A/N: We are BACK and it feels SO AWESOME.

Chapter 14

Inconvenience

Six adventurers stood in the middle of a large, circular chamber. The walls had helmets and pickaxes leaning on them and a portcullis blocked the only way out. "How are we supposed to get out of this one?" asked Jack as he adjusted his armor.

A gray stallion emerged from under some of the mining equipment, shaking his head. "Oh, come on!" he sounded annoyed, "The puzzle isn't that hard to figure out! Look, the gate mechanisms are..."

Suddenly, Reyna interrupted him, "and who are you supposed to be?" she was being rhetorical, "some kind of master of dungeons or something?" She approached the stranger, but stopped a few feet away and tilted her head, "Wait a second, who are you?"

The stallion rolled his eyes, "It's me, you assault on the visible spectrum! Roller. Critical Roller. Did you seriously forget...?"

He was interrupted again, this time by Pin Kay. "I've never heard of you," she said, "Are you lost down here? Did the dogs chase you into this room? Are you hiding?"

Roller took a few steps back. Something was amiss, but he couldn't tell exactly what. The author felt the floor start to give way under his hooves and he stumbled, nearly falling to one side. Twin Star walked over and asked, "Um, Are you okay?"

"Of course," he responded, "Why wouldn't I be, Twin Star?" The floor seemed to stabilize, but he still felt uneasy. All the sounds of wind howling in the caves and distant water running seemed to fade. Suddenly, he realized what was wrong, "Twin Star, how did I get here?"

"Where? Your kitchen?"

Roller's eyes opened and the first thing he saw was Twilight Sparkle's concerned face. The unicorn was looking him right in the eye as she asked, "Why are you calling me Twin Star?"

The author shook himself awake and lifted his head. Blinking a few times, he turned to the entrance of his kitchen and saw X. The pegasus told him, "I know what you're going to ask. What happened was that you said you were going to get coffee, walked in here and fell asleep standing up. That would actually be kind of impressive if it weren't so sad."

"I didn't sleep last night," he explained, "I'll be fine. I just need some caffeine to help keep my eyes open."

X shook her head, "Oh, no you don't, lad. The others and I are going to be in town for a few days and we could always meet tomorrow. You're not getting yourself all exhausted or sick just for our sake," as the pegasus turned to leave, but added, "Twilight, get that one away from the coffee pot before he hurts himself."

Roller growled something under his breathe, but allowed himself to be led back into the front room. X followed and went to the front door, turning the sign on it from "Open" to "Closed". Before she left, she said, "Let's meet tomorrow evening, after you've got a good night's sleep. You're not in college anymore, CR. You can't work a week straight and just sleep on the weekends."

Twilight looked a little surprised. "That doesn't sound healthy anyway," she commented, "Maybe you should go to bed." She shuddered as the situation reminded her of the time that Applejack went a week without sleep. The last thing the town needed was another half-awake and delirious pony with access to a muffin recipe.

The author yawned and passively nodded. After X and Twilight left he locked his door, went upstairs and fell into his bed. Slowly his eyes closed and soon enough, he started to doze off.

X and Twilight trotted down the street towards the Carousel Boutique. "Going my way, are you?" the pegasus asked, "Mind a little girl talk?"

"Sure," Twilight replied, "I don't mind. What's up?"

X's tone hushed a little she almost laughed as she asked, "What's one of the Elements of Harmony doing hanging around a dusty old game shop? Shouldn't you be out having adventures or telling Prince Blueblood to polish his own hooves or something?" She couldn't help but laugh at that last comment, "Seriously though, I never thought I'd meet anyone famous in little, old Ponyville."

The unicorn blushed as she answered, "You flatter me. I've been here for a while now. Princess Celestia has me writing reports to her on the magic of friendship and the other elements have been living here for longer than I have. It's not like we're on tour or anything."

"Fascinating," X quietly exclaimed, "and to think that Roller somehow distracted you from your royal duties. I mean, if I had your position then I wouldn't have time for colts."

Twilight sighed with frustration, "He and I are not..." but didn't finish her statement. Her ears perked up and she noticed that X was snickering at her. "What's so funny?" she asked.

X burst out laughing and didn't stop for almost a minute. When she finally regained her composure, she told Twilight, "I'm just joking, lass! You take things way to seriously."

"Remind me to introduce you to Pinkie Pie," the unicorn chuckled, "You two would get along great."

"A-A Capella?" Rarity gasped. Inside her shop was a pair of young stallions, one of whom she recognized from her gossip magazines. Her eyes went wide and she tried to hide that she was panicking a little, "Y-you're not supposed to be here until tomorrow!"

A white-pelted, silver-maned young stallion turned to his portly companion and told him, "Our manager messed up our scheduling again, Concerto. It looks like you lost another bet."

The round, yellow earth stallion bowed his head and sighed, "You win too many of these bets. It looks like I owe you a smoothie," and then addressed Rarity, "We're really sorry about this, Miss Rarity. Our manager is... uh..."

"It's alright if you call him derpy, PC," A Capella assured him, "I mean, I don't think anypony here would get offended. Maybe the mailmare would, but she's not here right now."

Rarity composed herself and said, "I'm sorry, but your orders won't be ready until tomorrow. Also, I'd appreciate it if you left that kind of language outside my shop."

"Told you it was offensive," Concerto said smugly, "Now you have to put in a good word for me with Octavia."

The other stallion huffed, "Can that word be 'blighter'?" He then turned to Rarity, "Sorry about the language and the scheduling mistake. Can we come back tomorrow?"

Rarity nodded as she heard a bell ringing, signifying that someone just entered her shop. "Welcome to the Carousel Boutique," she greeted the newcomers, "Where everything is chic, unique and magnifique."

X giggled a little at Rarity's greeting before responding, "Well, nice to meet you too, Miss Rarity. I see you've met my friends. They haven't made fools of themselves yet, have they? 'Cause that's supposed to be my job."

Rarity blushed, "Ah, you must be Xylophone Percussion. This is really quite embarrassing, but there seems to have a scheduling mistake of some kind. Your costumes won't be ready until tomorrow," Suddenly, she remembered something, "Oh! But I did manage to finish your..."

Of all the sudden, A Capella was pushing his friends out of the boutique. "Oh! What a silly mistake! We'll just have to come back tomorrow then, eh?" he sounded rushed and worried. Soon enough, all three of them were out of the shop and only Rarity and Twilight were left.

"What was that about?" Twilight asked, but Rarity only shrugged to answer.

Roller tossed and turned in his sleep, occasionally opening his eyes for a brief moment before burying his head in his pillow again. He wasn't sure if it was the coffee he had before or sunlight still coming in through his window, but something kept him awake. Just when he though he would go mad from being so tired, he growled...

"Would you just sleep already?"

"Why would we sleep here?" asked Pin Kay, "It's all cold and dusty. Oh, and there are Diamond Dogs everywhere.

Roller opened his eyes and saw that he was in the mines again. The author blinked a few times as he looked around, recognizing the six adventurers locked in the same room as him. Jack, Reyna and Styles were examining the gate while Twin Star and Flute seemed to be looking at everything else in the room. He gave a frustrated sigh and mumbled, "This can't be happening."

Pin Kay bounced to his side and asked, "Why not, Mr. Roller? Did you have some kind of spell cast that keeps the dogs away or the gate from closing? Because if you did, it didn't work."

The author let out another sigh and walked over to the portcullis. Just to the left of it was a series of gears jutting out of the wall with a broken wooden handle in the middle of them. Roller stopped in his tracks when he saw the device and asked, "Uh, has anypony seen the rest of this handle anywhere?"

Twin Star took a closer look before asking, "What do you mean? The handle looks fine to me," and placing a hoof just above the broken shaft as if it were resting on something.

Pin and Flute gave Roller worried looks as he stood there slack-jawed. It was a moment before the forest pony said, "Um, Stranger, you, uh, don't look so well. How long have you been down here, um, if you mind me asking?"

Roller tried to speak, but could only manage to produce a weak murmur. He cleared his throat and tried talking again, but to no avail. Finally, he took a deep breath and was about to shout his answer when a booming voice came from above...

"I ASKED HOW LONG YOU'VE BEEN DOWN THERE!"

Roller sat up from his floor very suddenly, letting out a surprised gasp as he did so. He was in his room and the sun's rays were shining in through his open window. On his window sill sat an orange pegasus foal with an unkempt, purple mane.

"Hey! You're awake now!" The filly said gleefully, "Your sign says that the store should have opened an hour ago and my friends and I wanted something. Have you been asleep this whole time? That's kind of lazy."

"First of all," Roller started in a very cross tone, "I don't know who you are or where you come from, but unless you're making a massive purchase this morning then you are banned from my shop for the rest of your natural life. Secondly," he stopped and his tone became less angry, "Wait, what time did you say it was?"

The author got to his feet and looked at the round alarm clock on his writing desk. His mane stood on end and he hurried out the bedroom door, into the hallway. After rushing down the stairs he ran to the door and tried to stop, but slid on the dusty surface and...

WHAM!

Roller peeled himself off of his front door and then picked himself up off the floor of his shop. Down the stairs came the foal from before who unlocked and opened the door, letting in Sweetie Bell and another foal. The three little ponies all shouted, "Cutie Mark Crusader wake up call specialists!" as Roller took his usual place behind his desk.

"Welcome to the Hobby Horse," He said in monotone, "Now get out. I apparently have to do some cleaning."

A/N: The chapter is a little short, but at least we're back to our regular schedule. Good to see you all again. How about leaving a review?