A collection of random slice-of-life stories debuting various fan-characters and how they interact in Karamverse (an AU owned by me and Imperator Aetheris).
Welcome to Random Ramblings, where we put together different characters me and Imperator Aetheris have made, as well as canon characters from the show, to see how they would interact for writing practice and to introduce them to our audience. Some of this may end up being canon in our AU Karamverse, and others will be just for fun.
If you are interested in a certain character we own, feel free to ask us to write about them!
Here are the characters we have ref sheets for currently:
Turquoise Dreamer, a turquoise earth mare with a calligraphy pen and paintbrush as a cutie mark, lounged outside of her favorite cafe in Ponyville, drinking some root beer in-between drawing a sketch of the building. Her teal mane and tail were tied back as usual, and this time it was very hard to see the narrow, light blue stripe she had in them. Of course, the light breeze still played with her hair, and she figured some Pegasus was especially bored today or something, because the breeze didn't feel quite right. She took a break after finishing her drawing to straighten her newspony hat, and carefully eyed the piece.
"Tinsel Quill," She asked a tiny glass pony who was sitting on her table, "What do you think? Did I make the window too big?"
"I think it's about right," Tinsel Quill replied, her berry smoothie sloshing around inside her as she walked over to inspect the picture better.
As Turquoise Dreamer's Bubble Butt pony, it was her job to give advice to Dreamer, and cheer her up. Tinsel was happy to help, of course, and truly enjoyed being Dreamer's art critic and beta-reader.
"I dunno... it looks weird to me," Dreamer insisted, "How about you walk around the picture and tell me what you think again."
Today, Keen Gift was back at Ponyville. As the dark blue and white unicorn walked around he noticed a house. Smiling slightly he walked over, remembering that she had asked him to get something he decided to walk towards the Café and... there she was! He trotted over, carrying a small wooden crate in his magic.
"I am sure the windows are fine," Tinsel Quill reassured her companion as she sat down on the table, placing a tiny glass hoof on Dreamer's huge, furry one. "Seriously, you are overthinking this."
"All right, I guess I am," Dreamer decided with a sigh and a glad smile, "I am so glad I have you to help me out like this, Tinsel."
"I'm always glad to help, Dreamer!" Tinsel declared as she fluffed the whipped cream on top of her head casually.
Suddenly, Dreamer noticed something from the corner of her eye, and turning to look, she smiled and called out, "Hola! Como estas? Did you bring it?"
Tinsel Quill turned and beamed, adding, "Hi there, Keen Gift!"
Smiling at that, the Trotomian Unicorn nodded, carefully lifting the small crate with his blue magic "Si, here are the bocadillos you asked for," He sad before smiling at Tinsel "How have you two been lately?"
"Doing very well! Just working on some art for fun," Dreamer replied, "And barking dogs, I have been waiting for these!"
"Oh, open it open it open it! I wanna see inside, like, what are they like?" Tinsel Quill exclaimed as she hopped to her feet, the straw and liquid inside her swishing around as she moved excitedly.
Gift chuckled at that and removed the lid of the crate, revealing little square sweets wrapped up in what seemed to be dried leaves. Slowly he took one of those and peeled the leaves off, revealing a dark red square. "I'm glad to hear that."
Turquoise Dreamer gasped and put both of her hooves to her face in excitement.
"Well, don't just stare at it! EAT IT!" Tinsel Quill demanded.
With a giggle, Dreamer declared, "Of course!"
She happily ate it, relishing all of it and moaning happily.
"Is it that good?" Tinsel Quill asked in a whisper.
"mm-hmmm!" Dreamer answered.
"Oh... wow..." Tinsel Quill breathed.
Gift laughed at that and looked at them "So, again, what have you two been up to?"
After finishing her treat, Dreamer answered, "Well, I've been working on stories, hanging out, all that... I haven't had a commission in a while, though... it's kinda worrying me, but I got plenty of bits saved up so I don't need money right away."
"Yeah, and if worse comes to worse, we already have some things we'd be willing to get rid of in a yard sale," Tinsel Quill added, adjusting the tiny piece of tinsel adorning her neck.
Keen nodded at that "Well, I might help you getting commisions."
"Awe... that's so nice of you," Dreamer said with a grateful smile, "But everypony in ponyville knows I'm an artist, so... if they don't need art then... they don't need art."
"Yeah, how would you help her get commissions?" Tinsel inquired, "It would be great if she had a commission--she's sold some art lately, but not a whole lot... we're not sure why, but ponies just don't feel like buying art lately."
He nodded "Well, some friends at my college might want to commission,"He said smiling.
Dreamer gasped again, "REALLY? Are... for real?"
"Woah! That would be amazing!" Tinsel Quill piped up, "I mean, some of them are gonna be great business ponies one day, and I'm sure they won't forget you, Dreamer! That is so kind of you, Keen!"
"Wait, do you think they would like my work there?" Dreamer cautioned, "I mean, I never had a serious amount of formal training--I'm pretty much self-taught... they wouldn't be prejudiced against that, would they?
"Well, some ponies might, but not my friends. There's this Trotomian Zarfaim guy who I'm sure will LOVE to get one of your paintings! And I'm fairly sure I can get one of your paintings to be known by the higher-ups."
"Did you say a Zarfaim?" Dreamer lilted, "Oh, I have some friends who are Zarfaim--I love them so much! And... do you really think one of my paintings could reach the Higher-ups?"
"No way!" Tinsel Quill gasped, "Keen, if you do that, you will officially be every artist's dream BFF."
Keen chuckled at that. "Yeah, an old friend from Trotomia who happens to be in Canterlot for the time being, and yes, he is a Zarfaim... and he happens to be really well-connected. I'm fairly sure his father knows... um.. ough, I forgot the name... well, the thing is, he is well connected, I'm sure he'll love your art, and I'm sure that he will get others to see it and like it."
Dreamer instantly became excited, and then nervous as she rapidly questioned, "OH BARKING DOGS! You are amazing! Wait, is my art good enough? Every time I try to draw something super realistic it comes out awkward--and which painting should I show? The flower field? The Butterfly? The sleeping manticore? Does he have a thing against manticores? Oh... what to do what to do... "
"Dreamer, calm down! You have a nice style that's kinda cartoony and kinda realistic at parts--don't sweat it! I'm sure he'll love it," Tinsel reassured her companion gently by tapping her tiny glass hoof to Dreamer's fuzzy, turquoise face.
Keen looked at her, a bit startled at her energy before laughing, "Don't Worry! Your art is amazing, and I'm sure the Flower Field or the Butterfly would be perfect... actually I know how to show it, I will get him over here and then at some point we'll sneak the painting in so he can see it."
"Wait, sneak it into your college? I don't want anypony getting in trouble..." Turquoise Dreamer said cautiously as she rubbed her hooves together nervously and her ears drooped.
"Nah, I'll bring him over next week to Ponyville and we do that here," Replied Keen with a slightly surprised look in his brown eyes.
For a few moments, Dreamer adjusted her beige hat and smiled at her friend warmly, hardly blinking her dark brown eyes as she wondered what to say next.
"Keen... you really are a gift," Turquoise Dreamer said with a chuckle, "And thanks."
Neon Butterfly swept the lobby of her father's gym, making sure that no dirt or gravel was left there. Today the studio was closed, and her father was out running errands, leaving Neon Butterfly all by herself in Neon Blade's School of the Naginata in Manehatten. However, Neon Butterfly didn't mind. In fact, she enjoyed a period of silence to rest her senses and admire her home. For a moment she stopped and eyed the smooth, dark, wooden floors, and noted the tiny rips in the edges of the blue mat where one-on-one sparring was held, and made a mental note to keep an eye on that, in case it threatened to fall apart in the future. She closed her blue eyes and sighed quietly, her aqua green pelt shuddering slightly as she relaxed. She stretched her wings, spreading her black feathers as far as she could before she closed them again. Suddenly, she heard a knock at the door, and her eyes opened and her ears moved towards the sound, pondering who was there. Surely it wasn't Father, because he would simply walk into the building. Curiously she leaned her broom against the beige wall and trotted to the front room, remaining serene all the while, for she was not one to let her emotions control herself. Peeking out the window of the lobby, Neon smiled at what she saw and gladly opened the door. Yes, even she allowed a smile--after all, happiness was a good thing, as long as it was controlled and not obnoxious.
"Midnight Echo! My dearest friend, come in!" Neon greeted her best friend as the black Pegasus trotted in happily.
"Neon! I missed you so much!" Midnight declared as she tightly hugged Neon Butterfly. As she hugged her friend, some of Midnight's blue mane fell into Neon's eyes, but she didn't complain about it.
"Hey, where's your dad?" Midnight asked as she let go of Neon and cast her teal eyes around the place.
"He is out running errands at the moment," Neon explained, "But he should be back soon--would you like something to eat or drink?"
"Meh, I'll take something to drink--got any strong coffee?" Midnight answered, the neon yellow edges of her blue mane sparkling in the light coming through the windows as she looked around at how empty the building was.
"Indeed, we do," Neon admitted with a smile as she walked upstairs, signaling with her head that Midnight should follow her.
Soon the two were sitting in the upstairs living room, talking about what was going on in their lives. Actually, Midnight Echo did most of the talking, for she was one to talk all about her amazing life while Neon Butterfly listened, for she was one to listen politely and respectfully, for all honorable warriors should be polite and attentive to others. Hence, it was fairly one-sided, but Midnight did ask her BFF many questions which Neon gladly answered, so it was indeed a conversation. Every so often Midnight refilled her coffee mug, since she was raised by Nocturnii and had still not completely adjusted to being awake in the morning. Another quirk from her Batpony family was that instead of gesticulating with her hooves during her speech, she tended to gesture with her wings, which had black shoulders with feathers that alternated between blue and neon yellow, giving her wings a striped look. Overall, she was highly energetic. Meanwhile, Neon Butterfly displayed little emotion beyond a small smile or chuckle, and didn't gesture much with her hooves or wings. However, she did occasionally stretch her wings, revealing the underside to have a layer of sky blue feathers between the green shoulder and black primaries. Overall, Midnight Echo was very lively and casual while Neon Butterfly was calm and refined, like a serene Onna Bugeisha.
"Oh, you should have been there, Neon!" Midnight moaned as she finished another boastful story of her exploits, "I totally left all the other Diurnal--I mean, Pegasi-- in the dust! I totally OWNED them all! It was fantastic!"
"Indeed, you sound like you were quite deserving of honor," Neon replied with a calm nod, "However, the honorable thing to do in winning is not to go on and on about how 'awesome' you are, but to point out how 'awesome' your competitors were as well."
"Yeah, they did pretty well too...But I still left them in the dust!"
"I am certain you did, but a powerful warrior should be as polite as she is skilled."
"Man, you always find a way to lecture me like an auntie! Ha ha ha... but you are always right, it seems."
"I am not always right. I simply do my best to be an honorable soldier."
"But you aren't a soldier!" Midnight chuckled, "You aren't a soldier! You aren't a Wonderbolt! You aren't even a security guard! Why worry so much about being soldierly if you aren't a soldier? Why not relax and take things more casually?"
"You know my past," Neon reminded her, "And how my father comforted my after my mother's death with, 'soldiers don't cry; we must be strong and move on,' do you not?"
Dead silence fell. Midnight looked away and nodded as she put down her coffee mug with her wings.
"I know that I am not really a soldier, but I try my best to act like a strong soldier, to bring honor to my family. My father was adopted by Rikumese Kirin, and honor was instilled deep into his psyche, and he passed that to me," Neon explained calmly as she sipped her chai tea with one ice cube and one mint leaf, "I do admit that I probably should relax more, but what is wrong with being proper and honorable?"
"Well... nothing, but I mean... you... just... I mean... " Midnight tried to figure out what she was fumbling to say as she scratched her chin with her wing in thought, "Well... there is nothing wrong with that, but you are so into honor that sometimes I can hardly tell if you are happy or sad! Is that a good thing, to always look so serious?"
At that, Neon giggled and replied, "Well, I try to remain calm so that I can think clearly, and I make sure to not show too much emotion... although, I will try to smile more... okay?"
"Okay, I think I can live with that," Midnight accepted with a smile of her own. At this point the sun had moved, sending bright beams in through the window nearby, making her squint more as she added, "and can you please close that window? I'm not used to sunlight, you know."
Neon obliged gladly.
"Is that better?" Neon asked.
"Yeah, thanks!" Midnight replied, opening her eyes more.
Abruptly the door downstairs opened, the bell on the frame jingling merrily.
"My Little Butterfly, where are you?" A voice called.
"Father is home!" Neon announced with a grin as she flew downstairs with her best friend behind her. She allowed herself to be just a bit gleeful, since her father was home.
The three spent the afternoon together, enjoying the visit. The studio was soon filled with the sounds of friendship and hospitality. Indeed, it was a lovely, relaxed day.
With the sun high in the sky, a tall Unicorn Mare walked into the small town’s spa. Somewhat happy about not being too close to the regular nobles and rich Canterlot ponies that were usually near her, Fleur let out a content sigh as she sat on the small sauna… After a short time she noticed a most peculiar sight.
“Rainbow Dash?” She asked, surprised to see the young Pegasus in there.
“Oh… hi Fleur,” Rainbow Dash chuckled, “Hey, every girl needs some time to relax, right?”
Fleur nodded at that with a small smile, thinking of how much the Pegasus reminded her of herself.
“True… Although I didn’t expect to see you here, it’s quite nice though, ” She admitted with a gentle smile.
“Yeah… so, I don’t really see you around here much--what exactly do you do normally?” Rainbow asked as she relaxed and stretched her wings.
“Well, I kind of wanted to get away from Canterlot for a few days,” Fleur replied with a small sigh, “And when I’m not working, I usually have to be near some of those vantards (meaning: braggart)” She let out a small sigh, “What about you?”
“Eh, the usual: being awesome, clearing clouds, saving the world, all that,” Rainbow Dash explained casually with a wave of her wing, “And of course, I’m in my Wonderbolt duties too, now.”
Fleur couldn’t help but chuckle a bit, glad to know this mare a bit better. “That sounds certainly, uh, how do you put it now? oh yes, quite cool,” She looked at the cyan mare before closing her eyes and adding, “Tell me… have you heard of the Garde du Corps?” She asked casually, a bit curious.
“Why of course!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, “They are some totally awesome ponies! Almost as awesome as the Wonderbolts...why do you ask?”
Fleur laughed softly, giving her a ´You should have seen it coming´ look before answering, “Let’s say I’ve had some… experience with them… ” she looked at the cyan mare, believing that most likely she knew of their acrobatics team and nothing more.
“Oh really? What did you do?” Rainbow probed, getting excited as she leaned forward.
“Well… being a Unicorn I wasn’t in their acrobatics team-- between you and me, the acrobats there have always been some fanfarons, ” she smiled “But you could say I was in their fast-response group. ”
“Cool! Did you see lots of action?” Rainbow urged her, scooting closer to her as she spoke.
Chuckling a bit at her reaction, Fleur nodded,“Oui, it was quite the… exciting job. I still miss it sometimes. ”
“Well, I’d totally love to hear any awesome stories you have!” Rainbow offered with a grin.
Fleur nodded at that, happy to have someone to talk about this.
“Well, there was this one time… a Prench diplomat had been kidnapped in Zuoji, shortly after I joined...” She took a deep breath before continuing, “We were ten ponies against some eighty of the kidnappers, ” She looked at Rainbow, waiting for a reaction.
“EIGHTY? WHAT?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, spreading her wings wide in shock.
Pleased with the reaction of the cyan mare, Fleur nodded.
“Eighty Kirin Ponies. They were part of a group, but I can’t remember what did they call themselves… anyway, we went into their lair, got a fight, then managed to get all of the hostages out with, I think that the worst injury we had was a broken leg on one of ours while leaving the place,” She admitted, almost matter-of-fact-ly.
“You...did...WHAT?” Rainbow Dash whispered as she leaned closer to Fleur in awe and added, “I had no idea you were so...so...AMAZING!”
Fleur couldn’t help but laugh a bit at that.
“Oh dear I’m not really amazing, ” She looked at the cyan mare with, “It wasn’t just me over there… Besides, you and your friends have saved the world a lot lately, ” She added with a smile.
“Yeah but we didn’t have to fight our way through EIGHTY KIRIN PONIES!” Rainbow Dash pointed out, her eyes as huge as Luna’s moon.
“No… but they were regular ponies, Not World-Ending threats like Nightmare Moon or Discord, ” She replied calmly.
“Well, I guess you do have a point there,” Rainbow allowed as she relaxed and leaned back against the wall, “Still… that must be pretty amazing...wait, how did such an amazing, tough pony like you end up here?”
Fleur sighed, “It was on another mission… We were not really expecting them to have explosives… I suffered internal injuries, so I got a honorable discharge” She sighed before continuing, “I ended up in Canterlot, working with Fancy Pants.”
“And now you are his bodyguard…” Rainbow breathed, “I will admit: I thought Fancy was kidding when he said you were his bodyguard; I thought it was code for ‘secretary’.”
She laughed, “Well, I do mostly non-physical work, organizing his security scheme and all of that. ”
“Oh...so you are a secretary?” Rainbow Dash said.
“Not really, I do not usually get hooves-on but you could say that I’m kind of like a team leader when it comes to his security…” Replied Fleur with a small sigh.
“Oh, I get it,” Rainbow said with a flap of her wings, “So...have you been in any fights lately?”
“Not really… Not many things try to assault Fancy Pants, ” She chuckled slightly, “But when the Changelings invaded… that was an… interesting day. ”
“Yeah, what did you do on that day?” Rainbow Dash piped up eagerly.
“Just let’s say that Changelings are not really clever: some two or three at the same time tried to impersonate Fancy Pants,” She giggled a bit at the memory, “Only one of them even tried to pass as somepony from the staff! ”
Rainbow chortled with a flap of her wings, “Oh, in the big battle we had at the castle, a whole group tried to pretend to be me and my friends! They really are dumb, huh? Except...they did look exactly like me… but they smelled different.”
Fleur laughed along and nodded.
“Oui, we had them kind of tied down, and then? a pink wall and they are sent flying away. ”
“Oh! That was Princess Cadence and Shining Armor doing this epic love shield spell thing!”
Fleur smiled at that and nodded. The two talked for quite a while at the spa, and on that day they became true friends. It seemed that even the most quiet or simple-looking ponies had many remarkable stories to tell.
“It looks fantastic, Dreamer! I think you really are getting better at painting cities,” Tinsel Quill applauded her companion happily while clapping her tiny glass hooves together.
Turquoise Dreamer blushed and hummed her thanks while painting the scenery of Manehatten. Since she was an Earth Pony, she didn’t have magic or wings to hold her paintbrush, hence she couldn’t talk while painting. As an artist, she enjoyed trying new ways of creating beautiful things, but especially enjoyed drawing and painting, because those were things that had a tip, unlike pastels which were one solid stick and didn’t taste good at all in her mouth. Because the shape of the brush handle made it easiest for her to move with her lips and tongue, she tended to paint most often. In Manehatten, far from her small town of Ponyville, she decided to practice painting cities, and to get inspiration for another book. As an author, she found the best inspiration came from really being in a place, and not just hearing about it.
“Oh, don’t worry about painting the ponies walking down the street--too much traffic!” Tinsel suggested as she fluffed the whipped cream on her head for emphasis, “Like, seriously, just make it up when you get back to the hotel and paint them in there, okay? If you try painting them while they are moving, you’ll just make blurs.”
Dreamer nodded in agreement. As she painted, she hummed a song to herself. Although she preferred the serenity of nature to the hustle-bustle of the city, she found a type of beauty in both, and in this moment as she studied the skyscrapers she found a love for the asymmetrical symmetry of the city.
“Oh, Dreamer, you forgot the water tower on the third building from the left,” Tinsel reminded her.
Dreamer stopped humming, noticed her mistake and quickly began painting a water tower, flipping her teal and light blue tail once to indicate she was thankful for the tip.
Meanwhile, walking towards them on the sidewalk was a most unique pair: a black Pegasus mare with blue and light yellow striped wings, a blue mane and tail with light yellow edges and teal eyes, beside of all things, a dark red Nocturnus stallion with a scruffy, gold and black mane, tail and wings, with dark green eyes. Both were squinting in the afternoon sunlight and it was clear that they weren’t quite used to being awake at this time of day. Of course, they turned many heads as they walked, and some ponies even trotted away from them in fear. After all, Nocturnii (Bat Ponies) were rumored to be cannibals...but that was just a rumor, right?
“So your friend lives around here?” The stallion, Thunder Roar, asked his companion.
“Yes, Neon Butterfly lives pretty close!” The mare, Midnight Echo, replied.
Thunder Roar nodded quietly, lifting a webbed wing to shield his eyes from the bright sunshine as he walked.
“Oh, look, a street artist!” Echo pointed out to Roar with a feathery wing of her own, “and… what is that thing with her?”
Roar spotted the artist in question: a turquoise Earth Pony with a paintbrush and calligraphy pen as a cutie mark, with a teal mane and tail which had a light blue stripe down the middle. She was seated at an easel, with brushes and other supplies filling her saddle bag as she worked on a painting. Seated beside her, a tiny glass pony filled with some kind of purple smoothie was pointing out mistakes to her, encouraging her happily. Neither Roar nor Echo ever saw a moving, glass, mug-sized pony before… and neither had seen many street artists.
“Okay, Roar, I REALLY need to figure out what that glass pony thing is!” Echo declared in a whisper before trotting forward to introduce herself to the artist.
Thunder Roar simply shrugged. In truth, he too was very curious as to… what exactly that glass pony was.
“Good starshine!” Echo greeted the pony with a Nocturnii phrase and continued with a wave of her wing, “Tell me, what is this glass pony thing with you?”
“My name is Tinsel Quill,” The tiny pony declared as she fluffed her whipped cream topping with a wave of her hoof sassily, “And I am not a ‘thing,’ I am a Bubble Butt Pony. We assist Big Ponies like my companion, Turquoise Dreamer, who is this amazing artist right here.”
With that introduction the Earth Pony smiled and put down her brush in the easel ledge and replied, “Oh, I’m not THAT amazing… I’ve still got a lot to learn.”
“Ah, I see--by the way, my name is Midnight Echo! Nice to meet you!” Echo chortled as she stretched a wing to Dreamer.
Dreamer nodded and awkwardly shook Echo’s wing with her hoof and replied, “Nice to meet you too--who is your friend?” While she spoke, she noted that Echo’s cutie mark was sound waves bouncing off a wall and the stallion’s was sound waves breaking a wall. Huh, they matched; how interesting.
“Oh, this is Thunder Roar,” Midnight Echo answered with a blush as she turned to the Nocturnus beside her and proclaimed, “He is my fiance’... my dashing, strong, handsome fiance’.”
Thunder Roar simply nodded and responded, “It’s a pleasure to meet you. My fiancee’ and I don’t see many street artists… or Bubble Butt Ponies.” As he spoke he offered a soft smile to his bold lover.
Turquoise Dreamer smiled at them both, stopping the urge to say what an adorable couple they made, or ask the Bat Pony a million questions about being a Bat Pony, and gave Tinsel Quill a certain sideways look. Tinsel Quill knew what that meant and nodded.
Turning back to the ponies, Dreamer responded with, “Well, to be honest, I’m usually at home, so I don’t see many street artists either,” After a short laugh she added, “Anyway, I came here not only for painting practice but also for inspiration; I’m going to write a new book soon.”
As she spoke, Tinsel quill calmly walked over to Dreamer's saddle bag, fetching a tiny pad of paper and pencil to take notes on the situation.
“Oh, you are writing a book? Cool!” Midnight Echo exclaimed, “What kind of book is it?”
“Well, this one is going to be a series of short stories, and one of them takes place in Manehatten, so I came here to see what it was really like,” Dreamer explained with a wave of her hoof while she adjusted her beige newspony hat with her other hoof.
“Oh, I get it,” Midnight echo replied as she waved her wings around to emphasize her words, “It sounds like a lot of fun, writing short stories like that.”
“It is,” Dreamer admitted with a smile, gesturing with her hooves as she spoke, “Writing really is most enjoyable, but it takes lots of research and discipline--same as art.”
Thunder Roar nodded and lifted one golden wing to shade his eyes from the sun while he wrapped the other around Echo’s shoulders lovingly. Echo, for her part, leaned towards Roar as she spoke, barely even thinking about what she was doing while she continued, “Yeah, I guess everything is like that, really.”
“Excuse me,” An annoyed unicorn butted in, “But could you please take your little conversation someplace else? You’re blocking half the sidewalk!”
“Yeah yeah, we will!” Echo brushed the unicorn off with a wave of her wing.
The unicorn huffed and stormed away.
“I guess we should move though,” Tinsel Quill, who was holding her miniscule pencil with her tiny unicorn magic, admitted, “We are kinda blocking part of the sidewalk.”
Turquoise Dreamer sighed as her ears drooped, “Yeah, I guess we should pack it up--I’ve gotten the buildings down well enough anywho.”
With that she began to pack up her things carefully. While she did that, Thunder Roar looked around for a moment, ensuring everything was safe, and then offered to help her. Dreamer didn’t want to bother him, but after he insisted on helping, she gladly accepted. Indeed, he was quite a gentlecolt. However, Dreamer was really impressed when Thunder Roar carried her easel case by the handle with his wing. If a Pegasus was carrying something, he would probably hold it in his forelegs while flying. She wondered if all Bat Ponies--no wait, the term was Nocturnii-- had a habit of using their wings like legs or not. Since everypony was hungry--especially Dreamer, who was painting for so long that she missed lunch--they decided to head into a nearby diner for a bite to eat.
“So, where do you live?” Echo asked once they were seated.
“I live in Ponyville,” Dreamer answered with a proud puff of her chest and a grin, “It’s a small town near Canterlot.”
“Ponyville… isn’t that where Rainbow Dash, the pony who did the Sonic Rainboom, lives?” Echo questioned curiously.
“Oh yes! She lives on a cloud above the town,” Dreamer answered with a nod of her head.
“She’s really competitive, but she’s a nice friend, even if she does tend to boast a lot,” Tinsel Quill added from her seat on top of Dreamer’s hat.
“Competitive?” Echo began with a prideful look in her eye, “I know some competitive ponies… so far only one or two have manage to beat me in a competition though.”
Thunder Roar slowly shook his head with a smile, as if he was saying, “And here we go again…”
Meanwhile, Echo ignored him as she continued with, “Lemme tell you: no Pegasus can echolocate like I can! Heh, even Nocturnii have trouble keeping up with me in blindfolded flying races. I’ll bet even--”
“Good afternoon!” The waitress interrupted Echo’s speech, “What would you like to drink?”
“Oh, I’ll take some water,” Dreamer answered.
“Water,” Thunder Roar agreed.
“Pfft! Awesomeness like this needs some coffee to keep the awesomeness going,” Echo replied with a wave of her wing.
Dreamer giggled at that, wondering if Midnight Echo and Rainbow Dash would get along or not. At any rate, Dreamer was certainly liking Echo--she seemed nice, and so did her Nocturnus fiance’.
“I don’t really drink anything,” Tinsel Quill explained with a wave of her hoof.
For a moment the waitress was startled, unsure of how to react to a tiny glass pony talking to her, and she silently nodded and trotted away quickly to hide her minor shock.
“Anyway, Princess Twilight Sparkle also lives in ponyville,” Dreamer began, trying to restart the conversation about somepony else.
“FOR REAL?” Echo exclaimed, “Woah… do you know… all of them? Like, Fluttershy, Rarity--all the Diurnals who saved the world a dozen times?”
“Why yes,” Dreamer responded, “They all live there, and I know them pretty well. We aren’t besties or anything but we are friends, I'd say.”
“You must be honored to live near such history-making ponies,” Roar commented with an amazed look in his emerald eyes.
“Oh yes, I really am… I really am,” Dreamer agreed humbly as her ears folded down shyly.
“So, is it true that Princess Twilight’s castle is made out of crystal?” Echo probed with a curious look in her eyes.
“Well, it certainly looked that way to me when I went inside it,” Dreamer answered, still not entirely sure how to describe such a magnificent structure.
“You...went...INSIDE her castle?” Echo whispered in shock.
“Yeah, she bought some art from me, so I got to go inside--actually, she doesn’t seem opposed to anypony visiting her, really,” Dreamer explained with a wave of her teal and blue tail.
Thus the conversation went on for quite some time, and when they were done eating, drinking and talking, they kept talking on the sidewalk. Eventually Dreamer left to her hotel and Echo and Roar were left together again.
“I must say, I liked meeting that artist,” Echo commented as she strolled down the sidewalk.
“She was pleasant,” Thunder Roar agreed with a nod while scanning the area for any potential danger. After all, he had to keep his lady safe.
“I think I need to visit Ponyville one of these days,” Echo decided, “I REALLY need to see that castle for myself, and meet Rainbow Dash--wanna come with me when I do?”
“Of course! I’ll go with you wherever you want,” Roar agreed with a kind smile.
“Oh, you don’t have to if you don’t want to, Dear,” Echo pointed out with a concerned look in her eyes. She didn’t want him to feel like he HAD to go with her.
“No, really, I like traveling with you,” Roar insisted while walking closer to her as he added, “You know I love you.”
At that, Echo beamed and nuzzled him.
“I love you too… but I don’t want you to feel obliged to come with me,” She murmured as she wrapped a blue and yellow wing around his shoulders.
Lovingly Roar nipped the back of her neck and whispered, “Don’t worry so much, okay?”
After that, the two traveled on to Neon Butterfly’s place.
Meanwhile, Turquoise Dreamer was in her hotel room, finishing her painting. Pausing for a moment, she put down her brush and asked, “Tinsel, you did take notes, right? About the ponies we met today?”
“Totally!” Tinsel declared as she fluffed the whipped cream on her head again, “We’ll really be able to write some cute romantic scenes now! You know, I really do believe that most of life is nothing but research for writing the next story.”
“And what about the rest of life?” Dreamer probed with a grin.
“Duh! The rest of life is writing the next story!” Tinsel answered as if it was the most obvious answer ever.
After that the two laughed heartily. Indeed, sometimes it seemed like life was nothing more than a fun little story written by someone far away.
Midnight Echo and Thunder Roar strolled through the main road of Ponyville, which had grown quite a bit due to tourism and growing respect for the new Princess Twilight Sparkle. In the evening sunshine both ponies could open their eyes wider, relieved that it was nearing nighttime and they wouldn’t be half-blinded anymore by the bright rays of the sun. As they surveyed the area, their eyes rested on the magnificent castle.
“It really does look like crystal… like Turquoise Dreamer said,” Midnight Echo breathed as she stretched one of her multicolored wings towards it in awe.
Thunder Roar nodded silently, feeling that he didn’t need to add anything. For a few moments the pair stood there admiring it from a distance. The evening breeze played with Echo’s bright blue and mane and tail, picking out the neon yellow hairs on the edges, making them look similar to sparks in the late sunlight. Standing beside her, Roar felt the wind play with his black and gold mane and tail, fluffing them up gently. Nopony bothered them as they stood there in silence, for by this time the whole town was used to tourists staring at Twilight’s castle aimlessly.
“You know, it looks way cooler on the inside--just saying,” A voice interrupted their silence.
The pair turned to see a cyan Pegasus hovering above them, her rainbow mane and tail gently swaying in the breeze.
“Oh, hey there!” Midnight Echo called cheerfully, extending one wing in a friendly wave, revealing all her lovely blue and neon yellow alternating feathers just before she folded it back against her side.
Thunder Roar nodded quietly, and waved one of his gold and black webbed wings at the Pegasus above them, who quickly landed beside them.
“You know, I could show you around the castle, if you like,” the mare offered, “Twilight doesn’t mind tourists.”
“You know the princess?” Echo breathed as her aqua-colored eyes grew huge in amazement.
“Of course I do!” The Pegasus declared as she smoothed her rainbow bangs, “I’m on the Council of Friendship--I’m the totally awesome Element of Loyalty, Rainbow Dash!”
At that statement Thunder Roar let out an impressed whistle. Echo, meanwhile, could barely contain herself.
“YOU ARE RAINBOW DASH? NO WAY! FOR REAL?” She shouted as she flapped her wings in glee.
“You bet!” Rainbow chuckled with a prideful look in her pink eyes.
At this Midnight Echo squealed and whispered, “I heard about how fast you are and I seriously hope to be as fast as you one day!”
Rainbow laughed, throwing back her head giddily.
“Well, I’m afraid only one pony can be as fast as me--and that’s me, ha ha ha."
“Right… but I bet I could beat you in a nighttime race!” Echo declared with a narrowed, playful look in her eyes.
“Oh yeah?” Rainbow Dash retorted as she leaned closer to Echo.
“Yeah, I can beat you blindfolded!” Echo huffed with a grin.
“Echo, now is not the time to challenge ponies to random races,” Roar pointed out as he cleared his throat.
“Oh, right… sorry… heh heh…” Echo apologized with a blush, “My fiance` and I are here to see the castle.”
“Oh, right,” Rainbow exclaimed, returning to a more friendly state, “Come on! You’ll love it!”
Indeed, the castle was magnificent--the decorations, the architecture and even the floors were amazing. The whole thing appeared to be made of a magical crystal of different shades and hues, and was unlike anything anypony had seen. As Rainbow gave them a personal tour of the castle, Echo admired how professional and strong the guards looked, and how everything had a sparkle to it. Speaking of sparkles, they soon met Princess Twilight herself.
She was regal, elegant, organized, and every bit a princess… yet still quite hospitable. Not just in a “yes, I’m a princess, I suppose I should be nice to you,” way, but in a genuine, friendly manner. Indeed, she was the Princess of Friendship. Unlike most royalty, she wasn’t wearing anything special at all, except for a golden necklace with an amethyst in the center. If it wasn’t for her wings and horn, one would have assumed she was just another light purple pony. Of course, Twilight was not initially waiting for or expecting anypony, so when she looked up from what she was reading and noticed the two ponies with Rainbow, she smiled and put the book away, slightly startled.
“Hey Twi, I know this isn’t visiting hours, but these two ponies wanted to meet you,” Rainbow explained.
Still a bit surprised, she nodded, walking closer with a friendly smile. Her eyes lit up with excitement as she spotted the Nocturnus in front of her. WOW! She couldn't recall the last time she met one!
“Hello!” She said, not saying much more at the moment because she knew that if she did, she would start going on about the fact that right here in her castle, in front of her, was a Nocturnus who wanted to meet her!
“Oh Princess Twilight, I am so glad to meet you!” Echo breathed, “I am Midnight Echo, and this is Thunder Roar, my fiance`.”
As she spoke, she waved her wings, expressing her excitement and indicating Thunder Roar.
Noticing this, Twilight nodded and smiled at them while her eyes lit up even brighter.
“Nice to meet you two!” She exclaimed while thinking on it, realizing that there was near nothing about relations between Pegasi and Nocturnii written in books. This was an amazing opportunity for intercultural studies!
“Turquoise Dreamer told us about you and this wonderful castle, but it’s all so much more… glorious in person, you know?” Echo admitted with an admiring look in her eyes.
Twilight looked at them slightly flustered with, “Oh, it’s not really that much of a big deal… okay it might be a big deal, but it isn’t too much,” She managed to say, still processing the fact that she was finally meeting a Bat Pony.
“So… is it true you used to live in a library?” Echo prompted curiously with a wave of one of her wings.
Blinking back to reality, Twilight nodded. “Yes! Until Tirek came along,” She let out a soft sigh, still missing the library as it was before that awful moment.
“Was it really big?” Echo probed as she leaned forward.
“Well, not that big, but it was quite a pleasant library."
“That must have been interesting, living in a room full of books,” Roar noted, “How did you get to live there?”
“I think I’ll leave you ponies alone--I gotta get back to the Wonderbolts for a bit,” Rainbow interrupted as she hovered in the air.
Echo spun around, realizing that she forgot to ask Rainbow Dash about the Wonderbolts, but the other Pegasus had already zoomed away, leaving Echo saddened, but still excited.
“How much time do you have left until you have to go do princess things or whatever?” Echo questioned as she spun back around to eye Twilight Sparkle,“I’m pretty nocturnal and my fiance` is as well, but if you have to go to bed or something, just say the word and we’ll leave!”
Roar nodded politely and added, “Yes, we don’t want to bother you too much, Princess Sparkle.”
Did the PEGASUS just mention she was nocturnal? Now Twilight’s scientific fangirl side was REALLY riled up at this point. Carefully maintaining herself, she grinned instead of squealed.
“Not at all! Actually I kind of was doing nothing today! ” She told them, eager to know more.
“Fantastic! So… err… oh I honestly don’t know what to ask!” Echo exclaimed as she threw her wings into the air dramatically, “I want to know everything! Just… I dunno… start talking!” With that, she laughed, and then remembered that Twilight was royalty and calmed herself with, “I mean, I would love to hear all about you, Your Highness.”
Twilight winced slightly and nodded.
“Oh please, just Twilight is fine,” she told them, just as excited as Echo, even though it wasn’t as obvious.
It was like this that the three began talking late into the night. Even when Flash Sentry, Twilight’s husband and captain of her guard, came into the room, they continued to talk. Eventually, however, Twilight did need to sleep, and the tourists were given a luxiourious guest bedroom for the night while Twilight went to her room and began writing notes about all she learned of Nocturnii and Pegasi relations, as well as the Nocturnii themselves.
“Honey, you really need to sleep now,” Flash whispered as he nudged Twilight gently.
“Oh… I guess I should, huh?” Twilight chuckled as she put away her quill.
Looking up, she noticed Owlicious was nodding, as if he wanted her to sleep too. With a yawn, she left her desk and went to bed. Indeed, it had been quite a fascinating day for the tourists and the princess, and it was time to rest.
By Keen Gift and Turquoise Dreamer, with an end note by Gagoochi
~+~
It was a rather sunny morning in Canterlot, and with nothing else to do, a pair of dark blue unicorns walked down a street. One of them, the one with a white-tie jacket looked around, settling his eyes on his buddy.
“So, how long are you staying, Blue?” asked the younger one finally; his friend laughed a bit and sighed.
“The whole semester actually,” he replied as they approached a restaurant, “I am doing a small course beginning next week.” With that, they went inside the exotic restaurant tucked away in a corner.
“Welcome to the Tasty Treat!” A friendly voice called, “Do you have anypony else joining you?” A young waitress asked.
“Not really,” quickly replied Blue Valiance; Soon enough they were seated, not really noticing somepony walking in.
The bell on the door jingled as a turquoise Earth Pony with a beige hat on her head walked into the restaurant.
“Turquoise Dreamer, I really think Pinkie was right about this place--just smell how amazing it is!” A tiny glass pony seated in Dreamer’s saddle bag declared with a generous sniff, “Too bad I can’t really eat--but I’m sure you will love it!”
“Welcome to the Tasty Treat! Are you expecting anypony?” The waitress asked again with a smile.
“Oh no, I… actually… I’m with them,” Dreamer replied as she pointed to the pair of dark blue Unicorn students.
“Oh, of course!” The waitress led her to them, glad to be of service.
“We are with who?” Tinsel Quill questioned.
“I see Keen and one of his friends up ahead--why not surprise them?” Dreamer explained quietly.
“Oh, okay,” Tinsel agreed with a smirk on her glass features, her blue eyes lighting up with a playful glow.
Keen had not noticed her, and kept chatting away with his friend in their native Asturconish until the waiter arrived with Dreamer. Surprised, he smiled at her, while Blue's eyes darted from her to Keen and back again. After a few seconds, Blue chuckled and settled into his seat.
“No sabía que había conseguido novia,” He said in a teasing tone
Keen laughed a bit at it, blushing slightly.
“Nah, Ella es solo una amiga…” He said before both young stallions laughed.
“Blue Valiance, this is Turquoise Dreamer, Dreamer, this is Blue Valiance,” Blue nodded and looked at her.
“Nice to meet you!"
“Nice to meet you too, Blue! Keen mentioned you, and I think it’s about time we met,” Dreamer answered with a grin as she tipped her hat to him.
“Hey, what about me?” A tiny voice squeaked from Dreamer’s saddle bag.
“Right” Said Keen with a chuckle “And she,” he said, motioning towards the tiny glass pony, “is Tinsel Quill; wherever Dreamer goes, she goes.”
Blue just nodded and studied them, “Nice to meet you too I guess” He said, surprised about the talking glass pony thing.
Dreamer turned so that her side was facing the table, letting Tinsel quill slide out of the saddle bag and onto the table surface. Her tiny glass hooves made a tinkling sound as she walked over to Blue to look at him better; the purple smoothie inside her sloshed with every step while her straw swayed with the movement.
“You haven’t seen a Bubble Butt Pony before, have you?” Tinsel Quill asked while Dreamer took a seat near Keen.
“Not really, there are not too many like you in Trotomia,” He said, managing to sound with a Trottingham accent; Which caused Keen to chuckle at him.
“Yeah, I get that a lot,” Tinsel Quill chuckled as she trotted over to Dreamer and sat in front of her politely, “We Bubble Butts are supposed to help the Big Ponies like you, but sadly, there aren’t too many of us out there… I guess.”
“But you are very helpful,” Dreamer pointed out with a grin.
“Yup! That’s our job; we live to serve!” Tinsel piped up as she fluffed the whipped cream on her head with one of her hooves happily, “I still wish I had real Unicorn magic like you guys--I can just barely move a pencil and do minor tricks. Yeah, not too useful in the Unicorn magic department, I’m afraid. I’m a great grammar checker though!” Considering her talking habits, that was most ironic.
The bell jingled again, and none of them paid attention as a Lilac-colored mare entered… Shrugging it off as a trick of his imagination, Keen looked at them.
“So… How are things with the book?” He asked curiously, Blue raised an eyebrow, a bit confused.
“It’s top secret,” Tinsel Quill answered with a raised hoof, “You’ll have to wait until it’s published,” and she added a wink, which was hard to see since she was transparent… except for the blue of her iris.
With a chuckle, Dreamer added, “It’s going great! I am taking the manuscript to a publisher today--we had an arrangement already. Remember those guys that printed my small book of poetry? Same ponies, and they are totally ready for my collection of short stories!”
Blue just nodded at that, not really sure about what to say, Keen giggled.
“That’s awesome! I can’t wait for it” He said. Dreamer beamed while Tinsel clapped her hooves gleefully. Soon enough, the waitress returned, ready to take their orders.
“I think I shall try the curry soup,” Dreamer ordered.
“I can’t eat so just ignore me,” Tinsel Quill explained with a wave.
The Waitress froze, noticing Tinsel for the first time. After a blink or two, she regained her composure, and turned to Keen and Blue to get their orders.
“Actually… make it three curry soups,” Said Blue with a smile; Keen nodded as he tried to avoid looking in the direction of a nearby table, causing Blue to raise an eyebrow.
As the waitress left, Dreamer noted that Keen was… looking? No, not looking. Nope, he was looking. Or was he?
“Keen, whatcha lookin’ at?” Dreamer probed as she took a sip from her glass of water that was not Tinsel Quill.
“Ah? Nada, It’s nothing,” He said with a shrug, hoping to be wrong. Blue of course, took the effort to look in the same direction and then at Keen, a small grin on his face.
“You know,” Dreamer began, trying to not sound too curious, “Among the Zarfaim, if the Scriptures have a certain word repeated, it means it is really important--especially if it’s repeated in the same sentence… so… if we were Zarfaim… technically… the fact that you said, ‘nothing’ twice signifies that it was really something…” and she took a sip of water, “You know... Just saying.”
Blue smiled at her, surprised that she knew obscure trivia about Zarfaim language.
“Yeah, she’s a Zarfaim nerd,” Tinsel Quill joked with a sassy wave of one of her glass forelegs.
“Hey! I can’t help it if I like a certain culture,” Dreamer defended as she licked the whipped cream off Tinsel Quill’s head.
“Hey! You know that annoys me!” Tinsel Quill chided her.
“Well now we are even,” Dreamer teased. At that, the two friends chuckled.
“Ah! You have us figured, Goyim,” Said Blue jokingly before laughing along with Keen who soon explained,“Well, I might not have told you, but Blue here is a Zarfaim.”
“Really?” Dreamer lilted as she straightened up, “Oh, I’ve met so many nice Zarfaim! It’s great to meet another one!”
“Nerd,” Tinsel Quill teased with a wave of her hoof.
“Oh hush,” Dreamer shushed with a wave of her own, huge hoof.
“Okay I admit it: I like Zarfaim too, but she takes it to a whole other level,” Tinsel Quill pointed out with an overdramatic eye-roll.
“Do not! It’s not like I live, eat and sleep Zarfaim thoughts,” Dreamer parried with a grin.
“Yeah, thank Celestia for that,” Tinsel Quill sighed jokingly with an overdramatic hoof to her face in relief.
Somewhat happy about the change in topic, Keen nodded with, “Ha! Parece que saldra de aqui cuadrado Sr. Blue” He said, causing them both to laugh.
Turquoise Dreamer laughed, but in her head she was saying, They are joking about me, aren’t they? I know it. Eh, oh well… darn, I shoulda worn more clothes… not modest like this… technically not… but… Zarfaim… dress more… Dark forest! I hope he doesn’t think me indecent. I’m not an Indecent Goy, am I? No, just normal, right?
Of course, Blue, was more thinking along the lines of, Well, Nice Friend there, but I see you’re not over it just yet Keen…
Soon the soup arrived, filling the table with the warm, exotic aroma of the spices contained inside. Instantly everypony’s mouth watered. In fact, Tinsel Quill’s would have watered, if it wasn’t glass.
“Say… Next weekend at that Konlyan Restaurant nearby?” Asked Keen after the waitress was gone again.
“You mean meet up like here?” Dreamer clarified, “Well… I think my calendar is empty,” and she turned to Tinsel, who nodded and fluffed the whipped cream that grew back on her head, which let Dreamer answer with, “Yeah! Totally! What time?”
“What about lunch time?” Asked Blue, who had somehow ended up in a blind date for dinner that day; Keen chuckled, knowing what it was about and nodded.
“Perfect!” Dreamer declared, and Tinsel Quill clapped her hooves approvingly.
Keen smiled and as they began to eat he turned towards Blue…
“Está aqui, cierto?”
“Si…”
Keen sighed and looked at his drink, thinking as he took a sip, hoping that from the table across he hadn’t been noticed, he returned to his soup
“Creo que Thinker nos ama Sr. Blue.”
“Eso parece Sr. Gift.”
Raising his glass, Keen decided that he could let himself have a foolish moment and chuckled, “Za Slepoy Lyuvob.”
“Sure! What you said!” Dreamer agreed with a laugh before taking another sip of water.
“Only around Keen Gift can you hear Asturconish, Equestrian and Konlyan within three minutes of each other,” Tinsel noted with another fluff of her whipped cream.
“Prost!” soon completed Blue with a smile, as Keen chuckled “Oh, hush You,” wanting to disappear when he saw that he had been spotted.
“And now Germane,” Tinsel announced teasingly, “Let’s just throw in some Zebrican too, why not? How about Ancient Gryphon as well?”
At that Dreamer couldn’t help but laugh with a touch of a snort. Blue and Keen were also laughing at that. Of course, the small commotion in that table had been noticed, and Keen’s laughter died down upon noticing a certain smile. After a few more moments the others stopped laughing and went back to devouring their amazing soup. As they ate, Blue and Keen looked at each other from time to time, Keen wondering what to do, and Blue with a somewhat amused expression.
“Uhm, Keen Gift? What’s up?” Tinsel asked with a tilt of her head.
“Huh?” Dreamer stopped slurping on her soup for a wee bit to notice that something was wrong with Keen again and added, “What is it?”
“I-I’m fine, really” He smiled at them, not sure about how to put it without gathering more unwanted attention from a nearby table.
“¿Seguro?”
“Ni lo intentes Blue,” He said with a small sigh.
“What? What?” Dreamer asked, getting worried and wishing she was bilingual, if not trilingual. Really, one had to be a polyglot around these ponies.
Blue just looked at her, and discreetly motioned for her to look to the table to her left; Keen sighed in defeat and shrugged before going back to his soup. Studying the table, Dreamer noticed it was a mare and her friends, and then it clicked in her mind.
“Oh… that’s her, isn’t it?” Dreamer whispered as she leaned towards Keen.
Blue just nodded at that while Keen remained quiet. Unsure of what to say, Dreamer took a generous drink of water, licking her lips afterwards to tame the spicy feeling growing in her mouth. Tinsel, on the other hoof, was totally willing to say something.
“So… you gonna talk to her or just sit here and mope?”
Keen just shrugged at that. “Maybe? I don’t really know."
“Well… I would like to meet her, you know,” Dreamer offered, recognizing that Keen really just needed a good excuse to talk to her.
Slowly the gears began to turn for Keen Gift; Blue just shrugged. “No me molestaria eso… hace rato que no nos vemos," Blue told him.
With that in mind, Keen nodded.
“Fine… I’ll just wait a bit… ” On one hoof, he did not want to interrupt anything… On the other, he really needed to calm down before trying anything… Besides, he was still hesitating.
Quickly Dreamer finished her soup and her glass of water, carefully putting it down on the table and flagging down the waitress.
“Oh! Here, have more water! I am so sorry,” The waitress apologized, filling all the glasses at the table except for Tinsel Quill.
“No worries, we just gotta wash down the curry,” Dreamer explained before gulping down more water. With that, the waitress smiled in relief and went to tend to her other customers.
Keen nodded as he finished his soup, and after a while, Blue had done the same.
“Um… you guys go ahead, I… I think I have an idea,” Said Keen with a slight blush, “I’ll meet you outside in a while.”
Blue just chuckled and patted him on the back. “Buena suerte entonces,” He said with a grin.
Standing up and gathering her things, Dreamer sighed, “All right--but I seriously do wanna meet her!”
Bending over, she let Tinsel Quill climb onto her hat and then left money on the table to pay for her food, as well as a generous tip for the waitress.
Keen smiled at that and looked at Dreamer. “You will… I hope,” He chuckled and walked over to said table as Blue started making his way out.
Tinsel waved at Keen encouragingly as Dreamer walked out with Blue. Outside of the restaurant, Dreamer asked Blue, “So… which classes are you taking with Keen--I know he mentioned, but I forgot.”
“Oh, one or two classes in the semester course, mostly about International trade law,” replied Blue before Keen arrived, rather happy.
“I can see it went well,” Dreamer noted.
Indeed, it had gone well. The friends discussed various things before they all had to return to their affairs, and it appeared that they would stay friends--whether they be close to each other or far away.
Then, suddenly, a yellow unicorn ran into the restaurant. “Hey guys, I’m he- Oh… They left already.” She sadly sighed.
“Hey, cheer up Spirit, we’ll see them next time!” Piped a squeaky voice from above. A small transparent pony was sitting on the unicorn’s head.
“Yeah, I guess so… I wish I could’ve gotten here sooner. The traffic was SO CRAZY!” Spirit whined.
“Well maybe next time you should call instead of trying to surprise them.” Offered the small pony.
“PSSSSSHHHH!!!! Why would I EVER do THAT when I can show up out of nowhere, like the wiiiiind!” The little glass pony just stared at her friend in disbelief.
“Anyways, I guess I’ll just leave if nopony else is here.” Spirit sighed again, slumping out the door, tears in her once hopeful and energetic eyes.
The stony halls of the Saddle-Arabian palace echoed the sound of hooves clicking across the floor. It was the average sweltering summer day, but there was a slight breeze blowing through the glassless, ornate windows of various rooms, making things feel tolerable. Of course, the natives were used to the heat, and thought it was just a tad warm. The tall, powerful king of Saddle-Arabia was casually strolling through some of the narrower, quieter halls today, enjoying some peace and quiet. His grey hooves loudly clicked on the flat tiles of the corridor, warning the servants in nearby rooms to prepare in case he entered. As he walked, his brown-black cannons moved him forward, each muscle all the way up his legs tensing and relaxing with every step. Clearly, he strengthened his physical side as much as his magical side, for his shoulders and chest carried plenty of muscles, although he was still rather winnowy compared to a body builder. The light from the magical lanterns above him and from the windows at the end of the hall in front of him lit up his golden yellow body, which contrasted with his black mane and tail politely. When he reached the end of the hall, he gazed out the window and breathed deeply. The stony halls were silent for a time.
Stretching his enormous yellow wings, he groaned and yawned, making sure to not get his horn stuck in the lattice of the window by mistake. If that happened again, he would never forgive himself. His blue eyes surveyed the capitol city far below him, watching as his creatures went about their daily businesses. For a time, he allowed a tiny smile to form on his lips, which pushed back the spider-like scar on his left cheek. Indeed, he was an Alicorn, but like all creatures he was mortal, and learned that the hard way when he was a stubborn colt. In a somber quirk of history, it also happened to be the same way he earned his destiny mark, as well as his title, Al-Asif, The Strong Wind. Now his personal name and title were Malik Karam Al-Asif, and for more than a thousand years he had ruled Saddle-Arabia with as much courage, justice and honor that he could muster. However, that is a story for another time. Today we shall talk about something more mundane, which includes him yawning again. Karam yawned again, realizing he really should go to bed earlier.
Unfortunately, some Arabic words broke his peaceful moment.
“My Liege, ” it was Sadiq ibn-Assad al-Harun, a young Horse who was part of the court, “is something wrong?” he asked.
Karam turned and, putting on his sterner face, explained, “No, nothing is wrong--why?”
“You seem awfully tired,” the pale brown horse answered,“is something keeping you up?” As he asked, the sun went below the horizon.
“Business keeps distracting me,” Karam sighed, turning away from the window, “Surely you have more important matters to discuss with me, do you not?” As he spoke, he maintained a serious, almost harsh tone. After all, he couldn’t let anybeast feel he was weak.
Indeed, he was taller than most of his citizens--slightly taller than Celestia of Equestria, to be exact-- and indeed he had strong magic, but he knew that weakness came in forms other than physical and magical, and he never wanted anybeast to believe him to be soft. He only showed gentle emotions under favorable conditions. However, he was never cruel, although he did have a temper that was a tempest of its own. Thankfully, today he had no reason to be upset… yet.
“Well, all of us have been concerned with your well-being,” Of course, if the court had at some point underestimated him, that had been a long time ago…
“Although I appreciate your loyalty, you are not here to pamper me, but to advise me,” Karam reminded him, straightening his black halter and neckband with his magic as he spoke, which made the silver carvings sewn into the fabric click together a tiny bit.
“Well, in more important matters, we do have a slight problem with the decorations of the Victory of the Wind Festival,” Replied the young horse. With the festival a few days away, things were being a bit… slow…
Karam sighed, “Do you really need my approval for that? Can’t you just decide by yourselves?”
“Well, while some of us think that such is the most… adequate… path, the artisans believe that it is important that you see the designs and approve them, ” He told the Alicorn, waiting.
“Fine. I shall approve them,” Karam agreed with an irritated air as he followed the horse to where the decorations were. After seeing different designs, Karam picked the ones he preferred, and went to fetch a drink for himself, but was interrupted once again.
“Sire, we need your advice on the schedule for the festival,” A Camel announced humbly.
“Didn’t we already finalize that?” Karam questioned confusedly.
“Unfortunately, it was lost and we have to make a new one,” The Camel explained with an apologetic expression on his face.
Karam groaned, “You must be joking.”
“No Sire, it is the truth,” The Camel acknowledged with a gulp.
“Rewrite it the same way, and it’ll be fine! Can you not figure that out yourself?” Karam snorted as he stomped away from the Camel, who humbly agreed and left with a short bow.
Although Karam did manage to get his drink of water, there were plenty more minute problems coming to interrupt him. “My Liege! ” it was another Camel who ran towards him, “There is a problem in the kitchens!” He exclaimed.
“What? What is wrong?” Karam answered, fearing it was some grave disaster.
“We cannot decide what dessert to make!” She explained frantically.
For a few moments, Karam stared at her in disbelief before scolding her with, “Of all the things to torment your king with, you ask him THAT?”
She backed away from him as he continued, “You foolish baker! JUST GO SELECT SOMETHING!”
With that, Karam turned around, flaring and folding his wings as he walked, trying to relax himself. He got about ten feet before--
“Sire, if I may?”
“*snort* What now?” Karam mumbled in annoyance, “This better be important.”
“Oh King, the captain of the guard wishes to have your final approval on the new dress uniforms.”
“He is the CAPTAIN--he has the authority to decide!... But I suppose I can see them if he insists.”
For the next few hours, Karam found himself on a thousand petty errands. Yes, he understood that everybeast wanted his approval during this special time of the year, but this was ridiculous! Not EVERYTHING needed his approval--the whole point of selecting advisors and leaders was so that THEY could handle the tiny problems, was it not? As you can probably imagine, Karam was having trouble keeping his temper in check. After some time, he realized that if one more thing went wrong, he really would snap.
“Sire, if I may,” A Gazelle began.
“NO YOU MAY NOT!” Karam roared, finally snapping.
Instantly, all the nearby servants and subordinates--including the scared Gazelle, dropped to the floor and covered their heads in terror. Now the King of the Wind was furious, using his voice known only as the Howling Wind, which could very well rival Luna’s old Canterlot Voice.
“IS NOBEAST IN THIS PALACE INTELLIGENT ENOUGH TO HANDLE BASIC DECISIONS? DID I SELECT ADVISORS MISSING HALF OF THEIR BRAINS? WHY MUST I BE CONSULTED FOR EVERY LITTLE DETAIL? YOU ALL KNOW WHAT I PREFER--GO CHOOSE IT! CHOOSE SOMETHING WITHOUT MY CONSENT FOR ONCE! YOUR KING HAS SPOKEN!”
After that speech, he stood there in the middle of the room, gasping in anger, with his wings fully stretched. A howling wind could be heard echoing through the hallways, which happened whenever he was angered like this. For what seemed like an eternity, nobeast dared to open his or her mouth. When the wind died down and Karam finally lowered his wings, all the nearby servants and other creatures cautiously stood up again and returned to their duties hastily. Karam sighed, cursing himself for losing his temper, and turned to leave. Hearing something, he stopped and listened: it was the sound of feathery wings approaching. Within moments, a Pegasus Horse flew into the room, and while he yet hovered above the ground he gasped, “Sire! A sandstorm has been spotted nearing the capitol!”
“Where?” Karam demanded, partially worried for the city and also glad that at LAST there was something actually important for him to handle.
“About ten kilometers, east by southeast,” The Pegasus informed him, landing on the ground and bowing respectfully.
With that, Karam charged through halls until he found a balcony, launching himself from it immediately.
Meanwhile, in the city below, many creatures bustled about their daily affairs. Some rode in shiny new steam-powered cars while others walked or flew. Some, however, watched the skies eagerly.
“Are you certain there is a storm coming?” An impatient Horse asked his friend who was an Oryx.
“I can sense it,” The Oryx replied firmly. Knowing that the Oryx had wonderful weather-senses, the Horse sighed and nodded, still staring at the palace.
“He’s bound to come out any moment now,” Their comrade, a Camel, determined while chewing on some straw.
“I saw a Pegasus… ” He stopped mid-sentence upon noticing somebeast flying out towards the outskirts of the city, and not just anybeast…
“THE KING IS ON THE MOVE!” The Oryx announced as he bounded forward.
“KHALIL! GET THE WATER!” The Horse ordered, galloping after the Oryx. The Camel obeyed, and the trio charged out of the city, following their winged king. As they exited, they found many other creatures were following them--no, not them, the king. After all, many creatures wanted to watch the Sandstorm King in action, so of course there were many storm chasers.
Karam, meanwhile, kept his blue eyes on the blur far on the horizon, feeling a rush of excitement--at last, something important for him to do! The bright sun made his golden pelt glow, and highlighted his Destiny Mark: A sandy tornado, swirling with energy.
The Sandstorm raged and the wind howled, and all were in awe and expecting. About to see once again why did their King earn the title of “The Sandstorm King.”
As the Storm Chasers watched, Karam flew closer and closer to the mass of dust and energy until he was close enough to get some sand in his eyes. Closing said eyes, Karam lit his horn up with his golden magic aura, focusing as hard as he could. Within moments, he shot a beam into the whirling storm, which enveloped him shortly afterward. For a seconds, nobeast could see anything from the outside as Karam held his breath and made his magic lasso circle around the edges of the storm quickly. Feeling that the outer reaches were under his control, he made his magic swirl upward, pulling the wind with it until it became a massive sand tornado.
“He’s doing it! HE HAS GOT IT!” Some creatures cried, watching everything from a safe distance away.
Karam made his magic spin around faster and faster, gathering the sand and wind into a tighter and tighter mass, until it was a thin wall around him--still a massive tornado, but now with a huge, hollow center. Allowing himself to breathe again, Karam opened his eyes to survey the status of the situation. Nodding firmly while still hovering in the air, Karam concentrated his magic, pushing it downwards slowly. Little by little, the sandy tornado became shorter and shorter, also becoming slower and slower, until it dissipated into a ring of sand around him. Stopping his magic, Karam eyed the sand dunes around him and smiled. Another job well done. It wasn’t long before the storm chasers gathered on the ring around Karam and cheered. With a grin, Karam straightened up, hearing their cheers and cries of admiration. Suddenly, he coughed a bit, and then realized that he had forgotten his Kaffiyeh. Oh well, he had forgotten it before, and survived those times; he would survive again. After all, the Sandstorm King is not brought down by tiny bits of sand, but brings down the greatest of sandstorms with ease.
“Your majesty! ” called out a colt, running towards him with a Kaffiyeh, “You dropped this, ” He said upon approaching.
“Thank you…Young One,” Karam thanked the child, wondering who on earth would let their child just go storm chasing like that, but also appreciating that somebeast found it.
Karam led the citizens to the capitol, and resumed his affairs in a better attitude. Indeed, Saddle-Arabia was glad to have the Strong Wind within their palace.
“I Still don’t know, Do you really think this is a good idea? ” Asked the brown Earth Pony with a still noticeable Trotomian accent.
The blue Unicorn stallion chuckled at that, “Well, Shining’s on the entrance exams today and you can imagine that... ”
“Fine, I’ll go with you two, but you owe me a lunch, and not one of those fancy ones, an actual lunch,” Replied Story Seeker with a teasing smirk.
Soon enough he put a hat on and walked off with them. Story Seeker had arrived a few months ago to Canterlot to be an auxiliary teacher in the Royal Academy of History, and in the process had managed to meet this family.
“So… what kind of book are we going to see unveiled today, Night?” He asked, not being really big on this author they were going to see. Night Light just chuckled as they walked to his home. Oh you’ll love it Seeker, one of those goofy historian-adventurer things that my wife likes so much. ”
As they were greeted by Twilight Velvet on the porch of the house and then moved towards the convention hall where the event would take place, Seeker had noticed a large crowd, many with those “explorer” hats…
“Oh, genial…” He whispered to himself before sighing, “She actually made the sequel didn’t she?”
“Oh come on Seeker, those books are a really good read, ” replied Twilight Velvet with a charming smile, “Not everything has to be a history textbook. ”
“That’s not the problem… It’s just that the adventures are way too cheesy, I mean, really? a perfectly stereotypical Maritano villain? ” Seeker chuckled at that.
“So what if they are a bit cheesy? The adventures are so well written that it feels real!” Twilight Velvet responded with wide eyes.
Seeker just shrugged at that, “It still is not my cup of tea… ”
“All right, but I’m sure you will enjoy the ceremony anyway,” Twilight Velvet shrugged.
“I guess I might, ” The young Earth Pony conceded as they entered the building.
Following the signs, they met many other ponies dressed up as the characters, all ready to see the next book. Soon they were all seated and waiting. With great ceremony and much cheering from the fans, the next book was unveiled, and soon Velvet, her husband and Seeker were going to get autographs from A.K. Yearling herself… well, mainly Twilight Velvet. Of course, Story Seeker was just there with them, in a slightly awkward situation.
“I must say, I adore your style of writing,” Velvet was gushing to Ms. Yearling, “It feels like it really happened!”
Yearling smiled and thanked her with, “Why thank you, Ma’am, I do try to write a vivid picture of what happened.”
“Well you certainly did!” Velvet continued as Yearling signed the book Velvet was carrying, “Anyway, I’m Twilight Velvet, this is my husband, Night Light, and this is our historian friend, Story Seeker! He works at a university in Canterlot.”
Yearling looked up as she passed the book back to Velvet, “A historian, you say?” She looked at Story Seeker as she continued, “Just how much do you know about history?”
Seeker just gave a chuckle, “Well, unlike what some other historians will say, I wouldn’t say I know all about it,” he shrugged, “I do specialize in Early Gryphon, Konlyan and Asturconian History. ”
Yearling’s eyes lit up at that, and she straightened her glasses as she asked, “Really? Well… sometimes I need to study some history before… outlining my stories. Have any good textbooks for sale?”
Seeker smiled at that politely. “Well, many textbooks can be good, but the translation of the Early Gryphon Sagas made by Professor Sigurdr Halstarn is what I’d recommend… it’s the closest anypony can get to the original without learning Ancient Gryphon.”
Yearling seemed deeply interested in that sentiment, for she leaned towards Seeker and demanded, “Are you serious? Where can I find his translation?”
“Well, the Royal Academy of History of Canterlot recently published the latest edition of his translation… ” Seeker replied.
Sitting back down again and signing some more books, Yearling continued with, “You know, I could use a historian to teach me things occasionally--when are you usually at the university?”
“I’m kind of working there as an auxiliary teacher, covering Professor Inkhoof’s class when he’s not here… but most days you can find me in this small Asturconian cafe right next to the university, ” he told her with a shrug, “La Plata de Nada is the name.”
Yearling grinned at him, “I’ll have to meet up with you there sometime,” Handing him a free copy of her second book, she added, “By the way, my books are more… more historical than they seem.”
After signing the book for Story Seeker, she turned to talk to other fans, and soon Seeker, Velvet and Night were all outside again.
“Well, that was something… ” Seeker said as they walked out.
“Oh, I cannot believe she was so interested in you!” Velvet said, half astonished and half jealous.
“Yeah, that was pretty memorable! You can now officially say that a Celebrity likes you,” Night Light teased with a grin of admiration.
With a laugh, Seeker looked at them “Oh por favor, no es que le guste!” He said, slipping into his native Asturconish before looking at them.
“Oh don’t worry, from what I hear she’s a really busy pony--I’m sure she won’t visit you much, if at all,” Velvet reassured him, although it was clear she wished that Yearling would visit him, so that she would have a chance of meeting Yearling again.
Eventually they arrived home, and Night Light opened the door, announcing loudly, “I’m home!”
“DADDY!” A tiny voice called as Twilight Sparkle, his young daughter galloped over to him happily.
Night Light scooped her up in his magic, giving her a kiss on the cheek as Velvet and Seeker entered the house.
“Did you get the next book?” Sparkle asked happily as Night Light returned her to the carpet.
“Yes we did, and Mommy had it signed,” Night Light said, drawing the book from his saddle bag grandly.
“YOU GOT IT SIGNED TOO?” Sparkle gasped as she leaped into the air, her long mane and tail flying up and down as she jumped. “Yes! A.K. Yearling was there and we got to speak to her personally,” Velvet explained cheerily as she nodded her head.
Seeker smiled at the scene before sighting a pair of teenagers cuddling in the sofa. Noticing who they were, He chuckled softly.
“Vaya!” he finally said, “That’s Buena Suerte jovencito.”
Of course, this startled the pink Alicorn and the white Unicorn, who scooched to other sides of the couch quickly before Cadenza got up and trotted over to the adults while Sparkle giggled and smiled at her foalsitter.
“Twilight was very good while you were gone,” Cadenza declared with a smile, nervously shifting her wings as she spoke.
Seeker just put a hoof on Shining’s shoulder and nodded. “Well, look at you, already getting a Princess’ attention, ” he teased, “You get a tip of the hat for that,” He finished with a smile.
“Oh, Shining, when did you arrive home?” Velvet questioned, glad that her son was home safely.
“Just a short while ago,” Shining answered, straightening up as he spoke, “I think I did well on the exams.”
“I’m telling you, we have a future Comandante here. ” Seeker quickly said.
At that, Shining Grinned and straightened up.
A few days later, Seeker was enjoying a lunch break at La Plata de Nada, when he was kindly interrupted.
“Story Seeker?” A familiar voice questioned.
Slightly surprised, Seeker turned around to see the same mare from the book ceremony. With a polite smile he nodded “Ms. Yearling.”
“You aren’t meeting anypony here today, are you?” She asked cautiously.
“Not really; just came here for lunch, ” He shrugged.
“You weren’t followed, were you?” Yearling whispered suspiciously.
Confused by that question, Seeker looked at her, “No… any reason for that question?”
Sitting down quickly, Yearling replied with, “Let’s just say that sometimes somepony comes to… steal my ideas.”
Raising an eyebrow at that, and deciding to ignore a rather ridiculous thought, Seeker nodded at that. “Well… I know most ponies in this place, and they’re too busy planning classes or studying to try and venture into Literature… ”
Yearling nodded casually, studying the menu quietly for a moment before continuing, “Do you know anything about ancient Hippogriff Runes?”
Seeker nodded at that, looking at her with, “Yes… Very similar to ancient Gryphon Runes, but Old Hippogriff is as different from Old Gryphon, as Germane is from Equestrian… I can read some, but I’m not yet fully acquainted with the language… I do know a Professor in Arheimar who could be of help. ”
“Good, I could use some help with Hippogriff runes,” Yearling admitted with a slightly relaxed smile, “I suppose I shall have to get myself a boat ticket soon. Do you have his address?”
Seeker nodded at that, pulling a paper and a pencil out before writing the professor’s address, “Look for Professor Thidareik af Oium, tell him that you’re a friend of me and he’ll gladly help you.”
Yearling quickly took the paper, folded it, and placed it in her saddle bags. With another smile, she thanked him, saying, “Thank you--this really is a huge help. Enjoy your lunch.”
Abruptly she hopped out of her hair and departed. With a shrug, Story Seeker ate from his lunch, “Esa yegua es bien rara…” he muttered to himself as he ate. For a moment, he watched Ms. Yearling leave. As he watched, Yearling’s coat caught on a chair for a moment, and as she tugged on it and got it loose, her cutie mark was revealed for a brief second: it was a compass rose. Swiftly, she exited the restaurant.
Again he shrugged, paying for his lunch and heading back into the ancient building of the University, not knowing anything.
“So.. He’s from Trotomia… that’s all you know about him? I mean, how can we know he’s not a spy!?”
With a small roll of her eyes, Apple Jack looked at her friend with, “Well, one of my cousins lives there, and asked us to help him around this week… ”
As they said that, a young, dark-blue Unicorn with glasses walked out of the train station, somewhat disoriented, and carrying black saddlebags. Soon enough, the two mares walked up to him, the orange one speaking.
“Howdy! Keen Gift?”
Surprised, the unicorn turned and nodded, offering them a small smile. “Y-Yeah, that’s me… Um… you’ve got to be Applejack, right?”
“Yup! And this is Rainbow Dash!"
The cyan mare nodded and hovered a bit closer with, “You seem cool… but I’ll be watching you.” The two mares led him to a brightly-colored, crystalline castle, but two young stallions that were approaching caught Keen's attention.
“Free Style? Blue Valiance?” He asked surprisedly, and the two laughed and walked over to him, then noticing the two mares. Blue spoke first.
“Heh, gracioso… I’m Blue Valiance, and this,” he motioned towards the orange pegasus with glasses, “is Free Style, and you are?”
After they all had been introduced, and a few seconds of awkward silence, the five ponies walked in, only to be greeted by a loud cheer and a “SURPRISE!!!” As the party went on, the three stallions found themselves looking around, and gathered around some drinks, laughing a bit at the events of the last few hours.
“So… quien esta buena aqui?” Finally asked Free Style with a smirk, Blue chuckled and Keen nearly facehoofed. In their native Asturconish, Blue replied.
“Pues… dire que la princesa purpura… y su amiga Unicornio,” After that the three laughed, not noticing a blushing Twilight Sparkle nearby. “I never got to ask, what are you two doing here?” Asked Keen, still a bit surprised at finding his best friends here, Free Style spoke first.
“Well, I got hired by this big firm based in Canterlot--what about you two?”
“I’m going to do something on my studies, and got offered an internship on a large trading company,” Blue explained.
Keen smiled at them and sighed, “I’m just finishing a specialization and while it’s not sure, I might go to work with the Trotomian Embassy.”
“Hey, who’s that turquoise mare with the hat over there?” Free Style butted in, “She’s waving at you, Keen.”
“Eh?” Was all he replied before noticing her and waving back, somewhat confused. Blue and Free Style laughed.
“El que no corre vuela,” Said the orange pegasus, laughing, then looked at Blue. “Let’s make a bet… before this weekend, I’ll get…” He motioned towards a blue Unicorn nearby. Blue and Keen laughed, with Keen remarking, “Already betting?”
That’s all he got to say before noticing an Earth mare chatting with some other ponies.
“No way!” Free Style broke the short silence between them upon noticing the same mare, “Is that Lilac?” he asked, laughing.
With a sigh, Keen turned around “Wonderful… now what?”
“NOW YOU EAT MORE CAKE!” Pinkie Pie shouted, appearing suddenly and throwing large helpings of cake on the table before leaving in a pink blur.
“Right…” Free Style cleared his throat, “So… should we go talk to her?”
At that, Keen sighed while the other two stallions chuckled.
“I… I think I’ll be fine, ” he said with a sigh, taking one of the oversized helpings of cake, deciding to ignore a light blue Unicorn mare that was nearby, or a yellow and red Pegasus happily chatting away in another group… for the sake of his sanity.
“Say, Blue… What will you do if I get her?” Free Style began, motioning towards Rarity with a small smirk, “to be my marefriend by the weekend”. For a moment, Blue observed Rarity chatting with some of her friends.
“You’ll get my first month’s salary if you do,” Blue finally replied with a chuckle.
Keen laughed at them. “Wait, isn’t this the fourth time you bet your first month’s salary Blue?” He said jovially, causing Blue to blush slightly.
“Oh, shush you, I’ve won all those bets,” He replied before taking a sip of a nearby drink,“Actually… What will you give me if I do it?” He looked at Free Style, who sighed.
“Well… what about I pay for all the expenses of your second date then?” Style told his friend, looking at Keen who was fairly sure that neither of would win that bet.
“Meh, good enough,” Said Blue, shaking his hoof with Style before both walked off to make their moves. With a facehoof, Keen shook his head and giggled before taking another sip of his drink.
“Welp, that went well… Let’s hope they don’t screw it up… And that neither of them wins.” Said Keen to himself.
Nearby, Apple Jack noticed them and decided to see how they were doing.
“Howdy! How y’all doing? Enjoying the cake?” She asked politely.
Shaken out of his thought, Keen nodded at that. “Y-Yeah! It’s really good,” He said with a smile.
“Ah, good,” Apple Jack answered with a semi-awkward smile, “So, how did you three meet?”
“Oh well, with Blue, we’ve been friends since the first semester at Law School in Galota, and we met Free Style in a class we took together at a later point,” He chuckled, “And yes, they’ve always been like that, or at least are like that when together.”
“So, law school, eh? That must be tough,” Apple Jack mused, “Why'd ya pick that job?”
“I guess I wanted to help other ponies… that and I’m not really cut out to be a medic,” He said with a sigh, “You know, this is a really nice town." He glanced around the room, taking in the friendly, optimistic atmosphere and smiled.
“Why thank you!” Apple Jack beamed, “My family’s been here ever since this place was a little itty bitty thing, and we’ve seen all the changes--you're right: it really is a nice town.”
“Yeah?” He smiled, “Well, that explains why Apple Rind keeps talking about it all the time.” He chuckled and took a sip of his drink. “So… is it usual here to throw a party for the newcomers?” He asked, not having the slightest clue of how Ponyville worked.
Apple Jack laughed. “Pinkie Pie ALWAYS throws a parties for newcomers, and knows exactly what they like--don’t ask me how.”
He laughed along. “I guess that’s part of this place’s charm.”
“It certainly is,” Apple Jack sighed happily, “I reckon this is one of the friendliest towns in all Equestria--I suppose that’s why we get the Princess of Friendship living with us.”
Keen could only nod there, looking at his friends and how they were kind of embarrassing themselves while trying to approach Rarity or her friends. However, one of the friends was approaching them with a harsh glint in her magenta eyes.
“So, you are a lawyer, are you?” Rainbow Dash interrogated Keen Gift.
“Dash, come on now!” Apple Jack sighed, “He seems like a decent pony--can’t you just be nice?”
“...Fine,” Rainbow Dash agreed as she sat down next to Keen and added, “I will still watch you though--if you harm anypony, you are gonna get it.”
“Well, I’m not planning on harming anypony so… um… nice to meet you?” He said, somewhat awkwardly.
“Good--I’m Rainbow Dash, and you are… Keen, is it?” Rainbow introduced herself in a more calm tone.
“I’m Keen Gift,” He said with a slightly awkward smile and holding out a hoof.
Rainbow Dash shook his hoof curtly, and then spread her wings and bolted to the other side of the building.
“Sorry about that--sometimes she has trouble trusting outsiders,” Apple Jack explained.
“Nah it’s fine, she does seem nice,” He said with a shrug, containing a chuckle as Twilight Sparkle herself walked up to them.
“And how are you enjoying yourself so far?” Twilight asked Keen as she sat beside him.
Surprised, Keen fumbled over his words, “Oh, well, I-I’m not really a big fan of big parties, but this is quite nice."
“Well, Pinkie Pie sure does know how to throw a party,” Twilight admitted with a chuckle, “Anyway, it’s getting pretty late, so I’m gonna head out now. Good night Apple Jack, good night… uhm… Keen, is it?”
“Yeah, Keen Gift, I-It’s nice to meet you,” He said with a sheepish grin.
With that, Twilight offered a friendly smile and walked away.
Keen let out a small sigh and looked at Applejack with, “I… I guess I’ll go and bail those two out before they end up in trouble,” He chuckled.
At the moment, Free Style had been chatting around with some other ponies while Blue had actually managed to go and talk with Rarity.
“Well, I suppose I’ll go home then, ‘night Keen!” Apple Jack greeted as she turned and left.
The Ponies (and Dragon) simply stared confusedly into the strange rotating door. The room fell into an awkward silence after what they had seen.
The one to finally break that silence, was Applejack.
“Okay, whoever made this door must have been either a genius or just plain crazy.”
Pinkie soon replied to that with a “You say it because of the part where you were dating Dashie?” Which only led to the cyan mare facehoofing.
“DO NOT… mention that again… please,” Apple Jack moaned.
“I-I…” Twilight was at a loss for words, of nearly a hundred universes nearby, some sixty had different version of themselves dating one another…
“Hah!” Rainbow soon recovered from it, “That face you made there!”
“Please darling..” Rarity looked at her friend, almost glaring, “Don’t bring that one up.”
“But what’s wrong with the 64?” She asked, only leading to a small whimper from an utterly embarrassed Fluttershy.
“Ok… that was still too weird. ” Spike had to admit, one of those genderbent ones was nice… if only because it involved him -or rather, his counterpart- with Rarity’s counterpart… not that he would say it out loud…
“THIS DOOR MUST BE DESTROYED!” Princess Luna declared, “NOPONY MUST EVER KNOW THIS!”
“Although, I must admit Sister, ” Celestia let out a chuckle, “You and Big Mac certainly made a cute couple.”
Of course, Big Mac was thankful for his red coloration, otherwise, it would be all too obvious how embarrassed he was…
Princess Luna, meanwhile, glared at her sister and said nothing on the matter. Secretly, she did agree that Big Mac and she made a cute couple… but… NO. Just.. NO. For one thing, he wasn’t royal, and another thing… she was a few thousand years older than he was… and… no. Just no.
Twilight finally snapped out of her stupor, decided to invent Brain Bleach… or a Neuralizer… Of course, Rainbow being herself, walked closer “Say… should I go in there and find you a Blitz?” She asked playfully
Twilight glared at Rainbow Dash.
“NO……….” Was all she could say without exploding all over her friend with magic fury.
Rainbow laughed hard and looked at her friend.
“Well,” She began, “I might just go in there and catch myself a…” She didn’t get to finish that phrase as her mouth was zipped short by a nearby Draconeqqus.
“Well… that was certainly quite a ride, wasn’t it?” Discord sighed as he cleared his throat, “Although I do enjoy a ridiculous story… I feel that some of those parallel universes were… a bit much.”
“ Yeah, like the one where I was evil and killed everyone! WHAT KIND OF PLACE IS THAT?” Pinkie Pie shouted.
Rainbow could only nod at that, still with her mouth zipped shut. Discord laughed a bit, deciding to ignore that specific universe and floated over to Big Mac
“So… Princess Luna, Fluttershy, or Rainbow?” He asked with a smirk while Mac was as embarrassed as possible for a pony.
In a nearby corner, Princess Cadance and Shining Armor had left quite a while ago… This narrator considers that, letting you know that they were disgusted and certainly looking sick, is more than enough, all things considered.
This other narrator also thinks that perhaps we should tell you what exactly they saw… at least, a wee bit.
______
Universe #34
(redacted)
Let’s not even go there.
“I -Discord- have to agree there, Narrators…” ___
Universe # 16
Let’s be simple here… in this one, after getting drafted, wounded, sent back to a random war, wounded again and so on, Rainbow Dash and Big Mac ended up together… Oh! and she also lost every race she ever entered.
She won at failing.
______
Universe # 72
“Twilight Sparkle…” Said a tall alicorn in a dark suit, “I am your Mother!”
“NOOOOOO! That’s not true! that’s Impossible!”
“Search your feelings, you know it to be,” she was suddenly interrupted by the lavender alicorn
“Actually… I do know you’re not my mother, she’s still alive you know… ”
“Oh… Well… Join the Dark Side then, become my apprentice…” the mask was lifted to reveal some odd alternate version of Princess Luna.
Which made our Twilight Sparkle and Princess Luna decide to leave this weird universe.
Well, at least they didn’t have to watch the end of the scene… trust me you don’t want to know.
---
Universe # 63:
Not much to say here. The guys were girls and the girls were guys. Actually… there’s the one next door.
_____
Universe #64 (not a pun on a rule of the internet)
“So…”
“So?”
“Oh for Solaris’ sake, Dusk Shine!” Exclaimed Elusive, “We both know that you’re into Rainbow Dash.” (RD, AJ and Fluttershy are still mares in this one… hence the numbering as 64)
“I-I’m not!” Dusk denied, almost panicked as, in the background, the rainbow-maned mare was gaping at him.
“I WILL TOTALLY CATER FOR YOUR WEDDING!” Pink Frosting declared.
Soon after Pink Frosting retired, Elusive walked off, heading towards a certain yellow and pink pegasus’ home…
______
Back in Karamverse
“CAN WE GO THROUGH THE DOOR AGAIN?” Pinkie Pie begged.
“NO!” Everypony save Discord and Princess Celestia said. Of course, Fluttershy whispered rather than shouted.
“Aww, but I wanna find the one where Discord and Celestia ruled together and Discord made it rain chocolate every Wednesday!” Pinkie sighed.
“I could make it rain chocolate within your bedroom every wednesday,” Discord said, not really wanting to go into that one again… not that it did not look attractive, but he really didn’t want to see himself get all mushy with Celestia of all ponies…
“Hey, Readers!” It was Pinkie, “Don’t you think you’re a little bit loco in the coco?”
Shhh, Pinkie. You aren’t supposed to know they exist.
“Oh, Ok” She said, hopping back into the zone beyond the fourth wall… Well, could be worse you know…
I know. We could see a situation where Discord totally destroyed the fourth wall and brought random characters here… now THAT would be bad. We already had that once… wait… that was someone else. Nevermind.
After finally teleporting the door to somewhere in the middle of the Badlands, followed by some pretty big explosion in the mentioned place, Celestia let out a small sigh and looked at them all.
“I believe that we all should get some tea… maybe it will help.” she told them, a bit hesitantly; they all did so.. all except for her sister.
“Celly… How is it that you don’t seem too disturbed by this?”
“Well… those weren’t OUR universes… and besides… I know who made the door and… *giggle* I can’t help but admire it.” Celestia confided.
“And… who made the door?” Luna asked, even more confused.
“Why… I did, of course!” Celestia laughed, “I was experimenting while you were gone and… well.. I accidentally made a shifting portal between universes. I had to make that rotating door to contain it.”
She nodded, a bit confused, but nodded nonetheless.
_____
A Few Years Later, Castle of Friendship, Ponyville
“So… Princess, the results from the research are in,” Said the Earth Pony with the hourglass cutie mark and Trottingham accent,“I will say this, most of it is on the report but I did find a weird coincidence…” Twilight looked at him, intrigued.
“It seems that your group of friends, in most nearby universes, are dating amongst eachother or somepony else close to them...”
Twilight Sparkle nodded with a pokerface, gently sent him off on his way… and then allowed herself a mental breakdown.
Everypony gathered in the square, awaiting the first fireworks. Chattering and laughing, the crowd was excited for tonight’s New Year’s celebration.
“So, Keen, are you excited yet?” Dreamer asked her friend.
“Ah?” Keen was surprised, he smiled and looked at his friend, “A bit, and you?”
“Totally! I love fireworks!” Dreamer lilted.
“I’m not so enthused,” Tinsel admitted as she curled up into Dreamer’s bag and hid from the crowds.
“Yeah, she is worried something will go wrong and she’ll get broken or something,” Dreamer explained with a wave of her hoof.
“I’m sure nothing will happen,” Keen told her, looking up as his two friends were nearby.
“Oh, hello again!” Dreamer called to them with a grin.
The two walked over with a smile laughing a bit at their failure “So, how did your bet go?” The three laughed and Blue just shrugged.
“What bet?” Dreamer probed.
The three laughed again and Free Style looked at her, “Oh, nothing important,” He said as he noticed an Earth Pony mare nearby.
“Say… I really think you should get under that mistletoe, Keen,” Soon said Blue with a smirk, Keen looked around and rolled his eyes as he noticed who was close to said herb.
“Hey look! Princess Twilight is on her balcony! I think she’s gonna start the thing!” Dreamer piped up as she pointed.
Welcoming the distraction, Keen looked over and waited while Blue and Free Style nodded in agreement and smirked.
“Everypony,” Princess Twilight announced, “I am very pleased to open this first annual Canterlot-Ponyville united New Year’s Celebration!”
At that point, the crowds cheered happily. Ever since Twilight’s coronation, more ponies had been visiting Ponyville to see her in real life, and soon many of them moved into the area, making Ponyville increase so much in population that it was getting close to Canterlot’s main area, causing the two cities to celebrate more and more holidays together, such as New year’s. Soon after Twilight opened the ceremony, the magical fireworks began. Everpony watched in glee and awe at the marvelous display… until something went wrong. One of the fireworks exploded too early, lighting fire to a banner above Twilight’s castle. Soon enough, Rainbow -and a good number of other pegasi- had taken some relatively nearby rainclouds to take care of it… However, it was enough to cause a scare among many of the present ponies and other creatures. Also, it was rather cold, making whoever got rained on very wet and very cold.
“Oh no,” Twilight gasped to nearby Princess Celestia, “This isn’t quite what I imagined happening… heh… I’ll make sure they get dried off.”
With that, she flew down to help the shivering ponies, while Princess Celestia let out a small chuckle and went to help as well, relieved that nopony was hurt, but still somewhat amused.
Unfortunately, more things simply had to go wrong. One of the fireworks somehow got knocked off course and hit one of the houses nearby, setting the roof on fire. The Pegasi quickly put out that fire, but the event still spooked many nearby Equines. The crowd started to get worried.
“Well, this isn’t exactly going right… I hope nothing else goes wrong,” Dreamer whispered to her companions.
“SEE? I told you we should have stayed home!” Tinsel Quill squeaked from her hiding spot.
“Well, you can’t say that it has been an uneventful evening,” Said Blue, looking as the fire was, once again, put out.
“Yeah, but I’m starting to worry that somepony will get hurt,” Dreamer confessed. As she said that, the last fire was being put out.
Thankfully, things were settling down and the rest of the show was majestic.
As the celebration began to die down, a cyan pegasus approached Princess Twilight.
“Hey Twi, we took care of the fires--why are you looking so upset?” She asked.
“I’m just worried about bad publicity… this event wasn’t supposed to have any problems… and it did… and I am in charge of it!” Twilight whispered as she nervously twitched her wings.
“Oh please! Who cares? You are a PRINCESS! You shouldn’t worry what they say,” Rainbow Dash laughed.
Twilight glared at her.
“Right… right… gotta look good for the royalness… “ Rainbow Dash sighed, realizing that Twilight actually had a point.
After that, Rainbow decided to have some fun, and what better way than strapping mistletoe to her tail and flying over random ponies? As it happened, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were nearby, as the mistletoe dangled above them, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle backed up and left Scootaloo with Rumble.
“What?” Asked Scootaloo, looking at them.
Looking up, Rumble blushed and gaped at the dangling herb.
Scootaloo looked up and blushed, not sure about what to say, Rainbow was fighting hard to supress her laugh.
“Uhm… “ Rumble began, then thinking better of it, he quickly pecked Scootaloo on the cheek. For a few moments he sat there, blushing, and then zoomed away to hide.
Scootaloo sat there blushing as Applebloom finally said, “Ah thought it had to be on the lips, ” to which Sweetie Belle nodded.
However, Rainbow Dash simply laughed and looked for somepony else to annoy. Finally finding some more ponies… Soon enough, she flew over to Cheerilee and Thunderlane, almost bursting out in laughter at the awkward and flustered moment.
Afterwards, she decided to do one last prank, finding Applejack and Twilight talking with the odd Trotomians, she hid above them while she chuckled.
“Um… “ Keen looked up and then at his friends, “Maybe you should look up,” He told them, supressing a chuckle.
“Uh… Ah’m sorry, but ah don’t do mistletoe,” Applejack politely declined as she quickly trotted away, leaving Twilight behind.
Blue looked at Free, the two laughed, both thinking of the upcoming jokes on why she ran, Free then excused himself, leaving only a laughing Keen, a mildly amused Blue, and a blushing and confused Twilight in the place.
“Oh… um… ” before Twilight said anything, Rainbow yelled at them, “Come on!”
Blue laughed a bit and looked at her, “Well… that is something…” He leaned over, kissed her cheek before giving a small bow and walking off.
Ruffling her feathers, Princess Twilight huffed and glared at Rainbow Dash, who had gone over to chase Applejack, mostly to endlessly pester her about what had just happened.
“Well, it has been a pleasure, but I have to go, ” Was all Keen could tell Twilight, not noticing when he walked under a tree with yet another herb… nor that somepony was also walking there.
“Oh, hello Keen!” Said Lilac.
“Oh, hi Lilac,” He replied with a smile and a slight blush, still not noticing the dangling herb.
“Lovely fireworks, huh?” She replied sweetly.
“Yeah, quite good ones, well, without the whole malfunctioning and raining down on ponies thing,” He told her, briefly looking up and promptly freezing.
“What?” She eyed the tree above them and then giggled.
“Uh…?” Keen was just standing there, blushing a bit brighter and mentally cursing his luck, just when he was getting over this!
“Well?” Lilac asked, closing her eyes expectantly.
Still blushing brightly, Keen leaned over to give her a quick kiss on the lips, somewhat nervous.
And the Narrator decided to troll everyone and say THE END.
One autumn afternoon, Sweetie Belle was reading a book outside, enjoying the cool breeze on her white pelt. It was one of those days that she enjoyed some time alone, but it was starting to get boring. Putting down the book into her bag, she debated going to Apple Bloom’s house, or finishing up her book. It was a tough decision for a young pony to make.
“Oh! Hi Sweetie Belle,” Starlight Glimmer’s thoughts cut into her mind. The older Unicorn was trotting over, carrying saddlebags and with headphones on her neck.
Looking up, Sweetie Belle grinned. Starlight was more Maud and Rarity’s friend, but she was a fascinating pony to be around, and had pretty great taste in clothes, like Rarity. At first, Sweetie was awkward around her, but Starlight was pretty awkward too after being reformed. In time, the two did end up having fun together. In fact, they enjoyed flying kites quite often during the summer alongside Maud. Besides kites and fashion, they also enjoyed exchanging music together.
“Hi, Starlight!” Sweetie greeted, “What’re you listening to?”
“Well… ” Starlight smiled, slightly embarrassed, “It is just some metal; there is this band from Manehattan,” With that she took off the headphones. Of course, metal was a fairly recent thing in Equestria….
“...Metal? What’s that?” Sweetie asked in confusion as she tilted her head and scooted over on the bench to give Starlight some room.
“Ah, it is this new kind of music, or, well, new in Equestria, uh, if you want to listen to some…” She offered the filly her headphones with a smile.
Curious as to what “Metal” was, Sweetie Belle used her magic to put on the headphones and pushed play. She was completely unprepared. Her eyes widened in shock, and her eyelashes twitched. It was… fierce, and… symphonic, and… overwhelming. However… it was so… so… NO! This wasn’t music! This was a mismatched cacophany of strange things and--nO!
Quickly she took off the headphones, glaring at Starlight and demanding, “How could you listen to that, Starlight!? It’s so dark and weird and intense! TOO intense!”
“Oops, I should have warned you!” She smiled, almost sheepishly and sighed, “But it is good, I mean, the rythm and the complexity!”
“But there HAS to be a thing as TOO complex!” Sweetie retorted as she rubbed her ears with her white hooves, “I thought you were all smart and organized like Twilight and Rarity! How could you listen to that mess!?”
“Well, there is something like too complex, it is just not yet there” She let out a slightly awkward laugh as she tossed her curly mane over her shoulders.
Sweetie Belle sighed and tried putting on the headphones again. Maybe she did need to give it another chance. As she was listening, she began to hear how all the instruments worked together, and felt excited by the quick pace and intensity.
“I mean… It’s cool, but not really my thing,” Sweetie decided after a bit as she used her magic to give Starlight her music back, “Thanks for telling me though. I think Scoots might like it better.”
“Ah, I see… well, thanks for giving it a chance I guess.”
Sweetie shrugged again and returned to reading her book.
Sweetie Belle threw open the door to Twilight’s Castle.
“STARLIGHT!? STARRRRRLIGHT!?” She called as she ran around the halls.
With a wild look in her eyes, she galloped down another hall and halted, panting hard. Starlight had to be around here somewhere, right? And Starlight was there, thankfully. As a matter of fact, she was just relaxing after having read the latest letter that Sunburst had sent. Startled, she stood and witnessed the galloping filly charging into the side room.
“Starliiiiiight,” Sweetie Belle whined with a dramatic toss of her curls, “I AM IN SO MUCH TROUBLE AND IT IS ALL YOUR FAULT!”
Starlight just looked at Sweetie Belle, rather confused by this. “What… What do you mean, Sweetie Belle?”
Pacing around the room, Sweetie rambled, “For the past week I’ve been listening to metal music! I can’t get enough of it! I had a whole stash of really awesome CD’s--FIVE to be exact, FIVE, STARLIGHT!”
Of course, to an adult, five CD’s would probably sound like a tiny stash. Sweetie didn’t take the time to consider that maybe her stash wasn’t such a massive hoarde after all, because she was too flustered about what happened next.
“FIVE CD’S!! And they were HARD TO GET! I used up most of my saved allowance to get some of them, in fact. AND YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!?”
“Uh… no…” Was all Starlight managed to reply, still fairly confused by this all.
“Rarity found them, and she listened to one, and then she hated it!” Sweetie whined dramatically as she walked over to a couch and sat down on her haunches, “And then she lectured me on how schocking it all was, and asked if I had some kind of violent tendency stored away or something, and then she ALMOST got Mom and Dad involved--good thing they were gone on vacation--AND THEN SHE FAINTED!”
Sweetie paused and shrugged, admitting, “okay, so Rarity faints a lot, but still. SHE FAINTED!”
To emphasize the point, Sweetie fainted on the couch dramatically… or perhaps her sister’s habits had finally rubbed off on her.
Sighing at that, Starlight nodded as her ears drooped. “I’ll talk to her… actually, I think I might get Rainbow Dash with me for that one… ”
Lifting her head, Sweetie Belle asked, “So my life isn’t over?”
“No, it is not,” Starlight replied with a smile as her ears perked up again.
Slowly Sweetie Belle sat up and tucked her legs under her body and sighed, “...sorry for yelling. I mean… Okay, maybe I was a bit over dramatic, but… It was a bit much for me.”
She rubbed her hooves together awkwardly and asked, “Starlight, do you think it’s okay to freak out a little? Just a little? Only sometimes?”
“I… I don’t know, I guess it is,” Starlight replied with an almost sheepish smile.
“Yeah… I just hope Rarity will understand,” Sweetie sighed as she fidgeted with her curls.
“I’m sure she will.” Starlight told her after a couple of seconds.
It was a peaceful day in winter. Snow was gently falling outside Twilight’s castle, and the warm fires inside the castle filled the place with a comforting scent. Indeed, it was peaceful and lovely.
Then Sweetie Belle threw open the doors. With another wild look in her eyes, she galloped down hallway after hallway, bumping into Spike momentarially.
“SPIKE! Where’s Starlight?” Sweetie demanded as she hopped to her hooves.
“WHA! Uh, she’s in the library,” Spike answered as he climbed to his feet.
“Thanks!” Sweetie called over her shoulder as she gallopped away, leaving Spike very confused.
The doors to the library flew open.
And startled by it all was Starlight, who had been trying to read up on some spells.
“STARLIIIIIGHT! I--* PANT * HAVE A --* PANT* --PROBLEM AND IT IS ALL --*PANT*--YOUR FAULT!” Sweetie whined as she panted in the doorway.
“What happened this time?” Starlight asked, somewhat tiredly.
“Over the past few months, Rarity’s been slowly getting more interested in Metal,and now she is OBSSESSED!! Remember when she lost her mane for a bit and did that punk look? IT WAS NOT JUST TO LOOK GOOD!” Sweetie wailed as she glanced around. Finding a suitable armchair, she pulled it close with her magic and then fainted on it dramatically. “It’s just TOO MUCH, Starlight. I’m scared I ruined my sister!! She’s coming out with an edgy punk rocker clothes line soon, and is about to announce it to Twilight and their friends! You gotta stop her!”
Starlight looked at her for a few moments, then blinked and took a deep breath… “I see… ”
“...good news is Mom and Dad seem okay with this,” Sweetie Belle admitted as she sat up, “But how!? This is so totally NOT Rarity!”
Starlight was trying to think about what to say. admittedly, she did not quite like Punk but… “I… I’ll talk with her and Twilight…” She finally conceded, needing to think of something.
She knew that Sweetie needed to accept her sister’s tastes might be changing over time, but simultaneously Starlight didn’t want Rarity to make any short-sighted decisions and possibly derail her career or anything horrible like that.
“Okay, thanks,” Sweetie sighed in relief as she adjusted her curls with her hoof, “I knew you’d think of something.”
Eventually, with some advice from Starlight, Rarity calmed down, though she never lost her taste for punk rock and symphonic metal. In time, this would be something they would all laugh about together.
Ember sat at a table at the cafe nearest the Castle of Friendship. Although she tried to be patient, her Dragon patience was wearing thin as she tapped her claws on the table. This was supposed to be a memorable time and so far all she did was sit.
“Would you… like anything?” One of the cafe ponies asked as she held her paper and pencil with her magic.
Ember glared at the pony, who cringed and backed away. Remembering her manners, Ember put a hand up to her mouth and cleared her throat, saying, “No, thank you. I’m waiting for a friend.” She smiled, and the mare relaxed and nodded.
It wasn’t every day that Dragon Lord Ember was there, but she visited her friend Spike and his Pony friends often enough to be recognized. Quietly she took out the last letter she got from him, re-reading it. Yes, correct time, correct place, all that… why wasn’t he here? He was half an hour late, and that little dragon was NEVER late for a date!
Date? What? No, this wasn’t a date, it was a, uh, friendship, uhm, meeting of… political… cultural exchange. Yes. Definitely not a DATE, no. Quickly she shoved the letter back into her travel bag, sighing gruffly as she propped one pointy elbow on the table and rested her chin on her scaly hand.
It was then that a pony came into the cafe. She sat by Ember and smiled, almost sheepishly. “Hello” She greeted her simply, it was Fluttershy.
“Oh, Fluttershy!” Ember greeted her, sitting up straighter, “Have you seen Spike? He’s late! Should I ask Twilight where he is? I wasn’t sure if you Ponies were busy with friendship problems or something.”
“Oh, no, it is not that,” Fluttershy told her, still managing to hold that sheepish smile. “Spike is sick, he could not come.”
Ember furrowed her brows, asking, “SICK? Why didn’t he send me a letter by magic or something!?”
“W-Well, he came down with it a day or so ago, and he still planned to come today,” Fluttershy explained, slightly awkward, although not as much as before. After all, at the very least, they were on friendly terms.
“Oh, well… I see,” Ember sighed as her wings drooped, “ I guess… I’ll… start heading home. It’ll take me a few days just to get back. Might as well get going….”
Quietly she stood up and pushed her chair out of her way with her tail, saying, “Thanks for telling me. Otherwise I would’ve barged into the castle, huffing and puffing and… not being very friendly.”
“Well, maybe we can hang out… and visit Spike later,” Fluttershy offered with a brighter smile, “I-I mean, you just arrived, you must be tired. ”
Truly, Ember was exhausted. Flying, boarding trains, all that was tiring--especially when everypony stared at her and shrank back from her. However, she didn’t like admitting weakness. As she grumbled, she couldn’t help but think of Spike. No, he would want her to hang out with Fluttershy and make another friend instead of a friendly acquaintance.
With a sigh, she hung her head and admitted, “Yeah, I’m exhausted. Sorry to be a nuisance but… it would be nice to have SOMEONE to hang with.”
“Well, maybe we could visit the sanctuary… ” Fluttershy offered, a smile on her face, of course, she knew that Dragons were not precisely herbivores, but she had something planned. She could always cook something if Ember got hungry there…
“Oh yeah, you have that place where you take care of sick animals, right?” Ember recalled, straightening up a bit, “Spike went on and on about it. He was pretty impressed. Yeah, I’d like to see it.”
“Well, we can eat something here, or we can go now. ” She replied with a happy smile.
“We Dragons prefer gems,” Ember sighed, “Not much is appetizing to me here, unless you can find a burger made of crystal.”
She didn’t want to say it out loud but Twilight’s castle was starting to look like a beautiful dessert for the entire Dragon race.
“Oh! I must have some gems at home.” She told the dragon with a smile.
The thought of food made Ember’s mouth water. She couldn’t refuse.
“All right then, let’s go!” Ember chirped with a smile.
With that, Fluttershy led her towards her cottage, quite happy about how this had turned out. Soon they were at Fluttershy’s beautiful sanctuary. It was everything Spike wrote about, but even better in person. Being used to more rocky landscapes, Ember was stunned by how gorgeous all the plants looked with the waterfall and the cute bridge, and she was deeply impressed by all the hard work and care evident in every piece of the Pony-made park.
“Wow… this is… incredible,” She breathed as her eyes flew open in amazement.
“I’m glad you like it” Fluttershy told her, she had barely opened the door when a group of squirrels hurried to her. Turns out, one of them had a sprained tail.
“Oh, uh, business hours?” Ember asked as she stared at the squirrels. Since she rarely spotted a squirrel, she couldn’t tell anything was wrong with its tail.
“Ah, no, don’t worry, this won’t take long” Fluttershy replied softly, taking the injured squirrel with a wing. “You could watch, if you want.” With that, and in full sight of Ember, she set the tail back on its normal position, applying an ointment afterwards.
Fluttershy’s little Nocturnus assistant carefully picked up the injured squirrel in her bat-like wings and laid him on a soft nest in a bush so he could heal. Ember nodded in approval.
“I’m impressed! You handled that really smoothly,” Ember complimented Fluttershy with an embarrassed grin, “I barely know anything about healing, heh. We Dragons just kinda brush off any injuries we get.”
“W-Well, I don’t know that much about healing Dragons, ” Fluttershy admitted, “But maybe if you watch me today you can get ideas about it. ”
“Yeah. As a leader, I should at least be able to take care of myself, right?” Ember thought out loud, “I’d love to watch you work! You are clearly the expert here. I just wish I could, y’know, help out, heh.”
“Why don’t you stay a couple of days? That way you can hang out with Spike and learn enough that you could help.” Fluttershy offered with a smile
“You sure? I feel like I’d be mostly in the way,” Ember awkwardly said as she lowered her wings and looked away.
Truly, she did want to spend time with Spike but she didn’t want to just be staring at Fluttershy all the time and awkwardly realizing how much she needed to learn. However… she also knew that a leader was willing to admit when she needed to learn something.
“I mean, if you really don’t mind, I would like to learn more from you,” Ember admitted as she turned her head back to fluttershy with a smile.
“That’s good… Oh! I have some gems, I nearly forgot,” With that Fluttershy went for them, some rubies and a couple of decently-sized emeralds.
Ember was salivating at the sight of the delicious gems, but she kept her cool and casually said, “oh, thanks! Very nice of you.”
She accepted them calmly and tossed them in her mouth like popcorn, crunching them down and feeling much better after a minute.
“You’re welcome,” Fluttershy told her as she sat. “I could also make some tea, if you’d like.”
“Well, I am a bit thirsty,” Ember admitted as she sat down.
Fluttershy was a delightful host, and Ember was surprised at how much she liked being around this pony. Over the next few days, Ember did learn a lot about first-aid from Fluttershy, and she did manage to spend some time with Spike and the other ponies too. It wasn’t what Ember planned, but it was a memorable time anyway.
The great thing about Griffonstone being renewed is that everygriff was doing a lot better. The bad thing about Griffonstone being renewed was that some weird people loved to show up and visit. Tourists? Okay so what if Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie came here and taught the Griffons friendship? It was a one-time thing, but now, ponies and other weird things were showing up left and right to make a visit to the site as if it was some huge monument of history. On the one claw, it was great for the economy and all that, but on the other claw, Gallus was getting tired of everycreature staring at the most boring objects as if it was made of solid gold. Gold, yeah. At least the tourism was bringing in more gold for everygriff. But boy, some tourists were very strange-looking.
One of these tourists -though less awed by his surroundings- walked through a street. He was weird, sporting a canine-like body, with a long head and a very strange tail… Of course, everyone was now looking at him. After all, why would Ahuizotl be this far north?
Could they not conceive that he also had vacations -even if he did not take them too often- and that he liked to travel to colder regions?
Of course, not everycreature knew who he was or that he existed--especially in Griffonstone, and especially not Gallus.
What was this thing!?
Big teeth?
Tiny eyes?
A monkey tail with a hand at the end!?
And so tall… so very… huge… and muscular… and… w-what was he?
Gallus gulped as he stared at this monster that was just a few feet away. Was Gallus dreaming? Perhaps this was a strange dream. Mumbling to himself, Gallus slapped his face with one of his eagle forefeet and… was still wide awake.
Raising an eyebrow at the young griffin, the creature known as Ahuizotl gave a smile. “You seem confused,” He told him calmly. Waiting for the young one to speak.
THE THING WAS TALKING.
Oh of course it was, that was totally normal. Gallus really needed to get a grip.
“Uh, well uhhh… not to seem rude but… what are you, exactly?” Gallus asked while his feathery wings twitched nervously. No no, he had to be calm, yeah. Cool. Just have a normal conversation with a totally normal tourist. Yeah.
“Ah, that… You would not have heard of us, I’m a Tlapallanoc, although most of us don’t really leave Anahuac… You can call me “Ahuizotl”; it is nice to meet you.” He replied with a small smile.
He had to admit that the world had changed greatly in the long time since he had last left…
Gallus meanwhile was trying to wrap his mind around this Tlapananan Uh Tlapacanan Tlacapa-- Oh forget it. Old Griffon was harder to say anyway.
Now that Gallus had a name for the thing--no, tourist, not thing-- in front of him, he relaxed a bit and steadied his posture, resuming his casual slouch.
“Right. I’m Gallus. Just a regular Griffon with… not much to do around here.”
“I see… Would you be willing to show me around? It has been a long time since I left Anahuac, much less came this far north.”
“Uh… suuuuuure. Got nothing better to do. Anything in particular you came here to see?”
“Not really,” He admitted, “I was hoping to come to a colder climate, and I’m sure you know more about the places to see here.”
Gallus awkwardly smoothed the feathers on the back of his head with one of his eagle feet and said, “Okay uh… well we recently got our first library, so yay? I mean, first like actual one and not just a half-broken building with ancient texts and stuff. Does… that sound cool?”
He tried to think of something not TOO touristy but still interesting to look at.
“Well, it does sound, as you say, “cool”, and it gives me an idea… Would you then lead the way?” Ahuizotl was wondering if the elders of Anahuac would be willing to partake in celebrating such a thing -after all, from what little he had heard, Griffinstone had definitely come down from what he remembered it to be in his grandfather’s time- as the first new library here...
Gallus led the way, glad that this new guy seemed pretty relaxed, despite having some creepy features. Yeah, Gallus shouldn’t be scared of people’s looks. Pfft, what was he thinking? The streets of Griffonstone had slowly improved over the years. The houses were more clean and strong, and many of the roads were newly laid with smooth, clean stones. One of the first things they built together as a society now focusing more on harmony instead of greed was the marketplace. On their way to the library, Gallus and Ahuizotl passed through it. Since Griffons could fly, the marketplace was multi-story, and open-air, with various shops all lined up, and there was even a few small cafe’s.
“Oh uh, do you want to buy anything? This was one of the first things we built as a society together, y’know, after Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie helped us see the importance of harmony or whatever,” Gallus explained as he gestured to the marketplace with his forefoot, “Every so often another Griffon gets a hobby and starts selling his or her wares while another decides to take a break, so the shops rotate a lot.”
“Well, that is a good idea, and I should bring something back for those that remain back home.” Ahuizotl allowed himself a small smile as he looked at the market. Despite it being so large and built with flying creatures in mind, it reminded him of home.
“We… have some really nice biscuits at the uh… bakery,” Gallus suggested with a shrug, “It’s kinda our thing. Biscuits and special cakes. If you want a taste of “Griffon speciality” that’s the go-to thing.”
“Why! That sounds amazing.” The odd creature smiled. He looked at the young Griffon curiously. “You know, you can ask your questions without fear young one.”
“Well, err… what do you creatures eat?” Gallus asked as he led the way to the nearest bakery curiously, “We Griffons are omnivores.”
“So are we Tlapallanoc, so it seems that there should be no issue with that.” Soon enough they had arrived at a bakery.
“Hey, Gilda, order me two of the usual,” Gallus said as he tossed some bits on the counter.
“All right. Coming right up,” Gilda said as she turned to the side and picked up a paper bag in her lion-like tail.
“Thank you,” Ahuizotl nodded with a small smile, he had heard that name at some point, but he pushed that thought to the back of his mind.
Gilda used her eagle forefeet to place some buiscuits and mini-cakes into the paper bag and handed it to Gallus over the counter.
“Thanks, Gilda!” Gallus said as he turned and walked over to an empty table with Ahuizotl.
The café was very packed, but since it had seats outside and in the upper floors outside, there was plenty of room to walk. Nevertheless, with all the ponies and Griffons milling around, it was clear that this place was popular. Besides Gilda there were four other Griffons working at the counter, and at least two more in the back baking more goods, and the wholesome smells of the baked goods filled the entire bakery, wafting outside into the air to draw more customers in.
Slowly, Ahuizotl began to eat once they were seated, letting out a small hum. He had to admit that he did enjoy Griffon cuisine.
Gallus chomped on a biscuit, enjoying the flavor.
“These biscuits used to suck before Pinkie Pie came and gave us baking tips,” Gallus recalled, “Yeah, these really helped change the economy, believe it or not. Having something worth selling was a good start for us all.”
“Ah, yes, those ponies are certainly something else.” Ahuzotl conceded, eating and enjoying it. “Is there something else you’d like to know? After all, it is not often that a Tlapallanoc travels outside our homeland.”
“Yeah, uh… are you tall for your species?” Gallus asked with a tilt of his blue, feathery head.
“You could say so,” The creature laughed slightly, “Some of us are… enhanced with magic, in order to properly guard the tombs of the Emperors of old. I am one of those.”
“You do what?” Gallus asked as he blinked in surprise and his wings twitched.
“I’m a guardian. Of course, I’m on vacation now, but the Elders were owing me a good few centuries of that,” He replied with a small chuckle, “Ponies especially tend to like barging into the tombs and taking various artefacts; my duty, as well as that of a select few, is to prevent that from happening.”
“Yeah well we don’t have artifacts around here anymore,” Gallus said with a wave of his lion-like tail, “We used to have this statue thing but it’s gone now.”
“Ah, yes, I heard of what happened. A tragedy, but I suppose Griffons are a hardy kind, and have come out stronger for it.”
“Thanks. We’re still learning the whole friendship thing but we are doing a lot better,” Gallus said as he finished his biscuit with a chomp.
“Yes, we Tlapallanoc still have much to learn about that, but I’d like to think we are going along.” Ahuizotl replied once he had finished his own biscuit.
“Do you want to keep eating or should I take you to the library?” Gallus asked with a wave of his eagle hand.
“Well, We could go, if you’d like. I am eager to see this library.”
Gallus nodded and continued the tour through the streets until they reached the library. It was a three-story building with doors on each level for Griffons to fly through, and at each set of doors was a check-out desk with a Griffon working there. It was a round building with windows around the edges and bookshelves arranged in the center. It was open in the center of the second and third floors with rails protecting creatures from falling off but still allowing fliers to go to any level.
Ahuizotl walked along, looking at the round building. “Ah, yes, I can’t place a name to it, but it reminds me of something.” With a shrug he followed Gallus into the building.
Gallus showed Ahuizotl through the bookshelves as best he could, and they managed to track down a librarian to help. In time, Gallus quietly slipped away, letting the librarian finish.
“It was nice talking to you. I guess I’ll leave you alone now,” Gallus said with a wave of his forefoot, “Nice meeting you.”
“Same to you young one, safe travels,” Ahuizotl replied, with a small wave before returning to his tour of the library.
Gallus walked out of the building, contemplating the day. Although some tourists were annoying, others were pretty fascinating. The more Gallus thought about it, the more he realized that he wanted to know more about foreign cultures by meeting other creatures and seeing how they reacted to everyday things. Perhaps tourism and weird creatures wasn’t so bad after all.
“So you used to be the Changelin’ Queen? What’s it like inside one a those hives?” Mage Meadowbrook asked as she looked up at Chrysalis curiously.
Chrysalis sighed and rolled her eyes. She was trying this whole friendship thing, really, but she was tired of Ponies asking her this. She’d had this same exact question over and over and over again. Why didn’t the Ponies just go visit the reformed hive headed by that ridiculous moose-like King Thorax, hmmmm? She knew that was rude, so she forced herself to not say it aloud.
“They all were my loyal children and servants and did exactly as I said… until they got new ideas,” Chyrsalis remarked, “And we had a very gloomy, serious decor featuring many sharp carvings and plenty of green goo. Are you satisfied?”
“Well… sounds like a cave in a swamp,” Mage Meadobrook remarked as she prepared something in a mortar with her pestle, “So, what did Princess Twilight say you should help me with?”
Chyrsalis sighed and muttered, “She wanted me to learn old-fashioned healing and patience from you.”
“Well she certainly sent ya to the right place,” Meadowbrook said with a smile.
Chrysalis turned away and sighed again. Outside the window was the swampy village that Meadowbrook dwelled in, featuring plenty of pond scum, moss, and ponies buying and selling Meadowbrook’s healing supplies and mixes that she and her companions were dealing. Certainly, the setting did feel more like home to Chrysalis, but she still thought that Ponies were far too soft and casual. Then again… it wasn’t so bad, was it? Truly, she owed a great debt to the Ponies, even if she was too proud to admit it. She was on the verge of starvation when the Ponies found her deep in the dungeon of the hive, and she’d been nursed back to life by Fluttershy herself. Although she still wasn’t used to this whole FRIENDSHIP AND CUTENESS gig, she was willing to give it a try, since she had no other purpose in life and didn’t want to starve to death. Admittedly, it’d been an interesting journey. Did she enjoy it?
…
Well, maybe just a little.
Maybe friendship wasn’t TOO bad.
Sometimes.
For hours she helped make pastes and potions and other herbal mixes, helping ponies alongside the Pillar of Healing, trying her best to not complain TOO much. When the sun set, she sighed in relief.
“I am leaving now,” She said as she fluttered her dragonfly wings, “You don’t need me anymore, do you?”
“No, that’s all right,” Meadowbrook said as she dried her forehead with a towel, “It’s been a very productive day! Thank ya kindly!”
Chrysalis felt the friendship seeping off Meadowbrook like a disease, and it sickened Chrysalis… but also felt nice. With a conflicted look, Chrysalis turned away and began walking instead of flying. Noticing her pace, Meadowbrook looked away, biting her lip. Honestly, it was hard to be kind to someone who repeatedly refused it. Meadowbrook had no idea how Fluttershy and her friends could be so patient. Of course, the Pillar of Healing knew that sometimes… healing took a long, long time… and the poison of bitterness seeped deep down into the bones and took away a person’s joy, love, and health. Twilight knew what she was doing when she sent Chrysalis here.
“Actually, I could really use some help cleanin’ up a bit!” Meadowbrook called, “Won’t take ya long!”
With a mental cringe, Chrysalis turned around and nodded, trying to be as polite as she could be, but even the thought of reducing herself to a scullery maid made her angry. Nevertheless, she had no choice but to obey.
“Very well,” she sighed as she plodded back to Meadowbrook.
“Mind pickin’ up these benches with ya magic so I can sweep?”
“Fine.”
Chrysalis used her lime-colored magic to picked up the benches while Meadowbrook used her broom to sweep up all the trash into one pile in the middle of the yard. With another sigh, Chrysalis put down the benches and then grew impatient and finished the job for Meadowbrook by picking up the trash in her magic and throwing it all away in the can nearby.
“There, done?”
“Yes, but before ya go, I’d like to talk to ya,” Meadowbrook said with a smile, hoping Chrysalis would say yes.
Well, Chrysalis was used to talking… but she hoped it wouldn’t be ANOTHER conversation about hive life before Thorax. Bleh. She had ENOUGH of those.
Sitting at one of the benches, Chrysalis asked, “Very well. It would be interesting to know more about you.”
“Okay, how about this: ya ask me a question, then I’ll ask, and we’ll take turns,” She suggested, sitting across from the former Changeling Queen.
“Right…. What makes you enjoy the swamp? I figured Ponies preferred… prettier places,” Chrysalis began, trying to not be too blunt.
“I know most Ponies might find it all scummy and smelly, but to me it’s home. I was born ‘round these parts, and love it. Besides, I find the beauty in this place,” Meadowbrook then turned around, gesturing to the trees and the plants, “The bees, the butterflies, the flowers, they’re all unique ‘round here. Can’t find anythin’ like ‘em in any other place. The sounds all blend together in a right gorgeous song that warms my heart and keeps me goin’ even in tough times.”
Certainly, it was a fluffy, cutesy speech, but… as she followed where Meadowbrook was pointing, Chrysalis began to see what she saw. Really, all the disgusting frogs and annoying bugs did blend together with the birds into a soothing, homely song of simple times and relaxing days.
“I… feel the same about… caves and webs and slime,” Chrysalis murmured, feeling a bit awkward about admitting that she had a soft side and wasn’t all edgy and serious, “It’s… comforting.”
Meadowbrook turned back around, noting the sad, wistful look in the Changeling’s eyes, and an excited beat came to her heart. At last, she found a way in.
“We all have somethin’ that makes us feel welcome. Don’t feel ashamed,” she encouraged her with a nod, “And I’ve been in caves before! They’re pretty different from the sunlight, open-air over here, but I can find the beauty in them, too.”
“Yes… some can,” Chyrsalis allowed herself to relax with a toss of her mane, “Pinkie’s odd sister certainly enjoys them. She found some kind of underground paradise to live in… too colorful for me, but it is satisfying. Not the same as what I prefer, but nice enough.”
“Oh I remember seeing that! Maud’s pretty bright, isn’t she?” Meadbowbrook said, “Oh, mind if I ask ya a question now?”
“Go ahead,” Chrysalis said in a less grumpy tone as she propped an elbow on the bench and leaned her cheek against one of her hoof-like feet.
“Tell me… what do ya think of Discord? I hear ya two get along real well.”
“He is a… good friend, yes,” Chrysalis expected to cringe, but was surprised when she realized that she was okay with admitting that. It seemed that the Pony ways were finally getting to her, and she was eventually going to succumb. With a sigh, she rolled her eyes and said, “He is quite amusing.”
“I did hear that ya two enjoy doin’ stuff together. What’s ya favorite thin’s to do?”
“We both impersonate various Ponies and confuse everyone, but they catch on to that so we can’t do that too often.”
“What do ya do when ya can’t do that?”
“Chaos. Glorious CHAOS!”
“Err, what sort of “chaos?”
“Make it rain anything gooey or sticky, turn everything inanimate into cotton candy and let the children all get sugar rushes, make fruit come to life, anything really. At first I thought it was foalish but it’s really quite entertaining.”
Chrysalis paused, realizing that she was even using Pony terms. She was being assimilated. Resistance was futile. It was happening.
Into these thoughts came the sound of Meadowbrook’s laugh as she leaned back and put a hoof on the table to balance herself.
“Ohhhhh I wish I could see some a that! It sounds fun, all right!... though, ha ha… messy, heh.”
“Oh, Pinkie loves it, and so do the children… sometimes, and Rainbow Dash enjoys joining in our pranks,” Chyrsalis said with a smirk, “But Princess Twilight has to keep order, of course, and often spoils our fun. She at least gives us some room to be chaotic, though.”
“Well, a bit of chaos is okay to keep thin’s interestin’,” Meadowbrook agreed as she blinked a tear of laughter out of her eyes, “So, any questions for me?”
The questions continued past twilight, and into moonrise. Seeing how late it was, the two had to part, but Chrysalis did promise she’d help again tomorrow. Although she was too prideful to admit it out loud, she did enjoy the casual conversation, and found the old Pillar of Healing to be strangely soothing, like Fluttershy. She let down her guard and actually listened to one Meadowbrook’s stories of her childhood and how her mother taught her the trade of the healer. When she left, Chrysalis admitted to herself that… it was actually pretty nice in the swamp with the swamp ponies and their guardian healer.
Yes, Chrysalis knew it was happening. After all this time, she couldn’t deny it anymore: she was learning friendship. The disease was finally getting to her, and… maybe it wasn’t really a disease.
