Chapter 13

Reunion

The Hobby Horse seemed much emptier without Twilight and her friends. Roller sat bleary-eyed behind the counter, occasionally taking another drink of his coffee. The smell of pancakes still hung in the air around the shop and the sweet scent of syrup made Roller's eyelids feel heavy.

The door opened and in walked a familiar dragon. "Hello," Roller greeted him, "Welcome to the Hobby Horse, we buy and sell games and..." his voice trailed off and he squinted, "Wait, haven't you been in here before?"

Spike smiled, "Yeah. Hi, Roller. I was just wondering if you've seen Rarity around," The dragon's tail wagged and his voice seemed a little shaky. The author chuckled a bit and the dragon asked, "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," Roller tried to hide his snickering, "But you're asking about her like love-struck schoolcolt."

The dragon blushed and tried to hide behind his tail. He rose a finger to his mouth and ordered, "Shush! Not so loud! Do you want all of Ponyville to hear you?"

Roller shook his head and sighed, "Hey, I'm not here to judge," he laughed a little more, "Anyway, try the boutique. Rarity left for there a few minutes ago."

Spike nodded, "Thanks. Oh, and..." he sniffed the air a few times, "do I smell pancakes?"

Twilight stood in front of a series of mirrors while wearing a brightly colored gown. She turned and saw that there were two large holes in the back where a pegasus would have wings but Twilight did not. She gave Rarity a puzzled look and asked, "Who is this for exactly?"

The fashion designer was walking circles around her model, making mental notes as she answered, "A Capella ordered this for a pegasus he said was very special to him. I want to make sure it fits her well, but I couldn't get a pegasus to model for me today so you'll have to do. You saw Fluttershy's reaction at breakfast and Rainbow Dash still won't model for me after that, um, 'giant hat incident'. You know the one."

Twilight shuddered at the thought of the incident. Never before had such chaos been caused a single accessory. Some parts of Ponyville were still under repair from the damages it caused and Spike still refused to talk about it most nights. As she shook the thoughts from her head, Twilight could hear Rarity in the other room, "You can take off the dress now, I think it's ready."

In the other room, Rarity was checking on the clothes she had on display when down the stairs came to sound of small hooves at top speed. A very small filly that looked a lot like Rarity came bounding down the stairs. "Rarity!" she cheered as she reached the bottom of the stairs, "You're back!"

Rarity smiled but didn't turn to look at the other pony. "Good morning, Sweetie Bell," she greeted back, "How is my favorite little sister today?"

Sweetie Bell told her, "I'm fine, but I was worried when you didn't come home last night," she stepped in front of her big sister and asked, "where were you?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, dear," Rarity apologized, "I was out with friends and was going to come home after maybe an hour, but then the storm came in and I couldn't get home," she went back to her work and asked, "did anything happen while I was away?"

Sweetie Bell shook her head, "No, nothing happened," and then asked, " Can I go hang out with Scootaloo and Applebloom?"

Her big sister nodded and turned to Twilight as she came out of the back room. She asked, "Could you take Sweetie Bell over to the Apple family's farm? I have some more things to do before A Capella and his entourage arrive."

Twilight nodded and led the small unicorn out of the boutique. As the two passed the Hobby Horse, Sweetie Bell stopped and peered inside. "Hey!" she exclaimed, "Applebloom is in there! Scootaloo too!"

The purple unicorn looked inside the dusty window of the shop and sure enough, there were two small fillies inside. One was a yellow earth pony with a red mane and the other was an orange pegasus with a purple mane. As she opened the door, Twilight could hear them arguing about something.

"Me!" shouted the yellow one, to which the pegasus countered, "No! Me!" to which the first filly shouted, "Nuh-uh! Me!" and that went back and forth in the background as Twilight stepped up to the counter to talk to Roller.

The author was cradling his head in his front legs, trying to cover his ears with his hooves. When he looked up, he saw the librarian and placed his feet back on the ground. "They've been at this for nearly ten minutes now and won't stop," he informed her, "If I ever meet a nice mare and consider having foals, please, for the love of Celestia, kick me in the head."

"What are they even arguing about?" Twilight asked, "Is it about a game? Couldn't you settle it for them?"

Roller shook his head, "It's not that simple. They want to buy some guidebooks for Horses and Heroes, but can't decide on who should be Horse Master. Both of them want to do it, but it's really a one horse job. I'd normally throw them out of the shop for making this much pointless noise, but they haven't actually bought the books yet and I don't get that many customers."

"Horse Master?" Sweetie Bell asked. She turned to her friends and exclaimed, "That sounds like fun! Can I do it?"

Both of the other foals shouted, "No! I want to!" and the two-way argument grew into a three-pony shouting match. The shop owner's eye began to twitch. The noise continued to grow until he and Twilight had to shout over it to continue their conversation.

"Can't you be their horse master?" Twilight yelled over the noise, "It seems to be something you're really good at. The girls would probably enjoy it."

Roller declined, "Thanks, but I try not to run more than one campaign at a time. The last time I did that I wound up writing Game of Horns. Do you know how much creepy fan fiction that series got me? Have you read 'A Long Night in Coldfell'?"

Twilight started to make another suggestion, "Do you know anypony else that can run a ga- MY FAN FICTION IS NOT CREEPY!"

Everyone in the room suddenly stopped talking. An awkward, uncomfortable silence fell over the shop as the others all looked to Twilight. The young mare blushed and said, "Uh, I mean, isn't there someone else that could run a game for the girls?"

From the kitchen came a familiar voice. "I can!" Spike volunteered, entering the main room carrying a small plate of pancakes, "I owe you for breakfast anyway, Roller. Let me handle this."

"Y-yeah," the author sounded stunned and didn't take his eyes off Twilight, "Sure, Spike. Thanks."

After paying for their new book, the three foals and Spike left the shop. Just as the door closed, Roller got back behind his counter and asked, "So, you're seriously the one that wrote the most widely known fan fiction in my entire fan base?"

Twilight nodded. Roller put a hoof to his chin for a few seconds and eventually told her, "To be perfectly honest, it wasn't bad."

The mare's jaw dropped and she stuttered out, "R-really? But, I thought you said it was creepy."

"Oh, it was," Roller assured her, "But the grammar and spelling show that you're educated, the pacing was good and the overall presentation was nice. Really, the only thing I disapprove of is the subplot about cupcakes. Other than that creepy, creepy, subplot, It's pretty good."

Twilight blushed and closed her eyes, turning away slightly. Suddenly, she noticed something and her eyes opened. She looked up, "Roller, you said something about a campaign affecting your writing before. What did you mean by that?"

The stallion's ears twitch and his eyes opened a little wider. He looked away in though for a little while before peering back up and telling her, "You're a lot more observant than I thought. That little secret kind of slipped, but..." his voice trailed off before going on, "Maybe it's just my sleep deprivation talking here, but I guess there's no real harm in letting you know."

Just then, the door to the shop opened and a high, female voice loudly complained, "Och, if this isn't the dustiest, dirtiest, game shop I've ever been in. How's a mare to find anything in all this filth, lad? What would your mother say?"

Roller's expression became annoyed and angry as he turned to the voice and snapped back, "Well, if she wasn't in Manehattan right now then first she'd say that I don't have to tolerate that kind of condescending attitude in my own shop. Secondly, she'd make fun of... your... accent."

The author locked eyes with a bright pink pegasus. She giggled and gave a wink to him, saying, "It's been a long time, Critical Roller. Now, is this any way to say hello to old friend?"

The author's face was black for a second, but quickly brightened and he practically jumped with excitement. "X!" He cheered and the two pounded their front hooves together, "You're back!"

"Of course I'm back," she laughed, "What kind of friend would I be if I never came to visit?" Then she looked to Twilight and nudged him with one hoof, "Speaking of which, good job on finally getting a marefriend. She's cute. Never figured you were into unicorns, though."

"Marefriend?" Roller and Twilight gasped in unison. The librarian tried to correct her, "No, Roller is just a new friend. I'm Twilight Sparkle and I..."

The pegasus cut her off, "Twilight Sparkle? You mean the keeper of one of the elements? That's YOU?" She then bowed low for a brief moment before standing up straight again and saying, "Good catch there, Roller! I never thought you had it in you to get somepony famous in here."

Both of the other ponies sighed. Roller told Twilight, "I've got some catching up to do with X. You want to come by the shop later?"

Before Twilight could answer, the pegasus stated, "Oh, you're gonna be catching up with more ponies than just me and none of us mind if you bring your marefriend along. Once the others are done checking into our room at the inn and getting our new costumes from that boutique I passed on the way here then we're having a Cutie Mark Quartet reunion."

"Roller is not my coltfriend," Twilight told her, "but if you guys don't mind then I'd love to meet the rest of Roller's old friends."

The author seemed to be at a loss for words, but his friend spoke for him, "Of course we don't mind! The more the merrier. No need to be so polite with me, lass."

"I don't have a say in any of this do I?" Roller asked. X laughed at his question before answering with one of her own, "When did you ever have a say?"

A/N: Okay, the good news is that I'm not so sick anymore. The bad news is that I'm helping a friend with another creative project and don't have a lot of time to work on the fic anymore, so this fic is going on hiatus for a little while. I'll be back on schedule in about 2 weeks (so, really, we're only missing one update). I'm really sorry about this, but I have to get more chapters written before I start posting again. Please forgive me and don't send me to the moon.