//------------------------------// // milkshakes, mane dye, and gossip // Story: A royal Respite // by Paradise Oasis //------------------------------// Milkshakes, mane dye, and Gossip It was after school on Wednesday, that Celeste followed three fillies she had agreed to hang with today, back to the Rainbow Beauty Salon. The four Equines were sharing gossip, and laughing about the scool day's events. "Can you believe that sun hat Moonglow was wearing today?" Melody giggled. "I've never seen anything so goofy!" "You got that right!" Starlight laughed. "It looks like something my grandma would wear!" "Now girls, that hat was a vintage Canterlot creation, from the Hoity Toity collection!" Bon Bon protested. "It was designed by the famous Equestrian designer Rarity, whose fashions are the foundation of modern pony styles!" "Which means it's older than dirt, Bon Bon!" Melody whinnied. "Leave it to your freaky knowledge of Fashion to even know who this 'Rarity' even is!" "Well who knows, girls! Maybe Rarity's designs will become popular again?" Celeste added, nervously thinking of her own collection of hats, shoes, and dresses the fashion mare had designed for her personally when she had still been alive. "Yeah... you're right, Celeste!" Bon Bon agreed excitedly. "Retro looks from previous centuries do cycle back into fashion sooner or later!" "Yeah... 'retro' looks..." Celeste hid her mild wince at the word. As if she needed something else to remind her of her true vintage. It wasn't long, before the four fillies arrived at the beauty salon/malt shop combo. Starlight unlocked the door with her key and they trotted inside. "Okay girls, my mom's away on a business trip today, and she said I could keep the shop closed while we hang out." She trotted behind the counter. "So why don't you all have a seat, and I'll make each of us an ice cream soda!" "Say, where's your sister today, Celeste?" Melody asked the white filly, as they all sat down at the stools in front of the counter. "Oh, she said something about helping Patch and Bright Eyes clean up a local park." Celeste shrugged. "It's just her trying to do her part and help out!" "Just like our Bright Eyes does!" Bon Bon said with a laugh. "It seems the two of you are fitting in nicely with our little group!" Starlight brought each of the three a chocolate milkshake, and then sat down beside them with her own she had poured. "So Celeste, do you listen to the Cleveland Bays?" Starlight asked Celeste. "They are, after all, only the coolest band around!" "Yeah! And their lead singer, Chain Link?" Melody gasped. "Oh man, he is sooo hot! I even got his autograph at their last concert here in Coltonville!" "Yeah, I attended one of their foreign tour concerts in Equestria!" Celeste remarked, sipping her milkshake. "My ears have never recovered from that... 'unique' experience!" "So you don't like loud music? Awwww!" Bon Bon sighed. "Hey, did you know Melody has her own band?" "Yeah, we're called the Rockin' beats!" Melody exclaimed. "You should hear us play sometime!" "I'm sure I'll get the chance." Celestia replied, eating some of her shake with a spoon. "So, do you girls listen to anything besides rock or rap?" "WHAT ELSE IS THERE?!?" The other three fillies laughed in unison. "Everything else is old boring stuff the adults listen to!" "Well, there is country music..." Celeste replied hopefully. "...and there are many good forms of music that other cultures-" "BO-RING!" Melody snorted, rolling her eyes. "Honestly Celeste, you're starting to sound like Bright Eyes or Lunette!" "Classical music soooo puts me to sleep!" Starlight gagged, sticking out her tongue. "How can anybody listen to that junk?" "I remember when my parents tried to get me to play a classical harp for the school band, it was terrible!" Bon Bon snorted. "I swear I will hate Lyres for the rest of my life!" "You don't actually like that stuff, do you, Celeste?" Melody asked her. "Yeah, you're right." Celeste whinnied sadly. "Who wants to listen to that dumb old boring stuff anyway?" Seeing how down Celeste had become, the four girls finished their milkshakes in silence. It wasn't until they were done that Melody finally chirped up; "Hey! Come on, girls! We're here to have fun!" She galloped through the ice cream shop's gate to the beauty parlor next door. "Let's leave all this gloom and doom behind us, it's makeover time!" The three other fillies nodded, galloped over to the salon. Celeste climbed into the chair first, while Bon Bon and Starlight put her mane up in bobby pins. "Sooo, Celeste." Starlight asked. "What color do you want your mane and coat dyed?" "Ohhh! Ohhh! Go for a green mane!" Melody squee'd. "Then you can look just like PTV host Dazzle!" "How about a purple coat?" Bon Bon suggested, holding up the latest issue of pony fashion illustrated. "It's what all of the top models are going for this year!" "Nice to hear they're going for something, besides being 20 pounds underweight!" Starlight quipped. An irate Bon Bon chucked the magazine at her, which the pink mare easily dodged. After washing and drying Celeste's mane, Starlight got the dyes out, and began to go to work. "Ohhh! I want yellow with a pink mane after she's done, Starlight!" Melody whinnied. "I want to go for the Princess Rosy look for this week!" "Oh that's right! Celeste, we never told you!" Starlight exclaimed. "We just happen to know some royalty! Princess Rosy of the isle of Pony!" "Y-you all know Princess Rosy?" Celeste asked nervously, as Starlight rubbed the dye through her mane. "You're actually firends with her?" "Sure!" Bon Bon replied, munching on a cookie she had grabbed from the ice cream shop. "She grew up here in Coltonville, she was a friend of Patch's from the orphanage they were both in." "After Patch was adopted out to a family, Rosy lived there until she was in her teens." Melody replied. "Her parents finally discovered their missing daughter, and she's been living the life of royalty ever since!" "Come to think of it, isn't she coming back to visit next week?" Starlight asked. "We'll have to introduce you to our royal friend!" Celeste felt her stomach tie in a knot. She had heard the long-missing Princess Rosy had been rediscovered at a Coltonville orphanage, but she had no idea she and her sister would meet her old commoner friends! Rosy was best friends with Princess Cadence, and visited the Canterlot royal court all the time. "Oh dear, this is not good! If Rosy sees me, she'll know me on the spot!" Celestia thought to herself in a panic. "You may have your royalty you wish to look like, Melody." Bon Bon whinnied. "But I'd rather dye just my mane pink, so I can look like Queen Sky Skimmer of Dream Valley!" "Oh yeah! That unicorn is soooo gorgeous! Way younger and prettier than those old nags, Luna and Celestia!" Starlight agreed. "I'd just love to know her secret for keeping that glowing shine on her mane!" Celeste bristled in anger, furious over the age crack, and also for being compared to that accursed queen from that accursed kingdom that was Equestria's greatest rival! The nerve of these fillies! It was then That Bon Bon asked her; "Speaking of Celestia... Celeste, you're from Equestrian upper crust society. Have you ever met Princess Celestia or Princess Luna?" "Yeah! What are they really like?" Melody chimed in. The knot in Celeste's stomach tightened even worse. "I've seen her once or twice, at the summer sun celebration." She waved her hoof dismissively. "She's nothing Special." "I'd love to meet one of the alicorn Princesses!" Starlight added dreamily. "Even if they don't raise the sun and moon, it'd be awesome to meet two such renowned and ancient ponies!" Celeste again winced at the use of 'ancient' to describe her, but kept her cool. She then looked up at Starlight. "Listen, I know that you and Ace are close... and I know you've heard about the fact that he asked me out. Starlight, I just wanted to say I'm-" "Don't worry Celeste, it's okay." Starlight sighed, as she started to dye the white filly's coat. "Ace and I aren't joined at the hip, and he doesn't pay much attention to me anyway." "Yeah, we all have trouble with our guys!" Melody quipped. "Clover and Patch are always having some problem or another with Dandy and Buddy!" "Not me, though!" Bon Bon bragged, stuffing a hoof full of potato chips into her mouth. "My boyfriend Spinner and I never have any trouble!" "Really, Starlight?" Celeste asked. "You don't mind I'm dating him?" "Not at all!" Starlight replied sweetly. "His life is his own to live! If he chooses another filly over me... well, I just have to live with it, don't I?" "Thanks, Starlight!" Celeste smiled at her. "You're the best!" "Not a problem!" Starlight replied. "Anyway, looks like your mane and coat are done!" The Pink filly took the towels off of Celeste, and the other fillies present gasped in shock. "Oh my goodness!" Bon Bon whinnied. "That doesn't look like I imagined it would!" "I don't think I want to dye my mane or coat anymore!" Melody gagged. "Me neither!" Bon Bon agreed, dropping the doughnut she was eating in shock. "This makeover has officially become a fashion disaster!" Seeing their reactions, Celeste spun around in the salon chair to look at herself in the mirror... and her eyes went wide. "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!" "I'm sure Ace will just love your new look!" Starlight thought to herself smugly, as the other three fillies in the room panicked. "That'll teach you to go after my colt, you foreign temptress!" ... "Sister! I am home!" Lunette called out, as she came in the door of the house. Silence met her as she closed the door, and trotted inside. "In here." Celeste rasped out, hiding back in the shadows in the living room. "What doth the solar princess skulk about in the dark?" The filly said with a laugh, as she turned the living room lights on. "I had a day most wonderful with the girls, we did clean six parks across town! So how was your- WHOA-OH-OH-OH-OH-OA!" As soon as the light came on, Lunette saw the disaster that was her sister- a purple-coated, green-maned monstrosity. No single hair on her mane was going in the same direction, and the look of disgust on her face completed the picture. "W-what happened to YOU!?!" Lunette asked, trying to stifle her laughter. "You doth resemble mare-do-well's comic book nemesis, the Jester!" "Starlight's revenge for me dating Ace, I'm sure of it!" Celestia snorted. "I'm never letting that wily filly give me a makeover again!" "Why doth you not simply shift thyself out of that look, back to your true coat colors?" Lunette asked her. "I tried, my alicorn shift powers aren't working. I’m stuck like this!" Celestia whinnied in frustration. "They called the music and clothes that we like outdated! Can you believe their nerve, Luna?" "Jealous fillies and changing fads... sounds like thou hast forgotten what it was like to be a filly, Celestia!" Lunette said with a chuckle. "Tis not as much fun reliving those years as thou thought it would be, is it?" "Look, we have tomorrow off school, due to Republic founder's day." Celeste snorted, crashing on the couch, turning on the television. "Just give me that to rest up, and I'll be back in the game!" "I am truly sorry sister, but I cannot givieth you that." Lunette replied sadly. "For I did agree that we would watch Melody's two younger sisters, Jing-a-ling and Ting-a-ling, tonight and tomorrow while their parents were busy." It was at that moment that two little filly toddlers, who had quietly slipped in with Lunette, raced into the living room and began hopping up and down on Celestia's stomach. "Yaaay! hop on Celeste!" The two little bundles of energy giggled, as they bounced on top of the exhausted filly. "There are times sister... when I wish I had left you in the moon." Celeste grumbled under her breath.