Foaling Aroundby GrassAndClouds2ChaptersSeparationDispersionReunificationSeparationCanterlot Castle was an imposing structure. Built and expanded over millennia, it commanded the city and the country from its perch high on Canterhorn Mountain. Visible from miles around, it was a symbol of the power and prestige wielded by Princess Luna and her Night Court of Equestria. The visitors and guests who found themselves within its walls tended to react with humility, self-consciousness, even a touch of nervousness. After all, they were in the presence of those who could raise or ruin them if they so chose. It would make almost anypony wary. Anypony, that is, provided they weren’t a foal. “Did you know my Mom?” asked Scootaloo, jumping up and beating her wings so she could hover for a moment. “She was a really awesome Night Guard named Nocturne and she worked really hard to defend everypony! And—“ Viscount Prince Blueblood looked annoyed. He shot a glance at Cheerilee, as if to snap at her that she needed to control her class. “I don’t really recall the names of everypony I’ve ever encountered—“ “But you just said,” said Sweetie Belle, “That you were a ‘stallion of the ponies’ and you always got to know the ‘common, little’ ponies who served you!” “…anyway,” said Blueblood. “This room here is a meeting room. It’s where we, ah, hold our meetings…” Cheerilee held back a sigh. She’d been looking forward to showing the foals around Canterlot Castle for a while now; it would be incredibly educational for them to see for themselves the seat of the government of Equestria. She had even scheduled it on Tour Day, a day when some of the lower-ranked nobles, rather than tour agency employees, showed ponies around the castle as an effort to ‘reach out to their citizens and subjects.’ But while some of the other school group had gotten nobles that had at least pretended to care what they were doing, Ponyville Elementary got what had to be the most stuck-up, vain, and arrogant noble in the Court. Blueblood smiled smugly as he led the foals down another hall. “Now, this hall has an interesting history. You see, when I first became a Viscount, I was walking down this very hall when I happened to bump into Duke Sands. I approached him and informed him of who I was, and thereby formed what we call a ‘political alliance.’ After that…” Cheerilee interrupted, desperate to forestall another monologue on the Political Brilliance of Viscount Prince Blueblood. “What about historically? Has anything interesting happened in this hall from a historical point of view? Treaties signed, bills revised…?” “Why, yes. In this same hallway, I rewrote the Equestrian National Notepad Bill to alter our letterhead to a far superior…” Cheerilee couldn’t help but tune Blueblood out as she looked at her foals. They were rapidly becoming distracted, which was a problem. They could cause minor chaos if their minds wandered during class; it could be a bigger problem if they did something silly out of boredom in the halls of the Night Court. She caught the eye of one of the two other chaperones, Applejack. Applejack smiled, seeming to guess what she was thinking. “Guess he’s kinda a blowhard,” she murmured. “But don’t look so nervous. Ah mean, what’s the worst that could happen?” Cheerilee frowned. ”Well,” said the Royal Guard, “Miss Cheerilee, it seems that your foals sat on the royal throne, tore apart the royal linens to make capes, and ate all the royal cakes.” “Eeep,” said Cheerilee. “As a result, you are all banned from Canterlot forever.” “Well, that’s not so…” “And you will be returned to Ponyville in the fastest way possible.” “…by express train?” “By catapult.” “…Let’s just try to avoid finding out,” murmured Cheerilee, coming out of her reverie. “Come on, Applejack. The foals are getting ahead of us.” They hurried to catch up with Blueblood, the foals, and the third chaperone, Heavy Roller. Blueblood was just checking his watch. “Oh. Unfortunately, I have an… urgent appointment. Government business that simply can’t wait. I’ll just leave you in this chamber here, and I’ll send along the guide for the next part of the tour!” “But you were supposed to be the guide for the whole day!” protested Cheerilee, as Blueblood led the group into a tiny conference room. “You wouldn’t want to delay vital matters of national importance, would you?” asked Blueblood. He left the room and trotted off. Cheerilee stifled a growl. “Um… alright, class. Let’s wait here and think about what we’ve learned until the next tour guide shows up!” I doubt there even is one… what do I do now? Applejack was doing a quick count. ”Hang on there. Ain’t we short two little colts?” “What?” Cheerilee counted heads. She counted eighteen, but there should have been twenty. “Who isn’t here?” There were no responses. Cheerilee quickly looked through the class again. “Truffle Muncher and Featherweight,” she muttered. “Did anypony see where they went?” What if they wander out of the castle, or into the dungeons, or… “Ah think Truffle Muncher said he was hungry,” said Apple Bloom. “An’ we passed the Royal Canterlot Bakery one floor down, an’…” Cheerilee smiled as brightly as she could make herself, though her stomach turned nervously. “Thank you, Apple Bloom! Applejack, could you please come with me to find those two? Heavy Roller, just… please keep the other foals here until we get back.” “Will do!” said Heavy Roller, and the two grown mares left the room. “A little closer…” Truffle Muncher crouched behind the biggest mixing bowl he’d ever seen. He gazed lovingly at the gigantic cake that had been set up only a few tables down from him. It was big, and chocolate, with vanilla icing and sprinkles and everything he loved. If he could just have one bite of that cake, the whole field trip would be worth it. Tipping over the mixing bowl on top of himself so the bakers wouldn’t see him approaching, Truffle Muncher scooched closer and closer to the cake. There were some close calls, including one time when a young baker almost stepped on the bowl and squished him, but he managed to reach the cake’s table without incident. Alright! Now I just need to pop out, cut a slice, and get back under that bowl! No problem! Truffle Muncher peeked out and made sure none of the bakers were watching him. Fortunately, they were mostly gathered at the next table over, around a huge bowl with some rapidly rising dough. Truffle Muncher returned his attention to the cake, popped out from under the bowl, and grabbed for a carving knife— “TRUFFLE MUNCHER!” Truffle Muncher swiveled to see Cheerilee. He smiled. “Hi Miss Cheerilee! I’m using my special talent!” His talent, for finding and consuming delicious food, was -- in his own, humble opinion -- the greatest possible talent any foal could have. It was useful all over the place, from at home, when he misplaced his lunch, to... well, to Canterlot Castle itself. “Get back here this instant!” yelled Applejack, striding into the bakery right behind Cheerilee. “This ain’t no place for a foal on his own!” “But I’m hungry!” complained Truffle Muncher. He reared back and swept his forehooves to demonstrate how hungry he was. “And I was just going to get one slice!” The bakers were staring. The lead baker was, additionally, turning red. “That cake is to celebrate the opening of the Canterlot Center for Artistic Desserts!” he snapped. “Not for bratty foals!” “I’m not a brat!” Truffle Muncher hopped over to the table, even as Cheerilee and Applejack began to close in on him. “I’m just really hungry!” As he said this, he swept his forehooves out again. Unfortunatley, this time he knocked into something – a large box of yeast – and sent it flying. Right into the big bowl of dough. The bakers all looked at each other as the dough began to pulse. “The quick rise dough, it’s got too much yeast!” yelled one. “RUN!” screamed another. Truffle Muncher was about to ask why when the dough burst from the bowl. “…biggest baked goods disaster in Canterlot in months!” The baker looked furious. Truffle Muncher looked down. The Ponyville ponies were outside the bakery and all covered in itchy dough. They had to be outside the bakery, because the inside of the bakery had been cordoned off while the Special Messes Team of the Canterlot Castle janitorial staff tried to salvage anything that had survived the dough explosion. “…months? What was the last one?” asked a puzzled Applejack. “The Great Cake Calamity. Another cake that grew to massive proportions. We had to eat our way out of the kitchen!” The lead baker shook his head. “It cost us three bakers.” “Oh… I’m sorry…” began Cheerilee. “They were so sick of sweets after that they couldn’t even look at sugar. Now they’re all… on diets,” he hissed. “Anyway, this was almost as bad! Shame on your foals!” Truffle Muncher felt genuinely sad. “I’m sorry, Miss Cheerilee, really, I—“ “You’re going to write a long apology letter to these bakers,” snapped Cheerilee. And then I’m talking to your parents, young stallion.” “I got pictures!” added Featherweight. “Yes, Featherweight. Trust ma, we know.” Applejack turned to Cheerilee. “Probably should get back ta the others soon…” “You’re right.” Cheerilee once again bowed in apology to the lead baker, then turned and began marching the two foals back to the others. “But it’s not fair,” complained Truffle Muncher. “Because of my talent, I’m good at finding and eating fancy foods.” “That food wasn’t yours. And you’ve delayed the tour and probably made all the other foals very anxious.” "I know..." They reached the conference room. Cheerilee opened the door to see Heavy Roller joking with the foals. “…and that’s when I said, I thought you wanted ten big wheels, not ten big eels!” The foals laughed. “Ah,” he continued. “That was one aquarium that could have used a little more clarity.” Cheerilee frowned. “Um. Heavy Roller?” “Yes?” “There should be twenty foals in this room, right?” “Counting the two you went to get, yeah. Why?” “There are thirteen,” said Cheerilee, crossly. Heavy Roller blinked, looked around, and counted. "...oh.” Scootaloo held up a hoof to shush the other foals as she peered around the corner. “Are we there yet?” whispered Apple Bloom. She was hopping up and down. “I’m so excited!” “This is stupid,” grumbled Diamond Tiara. “We should go back.” “Nopony’s stopping you,” said Sweetie Belle. The other three foals – Dinky, Twist, and Snails – looked at each other. “Are you sure Miss Cheerilee would be okay with this?” Dinky asked. “She wants us to learn about important government stuff, right?” asked Scootaloo. “Well, we haven’t seen any yet, but this Blueblood guy is going to do some! So if we follow him, we’ll learn more!” “Oh.” Dinky thought. “That makes sense.” “Sssh!” hissed Sweetie Belle. “He’s moving again!” Blueblood smiled as the clerk walked to the desk. “Welcome back, Viscount.” “It’s ‘Prince,’” said Blueblood. “And I have an appointment." “…right. Anyway, you can go right on in.” The clerk opened a large, ornate door, and Blueblood walked through it. But then, as the clerk began to close it, seven foals sprang into action and raced for the door. “Hey!” called the clerk, moving to stand in front of them. “We need to talk with Blueblood!” said Scootaloo, smiling brightly. “It’s, uh, about his urgent government business!” “A bunch of foals need to talk about urgent government business? Here?” asked the clerk. He seemed skeptical. Twist nodded. “Uh huh! We really do!” She grinned. “And… who are you?” “I’m Twist! My sister is dating the Element of Loyalty!” “And I’m Snails!” yelled Snails. “My sister’s the Element of Honesty, and she’s a really good sister too! In fact, I think she’s the best in Ponyville!” “No, my sister is,” said Twist, turning to Snails. “Nuh-uh!” Scootaloo smiled up at the clerk again, ignoring the arguing foals. “So as you can see, we’re very important. Could you please let us in?” The clerk thought for a moment, then shrugged and muttered something like, ‘That jerk deserves it anyway.’ He stepped out of the way. “Blueblood should be just inside the fifth door on your right.” “Thanks!” said Scootaloo, as the foals piled in. It was easy to find Blueblood, his loud and imperious voice carried through even the thick doors. “…Whiter!” he was saying. “It must match my coat!” Apple Bloom tried the door and found it unlocked. She pushed, the door opened, and – “Hey!” said Scootaloo. “That’s not government business! You’re just getting fitted for a new jacket!” The argument was short but furious. “You have no right to follow me here!” roared Blueblood. “Impudent commoner foals!” “You were supposed ta be educating us!” said an offended Apple Bloom. “Miss Cheerilee was counting on you! But you put us in a room so you could get new clothes!” “Yeah!” said Snails. “What if we grow up stupid because of you?” “You’re already stupid,” said Diamond Tiara. “Well, what if we grow up ultra stupid, then?” Snails asked. Blueblood stood at his full height. “This is outrageous! I could have you thrown in Foalsome Prison for bothering a noble! Your parents would never see you again!” The foals stopped talking and stared at him. Blueblood smiled, apparently pleased that he’d cowed the foals. “Now, here’s what we’ll do. You'll—“ “WAAAAH!” Snails burst into tears. “I want my parents and my sister! I don’t wanna never see them again!” He ran out of the room. “Me too!” yelled Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, both starting to cry as well and chasing after him. “Hey, come back!” Dinky, Twist, and Scootaloo ran after them. “Hey!” cried Diamond Tiara. “As long as we’re here, I wanted to get a new hat!” but the others were gone. She sighed and followed, leaving the adults alone in the room. Blueblood frowned, then shrugged. “Well, it solved the problem.” He turned to his tailor. “Now, where were we?” “…you just made a bunch of foals cry, sir,” said the tailor. “Yes, yes, I know. Obnoxious, aren’t they? If they’re sad, they should endure it nobly, like I would.” The tailor opened his mouth, but decided that pointing out that Blueblood had been in hysterics when he’d accidentally poked him with a sewing needle would not be good for retaining his business. “Of course, sir. Now, as to the jacket…” It took a good ten minutes to catch up with the sobbing Snails, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle. It took another five to calm then down. “I wanna go back to the tour group,” said Sweetie Belle. “Please?” “Sure,” said Dinky. She looked around. “…um. Does anypony know where we are?” Dispersion“What do we do?” asked a panicked Sweetie Belle. “What if the Guards think we’re trespassing and arrest us? I don’t want to go to jail!” “They won’t!” said Dinky. “I’m sure the Guards are really nice.” Apple Bloom shook her head. “Nuh uh. Ah heard that the Guard Captain guy is the brother of that pony who sent an Ursa into town to eat us!” “Oh no!” said Twist. “What if the Guard Captain likes having Ursas eat foals too?!” “Um—“ began Dinky. “What if he rides them around the castle, looking for foals to gobble up?” asked Snails. “I don’t think they’d fit,” said Dinky. “But what if they did?” “You’re being silly,” announced Scootaloo. “The Guards wouldn’t hurt us. My Mom was a Guard, and she told me they all cared a lot about protecting all the ponies in Equestria!” She smiled. “In fact, I bet if we find a Guard, they’ll help us make our way back to Miss Cherilee!” “Unless they send Ursas to eat us first!” said Snails. “That won’t happen. Besides, we’re not cowards, right? We’re brave! Let’s go!” Scootaloo cheered. “I don’t know…” said Twist, who was looking kind of scared. “Maybe we should just hide in that room over there until Miss Cheerilee shows up?” Dinky nodded. “Miss Cherilee said that, if we got lost, we should stay where we were until somepony found us.” “But that’ll take hours!” protested Scootaloo. “And it sounds really boring and lame. If we find a Guard, they could bring us back to Miss Cherilee in minutes!” “Or we could get even more lost looking for one,” said Dinky. Before the argument could continue any further, the door at the end of the hall opened and a troupe of ponies burst into the room. They were big and athletic, wearing purple and black armor and carrying mean-looking swords and spears. And they were racing right towards the foals. “Hurry!” roared the leader. “Keep on going, whatever happens!” “AAAH!” yelled most of the foals. The ten or so Night Guards suddenly bearing down on them was a frightening sight. Twist, Dinky, and Snails wound up dashing down a short side corridor into another hallway, while Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom dove into the room that Twist had pointed at earlier. Within moments, most of the foals were gone. “Hey!” complained a Guard. “We’re not running at you, don’t be scared!” But it was no use; most of the foals had already scattered into the castle. Only Scootaloo stood her ground. “Hey!” she called. “Stop! We’re a bunch of lost foals and we need help!” The Guards skidded to a halt. The leader walked up to Scootaloo, towering over the foal. “Who are you?” “I’m Scootaloo!” said Scootaloo, smiling and looking completely undaunted. “Are you real Night Guards? That’s so cool! My Mom was a Night Guard! Where are you running? Is there some kind of emergency?” “Uh… sure,” said the Guard. “Yes, there’s an emergency—“ “The cafeteria is about to run out of apple pie,” drawled another Guard. “Sergeant Smiles there thought it’d be a good team exercise to see if we could get some before we had to be at our stations.” Sergeant Smiles blushed. “I consider a lack of apple pie an emergency.” Scootaloo was beaming up at him. “It’s so neat to meet you! My Mom was in the Night Guard too! She was called Nocturne and—“ “Woah, hey, you’re Nocturne’s daughter?” Smiles looked down at Scootaloo. “I knew your Mom, kid. She trained me in defensive flying. Brilliant pegasus; never knew anypony who could fly like her.” Scootaloo grinned. “Ahem,” said Diamond Tiara, crawling out from her hiding place beneath a table. “We need to get back to Miss Cheerilee.” “Aw, but I want to talk with the Night Guards…” “Cheerilee?” asked Smiles. “Our teacher. It’s Tour Day.” “Oh, right.” Smiles frowned. “I don’t know where she’d be, but I think some of the Royal Guards might. There’s a few Guards that get the reports on lost civilians in the castle; Cheerilee’s probably in touch with them if you’re missing.” “Where are they?” asked Diamond Tiara. “Probably in the training area now. Hey…” The Guard smiled. “I could show you one of the training courses she helped put together, the Big Rock Wall. It’s not one of the dangerous ones, but it’s pretty tough… gave me a good workout back in the day. Want to see it?” “See it? Can I try it? Please please please?” Scootaloo’s face was shining. Sergeant Smiles may have been a Night Guard, but even he was not immune to the power of a pleading foal. “Er…” “You said it’s not dangerous, right? So there’s no problem, right?” pressed Scootaloo. “But we can’t… I mean , uh, your chaperone would probably get mad at us.” Scootaloo thought. What would Cheerilee say? She had to answer honestly; her father and Cheerilee would both be really disappointed in her if she lied. “My teacher is always telling us to do what we’re passionate about and makes us happy, and I really passionately want to do this, so she’d definitely be in favor of it!” Scootaloo decided at last. “Plus, she’s been telling me I have so much energy that I should find ‘constructive activities’ to burn some of it, and I’ll bet one of these courses would count! And she says we foals should expand our horizons and try new things and take advantage of opportunities and…” The Guard seemed skeptical, but said, “Well… I don’t think you’ll get to go on the course itself, but there’s no harm in showing it to you.” Scootaloo smiled and nodded, already considering how to ‘cute’ or plead her way onto the course once they arrived. Diamond Tiara muttered something that sounded like, “Crazy foal…” but Scootaloo was too excited to care. Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened as she looked at all the clothes. “These are amazing!” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had run through a series of narrow rooms and passageways to escape the Guards, which they were both sure planned on feeding them to Ursas. They eventually were confident that they’d lost the Guards. Unfortunately, they ended up more lost then ever. It was Sweetie Belle, in the course of trying random doors, who stumbled upon the fantastic wardrobe. She just opened a door, and right behind it was a stunning dress with diamonds and pearls studded in a deep blue fabric. It was like looking at the starry night sky. “Let’s look at them!” Sweetie Belle ran into the room and began searching through the clothes. There was one outfit of bright whites and reds that looked like the sort of thing a mighty warrior would wear before charging off to battle evil; a soft, yellow and green outfit that had a feel of bucolic tranquility, and even an outfit of the purest black thread that Sweetie Belle said was obviously for spies. But most of the outfits were variations on the first theme – deep blue, purple, or black, with bright gems or threads making isolated pockets of bright, white or yellow light. “My sister would love this stuff!” “Ah don’t know if we should be here,” said Apple Bloom. “Oh, come on, Apple Bloom. This is a once in a lifetime chance! I bet some really beautiful noble owns this room, and she wears these dresses when she goes to balls and looking for her special somepony!” Sweetie Belle’s eyes were dreamy. “And she wears that one when she goes out for a hike in the country, and that one when she’s dancing in a grand ballroom, and…” “Ah think ya’ve been listenin’ ta Rarity too much.” Sweetie Belle stared at the first dress, the diamond- and pearl-studded one. “I’d love to try it on,” she breathed. “But it’s not ours…” Sweetie looked at Apple Bloom, eyes pleading. “Yeah, but… I mean, we won’t hurt it… and doesn’t Miss Cheerilee always say we should try new things?” “Well, yeah…” “And that we should always give ponies the benefit of the doubt?” Sweetie Belle grinned. “I bet whoever owns these would be happy that two sweet, innocent foals like us loved them so much that we tried them on!” Apple Bloom wasn’t sure about that, but Sweetie Belle was a nice pony, so she said, “Ah guess… alright. Ah’ll help ya try it on.” “YAY!” Sweetie Belle said. The two of them got the dress off the hanger, and Sweetie Belle stepped inside. It was far too long at first, but then it glowed slightly and adjusted itself to fit Sweetie Belle’s body. The foal grinned as she admired herself in the mirror. “I want Rarity to make me a dress like this!” Apple Bloom glanced around nervously. “It looks real nice, yeah… but we should go, an’…” A door opened from somewhere nearby. “Just get the dress,” said a slightly cross voice. Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened. She began trying to take the dress off, but it had shrunken to fit her so perfectly that she couldn’t get her head out of it. “Help!” Apple Bloom grabbed her and began to drag her to a dark corner, but before they got there, the door to the room opened and two other ponies walked in. Apple Bloom didn’t recognize one of them, a tall stallion with finely styled hair, delicately yellow coat, and needle cutie mark. But she knew the other one well enough. Her face was on paintings. And in books. And on some of the money. Princess Luna Equestris, ruler of Equestria, nigh-omnipotent alicorn with the power to raze cities and flatten mountains, stared at the foals. “…is that my dress?” “Uh,” said Sweetie Belle. Dinky looked around. “Now where are we?” They were in another long hallway, this one with many ornate doors. The hall was carpeted and decorated very finely, and the windows all had fancy images on them. It looked like some rich old pony’s home. “Some ponies probably live here,” said Twist, looking at the doors. “Maybe we can find a nice pony to help us.” Snails read a sign above the hallway. “’Noble quarters.' Hey, this is where the nobles live! Cool!” “Are there any good nobles we can talk to?” wondered Twist. Dinky thought. Trixie had mentioned something about this. ”The Night Court is full of meanies and jerks!” Trixie had ranted, pounding her bottle of bourbon on her table. “I can’t believe the horrible thing they just did!” “You’re still mad that they ignored your suggestion?” "Yes! I worked really hard on that bill! It would have been a great bill, but they ignored it because it came from me!" "I'm sure someday your genius will be seen," said Pokey. "And your bill will pass. And thus Casual Friday will be extended through the whole week." "Yeah, but not nearly soon enough. Hmph. They're all jerks." “I don’t think so,” said Dinky. “We should keep on going.” Snails was reading signs on the walls. “Oh! I know where we should go so that Cheerilee and Applejack and Heavy Roller can find us! Follow me!” “Where?” asked Dinky, trotting after him. Snails led the foals to one particular door with a big leaf raised up out of the surface. He tried the door and found it unlocked. “In here!” “In where?” asked Twist, but she and Dinky followed. The room was well-furnished and very well organized. There was a desk in the center of the room, several bookshelves with tomes and documents, and a few filing cabinets. There were other doors, three of them open and leading to a kitchen, a sitting room, and a bedroom respectively. The floor itself was clean, except for a very large box set just in front of the desk. “This is nice!” said Snails. Dinky frowned. “Whose room is this?” “Duke Greengrass’s room!” crowed Snails. Dinky gasped. “Oh no! He’s the really, really super mean noble who keeps trying to hurt the Elements! Like Momma!” “Wait, he’s the one who tried to get Lyra stuck in Canterlot for three months?” asked Twist. “He’s a jerk!” Snails grinned. “Exactly! He’s always trying to get at us, right? So if we go missing, everypony will assume he took us! They’ll come straight here!” Dinky paused. That… made a lot more sense than Snails usually made. But it still wasn’t a great plan. “But what if he does something mean to us?” asked Dinky. “We have to get out of here!” But no sooner did the trio turn to the door than they heard two sets of approaching hoofsteps. “My secretary takes a vacation to visit her family,” said one voice, sounding annoyed, “And you’re misdelivering my mail within three days!” “Sorry, Duke! There was a mix-up…” “This is more than a mix-up. That package was to go clear across town. Did I fill out the forms wrong?” "No, it was just our screw up. Look, we won't charge you for the shipment. We're sorry..." “It’s Greengrass!” yelped Dinky. “We have to hide!” She ran towards the large box in the middle of the room, presumably the one that had been delivered to the wrong address. “Let’s hide in here! Hopefully he’ll have that pony redeliver the package and we’ll get out of the room that way!” Twist and Dinky helped pry the package open. It was taller than them, so Snails jumped up on the table and then dove into the big box. And then he poked his head up, covered in brown gook. “It’s a big box of mud!” “Why does Greengrass have a big box of mud?” asked Dinky. “I don’t get it.” She tried to figure it out: ”Bwahaha!” Greengrass crowed. “Now that I have all the mud in Equestria, everypony has to do what I want!” “Duke Greengrass!” cried a desperate-looking stallion petitioner. “We can’t grow any food! All of our dirt became mud when it rained and then you took it – we don’t have anything to raise crops in!” “We can’t get facials at the spa!” yelled another petitioner, this one a mare. “And the mud-pie industry collapsed!” cried a foal. “Plus, now we don’t have anything fun to play in when it rains!” Greengrass, sitting on a tall throne made out of all the mud in Equestria, smirked. “Well, I suppose I could let you have a little mud. But there’s a price…” Twist nudged Dinky, breaking her out of her reverie. “Hurry!” The three foals managed to get into the box and shut it. No sooner had they done so than they heard the door open, and Greengrass stormed inside. “I suppose I should look at it, as long as it’s here,” he said to himself. Dinky burrowed a little deeper into the mud, until only her nose was above the surface. She heard somepony opening the box, but Greengrass didn’t seem to notice the foals. Maybe they were buried enough that he wouldn’t see them. Maybe— “Hmm?” Greengrass frowned. He reached a hoof down next to Dinky. “What’s this?” Dinky felt hooves on her shoulders, and then Greengrass was lifting her out of his box of mud and staring at her. Dinky smiled as winningly as she could. “… hi?” Cheerilee smiled at the class, though she couldn’t quite mask her stress. “Alright, class! I think we’re safe from more… problems… and now we can go find your missing friends!” Silver Spoon raised a hoof. “What is it, Silver Spoon?” “Can’t you get the Guards to go away? We promise we won’t leave the group.” Cheerilee looked at the six Royal Guards which had found themselves dragooned into making-sure-foals-don’t-wander-off duty. “No, Silver Spoon. I can’t. Anything else?” “Yes,” said Heavy Roller. “Why am I being Guarded too? I’m not a foal.” He was stuck in the cluster of foals and Guards. “But you’re on their side,” said Cheerilee, pointing. “You let them wander off.” “But I—“ “On their side!” “But—“ “Traitor!” insisted Cheerilee. Heavy Roller stopped talking. “Anything else?” the magenta pony asked. “I’m hungry,” complained Truffle Muncher. “Can we stop for a snack?” Applejack nudged him. “Ya, uh, really don’t want ta be sayin’ that right now, kiddo.” Cheerilee ignored all this and turned back to the Guards. “Have we heard anything yet?” “No, but… wait…” The lead Guard noticed a messenger running up. “Any word on the foals?” “Two of them are in the Night Guard training rooms.” Cheerilee stared. “What? Who let them in there?” “Apparently, they said that you would be in favor of them going.” The Guard frowned. “Ma’am, why would you support that? That could be very dangerous.” Cheerilee reminded herself that it would be a violation of her teaching ethics to ask the Guards to incarcerate her class for a few days. “…let’s just go find them.” ReunificationThe doors to the Night Guard training room were big, dark, and imposing. The two Night Guards standing outside them with raised spears only made the room look more off limits. And, lastly, the crossed, reddish swords above the doors added that extra touch that would make sure no rational pony would go into that room without a good reason. But foals weren’t rational, as Cheerilee learned anew every day. So, with a deep breath to bolster her courage, she pushed the door open and entered the room. The Night Guard training room, or at least this one, was about the size of a standard basketball court and was filled with various courses and machines. Near the entrance, Cheerilee saw a few Night Guards working out on a weight lifting machine while a tall one barked orders and insults at them. There was a long passage with spikes and wires strewn throughout it, forcing the pegasus passing through it to zigzag around to avoid hitting them all. And, in the back of the room, there was a large rock climbing wall. There was, of course, an orange pegasus foal about a third of the way up the wall. Scootaloo was on a harness and had a helmet, yes, but still. She was about a third of the way up a massive climbing wall. A very dfficult climbing wall, from the looks of it. And were those… boulders, perched on top of it? “SCOOTALOO!” cried out Cheerilee. “SCOOTALOO, GET DOWN HERE!” “Wow!” said Featherweight, going for his camera. “That’s awesome!” Scootaloo seemed to distantly hear Cheerilee, and she turned her head so she could look at her teacher. “Miss Cheerilee, Miss Cheerilee!” she yelled. “Look at me! Look how high up I am!” The chaperones raced over, dodging around the Night Guards that trotted up and asked them what they were doing. “Who’s in charge of the climbing wall?” yelled Cheerilee. “None of us are using it, so I think he is,” said a Guard, pointing upwards. “Hey, Baron!” Cheerilee noticed, on closer inspection, that there was a brown earth pony following Scootaloo up the wall. He glanced down. “Oh! You must be Miss Cheerilee!” he called down, brightly. “I’m Baron Mounty Max. Scootaloo told me all about you!” Cheerilee attempted to control her temper. “Yes, well, I—“ “I think it’s great that there are teachers who want to encourage their student’s passions to this extent!” Mounty smiled. “My teachers always got mad at me when they caught me climbing on stuff.” “…er, what?” asked Cheerilee. “The Guards let me climb here in exchange for lessons for the newbies. I was just getting started when Sergeant Smiles brought in Scootaloo there.” Scootaloo, in the process of climbing to a higher rock, pried one hoof off the rocks to wave at the adults in response to her name. “And she said that she really wanted to climb the wall, and you, her chaperone, wanted her to do it too! How could I say ‘no’ to that? So I got her into the safety gear, and up we went!” “She told you that I wanted her to climb the wall,” said Cheerilee “Yep!” “And you believed her.” “Well… just look at her.” Mounty smiled. “I don’t think such an obviously sweet and innocent foal would lie or say something she wasn’t sure was true.” Scootaloo turned to look down again, beaming and looking for all the world like a pure and honest foal. Cheerilee forced herself to turn away from Scootaloo’s cute, shining eyes before she was hypnotized into giving Scootaloo a gold star and an ice cream cone. “In any event, the field trip is just about over,” she managed. “Could you please get Scootaloo down?” “Aww!” complained Scootaloo. “But I wanna get to the top!” “Sorry, kid,” said Mounty. “You should listen to your teacher. Come on. Kick off like I showed you.” Scootaloo kicked off from the wall, swinging over space and supported just by the rope. Cheerilee opened her mouth to scream, but then the belaying pony began to lower Scootaloo. In moment, Scootaloo was on the ground (although Mounty still got down first just by scampering down the wall.) “That was awesome!” said Scootaloo. “Thanks, Baron Max!” Before Max could say anything else, Cheerilee marched over to him. “You should be ashamed of yourself,” she snapped. “Letting a child take part in such a dangerous activity.” “But the boulders weren’t even primed. And she had all the safety gear—“ “What if she’d gotten hurt?” demanded Cheerilee. “Heavy Roller! Do you have anything to say to this noble who sent your daughter up that wall?” Heavy Roller thought for a few moments, looking like he was having trouble deciding on what to say. “You’re the one who got her outfitted to climb the wall?” “Well, yeah…” Mounty looked down. “I’m sorry if I screwed up. I’m still new, and—“ Heavy Roller threw his forelegs out and embrace Mounty. “You convinced her to wear safety gear!” Cheerilee stared, as did Mounty. “Huh?” they both said. “I had to beg her for hours to get her to wear a helmet on her scooter! She still hasn’t put seatbelts in her wagon! She wanted to go swimming in Snake Bite Bog without even taking snake repellant! But you got her to wear a helmet and a harness before doing something dangerous! That’s incredible!” “Of course!” said Mounty, recovering some of his cheer. “Safety first. Hey, Scootaloo, you’re going to put seatbelts in that wagon, right?” “Yes, sir!” chirped Scootaloo. “Because if I stay safe, I won’t get hurt, and then I can keep doing AWESOME things! But if I get hurt I’ll have to spend days or weeks in the hospital and I won’t be able to do anything cool!” “Exactly!” said Mounty. “I might even install emergency brakes on the scooter, and—“ began Scootaloo. “That’s – that’s amazing!” interrupted Heavy Roller, hugging Mounty all the tighter. “Can’t… breathe…” interjected Mounty. Heavy’s hug seemed to be straining the limits of Mounty’s ribcage. Heavy Roller finally released Mounty. “Thank you! If you ever need any wagon related favors—“ “Alright, alright,” said Applejack. “Ah love a happy reunion, but we still got six foals AWOL. Been a pleasure, Baron, but—“ “Oh, I understand completely. Have a good day!” chirped Mounty, before turning and climbing up the rock wall as easily as he might walk across a flat surface. Cheerilee sighed as she looked at Heavy Roller and Scootaloo embracing. She hadn't even gotten to yell at Mounty Max. Sometimes, she wondered how Trixie dealt with the Court on a daily basis without going mad. “Applejack is right. We need to find the others.” “Miss Cheerilee?” asked Scootaloo, climbing up on her father’s back. “Can I come back some time and climb the whole wall?” “Scootaloo, what you did was incredibly risky and—“ “But it’s my Mom’s wall! She designed it, and I want to prove that I’m good enough for it, and…” She paused. “I’m sorry I climbed it when I shouldn’t, but I just wanted to… to…” She couldn’t seem to finish. Cheerilee frowned. She hadn’t known that detail. “…Scootaloo, I know you love your mother very much. But…” Scootaloo’s eyes began to water. “…I will ask Trixie, and some of my Canterlot friends, to talk to the Night Guards that they know. I’m sure many of them have stories about Nocturne they’d be happy to share with you. You could even present those stories at a Family Appreciation Day.” Scootaloo brightened. “Really? When?” When you get out of detention, which at this rate will be just before you graduate college, Cheerilee thought but did not say. She was still upset with Scootaloo, but that conversation could wait until later, after Scootaloo had some time to process her discovery. So she just said, “Soon enough. Now, please rejoin your classmates.” “Ah thought there were two foals here,” said Applejack. “Where’s the second?” “Oh,” said Scootaloo. “Diamond Tiara was making fun of a Guard’s armor and saying it was ugly, so the Guards said she’d ‘volunteered’ herself to help her with a drill.” She paused. “Hey, Miss Cheerilee? What does ‘ballast’ mean?” Before Cheerilee could answer, she heard a scream, and turned in time to see a pegasus diving right for the ground with a pink foal tied to her back. “Oh,” said Scootaloo. “So that’s what it means.” A quick application of a lasso later, the chaperones and fifteen foals left the Night Guard training room. “Now what?” asked Heavy Roller, still letting Scootaloo ride on his back. “Where are the others?” “I don’t know,” said Cheerilee. “Excuse me? I’m looking for a Blackcherry Lee Punch?” Cheerilee turned to see a new pony approaching her. “That’s me. How can I help you?” The newcomer had a yellow coat and a needle for a cutie mark. He bowed. “My name is Tiptop Tailor. Princess Luna has sent me to find you.” Cheerilee had a sinking feeling. “…to tell me that the Element of Laughter is needed to liven up a room?” she tried, weakly. “Er, no. To tell you that some of your charges seem to have broken in to her wardrobe.” As Cheerilee ran with the others towards the wardrobe chamber, she tried not to panic. But she couldn’t help wondering what Luna’s most likely reaction would be. ”Foals!” Luna roared. “You have defiled the Royal Wardrobe! You have wrinkled the Royal Dresses, stained the Royal Blouses, and creased the Royal Hats! And that isn’t even mentioning what you did to the Royal Socks!” The foals cringed. Cheerilee cringed too, helpless before Luna’s fury. “Such a crime merits banishment!” Applejack nudged Cheerilee. “Hey, calm down, Sugarcube,” she said. “Don’t worry. Luna likes foals, remember?” Cheerilee nodded. That was true… ”But I couldn’t possibly banish such cute and innocent foals!” Luna concluded, smiling suddenly and patting one of them on the head. Cheerilee let out a sigh of relief. “Instead, I shall banish their negligent teacher! I shall send her to a far away land, where teachers are expected to teach strictly according to tests and ensure that all students think exactly the same way! Where there are no art classes or extracurriculars! Where teachers are required to give five hours of homework a night to toughen their charges!” Cheerilee’s lip trembled. “Will I be allowed to love and care for my students?” “No! In that land, they believe that caring for students weakens them!” “Noooo!” cried Cheerilee. Applejack blinked as Cheerilee sped up, outdistancing her. “Uh, Cheerilee, it ain’t a race! Wait up!” “I can’t be banished there! I’m too nice a teacher!” “Huh?” asked Applejack. But Cheerilee was already racing down the hall. Cheerilee burst into the room. “I’m so sorry!” she cried out, bending into a bow as she ran. “I—“ Unfortunately, running while bowing was difficult. Cheerilee tripped and went sprawling into a large rack of dresses. “Woah there!” Applejack quickly lassoed it right before it fell over, as Heavy Roller ran to help the teacher up. “Careful!” (The Guards, meanwhile, stopped short with the other foals just outside the room). “Miss Cheerilee? Are you okay?” The chaperones turned to see Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. They were both wearing little page outfits: sharp white shirts, black vests, and dapper hats. Behind them was Luna, looking quite amused. “I’m fine, girls. Princess!” Cheerilee bowed low, this time doing so without tripping. “I’m sorry!” “Think nothing of it,” said Luna. “I understand that foals can be rambunctious.” She smiled. “That said… Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, why don’t you tell Miss Cheerilee what you learned today?” Sweetie Belle nodded. “It’s wrong to try on clothes that aren’t yours, even if they’re really beautiful. We shouldn’t have done it. We told Princess Luna we’re very sorry.” Apple Bloom nodded. “And what are you doing to make it right?” asked Luna. “Since we liked her clothes so much, Luna wanted us ta test out the new page uniforms fer the pageant she’s having put on next month,” said Apple Bloom. “Makin’ sure they look good on normal foals, an’ we can move in ‘em, an’ stuff.” “They’re a little stiff in the knees,” said Apple Bloom. “But they’re still real nice.” She smiled. “Thanks fer lettin’ us try ‘em on, Princess – with permission too.” Luna smiled broadly. “And the other thing?” “If the other foals think Apple Bloom or I have a really nice piece of jewelry or dress or something, we’ll let them try it on too,” said Sweetie Belle. Luna nodded. “I think that’s fair. Don’t you, Cheerilee?” Relieved at not being banished to a heartless land, Cheerilee could only nod. “Thank you for your wisdom and understanding.” Luna seemed amused by that. “Of course. Now… I, as it runs out, have some government business to attend to. The ambassador of Tapira is almost here.” With a soft ‘pop’, the clothes vanished off of Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, and a beautiful blue dress appeared on Luna. “Can you find your own way out?” “Yes,” said Cheerilee. “As soon as we recover the rest of our foals.” “I’ll ask the staff to look for them,” said Luna. “Now, if you’ll excuse me…” She vanished into a blue cloud. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom stared at each other, and then said, as one, “WOW!” “That was awesome!” said Sweetie Belle. “Totally!” said Apple Bloom. “You got to see the princess?” called Scootaloo from outside. “That’s almost as cool as what I did!” “No, it’s cooler!” yelled Sweetie Belle. “You don’t even know what I did!” “I—“ “Girls!” yelled Cheerilee. The last thing she needed was for the foals to begin comparing adventures, as the loser (and all the other foals) would probably want to go have bigger adventures so they could win the next round of arguments. “We will discuss these adventures… oh believe me, we’ll discuss them… but first, I think we should recover the rest of the class. Now, does anypony have any idea where Dinky, Snails, and Twist are?” “Probably the most inconvenient place possible,” joked Applejack. “For them, since they’re all related to the Elements, that’d be Greengrass’s quarters,” said Cheerilee. “But I don’t think they’d be… foolish enough to go there.” “Did you say Greengrass?” Snips asked. He was jumping about in excitement. “Snails told me that he wanted to see Greengrass while we were here!” “…what? Why?” Cheerilee asked, stupefied. “His sister said that Greengrass is a complete monster, and he wanted to see a real monster!” Snips grins. “He guessed that Greengrass has three heads, and fangs, and claws, and he breaths fire!” “Cool!” yelled a few of the foals. “Can we see the monster Greengrass?” asked Featherweight, in as sweet a voice as he could muster. “No!” said Cheerilee. “I – okay, look. I will go see if anypony is with Greengrass. Applejack, stay with the foals and Heavy Roller, make sure they don’t wander off.” “Check,” said Applejack. “Hey!” said Heavy Roller. Cheerilee ignored this. It was time to see the Duke. As Cheerilee ran, she tried not to panic. She tried not to think of what horrible scheme of the Duke’s was being unleashed at that very moment. ”Bwahaha!” Duke Greengrass laughed. “Now that I have the Ponyville foals in my power, nothing is out of my reach!” “What will you do to us?” cried Dinky, from within her tiny cage. “I will turn you into horrible brats! I will make you ignore your parents, teachers, and sisters! I will get you to feed your homework to dogs and sell your textbooks for gumdrop money! I’ll induce you to get tattoos and dye your mane plaid!” He twirled the mustache that had appeared from nowhere on his face. “But why?” begged Twist. “What will this accomplish?” “Because you’ll teach your friends what I show you! Soon, every foal in Ponyville will be a jerk! And once that’s done, I will perform a political maneuver so complicated and intricate your foolish minds could never grasp it! After that, it’s only a matter of time before I rule Ponvyille!” Dinky thought. “Is the political maneuver you telling the Court that Ponyville is raising foals badly, since the foals are all meanies, so you need to step in and fix things?” Greengrass paused. “…well, it doesn’t sound as complicated and intricate when you say it like that.” He grabbed a large crystal from a nearby table. “Behold, the jerkification jewel! One glance at this and you’ll think that obeying adults is for ‘squares!’” He moved the jewel closer and closer to Dinky… Fortunately, Cheerilee reached the Duke’s quarters before that thought ran its course. Breathing heavily, she took a moment to gather herself and listened through the door. “Oh no!” Dinky yelled. “That’s horrible!” “That’s awful!” said Twist. “That’s a DISASTER!” added Snails. Cheerilee didn’t bother knocking. She brought up her hoof, recalled one of the fundamental moves from the Iron Hoof studies she’d mastered long ago, and slammed the hoof into the door. It crashed back on its hinges with a bang. “Greengrass! Hold it right there!” Greengrass turned and stared at her. “But the turn’s almost over!” he said, sounding almost like a foal himself. Cheerilee blinked. Dinky, Snails, and Twist – all looking recently washed but with a few flecks of mud still lingering in their coats and manes – were sitting around a table with Greengrass. A boardgame was set up on the table. It looked like Diplomacy, a game Cheerilee recognized from college. “Huh?” managed Cheerilee. “What’s going on?” demanded the teacher. “Are you playing Diplomacy? With Duke Greengrass?” “Yeah!” said Twist. “And he just announced that he’s moving into Caballeria! If he gets that, he’ll be able to strike at the heart of the Foal Alliance!” “Oh no!” added Snails. “Foal Alliance?” asked Cheerilee. Greengrass nodded. “I tried to get at least one of them to take my side, but they all wanted to team up against me for some reason. Fortunately, for a player of my caliber even fighting three on one is no difficulty!” “You were going to lose three turns ago, until Snails forgot to move,” pointed out Dinky. “Forgot… or did I trick him into not moving?” “No, I just forgot!” said Snails, oblivious to all else. Cheerilee shook her head. “Try again. What’s going on here, Greengrass?” “I found three foals hiding in my room,” said Greengrass. “I couldn’t very well turn them out into the castle; they might get into trouble.” “I definitely would get into trouble!” said Snails. “Incidentally,” said Greengrass. “Speaking of that. There is the matter of where, exactly, they were hiding.” Dinky blushed. “Er… we tried to hide in Mr. Greengrass’s big box of mud. And we got all muddy. Sorry, Mr. Greengrass.” “Big box of mud?” Cheerilee looked at the box. “Uh… okay. I’ll go with that. I suppose they washed up then, Duke.” Greengrass nodded. “Of course. Also, as I was bereft of my secretary today, I sent for a page to tell the Guards to find you, although it appears that the page isn't as... efficient as my normal employee. In the meantime, once they were done cleaning up, I had to come up with something for them to do. I didn’t want to distract them with candy or chocolate, since it might spoil their appetites, so I dug out a board game.” “Can’t we stay a little longer?” asked Twist. “This is fun!” “No. We need to get back to Ponyville.” I need to chain some of you to your desks, Cheerilee added in her head. She turned to Greengrass. “Uh… thanks. For looking after them.” Greengrass waved this off. “No problem. After all, there’s no reason to bring foals into politics. Have a good day, Cheerilee.” “Oh, oh!” said Snails as the trio of foals began to leave. “Mr. Greengrass? Before we leave, can you breathe fire?” “…what?” asked the Duke. “But all monsters can breathe fire, and my sister says you’re a complete—“ Snails began, but then Cheerilee put a hoof over his mouth. “Mmmf!” “We need to go. Bye!” said Cheerilee, pushing the foals out of the room. “But—“ began Twist. “I said, bye!” “Er… bye?” said Greengrass. Cheerilee groaned on the train home. “I am never doing that again,” she muttered. She was exhausted, both mentally and physically, and would probably never be allowed into the castle with a foal in the foreseeable future. She’d be lucky if they even let her in for the Gala. Plus, they were hours late thanks to having to stop for the castle-wide foal search, so the parents would likely be angry at her. Sometimes she wished there were more weekend and vacation days… “Miss Cheerilee?” Cheerilee opened her eyes to see Dinky and the other wayward foals looking at her. “We’re really sorry,” said Dinky, bowing. The others did so behind her. “We shouldn’t have wandered off, and put you through all that.” Before Cheerilee could say anything, they approached her and hugged her. Cheerilee couldn’t help but smile. “I suppose some of it was our fault, for not watching you closely enough. But I do hope you pay more attention next time.” “When’s next time?” asked Snails. A few years, give or take, thought Cheerilee. But she wasn’t angry. She patted Snails on the head, who smiled goofily. “We’ll see.” “Can we make it up to you somehow?” asked Sweetie Belle. “Just promise to try to stay together better in the future,” said Cheerilee. “Follow my instructions, and those of other chaperones. We just want to keep you safe.” "An' watch out fer each other, make sure nopony's gettin' lost," said Applejack. "Help us help ya." “And don't sneak away,” said Heavy Roller. “Even if, um, the adult in charge gets distracted.” “We promise!” said Apple Bloom. “Cross our hearts!” said Scootaloo. “We swear!” said Snails. “Sure,” grumbled Diamond Tiara, whose mane and coat still looked windswept. Cheerilee grinned. “Thank you.” She looked at the shining faces of her class and felt a sense of peace. It was moments like this, where she saw how good her foals were and how much they wanted to grow into smart, capable, and compassionate adults, that made everything worthwhile. And it was thus that she drifted calmly off to sleep. Snails looked at Dinky. “Do you think I should tell her Snips and Truffle Muncher and I already ate all the snacks for the ride back?” he asked. Dinky paused. “Um… maybe now’s not the best time.” “Oh.” He paused. “Do you think she’d mind if Snips and I had a ‘see how far you can stick your head out the window contest?’ “Yes.” “Do you think—“ “I think Miss Cheerilee would be happy,” said Dinky, “If we just sat in our seats quietly and didn’t do anything else.” “That’s no fun…” said Snails. “But… I guess if it would make her happy, it’s the right thing to do.” Dinky followed Snails and sat across from him, taking the aisle seat next to Scootaloo. “Well, that was… interesting,” she said. Scootaloo nodded.” I’m going to get to learn more about what my Mom did in the Guards.” She grinned. “Miss Cheerilee is the best teacher ever.” “And she wasn’t even that mad at me for trying on Luna’s dresses,” said Sweetie Belle, from one seat down. Dinky nodded. “She’s a really good teacher. We should do something to thank her for being so understanding.” The foals looked at each other, smiles slowly spreading over their faces. Cheerilee entered her classroom the next morning, feeling rested and happy. She was ready to face the day. “Good morning, class! I… um…” Staring her in the face was a gigantic heart-shaped piece of construction paper, thoroughly covered with glitter, lace, ribbon, and paint. And standing around the heart were twenty smiling foals. “WE LOVE YOU, MISS CHEERILEE!” yelled her class. Cheerilee grinned. “And I love you too!” The foals rushed forward, and Cheerilee eagerly hugged them. And then she paused. “…how many of you are still covered in superglue?” There was a pause. "Can anypony break away from this cluster?" There was a brief flurry of struggle, which accomplished nothing. “Alright, class, let’s all try to hop to the solvent on the counter…”
SeparationCanterlot Castle was an imposing structure. Built and expanded over millennia, it commanded the city and the country from its perch high on Canterhorn Mountain. Visible from miles around, it was a symbol of the power and prestige wielded by Princess Luna and her Night Court of Equestria. The visitors and guests who found themselves within its walls tended to react with humility, self-consciousness, even a touch of nervousness. After all, they were in the presence of those who could raise or ruin them if they so chose. It would make almost anypony wary. Anypony, that is, provided they weren’t a foal. “Did you know my Mom?” asked Scootaloo, jumping up and beating her wings so she could hover for a moment. “She was a really awesome Night Guard named Nocturne and she worked really hard to defend everypony! And—“ Viscount Prince Blueblood looked annoyed. He shot a glance at Cheerilee, as if to snap at her that she needed to control her class. “I don’t really recall the names of everypony I’ve ever encountered—“ “But you just said,” said Sweetie Belle, “That you were a ‘stallion of the ponies’ and you always got to know the ‘common, little’ ponies who served you!” “…anyway,” said Blueblood. “This room here is a meeting room. It’s where we, ah, hold our meetings…” Cheerilee held back a sigh. She’d been looking forward to showing the foals around Canterlot Castle for a while now; it would be incredibly educational for them to see for themselves the seat of the government of Equestria. She had even scheduled it on Tour Day, a day when some of the lower-ranked nobles, rather than tour agency employees, showed ponies around the castle as an effort to ‘reach out to their citizens and subjects.’ But while some of the other school group had gotten nobles that had at least pretended to care what they were doing, Ponyville Elementary got what had to be the most stuck-up, vain, and arrogant noble in the Court. Blueblood smiled smugly as he led the foals down another hall. “Now, this hall has an interesting history. You see, when I first became a Viscount, I was walking down this very hall when I happened to bump into Duke Sands. I approached him and informed him of who I was, and thereby formed what we call a ‘political alliance.’ After that…” Cheerilee interrupted, desperate to forestall another monologue on the Political Brilliance of Viscount Prince Blueblood. “What about historically? Has anything interesting happened in this hall from a historical point of view? Treaties signed, bills revised…?” “Why, yes. In this same hallway, I rewrote the Equestrian National Notepad Bill to alter our letterhead to a far superior…” Cheerilee couldn’t help but tune Blueblood out as she looked at her foals. They were rapidly becoming distracted, which was a problem. They could cause minor chaos if their minds wandered during class; it could be a bigger problem if they did something silly out of boredom in the halls of the Night Court. She caught the eye of one of the two other chaperones, Applejack. Applejack smiled, seeming to guess what she was thinking. “Guess he’s kinda a blowhard,” she murmured. “But don’t look so nervous. Ah mean, what’s the worst that could happen?” Cheerilee frowned. ”Well,” said the Royal Guard, “Miss Cheerilee, it seems that your foals sat on the royal throne, tore apart the royal linens to make capes, and ate all the royal cakes.” “Eeep,” said Cheerilee. “As a result, you are all banned from Canterlot forever.” “Well, that’s not so…” “And you will be returned to Ponyville in the fastest way possible.” “…by express train?” “By catapult.” “…Let’s just try to avoid finding out,” murmured Cheerilee, coming out of her reverie. “Come on, Applejack. The foals are getting ahead of us.” They hurried to catch up with Blueblood, the foals, and the third chaperone, Heavy Roller. Blueblood was just checking his watch. “Oh. Unfortunately, I have an… urgent appointment. Government business that simply can’t wait. I’ll just leave you in this chamber here, and I’ll send along the guide for the next part of the tour!” “But you were supposed to be the guide for the whole day!” protested Cheerilee, as Blueblood led the group into a tiny conference room. “You wouldn’t want to delay vital matters of national importance, would you?” asked Blueblood. He left the room and trotted off. Cheerilee stifled a growl. “Um… alright, class. Let’s wait here and think about what we’ve learned until the next tour guide shows up!” I doubt there even is one… what do I do now? Applejack was doing a quick count. ”Hang on there. Ain’t we short two little colts?” “What?” Cheerilee counted heads. She counted eighteen, but there should have been twenty. “Who isn’t here?” There were no responses. Cheerilee quickly looked through the class again. “Truffle Muncher and Featherweight,” she muttered. “Did anypony see where they went?” What if they wander out of the castle, or into the dungeons, or… “Ah think Truffle Muncher said he was hungry,” said Apple Bloom. “An’ we passed the Royal Canterlot Bakery one floor down, an’…” Cheerilee smiled as brightly as she could make herself, though her stomach turned nervously. “Thank you, Apple Bloom! Applejack, could you please come with me to find those two? Heavy Roller, just… please keep the other foals here until we get back.” “Will do!” said Heavy Roller, and the two grown mares left the room. “A little closer…” Truffle Muncher crouched behind the biggest mixing bowl he’d ever seen. He gazed lovingly at the gigantic cake that had been set up only a few tables down from him. It was big, and chocolate, with vanilla icing and sprinkles and everything he loved. If he could just have one bite of that cake, the whole field trip would be worth it. Tipping over the mixing bowl on top of himself so the bakers wouldn’t see him approaching, Truffle Muncher scooched closer and closer to the cake. There were some close calls, including one time when a young baker almost stepped on the bowl and squished him, but he managed to reach the cake’s table without incident. Alright! Now I just need to pop out, cut a slice, and get back under that bowl! No problem! Truffle Muncher peeked out and made sure none of the bakers were watching him. Fortunately, they were mostly gathered at the next table over, around a huge bowl with some rapidly rising dough. Truffle Muncher returned his attention to the cake, popped out from under the bowl, and grabbed for a carving knife— “TRUFFLE MUNCHER!” Truffle Muncher swiveled to see Cheerilee. He smiled. “Hi Miss Cheerilee! I’m using my special talent!” His talent, for finding and consuming delicious food, was -- in his own, humble opinion -- the greatest possible talent any foal could have. It was useful all over the place, from at home, when he misplaced his lunch, to... well, to Canterlot Castle itself. “Get back here this instant!” yelled Applejack, striding into the bakery right behind Cheerilee. “This ain’t no place for a foal on his own!” “But I’m hungry!” complained Truffle Muncher. He reared back and swept his forehooves to demonstrate how hungry he was. “And I was just going to get one slice!” The bakers were staring. The lead baker was, additionally, turning red. “That cake is to celebrate the opening of the Canterlot Center for Artistic Desserts!” he snapped. “Not for bratty foals!” “I’m not a brat!” Truffle Muncher hopped over to the table, even as Cheerilee and Applejack began to close in on him. “I’m just really hungry!” As he said this, he swept his forehooves out again. Unfortunatley, this time he knocked into something – a large box of yeast – and sent it flying. Right into the big bowl of dough. The bakers all looked at each other as the dough began to pulse. “The quick rise dough, it’s got too much yeast!” yelled one. “RUN!” screamed another. Truffle Muncher was about to ask why when the dough burst from the bowl. “…biggest baked goods disaster in Canterlot in months!” The baker looked furious. Truffle Muncher looked down. The Ponyville ponies were outside the bakery and all covered in itchy dough. They had to be outside the bakery, because the inside of the bakery had been cordoned off while the Special Messes Team of the Canterlot Castle janitorial staff tried to salvage anything that had survived the dough explosion. “…months? What was the last one?” asked a puzzled Applejack. “The Great Cake Calamity. Another cake that grew to massive proportions. We had to eat our way out of the kitchen!” The lead baker shook his head. “It cost us three bakers.” “Oh… I’m sorry…” began Cheerilee. “They were so sick of sweets after that they couldn’t even look at sugar. Now they’re all… on diets,” he hissed. “Anyway, this was almost as bad! Shame on your foals!” Truffle Muncher felt genuinely sad. “I’m sorry, Miss Cheerilee, really, I—“ “You’re going to write a long apology letter to these bakers,” snapped Cheerilee. And then I’m talking to your parents, young stallion.” “I got pictures!” added Featherweight. “Yes, Featherweight. Trust ma, we know.” Applejack turned to Cheerilee. “Probably should get back ta the others soon…” “You’re right.” Cheerilee once again bowed in apology to the lead baker, then turned and began marching the two foals back to the others. “But it’s not fair,” complained Truffle Muncher. “Because of my talent, I’m good at finding and eating fancy foods.” “That food wasn’t yours. And you’ve delayed the tour and probably made all the other foals very anxious.” "I know..." They reached the conference room. Cheerilee opened the door to see Heavy Roller joking with the foals. “…and that’s when I said, I thought you wanted ten big wheels, not ten big eels!” The foals laughed. “Ah,” he continued. “That was one aquarium that could have used a little more clarity.” Cheerilee frowned. “Um. Heavy Roller?” “Yes?” “There should be twenty foals in this room, right?” “Counting the two you went to get, yeah. Why?” “There are thirteen,” said Cheerilee, crossly. Heavy Roller blinked, looked around, and counted. "...oh.” Scootaloo held up a hoof to shush the other foals as she peered around the corner. “Are we there yet?” whispered Apple Bloom. She was hopping up and down. “I’m so excited!” “This is stupid,” grumbled Diamond Tiara. “We should go back.” “Nopony’s stopping you,” said Sweetie Belle. The other three foals – Dinky, Twist, and Snails – looked at each other. “Are you sure Miss Cheerilee would be okay with this?” Dinky asked. “She wants us to learn about important government stuff, right?” asked Scootaloo. “Well, we haven’t seen any yet, but this Blueblood guy is going to do some! So if we follow him, we’ll learn more!” “Oh.” Dinky thought. “That makes sense.” “Sssh!” hissed Sweetie Belle. “He’s moving again!” Blueblood smiled as the clerk walked to the desk. “Welcome back, Viscount.” “It’s ‘Prince,’” said Blueblood. “And I have an appointment." “…right. Anyway, you can go right on in.” The clerk opened a large, ornate door, and Blueblood walked through it. But then, as the clerk began to close it, seven foals sprang into action and raced for the door. “Hey!” called the clerk, moving to stand in front of them. “We need to talk with Blueblood!” said Scootaloo, smiling brightly. “It’s, uh, about his urgent government business!” “A bunch of foals need to talk about urgent government business? Here?” asked the clerk. He seemed skeptical. Twist nodded. “Uh huh! We really do!” She grinned. “And… who are you?” “I’m Twist! My sister is dating the Element of Loyalty!” “And I’m Snails!” yelled Snails. “My sister’s the Element of Honesty, and she’s a really good sister too! In fact, I think she’s the best in Ponyville!” “No, my sister is,” said Twist, turning to Snails. “Nuh-uh!” Scootaloo smiled up at the clerk again, ignoring the arguing foals. “So as you can see, we’re very important. Could you please let us in?” The clerk thought for a moment, then shrugged and muttered something like, ‘That jerk deserves it anyway.’ He stepped out of the way. “Blueblood should be just inside the fifth door on your right.” “Thanks!” said Scootaloo, as the foals piled in. It was easy to find Blueblood, his loud and imperious voice carried through even the thick doors. “…Whiter!” he was saying. “It must match my coat!” Apple Bloom tried the door and found it unlocked. She pushed, the door opened, and – “Hey!” said Scootaloo. “That’s not government business! You’re just getting fitted for a new jacket!” The argument was short but furious. “You have no right to follow me here!” roared Blueblood. “Impudent commoner foals!” “You were supposed ta be educating us!” said an offended Apple Bloom. “Miss Cheerilee was counting on you! But you put us in a room so you could get new clothes!” “Yeah!” said Snails. “What if we grow up stupid because of you?” “You’re already stupid,” said Diamond Tiara. “Well, what if we grow up ultra stupid, then?” Snails asked. Blueblood stood at his full height. “This is outrageous! I could have you thrown in Foalsome Prison for bothering a noble! Your parents would never see you again!” The foals stopped talking and stared at him. Blueblood smiled, apparently pleased that he’d cowed the foals. “Now, here’s what we’ll do. You'll—“ “WAAAAH!” Snails burst into tears. “I want my parents and my sister! I don’t wanna never see them again!” He ran out of the room. “Me too!” yelled Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, both starting to cry as well and chasing after him. “Hey, come back!” Dinky, Twist, and Scootaloo ran after them. “Hey!” cried Diamond Tiara. “As long as we’re here, I wanted to get a new hat!” but the others were gone. She sighed and followed, leaving the adults alone in the room. Blueblood frowned, then shrugged. “Well, it solved the problem.” He turned to his tailor. “Now, where were we?” “…you just made a bunch of foals cry, sir,” said the tailor. “Yes, yes, I know. Obnoxious, aren’t they? If they’re sad, they should endure it nobly, like I would.” The tailor opened his mouth, but decided that pointing out that Blueblood had been in hysterics when he’d accidentally poked him with a sewing needle would not be good for retaining his business. “Of course, sir. Now, as to the jacket…” It took a good ten minutes to catch up with the sobbing Snails, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle. It took another five to calm then down. “I wanna go back to the tour group,” said Sweetie Belle. “Please?” “Sure,” said Dinky. She looked around. “…um. Does anypony know where we are?”
Dispersion“What do we do?” asked a panicked Sweetie Belle. “What if the Guards think we’re trespassing and arrest us? I don’t want to go to jail!” “They won’t!” said Dinky. “I’m sure the Guards are really nice.” Apple Bloom shook her head. “Nuh uh. Ah heard that the Guard Captain guy is the brother of that pony who sent an Ursa into town to eat us!” “Oh no!” said Twist. “What if the Guard Captain likes having Ursas eat foals too?!” “Um—“ began Dinky. “What if he rides them around the castle, looking for foals to gobble up?” asked Snails. “I don’t think they’d fit,” said Dinky. “But what if they did?” “You’re being silly,” announced Scootaloo. “The Guards wouldn’t hurt us. My Mom was a Guard, and she told me they all cared a lot about protecting all the ponies in Equestria!” She smiled. “In fact, I bet if we find a Guard, they’ll help us make our way back to Miss Cherilee!” “Unless they send Ursas to eat us first!” said Snails. “That won’t happen. Besides, we’re not cowards, right? We’re brave! Let’s go!” Scootaloo cheered. “I don’t know…” said Twist, who was looking kind of scared. “Maybe we should just hide in that room over there until Miss Cheerilee shows up?” Dinky nodded. “Miss Cherilee said that, if we got lost, we should stay where we were until somepony found us.” “But that’ll take hours!” protested Scootaloo. “And it sounds really boring and lame. If we find a Guard, they could bring us back to Miss Cherilee in minutes!” “Or we could get even more lost looking for one,” said Dinky. Before the argument could continue any further, the door at the end of the hall opened and a troupe of ponies burst into the room. They were big and athletic, wearing purple and black armor and carrying mean-looking swords and spears. And they were racing right towards the foals. “Hurry!” roared the leader. “Keep on going, whatever happens!” “AAAH!” yelled most of the foals. The ten or so Night Guards suddenly bearing down on them was a frightening sight. Twist, Dinky, and Snails wound up dashing down a short side corridor into another hallway, while Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom dove into the room that Twist had pointed at earlier. Within moments, most of the foals were gone. “Hey!” complained a Guard. “We’re not running at you, don’t be scared!” But it was no use; most of the foals had already scattered into the castle. Only Scootaloo stood her ground. “Hey!” she called. “Stop! We’re a bunch of lost foals and we need help!” The Guards skidded to a halt. The leader walked up to Scootaloo, towering over the foal. “Who are you?” “I’m Scootaloo!” said Scootaloo, smiling and looking completely undaunted. “Are you real Night Guards? That’s so cool! My Mom was a Night Guard! Where are you running? Is there some kind of emergency?” “Uh… sure,” said the Guard. “Yes, there’s an emergency—“ “The cafeteria is about to run out of apple pie,” drawled another Guard. “Sergeant Smiles there thought it’d be a good team exercise to see if we could get some before we had to be at our stations.” Sergeant Smiles blushed. “I consider a lack of apple pie an emergency.” Scootaloo was beaming up at him. “It’s so neat to meet you! My Mom was in the Night Guard too! She was called Nocturne and—“ “Woah, hey, you’re Nocturne’s daughter?” Smiles looked down at Scootaloo. “I knew your Mom, kid. She trained me in defensive flying. Brilliant pegasus; never knew anypony who could fly like her.” Scootaloo grinned. “Ahem,” said Diamond Tiara, crawling out from her hiding place beneath a table. “We need to get back to Miss Cheerilee.” “Aw, but I want to talk with the Night Guards…” “Cheerilee?” asked Smiles. “Our teacher. It’s Tour Day.” “Oh, right.” Smiles frowned. “I don’t know where she’d be, but I think some of the Royal Guards might. There’s a few Guards that get the reports on lost civilians in the castle; Cheerilee’s probably in touch with them if you’re missing.” “Where are they?” asked Diamond Tiara. “Probably in the training area now. Hey…” The Guard smiled. “I could show you one of the training courses she helped put together, the Big Rock Wall. It’s not one of the dangerous ones, but it’s pretty tough… gave me a good workout back in the day. Want to see it?” “See it? Can I try it? Please please please?” Scootaloo’s face was shining. Sergeant Smiles may have been a Night Guard, but even he was not immune to the power of a pleading foal. “Er…” “You said it’s not dangerous, right? So there’s no problem, right?” pressed Scootaloo. “But we can’t… I mean , uh, your chaperone would probably get mad at us.” Scootaloo thought. What would Cheerilee say? She had to answer honestly; her father and Cheerilee would both be really disappointed in her if she lied. “My teacher is always telling us to do what we’re passionate about and makes us happy, and I really passionately want to do this, so she’d definitely be in favor of it!” Scootaloo decided at last. “Plus, she’s been telling me I have so much energy that I should find ‘constructive activities’ to burn some of it, and I’ll bet one of these courses would count! And she says we foals should expand our horizons and try new things and take advantage of opportunities and…” The Guard seemed skeptical, but said, “Well… I don’t think you’ll get to go on the course itself, but there’s no harm in showing it to you.” Scootaloo smiled and nodded, already considering how to ‘cute’ or plead her way onto the course once they arrived. Diamond Tiara muttered something that sounded like, “Crazy foal…” but Scootaloo was too excited to care. Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened as she looked at all the clothes. “These are amazing!” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had run through a series of narrow rooms and passageways to escape the Guards, which they were both sure planned on feeding them to Ursas. They eventually were confident that they’d lost the Guards. Unfortunately, they ended up more lost then ever. It was Sweetie Belle, in the course of trying random doors, who stumbled upon the fantastic wardrobe. She just opened a door, and right behind it was a stunning dress with diamonds and pearls studded in a deep blue fabric. It was like looking at the starry night sky. “Let’s look at them!” Sweetie Belle ran into the room and began searching through the clothes. There was one outfit of bright whites and reds that looked like the sort of thing a mighty warrior would wear before charging off to battle evil; a soft, yellow and green outfit that had a feel of bucolic tranquility, and even an outfit of the purest black thread that Sweetie Belle said was obviously for spies. But most of the outfits were variations on the first theme – deep blue, purple, or black, with bright gems or threads making isolated pockets of bright, white or yellow light. “My sister would love this stuff!” “Ah don’t know if we should be here,” said Apple Bloom. “Oh, come on, Apple Bloom. This is a once in a lifetime chance! I bet some really beautiful noble owns this room, and she wears these dresses when she goes to balls and looking for her special somepony!” Sweetie Belle’s eyes were dreamy. “And she wears that one when she goes out for a hike in the country, and that one when she’s dancing in a grand ballroom, and…” “Ah think ya’ve been listenin’ ta Rarity too much.” Sweetie Belle stared at the first dress, the diamond- and pearl-studded one. “I’d love to try it on,” she breathed. “But it’s not ours…” Sweetie looked at Apple Bloom, eyes pleading. “Yeah, but… I mean, we won’t hurt it… and doesn’t Miss Cheerilee always say we should try new things?” “Well, yeah…” “And that we should always give ponies the benefit of the doubt?” Sweetie Belle grinned. “I bet whoever owns these would be happy that two sweet, innocent foals like us loved them so much that we tried them on!” Apple Bloom wasn’t sure about that, but Sweetie Belle was a nice pony, so she said, “Ah guess… alright. Ah’ll help ya try it on.” “YAY!” Sweetie Belle said. The two of them got the dress off the hanger, and Sweetie Belle stepped inside. It was far too long at first, but then it glowed slightly and adjusted itself to fit Sweetie Belle’s body. The foal grinned as she admired herself in the mirror. “I want Rarity to make me a dress like this!” Apple Bloom glanced around nervously. “It looks real nice, yeah… but we should go, an’…” A door opened from somewhere nearby. “Just get the dress,” said a slightly cross voice. Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened. She began trying to take the dress off, but it had shrunken to fit her so perfectly that she couldn’t get her head out of it. “Help!” Apple Bloom grabbed her and began to drag her to a dark corner, but before they got there, the door to the room opened and two other ponies walked in. Apple Bloom didn’t recognize one of them, a tall stallion with finely styled hair, delicately yellow coat, and needle cutie mark. But she knew the other one well enough. Her face was on paintings. And in books. And on some of the money. Princess Luna Equestris, ruler of Equestria, nigh-omnipotent alicorn with the power to raze cities and flatten mountains, stared at the foals. “…is that my dress?” “Uh,” said Sweetie Belle. Dinky looked around. “Now where are we?” They were in another long hallway, this one with many ornate doors. The hall was carpeted and decorated very finely, and the windows all had fancy images on them. It looked like some rich old pony’s home. “Some ponies probably live here,” said Twist, looking at the doors. “Maybe we can find a nice pony to help us.” Snails read a sign above the hallway. “’Noble quarters.' Hey, this is where the nobles live! Cool!” “Are there any good nobles we can talk to?” wondered Twist. Dinky thought. Trixie had mentioned something about this. ”The Night Court is full of meanies and jerks!” Trixie had ranted, pounding her bottle of bourbon on her table. “I can’t believe the horrible thing they just did!” “You’re still mad that they ignored your suggestion?” "Yes! I worked really hard on that bill! It would have been a great bill, but they ignored it because it came from me!" "I'm sure someday your genius will be seen," said Pokey. "And your bill will pass. And thus Casual Friday will be extended through the whole week." "Yeah, but not nearly soon enough. Hmph. They're all jerks." “I don’t think so,” said Dinky. “We should keep on going.” Snails was reading signs on the walls. “Oh! I know where we should go so that Cheerilee and Applejack and Heavy Roller can find us! Follow me!” “Where?” asked Dinky, trotting after him. Snails led the foals to one particular door with a big leaf raised up out of the surface. He tried the door and found it unlocked. “In here!” “In where?” asked Twist, but she and Dinky followed. The room was well-furnished and very well organized. There was a desk in the center of the room, several bookshelves with tomes and documents, and a few filing cabinets. There were other doors, three of them open and leading to a kitchen, a sitting room, and a bedroom respectively. The floor itself was clean, except for a very large box set just in front of the desk. “This is nice!” said Snails. Dinky frowned. “Whose room is this?” “Duke Greengrass’s room!” crowed Snails. Dinky gasped. “Oh no! He’s the really, really super mean noble who keeps trying to hurt the Elements! Like Momma!” “Wait, he’s the one who tried to get Lyra stuck in Canterlot for three months?” asked Twist. “He’s a jerk!” Snails grinned. “Exactly! He’s always trying to get at us, right? So if we go missing, everypony will assume he took us! They’ll come straight here!” Dinky paused. That… made a lot more sense than Snails usually made. But it still wasn’t a great plan. “But what if he does something mean to us?” asked Dinky. “We have to get out of here!” But no sooner did the trio turn to the door than they heard two sets of approaching hoofsteps. “My secretary takes a vacation to visit her family,” said one voice, sounding annoyed, “And you’re misdelivering my mail within three days!” “Sorry, Duke! There was a mix-up…” “This is more than a mix-up. That package was to go clear across town. Did I fill out the forms wrong?” "No, it was just our screw up. Look, we won't charge you for the shipment. We're sorry..." “It’s Greengrass!” yelped Dinky. “We have to hide!” She ran towards the large box in the middle of the room, presumably the one that had been delivered to the wrong address. “Let’s hide in here! Hopefully he’ll have that pony redeliver the package and we’ll get out of the room that way!” Twist and Dinky helped pry the package open. It was taller than them, so Snails jumped up on the table and then dove into the big box. And then he poked his head up, covered in brown gook. “It’s a big box of mud!” “Why does Greengrass have a big box of mud?” asked Dinky. “I don’t get it.” She tried to figure it out: ”Bwahaha!” Greengrass crowed. “Now that I have all the mud in Equestria, everypony has to do what I want!” “Duke Greengrass!” cried a desperate-looking stallion petitioner. “We can’t grow any food! All of our dirt became mud when it rained and then you took it – we don’t have anything to raise crops in!” “We can’t get facials at the spa!” yelled another petitioner, this one a mare. “And the mud-pie industry collapsed!” cried a foal. “Plus, now we don’t have anything fun to play in when it rains!” Greengrass, sitting on a tall throne made out of all the mud in Equestria, smirked. “Well, I suppose I could let you have a little mud. But there’s a price…” Twist nudged Dinky, breaking her out of her reverie. “Hurry!” The three foals managed to get into the box and shut it. No sooner had they done so than they heard the door open, and Greengrass stormed inside. “I suppose I should look at it, as long as it’s here,” he said to himself. Dinky burrowed a little deeper into the mud, until only her nose was above the surface. She heard somepony opening the box, but Greengrass didn’t seem to notice the foals. Maybe they were buried enough that he wouldn’t see them. Maybe— “Hmm?” Greengrass frowned. He reached a hoof down next to Dinky. “What’s this?” Dinky felt hooves on her shoulders, and then Greengrass was lifting her out of his box of mud and staring at her. Dinky smiled as winningly as she could. “… hi?” Cheerilee smiled at the class, though she couldn’t quite mask her stress. “Alright, class! I think we’re safe from more… problems… and now we can go find your missing friends!” Silver Spoon raised a hoof. “What is it, Silver Spoon?” “Can’t you get the Guards to go away? We promise we won’t leave the group.” Cheerilee looked at the six Royal Guards which had found themselves dragooned into making-sure-foals-don’t-wander-off duty. “No, Silver Spoon. I can’t. Anything else?” “Yes,” said Heavy Roller. “Why am I being Guarded too? I’m not a foal.” He was stuck in the cluster of foals and Guards. “But you’re on their side,” said Cheerilee, pointing. “You let them wander off.” “But I—“ “On their side!” “But—“ “Traitor!” insisted Cheerilee. Heavy Roller stopped talking. “Anything else?” the magenta pony asked. “I’m hungry,” complained Truffle Muncher. “Can we stop for a snack?” Applejack nudged him. “Ya, uh, really don’t want ta be sayin’ that right now, kiddo.” Cheerilee ignored all this and turned back to the Guards. “Have we heard anything yet?” “No, but… wait…” The lead Guard noticed a messenger running up. “Any word on the foals?” “Two of them are in the Night Guard training rooms.” Cheerilee stared. “What? Who let them in there?” “Apparently, they said that you would be in favor of them going.” The Guard frowned. “Ma’am, why would you support that? That could be very dangerous.” Cheerilee reminded herself that it would be a violation of her teaching ethics to ask the Guards to incarcerate her class for a few days. “…let’s just go find them.”
ReunificationThe doors to the Night Guard training room were big, dark, and imposing. The two Night Guards standing outside them with raised spears only made the room look more off limits. And, lastly, the crossed, reddish swords above the doors added that extra touch that would make sure no rational pony would go into that room without a good reason. But foals weren’t rational, as Cheerilee learned anew every day. So, with a deep breath to bolster her courage, she pushed the door open and entered the room. The Night Guard training room, or at least this one, was about the size of a standard basketball court and was filled with various courses and machines. Near the entrance, Cheerilee saw a few Night Guards working out on a weight lifting machine while a tall one barked orders and insults at them. There was a long passage with spikes and wires strewn throughout it, forcing the pegasus passing through it to zigzag around to avoid hitting them all. And, in the back of the room, there was a large rock climbing wall. There was, of course, an orange pegasus foal about a third of the way up the wall. Scootaloo was on a harness and had a helmet, yes, but still. She was about a third of the way up a massive climbing wall. A very dfficult climbing wall, from the looks of it. And were those… boulders, perched on top of it? “SCOOTALOO!” cried out Cheerilee. “SCOOTALOO, GET DOWN HERE!” “Wow!” said Featherweight, going for his camera. “That’s awesome!” Scootaloo seemed to distantly hear Cheerilee, and she turned her head so she could look at her teacher. “Miss Cheerilee, Miss Cheerilee!” she yelled. “Look at me! Look how high up I am!” The chaperones raced over, dodging around the Night Guards that trotted up and asked them what they were doing. “Who’s in charge of the climbing wall?” yelled Cheerilee. “None of us are using it, so I think he is,” said a Guard, pointing upwards. “Hey, Baron!” Cheerilee noticed, on closer inspection, that there was a brown earth pony following Scootaloo up the wall. He glanced down. “Oh! You must be Miss Cheerilee!” he called down, brightly. “I’m Baron Mounty Max. Scootaloo told me all about you!” Cheerilee attempted to control her temper. “Yes, well, I—“ “I think it’s great that there are teachers who want to encourage their student’s passions to this extent!” Mounty smiled. “My teachers always got mad at me when they caught me climbing on stuff.” “…er, what?” asked Cheerilee. “The Guards let me climb here in exchange for lessons for the newbies. I was just getting started when Sergeant Smiles brought in Scootaloo there.” Scootaloo, in the process of climbing to a higher rock, pried one hoof off the rocks to wave at the adults in response to her name. “And she said that she really wanted to climb the wall, and you, her chaperone, wanted her to do it too! How could I say ‘no’ to that? So I got her into the safety gear, and up we went!” “She told you that I wanted her to climb the wall,” said Cheerilee “Yep!” “And you believed her.” “Well… just look at her.” Mounty smiled. “I don’t think such an obviously sweet and innocent foal would lie or say something she wasn’t sure was true.” Scootaloo turned to look down again, beaming and looking for all the world like a pure and honest foal. Cheerilee forced herself to turn away from Scootaloo’s cute, shining eyes before she was hypnotized into giving Scootaloo a gold star and an ice cream cone. “In any event, the field trip is just about over,” she managed. “Could you please get Scootaloo down?” “Aww!” complained Scootaloo. “But I wanna get to the top!” “Sorry, kid,” said Mounty. “You should listen to your teacher. Come on. Kick off like I showed you.” Scootaloo kicked off from the wall, swinging over space and supported just by the rope. Cheerilee opened her mouth to scream, but then the belaying pony began to lower Scootaloo. In moment, Scootaloo was on the ground (although Mounty still got down first just by scampering down the wall.) “That was awesome!” said Scootaloo. “Thanks, Baron Max!” Before Max could say anything else, Cheerilee marched over to him. “You should be ashamed of yourself,” she snapped. “Letting a child take part in such a dangerous activity.” “But the boulders weren’t even primed. And she had all the safety gear—“ “What if she’d gotten hurt?” demanded Cheerilee. “Heavy Roller! Do you have anything to say to this noble who sent your daughter up that wall?” Heavy Roller thought for a few moments, looking like he was having trouble deciding on what to say. “You’re the one who got her outfitted to climb the wall?” “Well, yeah…” Mounty looked down. “I’m sorry if I screwed up. I’m still new, and—“ Heavy Roller threw his forelegs out and embrace Mounty. “You convinced her to wear safety gear!” Cheerilee stared, as did Mounty. “Huh?” they both said. “I had to beg her for hours to get her to wear a helmet on her scooter! She still hasn’t put seatbelts in her wagon! She wanted to go swimming in Snake Bite Bog without even taking snake repellant! But you got her to wear a helmet and a harness before doing something dangerous! That’s incredible!” “Of course!” said Mounty, recovering some of his cheer. “Safety first. Hey, Scootaloo, you’re going to put seatbelts in that wagon, right?” “Yes, sir!” chirped Scootaloo. “Because if I stay safe, I won’t get hurt, and then I can keep doing AWESOME things! But if I get hurt I’ll have to spend days or weeks in the hospital and I won’t be able to do anything cool!” “Exactly!” said Mounty. “I might even install emergency brakes on the scooter, and—“ began Scootaloo. “That’s – that’s amazing!” interrupted Heavy Roller, hugging Mounty all the tighter. “Can’t… breathe…” interjected Mounty. Heavy’s hug seemed to be straining the limits of Mounty’s ribcage. Heavy Roller finally released Mounty. “Thank you! If you ever need any wagon related favors—“ “Alright, alright,” said Applejack. “Ah love a happy reunion, but we still got six foals AWOL. Been a pleasure, Baron, but—“ “Oh, I understand completely. Have a good day!” chirped Mounty, before turning and climbing up the rock wall as easily as he might walk across a flat surface. Cheerilee sighed as she looked at Heavy Roller and Scootaloo embracing. She hadn't even gotten to yell at Mounty Max. Sometimes, she wondered how Trixie dealt with the Court on a daily basis without going mad. “Applejack is right. We need to find the others.” “Miss Cheerilee?” asked Scootaloo, climbing up on her father’s back. “Can I come back some time and climb the whole wall?” “Scootaloo, what you did was incredibly risky and—“ “But it’s my Mom’s wall! She designed it, and I want to prove that I’m good enough for it, and…” She paused. “I’m sorry I climbed it when I shouldn’t, but I just wanted to… to…” She couldn’t seem to finish. Cheerilee frowned. She hadn’t known that detail. “…Scootaloo, I know you love your mother very much. But…” Scootaloo’s eyes began to water. “…I will ask Trixie, and some of my Canterlot friends, to talk to the Night Guards that they know. I’m sure many of them have stories about Nocturne they’d be happy to share with you. You could even present those stories at a Family Appreciation Day.” Scootaloo brightened. “Really? When?” When you get out of detention, which at this rate will be just before you graduate college, Cheerilee thought but did not say. She was still upset with Scootaloo, but that conversation could wait until later, after Scootaloo had some time to process her discovery. So she just said, “Soon enough. Now, please rejoin your classmates.” “Ah thought there were two foals here,” said Applejack. “Where’s the second?” “Oh,” said Scootaloo. “Diamond Tiara was making fun of a Guard’s armor and saying it was ugly, so the Guards said she’d ‘volunteered’ herself to help her with a drill.” She paused. “Hey, Miss Cheerilee? What does ‘ballast’ mean?” Before Cheerilee could answer, she heard a scream, and turned in time to see a pegasus diving right for the ground with a pink foal tied to her back. “Oh,” said Scootaloo. “So that’s what it means.” A quick application of a lasso later, the chaperones and fifteen foals left the Night Guard training room. “Now what?” asked Heavy Roller, still letting Scootaloo ride on his back. “Where are the others?” “I don’t know,” said Cheerilee. “Excuse me? I’m looking for a Blackcherry Lee Punch?” Cheerilee turned to see a new pony approaching her. “That’s me. How can I help you?” The newcomer had a yellow coat and a needle for a cutie mark. He bowed. “My name is Tiptop Tailor. Princess Luna has sent me to find you.” Cheerilee had a sinking feeling. “…to tell me that the Element of Laughter is needed to liven up a room?” she tried, weakly. “Er, no. To tell you that some of your charges seem to have broken in to her wardrobe.” As Cheerilee ran with the others towards the wardrobe chamber, she tried not to panic. But she couldn’t help wondering what Luna’s most likely reaction would be. ”Foals!” Luna roared. “You have defiled the Royal Wardrobe! You have wrinkled the Royal Dresses, stained the Royal Blouses, and creased the Royal Hats! And that isn’t even mentioning what you did to the Royal Socks!” The foals cringed. Cheerilee cringed too, helpless before Luna’s fury. “Such a crime merits banishment!” Applejack nudged Cheerilee. “Hey, calm down, Sugarcube,” she said. “Don’t worry. Luna likes foals, remember?” Cheerilee nodded. That was true… ”But I couldn’t possibly banish such cute and innocent foals!” Luna concluded, smiling suddenly and patting one of them on the head. Cheerilee let out a sigh of relief. “Instead, I shall banish their negligent teacher! I shall send her to a far away land, where teachers are expected to teach strictly according to tests and ensure that all students think exactly the same way! Where there are no art classes or extracurriculars! Where teachers are required to give five hours of homework a night to toughen their charges!” Cheerilee’s lip trembled. “Will I be allowed to love and care for my students?” “No! In that land, they believe that caring for students weakens them!” “Noooo!” cried Cheerilee. Applejack blinked as Cheerilee sped up, outdistancing her. “Uh, Cheerilee, it ain’t a race! Wait up!” “I can’t be banished there! I’m too nice a teacher!” “Huh?” asked Applejack. But Cheerilee was already racing down the hall. Cheerilee burst into the room. “I’m so sorry!” she cried out, bending into a bow as she ran. “I—“ Unfortunately, running while bowing was difficult. Cheerilee tripped and went sprawling into a large rack of dresses. “Woah there!” Applejack quickly lassoed it right before it fell over, as Heavy Roller ran to help the teacher up. “Careful!” (The Guards, meanwhile, stopped short with the other foals just outside the room). “Miss Cheerilee? Are you okay?” The chaperones turned to see Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. They were both wearing little page outfits: sharp white shirts, black vests, and dapper hats. Behind them was Luna, looking quite amused. “I’m fine, girls. Princess!” Cheerilee bowed low, this time doing so without tripping. “I’m sorry!” “Think nothing of it,” said Luna. “I understand that foals can be rambunctious.” She smiled. “That said… Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, why don’t you tell Miss Cheerilee what you learned today?” Sweetie Belle nodded. “It’s wrong to try on clothes that aren’t yours, even if they’re really beautiful. We shouldn’t have done it. We told Princess Luna we’re very sorry.” Apple Bloom nodded. “And what are you doing to make it right?” asked Luna. “Since we liked her clothes so much, Luna wanted us ta test out the new page uniforms fer the pageant she’s having put on next month,” said Apple Bloom. “Makin’ sure they look good on normal foals, an’ we can move in ‘em, an’ stuff.” “They’re a little stiff in the knees,” said Apple Bloom. “But they’re still real nice.” She smiled. “Thanks fer lettin’ us try ‘em on, Princess – with permission too.” Luna smiled broadly. “And the other thing?” “If the other foals think Apple Bloom or I have a really nice piece of jewelry or dress or something, we’ll let them try it on too,” said Sweetie Belle. Luna nodded. “I think that’s fair. Don’t you, Cheerilee?” Relieved at not being banished to a heartless land, Cheerilee could only nod. “Thank you for your wisdom and understanding.” Luna seemed amused by that. “Of course. Now… I, as it runs out, have some government business to attend to. The ambassador of Tapira is almost here.” With a soft ‘pop’, the clothes vanished off of Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, and a beautiful blue dress appeared on Luna. “Can you find your own way out?” “Yes,” said Cheerilee. “As soon as we recover the rest of our foals.” “I’ll ask the staff to look for them,” said Luna. “Now, if you’ll excuse me…” She vanished into a blue cloud. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom stared at each other, and then said, as one, “WOW!” “That was awesome!” said Sweetie Belle. “Totally!” said Apple Bloom. “You got to see the princess?” called Scootaloo from outside. “That’s almost as cool as what I did!” “No, it’s cooler!” yelled Sweetie Belle. “You don’t even know what I did!” “I—“ “Girls!” yelled Cheerilee. The last thing she needed was for the foals to begin comparing adventures, as the loser (and all the other foals) would probably want to go have bigger adventures so they could win the next round of arguments. “We will discuss these adventures… oh believe me, we’ll discuss them… but first, I think we should recover the rest of the class. Now, does anypony have any idea where Dinky, Snails, and Twist are?” “Probably the most inconvenient place possible,” joked Applejack. “For them, since they’re all related to the Elements, that’d be Greengrass’s quarters,” said Cheerilee. “But I don’t think they’d be… foolish enough to go there.” “Did you say Greengrass?” Snips asked. He was jumping about in excitement. “Snails told me that he wanted to see Greengrass while we were here!” “…what? Why?” Cheerilee asked, stupefied. “His sister said that Greengrass is a complete monster, and he wanted to see a real monster!” Snips grins. “He guessed that Greengrass has three heads, and fangs, and claws, and he breaths fire!” “Cool!” yelled a few of the foals. “Can we see the monster Greengrass?” asked Featherweight, in as sweet a voice as he could muster. “No!” said Cheerilee. “I – okay, look. I will go see if anypony is with Greengrass. Applejack, stay with the foals and Heavy Roller, make sure they don’t wander off.” “Check,” said Applejack. “Hey!” said Heavy Roller. Cheerilee ignored this. It was time to see the Duke. As Cheerilee ran, she tried not to panic. She tried not to think of what horrible scheme of the Duke’s was being unleashed at that very moment. ”Bwahaha!” Duke Greengrass laughed. “Now that I have the Ponyville foals in my power, nothing is out of my reach!” “What will you do to us?” cried Dinky, from within her tiny cage. “I will turn you into horrible brats! I will make you ignore your parents, teachers, and sisters! I will get you to feed your homework to dogs and sell your textbooks for gumdrop money! I’ll induce you to get tattoos and dye your mane plaid!” He twirled the mustache that had appeared from nowhere on his face. “But why?” begged Twist. “What will this accomplish?” “Because you’ll teach your friends what I show you! Soon, every foal in Ponyville will be a jerk! And once that’s done, I will perform a political maneuver so complicated and intricate your foolish minds could never grasp it! After that, it’s only a matter of time before I rule Ponvyille!” Dinky thought. “Is the political maneuver you telling the Court that Ponyville is raising foals badly, since the foals are all meanies, so you need to step in and fix things?” Greengrass paused. “…well, it doesn’t sound as complicated and intricate when you say it like that.” He grabbed a large crystal from a nearby table. “Behold, the jerkification jewel! One glance at this and you’ll think that obeying adults is for ‘squares!’” He moved the jewel closer and closer to Dinky… Fortunately, Cheerilee reached the Duke’s quarters before that thought ran its course. Breathing heavily, she took a moment to gather herself and listened through the door. “Oh no!” Dinky yelled. “That’s horrible!” “That’s awful!” said Twist. “That’s a DISASTER!” added Snails. Cheerilee didn’t bother knocking. She brought up her hoof, recalled one of the fundamental moves from the Iron Hoof studies she’d mastered long ago, and slammed the hoof into the door. It crashed back on its hinges with a bang. “Greengrass! Hold it right there!” Greengrass turned and stared at her. “But the turn’s almost over!” he said, sounding almost like a foal himself. Cheerilee blinked. Dinky, Snails, and Twist – all looking recently washed but with a few flecks of mud still lingering in their coats and manes – were sitting around a table with Greengrass. A boardgame was set up on the table. It looked like Diplomacy, a game Cheerilee recognized from college. “Huh?” managed Cheerilee. “What’s going on?” demanded the teacher. “Are you playing Diplomacy? With Duke Greengrass?” “Yeah!” said Twist. “And he just announced that he’s moving into Caballeria! If he gets that, he’ll be able to strike at the heart of the Foal Alliance!” “Oh no!” added Snails. “Foal Alliance?” asked Cheerilee. Greengrass nodded. “I tried to get at least one of them to take my side, but they all wanted to team up against me for some reason. Fortunately, for a player of my caliber even fighting three on one is no difficulty!” “You were going to lose three turns ago, until Snails forgot to move,” pointed out Dinky. “Forgot… or did I trick him into not moving?” “No, I just forgot!” said Snails, oblivious to all else. Cheerilee shook her head. “Try again. What’s going on here, Greengrass?” “I found three foals hiding in my room,” said Greengrass. “I couldn’t very well turn them out into the castle; they might get into trouble.” “I definitely would get into trouble!” said Snails. “Incidentally,” said Greengrass. “Speaking of that. There is the matter of where, exactly, they were hiding.” Dinky blushed. “Er… we tried to hide in Mr. Greengrass’s big box of mud. And we got all muddy. Sorry, Mr. Greengrass.” “Big box of mud?” Cheerilee looked at the box. “Uh… okay. I’ll go with that. I suppose they washed up then, Duke.” Greengrass nodded. “Of course. Also, as I was bereft of my secretary today, I sent for a page to tell the Guards to find you, although it appears that the page isn't as... efficient as my normal employee. In the meantime, once they were done cleaning up, I had to come up with something for them to do. I didn’t want to distract them with candy or chocolate, since it might spoil their appetites, so I dug out a board game.” “Can’t we stay a little longer?” asked Twist. “This is fun!” “No. We need to get back to Ponyville.” I need to chain some of you to your desks, Cheerilee added in her head. She turned to Greengrass. “Uh… thanks. For looking after them.” Greengrass waved this off. “No problem. After all, there’s no reason to bring foals into politics. Have a good day, Cheerilee.” “Oh, oh!” said Snails as the trio of foals began to leave. “Mr. Greengrass? Before we leave, can you breathe fire?” “…what?” asked the Duke. “But all monsters can breathe fire, and my sister says you’re a complete—“ Snails began, but then Cheerilee put a hoof over his mouth. “Mmmf!” “We need to go. Bye!” said Cheerilee, pushing the foals out of the room. “But—“ began Twist. “I said, bye!” “Er… bye?” said Greengrass. Cheerilee groaned on the train home. “I am never doing that again,” she muttered. She was exhausted, both mentally and physically, and would probably never be allowed into the castle with a foal in the foreseeable future. She’d be lucky if they even let her in for the Gala. Plus, they were hours late thanks to having to stop for the castle-wide foal search, so the parents would likely be angry at her. Sometimes she wished there were more weekend and vacation days… “Miss Cheerilee?” Cheerilee opened her eyes to see Dinky and the other wayward foals looking at her. “We’re really sorry,” said Dinky, bowing. The others did so behind her. “We shouldn’t have wandered off, and put you through all that.” Before Cheerilee could say anything, they approached her and hugged her. Cheerilee couldn’t help but smile. “I suppose some of it was our fault, for not watching you closely enough. But I do hope you pay more attention next time.” “When’s next time?” asked Snails. A few years, give or take, thought Cheerilee. But she wasn’t angry. She patted Snails on the head, who smiled goofily. “We’ll see.” “Can we make it up to you somehow?” asked Sweetie Belle. “Just promise to try to stay together better in the future,” said Cheerilee. “Follow my instructions, and those of other chaperones. We just want to keep you safe.” "An' watch out fer each other, make sure nopony's gettin' lost," said Applejack. "Help us help ya." “And don't sneak away,” said Heavy Roller. “Even if, um, the adult in charge gets distracted.” “We promise!” said Apple Bloom. “Cross our hearts!” said Scootaloo. “We swear!” said Snails. “Sure,” grumbled Diamond Tiara, whose mane and coat still looked windswept. Cheerilee grinned. “Thank you.” She looked at the shining faces of her class and felt a sense of peace. It was moments like this, where she saw how good her foals were and how much they wanted to grow into smart, capable, and compassionate adults, that made everything worthwhile. And it was thus that she drifted calmly off to sleep. Snails looked at Dinky. “Do you think I should tell her Snips and Truffle Muncher and I already ate all the snacks for the ride back?” he asked. Dinky paused. “Um… maybe now’s not the best time.” “Oh.” He paused. “Do you think she’d mind if Snips and I had a ‘see how far you can stick your head out the window contest?’ “Yes.” “Do you think—“ “I think Miss Cheerilee would be happy,” said Dinky, “If we just sat in our seats quietly and didn’t do anything else.” “That’s no fun…” said Snails. “But… I guess if it would make her happy, it’s the right thing to do.” Dinky followed Snails and sat across from him, taking the aisle seat next to Scootaloo. “Well, that was… interesting,” she said. Scootaloo nodded.” I’m going to get to learn more about what my Mom did in the Guards.” She grinned. “Miss Cheerilee is the best teacher ever.” “And she wasn’t even that mad at me for trying on Luna’s dresses,” said Sweetie Belle, from one seat down. Dinky nodded. “She’s a really good teacher. We should do something to thank her for being so understanding.” The foals looked at each other, smiles slowly spreading over their faces. Cheerilee entered her classroom the next morning, feeling rested and happy. She was ready to face the day. “Good morning, class! I… um…” Staring her in the face was a gigantic heart-shaped piece of construction paper, thoroughly covered with glitter, lace, ribbon, and paint. And standing around the heart were twenty smiling foals. “WE LOVE YOU, MISS CHEERILEE!” yelled her class. Cheerilee grinned. “And I love you too!” The foals rushed forward, and Cheerilee eagerly hugged them. And then she paused. “…how many of you are still covered in superglue?” There was a pause. "Can anypony break away from this cluster?" There was a brief flurry of struggle, which accomplished nothing. “Alright, class, let’s all try to hop to the solvent on the counter…”
