'Light (Not That One)

With Lorien escorting me throughout the castle, the previously lively throne room stands silent, devoid of my friends. Perhaps Firelight took Aita and Cozy outside again. I watch while Lorien jumps onto the map and places his front paws on my neck.

“Do you suppose Firelight is out with our castlemates?” I ask Lorien, who puts his paws back on the map and chattering. “Then I’ll need to trail them, estimate their location by following the residues of their scents.”

Lorien recognizes what I’m on about and flicks his head forward.

Leading the way now, I keep my horn active and trot across Ponyville. At the track for the Running of the Leaves, the view is blocked by several dozen spectators, and based on size, it appears the junior race is underway. This line of thinking is supported by background commentary over a megaphone, whose voice belongs to Rarity.

...and the set of racers for this division include Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Diamond Tiara, Scootaloo, Silver Spoon, Pipsqueak, Trace Light, Cozy Glow, Twist, Snips, Snails…

Looking to the crowd, I notice a stallion I hadn’t seen before… at least I think he’s a stallion. He appears to be the height of a mare, so he might not be fully grown quite yet. From what Aita told me while Cozy and Lorien were away, wasn’t his name Sandbar? Close to him is a young changeling that I do recognize from before my exile: Ocellus, who Discord had joked about when Aita transitioned.

With subtle coaxing from Lorien, I approach the two, but only close enough for Ocellus to turn around, probably sensing me through emotions. I am greeted immediately with a hug from her.

“Chrysalis! Boy, am I glad to finally see you again!”

“Likewise, Ocellus,” I say.

Sandbar now turns his attention to me as well. “Hey, Chrysalis. How’s Ponyville treating you?” he asks me.

“Well, I’d say. I’ve certainly come a long way in the three years I’ve reformed. Sandbar, correct?” The young stallion nods. “So what brings you two here? Firelight?”

“Yeah,” Ocellus confirms. “He said the idea of bad officers made his skin crawl after hearing about some news sweep across Equestria about… Baltimare? …more?”

“Yona would’ve gone with us and Firelight,” adds Sandbar. “but she couldn’t get a vacation the same time we did to watch our local race in Sire’s Hollow.”

I wonder if this “bad officer” was the one Tim was trying to mention back in Wisconsin. “I did hear talk of an amber scandal in the real world regarding a security guard… possibly at a convention,” I mention. “What about Mangle? I’m sure he’d be able to deal with this ‘bad officer’, him being a sheriff himself.”

Our attention snaps to the race track when a bell rings, signifying the junior division of the Running of the Leaves has begun. Behind us, Lorien starts making a fuss around me: rubbing my hind legs, pulling my tail, quietly gekkering, et cetera et cetera. His pulls and bites aren’t hard at all, so I giggle and float him in front of me. “What?” I ask him. Meanwhile, Ocellus and Sandbar stare, impressed by my communication with Lorien.

In my magic, Lorien starts whinging past me and waving his forelegs. At some point his vocalization comes to a near perfect annunciation of “Aita”. I turn my head around and notice Aita and Firelight walking behind us until the former sees me out of the corner of her eye. She nudges Firelight and points to me.

I turn around and wave hello.

“Seeing the event, Chrysalis?” Firelight inquires before chuckling, to which I nod as he comes to me. “Took us a while to comb through the castle before figuring you took Lorien to see the Running of the Leaves.”

“Yeah, I would’ve come here sooner,” Aita adds. “But somebody let Lorien wonder off.”

I pull Aita closer and wrap my hoof around the back of her neck. “Fair enough. Cozy and I took a little bit of time to learn to keep an eye out as well with Lorien under our care.”

After the entire Running of the Leaves event has concluded, Cozy Glow and Firelight turn occupied as they make hay burgers and horseshoe fries in the kitchen together… that was the former’s idea. I would’ve liked Lorien to’ve come with me and Aita as we headed to her room, but perhaps he figured it was time he spent some time with Cozy.

As Aita and I enter her room, she starts our time together by floating a scroll and quill out of the drawers in her former side table and writes what sounds like a letter. I listen to her from on her bed.

Dear Moondancer,

Hey, this is going to sound a bit random, but do you still have the source scroll to one of the games you made me here in Equestria? I recently got into spell writing so that I can fix my DS. For good measure though, I also had the battery replaced to avoid destroying all the parts inside. Point is… if you sent me a copy of Crystal Cup Buckball or Sim Hive’s source scroll, I’m hoping I would eventually learn how to code like you. Starlight Glimmer left her assembler here with me, Cozy and Chrysalis, so I might as well use it. Just let me know what you think of this idea, and I’ll get back to you ASAP.

Your friend,
Aita.

After she sends the letter, I smile to Aita. “My, aren’t you getting bold, young Aita. I never would’ve thought in my lifetime a changeling would consider tackling computer science.”

“Well, if I’m going to be the Princess of Friendship,” Aita explains. “then I’ll need to build some problem solving skills. Sophie said at my reunion that programming could help with that.”

I giggle softly. “Don’t you have those already? What about all the friendship missions you were on; the clearing of Discord’s name; the initial arrest of Stellar Flare; your quest for the Sibling Supreme crown; resolving me and Cozy’s shared nightmare? Don’t you think all of those experiences would’ve given you of all changelings an indication of your problem solving skills?”

Aita becomes somberly silent, clearly not having an immediate answer for why she wanted to improve the skill in question by taking after Moondancer and learning how to code. I get up and walk to her, smile and rest my wing across her back, prompting her to look back at me.

“Aita… It’s okay if you’d like to learn to code. I just want to be sure your belief in the task at hoof is genuine, that this belief is well intentioned; that’s why you gave me the role of Friendship Advisor in the first place. Your numerous past displays of your exceptional problem solving should not deter you from doing what you want in the present. Whatever it is you genuinely aspire to, I’ll support.”

Aita gives me a hug around the base of my neck in gratitude, so I return it by wrapping my hoof around her shoulders. “Thanks, Chrysalis. I appreciate it. I… I guess I was shaken up more than I thought.”

“Shaken up?” This is news to me. “About what?”

“The whole Medicgate thing going on. I have no idea how that news even managed to reach all of Equestria in the first place; I thought only I knew before you got back. Did Ocellus, Sandbar or Yona give out any details?”

So, Aita learned of the news as well?

“Only Firelight’s reaction from beyond what I heard from Sophie and Tim…” I briefly pause, remembering what Sandbar said. “Yona wasn’t in Ponyville today though because her vacation is still coming up apparently. Does Cozy know?”

Aita tightens her grip on me. “She found out while she was helping set up for the race.”

“No doubt Firelight told her,” I remark. “Listen, Aita. Perhaps you can pay Dr. Ralph a visit and let him help you.”

“But… but isn’t he working right now?”

Before Aita or I can continue with our conversation, I feel a soft bite on my free hoof, so I look beside me as Aita and I let go of each other. Of course, Lorien’s needs our attention.

“Lorien? Weren’t you accompanying the other two?” I ask him, to which he starts gekkering for short time before going back to holding my hoof.

“Wait a minute,” Aita interjects, meanwhile subconsciously floating a fresh scroll behind her and writing a spell I don’t get a good look at. “If Lorien came alone, they let him wonder off! Chrysalis, go check on Cozy and Firelight. I’ll have to make the rounds throughout the castle in case Lorien lapsed with his scent training.”

It appears what Aita is referring to when she means a lapse in training is an attribute of foxes growing up, as their final stage of development involves moving out of their birth den to make one of their own, and they forego what they learned in the spring and summer. While evidently Lorien was already subject to this final stage by moving out of Sweet Feather Sanctuary and is now under our care, it’s indeterminate when Lorien will become a fully grown todd.

Aita bolts out of her room, leaving me with Lorien. I look at him.

“So, kitchen?” Lorien jumps in back of me in response to my offer and starts pushing his forehead against one of my legs, making me chuckle as I start walking out of the room. “Okay, okay. We’ll go then.”

At the kitchen, Cozy Glow and Firelight are distributing our dinner across five plates as Lorien and I enter. Out of these plates, only four have the hay burgers and horseshoe fries with the other plate having assorted steamed vegetables on the side of imported Griffonstone meat. Pretty obvious who the odd plate’s out is for. Cozy and Firelight are pleasantly surprised to see me and Lorien when they look past our plates.

“Chrysalis!” Cozy exclaims. “We were just about to get you and Aita!”

She becomes distraught upon seeing Lorien right next to me instead of elsewhere, realizing what I’m here for.

“Cozy… did Firelight let Lorien wonder off again?” I sternly inquire.

Firelight quietly gasps and blushes.

Cozy sets the back of her hoof on the table, her corresponding cheek resting atop. “Aw, golly Chrysalis. I guess we both did. We… we were so busy cooking, we didn’t even stop and check around the kitchen for Lorien.”

“Sorry about all that, Chrysalis,” Firelight adds. “Is there anything we can do to make it up to you?”

“You will have to hold that thought until dinner, you two,” I answer. “For now, let’s bring the plates out to the dining room, and we’ll discuss the matter once Aita joins us.”

I start following Firelight and Lorien as they leave after the former picks up three plates in his magic, including the latter's, only to notice Cozy hovering to the fridge instead of coming with the rest of us. I stop and watch as she takes out a clear, cylindrical pitcher almost filled with flat looking soda.

“Cozy?” She looks at me when I call her. “Aren’t you going to take your plate?”

“I’ll catch up in a bit; I wanted to give everyone a cup of this apple-flavored cola I made. Tasted really good when I tried it.” Cozy sets the pitcher down next to a dispenser of some sort and takes the lid off. She then grabs the dispenser and starts spraying its contents into the pitcher. “One, two, three, four… there! All ready!”

With each counted spray, the cola fills with progressively plentiful air bubbles, meaning what Cozy used was a carbonator. After she’s done, I float the pitcher and also take four glasses and Lorien’s water bowl out of a high cupboard as she finally takes her plate and follows me over to the dining room to meet Firelight and Lorien again.