Uneasy Lies the Head

by Lifeinsteps

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Random
Length: 8931

Celestia's crown has vanished... but to where?

Celestia's prized possession has gone missing. What is a princess without her proper apparel? It could be anywhere in the kingdom if it's been stolen! How will they ever recover it?

Meanwhile, a young, orphaned filly continues about her daily ritual, only to get inescapably sucked into an adventure she never asked for.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-04-01 13:49:30 UTC

Prologue

Celestia slumbered, drawing deep snores that could be faintly heard by the guards standing just outside her chambers. Her covers had been put somewhat askew from writhing in her bed during the night, and the light shining in through the large glass windows along the wall stretched across her shape, plastering her shadow along the floor and up the wall. She rolled over and faced the ceiling, slowly allowing her eyes to creep open.

Suddenly, a stern hoof threw open her chamber doors. The great gates swung upon their hinges, crashing loudly into the walls and then somewhat pathetically wobbled back shut as an annoyed Princess Luna stepped in, completely awake.

"Sister! Rise from your nightly grave; your duty is upon you." Luna bellowed as she walked over to Celestia's bedside. She lowered her mouth down to Celestia's ear. "I am getting very tired of waking you up every morning. Your childish tendency to sleep well in is most unprofessional."

Celestia lazily tumbled over onto her right side away from the door and yanked a sheet to her face. "-and sister, your tendency to yell is most unbecoming. I will be awake shortly."

The covers were yanked violently from the bed and strewn across the floor of the room, taking with them a few of the small objects placed upon the chest at the bottom of the bed. Trinkets clattered to the floor as the blanket slid to the wall.

"No! You are going to wake up and get ready." Luna leaned down towards her and got closer to her ear. "Now!" She prodded Celestia in the back with her horn.

Celestia jumped away from the prodding, scooted over, and rolled off of the edge of the bed allowing her momentum to carry her body upwards after her hooves hit the ground. She groggily walked over to the window and viewed herself in its reflection. Using her magic, she lifted her brush up off of the nearby table and began brushing her mane as she stumbled back to the bed, lifting the water glass on the night-stand to her mouth.

"If waking me up frustrates you so, Luna, I don't see why you continue to do it." She indignantly turned away from Luna and put her nose up. "Every princess needs her beauty sleep."

Luna stomped her hoof on the ground and angrily jumped forwards.

"And every kingdom needs her ruler. That is you during the day, and sleeping all after-"

"-noon won't make any of that- so on and so forth," Celestia finished, and then sipped her water once more. She placed the glass back on the nightstand and walked over to the dresser in the corner, lifting her necklace from it and placing it around her neck. "There is a time to be serious, sister, but surely you know it is not always. Equestria is not in an urgent state of affairs and so I do not wake with urgency. Allow your mind to rest."

She turned back to the nightstand and stared for a moment, then opened the top drawer, then the one below. One by one she opened the drawers, then the small box on the floor to their right. She pushed the box against the wall with her front hoof and began looking frantically around the room.

Luna laughed, and then said, smugly, "Misplaced something, sister? Are you but a filly again, unable to account for her things?"

Celestia shot her a harsh look and continued ransacking her chambers. She pulled back the mirror and the nightstand.  She pulled out the books on her book-case. She looked underneath the bed.

"Have you seen my crown, Luna?" She looked up at her sister, her mane once again completely mussed up.

Luna let out another small laugh, and then said, "A crown is a princess' own responsibility, sister. I am not the keeper of your crown."

Celestia leaned across the bed. "This better not be a trick, Luna. You better not have hidden it. This isn't a game. That crown is more important than you know."

Luna leaned towards Celestia the same small amount and stared back at her. "Well, excuse me, your royal-"

Princess Celestia placed her front hoof over Luna's mouth. "I'm serious Luna. We can't let that crown go missing." She removed her hoof and stared at Luna for a moment, and then she walked towards the window yet again, looking out over her kingdom. It was a beautiful kingdom, indeed. The great spires standing from the castle walls. The ponies going about their daily business, like ants all working in a giant hill towards the greater good.

She turned back to her sister. "That crown was forged before our time and contains one of the greater secrets that remains unknown to most of Equestria. We can only hope it stays that way. We must find it. Immediately."

Luna said nothing, but now nodded.

Celestia walked a small circle around her bed and arrived at Luna's side. "Do you remember what father told us?"

Luna lowered her head. "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."

Celestia shook her head. "He told me, 'Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.' We must find it, sister. We must find it quickly."

_________________________________________________________________

A young filly marched proudly along the sidewalk. Her lavender, unevenly cut mane flapped in the breeze as she trotted, occasionally threatening to blind her by falling over her luminescent blue eyes. She smiled occasionally to those that she passed, revealing her front, buck teeth, holding in them a small bag filled with vegetables. The bag flopped against her chest, shining in the sun reflecting off the front of her pink coat.

She had just finished her biweekly spending of the ever growing collection of abandoned coins. Every day, she spent a certain amount of time wandering the busy streets of Ponyville and its market stalls, looking for dropped bits lying in the dust. Ponies could be so careless, they'd sometimes leave bits lying right on the edge of the picnic tables in the area, or simply drop them on the ground without even turning back.

Little Sunny Day, however, never, ever dropped a bit. Every bit, to her, was her ticket to food the next day. Her ticket to necessities. Her only ticket to life.

She lived on the outskirts of the Everfree by herself, hunkering under a small cloth tent pitched against the side of a large tree, hidden from the civilized world. That was the place she had learned to call home. She was headed there now, to store her new found bounty, and later, what would become her dinner.

But, as young Sunny Day walked along, luck would have it that she stamped down on something hard. She stepped backwards a little and looked down. A bit! Today really had been an extraordinarily lucky day!

Sunny gently laid down her bag and bent down to snatch the coin and, as she did, a flash of light blinded her right eye. She laid the coin in the bag and picked it up, then went to seek the source of the flash in the alley between the two buildings to her side. She looked around a bit to see if anyone was watching her, and entered the alley slowly. She squinted at the barely open dumpster, surrounded by a few abandoned cardboard boxes, in front of her. She climbed up onto the largest one near the dumpster's front side.

The dumpster groaned loudly as she pushed it open with her front hooves, revealing a small, purple, diamond shaped jewel resting atop an overturned basket.

Chapter 1 - A Normal Life

Sunny Day sat quietly in the dim light of her small fire, hunkered against the large, curled root of the tree holding her home together. The diamond shaped gem that she had found earlier was still at the forefront of her mind. She turned it over and tossed it from hoof to hoof.

How much was this thing worth? This might be her ticket to a decent life, all come straight to her from a particularly generous dumpster in the middle of town. It was beautiful. She had never seen any gem that was so perfect and smooth, and the color was astonishing.

'I'm sure it belongs to someone, though,' she thought. 'But who throws away something like this? This thing is cut perfectly.' She leaned closer and stared at the gem. Her eyes ran over the grooves, and the notches that ran between its two tips. This was her fortune, and maybe it would be best to go sell it in town as soon as possible.

She took the small cloth bag from her pile of possessions, and dropped the gem inside with her mouth, then grabbed the rope lacing the top of the bag and pulled it tight. She'd have to keep a close eye on this gem. No doubt if somepony else were to see it they'd want to take it from her; it was so unbelievably perfect.

_________________________________________________________________

Luna stood alone in her watch-tower, staring out over the valley. The stars shone down from above, and the night stared back at her silently. She took a few steps to her left and looked over the town. All those little lights. All those ponies down there, sleeping, or sitting in their rooms awake, chatting or reading, safe in their homes with their families. She pulled her front hoof along the ground. She envied those ponies down there, with their normal lives. She was quite used to being on constant night-watch, but sometimes she just wanted to lie in bed and read a book, knowing that she had a loving family in another room nearby. Here, the only family she had was-

Celestia pushed open the door behind Luna and stuck her head out. The light poured out from the tower door and into the sky, erasing all the stars from Luna's vision. She turned around to Celestia, who was now standing outside fully, and pushed the door shut, looking at her angrily.

"This is my tower and my time. You should not be up here."

Celestia walked over a bit closer and looked over the edge of the tower. "Did they find it? Did they report anything, Luna?"

Luna sighed and shook her head, her eyebrows lowered in disappointment. "I'm sorry, sister, my guards report no news on your missing crown. It will have to suffer the night, lost. We will find it in the morning."

The wind blew a bitter breeze through the manes of the two sisters and whistled through the few small gaps in the brick-work along the walls of the tower. Celestia shook her head, now, and then looked down at little Ponyville below. It was so distant, but she knew very well how alive a place it could be during the day.

"Luna, I may have to call her," she said, quietly. "Our guard can't do this as fast as it needs to be done."

Luna turned on Celestia and responded loudly, "Celestia, we needn't stir Twilight Sparkle and her friends from their lives for something as menial as a missing crown. Even if the crown is incredibly important, they cannot possibly look any faster than our guard can. They are just normal ponies. Six normal ponies, while we have a hundred of the finest in our guard at our disposal."

"They are anything but normal ponies, Luna," Celestia responded. She slowly turned away from Luna and walked out of her vision. Soon, the door opened and shut, and Luna was alone again.

Bother those poor ponies just to find her sister's crown? What nonsense! Celestia may be right, their bond is something stronger than that of normal ponies, but that isn't going to make their ability to search any faster than her royal guard. Luna had solely chosen many of her guards for their immense list of capabilities. What an insult!

She walked over to the edge of the tower wall and leaned on it. The cool stone sent a small chill through her body, and she put her front, left hoof on top of it. Surely there was no need to stir those poor girls. Surely. There are better ways to deal with this.

Luna pushed herself up on the wall of the tower and then dropped off. She spread her wings, and the breeze yanked her off into the middle of the night.

_________________________________________________________________

Little Sunny Day awoke on the following morning, her eyes blinking at the sun glaring down onto them. She hoisted herself up on her front legs, and immediately began folding the tattered sheets laid upon the ground near her tree. One she had laid on the ground under her; the other she had used as a cover. They were both filled with holes, but still perfectly usable, in her opinion.

She tossed the freshly folded sheets against the side of the trunk and remembered the one thing that she needed to do today.

'Ah, that jewel!' she thought, and then turned about for it. 'What did I do with it, again?'

The little earth pony moved a few of her things in search of the jewel, and then became a bit frantic. She tossed aside a few more things, and then, in desperation, grabbed her folded blankets and threw them aside, back over the area she had removed them from moments ago.

Ah, the knot in the tree! She had forgotten she stored it there in hopes that if somepony did come by, they wouldn't think to look inside. She stuck her hoof, just small enough to fit in the hole, inside it and raked the tiny sack that contained the gem out. She dropped it into one of her small saddlebags and tossed the pair of bags onto her back.

Sunny stared down at the saddlebags and walked a few steps. Ah, who was she kidding? They were still much too large for her to carry with her. She took a few more slow steps and watched the bags drag across the ground, and the right one caught on a small, broken limb sticking out from the base of her tree. If only her legs were a bit longer, she thought.

She pushed the saddlebags off and looked out across the field separating her home from proper civilization. She couldn't wait to be grown up. She would have long legs so she could carry all the saddlebags she wanted. She would have her own house, and her own family, and her own job. She would have everything she ever wanted. It would be perfect.

The new thought of her future family still rattling around in her head, she merrily trotted back to her tree with her saddlebags in her mouth and tossed them against it. She hummed as she gathered her things and pushed them against the large roots of the tree, then covered them with the tent by pushing down on it until it hung at an angle over her belongings.

'Perfect.' She thought, as she removed the gem's sack from the larger saddlebag.

She began trotting off to Ponyville, the small bag dangling from her mouth.

'This gem is it,' she reminded herself, 'This thing is going to be my first step into a new life. A normal life.'

Little Sunny Day smiled.

_________________________________________________________________

-the villain who stole it must be apprehended immediately and harshly dealt with. Please hurry, Twilight Sparkle. This is of utmost urgency.

The tip of the quill dotted the last period, dipped into the ink in the jar on the table, tapped against the top of the container, and quickly scrawled a signature.

Your Princess,

Celestia

Chapter 2 - A Piece of Crud

It was a normal, uneventful day in Personable Pete's Ponyville Pawn. Pete stood behind the counter, watching the objects in his store do nothing. Hour after hour, they sat and waited to be purchased. Occasionally a pony would come in an examine an oar on the wall, or maybe the ship in the bottle over on the far side of the counter.

It was well into the afternoon and Pete had reached a full understanding that today was simply not going anywhere. Fate had decreed that, on this day, he would not make any money. Not a single bit would go into that register. It was an awful feeling. Perhaps it was his big, grey mustache. Nopony ever liked Pete's big, grey mustache but Pete. Pete had a suspicion his wife had left him because of his mustache.

Just as Pete laid his head upon his hoof, lazily watching the store and continuing to consider his depressing disposition, the door pushed open and a small bell atop it jangled loudly. In walked a small pink filly just out of school, he assumed. She was carrying a small bag in her mouth, and he leaned forward to see a small object weighing it down from the inside. A bit! She had a bit in the bag! She was coming to spend money! Fantastic!

Pete straightened himself up and adjusted his collar, waiting for her to make her decision. Little fillies and colts loved to spend money, they just couldn't hold on to it, and she was eyeing that wooden wagon wheel pretty hard. This was Pete's time to shine. He knew he could sell it to her. That was his job. That was his passion.

He rounded the counter and began to make his way to her, when suddenly the door opened again. She brought friends!

Pete turned towards the door to see the local librarian walking towards him.

"Oh. Twilight Sparkle, good day to you. Come to see the new books?"

Twilight smiled and stepped once more towards him.

"Oh, no, I was just stopping in to let you know that we're currently on the lookout for a particular piece of jewelry. Nopony has turned in a sort of crown, or tiara, lately... have they?" She giggled. "I know it sounds kind of peculiar, so I'm sure you'd know if you'd seen it. It's been missing since yesterday morning."

Pete scratched at his chin and then dropped his hoof back to the floor. "I'm pretty sure I've not seen any crowns lately," he chuckled, "but I'll let you know if a strange thing like that happens to find its way in here."

Twilight smiled and sweetly added, "Thanks, Pete. Your help is always greatly appreciated. It's a sort of golden crown with a small, diamond shaped purple gem in the crest of it."

Sunny Day almost gagged on the bag sticking out of her mouth. Her purple gem? She had stolen someone else's property! What was she going to do? She couldn't just- No. No, wait, this was her gem, now. She found it in the garbage; that means somepony didn't want it, and she did. They gave it away, and she took it. It was her gem, now.

She shook her head lightly as she thought. She didn't really believe that, though. This gem belonged to somepony else; she couldn't just claim it for herself. Oh, but what about the money it could make her? This was such a beautiful gem! She couldn't just hand it away and go back to her poor life. What about her house? What about her family?

She jumped and turned around quickly when she felt a touch to her shoulder. She looked back into the eyes of the smiling, purple pony looking back at her.

"Hi! Looking for something to spend some bits on? I know just the thing, and I bet Pete here will even give you a discount since you're with me; won't you, Pete?." Twilight looked at Pete, then turned back to Sunny, smiled, and patted the filly's head. Every touch by her hoof made Sunny flinch, and each one prompted a thought from her head.

Pat

I stole your gem.

Pat

I'm so sorry

Pat

-but you can't have it back.

Twilight let out another giggle and then followed with, "Don't look so worried; I promise I don't bite! I bet Pete's got just the perfect book for a little, growing pony like you."

Each word that came out of her mouth was punctuated by the lights above drawing the shadows deeper and deeper over her face as she leaned in. Sunny's breath continuously got heavier, and one of the gasps caused her to drop the bag to the floor. It hit the ground and Twilight leaned down and picked it up with her mouth.

Just then, another blue pony entered into the room.

"You can't make every little filly into a reader, Twilight, I mean come on. Some of us have better things to do than read all day." She sarcastically drew out the word 'read,' and then winked at the little filly who had looked over at her, mortified.

Twilight's words were a bit muffled with the sack in her mouth. "Thath's whuth you thaid about yourthelf buhfore, too."

The blue pony hung her head at the remark a bit, and said, "Uh, yeah... But still, she wants to play, not read silly old books all day long. She should buy a ball. Don't you think, sport?" She looked hopefully at Sunny.

Sunny Day, however, was staring at the bag dangling from Twilight's mouth. She had to retrieve it, but she had absolutely no idea what to say or do, so she continued watching it swing, hanging down, waiting. It swung back and forth, back and forth, like the "Great, Great" grandfather clock a merchant had tried to sell to her the other day in the Ponyville market square.

Tick.

Tock.

Tick.

Slump.

It hit the ground and Sunny continued staring at it, speechless.

Twilight looked up at her with another smile, and gently continued, "How many bits did you bring with you, sweetie?" She reached with her front hoof and started to pull at the lacing on the bag. Sunny immediately grabbed the bag out from under her hoof with her mouth and quickly rattled off the words blowing through her mind at break-neck speed.

"I'm sorry I just remembered I have to be somewhere right now because my teacher wants me to do my home-pie and my mom is making apple-work and I need to go bye!"

She turned and ran as fast as she could through the blue pony's legs, brushed against her unusually colored tail, then bounded off the steps. Another pony, just on her way up, greeted her.  "Howdy pardn- what...? Where are you goin', you silly little pony?"

Sunny didn't look back to see what she wanted. She knew they were chasing her. She knew they were going to catch her at any minute, hold her down, take their gem,  and carry her back to the orphanage. She'd get adopted by a mean old pony with nothing at her house but old books filled with her family photographs. And she'd have to look at them all day, every day, because the old mare would forget that they just looked at them, and she would have to eat applesauce all the time and never have any real food because the old mare who adopted her would never know how to make anything and the only things she’d be allowed to eat without her teeth in was applesauce.

She ran, and ran. She turned into an alley, then galloped across the street into another until she was so out of breath, she couldn't run anymore. Eventually she stopped, panting, her head hung in both exasperation and shame. She dropped the little bag on the ground and stared at it, then kicked it with her front hoof. What a piece of crud. A stolen piece of crud. A stolen, beautiful piece of complete crud, and now...

She had to figure out how to get rid of it.

Chapter 3 - A Moment To Think

Sunny watched the water droplets in her mane, sliding down the individual hairs hanging in front of her face. They would move down the pieces slowly, until one of the larger droplets above slid down from the base of the hair and pushed the other smaller ones down the line. They would then drop down off of the tips and collide into river, becoming indistinguishable from the millions of the water droplets sliding down the stream, all heading to the same place.

She bent down and dipped her head in the cool water.

Sunny had finally broken down and taken to simply dunking her head in the river, because she didn't know what else to do.

It started out as simply bending down to get a drink. Then her mane had fallen in the water, and she had noticed the way the water slid off of it. It put her in a trance as she thought about what she would do now, and each time she dipped her mane down in the stream, more and more were submerged until finally, she simply took to closing her eyes and dunking her entire head into the water and feeling the stream push against the side of her face, gently.

She lifted her head once more.

After she had seen the ponies who owned the gem she had found the night before, she had run out of Ponyville by way of backstreets and alleyways. She was now a good kilometer out, standing on the banks of a small stream that connected to a river that ran out from Ponyville and perpendicular to the Everfree. She needed to find somewhere else to go sell her jewel, somewhere far away. Otherwise, the shop-keeps in the area might recognize who it belonged to, especially if they were as friendly with the librarian pony as the pawn shop owner had been.

Sunny shook her head to dry her mane off, and then turned back to the small bag on the bank to her right. The gem had been sitting there in that bag, in the grass, this entire time. She glared down at it for a few moments, and then began berating it.

“You stupid gem!” she yelled, then quickly looked up and surveyed her surroundings. She looked back down at it again and continued, “I just wanted to sell you! I just wanted to make some stupid bits off of you, so I could buy myself some stupid clothes, or some stupid sheets, or some stupid... something! Now here I am in the middle of nowhere, sitting next to this stupid creek, and I don't even know where I'm going to go! And it's your fault!”

She stared at the little woven bag, unwavering, breathing heavily, and then finally sighed and hung her head. This was her burden to carry now and she would carry it. This was her chance. She couldn't give up this easily.

She snatched up the sack and began trotting along the creek bank until creek bank became river bank. Sunny marveled at the water as it became faster, and faster. The blue water from upstream became white, and the whitewater picked up the pace the fastest she had seen. She could feel the river bouncing water droplets up onto her side, and she shivered. The cool water was in complete contrast with the warm day.

Sunny moved a bit away from the river as she trotted and looked up at the sun. It was getting late, and the sun was in the middle of the sky, shining down directly above her. She'd have to speed it up a little if she wanted to at least make it to shelter before nightfall.

_________________________________________________________________

Celestia stood on the balcony outside of her chambers, watching the sun. She had raised it a million times. She had raised it, and watched it move throughout the day, and watched it fall. It was hers. It was her.

She wished, sometimes, that she could see everything that the sun could see. She wanted to look down on all of her subjects, not with an air of oppression, but to bring light into their lives as they worked and did their daily tasks.

She almost smiled, and then turned back down to the letter in front of her.

We regret to inform you, Princess, that we have no information on your missing crown. We are looking as fast as we can, though!

Oh, Twilight Sparkle. She was such a faithful student, and such a kindhearted young pony. Celestia smiled for a minute, and then blinked, looking out over the valley. Out there, little Twilight was diligently searching out that crown, and if Celestia could just trust her for a day or two longer, it would be back in her hooves. She would have her crown back, and all would be well. The thief would be locked up or sent away, and the crown would be placed back on the rightful owner's head.

She put her hoof on the railing and gently rapped against it, causing the metal to vibrate up to the wall and back.

Who had stolen the crown? Was it just a poor-off thief looking to make a pretty penny? A betrayal from one of her personal guards, or maybe an entire group, working together? Was it an attack on Canterlot, the crown stolen by somepony who knew its true value, and what taking it from her could do?

She turned back down to the letter again.

We think we may have a lead on the pony involved, though, so I'll update you on that as it develops!

Your student,

Twilight Sparkle

Celestia folded the letter and magically placed it on the dresser as she walked back inside. Shaking her head, she kneeled down in the middle of the room for a moment and closed her eyes.

"Please hurry, Twilight Sparkle. This brings a bad omen," she whispered.

_________________________________________________________________

Sunny continued downstream until she came to an area where could see railroad tracks. The river curved left into the Everfree's edge, and the tracks continued forwards.

She kept walking along the river for a bit until she saw a small crossing, a bit closer to the forest. There were a few rocks placed evenly along the middle of the river that she could cross on, and she walked back and forth near them, judging how trusty of a hoof-hold they would provide.

Sunny looked up at the sun. It was now on its way back down, and it would only be a few hours before it was dark again. She listened as the water roared past her in the river-bed. A slip could be a very big mistake. She had to hurry, but she had to be careful.

"No problem," she muttered, and clenched her teeth around the bag a little tighter.

Sunny slowly put her front hoof out to the first rock, then transferred over the next one. She carefully shifted her weight and moved each hoof onto the new rock, one by one, until eventually she was standing on the first rock in the riverbed.

Piece of cake.

She moved to the next rock a bit more quickly, and then hopped to the next one with ease. It was large and flat, so it provided a great spot for her to stand. She continued across, hopping from rock to rock, until she hopped onto a small pointy rock towards the middle. When her front hoof landed on it, the top of the rock broke off, and her back hooves slid against the side. She waved her front right hoof and left back hoof in the air for a moment, trying to gain her balance, and slowly, found her center.

Then the rock chipped again.

Before Sunny had even a moment to react, she fell face-first into the thundering river, and the current pushed her downstream quickly, scratching her sides and back on the rocks. Another, smaller rock ripped the bag from her mouth. She fought her way to the top of the river, caught a small breath, and was yanked underneath again. She closed her eyes and continued pushing upwards, trying to reach the surface.

The next thing she felt, and the last thing she remembered, was a sharp rap on the forehead.

Chapter 4 - A Couch In a Room

Sunny's eyes slowly opened and then closed shut again quickly as her ears were filled with a rattling sound. She placed her front hooves on the ground and tried to pull herself upwards, but the floor shook underneath her and her legs shook with it. Her back hooves slipped and her body flopped to the ground again. After a few more moments of listening to the sound of whatever she was lying on, a voice called out.

"Oh, you're finally awake, huh, little filly?"

Sunny blinked slowly and tried to roll over on to her back to see where the voice was coming from. She got no further than her side before realizing she was a bit too weak to make it any further and, once again, flopping onto her stomach.

"Don't try t'uh move too much; you might hurt somethin'!"

The voice was a feminine one, and was delivered in a heavy country accent. Sunny listened quietly for another few moments, then slowly opened her eyes once more, then looked downwards. Between the two wooden slats she was positioned on, she could see a dusty path moving along underneath her. A puff of dirt carried by the breeze underneath her flew up into her face, and she coughed a couple times. The voice continued.

"I found you down by the river-bank. Y'all ought'a be more careful. When we're back to Appleloosa, we need to find your parents and get you home."

Sunny's eyes opened a bit more quickly. Appleloosa? Wha-... Oh! The gem! Oh no, the gem! It was gone!

"I don't know what a little filly like you would be doin' down there by yourself. Goin' for a swim? A little far away from anything anypony would call home, if yuh ask me."

Sunny shook her head lightly. She mustered up her strength and attempted to explain. "... fell..."

"What? Didjuh say something, back there?"

Sunny tried again. "... I... fell..."

"You what?"

"fell..."

The voice broke the mood of the conversation with a sharp cackle.

"Y'all're just gonna have to learn to speak up!" The statement punctuated the laugh. It almost felt like this pony was teasing her.

Sunny finally succeeded at rolling over on her back and watched the sky as they rolled along underneath it. It was as big and blue as she'd expected (based on how warm it was) and the clouds were incredibly big and fluffy. She simply stared at them for a few moments while deciding if she should say anything else or just stay quiet for the rest of the ride. She had to know where that gem was, but she couldn't ask her current host. That gem had seemed important, and there was too much of a chance of somepony else recognizing it.

But how was she to retrieve it? How was she even to know where it was? Sunny felt defeated before she'd even found out the answers to those questions, and so she simply closed her eyes and listened to the steady, rhythmic clip-clop of her savior's hooves on the dirt road.

_________________________________________________________________

As Sunny awoke she found herself somewhat confused about her surroundings. She was on a couch in a room only lit by the windows behind her, the old looking curtains drawn up to the sides. She remembered the cart-ride shortly thereafter and then she remembered hitting her head. Then she remembered hitting her head, and that's when the despair of her situation crept in.

How was she to retrieve that gem! She might not ever. She felt as though she may as well simply give up. The gem could be anywhere in Equestria by now, and probably had already returned to its rightful owner. Sunny did believe that was how these things worked- she was the bad pony in someone else's story, and their marvelous gem would simply travel back to them on its own, given the chance to do so.

She had failed. Now she was in a town she knew nothing about, in the care of a pony she knew nothing about, with no real idea of how to get home on her own. She laid her head down, and then she began to cry. She tried to hold back the tears, but she simply couldn't. Her only chance at freedom, at making something of her life, and slipped away from her. Now all she had was a headache and nothing else.

She lay there by herself in the light of the setting sun, crying gently and whimpering to herself as she rubbed her hoof on the edge of the couch, when she heard a door open. She tried to stop crying, but she was too far into it at this point, and when she tried to stop herself she coughed with the effort.

Before long, the door to the room she was in swung open gently, and there stood a tall, lanky pony with a brown bandana tied around her neck, and a buttoned flannel shirt. She inched close to Sunny, quietly, and sat down near the couch, looking at her. Sunny's face burned as much with embarrassment as from the irritation her crying was causing her, as she still could not stop. Every time she tried, she just started crying even harder, and soon this pony leaned towards her and spoke.

"Hush, little'n'. There's no need to be upset. You're okay, now; don't you worry," the pony said, and put a hoof on Sunny's side. She wanted to pull away from the stranger, but she simply didn't have the energy left in her. She buried her face in the pillow near her instead, and soon felt the pony stroking the back of her mane.

"It's okay. You're safe, and you can stay right here with me until you feel all better. Then we'll get you home."

With the last sentence, Sunny cried even harder, and felt a few more gentle pats on the back of the head before the visitor clopped away and the door gently creaked barely shut with a small opening.

It wasn't long after that the same pony as before returned with a saucer of soup and a cup of water, and upon seeing it, Sunny realized that the only thing that felt worse than her disappointment was the hunger in her stomach. She sniffled and wiped her face, and set out devouring the food that had been brought to her with just as much energy as she'd previously been sobbing.

"My, a hungry little thing, aren't you? I'm gonna go over in the next room and let y'all have a little privacy, but don't worry. I'll be right over there if you need anything, and you just call, you hear?" With that, she took more of a leave than before, and Sunny sat and enjoyed her soup staring at the room around her.

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It had been three days since Sunny had arrived at Appleloosa, and she was finally getting back on her hooves. Her first day and most of the second had been spent on her make-shift bed, in a bit of a haze and upset enough that the slightest provocation had set her into another bout of weeping.

And yet, she felt much better now. At least, she felt more hopeful. The citizens of this town had been widely accepting of her, and her new friend had shown her nothing but kindness and patience.

Sunny's host's name was Sunny Ride, she had learned, and they had both been overjoyed at hearing they had shared a name. And yet, despite her insistence to the opposite, Sunny had taken to calling Sunny Ride "Ms. Ride."

Ms. Ride didn't have much, but she had more than Sunny had ever had in her entire life. Her house was beautiful and decorated with old timey knick-knacks that she said had been given to her by her parents. She had told Sunny all about how wonderful her parents were, and how much she missed them now that they had moved far away. "I always thought it was the young'n's that were supposed to travel far from home!" she had joked. The conversation had made Sunny a little sad, but more for Ms. Ride than herself.

Ms. Ride was still pretty young herself, just a young mare who didn't seem to have been on her own for very long. She was very responsible, and paid for her beautiful house all by herself. She lived alone, and had joked with Sunny that she'd never had much interest in having any stallion around. She had commented that she didn't think there was anything that somepony else could do for her that she couldn't do herself, and Sunny liked that.

The other thing she liked was Ms. Ride's sense of style. She always seemed so cool, wearing a different outfit every day. Sometimes she wore different hats and had lots of different clothes. One thing was certain though, she always left clean ("as a whistle," she'd say) but came back filthy. She was a real, grown-up farm-pony, and Sunny liked that too.

She hoped that one day she could grow up to be half as great as Ms. Ride.

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The fourth day of Sunny's visit with Ms. Ride, she had been lying on the couch as usual in the morning when Ms. Ride had told her she'd be out for awhile to go off to work, and as had already become customary, asked Sunny to make sure she behaved herself. It was more a little joke than a real threat, and Sunny knew that.

She was so certain, in-fact, that she decided it was time to do a little less behaving than usual. She really liked Ms. Ride, and that day, she was determined to explore her house a little more and find out more about her new friend. She wanted to really get to know her more, but she also wanted to snoop, as children are wont to do.

First she started in the room she was in, checking in every little place she could think of. She even stooped and examined the floor under the rug, as if to check for any hidden trap-doors. She walked over to the mantle and examined everything there, as well. Among the artifacts were a few pictures of a young Ms. Ride with her parents, and some candles. There was also an old necklace that fascinated Sunny, and she picked it up and tried it on. It was a little heavy on her, and it hung down near to the floor, so she removed it, looked at it for another moment, and then placed it back on the shelf.

She moved from her makeshift room into the hallway, and there, there was a door on her left that she knew led to a bathroom, and stairs to her right. Straight ahead of her was the kitchen, and the kitchen simply contained food and a front door. She knew that wouldn't be interesting, and so made for the stairs.

The first thing she noted at the top was the old carpet that had been stained in a few places, and briefly she wondered from what. She crept down the hallway in the dark, and opened a closet as quietly as she could near the end to have a peek. Inside were some towels and other random bits of cloth, she guessed sheets and maybe pillow-cases. She closed it, and continued to the room at the end of the hallway, and there she found it.

Ms. Ride's bed-room! What a fantastic bed-room it was. Everything was old like everywhere else in the house, but among the old stuff there had been scattered a random assortment of Ms. Ride's personal belongings that she'd picked up over the years. Some random tools were even scattered on the dresser, and Sunny cheerily reflected on Ms. Ride's rough-and-tumble nature. She was so mature and strong.

Sunny crept over to the dresser and opened the top drawer and looked inside, and found nothing but clothes. She opened the second drawer and in there found yet more clothes. The bottom drawer, when opened, however, revealed the clattering of some more tools and other random knick-knacks, some of which she were not particularly familiar with, and yet that was not what caught her eye.

What caught Sunny's eye as she opened that drawer was a little black bag that was tied tightly at the top, and she pulled it towards her slowly, and then began to tug at the top until its contents spilled out in the drawer.

Sunny's mouth dropped open as she regarded the diamond-shaped purple gem that had tumbled out onto the bottom of the drawer.

Chapter 5 - A Group of Friends

Celestia's head drooped as she lie in bed. She was on her back and had been for the past couple days. Her primary caregiver had been Luna, though when that wasn't an option, she had a few ponies designated to taking care of her. Nobody was entirely sure what was wrong with her, and any medical examinations had turned up nothing.

In fact, at this point, many were starting to assume it was an act. Was it so surprising that such a busy pony would have a breakdown like this? Perhaps the stress of her daily life had just become too much to bear. She needed a break, and pretending to be ill was the only escape, even if a little childish.

Of course, Luna had her doubts. Clearly, she was becoming mentally distressed over the loss of her crown, and yet it was hard to imagine why it was so important. She marveled briefly at the idea that the crown had some sort of magical powers imbued in it that had not been relayed to her. It was distressing to imagine that her father had told Celestia of the great potential of such an item and cut her completely out of the picture.

In fact, now that she had risen back to her former state of glory, why had nopony warned or told her of this item's potential? Did they not trust her? Perhaps they feared that part of her still had the intention to retrieve the crown and use it to further a personal cause.

She snorted. That was probably it. They didn't trust her.

She was on her way down into Canterlot to mingle with the citizens as had become a part of her daily routine. In the wake of Celestia's departure from standard duty, the citizens were becoming somewhat restless. Everypony was filled with fears that without a ruling princess in the throne, evil might strike at any minute. And of course, one wailing pony is worth three or four more, as soon as they hear the first. Fear spreads ever faster than content, and Luna refused to let fear pull apart the city she and her sister ruled.

And yet, as Luna glided over one of the lanes that made up the intricate structure of Canterlot's streets, she spied a downtrodden group of six making their way solemnly up to the castle. It was Twilight Sparkle and her friends. She swooped down to meet them.

"Hail, Twilight Sparkle!" she loudly declared as she dropped in-front of them. "Where are you and your friends headed? The castle has already been thoroughly checked, I assure you."

Twilight looked at her for a moment and then back to her friends, "Luna, we can't do it. We can't find it. We've been looking for five days, and nopony knows anything! We've all but given up."

Luna laughed briefly as she looked over the group of friends. "I have never known your group to give up, Twilight. Surely, you can't have looked everywhere in Equestria. You know that this is one of the most important assignments you've ever been given. As long as that crown is missing, Celestia is in danger. The entirety of Equestria may be in danger; it is hard to say. Suffice it to say, giving up is not an option."

Applejack spoke up next, "If I may offer a suggestion, princess," at this, Luna nodded and Applejack continued, "We need a suggestion. We've all but checked every settlement, city and town from here to the edge of the world and back, and we've come up nothing but plum tuckered."

Next it was Rainbow Dash, "We just don't know what to do! Help us figure out where that crown is, and we'll zip in there and come back with it faster than you can say 'Equestria is saved.' It's just finding it that's the hard part."

"-and I'm stumped!" The words fell to the ground like bricks. "I'm all out of ideas. There are no riddles or puzzles to analyze and solve, Luna. The crown is simply gone! It got up, and it walked away, and we can't find anything about it, anywhere!"

At this, the whole group dropped their head again. They all knew, somewhere in the back of their mind, that if Twilight Sparkle herself couldn't figure out what the pattern was, there simply wasn't any pattern. The crown was gone. Their only hope of finding it was pure luck. It wasn't a hopeful thought.

Luna chuckled again. "And I'm telling you and your friends again that giving up is not an option, Twilight Sparkle. I understand that it can be frustrating not having any direction, but this is where your combined intuition and friendship is supposed to help. Celestia entrusted the task to you because all of you are more valuable to her than anypony when it comes to matters of importance. I refuse to hear that that is for no reason at all, and futhermore, I refuse to hear that it cannot be done. You and your friends will find that crown! You will!"

Luna's passionate speech fell almost as loudly as Twilight's original statement. A heavy silence sat in the air. After a few moments, Luna quickly finished, "Now, go!"

Twilight turned to her friends and commanded them back out. They left at a gallop, either afraid of Luna or emboldened by her speech. She was not sure which, but the important fact was that they were moving once again. Truthfully, Luna had almost as much faith in the group as Celestia did. They had proven themselves time and time again, and she could hardly believe this was a problem they could not solve. In fact, Luna had barely believed it was a problem at all.

And yet, the more she reflected on it, the more she felt like she was missing something. There was an underlying importance she didn't yet see. Perhaps there was something to it that she could not find. The idea annoyed her, and she trotted along saying hi to this stallion or that mare as she wracked her mind internally.

She couldn't help but feel as if somehow, this entire problem was rooted somewhere very near.

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As all this was happening, Sunny was still where we had left her. She stood silent in Ms. Ride's bedroom, hunched over her dresser, her precious jewel in hand. How had this happened? What did this mean?

Her mind spun at the realization that Ms. Ride had lied to her from the moment they met. She was upset to her core in that very moment, and then she realized that Ms. Ride hadn't actually lied; she never claimed she hadn't found the jewel.

And yet, she had found it! Where? It couldn't have been far, and she must have known it belonged to Sunny! The thought must have at least crossed her mind. Maybe she was in denial over its belonging to Sunny, or maybe she just hoped it was coincidental. Maybe she was just keeping safe!

No. No, Ms. Ride intended to keep that jewel. She knew it deep in her heart.

She stopped herself again. But why should she even care? Ms. Ride had taken her into her home. Ms. Ride had given her a bed and food and companionship. Ms. Ride was like a sister to her, a big sister that would always take care of her.

But it might not last forever! She might turn her out at some point, that wasn't something that had been discussed. Maybe Ms. Ride didn't see her as the sister that she wanted to be.

It was all too confusing, and Sunny realized that she had frozen in place in front of the drawer. She didn't know what to think, but she needed to do something quick and get out of this room. She didn't want to be caught, because if Ms. Ride had hidden the jewel from her knowing it was hers, then finding it might be enough of a reason to kick her out before she caused trouble. She had to either take the jewel and run or leave it there. She had to act, and she had to do it now. She knew this was the defining moment, and yet she lingered, but then-

Sunny grabbed the jewel in her mouth.