Introductions exchanged the growing group moved back through the town center on their way toward Everfree. Spike hit it off quite well with the brown Mare, impressed by her speed and control as well as her odd mode of travel.
"I've never quite seen a scooter like that one." he pushed noting the now folded scooter sitting in a sling attached to her saddlebags. It was simple in design, no apparent frills or colors but it was sturdy and could fold away for easy travel. "Where did you get it?"
"It's custom." She said proudly. "My friend made it for me for my birthday a few years back. All the store bought ones kept breaking."
"I don't think general quality assurance takes your kind of speed and... activities into their testing." Shining said dryly.
"I know right!" Scootaloo replied enthusiastically either ignoring the snark or completely missing it. "But leave it to Bloom to make it work. It ain't pretty but it gets the job done." she said fondly.
"But can't't you fly?" Cadence spoke up curious.
"Yeah of course."
"But wh-, I mean wouldn't it be easier to deliver things around town by flying?"
"Exactly."
"Er... what?"
"I mean it's way too easy to just fly there, too lame. Getting around on the ground is much more interesting! I'm always finding new ways to navigate the town." Scootaloo said brightly.
"And finding new violation forums to fill out." Diamond added softly to Shining who snorted lightly.
"What about you Cadence?"
"What about me?"
"I mean your a Princess and stuff, what do you do?"
"Huh?" Cadence blinking thrown off by the sudden topic shift.
"I mean your aunt rises the sun and moon right. So what do you control?"
"Oh, well I don't 'control' anything. My domain is love." she said with a smile.
"Love?" Scootaloo and Diamond asked in unison the latter sounding far more interested.
"You can make ponies fall in love?" the earth pony pressed.
"Oh no no no, I can't MAKE ponies do anything. My magic can only ignite feelings already present." she clarified. "Still I must be careful... using the wrong spell to ignite love, or igniting one-sided love could cause a lot of trouble."
"Ahh..."
"But how can you tell?" Diamond asked with a frown.
"Well it's a but hard to explain... when I focus I can SEE lines connecting ponies together." Cadence began, "At first they were just lines and I couldn't tell what they meant. But as I practiced my magic I could start to tell the differences."
"Differences?" Diamond raised a brow, causing Cadence to smile brightly.
"Oh yes, there are many different kinds of love. Mainly it falls into familial, friendly, romantic and potential but it goes MUCH deeper then that." she was gaining a bounce in her step gearing up for a full explanation. Diamond at least seemed interested but Scootaloo was looking out with glazed over eyes. Spike cleared his throat derailing the princess before she could get rolling.
"No offense Cadence, but this really isn't the best time for a full tutorial." he said immediately regretting it as Cadence's face fell giving the dragon a punch of guilt.
"Oh, I guess your right..."
"Miss Cadence, I'm sure there would be plenty of time after the festival if you wanted to talk more." Diamond Tiara said with a small smile. "It really sounds fascinating."
"R-Really?"
"Yeah," Scootaloo seemed to come back to reality with the lecture postponed. "It doesn't have to be a holiday to see friends." She grinned brightly causing The alicorn to look between the two with wide eyes.
"ah wha, Friends..." Cadence blinked wondering if she'd heard wrong. After a beat she began to smile adding softly "I'd love to..." Shining smiled at the scene, it was nice to see Cadence make friends outside of their little circle. Twilight, for all her good traits, wasn't a great example for the socially well adjusted. Well, perhaps that wasn't entirely fair. She may have had her own tight circle of friends and some interesting adventures but the statement stood.
The world may or may not be gearing up evil's return and eternal night but that could wait for now... Watching the three mares chat excitedly as they planned for a future visit left the stallion with a warm feeling he didn't want to let go of just yet.
***
"There they are!" Scootaloo pointed a hoof to the sky where a half-dozen pegasi were battling some misshapen clouds.
"Is that a reject from the factory?" Spike queried with a raised brow.
"Unfortunately not, those clouds formed by themselves over Everfree forest," Diamond said with dire seriousness, bringing a chill to Shining's spine. A place where clouds formed on their own... it sounded so unnatural. But still it had sounded familiar, The unicorn looked to Diamond to confirm but she had already turned her attention to the sky calling out to the weather team. He instead turned to Scootaloo who was unfolding her vehicle once more preparing to head off.
"Everfree, You mentioned that place earlier. What IS Everfree?"
"It's freaky is what it is." Scootaloo said distastefully. "It's full of all kinds of horrible plants and beasts, any path somepony tries to carve out gets overgrown over night." she then looked up to the rogue cloud. "and it MAKES it's own weather."
"Fascinating." Cadence said looking to the expanse of trees in awe.
"No, Freaky." Scootaloo corrected. "Belle, Bloom and I are lucky not to be dead with all the times we stumbled in there as foals... Only Pip is crazy enough to go in there on his own."
"Pip?" Spike blinked at the name.
"Yeah, Stallion from Trottingham, moved here years ago. Nice guy but pretty weird." The pegasus stated without an once of tact.
"Oh..." Cadence and Shining shared a glance having expected a bit more on an explanation but the pegasus had already moved on.
"Hey Diamond, what's the hold up?"
"I think he's ignoring me." She muttered, sounding a bit put off at the possibility.
"Nah, the wind is always whipping when you get close to Everfree." Scootaloo said casually. With a sigh Diamond turned to try again when the brown pegasus unleashed a piercing whistle that cause all of her companions to wince. "YO RUMBLE!" she thundered obvious to the shock of those around her.
"What?!" a charcoal stallion shouted back, the rest of the weather team pausing their work to look down.
"DIAMOND AND THE PRINCESS NEED TO TALK TO YOU."
"Princess?!" was the only audible reply, his coat paling slightly. He motioned energetically to the others who went back to work on the stubborn clouds before flying down to meet the group. His build was lithe and athletic, slightly bigger then Scootaloo. His mane was short, sticking out in all directions. It was hard to tell if it was from work or if it fell that way naturally. The stallion flared his wings slowing his decent until he landed lightly. "Sorry Tiara, Normally I'd keep you updated on the situation but with your workload today I figured I could just get it done and not wo-"
"It's fine Rumble," Diamond said interrupted the hurried excuses. "In fact I appreciate the initiative." she added with a smile that seemed to calm the stallion. "I'm not here to chew you out, Princess Mi amo-"
"Cadence." The alicorn corrected patiently.
"Sorry, Princess Cadence just wanted to check on the weather status for her aunt's sun rising tomorrow." she motioned to the Canterlot visitors behind her. Rumble gave a respectful bow, but pulled himself back up before Cadence could tell him to.
"In that case your majesty we're still mostly on schedule." he reported calmly. "The rogue clouds are much harder to buck but we caught them early so we should be done shortly. At this rate the sky will still be clear before sundown. I give my personal guarantee."
"Excellent, glad to hear it." Cadence clopped her hooves together happily before looking to Spike who nodded in return.
"Weather Check." The dragon checked the box off as Rumble tried not to stare at the dragon.
"Very Professional," Shining spoke up, catching the other stallion's attention.
"Best to get things done right the first time if you know what your doing." he said standing a little straighter, clearly pleased at the compliment.
"I still say he needs to loosen up more." Scootaloo chimed in casually as she leaned on her scooter. Rumble rolled his eyes repressing a sigh.
"I thought you still had packages to deliver?"
"Huh?" The pegasus mare blinked. "Oh right." she said pulling her goggles back done over her eyes and reaching for her helmet.
"Oh dear, I didn't mean to hold you up..." Cadence fretted biting her bottom lip.
"Don't worry about it, This'll just make the next few deliveries more interesting." Scootaloo said with an infectious grin beating her wings rapidly. "Later!" she took off with a rush of wind disappearing down the road at the same unreasonable speed she had used when they first met. Diamond sighed and shook her head while Rumble chuckled smiling fondly.
"That mare..." they said in unison.
"Nonetheless." Cadence spoke up to break the brief awkward silence. "I think Ponyville is lucky to have such a fine weather Captain."
"Thank you for the compliment, but I'm not the weather captain."
"Huh?" Cadence blinked looking to Diamond Tiara. "But then why is he..."
"He is the most qualified." the mayor's aide said simply, Rumble straightening up a bit at the praise. "We rely on his diligence on events such as this but he refuses to take the job full time."
"Raindrops does a fine job as captain, just needs some more experience is all." he spoke up in defense of Ponyville's (apparent) weather Captain. "I don't mind helping out if I've got time but weather comes third in my list of priorities. I need to keep up my patrols and looking after my little brother." he stated firmly.
"ahh, nice to see a pony with their priorities straight." Spike said receiving a nod from Shining who stepped forward.
"So you Patrol?" He asked clearly interested,
"Yup, make three flights a day along the border of Everfree." Rumble stated proudly before blinking. "Um, you are?"
"Shining Armor," He finally introduced himself with a nod. "So you're part of the town's militia?" he ventured, a town of Ponyville's size was unlikely to have anything larger like 'police' but Militia or local guards seemed feasible.
"I guess you could call it that... but it's not official or anything." Rumble muttered glancing to Diamond for confirmation, the pink mare nodded.
"Rumble is correct, Ponyville has no established guard or militia."
"What? Every town is supposed to have SOME kind of guard presence, especially if Everfree is as dangerous as I'm hearing." Shining stomped a hoof and snorted crossly. This kind of gross negligence was too much. "I think I need to have a word with your Guard liaison." he said seriously. Every town in Equestria was supposed to have one official guard pony to oversee all crime and protection issues. The position was usually filled by injured veterans on the mend or newer promoted officers to allow them to get more experience in organization and leadership. They weren't suppose to sit on their haunchs twiddling their hooves while the citizens were left to figure it out on their own. Shining may not have rank on his side but her had avenues to the right ponies that could do something. THIS would not stand.
"We don't have one." Diamond muttered with a sigh.
"What?!"
"Our assignments here have always been sporadic at best, the last one left nearly a year ago." The pink mare paused for a moment to make sure she remembered the dates properly before nodding and continuing. "Since then the mayor and myself have tried to sort it out but we've gotten nothing but bureaucratic run around." she shook her head, a slight frown of annoyance creeping into her expression.
"Look, it's fine." Rumble spoke up, standing tall and proud. "We get by just fine without some snooty Canterlot guard looking over our shoulder... er." he seemed to realize his mistake almost immediately." No offense."
"None taken." Shining shook his head and sighed, much of his earlier indignation fading. "But if things were running as they should you'd be getting paid for your patrols at the very least."
"Paid?!" Rumble's wings shot up in surprise as his jaw dropped. He looked pleadingly to the mayor's aide.
"It's out of our hooves Rumble... That kind of pay comes from the military's budget. As it stands Ponyville needs the revenue from events like this just to keep breaking even all year. I have to jump enough red tape and hoops to get you paid for your part time weather team help..." She lowered her head.
"Well I'm going to be reporting this to my higher ups, of that you can be sure." Shining said firmly. This gross negligence was a flagrant disregard for the guard rules and code. In the back of his mind the niggling worry of the mission coming true became only more insistent... if Nightmare Moon was to return, they would have no back up. Even if he could get word back to Canterlot it would take a lot of time for the army to mobilize and make their way out... time they likely wouldn't have.
"Yes," Cadence's voice broke through his worried musings as she step up to his side. "I'll be sure to let my aunt know about this situation. This breach of protocol will not go unnoticed any longer. I promise."
"Seriously?" Rumble blinking before smiling brightly. "That's great! You hear that Tiara?" he looked excitedly to the earth pony who was staring in shock. It took a solid nudge from the pegasus to bring her back to reality. The pink mare struggled to collect her composure at the apparent fix to a very old problem.
"I- Jus-... Miss Cadence, Shining Armor... Thank you. This means a lot to this town and it's citizens." She said with a deep bow rising with a bright smile.
"No problem." Shining replied. "This is something that shouldn't be an issue in the first place. Thank you for bringing it to our attention."
"Now I hate to be abrupt, but we really should move on." Cadence said with a sheepish smile. "I feel we've kept you both from your duties far too long. Rumble," She turned to the pegasus. "Thank you for taking the time to speak with us."
"No problem princess, it was a pleasure." He gave a swift bow. "Maybe can catch up again during the festivities?" He offered chuckling, "My little brother probably wouldn't believe me otherwise."
"That would be nice." The young princess offered a smile at that.
"Yeah, and Spike is great with foals." Shining offered nudging the dragon who chuckled a bit.
"What can I say, it comes with a scales." he replied with a grin.
"Sounds like a plan then. It was great meeting you all." with one last bow he turned and shot up in to the sky to join his team and finishing the rogue clouds. After a moment attention turned back to Diamond Tiara.
"Miss Tiara," Cadence began, "You've been a huge help today, I really appreciate you taking the time to help us."
"No, it was my pleasure really." she replied in an equally polite tone but it held far more warmth then it did compared to their first meeting. "But you are correct I really should get back to check on the preparations." she bit her lip. "But, perhaps we could up... catch up afterward?" she offered with far less confidence then Rumble did previously.
"I'd love to." Cadence replied kindly.
"Great." Diamond brightened almost immediately before tempering her excitement with her more common 'professional' demeanor. "So what do you have left to check on?"
"Well, Next on the list is to check on the food preparations with the Apple family." Spike noted
"Ahh yes," Diamond nodded knowingly. "If there's anyponies that embody the spirit of hospitality it will be the Apples. You'll be in good hooves." She paused, "Actually I know just the mare that could point you there. Go to the town center where the grand stage is being set up and look for a yellow mare with a red mane by the name of Apple Bloom who should be working on it. Her older sister is the one in charge of catering. Apple Bloom should be able to lead you to Sweet Apple Acres and knowing her she likely skipped her lunch as it is. Perhaps a royal reminder will get her to take a break." she added with a slight giggle.