Merry Chestnuts and a Happy New Fleur

by Prane


Chapter 7 – Filly It's Cold Outside

The wind roared on a high note, but Chestnut’s spirits were higher. Freezing temperatures? Ha! Whatever extra heat she borrowed back at the Acquarellion’s kitchen was all but gone now, but she was a batpony and was scared of no frost. Batponies were tough, and in Tramplevania they sunbathed in such conditions!

A gust of wind taught her humility in an instant.

“Brr! Seriously, what were the weather ponies thinking when they made a frostbite start so early?” she muttered under her breath. “Couldn’t they wait for everyone to return to their homes and make a cup of hot cocoa?”

If she was in charge, she would make sure everyone in Canterlot was safe and sound with their families or friends before she let the clouds loose. Everyone would get a mandatory cup of cocoa, too. Chestnut wondered if there was going to be any at the Carousel Boutique. She was supposed to meet with her mom there to talk about some new fancy things to wear, which, knowing Miss Rarity, could take hours.

There better be cocoa—or else!

She giggled at the wailing wind, somewhat glad of the challenge. Trailblazing through the city was yet another experience she would have never tasted at the Orphanarium where wiser ponies decided when she could go outside. It was just her against the elements now, though, and she felt a little like the titular heroine of Daring Do and the Rainbow Rupture during the Frost Wizard’s Trial in the lost land of Coldalopolis. It was a cool read overall. Spoiler alert: Daring Do won the day.

Drawing strength from the idea, the filly grabbed the edges of her scarf and wrapped herself more tightly, covering her muzzle in warming softness. With a matching orange cap on her tufted ears, only her eyes were cold now. She squinted them to the point of walking blind, picked up the pace, and took right at the next crossroads off the Promenade.

Emerald Street greeted her with bizarre, but true to the name pastel green snow piled neatly on the sides, and much milder winds. The first one was probably the doings of magic. The second—good news for Team Nuts, she wasn’t going to end up literally frozen before reaching her destination.

Just then, she froze. Figuratively.

Right around the corner stood two Royal Guards, menacing and unforgiving in their bearings. The horn of the taller one shined with who knew what dangerous spell cooking at its tip. Chestnut’s heart thumped anxiously. Their golden armors reflected colorful lights blinking overhead, but the joyful cascade didn’t last long. One spark in blue, one in yellow, then there was no more blinking. The shining cable connecting one balcony with another went off, taking a few buildings’ worth of illumination with it. The entire street’s illumination followed momentarily.

It got dark.

The wind flattening the Promenade cried out behind Chestnut’s back. Guided by instinct, she took a ninety-degree turn to continue her stroll inconspicuously, but decisively away from the guards tinkering with the broken lights. She was prepared to go all the way to the Victory Plaza and around the block if it meant avoiding them. She had been through enough misadventures on the Promenade to last a lifetime.

As luck wold have it, they noticed her. Not good.

“Halt, winged citizen!” the taller guard called. “By the decree of the Royal Guard, you are now called to assist.”

Chestnut no longer minded the cold, but she shivered all the same. What to do? She couldn’t take off in that wind and snow, and on hoof the guards would surely catch up to her. Perhaps pretending she was deaf and didn’t hear them would work? Not bad, but they clearly saw her seeing them. Pretending she was deaf and blind? Well, it certainly beat hiding in the dumpster, if giving roughly the same results.

A moment of clarity came—she didn’t do anything wrong or illegal, after all. Of course it was a poor consolation because the last time she didn’t do anything bad either. In five words or less, her situation was not cool.

“Buckleberry, stand down,” the other guard chastised his companion. His horn sparkled into a simple light spell which shined over him and Chestnut. To her surprise, his face wasn’t that of a nefarious, ugly, filly-chasing villain, but rather of a regular guy. As regular as a Royal Guard could be, at least. “Please excuse my colleague, miss. I am Private Wave Heart of the Promenade Patrol. We are a division of the Royal Guard tasked with taking care of the matters along the Promenade. I would normally say ‘at your service’ now, but it’s actually the other way around this time.”

So she wasn’t getting arrested. Rad. That was leaving her with talking her way out of whatever was that all about. She felt the odds moving in her favor. Like the game of social dodgeball with the Canterlot Elite, it wasn’t about how confident you really were, but about the confidence you were able to present to others.

“Oh, what a delight,” Chestnut said, bringing a sufficiently high-societal note to her words. It could not mask her accent, but it was something. “And here I thought I would be getting cuffed for some crime I totally didn’t commit.”

Wave Heart chuckled. “Good humor is our best defense against cold, isn’t it?” He pointed up to a darkened balcony which cornered the block. “As you can see, we have a problem with the lights. I don’t want to bother you with details, but there’s been an issue with some magically-charged green snow ordered by one of the Emerald Street’s shops.” He battered a pile of greenish snow at his hooves. “It interferes with some of the batteries powering up the lights. Most of them are cased and sheltered, but the one on the balcony needs a manual restart. The only problem is…”

Buckleberry stepped into the light as well. “We can’t see our target from down here, and the owners are MIA,” he supplemented. “To make things worse, there’s a volatile decorative unit jeopardizing our assignment.”

“You mean that cute reindeer?” Chestnut guessed, noticing the antlers protruding over the balcony.

“That’s an affirmative. The thing got itself tangled in the lights which started blinking like it’s the Firework Festival. We tried to move it, but then it must have taken the plug out of the battery and, well, you see what’s missing. No fireworks at all on Emerald, not even a single light bulb sparkling. We need an able and willing citizen fly up and plug it back in, and that’s ASAP!”

“Buckleberry, manners!” Wave Heart hissed. “Please accept my apologies, miss. What my overly zealous colleague wanted to convey is that we’d normally call for air support, but in this weather they’re probably better deployed elsewhere.” He gave a rare, honest smile that inspired trust and respect towards the organization he represented. “In the spirit of Hearth’s Warming, would you be so kind and help us make Canterlot a bit brighter tonight?”

“I-I’m not sure I can take off in this wind...”

“Don’t worry. Wards are my specialty, I can set up one to protect you. It’s like a magical shield.”

Huh. Maybe not all guards were stupid, evil, batpony-chasing jerks, a thought occurred to Chestnut. Those definitely weren’t like the ones who had chased her away from Les Deux Maregots—though in all honesty, she probably wouldn’t be able to tell them apart just by looking, as the one guard’s eyes, coat and mane under the helmet were a perfect mirror image of the other.

Some two or three years ago, still at the Orphanarium, she participated in awesome workshops with the Wonderbolts, which were also a division of the Royal Guard. One of her friends, Wind Whisper, asked what was the deal with all the guards patrolling the city looking like two peas in a pod. It turned out they weren’t all brothers, or clones as someone-but-definitely-not-Chestnut claimed, but wore enchanted armors, which was totally awesome. Those were the armors which magically whitened the ponies’ coats during their work hours.

That was it: there were regular ponies underneath the mask. There was nothing to be afraid of. Encouraged by the discovery, Chestnut loosened up.

“Well, I don’t know much about magic batteries, but I’ve seen them at work. I, uh, I will be most delighted to help you. Please, hold this.” She put the roastnuts bundle in Wave Heart’s hooves. He conjured a barrier, and a few quick wing flaps later she landed on the edge of the balcony. “I’m here! What now?”

“Good!” Wave Heart called from below. “You should be seeing the battery box, but it may be buried somewhere in the snow. First, try to move the reindeer away. It shouldn’t be left anywhere near the cables, just in case.”

The supposedly ‘volatile decorative unit’ was a reindeer figure with antlers the color of the sky, proud posture, and thinly chiseled legs wrapped in cable. Chestnut had never met their kind, but from Doctor Hugs she learned they lived in the Tundra far to the north, even more farer than the Crystal Empire, with most of their kind concentrating around the capital city of Rein. The figure, Chestnut noticed, looked like she represented someone important. She wondered if the deerfolk had their equivalent of the high society as well. That one would definitely belong to the Rein Elite if they did.

“Why, a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Reindeer,” she chuckled quietly. “Got yourself into power cables, are we?”

The untangled cable suddenly slid away. She grabbed it at the last second and put the plug under the weight of an empty flowerpot, one of many present on the balcony. Most of them were half-filled with green snow or buried in it, and as far as she could see, so was the battery.

“Everything all right up there, miss? The cable’s shaking,” Wave Heart called, concerned. The filly gave a quick ‘yep’ for a confirmation. “Just making sure! Oh, and by the way, if you don’t mind me asking, what is this you’re carrying? Some special Hearth’s Warming treat? It smells absolutely fantastic!”

Chestnut suppressed a snigger. She was now talking foodstuffs with the ‘evil’ guys. Why not.

“Gilded roastnuts!” she admitted with pride. “Just a little sweet and spicy snack from where I come from.”

“Trottingham, I take it?”

“Nope. Tramplevania.”

“Ah, apologies, I couldn’t tell through the scarf and all.”

“No worries. I guess I should worrrk on the accent then.” Chestnut wondered if she should feel complimented or offended, but eventually the spirit of the upcoming holiday got better of her. “Those roastnuts—they’re the bestest. Help yourselves if you want!”

“That’s a negative,” the no-fun-allowed Buckleberry said sternly. “We’re on duty. No snacks on duty.”

“What he meant to say was that you are most kind, miss, thank you! We appreciate your generosity and we will try some,” she heard Wave Heart making a counter-decision. “See, Bucks? I told you it’s all about individuals. Maybe now you will stop fixating on that other thestral runner.”

There was a figment of an idea floating somewhere around Chestnut’s thoughts, but nothing concrete, as it had been pushed aside when she finally found the battery. It was a small gizmo made of a toolbox-like casing and power crystals which should have been humming with magic, but weren’t. She wasn’t an expert on magitronics, but she once saw Fizzy, a mare helping at the Orphanarium, fetching a similar battery to a projector. Supposedly, it was as simple as plugging the cable to the battery’s socket, flipping the switch, and saying some nasty words at it—though Chestnut was pretty sure that last part was optional.

Then her thoughts dragged her back to what the guard just said, and it clicked. Thestral runner? Could it be? She grabbed the cord and twirled it casually, considering her options. They couldn’t see her anyway, and Emerald Street could wait for its lights a little longer. On top of it, she was having the time of her life playing an important pony just for kicks.

“Uh, I found the battery but this will take longer than I thought!” she informed. “Be, uh, be advised that the decorative unit’s hooves are frozen to the ground, and the cable is all tangled. Oh, my, it will take me ages to straighten it all up! So tangled, what a world! There’s cable everywhere and… and there too!” she exclaimed dramatically, seating herself comfortably on a big flowerpot. “But I interrupted you—you were saying something about my misbehaving kin? Should I be concerned for thestral community?”

“Nothing to be concerned of, miss, just a little misadventure my friend and I had.”

Chestnut couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Thestrals, misadventures, the Promenade Patrol… it was all coming together! She, a batpony, once a fugitive and now a helper on good terms—ha, how the tables have turned. Then again, she had been involved in enough table turning, mostly upside down, and with the help of those two Royal Guards no less. Unless those weren’t them, and the enchanted armors were transferring memories and witnessed crimes as well. Or something.

She had to convince the guard to spill the beans. She had to be very convincing. She should sound like...

“Please, Captain Heart, I need to know. You wouldn’t left a poor mare uninformed, would you?”

Apparently, even emulating Miss Rarity had a certain effect on ponies.

“It’s, uh, it’s actually ‘Private’ Heart, miss.” The response was sufficiently abashed. “Well, uh, like I said, it was nothing major. We’ve been responding to a larceny in progress. A supposed thestral thief supposedly assaulted a citizen with the use of a metal container and liquids, then tried to steal a valuable, as we have been passionately told, piece of jewelry.”

“The culprit,” Buckleberry added, “he or she—we were unable to determine it—dropped it when we approached, but refused to be held for questioning, and fled the scene.”

Chestnut frowned. In a way, it was insulting they hadn’t recognized her. Was she really just an echo of every other thestral out there? New year, new manestyle, she decided—it was a must, if only for the sake of standing out in the streets. That’s what the Canterlot Elite was all about, wasn’t it? Standing out.

“Such a rascal!” she quipped. “On behalf of my kin, I apologize for her actions. Or his actions! We may never know, after all. Uh, that said…”

She plugged the cord into the battery and flipped the switch to the ‘ON’ position. It needed no bad words but a light kick to get it running, and moments later Emerald Street was shining with hundreds of lights along the buildings. The world itself seemed to slow down for a moment, with individuals snowflakes dancing gracefully. It was a sight to behold: patches of green-paved street peeking out from the greenish snow, with green and white candy canes at every lamppost, and yellow and blue lights illuminating the way. Even the wind quieted down as if in respect.

It was magical.

Before gliding back down, Chestnut double-checked if her scarf was covering her entire muzzle and cheeks. At least one of the guards was friendly, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

“How about that?” she said. “Thestrals can be helpful, after all.”

“I wouldn’t presume anything else, miss!” Wave Heart called. “There’s plenty thestrals in the service, all really straight fellows. And on the streets? I learned that for every honest unicorn there’s one bad apple spreading ferment somewhere too, but I think that’s a general rule when it comes to us, ponies, even this time of the year.”

“Well said, sir.”

“Call me a sentimentalist, but for me, on Hearth’s Warming, the best gift is finding a good citizen doing her part for the community.” He put the silver bundle back in the filly’s hooves. “Great recipe too. Just what we needed before another hour on patrol.”

“You’re welcome,” Chestnut exclaimed cheerfully. “I understand I am free to go now?”

Unlike his partner, Wave Heart saluted her without hesitation. “On behalf of the Royal Guard, you have our thanks,” he said and shook hooves with the filly. “We were lucky you came along when you did, miss. Without you, we would have to report the incident as something beyond our capabilities, and I’m sure you realize how bad a note about being beaten by a fake reindeer would look in the file.”

“No worse than being outsmarted by a thestral vagabond,” Buckleberry grumbled under his breath.

“Bucks...”

“It’s alright, sir, I’m not offended,” Chestnut deftly replied. “All’s end that ends well, right? I did something good for the Royal Guard, you won’t have to answer silly questions, Emerald Street has its lights back… I just hope that robbed citizen got her necklace back in the end, too.”

“She did, actually, the culprit dropped it during their escape.” A curious spark shined in Wave Heart’s eyes. “Hey, I never said it was a necklace.”

It was the exact moment when Chestnut realized she was a silly filly—and that she had been having too much fun at the expense of the oblivious guards. She giggled nervously, taking a careful step back, but the guards made one of their own.

“Whoopsie.”