Clean Slates

by Blind Gardener

Chapter: 2 Clean Mission Statement

Shining Armour had a mission! Bouncing for joy, Toy sword in mouth, he marched eagerly through the streets waving it at nearby shopkeepers and other rapscallions. Abruptly, His marching lost some of it's eagerness. He was passing Long Laugh's Candy Carafe. He loved that store, the candies therein, and Long Laugh's jackalopery.

Still, he took some flyers from the wall as he passed for "Perfect Princess Foalsitting". It could possibly help with his mission. After one more glance through the windows full of hard candies, he continued his march.

He continued past the store selling genuine reproduction guard weapons from the second pony-dragon war. He skirted the fountain full of overweight ducks that he liked to feed.

He stopped at the playground though to ask the women and men who were corralling their own younger siblings if they were interested in helping him with his. The answers were generally negative. Twilight, for all that she was so small, had a ferocious reputation.

His marching continued past Rose Tarsal's narrow apartment, squeezed between her father's greengrocery and her mother's blacksmithing shop. How the whole family fit in there was beyond Shining's imagination, he and Twilight had a hard enough time sharing one hallway out of their rooms. Rose shared her small room with several sisters.

He paused, had he seen Rose Tarsal in the window? He marched back to Rose Tarsal's place, and knocked on the door. As expected, a scrawny male griffon with thick tin rimmed glasses, gentle silver edged olive feathers and greying fur answered. "Hello Mr Tarsal. Is Rose there?" He asked politely.

Mr Tarsal blinked his wateringly blue eyes indulgently at the little foal. "Why yes, Shining, she is."

He backed out of the small entryway to get enough room to turn around, then he disappeared into the narrow apartment, nimbly threading his feline body past the furniture and nicknacks. Shining waited outside politely. A shrill voice shouting "Shiny!" emerged from the tiny apartment, followed by a cavalcade of sounds, most of which Shining Armour recognised.

First, craning his ears, Shining heard the distinct sound of Rose scrambling up the walls to get over her father in the narrow halls. Then he the sound of her accidentally spreading her wings and knocking something over, causing him to wince and shake his head. Finally he heard the expected sound of her tripping over something, and thudding against the closed door. With a grimace he stepped back from the door to prevent Rose from smacking him in the face with it, as she had done many times in the past.

The door opened, and a scruffy little griffon griflet tumbled out and into a disheveled heap. "Shiny!" She cooed eagerly. Her fur was a dusty shade of rose, and her feathers a deeper shade with the silver edges she inherited from her father.

Chuckling softly, Shining Armour bent down to preen at the bundle of fuz, straightening her feathers for her. She swiped playfully at him with her claws, leaving a light score across his belly. "Quiddit"

Eyes watering slightly, he snorted, and poked her belly with a hoof, right in the ticklish spot. "Make me" he taunted.

She executed a perfect pounce from prone, leaping for his throat, but he had already moved it out of the way and shouldered her back into the dirt, his magic ensorceling itself around his sword. She snapped out a wing, catching his forleg and sending him into a stumble, but his floating sword intercepted her lunge, slamming against her throat and sending her into a coughing fit. He charged her, biting her throat as she coughed. She rolled on her belly in submission, but when he let his guard down she revealed it to be false, grabbing his withers and dragging him down into the dirt with her, the vicious play fighting devolving into a wrestling match.

Author's Note:

Long Laugh is a Jackalope. He's has a brown body, with a grey splotch on his face, long grey rabbit ears that dangle near his knees, no cutie mark, and a set of four point elk horns, and an 'anchor' style beard. In personality he's sorta Pinkie Pie/Willy Wonka but without the magical reality warping powers and more old man smell. Makes great candy. Thinks he's great with kids. He isn't.

I invented him for this scene and don't actually plan to re-use him. I probably will anyway. I imagine him as wearing lame fake bumblebee antenna and a bad Hawaiian shirt. He might look a little like smxsonic. Sorry dudebro.

Comments

[Remmy4warlord]

I like it.