Gossip Spreads Quick

Derpy folded her wings against her sides as she admired a brown small house surrounded by trees. A small stream ran by the house and she faintly could make out movement inside through the window.

“So do we just burst in or do we knock?” Trixie wondered aloud to herself as she approached the door. She was starting to like being invisible. She could say and do whatever she wanted and nopony could stop her whatsoever.

Trixie’s question was answered as Sunset approached to knock, lifting a hoof and froze.

“Is that Dinky?” Roseluck asked and Derpy’s eyes hardened.

“Why is my daughter in that house with Ruby, Button, Liza and Silver Spoon?” Derpy asked in a low voice.

“What?” Sunset peered inside and gave a confused look inside as the foals trotted around, looking at random items as the zebra mare inside spoke occasionally to them with a smile. “I thought Sparkler was watching Dinky?”

“She was,” Derpy growled softly and her wings fluttered in agitation. “Oh, that filly is so grounded when I get my hooves on her.”

Sunset pounded her hoof against the door and waited patiently for it to open, tapping her hoof anxiously against the ground.

“Who do we have here on my doorstep?” The door opened and the zebra stood in the doorway. “More ponies appear today.”

“Uh hi,” Sunset peered around her. “I’m Sunset Shimmer. This is Roseluck, Derpy, Silverspeed, Shoeshine and Trixie is somewhere around here. I hope.”

Trixie nudged the door open more and Sunset gestured that way.

“Ah. You are the ponies from the other night. I bet you all had quite a fright this morning,” Zecora chuckled and stepped aside. “Come in.”

Sunset and the others hesitated before trotting inside, Silverspeed shutting the door softly.

“You are in so much trouble young lady,” Derpy stared down at Dinky and the filly froze. “So much.”

“But-”

“But nothing. I have told you time and time again to not go into these woods alone, Dinky.”

“But I’m not alone. I got them,” Dinky pointed at Liza and the other foals.

“They’re children!” Derpy shot back and narrowed her eyes. “What if you all ran into something in here? And then you went with a stranger. Have I taught you nothing?”

The others tried to ignore the two as they stood around awkwardly. Being around when Derpy has to lecture Dinky was always awkward, even for the grown ups.

Roseluck whistled and Shoeshine sat on her plot, innocently rubbing her horseshoes together as she watched Sunset examine a painting on a wall.

“Yes mother,” Dinky sighed and sat down. “This is Zecora. She found us in the woods. She’s very nice and smart.”

Derpy inhaled and took a step back. She could punish Dinky later.

“Miss Derpy, technically it was all of us,” Silver Spoon stepped forward and Ruby gave her a look. “We all came here so you gotta punish us all, not just Dinky.”

“That’s not my job, that’s up to your sister,” Derpy pointed at Silverspeed glaring at Silver Spoon and the filly gulped nervously. “And as for you three, your parents are going to be told too. You were very unsafe.”

Liza, Ruby and Button gave each other terrified looks but nodded. Lyra was a pretty easy going mare, but even Liza knew Lyra had her limits. Ruby had no idea what her moms was gonna do, but she had a idea she wasn’t going to like it.

Button frowned slightly at his hooves. Well, there went his week end of playing video games with Pipsqueak and Rumble.

“Roseluck is our healer but even she doesn’t know any methods of fixing us. I’m hoping you might know something,” Sunset told Zecora and the zebra nodded. “If needed, I can always pay. We all will be grateful for your help.”

“No money required. I need one more ingredient as I was talking to the foals, but they couldn’t meet my goal. I go into the town to hopefully buy said ingredients, but nopony is there,” Zecora shrugged as Roseluck and Shoeshine shared a guilty look.

“We can help with that. Whatcha need?” Shoeshine asked and stretched her forelegs out and Roseluck joined her moments later.

Some town ponies glanced up at hoof steps and froze in fear at Sunset and the others walking with Zecora.

“Oh fuck,” Lemony Gems cursed under her breath as she took off running away into her house, slamming the door behind her.

“They’re cursed!” Blossomforth pointed a trembling hoof.

“Hexed!” Apple Bloom offered as she hid behind Big Mac.

“Enchanted, even,” Scootaloo suggested and shrugged at the confused looks Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle gave her. “Just another word for hexed I think.”

“Gotcha.”

Sunset trotted up to a house and knocked, waiting as a trembling Blossomforth opened the door.

“Blossomforth, can we talk?”

Blossomforth nodded hesitantly and fluttered her wings anxiously as the pegasus let them in.

Shoeshine relaxed in a hot tub of water next to Roseluck and Trixie, the other unicorn finally able to be seen by other ponies. Trixie idly wished she had robbed the Sugarcube Corner of their peanut butter crackers or pranked some ponies before diving into the water.

“At least Lyra went a bit easy on Liza,” Silverspeed offered as she floated on top of the water, her eyes closed as she breathed evenly.

“Berry and Cream Heart were pretty hard on Ruby and Button,” Derpy commented as she nuzzled her wings, spitting out a broken one into a trash can next to her. “Dinky probably won’t be playing with either of them for a while. Cream Hearts said Button was grounded for as long as he lives.”

“So is Silver Spoon. Or until I get bored of hearing her whine,” Silverspeed answered and splashed some water lazily at Trixie.

Trixie rolled her eyes and flicked some water at the pegasus with her magic as Zecora stood talking to Lotus and Aloe nearby. Trixie didn’t entirely who was who.

Sunset groaned as she trotted out of a room, stretching out her legs with a content smile before sitting down on a lounge chair.

“Massages are a gift from Celestia, let me tell ya,” Sunset commented as she levitated a newspaper in front of her muzzle. She had opted for getting one after she had sat in the water Zecora and the spa sisters had made to cure them. Sunset was fairly certain she’d be coming back again after that experience.

“This place gives good massages, we know. Wait till Lotus gets her hooves on you,” Roseluck winked at the amber unicorn as Sunset turned a page of the newspaper, searching for the comics. She didn’t care for the rest of the fluff as she called it. She only cared about the comics.

“I’ll remember that for later,” Sunset answered and froze as she stared at a picture of the Riches, dropping the newspaper. “I have to go. I completely forgot about Lily and Veronica.”

“Want company?” Roseluck asked as she and the others instinctively rose out of the water.

“I’ll be fine. You girls stay here and enjoy yourselves. I’ll be back. I’ll pay for it.”

Trixie ears perked up and grinned hopefully at Sunset as the unicorn rolled her eyes.

“And no happy endings, Trixie.”

Trixie’s face fell in disappointment and the others snickered.

Lily and Veronica waited patiently in the younger earth ponies living room as they both glanced at the door anxiously.

“I’m telling you now, I didn’t risk my flank being look out as you snooped through their private quarters, Veronica. If Sunset doesn’t show up within the hour as agreed upon, we gotta burn those documents. Or return them.”

“Sunset will come through,” Veronica promised as she laid on her side lazily on her couch. What she didn’t add was that she herself was starting to get worried. Sunset was normally five minutes late as a rule, the unicorn had said. Why, Veronica didn’t know.

The door swung open and Sunset trotted in, silently shutting the door as the two sprung to their hooves.

“Sorry I’m late. I was caught up. Poison Joke treatment and all. Did you get it?” Sunset strode across the room to the two mares.

“Yes. It took a bit to lock pick, but we got it. It’s a pretty thick file, unsurprisingly,” Lily answered and the orange mare hoofed it over as she narrowed her light purple eyes. Sunset reached for it and Lily pulled it back. “Ah, ah ah. First, I believe you owe us.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow before dropping a file on the coffe table, pushing it with her magic to the two.

“It’s already done. I’ve already cleared it the Royal Treasury earlier in the week. I’m a mare of my word. As of now, you are both my aides. Money for this week’s work should already be in your respective bank accounts. And I paid Randolph some to keep quiet.”

“Wait. How do you have our banking information?” Veronica wanted to know and Sunset gave a smirk her way that made her shudder slightly.

“I’m not entirely fond of doing things by the book. Or the legal way. You both will come to see that I do some shady shit in the public interest.”

“You what?” Lily gave her a confused glance as they both overlooked the files Sunset had levitated to them, the royal seal emblazoned on the front.

“Doing what’s right isn’t black and white. What’s right is a gray area. Like stealing from them. The public often doesn’t know what does into protecting them. You think you two know everything about Equestria?” Sunset gave a bitter chuckle. “You have no idea. There’s a bunch of shady ass agencies, strictly for keeping Equestrians citizens safe. I can’t say more. For your safety.”

Veronica and Lily both shared a look. They each wanted to ask more, but based on Sunset’s tone and warning look told them not to.

Sunset gave a brief nod and she opened the file that Lily had dropped, her eyes briefly scanning the page.

“Fuck,” Sunset cursed under her breath and she got two confused looks.

“What’s wrong?” Veronica asked and peered over her shoulder.

“These are good but not enough to nail that bitch to the cross so to speak. She most likely hide the bad shit.”

“So what now?” Veronica asked and Sunset shrugged.

“Well, since I’ve made it my mission to ruin her life, I keep looking. Everypony has their dark secrets, even her. What happens in the dark, comes out in the light. Let’s go, I’ll show you two around. You guys don’t get your own office like Silverspeed unfortunately. Not enough rooms but you guys have better paying jobs and a bad ass boss,” Sunset winked at the two with a grin.

The two hesitated before nodding and followed Sunset out.