Armed with her newly assigned "mission" as a Junior Assistant, Blanche spent the better part of the evening in a state of intense, distracted contemplation. As she sat in the corner of the Little Red Pony Academy, she looked like a tiny philosopher, her brow furrowed and her lips moving in a silent rehearsal of the speech she intended to give her aunt. She was so Sprite-addled that she barely noticed when Millie offered her a block; she simply muttered something about "professional contracts" and went back to her daydreaming.
It wasn't until the clock neared midnight and the heavy iron gate of the academy groaned open that Iris Marlowe appeared, looking like she’d spent the day wrestling girders. The moment they stepped out of the yard and into the humid night air of Riverport, Blanche de
