Lazy Bones

~3: Getting Back On Track~

Twilight cradled her head in her forehooves as her and Fluttershy sat in front of Iron Heart’s desk in the barracks. Looking up she saw he looked as stressed as she felt, and looking around she saw the four cells lining the walls, their occupants looking deeply ashamed with themselves. At last Iron Heart broke the silence drawing Twilight and Fluttershy’s attention back to him.

“I don’t know what to do,” he admitted, Twilight couldn’t blame him, “it's bad enough having to deal with this stuff, but we’re already in the middle of a small crisis without having to deal with brawls and petty theft.”

“I know, and I’m so sorry,” Twilight said pleadingly, “I don’t know what’s going on, they aren’t usually like this.”

“It’s not my fault,” Dash called over from her cell, “AJ started it.”

“An ah wouldna had to if you could keep a lid on that ego of yours,” Applejack retorted.

“Enough!” Iron Heart shouted, silencing them both, “it’s fine that you don’t want to press charges against each other, but you still have to spend a night in the cells for causing a disturbance.”

Both of them groaned at this but didn’t argue.

“eh-hem,” Rarity said quietly, drawing Iron Hearts attention, “I can understand why these ruffians are in here, but surely you can see it in your heart to forgive little old me, I promise I won’t do it again.”

Iron Heart just shook his head, not looking impressed or swayed by Rarity’s pleading, “you’ll be fined for the damage you caused to that jewellers, all the stolen goods will be returned, and you will also spend a night in the cells as punishment.”

Rarity flopped down on her bunk, pouting. Finally Iron Heart turned to the last cell which contained Pinkie Pie.

“This is a very serious matter Miss. Pie,” he said sternly, “you’re going to have to attend a formal trial and you may potentially be made to serve jail time.”

Pinkie didn’t respond, she just curled up in the corner of her cell, her straight mane hiding her face from view. Twilight was most horrified by Pinkie, street fighting and robbery were trivial compared to attempted acts of cannibalism.

“With that settled, could the two of you follow me,” he requested standing up from behind the desk and leading Twilight and Fluttershy away.

“Like I said Twilight,” he said turning to them once they left the room, “we really can’t be taking time out of our search for matters like these.”

“I understand but…” twilight began, but then what Iron Heart had said dawned on her, “search? Search for what?”

“About a week ago two guards went missing, it’s nothing for you to worry about but taking up a lot of our time and effort.”

This struck Twilight as interesting, but before she could follow up on it, Iron Heart was already continuing.

“If you come back tomorrow at midday you can pick up your friends, we’ll even let the pink one out on bail, but she’ll be expected to report back regularly until the trial.”

“We will, thank you for all your effort,” Fluttershy said politely, Iron Heart sighed removing his helmet, letting his blonde mane flow free briefly.

“I really hope we get a chance to hang out without crazy stuff like this happening,” he said sounding exasperated.

“So do I,” Twilight and Fluttershy said at the same time. They looked at each other in surprise, and again Twilight felt that knot in her chest tighten. With nothing more to say they left the barracks and made their way to the house in silence. Twilight was carrying the few groceries Rarity had actually paid for in her own purple grip, and when they arrived in she set about making a simple dinner for Spike, Fluttershy and herself.

~

The four ponies had been moved to different cells where they couldn’t communicate with one another overnight, and Dash was beginning to get agitated with the whole ordeal. It was hard to think that before all this happened she was basking in the admiration of dozens of strangers, as she deserved. It was Applejack’s fault, she was just angry she could never hope to live up to the legend that is Rainbow Dash, the fastest flyer in all of Equestria, the winner of the best young flyer competition, and the only pony to successfully perform a sonic rainboom. Yup, the more she thought about it, the more she knew it was true; she was unmatched in every way imaginable.

Applejack paced her own cell, she was exhausted but she’d already kicked the bunk until it was unrecognisable as a bed, the toilet had followed, she even tried to smash the window of her cell, but couldn’t reach it through the metal grill barring it from her. She was furious, at Dash for being a show off, at Fluttershy for being a creep, at Pinkie for being selfish, even at Twilight for just leaving her in here. The more she thought about her friends the greater her anger grew, until she was bucking furiously at the door, trying with all her strength to knock it off its hinges. She only stopped when the night guard had threatened to give her a smack with has baton, but she didn’t feel any less angry, the only difference was now she was angry at the guard on top of everypony else.

Rarity held the diamond up to the moonlight shining through her cell window. She knew if she was caught with it she’d be in even more trouble than she already was, but she wasn’t about to give it up, they’d already taken everything else from her, they weren’t getting this too. Good thing the guard who brought her in didn’t know the first thing about searching, so now here she lay, with her extracted diamond, it was hers, all hers, but still… she wanted more. She was only brought out of her thoughts by the low moaning she could here through the wall of her cell. Pressing an ear up against it she could faintly make out a voice she recognised as Pinkie’s.

“So… hungry.”

~

Twilight woke up quite suddenly the next morning, what had woken her up? Spike was snoring away as usual, it couldn’t be that. The sun shining through the curtains? No that hadn’t bothered her too much yesterday. Still, she had the creeping feeling something had woken her up. Frowning, she stepped out of bed and looked around, everything seemed normal, just as it had ben when she went to bed the night before, except…

She could swear she had shut the door last night. Had Spike gotten up in the middle of the night for something? Not likely, he’d barely moved since they’d arrived.

“Lazy bones,” Twilight muttered as she left the room. The only other pony in the house that morning was Fluttershy, but as Twilight peeked into her bedroom, Fluttershy was still fast asleep, lucky her.

“You’re just being paranoid Twilight,” she told herself as she went downstairs and began making herself breakfast.

Fluttershy heard Twilight leave her room, and sighed with relief. She massaged her stiff wings as she thought back to the sleeping form of her best friend. She had been so enthralled watching Twilight as she slept; she almost hadn’t gotten out of her room in time as she began to stir. After another few minutes of blissful imagining, Fluttershy pulled the covers off her, and drifted down the stairs to greet Twilight.

~

The journey back to the barracks that afternoon was just as silent as the journey from it the previous evening. Twilight had managed to drag Spike out with them this time but she could tell the whole time he wasn’t happy about it. Twilight had thought when they first arrived in Hamlet, it was a lot like Ponyville, but only three days in she was already beginning to feel home sick, this wasn’t the vacation they had in mind. Upon arriving at the barracks they encountered Iron Heart giving orders to the other guards for that day.

Noticing them enter, he raised a hoof indicating he’d be with them in a minute, so the three sat themselves on some uncomfortable chairs in the waiting area. After several minutes Iron Heart finally got detached from the group and came over to them.

“Sorry about that girls,” he apologised, then he noticed Spike, “hey Spike, long time no see.”

Spike just grunted and rolled over trying to get back to sleep on the chair.

“Anyway if you’d like to follow me, you just need to sign some stuff and I can let your friends go.” They didn’t argue, except Spike, they just followed back to the room they had spoken in before. Their four friends were waiting there, they weren’t in the cells any longer but they remained shackled. Fluttershy went over to check on them all as Twilight approached Iron Heart’s desk where she was handed a series of forms. Spike lagged behind at the door, looking as eager to leave as the four who’d been there all night.

Iron Heart sat opposite Twilight and as she signed away he leaned in and spoke softly so the others wouldn’t hear them.

“Are you alright?” he asked looking concerned.

“All things considered…” Twilight thought about it for a moment, “not really, no.”

“Not much of a vacation,” he said, Twilight just nodded so he continued, “look I getting off work in a few hours, I wondered, would you fancy meeting up later for dinner or something.”

Twilight was taken aback, with all that had happened she barely had time to contemplate the things Rarity had hinted at on their first day.

“I just think it would be a nice break for both of us,” he explained quickly noticing her hesitation, “after everything, you could do with some time to yourself.”

“Yeah, I think, I think I’d like that,” she said at last smiling at him. After quickly arranging a time and place Iron Heart gathered the now signed forms and scanned over them briefly before nodding in approval.

“Alright, you’re free to go,” he said walking over and unshackling them all individually, “I doubt I need to tell you to stay out of trouble from now on.”

Applejack and Rainbow Dash grimaced, and Iron Heart turned his attention to Pinkie after uncuffing them all. “As for you, you’re to report here Tuesday and Thursday, failure to do so will only make matters worse.”

Pinkie nodded and sniffed, and then to everypony in the room’s horror, her stomach began rumbling. Looking up at the room, Pinkie uttered weakly, “I’m hungry.”

~

Back at the house Twilight still had an hour before she had to begin getting ready for her meal with Iron Heart, and she was determined to find a cure for Pinkie in her collection of books. Though by now it was beginning to look like a lost cause, she couldn’t find anything that sounded vaguely like what Pinkie was suffering, or for that matter, anything that could explain any of the other weird moods they were feeling. Behind her she could hear Pinkie sniffling away inside her magical prison, they had tried feeding her, but when it became apparent she wasn’t getting any less hungry, Applejack refused to keep wasting food on her.

Applejack was in the back garden at the time, taking her frustration out on anything and everything she could lay her hooves at. By the time she was done, the garden was devastated. Rarity had at one point poked her head through a second floor window and ordered her to stop, but when Applejack gave her a look that could easily be interpreted as ‘its them or you’ she backed away and let Applejack continue her furious exercises. When she finally finished and there was nothing left in the garden she could attack for any sort of satisfaction, she kicked the dirt and strutted off into town, she needed a drink.

Rarity was losing all semblance of patience with her friend’s behaviour, and so after retreating from Applejack she exited through the front door without so much as a goodbye to anypony and wandered into town. As she walked she heard the rattling of bits in her saddlebags, it made her feel comfortable. A tiny part of her felt guilty for the source of the bits, but her desire for gems and jewels outweighed her guilt, and she pranced proudly into town, making for the shopping district.

“But Twilight, I need your help,” Pinkie whined, “I’m still hungry.”

“Pinkie I’ve tried,” Twilight said, starting to get frustrated now, “I can’t find any way of helping you with these books so I’m not going to waste my time.”

“But… can’t you at least let me go so I can get something to eat?” she begged scratching the inside of the violet bubble that encased her.

“You know I can’t do that,” Twilight said refusing to meet her eye, “now sit tight and wait until I get back.”

With that Twilight shut the attic door behind her and left the house, on her way out she passed Fluttershy who was walking up the first flight of stairs carrying some first aid equipment. She couldn’t help but feel smug at Fluttershy’s expense. Fluttershy on the other hand had no idea Twilight was even leaving the house let alone heading out to dinner with Iron Heart, she was too focused on Rainbow Dash. She re-entered the Pegasus’s bedroom where she lay huffing on her bed.

“You took your time,” Dash snapped, sitting up as Fluttershy opened the medical box and began pulling out various ointments.

Applejack had just stormed away from her when she offered to patch up her injuries from her fight, but Rainbow Dash had been more than willing to accept the favour. As Fluttershy cleaned and disinfected the cuts Dash began giving off about Applejack.

“I mean, How. Dare. She.” She exclaimed, “Look at me, I’m a mess, and it’s all her fault.”

Fluttershy didn’t know how to answer so she just remained silent as Dash pulled a mirror off her bedside cabinet and began examining her reflection.

“Look at me, my perfect face, ruined by what that damn farmer did to me.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s ruined,” Fluttershy said glancing up.

“Well yeah,” Dash admitted grinning, “even when I’m at my worst I’m still times better looking than anypony else.”

Dash looked at Fluttershy in surprise; she had stopped treating her wounds and was now staring blatantly at Dash.

“Can’t take your eyes off me? I don’t blame you,” Dash said with a laugh, “be honest, I am perfection.”

“You really are,” Fluttershy said in response. Dash began nodding then suddenly froze, had she heard that right? Was somepony else finally seeing her for how amazing she actually was?

Dash turned again to Fluttershy about to speak, but before she could Fluttershy leapt forward locking lips with her. Dash had been so surprised she didn’t even react, but Fluttershy didn’t stop there, as Dash’s body became limp she felt Fluttershy push her down onto the bed, pressing their bodies together. A million thoughts were rushing through Dash’s mind, what’s going on? Do I want this? But the loudest, most prominent thought drowned out all the rest, Aw Hay Yes!