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Opus I: The Wind3,521 words
Opus I.II La Mer2,871 words
Opus I.III La Bella2,597 words

Opus I.III La Bella

"You're a fool." Big Macintosh said, pouring the last bit of cider into the glass jar; gazing down at the strong beverage while Filthy Rich was relaxed on the wooden chair. He bore a smug smile at the red stallion in the kitchen.

"A fool? Not much of a fool, if I am willing to risk my reputation to make it possible. Think about it, Big Macintosh! The results of our profits would benefit more mutually than it had those eighty years ago." Rich calmly stated before looking back, spotting Applejack leaning on the side connected to the living room.

"Now you wait just one darn minute! Y'all tellin' me this here isn't all business? Come on Rich, Granny Smith knows you were raised by your father. He was a silver tongue devil; and you're the golden tongue serpent!" Applejack declared, glaring at him with disdain. However, Rich softly chuckled; easing his back on the chair while his gaze was on the ceiling. Big Macintosh was drinking his cider already expecting a headache on his way.

"I'm the Serpent in your trees, Dear.. But understand: I have no bearing interest in you.. Much. You better only hope our deal is met and that we proceed as planned. Think about the lives you both would be benefiting in this grand country! I know you are all religious folk, and it's obvious you don't trust me for my occupation and affiliation; but know, I too, care for this country as much as either of you. I just require help.. And to push that stubborn fool in the clouds to accept our terms, I'd see no reason why this should not be over and done!"

Rich had a way with words and it bothered Applejack more so than it did with Mac. She glared at him longer; and he avoided that dagger gaze, fully aware how dangerous she could be once you let her stare you down. Unlike Fluttershy: Applejack could read ponies, just by looking at them and immediately figure out if they were lying or telling the truth.

"If you're tellin' the truth, then I don't see why not to go and accept to your terms.. But don't take me like a fool in rodeo show unprotected. I don't trust you, nor do I like you." Applejack stated bluntly, causing Rich to finally look down at her with a soft smile.

"Macintosh?" He addressed, awaiting his own answer.

"If Applejack agrees, so will I. But that leaves Granny Smith--"

"I know it leaves me." Granny Smith interrupted, causing the three to turn towards the other entrance into the kitchen. That path being the hallway on the other side. "Rich, you look almost like your father, y'know?"

"As much as I can deny, I must accept the fact I do. But you look as young as I once saw you, Mrs. Smith." Rich said, hopping off the chair and walking towards her. With kindness and respect, he knelt down to lift her right hoof, kissing it while his eyes kept to hers.

"And also a flattering angel," She gave a weak old chuckle, Big Mac and Applejack rolling their eyes before looking away.

"Careful now; I did fall from the heavens, but landed in your graces." Rich continued, kissing her hoof again, earning a delightful giggle from Smith.

"Could we hurry up with this?" Applejack complained, earning a soft sigh from Granny Smith as Rich released her hoof and backed away a few feet.

"Now, I understand this arrangement was made many years ago. I also understand that you want to make sure it's all on official business. But I do not understand, though--what in tarnation pushed you to follow through now?" Smith asked, lifting her right brow. That question caused the siblings to look at Rich curiously for a response.

Rich gave off a soft chuckle, before answering in a subtle and genuine tone. “To make the country a better place; to provide ponies more rights and capabilities that Celestia is struggling to place into law and unite this country as one... That is why I am doing this.” He explained, earning questionable glares from Big Macintosh and Applejack.

“To make the country a better place? That sounds strange coming from the stallion that put out business for a lot of hard workin’ city folk in Manehatten and Decolt!” Applejack pointed out, “Trying to make the world a better place with the things you’ve already done long ago, you might as well have pulled off something more surreptitious.”

“Big word, Applejack. But—yes, that’s the plan: to pull off something surreptitious. I want to help the ponies I put out of business. I’ve seen the world since I was born, Dear, especially through my father’s eyes.. This world is dark and cold. Secrets are everywhere and we are simply just puppets to somepony else's desire...Even the princesses. But we are trying to survive, no? I only want to stop that secret; I want to make it get loud so that ponies all over this country would be liberated and finally free to live their lives to the fullest! I want to make the country better... And I need your help to do it.. Am I lying?”

Applejack swallowed her spit and bit her lip, glaring with frustration towards the mid-aged stallion. He was in fact not lying and an Apple could tell who was lying and who was not. If Rich meant his words, who was she to get in his way? He cared for the ponies in this country, for their health, problems and the situations that bind them into difficult lifestyles.

“My, oh my! You indeed have your father’s traits in you. A natural born leader,” Granny Smith commented, causing Applejack and Big Mac to place their attention on her as she gave off a soft cackle, clapping her hooves together with amusement. Rich only provided the best of esoteric smiles.

“I am flattered that you think me as one. However, differing from my father, I am not exactly.. How should you say? 'All' like him. He never put much mind into the safety of others, but the country as a whole. Anypony that stood in his path were stomped over, without looking back; he was more of an evolutionist, if you don’t mind me saying. He believed, that society needed to survive; be the strongest anypony could imagine! And if the weak cannot prosper, the strong cannot learn from their mistakes. That philosophy blinded him from others…” Rich removed himself from the chair as he calmly walked over to the window, leaning forward before giving a gaze to the sweet green hills that flustered with magnificent apple trees. An acre where the sun would rise and kiss gently the land in his grasp. So precious.

“I, however, want to focus on everypony. For they are what makes this country, not the country that makes itself. We are all born with different views, recherché to the point, some of us are just left with blanks. But that does not mean we have to focus on the little things first and ignore the bigger. Why not take them out with one stone?” Rich was clear on his goal to making the country a better place. But there was something lingering in his shadows. Big Mac was the only one who could see through those gentle eyes. This stallion was smart and detailed, but also loaded with recondite mysteries in his conquest for a new age.

He did not say anything he knew he could not. Rich was like his father; willing to do whatever it takes to see his goals accomplished and Big Mac understood that more than his own family.

‘Like, pa...stubborn to the end.’ Big Macintosh thought to himself.

“So...do we have a deal?” Rich asked, turning his gaze with a relaxing smile to Granny Smith.

“A deal ya' say? A deal we indeed have. After all.. I do see a leader in you, as well as a good husband.” Granny Smith replied with a soft chuckle, not aware that Applejack’s cheeks blushed red through her orange tinted coat. Filthy Rich closed his eyes, but that smile remained on his lips. Was he truly a natural born leader?

Blueblood chuckled lightly to himself as he was walking Fluttershy back to her cottage for the night. The evening was a quiet moment for them until the Prince brought up an interesting conversation about the city life he experienced and the castle life he was raised in. Though it was confusing for Fluttershy, the prince gladly explained to her the daily lifestyle he grew up with; though kept some things out due to their content.

“It’s not like the ponies there minded. When royalty is in your face, what will you do? Bow, greet, gawk, or fall face first to the ground? I was not much of a prince that cared about things being orderly done. In fact, don’t find it rude, but I did not like much of that to begin with. Only if it was along some great event that my aunt was hosting to settle down some heavy matters.” Said Blueblood as he took a soft glance at the smiling pegasus beside him. “What about you? What was your life like when you were small?”

Fluttershy took a moment to come up with an answer before looking to the sides of the dirt road they were on with a gentle smile. “Well, you see...I was just your normal filly, just trying to live the lifestyle of the pegasi...though...I did not like it that much,” She answered.

“Explain?” The prince requested.

“I don’t like hikes very often... They’re quite...umm...scary. I remember one time I fell down from a cloud when I was very little; a bunch of butterflies caught me and lifted me to the ground. I think it was the day I also got my own cutie mark.” Fluttershy said as the two were halfway close to the cottage on the small hill beneath a tree. With a soft glance, she looked at Blueblood’s cutie mark, curious to what it meant and how he obtained it. “If you don’t mind me asking, how did you get your cutie mark?”

The smile that Blueblood had along the way weakened as he looked on ahead to avoid eye contact. “My cutie mark...well...to be honest... It’s a long story I rather not go into. Let’s just say that I am quite proud of it, but the past events that led up to it are not so...light. Take note that Canterlot is a busy place and you have to be constantly busy every second you have, ‘less you lose your cool and you might see some prince on the daily paper with cuffs on his hooves,” Blueblood said as he gave a light chuckle to make sure Fluttershy would not feel bad for asking a sensitive question. But that failed due to her soft frown directed towards him with a gentle gaze.

The gaze of a commoner peering into the frail soul of a royal, this would rather be considered taboo in society, for it should be done the other way around. Blueblood felt a bit of a chill from this but released a soft sigh in defeat, knowing that his excuse would not pay off the curiosity that kindled in those blue hues of the fragile butterfly. With a moment to breathe in slowly and then out, Blueblood decided it was best to come out short and simple. But as soon as he opened his mouth, unaware that they made it to the front of the door, it swung right open with enough force to crash into the side of his face, knocking the daylights out of him. Falling back Fluttershy quickly gasped.

Stunned, as blood leaked slightly out of right nostril, Blueblood groaned lightly and looked at the front entrance, gazing in shock at the perpetrator responsible for his small injury. A small white rabbit (the devil in disguise) Angel. Their eyes locked with daggers, blade against blade, as silent words were shared through their venomous gaze, a promise that these two would most likely become enemies.

“Oh dear! I am so sorry for that, are you okay, Blueblood?! Angel you should be more careful next time when you are opening the door like that!” Blueblood’s thoughts were cut off by the sound of Fluttershy’s voice, panicking beside him as she checked his nose, grabbing a nearby herb leaf and pressing it against the bleeding hole that leaked its red fluids. The scent of mint was caught into his nostril, however the touch of tissue washed over his skin when it was pressed hard enough that he flinched slightly in pain. He was relieved a bit that something was there to keep his nose from running too much. However, his eyes returned to Angel, glaring at the cold-heartless white rabbit that folded its arms, tapping its foot repeatedly on the floor, as if waiting for Fluttershy to enter; but also to enter alone, not taking Blueblood’s presence kindly like a dog would if it smelt trouble in the house.

“That’s alright, Fluttershy. It surely was an accident. That, and I should have looked where I was going the entire time. Uhh, now that you are here... I believe I should go,” Blueblood said softly, only to feel a hoof gently rest on his shoulder. Like a spark of warmth, the stallion froze at his hooves, his eyes widened, and the sense of insecurity that he always had, hating when ponies touched him or even bumped him, washed away. It was her warm touch that made him hesitate on his decision, looking at her with confusion.

“You... You don’t have to go when it is in the middle of the night. The trains are barely running and plus, you need to get that nose checked out, in case something is broken,” She explained, her vibrant gaze already striking his pride without warning, softly taking him away into the rationality that she was right. He needed a place to stay. No stallion, especially of noble blood, should be out in the middle of the night. Luna governed those that dream, not the ones awake.

Blueblood opened his mouth thinking of a possible excuse for him to leave. Knowing that the rabbit below was not a strong excuse, he was already able to tell that Fluttershy was deeply connected to Angel. Inevitably he surrendered to her, nodding his head with a meek smile.

“First things first, let’s get that nose checked out. And last... Let’s get you something to drink. Tea perhaps?” Fluttershy asked, ignoring Angel’s disgruntling movement as he tapped his foot on the ground in protest upon the prince’s entry.

“Tea sounds good. Is it mint?” He asked in kind tone.

“It sure is! Though.. Not the mint that is covering your nose.” Fluttershy answered, as the two ponies were now in the cottage, Angel facepalmed and soon shut the door hard in an aggressive fit.

To Be Continued

Author's Note:

HELLO! Did you miss me, darlings, or did you hope this story continue! Heh, well, I thank you all for your patience. It means a lot to me. For now, things going on in real life is a bit hasty, but I'm pulling through the best I could thanks to unmentionable friends and the thought of you all doing what you can to live to smile again! Expect more chapters when I have the time. And thank you all again!

Stay safe!