//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Crystal Cotillion // by kudzuhaiku //------------------------------// The dress looked itchy and Flurry Heart wanted nothing to do with it. It sat on the dressform in a state of near-completion, and she hated everything about it. Frills? Lace? Fabrics with weird, tuggy textures that would rub all of the wrong places? There was so much to hate about it that she didn’t know where to start. She didn’t want to wear the stupid dress to the stupid cotillion and she made her feelings known with a forlorn sigh. “You know—” Of course my sister has something to say, Flurry thought to herself with an accompanying huff. “—you could try showing a little enthusiasm,” Skyla suggested in a voice filled with equal parts derision and saccharine. In a mocking tone dripping with sarcasm, Flurry repeated, “You know, you could try showing a little enthusiasm, blah blah blah, I’m a bratty little sister and I like to lecture.” With a deadpan expression, Skyla ignored her sister’s theatrics and went over to examine the gown on the dressform. “You should do what is right for the empire.” The filly took a moment to clear her throat and she also fixed her glasses so that she might examine the dress better. “This is a really big deal, Flurry. We need better relations with Lulamoon Hollow and Equestria at large. You’re making things worse.” “You don’t know or understand half of what you are saying,” Flurry snapped while she rolled her eyes at her sister. “You’re just repeating stuff that Sunburst says so you can sound so smart and grown up. If you want to help the empire so much, why don’t you beg for an arranged marriage and be a lovely little doll for the aristocrats to play dress up with?” “Maybe I will.” Skyla sniffed and focused on a hanging thread. It was obvious that she wanted to pull on it, but she didn’t. “Marrying somepony like Sumac wouldn’t be so bad. He’s kinda cute, he’s smart, and his mothers raised him to have some manners. I could do what was necessary for the Crystal Empire.” “Yeah, but what about all of the ponies that aren’t Sumac? You might get somepony old and gross! Somepony mean! Somepony horrendous and gross… like Nuance! Skyla and Nuance! Smoochie smoochie! You could marry that disgusting little bedwetter and live happily ever after!” Skyla shuddered so hard that her glasses fell off, and would have hit the floor if Flurry hadn’t caught them. The filly gagged, stuck her tongue out, and then stood there, making retching sounds. She shook her head from side to side for a short time, then whirled to face her older sibling. “Daddy would protect me from having to marry old, gross ponies, and Nuance is my cousin and I don’t think Mommy and Daddy would make me marry him! I trust them to do the right thing and I don’t think they would do something to make me unhappy! You’re just gross, Flurry Fart!” “Oh, shuddup, little Princess Goody Fourshoes!” Flurry, not done, sucked in a deep breath to get the lungful of air she needed to let her sister have it. “You’re such a suckup! You’re a spineless little suckup, Skyla! It’s always empire this, and empire that, and look at me, look at me, look how little I care about myself and I’ll do anything required of me!” With her lip curled back into a snarl, Flurry put her sister’s glasses down on a nearby table that was loaded down with measuring tapes, pincushions, pins, scissors, and scalloping shears. “Maybe if you cared a little more, I wouldn’t have to try and overcome your shortcomings,” Skyla deadpanned in a voice that exuded calm authority. “We both know that you are the disappointment that I’ll spend the rest of my life making excuses for. I’ll have to get special stationary commissioned.” Flurry’s eyes went wide, her mouth opened, and for a moment, it looked as though she might start hollering at her younger sibling. But she didn’t. Her lower jaw quivering, she just glared daggers at her sister for a time, then, without saying a word, she stormed out of the room, stomping every step of the way. There was no way to get away from her sister fast enough, and as she passed through the doorway, she gave her sibling a final rude tail flick in parting. Though it was a sunny day, what appeared to be a steady rain fell into the small fountain filled with fish. Sniffling a bit, Flurry wiped her nose with her foreleg, leaving behind a shiny, glistening trail that would make her mother freak out if she saw it, and she wished that she could have some real privacy. Not that she minded Flash Sentry—he was nice and she trusted him as much as her mother trusted him—but right now, she just wanted to be alone so she could sulk without having to worry about what some other pony thought of her. She was sick and tired of what other ponies thought of her, with the exception of her aunt, Twilight. Her aunt understood. Twilight got it and Flurry knew that she had her aunt’s much-treasured support. But everypony else? Tongues wagged, as the old saying went. The nobles and the aristocrats did not approve of her rough and tumble ways. Even though Twilight herself now recognised her as a princess, and had even said as much, others did not. No, Flurry wasn’t prim and proper; she wasn’t genteel, soft-spoken, reserved, or refined. She didn’t have the grace that her sister Skyla seemed to have in abundance. Flurry liked being muddy, bloody, and in the thick of things. But this wasn’t seen as proper princessly behaviour. It seemed as though every aspect of her life brought nothing but the shame and disapproval of the ruling elite of the Crystal Empire. They wanted a princess, a paragon, they wanted another pink pillar of righteousness like her mother, Cadance. Every little thing that Flurry did was met with scrutiny and criticism. She hated it. She had heard the whispers, the muted words exchanged in the background: Flurry needs to be tamed. Perhaps betrothal and marriage would set her straight. If one listened to the gossip long enough, one could determine that the aristocrats had already planned her life out for her, and had all manner of helpful suggestions to make her settle down. Looking down at her own reflection, Flurry’s falling tears made circular ripples in the water, distorting her face and making her ugly. She felt ugly. But more than that, she felt angry. Already, she was considered rebellious, but rebellion just wasn’t enough. No, what Flurry wanted wasn’t just rebellion, what she wanted was revenge. But good fillies didn’t plan and plot revenge against the very ponies they were supposed to protect, because that wasn’t prim, proper, nor princessly. Hearing hooves, she panicked and wondered if Flash was coming over to have a talk. She snorted, sucking in any boogers that might be visible, and then when she turned her head, she saw the pony that she least expected approaching her. Flash was still a respectful distance away, watching, waiting, and still as a statue. “Dim,” Flurry said in greeting her tutor, teacher, and sometimes co-conspirator. “You had a fight with your sister,” he said in a low voice that was difficult to hear to all but alicorn ears, and Flurry heard him just fine. “Rotten little tattletale… she just had to rat me out, didn’t she? Oh, how I hate her sometimes.” Flurry shuddered with anger and wiped her face with her other foreleg, the one that wasn’t already shiny with snot. “Oh, she didn’t tell on you,” Dim said and his whispery, somewhat reedy voice was like leaves rustling in the wind. “She came to Sunburst with her glasses shattered, having smashed them out of anger. I surmised on my own what had happened. Her telekinesis becomes faulty when she is angry and emotional.” “I don’t want to do this… I don’t want any part of this stupid Crystal Cotillion. I don’t want to be forced to wear a stupid frilly dress and paraded around so the nobles can judge me and make plans for my future and I just don’t want to be their stupid princess and I—” Her barrel heaving, Flurry’s words came to an abrupt end and she clenched her teeth together. She blinked her red, bloodshot eyes once, then twice, and the muscles of her face quivered with rage. “Dim,” she began, and her voice was scratchy, “I want them to rue the day they planned my future.” “You want revenge, yes?” “Yes.” Flurry hissed the word. “I am not allowed to teach you about revenge, your mother would not approve—” “I’ll pay you,” Flurry deadpanned, understanding all too well how this game was played. “With the promise of payment, you have engaged my services.” Dim’s aristocratic voice was now professional and commanding. “Captain Sentry, leave us. This has become a private matter.” “Oh, this is bad,” the captain muttered as he hurried away, shaking his head. “Now, Flurry, you must understand, I will not move against your mother’s interests—” “Yeah, yeah, just tell me what I need to know,” Flurry demanded as the flow of tears began to slow. “Give them what they want. So much so that they regret having it.” Flurry looked up at Dim, who was peering down at her through his thick smoked glass goggles. Her muzzle crinkled, her ears angled forwards, and her lower lip began to make an imperious protrusion. “Are you trying to use reverse psychology on me? I’m not paying for that.” Dim chuckled, a sound that was not entirely wholesome, and the filly suffered an involuntary shiver. Flurry blinked at him while wondering what was so funny, and then she narrowed her eyes at him in an attempt to show him that she meant business. In a surprising move, Dim sat down beside her and began to dab her face with his cloak, which was something that she did not expect him to do. Dim was not known for compassion, or mercy, or anything considered ‘nice.’ In silence, he continued wiping her face and Flurry seemed to have no choice but to think about his words. Give them what they want. So much so that they regret having it. After a bit of contemplation, Flurry had an epiphany, and it was as if a proverbial light bulb was turned on inside of her head. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense, and she began to see the wisdom in Dim’s words. “Ooooh…” Nodding, she reached the place where Dim wanted her to be, and his raspy, wheezy chuckles intensified. She began laughing too, and the wizard beside her elbowed her in the side. Understanding what needed to be done, Flurry did her best to imitate Dim’s unsettling chortles as the fish all swam to the other side of the pool. Laughing together, Flurry began to see the shrewdness in Dim’s words. Utilitarian smocks were sexy, and this confused poor Sumac to no end. Pebble was wearing what could only be described as a utilitarian smock, and this was sexy, but on the other hoof, her mother also wore utilitarian smocks—which caused Sumac no end of undesirable sexual curiousity. The very last thing that Sumac wanted to think about was the fact that Pebble had a hot mom. But she did. Sumac was at that age when every mare (or filly) had something appealing about them, like Rainbow Dash’s muscled thighs or Fluttershy’s generous leggy length—a length that he longed to rub his cheek along. Then there was the forbidden delights that he did his best to avoid thinking about, like Pinkie Pie’s ponderable pudge, which came pronking into his mind at all of the worst possible times to create unsettling awkward moments. “Oh bother,” Pebble deadpanned, “not again.” Hurrying, Sumac picked up the pace and hustled himself along. Now he too, could hear soft crying, and his ears stood erect as he drew nearer to the meeting spot, the place where he was supposed to meet up with Silver Lining. His hooves clopped along the flagstone path and his wings almost brushed the stone retaining wall where a shaped hedge grew. On the other side of the hedge where the shelter was, he could hear muffled sobbing, a sound that was growing all too common. Coming around the corner, Sumac trotted up the steps to the covered park shelter and saw Silver Lining sitting at a picnic table at the far end. The colt walked with an exaggerated prance in his step—something he had learned from Big Mac of all ponies—and he saw the griffoness turning to look at him with teary eyes. Being a griffoness, Silver Lining didn’t fit into furniture made for ponies. Over the course of the summer, she had suffered a tremendous growth spurt, as griffons matured faster than ponies, and was at the moment one of the most awkward looking creatures in existence. Like Pebble, Silver Lining was prone to drown her sorrows with food, and this led to an excess of bulk on her frame. “Rejected?” Sumac asked, guessing the problem. The griffoness nodded and her beak glistened with tears. “The postal service said I was too fat to join. I failed the physical exam and I got winded when flying the entrance course. My parents are going to be upset.” Sighing, Sumac took a seat on the bench of the picnic table and Pebble sat down beside him. The griffoness rested her forelegs on the table and her head hung low. Sumac understood what it was like to feel pressure and he sympathised with Silver Lining. Her parents wanted her in some kind of apprenticeship or training position by summer’s end, and summer was ending. She had faced an entire summer of rejection, which had made her weight problems worse. Sumac too, rested his forelegs upon the table and he sighed, a forlorn sound. Beside him, Pebble had her intense stare focused on Silver Lining and the filly appeared as though she was going to say something, but this something was going to take some time. No doubt, Pebble was choosing her words carefully, as the blunt, brutal approach didn’t work for Silver Lining. “I’m fat, I’m clumsy, and I can’t fly because I’m scared of heights.” Crest drooping, Silver Lining toppled over and her beak slammed into the table. “I am ridden with social anxiety disorder and I start stuttering when I am around ponies I don’t know. I have no friends and it feels like nopony wants me—” “Horseapples!” Sumac shouted and it was loud enough to echo in the covered park shelter. “You do have friends—” “Yeah, the Weirdos, Rejects, and Losers’ Club.” The tip of Silver Lining’s beak was stuck in the wood of the table. “Yes, the Weirdos, Rejects, and Losers’ Club,” Pebble deadpanned and she threw both of her forelegs up into the air with a snort. “The club that definitely isn’t your friends.” “It hasn’t helped me get a job, or even get my beak into the door of a business. So far, all I’ve managed to do is earn a few coins foalsitting with Meg and that is the only reason why my parents have gone easy on me.” Frowning, his face wrinkled with annoyance, the colt muttered, “The club does have an image problem, Pebble. Independent thinking is frowned upon—” “And some of our members aren’t ponies, I know.” Pebble reached out and patted Silver Lining, who was now creating a puddle around the tip of her beak. “I am genuinely surprised that my sister even gets foalsitting jobs sometimes. Hi, I’m Megara, and I promise that I won’t gobble your young.” “I gotta go home and face my parents and I don’t wanna.” Silver Lining tried to lift her head, but her beak was stuck. She tugged a few times, and then, with Pebble’s help, she yanked her beak free and held her head up. “I don’t want to hear my father telling me about how to apply myself or my mother saying that I just need to try harder. I can’t do it. The pressure is going to make me blow a gasket, I just know it.” This was an awkward time for what Sumac had planned, and made all the more difficult by Silver Lining’s mood. Peering through his round spectacles, he studied his friend, watching her, taking note of her tawny hide and silvery white feathers. She was a subject that had many, many entries in the spank-bank and even now, Sumac could feel a heated adolescent arousal building, which left him hot under his wings. Before he could become distracted, Sumac blurted out, “Hey, Silver, you wanna go to the Crystal Cotillion with Pebble and I?” In response, the griffoness peeped and looked panicked. “What? What! Don’t you have a date? What about Flurry?” “Sumac is going to the cotillon and he is bringing me as a guest,” Pebble explained, making an effort to smooth over Silver Lining’s proverbial feathers. “I am also his date, but it is complicated, and he refused to go if he couldn’t bring me along, even though he is expected to spend the cotillion with Flurry as her escort. To simplify things, do you want to be my date to the cotillion?” “I’m pretty sure that my parents won’t let me go,” Silver Lining replied, and she shook her head. “I expect to be punished for my failure and I’ll probably be sentenced to filling out job applications in my room.” “I bet I could talk your parents into it—” “Sumac, you beige moron, Wormwood is immune to your charms.” Pebble’s head swiveled on her neck and she turned her powerful stare on Sumac. Reaching out, she booped the colt beside her on the nose, shook her head, and snorted. “I don’t need my magic to talk Wormwood into this.” A little miffed, Sumac turned away from his fillyfriend and ignored her. When he looked at Silver Lining, his tongue went dry and stuck to the roof of his mouth. Maybe his bravado might get him into trouble, maybe not, but Silver Lining was worth it. Oh, was she ever worth it; her sleek, supple, tawny hide was worth a king’s ransom. “How long have we been friends?” Sumac’s voice was little more than a high-pitched squeak, but he didn’t care right now, because he had a point to make. “Since you came to Ponyville and settled down,” Silver Lining replied as she wiped at her eyes with her wings. “I saw you doing that chicken disguise thing you did when you were little and it was the most amazing thing ever.” Sumac gulped and now the dryness from his tongue had crept into his throat. “We’ve been friends for a long time and we’ve been really close now for a while.” “Sumac, I know where you are going with this, and you know how I feel. It feels awkward intruding into your relationship with Pebble.” Silver Lining turned away and her eyes seemed to focus on a distant water fountain. “We’ve played spin the bottle together,” Sumac continued, and he felt torn because he knew the power of his words. How many words said would be too many? Had he already said too much? As the founding member of the Weirdos, Rejects, and Losers’ Club, Sumac actively avoided most ponies out of a fear of influencing them by accident. But Silver Lining was too precious to him to give up now. “Because you didn’t have lips, we did a little a dry humping… do you remember?” Still staring off into the distance, Silver Lining nodded. “And later that night, you spied on Sumac while he was jerking off.” Pebble let out a chuckle and gave Sumac a nudge. “She and I laid in our sleeping bags and talked about it for half the night, Sumac, it was great.” Embarrassed, this was his first time learning about this. “She and I both rubbed one out that night after talking about you.” When Sumac was about to say something, Pebble nudged him into silence and kept going: “Made a mess in our sleeping bags and my mother was all snarky the next morning. Silver… you’re not intruding when you’re invited. I like you. Sumac likes you. Olive is leaving us soon and that throws everything into perspective. I don’t want to let Olive go, but she has plans. You on the other hoof”—the chocolate brown filly paused for a moment to let her words sink in— “you don’t seem to have a plan, so why not join our plan?” Sumac let heave a sigh of relief, because Pebble had just saved him yet again. Silver Lining turned to look at both Pebble and Sumac. “I couldn’t possibly—” “Why not?” Pebble demanded before Sumac had a chance to open his mouth. “I’ve listened to you orgasm, Silver Lining. We’ve exchanged knowledge about technique and method—” The griffoness let out a startled peep and then did her best to shrink. “Not so loud… my parents don’t know about any of that. As far as they know, that camping trip was innocent. If my parents find out, that’s it, no more camping trips with you.” “I need to go visit the apple orchard,” Sumac muttered as he squirmed on the bench he was sitting on. His wings fluttered against his sides and without even thinking about it, he fanned himself with one of them. “This is the part where everypony scatters and runs off to live their lives and the relationships of foalhood are ruined.” Pebble’s voice was a monotone, but there was something about it that conveyed a great deal of emotion. “Look, Silver Lining, Sumac can’t say much and you know why. But I know what he wants, and I know what I want, and so I aim to have it. Come to the Crystal Cotillion with us and let us make the most of this. Even if this can’t last forever, at least we can make the most of the time we have now before everything flies apart. This might be the last gasp of our foalhood or it could be just the beginning of something greater.” “I would like to go…” Silver Lining’s words sounded more like an admission of defeat than joyous acknowledgment. “By the way, you owe me snuggle-humps,” Pebble said to her friend. “If Sumac got them, then I should get them too. I still haven’t figured out which direction I go, but there is no harm in a few snuggle-humps.” “Keep your voice down,” Silver Lining begged, “there are ponies right over there.” There were, indeed, ponies right over there. Turning his head, Sumac saw Lyra and Bon Bon. Lyra wasn’t much to look at, but Bon Bon… Bon Bon was eye candy in both name and body. She was rounded, she was plush, and her backside was wider than her withers. The pair of mares were sitting on a bench and Sumac’s staring was interrupted by a rough elbowing from Pebble. “Ow!” “You’re a drooling moron,” Pebble said while she rolled her eyes. “Am not!” “What’s this?” Reaching out, Pebble wiped away a ribbon of slobber from her coltfriend’s chin with her fetlock. She held up the wet smear on her leg for Sumac to see and snorted in disgust. “It’s like you have some incurable disease or something.” “I do,” he retorted in his own defense, “it’s called puberty and you have it too. Wanna go play doctor later? I keep experiencing stiffness, swelling, a fever, and runny discharge—OOMF!” Reaching out with both forelegs, Pebble shoved Sumac away from her, snorted, rolled her eyes, and with a turn of her head, she glanced over at Silver Lining. “I’ll help with your parents. It is probably best if Sumac says very little. His words won’t work on Wormwood, but they will work on your mother, Gloomy, and this might set them to fighting if they disagree.” “If you think you can convince my parents, I’ll go.” Silver Lining’s crest rose and she looked happier, though her bloodshot eyes gave her a somewhat manic looking appearance. “This still feels really awkward though. You two have this great and wonderful romance and I always feel like I am in the way. It’s strange, being around the two of you sometimes.” “Come on, let’s go to the little fillies’ room, get you cleaned up, and then we’ll go and give your parents the bad news about your rejection together.” Pebble gave Sumac another shove because he was staring at Bon Bon again and she let out a petite snort. “I swear, Sumac, if you keep this up, I am going to give you a good sorting out.” “I hope so,” he replied, not paying Pebble much attention, and only stopped staring when the filly and the griffoness got up from the table. “I’m going to run through the fountain… it’s really hot. I’m really hot. This is a really hot day. I’ll be waiting for both of you.” “Stay out of trouble, Sumac.” Reaching across the table, Silver Lining tweaked the colt’s nose, which made him smile, and she let out a contented sigh. Her happiness turned to panic though and she blurted out, “I don’t have a dress!” Always calm, the stoic Pebble held up her hoof. “Don’t worry about that, and you let me take care of it, okay? I’ve already planned ahead and had a dress made.” The griffoness began to stammer and her beak clattered together: “But how… how… but you—” “I am the future Lady of Lulamoon Hollow, and planning is expected of me.” For a moment, Pebble had an expression of unbearable smugness, but this faded back into her usual deadpan expression. “You know, instead of looking for a job or an apprenticeship, we should get you enrolled into a finishing school. I’ve already made plans for you.”