muddah!"

"Nafasi, we have guests." Mrs. Kalimba calls out to her son.

"Wow, we got visitors. That doesn't usually happen." Yet another filly pops in from the other side of the stairs. She appears to be wearing some strange assortment of glasses, lenses made from actual rubies. She takes note of my appearance out of everything else. "AND ONE OF THEM'S A DRAGON!?"

Gala Galleria

Kalimba's younger sister

"Hi." I wave up to her as she darts down the stairs to meet me.

She stops short of me and gazes up to see how tall I am. Meanwhile Ms. Royal introduces us to one another. "Gala Galleria, meet Spike. Spike, meet Gala. She's Kalimba's younger sister."

"Sister!?" I shake my head and turn to the mare of the home. "You know she could pass as a daughter or something."

"It's a long story and I don't wanna get into it." Replies the zebracorn.

The butler clears her throat, intending to get the green filly's attention. "Madam, may I introduce to you the youngest of madams. Princess Flurry Heart of the Crystal Empire."

Princess Flurry Heart Mi Amor

2nd High Princess of the Kingdom of Equestria,
High Princess of the Crystal Empire

"Get out!" Her scream of shock pierces my ears as she darts over to the young Flurry. "You're a princess!?"

She responds proudly to her title. "That's right!"

The young adolescent Gala goes on a raving review of the young alicorn. "Wow, your wings are so pretty and big! I wish I could fly like you, I bet you're a great flier! You're so pretty too! I love your mane! You look so incredible! I can't believe a princess like you is here! I bet your place is way bigger than this!"

"We live in a tower in the Crystal Empire. It's pretty high up."

"I bet you can see everything!"

"Just about!"

While the pair of fillies go about their conversation, Shining shrugs off the excitement the pair shows off for one another. "I suppose girls will be girls."

Mrs. Kalimba smiles as she holds her son close to her. "I think they'll get along just fine."

It takes a while before the girls finally calm down a bit. Eventually, we get settled in and the waiting staff politely serves us our lunch. The food they provide are cultural dishes served in what I assume to be Kalimba's homeland. As of the moment, we're seated in a fairly large dining room, at a table with enough length to accommodate at least twenty guests. The food is spicy, but so delicious that I find myself requesting seconds... and thirds. At the end of our meal, we all comfortably recline and have casual discussion.

The staff in charge collect our plates and offer us non-alcoholic beverages to help tide things over. Meanwhile I'm happy and full, almost in love with the cooking staff for their work. While I know he's not a chef, I wish to pass on my thanks. "Mr. Handy, that food was way too good to be a kept secret."

"Tis nothing, young sir. Our wait staff prides itself to it's dedication of service and satisfaction."

Ms. Royal chuckles back at the butler. "Never changing, I see."

"Well I wouldn't want to be a stranger to you, madam Blue." The elderly figure winks back at his former employer.

"I suppose not." She says as she stares down into her cup with an endearing smile.

As we're sitting stationary, a thought brews up in the forefront of my mind. "Hey Ms. Royal. You said you used to live here, why'd you leave?"

"I know I told you about my brother's passing, and how I didn't want to stick around after that. I also made mention that I had the old home torn down, the reason for that was because a lot happened here and I felt those spirits needed a whole-sale cleanse. You're probably wondering why I didn't do that and stay here myself, but I just didn't think this was the space for me. I felt more comfortable going small since I really can't branch things out, you know."

"Do you mean like having a family or something?" I inquire.

"Yeah. I would honestly love to have a little bundle of joy running around for me to pick up after, but I know that I can't really do that." She answers as her smile gradually starts to fade.

"You know, there are also some pretty good adoption agencies that could help." I suggest.

"Nah, it's not my thing." She swirls her glass, going into a contemplative mode. "...Not anymore."

Sadness is starting to manifest all over her face, I grow concerned. "What happened?"

"...Reality happened, Spike." She slides the glass away.

"When you─" As I start to answer a question, a strong magic force shuts my mouth.

Twilight immediately jumps in over me. "So tell us about your expansion into the Griffonstone market, Blue! I'm sure your new venture into the land of griffons is a pretty exciting one."

At that moment, she endures yet another mood whiplash, snapping herself back to present. "Ugh, where do I begin with them!?"

As the billionaire real estate mogul begins her rant, I feel the magic quench around my lips. I look over to see Twilight's horn doing the same. "You seriously cut me off?" I whisper to her.

"Yes, because there are some questions you don't need to dig on." She stresses through gritted teeth, still maintaining a smile.

"How was I supposed to know that?" I ask.

"Maybe you didn't. But I had to jump in." She responds while nodding back to the mare in the midst of her rant. "Now shut up, smile, and pay attention."

"So then they tell me that they don't want to pay that much for a unit that's been renovated. Now mind you, this unit I renovated looks a farcry better than anything else there. But they want me to charge a flat rate compared to the other units in the city. But they're all ran down! Like I understand Griffonstone is in the midst of it's recovery, but most of the creatures there are so hardstuck on the past that they won't budge when it comes to the pricing. I'm at least trying to raise land value and visual appeal, but it's difficult."

Twilight shifts her tone to further encourage the business mogul. "Just stick to it, darling! I'm sure it'll work out eventually."

As Ms. Royal looks to go on with her rant, Cadance takes note of a missing figure who's not sitting beside her at the moment. "Has anyone seen Flurry?"

"She's not here?" Blueblood questions.

Handy, who's probably the busiest pony in the room, shows his capability to also be observant. "I believe the young madam has been escorted to the bathroom by Gala. They shall return shortly."

"Gala has been gone for some time. I guess they're taking turns." Fluttershy replies in thought.

A second or two after, the door opens to reveal the mint-green adolescent. "There you are." Mrs. Kalimba points out to her sister.

"Hey Gala, is Flurry not with you?" Shining asks.

The young filly promptly answers his question. "She was... I think she trailed off when we walked past the kitchen."

"The kitchen? Guess she wanted a bit of an after-meal snack. She's a growing girl after all." Shining states of his daughter.

Cadance chuckles sensibly as she comments about her daughter. "I always said she had your appetite." Just as she finishes speaking, Flurry reveals herself soon after. "There you are! How many times have I told you not to wander off?"

"Sorry mommy. I was talking with the lady in the kitchen." The young princess confesses.

"Is that so?" Asks her mother.

"Yeah!" She proudly answers. "She says she's happy that Ms. Blue came to visit and that she's happy she's doing so well. She says she's really proud of her and all of her accomplishments!" The filly then turns to the real estate mogul and softens her voice. "She says she's sorry for everything that happened, that you're still her little princess."

"Oh... that's..." The mare clutches her pearls tightly, taking a moment to reflect before suddenly rising from the table and hurriedly walking out of the room. She almost knocks over her glass on the way up. "I'm sorry, I need to be excused for a moment."

As she walks out the door, I see her face contort to unveil some considerable pain she's been hiding. Young Gala inquires about the mare and her speedy exit. "Did something happen?"

Cadance looks down to her daughter and carefully speaks with her. "Flurry, what did I tell you about going off and talking to ponies on your own?"

The young princess answers her mother, appearing annoyed for being nagged at. "Never to do it unless you or daddy are present."

"Very good. Now don't ever do that again." She softly warns.

While the sudden development is bewildering to say the least, most of the ponies in the room are quiet and seemingly reverent towards the mare. However, there are the others like me who don't understand what's going on. I stand up and announce my brief dismissal. "I'm going to the bathroom myself. I'll be back."

In truth, I'm lying to leave the room without any possible resistance. As soon as I walk out, I hear the sounds of soft sobbing coming from further down. My feet guide me towards the source, coming from within the kitchen filled with the lingering smell of spices strongly reminding me of the numerous plates of food I ate. My arm swings the door open to see Ms. Royal hunched against island counter, hugging herself as she's wiping her tears with her foreleg. Her weeps are guttural and painful, she tries her best to stop, but each attempt deepens her emotional release.

Admittedly, this is probably the first time I haven't seen her whiplash herself back to being as warm-spirited and carefree as she usually is. She's been hiding this pain for some time, and whatever Flurry said has gotten to her real bad. She rocks back and forth, comforting herself as best as she can. I know I don't want to disturb her, but I still want to show support for whatever she's going through. "Hey, you okay?"

She gasps as she realizes through her water-logged vision that I'm standing in the kitchen with her. She stands up, trying to gather herself. "I'm..." She frantically wipes her tears away, trying to put back on her emotional mask. "I'm just a mess right now."

A soft creak from the ceiling tells me that the house is still settling in place, but Blue's head lowers as she goes immediately back into her breakdown. She lets out a choked yell before she hyperventilates. The mare tries her best to slow things down, but she finally lifts her head with her eyes to the lights above. I look up with her. "Something happened?"

"Just having a moment." She responds between breaths. I walk over to comfort her, she waves me off with a frantic warning. "Oh please don't hug me right now, I'm a snotty, teary mess, I'll just bury my head wherever I can get to and never let you go. I don't wanna get you dirty. I'll just straighten up, I promise."

I don't care too much for that, I just know that she's in pain and that she needs a good release with as much as she constantly slaps herself out of. I kneel down and plant her head deep into my chest, hoping she gets some form of comfort. While my body may not be as warm as a pony, I can only hope my presence helps her relieve these pent-up emotions she's been squirreling away.

My mind goes back to the three masks in her cabinet. I remember how she says her mom went through it all before passing away, how abusive her dad was. I add up the toll of her not wanting to stay here, even though the walls of this house were completely gutted and demolished, the spirits of her past still remain on these grounds. While I'll never understand what all happened, I can at least try to help begin some form of healing. "Sometimes it takes a little more than a slap to the cheek to feel better. You don't have to talk about it, but you don't have to hide it either. Make your mess, but let that all go right now. Okay?"

A constricting hug clenches around my body as the mare's horn poke into my chin, she lets out a pained scream, piercing my ears and echoing throughout the home. She lets out another, muffled by my chest as she leans into me even deeper. I lay my head on top of hers while she lets out one more. The next few outbursts aren't screams, but more of her panting deeply. She nuzzles herself, finally feeling comfort as my body assumes the warmth hers give off.

Her grip loosens as she finally peels away from my chest. It's not a pretty parting as much of her snot is still bridges the distance. I don't mind it much because I know she's been needing the release for some time. I'm just amazed that throughout all this time she never found the time to do it. Maybe it was something that Flurry said that got to her, a trigger that induced this. But whatever it is, she's finally showing signs of recovery. Her eyes are puffy and red, her voice is half-way gone, but she's not uncontrollably producing tears anymore. I look over to the countertop, grabbing a roll of paper towels for the two of us. "Got it all out?" I ask as I start to wipe her face down for her.

She forces a smile, nodding rapidly all the while. The forced expression finally takes root, transforming her entire mood. But even while the symptoms of her sadness persisted, she shows a natural progression to her mood change instead of the usual snap back to adapting to the present. As I finish cleaning her face, she levitates the roll of paper towels and starts to clean my chest. "I love you, Spike." I display a brief moment of shock over her sudden confession, but she clarifies her position. "Not like in an intimate sense, but like on a spiritual thing, if that makes sense."

Honestly, with the kiss from earlier, I could've assumed otherwise. But I do understand where she's coming from. She finishes with my chest, but goes for the sink to wet a few towels to clean me further. I politely quench her horn, all while catching the paper towels before they hit the floor. "It's fine. You got it."

"Thank you so much, Spike." She takes a deep breath, recovering from her release in full. "I guess you got a lot more out of me today than you needed. I bet this all weirded you out something fierce."

"No, it's okay." I answer with a smile of my own. "After everything you've done for me, I'll take this as a badge of honor. Just try to convey to me what you're feeling from time to time instead of holding it all in. I'm here for it."

The mare purses her lips before slapping her cheeks one good time, the impacts leaving a substantial redness on either side of her face. "What a crybaby, am I right?" Guess she had to snap herself back one good time. "Okay, enough of that. Let's get back to the others before they worry about us."

I think it's too late for that now. "Yeah, let's head back."

After our visit to the other side of the mountain, we come back to over to the side we know. Flurry glows so much about the young Gala that she prefers to ride in with her. Since each coach is designated for five, we trade her place with that of Ms. Royal's. The carriage is pretty quiet because of it, but on occasion I find her going from staring out the window lost in thought, to smiling every time she peeks over to me.

I don't know whether to be worried about how she's doing, or maybe what she's thinking about when it comes to me. All I know is that she's between the world outside and me in here. It hasn't gone unnoticed by the others either, they even rearrange the seating to where I'm situated right next to her. Interestingly enough, she falls asleep next to me. It's remains that way until a bad bump in the road shifts her over onto me, and she proceeds to use my body for a pillow. The others are quiet, but show moderate interest in the display of peace the mare has with me.

Just the quiet stares make me uncomfortable for the entire ride.

Hours later, we reach the location of tonight's main event. We at last get back down to the Corrotto District. The traffic is pretty significant in the area, and it's not without reason. Tonight is the opening night of the National Buckball League. It's advertised all throughout the city, the region, even the country. And tonight's game will be against last year's conference finals opponent, who barely scraped out a win over our Canterlot Crusaders in seven-game series, the Las Pegasus Paladins.

We take an underground tunnel for exclusive access, and mainly to avoid the crowds. But the hype is electric, felt from even the modernistic concrete columns that serves as the foundation of this stadium. The kids are already eager and waiting, especially Nafasi. "Finally, it is GAAAAME TIIIIIME!" He does his best announcer impression.

His mother is much more subdued in her excitement, looking around every corner as we approach our elevator to our VIP booth. "Nafasi, calm down."

As we load onto the elevator, Flurry makes a request before we push any buttons to reach a certain floor. "Mommy, daddy, can I go to see the players?"

Cadance tempers her daughter's expectations. "Now Flurry, it wouldn't be nice to just barge in on them and see them. Let's ask if they can first, then we'll do that."

"Okay!" She's not convinced they'll refuse.

Blueblood chuckles at the young filly and her mother. "That girl is something else, I'll tell you that. I bet it's pretty interesting have a daughter that's so much like you, Cadance."

The esteemed mother places her hooves over her daughter's ears before speaking candidly. "Ugh, it's a headache. It's like every bad thing you did to your parents comes right around and bites you in the ass."

I scoff back at her and playfully point at her hypocrisy. "So much for princesses not cursing."

"We only did that to not have Flurry Heart swearing up a storm." She says as she unplugs her daughter's ears.

As we reach the floor to what appears to be the players locker room access, Shining departs from the group and leaves the rest of us in wait. Meanwhile Twilight adds to the topic. "Because if it was up to her, she would probably stir up another blizzard and swear while doing so."

"Yeah, I bet that would be pretty wild." I mutter, thinking about that first week she was born, and all the destructive chaos that came along with it.

Shining returns to the elevator with more than a smile. "Hey hun!" He waits until the doors close before he spreads the good news. "Flurry and I got the green light to see the players. I can take the other kids who might want to see them too."

The young zebracorn colt explodes with energy. "REALLY!? ABEG MOMMA, PLEASE LET ME GO TO SEE!"

"Remember to behave and not annoy them too much!" She instructs firmly before turning to her younger sister. "Gala, can you look after him?"

The adolescent filly answers her older sibling. "I'm only going because Flurry's going, and I totally want an autograph."

"Whatever works, I guess." Mrs. Kalimba answers as the group assembles around Shining to go meet the players.

The three younger ponies and their imperial chaperone departs from the group. As that issue is resolved, Ms. Royal hits the button to reach our box seats. The elevator travels quickly to our designated floor, opening it's doors to a clean hallway with modern carpeting. She raises a keycard to the first room that's directly across from us, giving access to middle-most suite in all of the stadium. We can see the entire field from up here, and there are TV's that can show the action up close. Already, I can see the crowd starting to file in and fill the seventy-thousand seats in the stadium. The LED bands around each tier flash brightly of the team colors, the large screens above the bowl show highlights from last season in preparation of tonight's game.

It's hard not to feel the excitement of being here. Everything's so futuristic, or modern by human standards. The sound system hits almost as hard as the club not too far from here, it's just more spread out is all. Down below, members of the crowd are given wands that change colors at a given whim, almost like it's a concert. This is clearly a place where you just forget that most of Equestria isn't nearly up to date with any of this, quite literally the next generation mecca of buckball for the time being.

My phone vibrates, grabbing my attention from the futuristic pageantry of the upcoming kickoff. I look down to see a familiar name at the top of the text. "I need to see you."

While it says it's from Gabby's phone, I can only assume that this is actually someone else, probably her boyfriend. I text back to be sure. "Who is this?"

The reply is so quick that it's within a fifteen second window. "It's Gabby, who else would it be?" Her boyfriend doesn't type nearly that fast.

"Your boyfriend impersonated you last night." I inform her.

"I've been told." She texts back. "Please, can you call me?" And it's in rapid-fire responses, I can't even get a message in. "Better yet I'll call you." I'm barely getting a chance to read the message before her name pops up on the screen to accept her call. This is obviously her, she doesn't play around when it comes to working her phone.

♪Through drought and famine, natural disasters, my baby has been arou─♫

"Hello?" I promptly answer the call. I get a few stares over the ring tone, but I find a corner separated from everyone else for the moment to take the call.

"Spike, where are you right now?" It's her voice, but she's being awfully quiet.

"Still in Canterlot for a bit." I answer.

She sighs in distress. "Dang it, I'm in a really rough bind. I really need you."

I look back to make sure no one's around me as I lower my voice. "What's wrong?"

"You know how you said that Galefor impersonated me last night to get you on the phone?"

"I don't remember saying all of that."

"Well he did. He and I got into a pretty big spat about it this morning. And I'm still in between paychecks, so I don't have any bits to afford a place to crash for the time being."

"He kicked you out?" I ask quietly, not trying to alert anyone to the subject.

"No. I left."

Well I can tell that's a decision made on impulse. Either something bad really happened between them, they got physical, or she just separated herself with little to no fallback plan. "Why'd you leave?" I inquire.

"Because he said, and I quote, 'If you're going to stay here with me and we're going to have this thing together, then you should have him respect the boundaries that I put down for this relationship.' His words, not mine."

In short, she's risking her current relationship to keep things going between us. Great, she's going about this the wrong way, and now it's subject to get even worse. "Gabby." I shake my head at the griffon.

She continues onward. "So I told him 'Look, you can't just go through my phone and do whatever just to trap whoever you think is doing something with me.' Then he tells me 'I don't care, whatever you have on Wednesday, cancel it.' So then I snap back at him like 'You can't tell me who I can talk to or not. That's our gameday together, I'm going to visit no matter what.' Then he snaps at me and says 'Well if you want to visit him so bad, why don't you stay there for the night?' And then I start nodding like, okay bet! So then I tell him, 'You know what, fine! I'll stay the whole week! Maybe some time away from each other is just what we need to figure things out.' And he's all like 'That's not what I meant.' And I'm like, 'No, that's exactly what you meant. So I'm gonna be about it.' So I packed about a weeks worth of my stuff. And while I'm packing, he's begging me to stay with him. He's all like 'Gabriella please, let's talk this through so we don't do anything we might regret,' I'm fussing back at him, he's blocking the doors, I have to fly through a window, he's following me all throughout the day until I lose him somewhere in town. So as of now I'm hiding in a bush with all of my stuff, and I'm eyeing your place just across the street. I'm literally right here."

Scratch that, it's even more disastrous than I thought. "Oh Gabby."

She keeps her voice down, but she unleashes a grunt of frustration. "He's always so irrational! I can't stand it! Everything about him is so... ARGH! Spike, please just come by whenever you can and let me in. I promise I'll make it up to you when you get back. I'll even pay you back for the week to compensate for groceries, water, whatever."

"I'm so far away, Gabby." I stress to her. I check the time, seeing that the next train to Ponyville will probably leave the station in about two minutes, which means I'll have to catch the next train in about an hour. And I don't want to get Twilight involved with the situation. So I start to think of my options. "If I'm gonna have to fly there myself, it'll be about thirty to forty-five minutes at full speed."

Gabby sighs over the news. "I'm so sorry, Spike. I just need to be anywhere but there with him right now. He gets all desperado when this happens, and I don't like it when he gets like that. It's just... ugh."

I continue to rack my brain with other alternatives, hoping I can reach a middle ground without me having to put my endurance on the line and marathon a flight over to Ponyville. "Can I just arrange for you to stay at my girlfriend's place?"

She doesn't like that idea very much, but she sounds accepting of it. "Does she even know about me?"

"Of course she does." I reply.

"Okay. I guess I'll wait for you to call me back and give me the okay. I really want to hurry, Spike. I don't want him to find me." She pleads desperately.

"Alright, I'll get back with you." I tell her before hanging up the phone.

As I'm in the midst of my quick switchover to find Ocellus' number, Twilight takes note of my isolation and questions me. "Spike, are you okay? You've been in that corner for over ten minutes hunched with your phone."

"Just give me a minute." I say while raising a hand to halt her and answer the call. "Hello?"

I hear soft music in the background as Ocellus gives her reply in a playful accent. "Alas, so you've called me on the eve of my Smolder's dinner."

"Hey Spike!" She sounds to be in close proximity, but still a small distance away from the receiver. It seems she has me on speaker.

"Hey Smolder." I acknowledge before quickly getting back to the main topic. "Ocellus, look, I'm in a bit of a bind here. I need you to do me a favor."

"If it's about the spell, you know what I told you already." It seems she's still in her mood to tease me, but I'm not exactly in that frame of mind right now.

"It's not about the spell. It's about Gabby."

The changeling audibly displays her disappointment. "Oh, what about her?"

Smolder jumps in with a cosign for the changeling. "Wow, you really called her to talk about what you want to do for Gabby!? That's a pretty shitty move, Spike!"

"I know, but it's an emergency!" I reply hurriedly. "Look, Gabby got kicked out of her apartment, she and her guy had a nasty spat, and now she needs a place to crash."

The dragon scoffs at the unfolding drama. "Tell her I said 'Good luck with that one!'"

"Smolder, seriously, she needs our help." I stress back to her.

"Spike, you're the one who's supposed to be buttering her up to join us. You can't just cheat and have us do your job for you."

"And that huge-ass place you got and you don't want to christen it with your first overnight partner?"

I peek back to see Twilight trying to loom over me, I walk away to go out into the hallway so I can be alone. "I'm in Canterlot right now, I'm at a friendship summit."

"Well can't you lot your scaly ass on down here for a friend, or are you going to leave her hiding wherever she is?" Smolder's bad joke leaves me rolling my eyes.

"Girls." I groan back at the pair.

"Spike, I got dinner to eat." Smolder complains.

"Damn straight you do." It seems the both of them are still in a playful mood, but they do still offer some form of explanation why they can't make that happen. "So here's the deal, Spike. Long ago when Twilight was still the headmare of the school, the dorms used to be co-ed, the key phrase here is 'used to be'. Our graduating class kinda ruined that because of the ample amounts of sex. Our grad class had an orgy in the dorm and it smelled like a sex barn for weeks. Took the cleaning staff a while to sanitize the place, and Starlight instilled restrictions from that point on. Dorm occupancies are now only for two at a time instead of four, plus there are no free rooms available here unless you want to count single occupancy. But the catch is that one single occupancy is with a male student. And I don't think Starlight would want to play that risk."

"Can't she get a hotel?" Smolder asks.

"She's in between pay cycles, so no." I answer.

"I don't know what to tell you Spike. Maybe she can stay at the castle." Suggests the changeling.

"Great, I'll call Starlight!"

Smolder quickly interjects. "Wait, don't they have the guest students for the academic decathlon staying there? I think it's that one school from Manehattan."

"Dammit, I forgot!" Ocellus grumbles in defeat. "Sorry, Spike. Looks like we're tied up here. We're really wracking up what we can do. We would pay for a hotel room ourselves, but maybe that's not even in the cards because of the buckball game kicking off at noon tomorrow. We could always call around and see."

I take a deep breath and scream out just to vent some frustration over the situation. "FUCK!" My sudden explicative draws Twilight from out of the suite. "Okay, I'll be down there in a bit, I guess."

"Oh, so you'll leave a friendship summit for Gabby, but you won't leave for me and Smolder!?"

"Lame!"

I shake my head and briskly head for the elevator. "I'll deal with you two later!" I hurry to hang up the call, seeing the purple princess getting closer, never minding that Ocellus was in mid-sentence. I try to close the elevator door before she gets in with me, but she teleports herself inside anyways. "Twilight, I know you're concerned. But I gotta go, please don't beg me to tell you what's going on. It's a private emergency."

"Hold up, what do you mean by a 'private emergency?'" She asks.

As the elevator hits the floor of the general concourse, I pry myself past the doors at first opportunity. I get off to a running start before I take to the air. "Friend emergency!"

Twilight calls out from the elevator. "Spike, you can't just leave in the middle of a friendship summit!"

I holler at her as I dart down the hall to the open bowl. "I'll be back!"

It takes closer to an hour to find myself out of breath and frantically traversing the skies above the growing town of Ponyville. I drop down to find myself back home again, unfortunately not to revel in the comfort of my own dwelling. But I do call out to the street in an earnest attempt to see if she's still around.

"Gabby... where are you?" I'm still out of breath.

She pops out of a nearby bush, still with leaves in her feathers. "Sorry, Spike." She pulls out a heavy suitcase and explains herself. "I didn't mean for you to go through all of this, but I really needed to get out of there."

"Just let me... take a sec..." I urge, trying to find a moment to breathe.

"You really high-tailed it from Canterlot to here, didn't you?"

"Top... speed." I nod tiredly. "My chest burns right now."

She runs over to hug me. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to have you do something like this."

"It's fine... Really." I pant between breaths, still astounded that she elected to hide in the bushes instead of waiting things out at her place, much less talking to him to clear the air about what she feels about their relationship.

She grabs her suitcase and walks me over to my front door. "Let's get you inside, you could really use a breather."

As I unlock the door, smelling the potpourri oil that graces the foyer, I start to feel a sense of normalcy. My brain immediately registers the action of walking up the stairs and diving into my bed. The only thing that prevents me from doing so is the fact that Gabby is walking in right beside me. I even admit it to her. "Gotta say that I want to stay here for the night, but I can't. This schedule Twilight has me on is bullshit."

Her mind isn't so much on her situation anymore, but focused on me instead. "Do you need any water?"

"You asking me like you own the house." I joke, starting to regain my breath just a bit. "Yeah, water is fine."

She runs into the kitchen, grabbing a glass from the cupboard. I look over to one of the chairs in the dining room, longing to just park a seat for a quick moment. She comes back with a glass full of water to get me back to shape. "Here you go."

I guzzle down the glass before looking at my phone for the time. I realize that I don't have long before the next train leaves Ponyville station to Canterlot. "Ugh... I gotta take the train back."

I can tell she wants me to stay a little longer, but deeply regretting the truth that I'm due to leave soon. "I am so, so sorry."

"Stop apologizing, you know where the rooms are. Take a shower, get comfy, do what you do to feel at home." I say as I start to walk out the door. "Next train to Canterlot's the last one for the evening. And it leaves in three minutes. I gotta dart now if I want to catch it."

She gives me a hug, latching on with intent as she looks up to me. "Thanks, Spike." I know what she's leaning in for, but I only give her a kiss on the forehead for the time being. I do so knowing that if I go any further, I'll miss my train, I'll forget that I have other obligations, I'll probably bypass the summit until morning because I know she's going to be in my bed with me. And while I won't be able to give her all of what we know we both want, I'll give her my best for the moment.

I have to break away before I lose myself in her. "Thank me later. I gotta go."

The train leaves before I can get to the ticket counter, so I end up flying back anyhow. It's another hour before I make it back to the streets of Canterlot once more. But my body is far beyond fatigued. My chest burns with a terrible pain, my vision is getting hazy, and my pace is slowed considerably. I finally get to Corrotto Square, seeing the stadium ahead of me before I lean against the statue depicting the arena's namesake. I take a few steps before I feel total weakness wrack my body into submission.

"Can't breathe..." I tiredly pant to myself.

It hurts to breathe. Whatever I do, it feels like I'm trying too hard to get the air I need. I feel deep down like I want to vomit, and I can feel that I'm due for that any minute. I kneel over, holding my chest as it burns. My heart is beating a million times a minute. The world is a blur at the moment, one full of color and sounds barely recognizable. I hear a voice hailing at me from behind, beside, whatever direction. "Hey mister, you okay?"

I try to respond. "...Can't..." My body doesn't allow me to speak.

My limbs feel numb, I can't speak, I can't even breathe anymore. My muscles give way, I crumple to the ground, grasping at my chest. Everything sounds distorted, and I lose focus. "Someone get a medic!" Whoever that is, they sound distant, but they're actually right above me. I can hear a few other voices call out in concern.

"Back off, give him some air!"

"Someone get emergency services!"

"Isn't that the royal friendship advisor?"

"I think he's having a heart attack!"

"Wait, dragons can have those!?"

All of those frantic voices, they fade out gradually. And I black out.

As I start to come to, I realize there's a terrible odor. My eyes open to see a blur of orange light. My vision takes a while to come back to full focus. As it does, I see a torch sitting against a primitive-looking brick wall. I also start to feel an ache from my wrists and shoulders. Slowly, the pain intensifies and I start to adjust myself to not impose on that discomfort.

Someone speaks from beside me. "Oh thank the Doctor, he's awake."

I look to see myself being held by my wrists, there's a chain fashioned to some hole in the ceiling. I attempt to use my wings in order to give myself lift, but they feel constrained by something. I look down to see a leather belt tightly fashioned to my chest. "What the hell, where am I!?"

"Spike, you're alive!" The stallion beside me calls out in apparent relief.

I look over to my side, seeing an unexpected face. "Prince Amor Ambrosia?" He, unlike me, is chained up to the ground, a gray metal ring placed halfway down on his horn. "What are you doing here!?"

"I should ask the same for you, they've seemingly brought you here without much of a fight." He points out.

"I think I passed out after a long flight." I answer. "Where in the hell are we?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, I'm afraid." He answers before a groan sounds from immediately beside him.

The figure next to him, while very beaten and bruised, appear familiar to an extent. I think I remember him escorting the prince out of the throne room back when he visited last. Though now that I think about it, he was wearing a shawl over his face, so I never got a good look at him until now. "Whoa, your guy's pretty beat up."

"I'll bear with it." The bruised stallion announces in a low voice.

A loud clatter sounds from my left. We all jump at the noise to see a unicorn stallion walking into the room. He takes notice of me being up and active. "Well it looks like the princess has finally woken up from her little slumber."

"And it seems we're officially in business."