Back with Sweet and Dawn, the pair approached Dawn’s house. It was a nice house. Similar to Duskfall and Soundwave’s, but distinct with a peculiar smell. The house was off-white, with their door being a wonderful red. “Forgive the smell, I like potion-making in my off-time. It’s how I keep my own business afloat” Dawn told Sweet. “It’s… Fine. You’ve never mentioned anything about potions though” Sweet replied. Dawn chuckled a little bit, before they responded. “Yeah, well I never really acknowledge it because nobody asks!”. Sweet took a second, before going “Ah, that’s true” and the pair entered the house. Inside, a hallway going to several rooms waited. “This way” Dawn instructed as they entered a room with a cauldron in. Smaller ones lined the shelves that were nailed into the walls; with several empty vials accompanying each cauldron. “I call it my in-house, all purpose, potion brewing equipment store!” Dawn then shouted out with a happy cheer. Sweet seemed to be slightly uncomfortable however. When Dawn noticed, they added on “Don’t worry, we’re only in here for a spare set of brewing equipment” before trotting over to a specific set on the side. This specific set looking very worn and used. Some of the brown metal eroded around the sides.
“I always used to experiment with potion recipes I found in the Gulfmane library, Became my personal set for later on in life. By that, I mean for times like this!” Dawn then explained. They seemed happy when they were talking about their experiences with potions and things surrounding the topic, which made Sweet all the more eager to leave. “Right, well let’s go then” Sweet said aloud, then trotting to the front-door. Before he could leave however, Dawn stopped him. “Oh we’re not done here! We still have to get the Ceyans needed for the train trip after all! The five for two trips ticket is so useful! The ticket prices used to be absurd!” Dawn then spouted off. Sweet groaned, but Dawn didn’t take notice as they trotted into another room; holding their potion brewing set in one hoof. Once they reached the doorway of the other room, they reached for a box that they unlocked after they set their brewing set down. When Sweet came in, they noticed that the room had a lot of things laid out in a way that made the room feel cozy. A fireplace and some bookshelves either side of it. Lots of warm browns and a rug that, when Sweet trotted on it, almost made him go limp from how comfortable on his hooves it was. Sleeping on a Couch wasn’t the comfiest for Sweet after all.
“You know, the whole potion making business is what funded most of the things in this house. Well, the profits anyway. It’s nice, you know? It was the only subject I really excelled at in School. General Potion Making for Everyday Situations is still one of my favourite books! I just hope I manage to bump into the Mare who wrote it all!” Dawn then exclaimed. Their enthusiasm reaching a peak as Sweet seemed utterly lost. “Right…” he simply muttered as he was at a loss for words. He didn’t know anything beyond a simple potion. An energy potion. Made with caffeine. “Oh wait, that’s coffee. Not a potion!” Sweet then said aloud as he thought about the said potion. “Ah, coffee is often called the elixir of waking hours! It's a potion in my book!” Dawn responded. Sweet, realizing he had said what he said out loud, immediately said “Oh, sorry. That was supposed to be an inner voice moment” before brushing his hoof against the other in slight embarrassment. “Well, I wouldn’t say that’s a bad thing! Why, are you used to keeping everything in?” Dawn then asked. “Well, I guess” Sweet began as he then sat down on the plush, brown couch. “Everytime as Covet that the three of us tried confiding in somepony, they’d always reject it. I guess that always gave me and the others a guard of sorts. I guess…” Sweet hesitated as he thought about everything. What he was saying was a slow awakening for him. He had realized something. Something that seemed like it would reveal itself. But he froze.
“Well, after my mother passed I suppose my father was never able to recover. My brother always seemed to have his hooves full, so I suppose he had his own issues” Sweet then began saying. In his mind, excuses seemed better than facing the truth. The truth that Dawn was about to make him face. “Sweet… No matter what they were going through, you always deserve to have somepony listen to your struggles. I don’t care if they were royalty, and I don’t care if you were royalty! It sounds like you never really had a proper outlet for things!” Dawn spouted out. Sweet took a moment, his mouth slightly open in stunned shock as his mind processed it. It made sense. But he still tried to deny it. “Well, they had their own problems!” Sweet tried protesting. Dawn however, drew the last line in the ground as they responded with “Sweet. No matter how hard you try to make excuses, what I said was the truth… It’s like with my parents. My parents…” Dawn began. They took a breath, and then continued as they got slightly shaky. “My parents would always shun me whenever I brought issues to them. Personal issues, issues about stress, identity issues. You name it, they hated it. Parents and supportive ponies around you shouldn’t do that…” Dawn then finished. Sweet however, looked away.
“You don’t get it. I was royalty. Standards are set when you’re infront of everypony in your continent. The closest I got to getting an outlet were the Alifests me and Stardew did” Sweet said, distance in his voice. “Alifests?” Dawn then asked, utterly confused at the word. Sweet turned back, looking confused until he remembered he was in another continent. One completely detached from Manestralia. “Oh, Alifests. Right so, they were a celebrative period where a theme with two teams was chosen. There were eight Alifests over two years. One happening every three months. The last one was where they ended. The theme was myself… against Stardew. We had a special sport around all the coasts of the region that we used for the events. Do you have Wave Racing over here in Ceyonait?” Sweet explained, and then asked Dawn. “Wave Racing? Uh, no. We have Hoofball. But it’s gone out of fashion lately. The only place that you’ll see it is in a school yard during break” Dawn responded. “Ah, well Wave Racing is where teams of three went against eachother. During Alifest, ponies would pledge to their allegiance to either my team’s theme or Stardew's team theme. There were also ten times and one hundred times battles in the Alifests, and even Sky Soaring during the last Alifest! Do you have Sky Soaring here?” Sweet then explained as he responded.
Dawn, as they heard this, looked incredibly awed. “N-no… Is it a kind of surfing?” Dawn then asked, incredibly intrigued. “Oh, no but we have Surfing too! I wish we incorporated it into Alifests, but Stardew was insistent on Sky Soaring. Sky Soaring is where you craft your own water traversing craft. Then, you’d race around a course that was marked by a bunch of rope and flags for checkpoints. Speakers were obviously littered around the area to play mine and Stardew’s song during the last Alifest. Mainly our song Fae Spell. Although that’s better talked about at a later time” Sweet finished off. Turning to look outside to realize that the sun had moved increasingly across the skies. “Oh boy, we better get a move on” Sweet added on as he began trotting toward the front door again. “Alright, but I’m going to be a minute. I need to put all this in saddlebags after all!” Dawn responded. Sweet took a moment as he left the house and waited outside, the strange chilled air around him making him shiver as he closed the front door. “When did it get so cold…? The sun is blistering and yet it feels like Winter!” Sweet exclaimed, with Arcane watching from the window of magic he had created. He took mental notes of what was happening, still wanting to keep it in mind incase he had the opportunity to use it. He was angered however. Angered that Sweet, or as he called him, Bounded held Stardew in such close regard. “He really cares for him… And for what?” he asked himself, gritting his teeth as he spoke. The anger he was unleashing making the whole city feel at least a chill. The center of his area making the city experience iced-over roads and snow from his emotions. “Not freezing over something again are you?” a familiar voice then asked. From a purple spark in some nearby ice that Arcane had created, Dallasite flared into existence.
“What’re you doing here… I’m doing fine on my own. I don’t need you here” Arcane asserted as he didn’t bother to look at Dallasite as he spoke. To which Dallasite got irritated. “Not even worthy enough to speak with the Prince of the Frozen North now?” he asked, with some malice directed at Arcane when he mentioned the prince part. “Maybe instead of coming for my title, you should focus on living up to your own title, Prince of the Lavender Fire” Arcane responded. Equal amounts of malice put into the title he seemed to give Dallasite. Dallasite sighed, and then spoke again, this time in a calmer tone. “Look, we both have the same idea. He’s a well of manipulation waiting to be used. I was thinking that… Maybe… Whilst one of us is doing what he wants, the other could take the notes. About what he spills about himself. We never really took up the opportunity when he was found in Manestralia all those years ago” Dallasite suggested. The idea tickled Arcane’s fancy, himself smiling with ill intent. “That might just work. I’ll catch you up on-“ he began, but before he could finish, Dallasite interjected. “Oh don’t worry, I was watching everything myself out of morbid curiosity. I do love the drama he brings with his negative experiences” he told Arcane. For the first time during the conversation, Arcane turned around to face Dallasite; remarking “What a bottom feeder I swear” before smirking. “Oh please, you’re just as bad. The mountain cave is boring to reside in most of the time after all” Dallasite responded, before opening a circle of purple flames that led straight back to the mountain cave. “Right then, it’s settled. You focus on watching their every move. I’ll focus on listening for every juicy detail” he told Arcane. With one hoof step in the circle of purple fire, he vanished into the other side and closed it with a wink. Once it was closed, Arcane turned back to both of his windows of magic that he had for each group. Realizing that both of the groups were about to meet eachother at the train station. With a flick of his horn, both windows disappeared as he flew into the air and into a portal he created directly to the train station. Which was timely.
Timely, given the fact that Dawn, Sweet, Sour, Acidic and Cluttered had arrived outside of the train station. With a wave of his wing, Acidic trotted up to Sweet and Dawn first. “Good to see the pair of you! Guess we all took our time huh” Acidic said, with a slight laugh at the end of his sentence. “Yeah well, someone wanted to know about Alifests” Sweet responded, nudging Dawn. Dawn jumping slightly. “What’s with the huge saddlebags?” Sour then asked curiously. Dawn, getting themselves back together, responded. “Oh, I figured that we could stay down in Southern Ceyonait for a bit! Whilst we help you reach the Spring of Mind anyway. I feel bad for not including Duskfall or Soundwave, but they’re probably still spending time together” Dawn explained. “Yeah, they have eachother though, so they should be fine!” Cluttered then replied, reassuring Dawn. That’s when a frown appeared on Cluttered’s face.
“You see, you guys can stay down there, but uh… I have to run the shop tomorrow. So I’m actually going to have to return here before tonight. I’ll check in on Duskfall and Soundwave though; the day of remembrance is coming up after all” Cluttered explained. The trio looked surprised at the mention of the day of remembrance. To which Dawn quickly explained. “Oh yeah! The day of remembrance. So, you three don’t know about it… It’s basically a day for us to remember who we’ve lost in life. Like a day to honor the dead”. Cluttered nodding as the trio collectively responded with “Ah” before Sour trotted forward to the ticket box mare, who was still working even during the weekend. “Come on then! Let’s get us five tickets to… To where exactly?” he asked. “Oh, you better let me handle this. Dawn, you brought the Ceyans right?” Cluttered responded, looking at Dawn. Dawn nodded, using their wing to dig out the coin pouch they brought with them. Cluttered took it, and proceeded to deal with the tickets.
It only took a few moments as the four others waited. The ordeal being over with fairly quickly as Cluttered trotted onto the platform. “Come on then!” Cluttered told the others, the other four following behind as they all proceeded to quickly head away from the train the trio thought they were going to get on. “Hey… Shouldn’t we take the train? I’m not trotting down to the South of an entire continent!” Sour asked, protesting the idea. “Relax” Dawn responded as they turned the corner to find a set of stairs leading underground. “Our train is down here. The limited space the train company had forced them to build train tracks underneath eachother. Eastern Ceyonait based travel is on the ground level; which is the one we used to get to Gulfmane! Southern travel is the level below, with Western being below that” Dawn explained. This confused the trio as Cluttered seemed slightly stunned. “Yeah… It’s the first time I’m riding any other train too, so I guess we’re all in the same boat huh” Cluttered remarked. The trio nodded, but that’s when a question popped into Sweet’s head. “So, what about Northern Ceyonait?”.
Dawn and Cluttered looked at eachother, both seeming like they didn’t want to answer. But, Cluttered ended up breaking the silence. “Well, Northern Ceyonait is Ellestros… The North continent. It’s an almost uninhabitable place. Freezing cold conditions, snow, ice mountains, and everything cold in general. Tales say that there was a beautiful city that used to be in Ellestros. There’s the Ceyonait-Ellestros unity, but… Nopony even knows what it means. There’s nopony up there! There’s also no records of any royal lineage… Or even any surviving records of culture if there was anything up there” Cluttered explained. “Strange…” Sweet replied, thinking to himself. “But… Surely somepony knows the meaning?” Sweet then asked Cluttered. “There’s the queen. But, she said that it was to mark the discovery of Ellestros” Cluttered responded. “But that makes no sense!” Sour protested quickly. “Surely it wouldn’t be a time period or something to symbolize unity between two continents! There has to be something else there” Sour then very quickly added on. “That’s what I was thinking” Sweet responded as he looked at Sour. Sour however, looked away with a roll of his eyes. “Well come on then, let’s go” Acidic then said as he trotted past Sweet and Sour, joining Dawn as Cluttered began trotting behind. Awkwardly, Sour and Sweet followed behind as they reached the floor below them.
When they got down to the lower floor, they saw lights on the ceiling that radiated a bright white. Below them, a train that held a deep blue practically stared them down. The conductor on the platform shouting “ALL ABOARD!” as the quintet rushed to get on the train. Finding the train to be mostly empty when they got on. Shortly behind them, Arcane decided to follow. He used his magic to disguise himself, changing his coat colour to sea green, with himself using a spell to hide his wings. His mane colour changing to that of a yellow-ish green as he trotted onboard the train. One final thing he did was create a duplicated ticket from what he had seen the quintet receive; just incase he was asked to show one. He sat across from the quintet, who in turn sat on the opposite side of the train car, feeling the train set off. It wasn’t long before the train had made its way above ground, the light being almost blinding at first.
After the six ponies in the cart got readjusted to the light levels, the trio looked at eachother with some awkwardness. Dawn and Cluttered looked at eachother as Dawn spoke up, asking a question. “Do you want to head over to somewhere private?”. Sweet was the one to nod as he got up. “Come on, we need to have a conversation. A big one” he then said, trotting to the train car door. The other two looked at eachother, Sour especially looking somewhat annoyed, and then followed along. Once they headed through, Acidic shut the train car door as they entered the next car; leaving Dawn and Cluttered alone together. “Do you think they’ll end up finally putting this silly conflict aside? I mean Sweet has been getting really good in terms of his behavior” Dawn asked Cluttered. “I don’t think that’s our call to make. But, they have to work together to become one again. So, I hope for the sake of practicality that they can put it aside” Cluttered responded, looking out of the window. Arcane, on the other side of the car, looked out of the window on his side. He rolled his eyes as he murmured “Such trivial problems”, but when he did, he noticed from the reflection of the window that Dawn looked at him for a moment, becoming slightly suspicious of the one sitting opposite of them.
Meanwhile, in the next train car, Sour, Sweet and Acidic sat. It was an empty train car, so they had all the space they needed. It took a moment to start a conversation, but Acidic was the one to start it. “Sweet… I just want you to know… I personally don’t have anything against you. I’m sure Sour doesn’t either” he began. Sour however, rolled his eyes as he interjected. “Yeah, if you ignore the thing you called me then sure! I don’t have any problems with you!” he said aloud, obviously hoping to get to Sweet enough to prove his point. Sweet however, remained calm. He didn’t know what to say exactly, but he attempted to form together an apology. “Look, I know what I did. I’m not going to attempt to deflect, but I ask you to understand. It’ll make more sense to both of you since we all know what I’ll be talking about” he pleaded. His eyes looking into the other two stallions’ eyes. Acidic was the first to go “alright, sure” with Sour taking a moment to go “A-alright… Let’s hear this then” and then sat back, waiting to hear what Sweet would come up with.
“Thank you…” Sweet began. “I… I know why I held those feelings and views. It… Well, do you remember the times we tried to tell others how we felt?” Sweet asked. The other two nodded, Sour looking slightly unnerved at the topic given his flashback earlier during the day. “Great. So, as I was saying before… It’s because when we tried telling others how we felt, we got pushed away for it. That, in turn… Well, we all know how we ended up feeling-“ but before Sweet could finish, Sour freaked out. “How WE ended up feeling?!” he shouted at Sweet. Acidic jumped as he quickly responded. “Sour, we can’t pretend we weren’t also the ones doing it! I get what you mean Sweet. One of us was bound to be stuck with that side of us” Acidic replied, nodding in understanding at Sweet’s explanation. “Right… Well, we can’t deny that it affected us in the way it did. Father and Stardew never listened to us when we tried to come to them about issues. Am I not correct?” Sweet then asked Sour. Sour looked directly at Sweet, stern for a moment, before finally relenting. With a sigh, he responded. “Yeah… We also tried to speak to Starstrike about how we felt. Gosh that still burns…”. “Oh please, him? Stallion thought we had to be the perfect martyr. Forget him!” Acidic protested. “Well yeah, maybe” Sweet began. “In any case, I do apologize again. I hope we can set aside some time when we get back to being an Alicorn to let Father and Stardew know how we feel about them rejecting us…” Sweet then finished off.
Sour looked at Acidic, before looking at Sweet. “But we know their responses. It was the same as Starstrike! You need to shut up and stop complaining!” Sour responded, his voice mockingly imitating Crimson. Sweet chuckled as did Acidic. “Yeah, that’d probably be the response. We just need to make sure that we affirm our position on the matter. I, personally, have had enough of ponies saying I should shut up and focus on royal duties” Sweet then responded. “You know…” Acidic then began. “I never understood why Father hated that we always decided to read that book. You know, the one about fairies?” he then asked as he finished off. “Oh yeah! The one with the scary fictional creatures with delicate wings and… Oh wait, it defeats itself!” Sour then responded as he laughed out. “Yeah, it’s so strange… Although the name Enchanted for a form? Now that was a gorgeous name” Sweet responded, reminiscing on the book. “There was also a… What was it… Charmed Fae? And a Sparked Fae? Enchanted was the most beautiful though… Wait a minute…” Sweet then finished as he paused. “Didn’t Harmonous say the springs…?” he then began asking aloud as the three simultaneously remembered the exact same scenario and the words he said.
“This place was built by a now extinct race of beings called Fae. Its original purpose was to provide a place of meditation for those seeking to enhance their powers and to look within themselves. The spells you have witnessed myself, Arcane and Dallasite use have been the spells they left behind. A final tribute to their history and one last attempt in preserving their legacy”
“But that’s… Surely it can’t be the same species!” Sour protested as the three came out of their memories. “Well, I suppose that’s not the only mystery we have to figure out then” Sweet then said. “What do you mean?” Acidic asked Sweet with curiosity. “Well…” Sweet began. “Have you noticed how, when we first met Dallasite and Arcane, that they were set on killing us?” he then finished, asking the other two. “Yeah, I do” Acidic responded. “I was gonna mention that” Sour grumbled. Sweet raised an eyebrow, before continuing. “Well, it’s way too weird that they suddenly stopped attacking us after we managed to survive the fall in the mountains. It’s also too weird that the three of them are helping us get to the springs… They referred to us as Bounded didn’t they?” he asked the other two. “Yeah, that’s right” Sour responded. “When they went to kill us” he added on. “Yeah… So, given everything we have there, they surely know something… Next time we see them, we should be sure to ask them at least about why their motives changed” Sweet then suggested. The other two nodded, with Sour getting up. “Come on then, we’ve left Dawn and Cluttered alone for long enough” he then said, trotting toward the train car door. The other two, looking at eachother, got up. Sweet being happy understanding was shown at his behavior, and Acidic happy that no fight broke out.
When the trio entered the train car Dawn and Cluttered were in, they noticed the pair had actually fallen asleep. The pair lightly snoring as the train ride had gone on for quite a while at that point. The only one who had remained awake, was the lone stallion on the opposite side of the train car. The trio sat down next to their friends as they eyed the stallion on the other side. All three of them getting an air of familiarity emanating from him. Which was such a timely feeling given the fact that the ticket collector had just entered the train car too. “We’ve just entered Southern Ceyonait folks. First stop is Trotstock; home to the abandoned Old Gallopvant Castle. So, tickets please!” he announced, coming over to the five first. Sweet used his magic to grab the tickets from the sleeping Cluttered before passing them onto the ticket collector. The ticket collector punching a hole in all five tickets before passing them back.
Then, the ticket collector trotted over to the stallion opposite the five. “Ticket please” the ticket collector requested, holding his hoof out. The stallion used his magic to shove the ticket onto the hoof of the ticket collector before grunting in acknowledgement. The ticket collector at first, tried punching a hole in the ticket. However, he couldn’t, and he knew why. “You sir, have a fake ticket” he promptly said, handing it back to the stallion. The stallion turned around quickly, not expecting him to catch on. He had no proof to his knowledge, so he tried protesting. “You must be mistaken, my ticket is the same as theirs!”. “The same as ours?!” Sour shouted out as he clocked onto what had gone on. The stallion gasping slightly as he had blown his cover. In a flash, his disguise was removed, revealing the form of Arcane. With a bolt of his magic, he blasted the train car door open as he flew off. However, Acidic tried flying after him. “Wait, please!”. However, it was of no use. By the time he got to the door, Arcane had vanished, presumably by the light that Acidic saw before he got outside. Inside, he heard Sour shouting. “How dare he! Follow us and then fly off!” Which woke Dawn and Cluttered awake. “W-what’s…” Dawn asked with a heavy yawn.
“It was Arcane, we just saw him! He was the stallion over there!” Sweet explained as he pointed to the now empty seat. Next to it, the ticket collector stood. “You know that fellow?” he asked. The five nodded, Dawn and Cluttered being slightly slower in speed as the ticket collector simply said “The next stop is Trotstock. I trust he wasn’t with you given the reaction” before he trotted off to the next train car. When he closed the car door, the five sat in silence. The trio becoming annoyed from the fact that Arcane didn’t stay around, further confusing them as to Arcane, Dallasite and Harmonous’ motives. Though, it wouldn’t last long as the train soon came to a stop at the station of Trotstock. Slowing down and stopping around five minutes after.
From a nearby bush, Arcane watched as the quintet exited the train. Semi cursing himself for being caught out. He hadn’t expected the ticket collector of all ponies to catch him out. Nevertheless. He waited in the shadows. He couldn’t risk being seen again. So, he decided to make his way to his next destination; Old Gallopvant Castle. The location of the quintet’s desired potion ingredient, and the next step in their journey.