Lily Blossom Chapter Expansion

Source: PonyFanaticGal

Before we get on with Lily Blossom's newly-added scenes, there's something else I'd like to talk about.

Ten years ago today I joined a website by the name of FimFiction. I'd been in the fandom since summer of 2011, but October 23rd, 2012 is when I finally joined this site. Since I don't do a whole lot of shameless self-promotion, here's a quick shout out to my 2012 Halloween/Nightmare Night story Old Habits Die Hard. Since it's that time of the year again, it seems like an appropriate time to boost my oldest published story.

This remains one of my favorites of the fics I've written, even a decade later. While not the first story on the site to feature Minty, it's the oldest fic where Minty is a tagged character. Minty only got a tag within the last two years, and many of the early authors on this site have moved on to other things in the years since.

Speaking of things that didn't exist back then, at the time there was no way to disable the ratings...

So I went old school for a few seconds and temporarily re-enabled the ratings to get the above screencap. This fic had a 100% likes ratio when I finally had the ability to disable the ratings (and did so). I mention this because people often ask me why I disable the ratings. As you can see the ratings weren't unkind to me, so that's not the reason. From my FAQ:

It's really just a personal preference on my part. People have different tastes and different talent levels. And while the rating system was usually kind to me before there was an ability to disable them (several of my stories had 100% ratings, and most were in the 90s), I still don't think there should be a 'dislike' button. Just because I dislike something doesn't make it bad, and just because 300 people like it doesn't necessarily make it good (though it does make it popular).

Okay, I've waxed nostalgic enough. Thanks for putting up with me for the last decade, and here's to many more!

Without further ado, Lily Blossom!

Source: PonyFanaticGal

Canterlot: twelve years, eight months, and six days ago

Diamond Rose was bored.

When recapping any given day’s adventures to an irate Shiny Diamond, those four words started most of them.

How Diamond could be bored when she had every toy she could ever want, all the games she could possibly play, and an indoor heated swimming pool she could use every day of the year was beyond me, yet Diamond Rose managed to get bored frequently. The more bored Diamond Rose was, the more trouble we were guaranteed to end up in by the end of the day, like there was some sort of humorous correlation between ‘boredom’ and ‘mischief’.

Opulent wasn’t the word to describe the Diamonds’ residence. The family embodied the very definition of affluenza – they were so wealthy it was sick. Money was no object, which meant that the Diamonds had to show the entire world exactly that, with a huge mansion situated on acres of prime Canterlot property, an award-winning garden surrounding a statuary, and even a ponymade pond out back solely for the purpose of having a pair of swans floating around it.

The swans weren’t even a bonded pair – the Diamonds weren’t interested in having cygnets every year, so both swans were female. One pink, one white, named Rouge and Blanc respectively.

In theory, the pond was supposed to be serene, tranquil. In practice… swans might be beautiful, but they weren’t cooperative.

Despite having an indoor swimming pool, Diamond Rose wanted to play in the pond instead, specifically because of the swans. As we approached, Blanc flared her wings to make herself look bigger, and Diamond mirrored her pose, extending her own wings.

I rolled my eyes as I watched them hissing at one another. Diamond Rose has no finesse.

I broke the stalemate by throwing some bread to the swans. Rouge happily gobbled up the impromptu meal, while Blanc kept a wary eye on Rose before nibbling at the pieces. The bread was fresh out of the oven – there was no such thing as ‘stale’ in the Diamond household. Except for the wine. For some reason, nopony ever went through the wine cellar to get rid of all the expired bottles – some of them were more than a century old.

Then Diamond jumped into the pond and all Tartarus broke out. I latched onto Diamond’s tail to try and stop her, but her momentum carried us both forward and into the water. Feathers flew as the two swans took off. Diamond took off after them while I stood in the pond spitting out water.

I swear that filly got dropped on her head as a foal. Repeatedly. It was probably all those crash landings when she was learning how to fly.

With risk came reward – Diamond had been active in her flight training while I’d neglected it for far too long. Once she was airborne, Diamond Rose was as graceful in the air as the swans she was ‘battling’ for air supremacy. To her, it was a game. To the swans, it was instinct to defend their territory.

I sat on the ground and watched their aerial acrobatics. Diamond Rose never hurt the swans – she just wanted to play. Blanc, however, was more than happy to nip at Diamond whenever she got too close.

Diamond eventually landed, covered in new scrapes, bruises, and missing some feathers. I sighed. Neither of us is getting dessert tonight.

Canterlot: nine years, four months, and twenty-nine days ago

Diamond and I were excited. The newest princess was planning a summertime Friendship Festival – not in Ponyville, but right here in Canterlot. Preparations had been underway for weeks, and today was the big day.

There were few events that the Diamonds couldn’t get premium reserved seating for. It was all a matter of greasing the right hooves with the requisite number of bits. But the Friendship Festival was a different story entirely. There were no seats to reserve, and no bits to change hooves. The entire festival was free, with carnival rides and games of skill and/or chance lining the streets and alleys of the city. It meant that, for once, Diamond Rose actually had to get up early if she wanted to take part in the celebration.

Amazingly, she got out of bed early without me having to nag her into doing so. She must be really excited.

Equestria had all but come to a stop for the three-day festival. Mr. Tree escorted Rose and I to downtown Canterlot, where the festivities were beginning. We started with the games, because the selection of prizes was best first thing, though ‘best’ was a bit of a misnomer. Carnival prizes were notoriously cheap to begin with, but the prizes to be won here were even cheaper than normal since they were being provided for free. Costume jewelry that looked more like leftover beads from Party Gras, plush Windy the Wendigo dolls that the stuffing was already coming out of, and assorted other baubles.

Not that the cheapness mattered. It was fun winning the prizes, regardless. The limit was one win per booth, and Diamond and I quickly won everything either of us were interested in. We tossed rings, knocked down milk bottles with softballs, and even popped balloons with darts, winning the shoddy prizes easily. Being early had its perks, and we were each able to get a Windy the Wendigo that wasn’t already in the process of self-destructing. I had no expectations that the Flim-Flam Industries dolls would survive all day in our saddlebags, but all we could do was try.

Next we watched a magician’s stage show. The Great and Powerful Trixie’s act was entertaining, even if it felt like it was more sleight of hoof than true magic. She set off fireworks periodically throughout the show, generally whenever speaking her name, which I thought was a nice touch. Unfortunately, the fireworks drew the attention of monsters, who quickly broke up the show.

A little hedgehog introduced himself as Grubber and announced that the Storm King had just claimed control of Canterlot, and further demanded that we all surrender immediately. Having lived through the changeling invasion, Tirek’s rampage, and other disasters, ponies opted to flee in all directions.

The Storm King’s guards started trying to herd us all up. Trixie tossed some smoke bombs to cover her tracks as she bolted away from the fracas. I wish she would’ve stayed – we could really use a great and powerful unicorn to take care of all these stormy monsters.

We huddled close to Mr. Tree as he kept himself between us and the guards. “Girls, get out of here.” Mr. Tree bucked one of the Storm Guards into another one, causing both of them to tumble away from us.

“Where?”

“Fly. Get as far from Canterlot as you can.”

“But what about you?” I didn’t want to leave the powerful earth pony behind.

“I can handle myself. Now scoot!” While he was distracted, five more of the monsters jumped on top of him.

Without Mr. Tree we didn’t stand a chance of fighting them, so we joined the thousands of pegasi that were evacuating the city. Some of us even managed to get away…

…Diamond and I weren’t so lucky.

We followed Mr. Tree’s instructions and flew off, out of range of the ground bound Storm Guards. Their airships were faster than pegasi, but too big and unwieldy to effectively chase us down.

Diamond had been working on her flying since before I’d met her, back when we were both foals. She would always be the stronger flyer of the two of us, and she took the lead. My choices were to follow, or be left to my own devices – it was a no-brainer, and I did my best to keep up with her.

Rather than head straight for Cloudsdale, Diamond instead detoured to fly over our home. Unfortunately, both her mother and mine were being led out of the house by one of the Storm Guards. Both were in chains, along with the rest of the household’s staff. They hadn’t gotten Shiny Diamond, because he was in Las Pegasus on business.

Ignoring Mr. Tree’s instructions to fly to Cloudsdale, Diamond Rose started descending. I started hyperventilating. Oh gosh, do I keep going to Cloudsdale, or do I follow Diamond Rose? She’s going to get caught. Oh stars, I don’t want to go to Cloudsdale by myself. Mom’s down there too. I’d rather be with her in slavery than all alone but safe in a town I don’t know.

Diamond landed right in front of the Storm King. “Let my Mommy go!”

“Awww, how precious. Little filly has come to rescue her mama.”

I landed next to Lily. “Let my Mom go too.” This is stupid, this is stupid, oh stars, this is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.

“You’re robbing us!” Diamond puffed up her wings to look bigger than she was. As if an indignant filly could intimidate a yeti or his monster guards.

“Robbery is such an awful word. I prefer ‘looting’, or ‘pillaging’, or even ‘sacking’. Those are the words they use when describing pirates, and everybody love pirates, am I right, mateys? Yar, this be the life. A pirate’s life.” He grabbed Diamond and I by the scruffs of our necks as he took a closer look at us.

“What is with all you little horses being so flipping adorable? Cutesy, pastel rainbow ponies. I hate cute.” He tossed Diamond away; she didn’t have enough space to right herself, and hit the ground with a thud.

He handed me to one of the Storm Guards who grunted something unintelligible.

“No, Kurt, we’ve been through this before.” He facepalmed. “Why can’t you be like the other guards? Creatures that talk are not food.”

There was more grunting from the one he’d called ‘Kurt’.

“Well, yes, I suppose with as young as she is, she would be really tender and succulent.” Kurt grunted again and the Storm King continued, “No, I don’t know if they’re as sweet as they look. Cute doesn’t always mean tasty.” Kurt grunted and the Storm King raised an eyebrow. “Really? Always? I was unaware.” The guard nodded enthusiastically. “Aren’t you concerned about them being poisonous? Bright colors are nature’s way of saying ‘don’t mess with me or you’ll regret it.’”

There was more grunting from Kurt and the Storm King put a hand to his chin. “Look, I don’t want to see you eat her. Tempest would also object, but she’s away chasing down that other pansy princess, and I’m about to leave this room… So I guess as long as I don’t see anything…” He made air quotes with his hands. “‘Plausible deniability’ and all that.”

Diamond Rose sprang to her hooves and charged at the Storm King, bucking him for all she was worth. “Leave her alone!” Mr. Tree could’ve bucked him clear across the room. All Diamond managed to do was chip her own hoof polish.

“Ho, ho, ho, you’ve got spunk, kiddo!” He picked Diamond back up. “I hate spunk even more than I hate cute. I was going to spare you and ransom you back to your parents since its obvious from your butt mark that your family’s rich, but if you want to join your friend in the kitchen, don’t let me stop you.” He handed Diamond to Kurt, who still had a firm grip on me. “Looks like she just volunteered to be dessert, Kurt. Just do me a favor, make it look like an accident. Er, no, never mind, nobody’s going to buy that. Don’t leave any evidence. That’ll work. These two fillies just went missing.” He closed the door behind him.

Only to open it a few seconds later. “Oh, I almost forgot, you should totes boil them alive – it really locks in the flavor.” He closed the door again. It opened three seconds later. “And add some cinnamon – that’s the secret ingredient in just about everything.” He slammed the door, and this time it stayed closed.

I gulped, the only sound I could make with the muzzle constricting my face. Tears streamed down my cheeks as Kurt carried us to the kitchen.

He hummed a happy little tune as he searched for a pot big enough to boil us in. In most households, that would be a challenge, but the Diamonds were rich. Of course they had a pot big enough to fit a couple of fillies. Never know when you might have to cook for forty ponies on short notice.

Once the pot was on the stove Kurt started chopping up vegetables and tossing them in: onions, peppers, the works. Diamond was whimpering. Thanks to her impulsiveness and inability to follow directions, we were about to be slow roasted in our own juices.

As Kurt was adding mushrooms to the pot, two Storm Guards kicked down the door and dragged him out of the kitchen. Restrained, Diamond and I could do nothing but stand there watching. The Diamonds’ house overlooked the Canterlot Cliffs, and Kurt was unceremoniously thrown over the edge by his fellow guards.

The Storm King strode into the kitchen. “I hate when underlings argue with me. When I say ‘don’t eat somebody’ I don’t expect to be debated on the subject. Besides, you’re my slaves, not his. Of course, nothing’s his anymore. Not since his little accident a few moments ago. He always was a little clumsy. Oopsy.” He cackled evilly. “Besides, I have just the job for two adorable, spunky little pegasuses that are full of so much energy.”

We’d been rescued from the literal frying pan only to be dumped into the proverbial fire.

“You know, I get it. A big scary monster invaded your home. I had the same problem recently – a little unicorn stowed away on my flagship. She might not have been big or scary, but she was cute, and you both know how much I hate adorable things. I could’ve forgiven her cuteness, but I have a policy when it comes to stowaways – they go overboard. I don’t take kindly to others getting in my personal space. So I get it, two scared little kids trying to protect their home and their loved ones. I’m in your personal space. But I am the big scary monster, and I get to do what I want, when I want. Do you understand?”

With no way to talk, we both nodded.

“Good. I can forgive your little kick, but only if you’re an obedient little pony from here on out. Which leads me to your punishment…”

The guards who’d tossed Kurt to his doom harnessed Diamond and I to a chariot. The Storm King climbed on and cracked a whip above us. “Mush, little ponies! Or is it giddy-up? Oh, who cares? Just get going! Come on, flap those pathetic little wings!”

Jerkily, Diamond and I got off the ground, the chariot rising with us thanks to our pegasus magic. That same magic kept it level behind us, even though Diamond and I had no formal training on flying in unison and continued getting in each other’s way.

“Oh, ho, ho! I like! This is the only way to travel!”

From our aerial perspective, we had a great view of Canterlot being sacked by the Storm Guards. Parts of the city were burning, and few buildings had escaped completely unscathed.

How could an entire invasion fleet sneak into Canterlot undetected? It’s not like the city’s on the coast, Canterlot’s completely landlocked. How is that nopony in Equestria saw this coming? I know everypony jokes about how useless the Royal Guards are, but are they really that incompetent?

What few pockets of resistance I could see were easily being overwhelmed by the superior forces of the Storm Guard. You’d think that in a city this size, primarily comprised of unicorns, there’d be hundreds, if not thousands, of powerful mages. Even without the princesses, there’s no reason our city should be this defenseless.

One of the fights caught my eye. A coal-black stallion was clobbering Storm Guards, even though it was three-on-one. Mr. Tree is still free! There’s still hope!

The Storm King directed us to Canterlot Castle, which he’d made his own base of operations during the invasion. I’d seen the castle many times previously, but this was the closest I’d ever been to it. Sadly, it had seen better days. Stained glass littered the ground, and scorch marks decorated the towers. The Storm King left us parked in the courtyard, and we weren’t even allowed to unhitch ourselves from the chariot. The guards glared at us if we so much as shuffled our hooves.

Standing there next to Diamond Rose was frustrating and boring. For once, even her inane chatter would’ve been preferable to the silence that our muzzles forced us into. At least we were alive, which hadn’t been a sure thing just an hour previously.

We stood there for hours, surrounded by guards, with no possibility of escape. We couldn’t see inside the castle, and there was no way for us to know what he’d done with the princesses. Twilight Sparkle had obviously escaped, but the others had been petrified in onyx. Canterlot had been attacked before – there’d been the changeling invasion, Tirek’s rampage, and of course the chaos caused by Discord when he escaped his stony imprisonment, but this was different. The changelings had cocooned the princesses in order to feed off their love, Tirek had merely drained them of their magic, and Discord just tortured everypony in his own unique ways. The Storm King’s minion had frozen the princesses solid, and Luna would’ve shattered had it not been for Princess Twilight’s quick thinking. There was no way of knowing if the princesses were still intact inside the castle or not.

It was a terrifying proposition. Ponies were resilient; the Storm King might’ve taken Canterlot, but his forces were too small to hold the entirety of Equestria. The rest of the country would come for us, eventually. Assuming he even stayed long enough to be challenged. From our vantage point, we had a great view of the Storm Guards looting the royal treasury.

It was quite possible he’d be gone, off to loot the next empire, by the time rescuers made it to Canterlot. He didn’t seem overly interested in running things – there was no puppet government in place, just monsters putting ponies in chains. With Cadence among the petrified, the Crystal Empire would be ripe for the picking. What if he doesn’t unpetrify the princesses before he leaves? What if he’s already shattered them? What will we do?

Oh my gosh, what if he takes all of us with him to be his slaves? I don’t want to pull his chariot forever.

My introspection was broken as two Storm Guards flew over us and crashed against the side of the castle.

“I pity the foals who mess with my fillies!”

Half a dozen guards rushed Mr. Tree, but he tossed them away like it was nothing. He picked up one of the fallen monsters and used him as a club against the others. Half of the Storm Guards turned tail and ran. The others experienced the worst beatings of their lives. While big and intimidating looking, the Storm Guards were proving to be as ineffective as the Royal Guards.

When he was done mopping the floor with the last of the guards, Mr. Tree ripped the harnesses away from us and threw our muzzles to the ground.

“Come on, kids, we’ve got to get outta here. Now!” We didn’t need to be told twice. Once we were a few blocks from the palace, he stopped us. “Fly to Cloudsdale and don’t stop for anything. Go!” He swatted our flanks.

“But my Mom…”

“Don’t you worry, I’ll get her, Diamond. And I’ll get Tiger Lily and the rest of the staff too. You two focus on getting yourselves to safety and leave everything else to me. Now get!”

Diamond had learned a lesson from earlier, and this time we did as we were told, climbing high in the sky and away from the smoldering city we called home.

Once we arrived in Cloudsdale we were directed to the Wonderbolts Arena, which had been set up as a temporary shelter for refugees.

Hours later Mom came to get us. Mr. Tree had managed to free her and the others, and they’d fled to Ponyville. Mr. Tree had stayed in Canterlot to rescue as many ponies as he could.

Canterlot had taken extensive damage and thousands of ponies had been captured. Most had been at the festival, or lived close to the castle. Those further out had managed to flee, though it seemed as if the Storm King wasn’t worried about capturing as many of the citizens as possible. He just wanted enough to claim as ‘spoils’ from the war. Ponies he could use as manual labor for his next conquest – from what I’d overheard of the Storm King’s plotting, that was likely to be Grundleland.

Many of Ponyville’s citizens had been at the Friendship Festival, and as such there were a lot of ponies willing to open their doors to those of us displaced by the Storm King. Those who’d been there and escaped could relate, while those who had loved ones still among the missing were eager for any shred of news they could get.

Mom had arranged for us to stay with a pegasus named Flitter – she was on the Ponyville Weather Team, and she and her twin sister Cloudchaser had been the unlucky ones to have to stay behind and work while their coworkers went to the festival. After the attack, Cloudchaser, a Wonderbolts reservist, was called up to help repel the invasion. Flitter was desperate for any news of her sister. Unfortunately, none of us had seen her. Mom had seen Spitfire among those chained up, which was disheartening. But Cloudchaser had arrived in town well after the first wave of the invasion, and might have fared better than the team’s captain.

Diamond Rose had joined Mom and I. Like me, she’d never spent time in a cloudhouse before and didn’t want to miss the opportunity. Mrs. Diamond was probably thankful for the peace and quiet – as a unicorn, she couldn’t join us in the home in the sky. My Mom took the couch, while Flitter put Diamond and I up in her sister’s room.

Cloudchaser’s room was decorated with Wonderbolts memorabilia, as was to be expected. Almost every pegasus had some sort of memento from the team, and she had much bigger connection to the group than most.

Flitter stood by the door, amused as we looked through the wall decorations. Diamond Rose gasped. “I met your sister at Baytona this year! I really like her mane.”

Flitter chuckled. “She gets that a lot.” She sighed. “I just wish she hadn’t been up against such stiff competition. Rainbow Dash mopped the floor with them.”

Diamond Rose blushed. “I wasn’t going to say it… but yeah, she kinda did.”

“Rainbow Dash is Ponyville’s Weather Manager, and she’s actually our boss. She likes to boast that she can clear the sky in ten seconds flat. The thing is, she can back it up. If you were there this year, that means you met Thunderlane too. He’s another of our coworkers.”

“Oh wow!” Diamond was absolutely gushing. “You work with a lot of talented ponies. Did you try out for the ‘Bolts too?”

“Oh, no, definitely not.”

“Why not?” I asked.

Flitter looked out the window. “We’ve still got some daylight left, come outside and I’ll show you.”

We followed her out the window as she explained that the Wonderbolts put a heavy emphasis on speed and precision flying. She then started hovering, then zipped quickly to the right, turning instantly like the dragonflies decorating her flank.

“Flitting is fun, and definitely precise, but it isn’t exactly what the Wonderbolts consider exciting to watch. But it comes in handy for my line of work. I get the delicate tasks the others can’t do.”

“Can you teach me to do that?” I’d never hope to come close to matching Diamond Rose’s speed, but maybe I could have my own flight tricks she couldn’t duplicate.

“I want to learn too!”

Of course she does. I resisted the urge to groan.

Flitter was happy to show us her trick. Diamond Rose was, as always, gung-ho to try it. As was par for her course, she went into the turn flat out and spun out of control when she tried to quickly change directions.

“It’s not about speed. Other ponies go fast; I take life as it comes. It’s so easy to rush through things, but where does it get you? Five years later you wonder where all the time went, having never stopped to enjoy any of it. Watch me again.” Flitter flew forward at a reasonable clip of speed. She slowed as she prepared to turn, then darted to the left, picking up speed rapidly.

Since I wasn’t as fast as Diamond, I didn’t have any problems slowing down before trying to turn quickly in another direction – my problem was lack of quick acceleration. I could turn quicker than Diamond, but I couldn’t dart like Flitter. Diamond’s lack of finesse came back to bite her in the flank yet again. Try as she might, she couldn’t turn on a tenth-bit. She slowed into a glide, then banked into a turn, but that wasn’t what she was trying to accomplish. Every time she tried to turn fast she went out of control.

“Just keep practicing, girls. You’ll get it eventually.”

No, we won’t. Especially not Diamond. I watched as she somersaulted past her turn and landed face first in a cloudbank. I wasn’t doing much better, but at least I wasn’t crashing.

We continued practicing until it was dark. At some point Mom had sprawled out in the clouds to watch us make fools of ourselves.

“The ‘Bolts are crazy if they don’t want you on their team. That’s a lot harder than it looks.” Diamond dusted herself off after her final crash landing of the evening.

Flitter smiled and patted her head. “Thanks, sweetie. But put me on an oval racecourse and I’m only average speed at best. If they had obstacle courses, or tracks with lots of sharp left and right turns, I’d try out for the team. But they don’t, and there’s no point in taking up a position that could be better filled by somepony with the talents their looking for. Ponies like Cloudy.” She sighed and looked in the direction of Canterlot. We’d taken her mind off recent events for most of the afternoon, but there was no ignoring the smoke coming from the capital city on the distant mountain.

Quick, distract her. “We can’t fly like you, but maybe you could teach us how to do our hair?”

Her face lit up and she squealed in excitement. “I always wanted to have fillies so I could do their hair!” She ushered us both back inside, practically bursting with anticipation. She spent an hour braiding my long, golden locks with ribbons. I looked so adorable in the mirror.

Diamond Rose’s mane was shorter than mine, and Flitter opted to decorate it with one of her spare bows. Then she pulled out another ribbon and tied it to Diamond’s dock, to give her a tail bow as well. It was a surprisingly good look for Diamond – it made her look cuter, without putting in hours of effort that would come undone in her next crash.

Then Flitter decided my tail needed ribbons to match my mane, and by the time she was done I looked like I’d gotten lost in a bow factory.

She giggled. “Okay, maybe that’s a few too many bows after all.”

I couldn’t help but giggle too, and Diamond fell off the couch laughing at how ridiculous I looked.

Flitter started pulling the ribbons out of our hair. There were tears trickling down her cheeks. “Thanks. I needed that.”

I nuzzled her. “Cloudy will come home.”

Diamond nodded. “She’s got too much spirit not to. She raced against Rainbow Dash despite knowing she had almost no hope of beating her. That didn’t stop her, and neither will the stupid Storm King!”

Flitter smiled and tucked us into Cloudy’s bed. Diamond snuggled against me and I cuddled her.

“Good night you two. Your mothers are really lucky to have such wonderful daughters.”

Canterlot: four years, four months, and eighteen days ago

Razzleberry and I were hanging out at Sweetcream’s Scoopers. Neither of us received much of an allowance, but we generally had enough money for ice cream once a week.

I’d started spending less time in the Diamond household – Diamond Rose could get on my nerves faster than a cat pouncing on a mouse. While it might’ve technically been my ‘job’ to be Diamond’s friend, it wasn’t one I wanted. I wanted to live my own life, hanging out with my friends and trying to impress a handsome colt. Or at least a rich one. Unfortunately, I was at a disadvantage due to having wings instead of a horn. Of course, if I’d had both wings and a horn, I’d have had more suitors than I could’ve ever dreamed of.

A pegasus and an earth pony sitting at an ice cream shop in Canterlot weren’t going to attract much attention, regardless of how cute we were. Razzleberry had a more colorful mane than mine, but a huskier earth pony build than my dainty pegasus build.

I poked at my vanilla ice cream sundae. I’d only had enough bits for a small, and I wanted to savor it as much as possible. Razzleberry had opted for black raspberry, to the surprise of nopony. “You should start setting up at the Canterlot Faire.”

Razzleberry looked at me. “Hmn?” she asked, mouth full of ice cream.

“You should get a booth at the Canterlot Faire on weekends and sell your desserts.”

“That would be nice, but I don’t have enough bits to rent a booth.”

“The story of our lives.”

“You could teach poise and grace to pretentious unicorn fillies.”

“Ugh, I did that for Diamond Rose. Once was enough.”

“She learned pretty well, so you must’ve done a good job.”

The irony wasn’t lost on me – despite my own working-class roots, my Mom had taught me how to behave like a Canterlot noble. Diamond Rose, while not from a noble lineage, came from a wealthy family but was a stereotypical rough and tumble pegasus foal. I’d had to teach her how to behave around adults, and she’d taught me how to fly. It was one of the few happy memories I had of Diamond Rose. I can’t wait to rid myself of that stuck-up brat.

A large sundae was set in front of me. Loaded with toppings and dripping with whipped cream, it looked fantastic. It also looked fantastically expensive, and the meager bits in my saddlebag couldn’t hope to cover the purchase price. “I think there’s been a mistake, miss. I didn’t order this.”

“It’s compliments of that colt sitting at the table over there.”

Razzleberry picked up her dessert. “I’ll just find another table. Good luck!” She winked at me.

“Wait…” She ignored my protest, and her seat was momentarily filled by the colt who’d purchased my ice cream. I recognized him from school – Falling Star wasn’t somepony I’d spent much time interacting with, but he was certainly easier on the eyes than the nobles I’d met at Diamond’s Sweet 16. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination – he could’ve stood to lose a few pounds, but he wasn’t obese.

“M’lady.” He took my hoof in his and gave it a quick kiss.

I giggled. “No need to be fancy, I’m no noble.”

“Nor am I. I’m just an average colt, in the company of a goddess.”

“Flatterer. Tell me more.”

“Your eyes sparkle like amethyst, and your mane is as beautiful as the wind rippling through the amber fields of wheat outside Ponyville.”

I blushed. He’s pouring it on thick, but I asked for it. It was… nice… to hear somepony say nice things about me for once. “I can’t eat this whole thing by myself. Would you like to share?”

“I wouldn’t say ‘no’, m’lady.”

Falling Star ended up eating more of it than I did, considering I’d had my own small dish as an appetizer… followed by a chaser of a newfound desire not to put on weight. Gotta keep this colt’s attention. Maybe one day I can move far away from Diamond Rose… and the invasion capital of Equestria she calls home. I want to live someplace quiet, someplace nopony in their right mind would try to invade.

Source: PonyFanaticGal

Comments

[Dan]

She wants Flitter to teach her the weirding way, ala Jessica and Farad'n, eh?