Lavender

by ChillyKitty

Helping a Princess

Evergreen woke up with a start. It was just past midday and Iron Root decided that now was a great time to jump on his brother.

"Oh, get off." He moaned as he weakly pushed Iron away from him.

"Good morning Brother!" The colt said with a grin, "The crops art growing! The birds art singing! The sun is in the middle of the sky! Tis a wonderful day to wake-" He was cut off by a pillow thrown at his face with a bit of classic levitation.

Evergreen got up, despite his tired body begging him to stay in bed, and trotted around his brother, "Did any ponies come looking for me?" he asked.

"No," Iron said as he shuffled behind, "Just me!"

"Good, I did not miss anypony important." Evergreen spoke.

"Hey! How could thou be so cruel to thy darling younger brother!" Iron 'hmmph'ed in mock defense before trotting to the door, "I am going to talk to the guards." He announced.

"Have fun with that." Evergreen replied as Iron ran out the door.

The day, to the surprise of no one, was boring, just as any other day would be. Though, Evergreen found himself waiting for night to come.

He checked out the window frequently, looking to see any change in the sky. Of course, he knew that there was no point in checking if the sun had lowered any every quarter hour but he couldn't stop himself. The only time he didn't check were when he was distracted by something else, although he had to mix up a poultice for chafed armor so much that he could hardly consider it a distraction, making it was just second nature.

It was the first herbal treatment he'd ever learned about after all, so it was only natural that he could mix it up while barely paying attention. His mother had taught it to him when he was just a colt, back when his parents still thought he was going to be a part of the guard. They had thought that he would find it useful and it did end up being useful, he was sure the insolent guards were very grateful for his memorization of the poultice. Still, the mixing and matching of herbs and the work of smashing it together was enough of a distraction that he didn't check the sun for a few minutes longer.

Just before moonrise, Iron came begging to stay over for the night. "Oh, dear darling brother! I shall miss you so much if I have to go home." He complained, though of course, Iron was only staying so that he could see their father in the morning. Oh how Evergreen wished sometimes that his father would just let the colt stay in the guard's quarters.

Evergreen didn't really care that much this time, do to the fact that he wouldn't be there for most of the night. He just made Iron promise not to ruin any herbs.

He packed up a jar full of Luna's Lavender tea, took an extra ginger slice, and made himself some mint and green tea for caffeine.

"And where art thou going?" Iron asked in an accusatory tone.

"I am going to help…" he started with certainty but quickly trailed off, he didn't want to say the Princess's name at the moment for that would open a jar of worms he didn't want to deal with right before he left, but of course he couldn’t consider her a friend either, an acquaintance perhaps? No, not that either. "To help a patient, hence the tea." He said has shook the jar that was in his magic grasp.

There was a long moment of silence, "..Okay." Iron eventually shrugged and nonchalantly turned around, "Goodnight Brother."

"Goodnight." Evergreen said back.

Evergreen didn't let himself breathe until he was outside and traveling to the princess' room. He wasn't quite sure why it took so long to think of the royalty as a patient, but that was entirely what she is: a royal patient. As always, he never really knew where he was going in the castle. He had his route he took in the morning, or whenever he happened to wake up considering his recent schedule change. He could make his way to the kitchen and around a few paths that would loop back around to his herbs quick enough, but he didn't know where anything else was or how to get to it.

First, Evergreen decided to stop by the kitchens to get hot water and honey before heading to the Princess' room, though he still wasn’t sure that he knew where that was.

Evergreen was only certain he'd gone in the right direction when he saw a sudden influx of guards. When he trotted closer he spotted Silver Spear, whom he greeted with a small smile.

The guard's response was only a side eye and then a questioning look.

"Th-The princess asked me to come at moonrise.." Evergreen said once he'd realized that the princess mustn’t have informed him.

Silver Spear continued to stare at him, his look getting even more questioning as the moments passed. By the time Silver Spear moved, Evergreen had begun to feel sweat beads on the back of his neck.

The guard levitated half of the door open and stepped inside, "Your majesty," he started, "The herbalist is here." Evergreen figured that no guards normally announced guests, being that it hadn't happened to him before. This fact made Evergreen feel more out of place.

"Send him in." Evergreen heard before Silver Spear stepped aside to let the herbalist through. Evergreen assumed the stallion was surprised but, naturally, he couldn't tell as he looked as emotionless as ever.

"Um, good evening, Princess." He said as he entered, his voice only getting caught in his throat a bit.

"Good evening." She said as she sat down on the couch, "I hast sorted the paperwork for thou." She explained.

"I see," he said, "Doest thou have a headache?"

"Indeed, and it is dreadful." she moaned, not taking her eyes off the paper.

He levitated a ginger slice toward her and soon began pouring the water and lavender tea into the teapot. He made the mint and green tea out of the kettle which initially held the plain hot water.

Once the tea started seeping, Evergreen looked up to see Princess Luna make a very amusing scrunched face likely due to the ginger's heat. Evergreen almost laughed but caught himself, clearing his throat instead to hide an embarrassed blush. The only two thoughts going through his mind is that she can't find out that he almost laughed at her and that she definitely can't find out that he almost laughed because he thought it was cute.

He sat and started pouring his tea, and then the princess'. He levitated the tea over to her just as she levitated a stack of papers over to him, slightly but noticeably bigger than last night's pile.

"Here is thy tea." Evergreen said as the princess took her cup into her magical grasp.

"Thank thou." She said before trotting to her desk.

Evergreen looked at his pile and read the top paper. Requesting permission to build a house on a cloud from a pegasus named Star Puff. He read through it, nothing concerning seemed to be there so he set it down separate from the unread ones.

Within a few moments of reading, Evergreen took a sip of his tea before standing and trotting to the princess' desk.

"All of these seem innocent." He announced, holding a stack of half a dozen forms. Levitating one away from the others, he quickly gave the synopsis of the report before levitating it to the Princess. She then grasped said report in her own magic and searched through the pony’s lineage.

Once that small stack was done, Evergreen returned to his unread paperwork pile and continued reading, repeating the process from before twice more. When he was finally done, he found that an hour had passed, but passed quickly and peacefully.

Despite just reading through paperwork, Evergreen quite liked helping. Reading about different ponies' wishes was interesting and of course, helping a princess was an honor. He stood an informed the princess of the last few reports in his pile. After checking the lineage she glanced at the clock, “Oh.” she said quietly. She turned her attention to Evergreen, “I had not realized how late it had gotten.” she said with a small frown.

“I do not mind.” Evergreen smiled.

Luna seemed to relax as she smiled back, “Still, thou should get some sleep.” Just as Evergreen was going to argue that he wasn’t tired, she spoke again, “And I must begin dream walking soon.”

“Ah, I see.” Evergreen nodded, she mustn’t want him her for that, which was understandable. He knew about many spells, much more than the average unicorn did, but of course there were spells that were far above him. He assumed that dream walking was one of the spells reserved only for the highest of nobility, the alicorns. “In that case, I shall take my leave.” He almost offered to come back again, but he didn’t want to intrude, “Good night Princess.” he said instead.

“Good night.” she said as he turned towards the door, levitating his tea jar in the process, “... Um..” she mumbled, causing the unicorn to stop and turn to her, she cleared her throat, “If you wish too, you may come back tomorrow at moonrise.” she said, “Thy help is welcome.”

Evergreen could feel his heart beating in his chest but he ignored it to smile, “Then I will see thou tomorrow. Good night.”

“Good night.” she said, seeming quite happy to have the promise of Evergreen coming back, perhaps his help was indeed relieving a bit of her stress?

Evergreen trotted out the door and nodded to Silver Spear, “I’ll be back tomorrow.” He informed him, just in case the princess wasn't going too.

The guard gave him a confused look but it quickly disappeared with a small shrug and a nod back.

Evergreen couldn’t help but grin as he headed back to his workspace. It was such an honor to help the princess, and perhaps her headaches will soon be gone if he is able to lift enough of the workload off her shoulders.

He stepped inside, ever so quietly, he didn't need a bubbly Iron Root awake at the moment. He traveled to the bedroom door but stopped himself just before entering. He glanced at his workspace, neatly organized as always. Iron kept true to his word of not making a mess. Evergreen stepped towards his desk and levitated the green tea out, along with aloe vera, calendula and oatmeal, the last of which is not something he grew but always had on hoof as it was an ingredient in many poultices. Truly, he could use more aloe instead of oatmeal but oatmeal was cheap and less work to get than aloe.

He pushed all the new ingredients back so they wouldn't fall off easily if Iron trampled into his desk, and then he quietly went to bed. He hoped that at least getting the ingredients out tonight would help him in the morning should someone come while he's still waking up.

He stared blankly at the snoring foal in his bed before sighing and trotting to the far side of him. Shoving a pillow between them to avoid getting kicked as he laid down and quickly fell asleep.

Author's Note:

aaa new chapter

slow burns are fecking hard, i mean this prolly wont be a slow burn but compared to my average favorite stories of MCs either already together or getting together so damn quickly, this'll be slow-ish.

also shameless self promo yall should go to my youtube theres pony stuff
(i spent the last week working on animations and writing this and not getting a video done and so my already low analytics got lower and feels like being bitch slapped)
(+ i plan on drawing/animating stuff from this story and my other stories so maybe that'll be of some interest to y'all)

Comments

[Rainwalker12]

Hm, I just re read this story a few days ago and suddenly there’s an update! It might be fate, but I’m definitely not complaining!
Anyways, great job with this chapter! I really like the character you’ve made, and I can’t wait to read more in the future!
Slow burns are hard but fun :)