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Seahorse Bay

~ The Honeywell Inn ~

"So, whaddya think?" Skywall asked, standing besides Dragonfly. The two pegasi had landed in front of the Honeywell Inn, Dragonfly's uncle's pride and joy.

"It's... um..." Dragonfly made a face, looking up at the two-floored building. It probably had been a pleasant, perhaps even beautiful, place in the past. The distant past, she had to admit. At the moment all she could see were dingy grey walls, faded down from a white layer of paint applied what seemed to be centuries ago. A little sign up front informed the inn's temporarily closed state, but the place did not look like it would be reopened any time soon. Had the small windows not been cleaned from the inside and the garden meticulously tended to, Dragonfly would have suspected Skywall of playing a joke on her and taking her to an abandoned building. "It's... rustic, isn't it?"

"You can be honest, Dragonfly." Skywall rolled his eyes, smiling. "I told you we helped prop it up, but we only had one day. It looks better on the inside."

"Well..." Dragonfly hesitated again, squinting at the inn. "I guess it would look better with a fresh coat of paint? Maybe something a little more colorful?"

Skywall nodded thoughtfully, looking at the flaking grey walls. "Sure would."

"Sooo... I guess it's time to go back to town and buy some paint!" Dragonfly smiled confidently. "I've got to start working right away if I want to get it reopened!"

"Take it easy, little lady." Skywall laughed, patting the filly on the head with a wing. "Might wanna go inside and get acquainted with your employees first, y'know?"

"Oh. Right." Dragonfly scratched her head. Once more, the thought of having to order ponies around and providing for their wages made her uneasy. She dug into the dirt with a forehoof, feeling nervous, until a familiar sound drew her attention. She looked up. A dragonfly came flying around the building, and the pony followed its erratic path through the air. Up, down, left, up again, backwards, straight ahead, down... she had been told by her parents that when she was just a little newborn foal she used to fly (or rather, crash) around the house just like that, and that was where her name had come from. She liked that story.

The insect approached her and she stood still. Skywall, an eyebrow raised, also refrained from moving. The actual dragonfly circled around the two ponies a couple of times, buzzing close to Skywall's ear before being flicked away, and settled on the other pegasus' nose. She grinned wide and crossed her eyes to look at the colorful creature.

"Hello there, little friend." She said softly, scrunching up her nose. "How are you doing?"

Skywall cleared his throat. The dragonfly buzzed off and Dragonfly looked at Skywall. "Well, I gotta get goin'. If you need me and can't find me up with the clouds, look for a shack on top o' that hill, all right?"

"Okay!" Dragonfly replied. "I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

"Sure. See you!"

And with a few flaps of his powerful wings, Skywall was gone already. Dragonfly looked at the inn once more, making a mental note to find out the body of water that dragonfly had come from, and took in a deep breath. If she was to reopen her uncle's inn, she would have to face the ponies inside. With a determined look on her face, she pushed the faded brown door open--

Except that it did not open when pushed. Instead, it merely rattled on its hinges. Dragonfly blinked at the door for a few seconds, then reached for the handle and pushed down on it. The door creaked and opened slightly, revealing a dark room beyond.

"Well, that's kinda creepy..." She muttered to herself, pushing harder on the door and stepping inside. She was in the entrance hall. The floor at least seemed clean, which was nice. She blinked a few times so her eyes would adjust to the low-light, and then approached the empty counter. "Hello?" She said out loud, and her voice echoed across the large room and the two corridors on either side.

Suddenly, all she could see was white! She staggered, fell on her rear and whimpered in pain, eyes tightly shut. "Who-- who's there?!" She cried out, rubbing her eyes.

"You are as dramatic as your uncle, miss Dragonfly." Replied a stern female voice in perfect Trottingham diction. "I have merely turned the light on."

"Um..." Dragonfly blinked a few more times, her big eyes still complaining about the sudden abuse. She could see a dark green shape standing at the start of one of the corridors. "Who are you...? Tea Leaf...?"

"Mrs. Tea Leaf." The earth pony replied sharply, walking towards the stunned Dragonfly. "Now stand up. There is much to do, and less time to do it in."

"Wait, what...?" Dragonfly stood up. Her eyes had started to focus normally once again, and she took a closer look at the middle-aged mare standing a mere foot away. _Mrs._Tea Leaf's coat was faded green and her mane was a burnt brown color and tied in a severe, perfectly-symmetrical bun covered with a black hairnet. Her eyes were a piercing green, and glancing into them convinced Dragonfly to never do that again.

Clearly, _Mrs._Tea Leaf was not a mare to be trifled with, and she looked the part. The bright green leaf pendant hanging from the collar around her neck was the only thing even vaguely friendly-looking about that earth pony, and even then it only made her about as approachable as a manticore on a leash. And then there was her look. Dragonfly was sure she would see those emerald eyes in her nightmares for at least a week!

"You have been appointed as the new manager by Mr. Honeywell." Mrs. Tea Leaf declared succinctly. "In the interest of his business remaining viable, you must first learn the routine and minutiae of administering a small independent company focusing on providing temporary lodging and catering to ponies from across Equestria. Then, and only then, we may spread word of our return to the marketplace."

"What?" Dragonfly blinked again, this time in confusion.

"Mr. Honeywell made me promise to teach you the intricacies of the craft so the inn would remain successful during his stay abroad."

"What?"

Mrs. Tea Leaf rolled her eyes. "You have to learn how an inn works before we can reopen!"

"Oh." Dragonfly nodded. "Why didn't you just tell me that?"

"Oh, never you mind." The earth pony let out an annoyed sigh and walked behind the counter. "Follow me. We will start with the bookkeeping."

Dragonfly would have followed, as she was known to do, but that time she didn't listen to the order. Instead, she was staring at the walls: they were covered, from three feet from the ground and all the way up to the ceiling, in picture frames. Inside those frames were not pictures, but a wide variety of insects. Their iridescent wings and carapaces glimmered in the light, shining in all colors of the rainbow as the light reflected off the thin layer of varnish protecting them. Spindly legs, far too numerous to count, rested upon blue and red felt backings. Multifaceted eyes reflected their surroundings like tiny little mirrors.

It was entomological heaven.

She felt she could stay there for all eternity, examining all those preserved insects, one by one. Oh, the things her uncle must have noticed while capturing and cataloguing those little creatures! She could not wait to get her hooves upon his notes--

"Ow!" Dragonfly snapped back to reality as she felt a sharp, painful tug on her ear!

"You can stare at dead insects later, miss Dragonfly." Mrs. Tea Leaf said between clenched teeth, still biting the pegasus' ear and dragging her towards the door behind the counter. "For now, you must become acquainted with the books."

"What? No-- ow! Come on! Just five more minu-- ow! Okay, okay! I'm going! Let go!"

~ The Fitful Night ~

Books.

Dragonfly never wanted to see them again.

To say that Mrs._Tea Leaf did things "by the book" was to commit an understatement that would be recorded by historians (likely in books) and referred to for decades to come. The old mare was absolutely _obsessed with them. Every little thing that happened in the inn had to be recorded in books. There were log books, accounting books, guest books, cookbooks, complaint books, praise books, books cataloguing other books, all of them neatly stored in rows in the back room. Not a single square inch of wall could be seen in that small room, it was completely overtaken by shelves and stacks of books and meticulously-sorted papers. The only pieces of furniture were a desk and a stumpy chair, tiny bastions of comfort surrounded by the remains of a thousand dead trees.

Indeed, there were a lot of books.

And Mrs. Tea Leaf had Dragonfly become acquainted to those. She had to learn their names, their places in their respective shelves, and how to extract vital information from the words within those yellowed pages. Why would anypony keep records of guest that had come and gone over twenty years ago was completely beyond Dragonfly, but the prospect of having to spend another afternoon locked inside that tiny room with Mrs. Tea Leaf was an incentive that was impossible to ignore. Especially considering the penalty for mistakes was to have one of the heavy yearly logbooks dropped onto her head. And so she learned as best as she could.

Mrs. Tea Leaf didn't seem too impressed, but she declared the lesson over once her son Scone, a rather bland-looking light tan pony, knocked on the door and called her for dinner. Introductions were brief, and Dragonfly's dinner even more so. Even ignoring Scone's talents as a cook, which were just a little short of remarkable, Dragonfly was too famished to bother with generic small-talk. She barely waited for _Mrs._Tea Leaf to say a prayer to the Moon outside before gulping down the soup and munching on the accompanying bread.

In hindsight, she could tell that had been a mistake.

What ensued was a full hour of etiquette training, interspersed with comments about the typical pegasi lack of manners, delivered by (who else?) Mrs. Tea Leaf. It was only after a heartfelt promise on Dragonfly's part that such a disgraceful breach of proper Equestrian manners would never be repeated that the pegasus was allowed to leave the dining room and stumble upstairs.

As the matron made it perfectly clear, it would be improper for Dragonfly to use Mr. Honeywell's spacious and comfortable suite. And so the room Dragonfly ended up occupying was one of the normal guest rooms at the inn. It was a modest affair: enough space for a bunk bed, a chair and a table, as well as a built-in wardrobe. A small framed picture of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna was placed above the door.

Not the most cozy of places, but it would do.

Yawning, Dragonfly walked up to the window and looked outside. The cool night breeze rolling in instantly made her feel a little better. The Moon already was high in the sky but the clouds obscured most of its silvery glow, and so Dragonfly could see the blinking lights of the fireflies in the garden. In front of her she could see Seahorse Bay's own lights. The inn was situated at one of the exits to the town, between it and the train station, on top of a small hill. A good location for tired ponies to stop overnight, she reasoned.

Merely thinking about tired ponies made Dragonfly realize just how drained she felt. Her wings ached, her back protested, her hooves had rarely ever walked so much on solid ground in a single day. Not bothering to unpack her saddlebags, she tumbled into bed.

Immediately, Dragonfly found herself facing an entire library's worth of angry books hovering in the air. She swallowed hard and waved hesitantly at the rather unfriendly-looking literature bobbing up and down in front of her.

"Hello...?" She said. The books did not reply. The frowning covers stared at her, tiny pieces of green emerald lighting up their 'eyes'. "Hello?" She repeated, reaching towards the nearest book with one hoof. The book pulled back and slammed itself against her head! "Ow!"

Thump! "Hey, cut it out!" Two more books joined in: th--thwump! "Come on! What did I do?"

A barrage of hardcover knocks landed on the pegasus' head. Dragonfly screamed and took off in the opposite direction, followed by the roar of pages and covers flapping frantically in chase! The strange swarm left a trail of loose sheets of paper as it rushed after the pegasus, the books taking turns to smack themselves against the back of her head. Dragonfly did her best to fly straight, heading towards a tower in the distance!

The door was thankfully open, and Dragonfly dashed through at full speed, skidded for a second on the stone floor, ran back to the door and slammed it shut! She pushed against the heavy wooden slab with all her weight, listening to the dull thuds of angry tomes missing their turn and hitting the door and its frame. Panting hard, she pressed her ear against the wood. Outside, the books seemed to be bickering and fighting each other, and a peek through the keyhole allowed her to see them giving up on the hunt and flying away.

"Whew, safe!" Dragonfly grinned victoriously. The grin turned instantly into a puzzled expression as she noticed the bit between her teeth. Not only that, but the tightness around her muzzle made her realize she was wearing a bridle! "What in the--" She started saying but her words were cut off by a sharp tug on the reins. "Ow! Who did that?!"

"You will not_complain, miss Dragonfly." _Mrs. Tea Leaf held the reins between her teeth, her eyes were cavernous empty spaces in which floated two orbs of cold green flames. Before Dragonfly could formulate a reply, she pulled hard once more, yanking the filly's head back. "It is in terribly poor form."

"What? No! Lemme go!" Dragonfly pulled against the harness and the powerful counter-tug made her neigh. "This hurts!"

"You have no escape, miss Dragonfly." Mrs. Tea Leaf said authoritatively, turning around and pulling Dragonfly towards the spiral stairs. "We shall now continue your education. In a room full of books. Huge books. Boring books."

"Nooo!" Dragonfly locked her hooves against the stone floor as the bridle pulled her. Sure, a contest of strength against an earth pony would be a Bad Idea most days of the week, but she would not go down without a fight!

Mrs. Tea Leaf yanked! Dragonfly tried to run towards the door!

Pop!

"You traitor!" Dragonfly shouted as she saw her body, a little purple stump where her head should be, bust through the door and gallop at full speed away from the tower. Without her! Laying on the floor, Dragonfly-head whined scooted around to look at Mrs. Tea Leaf. "Now look at what you did! Lemme go!" The ghastly green pony grinned and started pulling the disembodied head up the stairs by the bridle.

"It is all for the best, miss Dragonfly." She said, ignoring Dragonfly's 'ow's and 'ouch'es as the poor filly hit the stone steps. The ground groaned and trembled under her mighty hooves. "Now you will be able to learn without such trifling distractions as having a body. Now stop complaining, your books await."

"Oh, no! Nonono!" Gritting her teeth with all her might, Dragonfly bit through the metal bit and wriggled herself loose from the bridle! Before Mrs. Tea Leaf could turn around, the head was gleefully ricocheting back down the stairs. The world rushed past Dragonfly as she bounced against the steps once, twice, then against the rough stone walls, and out of a window!

"Freedoooooooom!"

"Ow!" Dragonfly woke suddenly up with a crack of broken branches and the rustling of leaves. Disoriented and with the wind knocked out of her, she found herself laying on her back in one of the hedges in the front garden. She looked at her hooves and wriggled them. She smiled wide, exclaiming: "Aw, whew! It was just a dream..."

But what was she doing buried halfway into the hedge? She looked beyond her hooves and saw the inn.

Something looked terribly off about it.

"Miss Dragonfly, why are you laying down in that bush?" Came the stern voice, and Dragonfly's blood curdled. Mrs. Tea Leaf was standing by one of the windows on the second floor, her mane still in its fist-tight configuration but now uncovered. Her eyes, thankfully, looked normal.

"I... I think I was tossed out of the window!" Dragonfly replied shakily, staring at the inn.

"And why were you tossed out of the window?"

"What do you mean, why?!" Dragonfly shouted. "Can't you see the entire inn is crooked?!"

Mrs. Tea Leaf looked around. The inn was about 30-degrees off-center, leaning forward with the front steps digging into the ground. "So it is." She replied blankly, turning around. "You should fix that."

"Wait! You're not going to help me?" Dragonfly clambered off the hedge with some difficulty and flexed her wings to get the twigs and leaves out of them.

"No." Came the mare's voice from the inside. "I will be busy for the rest of the night sweeping the remains of Mr. Honeywell's entomological displays."

"Oh, no! Uncle's collection!" Dragonfly's eyes became wide as saucers and she dashed back inside through her bedroom window! She did not bother to land once inside, literally flying down the oddly-inclined stairs until the arrived at the entrance hall!

The horrible spectacle brought tears to her eyes. Uncle Honeywell's once-beautiful displays all lay in a broken heap in the corner. Copious amounts of dirt had crumbled in through the shattered windows as their sills seemed to be almost a foot below ground level. Butterfly wings, beetle legs and all manner of unidentifiable debris were scattered over the slanted floor like the remains of a no-holds-barred every-arthropod-for-itself melee involving nearly a thousand participants. To the side stood Mrs. Tea Leaf as she examined this new cleaning challenge, a heavy sweeping broom resting against her side.

"What happened here?!" Dragonfly gasped breathlessly.

"Is it not obvious, miss Dragonfly?" The earth pony answered flatly. "The tremors that shifted the foundations of the house has caused Mr. Honeywell's displays to fall to the floor and shatter."

"Tremors? I... didn't feel any tremors!"

"A common occurrence in Seahorse Bay." Mrs. Tea Leaf shrugged. "So much so we barely notice them. Will that be all? I must clean this shambles."

"You're going to sweep everything?!" Dragonfly balked.

"That is precisely my intention, miss Dragonfly. Do you have any suggestions as to what should be done with this pile of dirt and broken glass?"

"You can't just toss Uncle Honeywell's collection out like that!"

"It is not exactly a 'collection' anymore, miss Dragonfly." Mrs. Tea Leaf glanced sideways. "Unless you are implying Mr. Honeywell would also be interested in collecting irregular shards of glass, that is." She paused for a second. "Although that is indeed a possibility."

"What?" Dragonfly briefly pondered whether her uncle ever thought about collecting glass. The thought was quickly swept away by more pressing matters. "No! But we can't just toss everything out! There must still be intact specimens in there! We need to save as many of them as we can!"

Mrs. Tea Leaf raised an eyebrow. "So you wish to rummage through that pile and retrieve insects."

"Yes, of course!" Dragonfly nodded! "It is my duty as a niece and an entomologist!"

"Very well, then." _Mrs._Tea Leaf passed the broom to the pegasus and turned away. "Do not forget to sweep the corners after you are done."

"You're not going to help me?!"

"No, miss Dragonfly."Mrs. Tea Leaf replied, nonchalantly climbing the steep stairs by holding on to the balustrade. "I am going back to bed. My contract with Mr. Honeywell clearly states that any and all actions regarding his collections beyond dusting and polishing the display cases are outside the range of my responsibilities."

"But..."

"Have a good night,miss Dragonfly."

~ Early Morning ~

The sun was rising when Dragonfly stepped outside and yawned. She had bags under her eyes and glass and wooden splinters all over her dirt-caked forelegs. Hours of back-busting work had resulted in perhaps a fifth of her uncle's specimens being recovered undamaged. She had saved as much of the rest as she could and so five small bins of assorted insect parts rested under the counter in the entrance hall, to be worked through later with a jar of clear glue, a very fine brush, a jeweler's monocle and an enormous amount of patience.

She sighed, limping around the garden to take a look at the other side of the building. The foundations had been ripped clean off the ground as a single huge block. Clumps of dirt still clung to the stone pillars joined with cement. Dragonfly had no idea how the inn managed to remain in a single piece, or whether it would ever be able to be righted again, but either way she was impressed by its sturdiness. Not that she had much space left in her mind for being impressed, given the disaster that had just befallen her uncle's precious inn. At least the furniture inside was sturdy enough to have survived the pile-up with only minor damage. The windows, on the other hoof...

She walked to the front of the building again.

Looking up towards the sky Dragonfly saw the metallic glint of Skywall's wings as the pegasus went about his early morning rounds. He pushed the clouds around efficiently and without hurry, sending them out to the sea to coalesce until the next monsoon season. Dragonfly waved at the high-flying stallion. Pegasi in general had a knack for long-distance communication, owing to their preference for wide open spaces in the clouds, and Skywall soon landed between Dragonfly and the inn.

"You don't look too good, little lady!" He exclaimed, concerned, as he noticed her state. "Are you all right? What happened?"

"I'm fine, Skywall... just, uh, need a shower. Or something. Anyway..." Dragonfly waved towards the building. "See anything wrong?"

"Eh?" The massive pegasus turned on his hooves and looked up. His eyebrows very nearly vanished into his mane. "That's... mighty peculiar. Couldn't see it from the air but I don't remember this buildin' being quite so lopsided when I left you here yesterday! What happened?"

"I don't know!Mrs. Tea Leaf said there was a tremor and the entire building shifted! I ended up getting tossed out of the window!"

"Ooh, that don't sound good. I felt the tremor a few hours ago, but didn't think it'd been that strong." Skywall frowned. "You're lucky the place didn't come down on top of you! Did anypony get hurt?"

"No. _Mrs._Tea Cup barely noticed it, and Scone doesn't sleep at the inn. But..." Dragonfly sniffed and welled up. Skywall leaned in, worried. "My uncle's collection is ruined!"

"Oh." Skywall blinked and straightened up. "Right. Uh... Darn."

"I spent all night trying to save as much of it as I could!" Dragonfly sobbed, two big teardrops perched on the corners of her eyes. "Oh, Celestia! My uncle will be so disappointed when he comes back! I don't know what to do!"

Skywall scratched his head and offered the crying pony an uneasy smile, saying: "C'mon now, Dragonfly... I'm real sorry your uncle's, uh, bug collection got messed up, but I think we oughta get you looked at. I mean, you had a rough night, and you're lookin' a tad worse for wear. So, how's about you fly to town and get Sugar Cookie to check you out? I'll see if I can find somepony to help fix the inn, all right?"

"You will?" Dragonfly looked at the other pegasus expectantly.

"Sure." Skywall looked past Dragonfly and grinned as a familiar sputtering and whistling sound reached him. "And it sounds like I just found the ponies to talk to!"

"Who?" Dragonfly turned her head. A strange steam-powered contraption was rolling down the street. It looked like a long, squat metal box on tracks, with a boiler mounted on the back, the weird lovechild of a flatbed cart and a steam engine. The pistons turning the wheels inside the tracks chuffed along, trailing puffs of white steam as the vehicle negotiated the slope heading out of Seahorse Bay. On the flatbed were an assortment of boxes secured by chains, and: "The Twins?"

"Yep." He waved a wing at the ponies as their steam tractor passed by. "Button! Switch! Mind givin' a hoof?"

Switch, sitting on top of a crate, tapped his sister on the head. Button, who had been operating the control levers, looked around for a second before stopping the tracks. As the boiler whistled quietly with the pistons at rest, they hopped off the tractor. "Hi, Skywall! Hi, Dragonfly!" They said cheerfully. Looking past the two pegasi, they pulled their welding goggles onto their foreheads. "Oh, wow! What did you do to the place, Dragonfly? It looks cool!"

"I didn't do anything!" Dragonfly pouted. Still, she spotted another difference between the two unicorns: Button's eyes were a sparkling bright purple, while Switch's carried a shiny golden color. "The tremor did that!"

The Twins looked at each other. "Tremor? Oh, right! Looks like the reinforced structure held up nicely, then!"

"I guess..." Dragonfly sighed. "Did anypony in town get hurt?"

"Not that we know! Mr. Sweet Dough ended up a little bruised after a big bag of flour landed on him. But he says he's alright, and that it served him well for working so late!" The Twins chuckled. "So everypony was fine. All we had were a few broken windows, and the fountain in the main square broke. We're working on something to replace it, anyway!"

"Well, ain't that a nice little bit o' chit-chat..." Skywall interjected before the Twins drowned Dragonfly with technical details regarding their latest project. "I can tell you're goin' to the ranch today. Think y'all can postpone that and help Dragonfly here? She don't look too happy with the inn's new style."

"Oh, sure!" The two unicorns smiled and turned to the steam tractor. "We brought some tools and gadgets here! It should be enough to bring the inn back to its former glory!"

"Good, good." Skywall nodded, and turned to Dragonfly while the Twins rummaged through their crates. "And you go see Sugar Cookie. Tell 'er what happened, maybe she'll know more ponies who'd like to help. Get somethin' to eat there, too. You're lookin' like you need some more food in your system. I'll get them Twins workin' and try to keep 'em from blowin' the whole place up."

Dragonfly nodded through her instructions but grimaced at the last phrase: "... do you think they could do that? The... 'blowing the whole place up' bit?"

"Not intentionally, no." Skywall shook his head.

"Uh... and unintentionally?"

"Just go get yourself checked up, all right? Everything will be fine when you come back."

"Ow!" Dragonfly exclaimed and pulled her hoof back. "Is it over yet?"

"Almost, dear." Sugar Cookie operated the mechanical arm so it performed gentle movements with unerring accuracy. One of the Twins' simplest and most reliable inventions, that hoof-controlled arm tipped with an articulated hand (mirrored on that of a dragon) had improved the nurse's ability to deal with delicate procedures immensely. "You could have waited until morning, found a unicorn to help sift your uncle's insects out of the broken glass with magic, and nopony would have gotten hurt, you know?"

"I know, I know... it's just I didn't want Mrs. Tea Leaf--" Dragonfly shivered with dread. "--running out of patience in the middle of the night and just sweeping everything into the trash before I could search it!"

"And so you ended up with glass and bits of wood stuck all over your forelegs." Sugar Cookie shook her head, sighing. She smiled softly. "Please be more careful."

"I will, I promise." The pegasus brought a hoof covered in little colorful adhesive bandages to her chest and-- winced. The cuts under the bandages were still tender. "Ow. How many more to go?"

"This is the last piece, I think." Without further warning, the mechanical hand plucked the wooden splinter out, prompting another pained shiver from the pegasus. Sugar Cookie hummed a little tune to celebrate a job well done and moved on to place a last bandage over the freshly-disinfected cut. "Keep these on until the evening and you should be fine. Are you feeling better now?"

"A bit, thank you..." Dragonfly sighed.

"What's wrong, dear? You told me your back hurt a little when you came in, do you want something for it, too?"

"No, no. My back is fine." Dragonfly waved a hoof without much enthusiasm. Her forelegs were plastered with such a comically large amount of the inch-wide multicolored squares that she looked like she had stumbled on a pile of confetti. But her face was anything but festive, and her lower lip trembled slightly. "I'm just sad about uncle's collection... He spent a long time gathering all those specimens, and just when he leaves a dumb tremor breaks most of them! He didn't even get to say goodbye to the titan beetle!"

"I... see..." Sugar Cookie's voice faded. She was conflicted: while her first instinct was to help other ponies, she really did not like insects. She could treat all sorts of weird conditions and illnesses with the most varied and spectacular symptoms, but for some reason bugs bothered her. Especially big ones like that beetle Mr. Honeywell had always gushed over. It was something about all those spindly legs and how they walked. Still, she was a nurse and ponies' well-being were her priority, and so she sighed and decided to do the right thing: "Listen, Dragonfly... your uncle is a very organized pony, I'm sure he has something in his office that would help you rebuild his collection."

"Rebuild...?" Dragonfly rubbed nose with a wing as she looked at Sugar Cookie.

"Yes. If you want, I can help you look through his papers to try and find a catalogue of his collection. With that, you would know which insects to catch to complete the collection again!"

"But... all his exotic bugs...!"

"From what he told us most of them are from around Seahorse Bay or the nearby forests. You're a pegasus, so you should be able to go to more distant places than he did and find even more new items for his collection." Sugar Cookie smiled encouragingly. "It would be a nice challenge, wouldn't it?"

Dragonfly frowned for a second, then hovered a few inches up in the air with a goofy grin on her face: "I guess you're right! I better get working right away!"

"Wait, wait!" Sugar Cookie bit the tip of Dragonfly's tail to keep the filly from just flying out of the room. "Don't you think we should try to fix the inn first?"

"Oh. Yeeeah, you're right about that, too! I left Skywall and the Twins at the inn, they probably need my help!"

"... the Twins are there?" Sugar Cookie stood up, alarmed.

"Um... yes?"

Sugar Cookie already had her first-aid saddlebags on. "We haven't got a minute to lose, Dragonfly! Let's go by Rosie's, ask for her help, and hope we can get to the inn before somepony gets hurt!"

As Sugar Cookie feared, Rosie, Dragonfly and herself were greeted at the gates by an explosion coming from the back of the inn.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Oooow!Hot! Hot! Hot! Hot!" Switch screamed as he rounded the corner, his coat and mane letting off steam. Galloping at full speed, he tripped on a rock and rolled on the grass until he ended leaning upside down against a tree trunk. Shaking his head to clear his mind, he shouted: "Okay, that kind of hurt! But at least the stumbling and the crashing cooled me down again!"

"Oh, Celestia!" Sugar Cookie muttered under her breath, running towards the crashed unicorn. "Switch, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, don't worry about me!" Switch grinned at the pony in his inverted field of view. "I think I overloaded the boiler! My, are those old gaskets weak!"

Dragonfly stared at the unicorn in stunned silence as he spoke, but was soon dragged by Rosie to the Twins' steam tractor, which had been moved closer to the inn and now looked more like an one-pony design bureau. An open-walled tent had been erected on the flatbed, and inside stood Button, a drawing board, and an excessive amount of blueprint paper. Button scribbled frenetically, occasionally stopping, scratching her chin with the back of the telekinetically-held feather, whispering a few words of enlightenment to herself, then going back to the drawing board.

Rosie jumped onto the tractor and peeked over Button's shoulder. She exclaimed: "Good heavens, Button! What are you doing in here?"

"Oh, just planning a little bit of home improvement for Dragonfly's inn!" Button smiled proudly, unrolling and hovering five different blueprints into view. Dragonfly recognized those blueprints as being architectural designs, one of them looking very much like some sort of ancient gothic cathedral, but any further details were entirely out of her grasp. Rosie, on the other hoof, seemed to understand it well enough:

"Button, we have to put Mr. Honeywell's inn back into place, not take it down and build an entirely new one!"

Button opened her mouth to reply, but a bellowing shout from behind the building cut her off. It was Skywall: "Heeey! Li'l help here?!"

"Aw, crud. What now?" Dragonfly in tow, Rosie circled the inn and stopped suddenly as she saw Skywall. The stallion was pulling against a rope tied to a harness around his enormous torso. The rope was tied to the foundations of the house, which groaned and shuddered. His wings were flapping for extra power, but his hooves were digging into the soft earth as he was slowly but surely pulled backwards towards the inn. "Yow! What are you doing there?"

"I was s'posed to just keep the house stable! But the explosion rocked the whole thing! I think... It's tryin' to sink further towards the front!" Skywall said between heavy grunts, flapping his wings harder. "Help me pull this!"

Rosie nodded and stood by Skywall, biting on the taut rope and trying to walk backwards. Dragonfly ran back towards the front, stumbling on the same rock Switch had hit just before but hopping a few times with her wings open before recovering and stopping in the middle of the garden.

"Sugar Cookie!" She called out to the earth pony who was still admonishing Switch about dangerous explosions as she finished applying ointment on his side. "I... I don't know what to do!"

"What a mess...!" Sugar Cookie said, looking around. She turned towards the steam tractor and yelled: "Button, stop what you're doing and come here!"

"What?" Button replied distractedly, her quill flying over the blueprint paper. Oh, the rush of inspiration was so intense!

"I said come here!"

"Just a minute!"

"NOW!"

Dragonfly chuckled as she saw all the color drain from Button's face as she dropped the quill and quietly jumped off the parked tractor. The unicorn approached meekly, moving to stand besides her bother.

"Um... yes?" The Twins asked.

"What in the name of Celestia were you two trying to do?" Sugar Cookie asked pointedly.

"We were trying to fix the inn, of course!" They answered promptly.

"By bringing it down?!" Rosie asked incredulously, arriving besides Dragonfly. Skywall stood a little further back, removing the harness. "The explosion almost made it flip on its side! Lucky us we managed to stabilize it again!"

"It was a faulty gasket, we swear!"

"What are all these blueprints?" Sugar Cookie was looking through the multiple plans that stuck out of Button's saddlebags. "Something about a 'hydraulically-actuated, high-speed, high-power, sensor-controlled equestrian egress valve'? What's that supposed to be?"

"It's an automatic sliding door!" The Twins beamed at their own cleverness. The smiles soon yellowed and vanished, replaced by embarrassed looks. "... we just thought it would be nice to have those installed... you know, so ponies wouldn't have to push the door open to enter...?"

Rosie brought a hoof to her face. "Shouldn't you be thinking about that after coming up with a way to put the inn back into place?"

"Hey, one thing at a time! You can't rush ingenuity!"

"That's not exactly how I call it, you know?"

"Calm down, everypony...!" Dragonfly, who had been chewing on her lower lip, exclaimed. The other ponies ignored her, until Skywall stomping his hoof down caught their attention. Dragonfly looked at the grey pegasus and smiled awkwardly. "Um, thanks Skywall! Anyway... instead of arguing... can anypony tell me if they have any ideas as to how to get the inn upright again? I mean, keep it simple!"

"Well..." The Twins scrunched up their faces. The entire concept of 'simplicity' was more often than not lost in them. "Maybe... we could set up some pulleys on the other side and pull the house back into place? That's simple, right?"

"It should be." Rosie said, looking at the inn. "We're going to need some supports, even if just temporary ones... so the house doesn't fall back into the hole that pulling it back into place is gonna leave!"

"We can try stacking the furniture on the other side of the inn so it weighs more there and keeps the rear in place!" Dragonfly suggested. "Like a seesaw!"

"Yes, that's good!" Button said, smiling wide and telekinetically reaching for a blank sheet of blue paper. "I'll draw the schematics right away!"

"No, no, no. Enough zany schematics for you two for today!" Rosie pulled Button by the tail. Skywall reached forward the same with Switch. "You two are gonna help us pull! Dragonfly and Sugar Cookie are gonna go inside once everything is upright and rearrange the furniture."

"Wait! No! We're awful at pulling heavy thiiiiiiings!"

"And once we're done here, you two are buying a new boiler! A normal one, and not those that fly out of the basement and through the roof if the valve gets stuck! And no automatic doors unless Dragonfly explicitly asks for them, you hear?"

Dragonfly saw the two unicorns being dragged around the building and giggled. Finally, things seemed to be going the right direction. The inn would take a couple of days to repair, and maybe another couple days to prepare for guests (the dingy grey paintwork would have to go), but Dragonfly was optimistic. Perhaps with the inn open Mrs. Tea Leaf, who would no doubt be very cross about the boiler explosion and the whole 'almost crashing the inn on its side' thing, would relax a little bit.

Either way, it was time to put her hooves in motion! All that heavy furniture wasn't going to push itself! Dragonfly took in a deep breath, looked at the work ahead of her, and her stomach growled unceremoniously.

"Um... Sugar Cookie?" Dragonfly asked, digging into the dirt with one hoof. "You wouldn't happen to have some food in those saddlebags, would you?"