She didn't jump: the rest of her senses had taken in their share of information while the chorus of welcome was still settling into her ears, and so she knew there was no true threat. It had been a week, and that week had allowed her to speak with Caramel about a few of Ponyville's more casual subjects, especially when it came to things he would bring up. As it turned out, for any long-resident to ask a new arrival 'So were you Pinkied yet?' was a perfectly natural, and rather early-arriving, question.
Fleur had learned one thing about that Bearer's habits: whenever somepony new moved into town, if the schedule permitted it and the baker felt such an event would be beneficial for them, she would create a welcoming party. She didn't always attend: there were a lot of new ponies in town these days and despite what Caramel insisted was a near-talent for just about being in multiple places at once (added to winking hints towards some kind of story about a day where that had apparently come true), she'd realized that it was simply impossible for her to personally supervise every gathering. There were parties where all she did was ask the neighbors to put something together, others where she might suggest a list of activities, and then there were times when what the settled zone sometimes saw as Laughter herself decided she had to watch over the festivities.
The new arrival, who was now making herself trot forward, had been waiting for it. Wondering about it: what kind of party it would be, when it would hit -- and if that blur of energy and sugar-rushed vocabulary would actually be there, which also brought up the question of comets and second impacts. For Fleur hadn't been back to the bakery: after talking about the subject, she'd found herself with an extra reason to let the baker have a chance to set the time of their second meeting. To let that mare come to her. It had left her waiting, and her patience had just paid off. The Bearer of Laughter was beaming at her, from the very front of the assembly.
Fleur looked over the full group as she moved towards it, because there could easily be more than a single important pony in attendance. She hadn't really expected to spot Mr. Rich, and didn't: her attempts to pick out brown earth pony stallions had her locate that one older male whose mark still meant she wasn't ever going to be truly interested. But there were neighbors in attendance, those she'd seen going in and out of their homes. A few tradesponies she'd noticed around town could be made out, added to a number she'd never encountered before --
-- there was a flash of soft yellow fur. A particularly familiar shade of it.
Fleur shut her talent down.
It didn't make her pause in her step: she continued to approach the gathering, making sure one of her prettier smiles was in place: something fairly welcoming, but not too open. It was likely something she would have done anyway, because there were at least fifty ponies at this gathering and to trot into large groups with her talent fully active was to risk sensory overwhelm: she'd found that out the hard way. She could try to use it while within such gatherings, focusing that sense on one pony at a time, and that focus would normally protect her -- but there was still a limit to how much information she could process at once.
Fleur would have likely turned her magic off when initially entering the party: she recognized that. But to have done it automatically, at the mere sight of Fluttershy...
I have to be careful about that. Habit can be dangerous enough. Instinct is worse.
Still trotting closer, now looking over the setup itself: extra lighting devices illuminating the street, glimpses of food-laden tables just visible through milling pony bodies. There was a small stage reserved for a band, plus she was sure she'd just seen what looked like a rather large wooden tub. One pegasus was setting mugs out while an earth pony rolled a cask forward, and moving left from that brought her to --
-- the Princess.
Not Celestia, or the younger of the Diarchy. Certainly not the one who'd been sent to take custody of the North. The one she'd seen shelving books, on Fleur's first day in Ponyville.
The Princess is attending my party.
Opportunity knocked, and Fleur trotted forward to answer the door.
The pink mare, curls bouncing as she moved to greet Fleur, smiled happily at the guest of honor. "Surprise!" she repeated. "Well, maybe not as much of a surprise as it used to be. I mean, all the ponies in town know I do this now. The ones who've been here for a while. And the ones who just got here can run into ponies who'll tell them, which means the only real surprise part is the time, and I had to make sure nopony spoiled that for you! Nopony told you, did they? Because you looked surprised. But maybe you're just a really good actress! You're pretty enough to be an actress. Not that all actresses have to be pretty --"
Fleur had also been advised on a number of anti-Pinkie tactics (with no promise that any of them would work), and so felt free to cut in. "-- nopony told me," she smiled back. "Not a single pony." Not even --
-- Fluttershy is at this party.
Fluttershy... came to a party.
It was a chance to see what her charge was like in a social setting, without having had to arrange the entire stage: Fleur should have welcomed that. But it had only been a few hours since she'd left the cottage, without any real chance for memories to start fading...
We just won't talk about it. She spends most of her time in not talking about things, so now it's my turn.
But still... Fluttershy was at the party. Along with a Princess, and at least one other Bearer. And the caretaker had come of her own free will...
Maybe it's because of Pinkie. The Bearers supported each other, and so Fluttershy had come because she'd known her friend would be there. It was still an encouraging sign, to know that Fluttershy could be among a gathering this large (and getting larger, as there were more ponies coming up the street behind her, with a few more emerging from their homes) without --
-- Fleur took a closer look.
Absolute rear of the group. Shrunken posture. Head is down. Ears are nearly flat. Spine curving in. Tail pretty much all the way between her legs, or as much as it can be. Moving backwards --
-- and right behind the backup casks.
She kept the sigh internal. There was only so much time to work with at any party, and she couldn't afford to waste any on frustration. Not with at least one other Bearer and a Princess to see.
"All anypony told me was that there would be a party," Fleur smiled. "And a party which comes with even that degree of warning is still a party. I know this is my welcome party, and --" she'd had about a week to practice the words "-- it's nice, just to feel welcomed." A little more softly, "Thank you, Pinkie."
The earth pony blushed, pink fur taking on highlights of rose.
"It's..." The first awkward pause she'd heard from the baker, which led into the first words to feel normal. "...what I do. It's what helps." The baker's smile quirked slightly at the left corner, and then she spoke again, much more softly. "Now, because you're so new, I'd better tell you: there's a lot more ponies coming. This is just the early crowd! A lot of ponies want to find out about you, because you're new and you're so pretty. Mostly the pretty part. I haven't had this many guests tell me they were coming since -- actually, she might come too. So this could run a little long, but it's also about you and if you tell me you're tired and want to stop, I'll make sure it stops. Okay?"
"All right," Fleur agreed. But it had brought up another question. "How many ponies is a lot?"
"A lot a lot."
Which didn't come across as being particularly helpful. "And that adds up to --"
"-- also, because there's so many ponies, I had to ask some of your neighbors if the guests could use their bathrooms. But I didn't say anypony could use yours, because you've only been here a little while and some ponies don't like strangers trotting through their homes. So if you're okay with that, I'll let ponies know, but if you don't want it, I'll make sure everypony understands."
That answer was immediate. "No strangers." To have a full herd going into the house...
"Okie-dokie!" Followed by a hopeful, "But maybe they won't be such strangers when the night ends, right? So there's more ponies coming, and more refreshments, and please don't worry about paying for any of it because you don't have to worry about that, nopony ever does. I actually got some donations this time! Because there's been ponies who've seen you trotting around, and they wanted to trot over here instead of trotting into things because they were watching you for too long. I heard about the fountain. Six times. But by the fifth one, it was just about the whole town falling in and that didn't make any sense, because there's ponies who'd never look no matter how pretty you are, mostly because you're not a stallion -- oh, look! The band's coming in! Which mostly means Lyra right now, but that's special, because she's a little shy and she doesn't come to most parties. But she's not here because you're pretty: she's with Bon-Bon. She's here because I thought the music -- well, wait until you hear! Once she gets set up. And reaches the right songs. Which could take a while. So are you ready to really meet everypony?"
Fleur made a very careful point of not glancing towards the alicorn. "Yes," with her own smile approaching gentle radiance. "Just say the word."
Pinkie nodded, turned, and said it.
"PARTY!"
Ponies cheered.
And so many things began.
For the most part, Fleur allowed herself to be circulated, the party's natural rhythm dictating where and how she moved. But she had more than a little experience of being among such gatherings. Even if the Canterlot versions tended to be far snootier and had (until some of the more choice information began to come in) often seen jealous mares attempting to lash their tails out as barriers to her progress, the flow was just about the same. Ponies who wanted to meet her, ponies who had to be met. And because Fleur was experienced, she knew how to work with the current, altering her movement patterns in ways which made it seem as if the party itself had carried her away from the pony she'd just decided wasn't important.
She was fully aware of the limitations imposed by time: after all, there was only so long the party could go on. They were in a residential neighborhood, out on the street because there was no way for any single residence to host all of this. There were children who had school in the morning, parents who would see them out before heading off to work -- eventually, the event would be shut down just to let everypony get some sleep and ideally, this would happen before the police arrived to enforce that desire.
Still, it seemed as if Pinkie had a high mastery of her craft: so far, the music was being kept fairly low, at a level where Fleur sometimes had to make a deliberate effort before she could determine just what was being played. There was laughter, but none of it was echoing from the bottom of multiple empty mugs. Ponies were being polite and welcoming, with jealousy being kept to what Fleur saw as the typical nightly minimum encountered on just about any night when she was in public. And as for the guest list...
She didn't always get the chance to use her talent: somepony would catch her at the wrong moment, and too many of those came just after she'd gotten another partial glimpse of Fluttershy. And the majority of the puzzles were nothing interesting: a number of ponies had attended under the hope that they would have a chance with her, and so most of what their pieces indicated was their dream of being with Fleur. But as she learned just who those ponies were, what kind of power they could wield...
There would be a point when Fleur had to reach Fluttershy: get a closer look at how her still-present charge was managing -- along with just which ponies the pegasus was more freely (or at all) associating with. (She glanced over whenever she could, made sure Fluttershy was still there. She generally found that much, and no more.) But that could easily become part of the party's natural circulation, and so she let it carry her along, bringing her where it desired, right up until the moment she began to direct the currents.
And the first tidal pool she washed up in was that of the Princess.
The final approach was simple. There were no Guards: not a single armored barrier to entry. She simply excused herself away from a mare's fumbling half-expressed attempt to ask her out, twisted past a married couple, did a quick social twirl through the center of a sports argument -- and then, for the second time in her life, there was an alicorn in front of her. Or in this case, slightly below, because the Princess was... small.
She hadn't expected that. If asked to picture a Princess, Fleur's first image -- what she suspected was just about everypony's first image -- would have been Celestia and even if that picture was now tinged with hate, it still required the largest frame known to the three main pony species. Princess Luna was appreciably taller than the average, while Princess Cadance, who was closer to pony-normal, still would have had to bend all four knees before reaching it. The newest of royalty, however...
Her manestyle mostly said she had never really learned how to do anything with her mane, and it was probably too late to start now. The purple fur was decently groomed, but it felt like the grooming of a mare who understood that ponies groomed themselves regularly and therefore some degree of grooming was required. She wore no regalia of any kind, which at least went nicely with the lack of Guards. The wings were carried in a position which suggested somepony who'd just accidentally bitten their tongue and thus got to spend the rest of the day fully aware of the fact that there was a tongue in their mouth, when they'd gotten completely sick of the thought after the first two minutes.
And she was small. Clearly an adult, perhaps a few years past graduation -- but there were teens who were larger than she was, and just about everypony possessed more mass. A naturally-slender body had been added to one of the narrowest rib cages Fleur had ever seen, and it might take a mere pair of missed meals before the ribs themselves were put on display.
She was attractive, in her way. But it was the beauty of a crystal vase, one which had seen a blaze of fire placed inside. Powerful, fragile, and completely unaware.
Be careful. If Celestia told anypony else about me, this would be the pony. Just treat her like royalty...
"Princess," Fleur began, her forelegs dipping into the curtsy of a Royal Greeting Stance as a warm breeze rustled her fur. "It is an honor to --"
"-- librarian," the Princess said.
The word had been soft. Even. Extremely... controlled.
Fleur, caught in the process of lowering herself, looked across to the mare. "Princess?"
"I want you to try something," that voice went on. "Every time you would say 'Princess,' say 'Librarian'."
Oh, good. She's insane. "...all right," Fleur carefully said, and resolved to make no sudden movements: the purple eyes looked a little too serious for open retreat. "Librarian, it is an honor to meet you. I didn't know you lived in this settled zone, but I did find out shortly after I arrived. I simply did not wish to bother you, because I know a Librarian has many duties. But to have a --" Which was when the word began to scrape against her tongue. "-- Librarian... attend my welcoming party, to know a... Librarian... has graced me with her presence..."
She was still in the half-dip. She wanted to straighten again. And she would have, if not for the ten bale-weights of a very odd embarrassment pressing against her spine.
"It sounds stupid, doesn't it?" royalty quietly asked her.
Fleur, unsure of just what the most powerful individual in Ponyville wanted her to say, wound up pausing for what she felt was far too long -- then risked a nod.
"My name," that mare steadily told the night, "is Twilight Sparkle. The mayor generally calls me 'Ms. Sparkle' and when she's angry with me, which happens a lot, it's much louder. There are ponies who only think of me as Magic and when that happens, I'd rather they didn't think of me at all. The bank manager calls me things I can't repeat, my brothers call me their sister, and my friends call me Twilight, except for the times when some of them use 'egghead' or 'Sugarcube'." She took a breath, and that rib cage slowly shifted. "I also get a 'dearest' every now and again. And yes, I'm an alicorn. Most ponies call alicorns 'Princess' on instinct, because that's the only thing an alicorn's ever been. But I'm a librarian. And I think we've proven using that as a title sounds just as stupid."
She didn't know what to say, and suddenly didn't know if there was anything she could say at all. For there was power, still, and there remained a sort of fragility. But the vase was so much closer to diamond.
The party went on around them. The party was, with careful intent, ignoring everything.
"You're helping Fluttershy," the alicorn said. "I think you can start with 'Twilight' for now. We'll see if you stay there. Straighten, please."
She had to force her legs to work, one joint at a time, and almost felt as if the bones were grinding against each other.
Twilight Sparkle: Magic.
Fleur hadn't used her talent on the alicorn just yet, in part because she'd been afraid of what that mare had been told -- and now, because if anypony could pick up on that subtle flow of thaums...
Celestia had done that, but had admitted to having strained for it. This was an Element.
Fully vertical again. It left her looking down on the little mare, if only physically.
"I..." She tried another breath, started over. "I'm glad to meet one of Fluttershy's friends."
The librarian, her expression quiet and neutral, simply nodded.
"She really hasn't talked about you," Fleur tried. "Well, she hasn't talked about any of you, really." And decided it would be a good time for a rather artful sort of wince. "We -- get interrupted. A lot."
Which produced the smallest of smiles. "Yes. It's a special peril of the cottage. I've had a lot of conversations with Fluttershy which wind up stretching out across six separate emergencies. I understand there was one today, and --" a little more softly "-- that you helped her. It took a long time before I trusted myself to hold an animal still for her. I'm still afraid to do it. And you just galloped in and did it, Fleur. So thank you."
It should have been comforting. It wasn't.
She's been telling them about me. And Fleur should have expected that, should have been ready for it, but she'd been so concerned about what might have been flowing the other way...
Twilight was looking at her, the large eyes silently roaming across Fleur's features. She knew it wasn't an assessment of her beauty.
"I know you're helping her," the small mare said. "Or trying to. And I know you keep getting interrupted, because that's just how the cottage works. I know the palace sent you. Will you tell me why?"
She tried another breath, felt the seconds flowing through it.
As long as I'm not afraid...
"If you have to ask me," Fleur said, "that means Fluttershy hasn't told you."
"Or maybe she has," Twilight countered, "and I want to see what you say. Why are you here, Fleur?"
"I don't know if she's told you," Fleur replied. "If she hasn't, then that means she wants to keep it private. And that means it's not my place to say."
The librarian's horn ignited. Just a partial corona: the thinnest possible coating of light. The glow of Magic.
There was a buffer space around them now, just enough to notice. Also enough to notice that it was steadily getting wider.
"Fluttershy asked for help, and the palace sent me," Fleur told her. "Shouldn't that be enough?"
"It would have been," came the immediate reply. "Once."
Fleur blinked.
...ally?
-- no, it was far too soon to think that way. But the words had been so stark...
"We've found," the alicorn continued, "that keeping secrets from each other tends to backfire. But we can't tell each other everything because we can't ask each other everything. So there are things which stay private until exactly the wrong moment. Fluttershy knows she has to talk to us, and we know we have to speak with her. But when we ask her about you, why you're here, why you spend so much time at the cottage, because Rainbow's seen you on your way there and back a few times now --"
Rainbow. Fluttershy mentioned her, now this, that flying ego might be a Bearer...
"-- although she's given Fluttershy her privacy while you're there, because the cottage birds tend to beat her back when she doesn't. We asked Fluttershy about what's going on, and all she'll do is say that you're her tutor, and she doesn't want to talk about it until she feels like she's making real progress. She said she was afraid we wouldn't understand. We're friends, and she doesn't want to talk to us about you. Why?"
She could be lying. The palace could have briefed her about everything. She could be testing me.
But test or not, there was only one answer Fleur could give.
"It was hard, wasn't it? Getting Fluttershy to trust you?"
The corona flickered.
"The first time we met," the librarian eventually said, "if my brother hadn't been there, then she wouldn't have talked to me. At all."
Fleur immediately resolved to meet the brother, and hoped he was of dating age. "I'm still trying to find a way where she'll trust me, even for the things I'm trying to teach her. And if she doesn't want to talk, Twilight, then the best way to betray that trust is by doing it for her."
A long moment of silence, where neither party buzz nor music could reach them. And then the field winked out.
"When she's ready, then," the alicorn told her. "Welcome to Ponyville. Why don't you go try the bobbing tub?" She nodded to her general left, with the dark horn indicating a more precise direction.
Fleur glanced that way, noted the wooden tub again, spotted a flash of red moving up and down on the surface --
-- blinked again.
"You use a bobbing tub? At a party?"
"...yes," Twilight cautiously said.
And with sincere words spoken directly to one of the ponies who'd faced down nightmare, "You're braver than I thought."
It was Twilight's turn to blink. "Bobbing for apples is brave?"
Fleur's head immediately turned left.
Oh. Apples. And that's just a reflection from the skin onto water...
It had been a rather draining sort of conversation, one which had left her with no more idea of what Twilight truly knew than she'd had going in. And other than the fact that she wasn't currently existing as a rapidly-dissipating cloud of ash, Fleur wasn't entirely sure she'd won.
"I think I'll pass," Fleur quickly decided. "I'd rather not have to leave the party to redo my cosmetics. But it looks like a very nice bobbing tub. For apples. It was nice to meet you, Twilight, and -- I promise that it'll be Twilight. If you let me."
The buffer zone was starting to close in again, with the buzz slowly flowing back.
"You're tutoring her," Twilight not-quite-stated.
Fleur nodded.
"I hope the lessons are good ones," said the most dangerous individual in Ponyville. "Enjoy the party, Fleur."
Pinkie found her a few minutes later.
"So how's it going?" the baker inquired. "I always try to check on the guest of honor! To see if there's anything I can do. Or change. Or anypony I have to kick out. I thought I saw that one stallion get a little too close to your --"
"He's taken care of," Fleur said. She could tell the difference between accidental contact and that which was designed to get the tactile sort of feel: a quick, rather choice public comment had sent the pegasus packing at high speed, in desperate search for some impossible means of healing the wound to his reputation. It had actually been quite refreshing for her, both in allowing a moment to vent and clearing out space: it had been nearly an hour now, and ponies were still arriving.
"Okay," Pinkie readily accepted. "Are you hungry? Did you get to the food table at all? If you need me to bring you anything --"
"-- you said you got donations for the table?"
Pinkie nodded.
Hesitantly, "Were any of them from... that one place, with the dark green --"
It triggered a rueful little smile. "No. He offered, though. He might even come, at the very end, because it takes him a while to clear down the restaurant, even when nopony's eating there. It's a good time to hit the refreshments, because after one pony sees him near them, nopony else will want to be. It's not his fault, really -- well, the cooking sort of is, but he's a nice pony, really he is! It's just that there's a few ponies in town who can sort of clear out a party if they show up, and there's one of them..."
The last words had been rushed. They had also been much softer than everything which had come before, dropping almost instantly into desperate whisper, and so Fleur followed Pinkie's gradually-descending line of sight until she found --
The baker sighed. "I knew she lived around here," the earth pony sadly said, "but she gets grounded a lot. I didn't know if she was going to come outside. Oh, if too many other ponies see her here..."
Fleur was still looking.
"She can clear out a party?"
"Not always," Pinkie sighed. "Mostly if ponies decide she's trying to get a mark for party hosting. Or catering. There was a band once. And since she's always looking for her mark in every place which isn't the one she should be looking, most ponies just assume she's thought of something new, or one of the others did and she's going along with it -- she's usually the one just going along -- and then when everything starts to go wrong... I don't want to ask her to leave and honestly, it's not her fault most of the time, not as the main one, but..."
Fleur looked at the two-toned mane, which was becoming much easier as the rest of the party pulled back from it. Saw the worry in dark green eyes, although that was a little difficult with the filly's head held so low.
"She stays."
Pinkie blinked.
"I know you're new, and she means well, she just about always means well, but when it's her mark --"
"She stays," Fleur repeated. "She's my neighbor. As far as I'm concerned, she welcomed me before just about anypony else, and anypony who thinks she shouldn't be here can feel free to leave. Would you please tell her it's all right if she stays? But just until her bedtime."
"There's some stories which might not have reached you yet," Pinkie quickly said, "and what a lot of ponies think are the worst ones, they're kind of the understatements --"
"She stays."
Pinkie's head tilted slightly to the right, then the left. Looking Fleur over.
"All right," the baker said. "I'll tell her now." Began to move away, trotting down a very clear path. It gave Fleur a perfect line of sight, to Sweetie and beyond --
-- a wing shifted, and dark blue flashed into Fleur's eyes.
It took a moment to recover: she hadn't been expecting the reflected light, or thought that a beam would bounce that way at all. Her first assumption was somepony moving a polished instrument towards the band area. But then her vision cleared, and she saw --
...I...
There was a moment where the only thing which moved was Fleur's fur, and that only because the warm breeze had rustled across it again. She was upwind from where she now wanted to be, and it felt like so many body lengths to cross when it was just a few and it would still take forever, there was a crowd there already and that meant competition, she knew what it looked like when ponies were seeking the chance to be the one and as soon as she got there, she was going to make sure everypony in the cluster knew what it was like to lose.
(She would remember that later, having been upwind, after it was too late for the memory to matter.)
There was a metallic at the party. It was the single rarest fur trait known to emerge from the blood, for a pony to possess a coat which reflected light in the same way highly polished metal would, and this was the first one Fleur had ever spotted. A pegasus mare, just starting into the adult years. Her mane and lustrous tail were flawless obsidian, she had the wide rib cage of an endurance flier --
lots of endurance...
-- the eyes were the brilliant yellow of Sun which had somehow found its way into night, and outside of a mirror, she was the single most beautiful mare Fleur had ever seen.
...I. Want. That.
It was a rather simple statement. There were nights when Fleur had trouble sleeping. There were so many times when she wanted to think about something other than getting out of the open-air cell, to stop having memories of her meeting with Discord intrude on the quiet moments. She hadn't been with anypony (or anyone) since two nights prior to the destruction of her escort's license. It had been over a week of being alone, with her life shredded and spent time burned in front of her eyes, over a week with nopony touching her and the most beautiful mare she'd ever seen was right there.
Instinct tossed her mane. Experience lofted the tail. Raw desire pushed through her limbs and sent her moving forward with shifts of legs and hindquarters which, just out of her sight, almost instantly broke up a dating couple, started two small fights, triggered one near-fainting, and made dozens of puzzle pieces rearrange themselves.
It was entirely possible that the pegasus wasn't attracted to unicorn mares, or didn't desire mares at all. Fleur looked forward to finding out just how long it would take to change her mind.
Moving quickly, almost on the stalk. Fixed on her target. And part of her noticed that the mare didn't look entirely comfortable, but that was all right, because it meant the current hunters weren't any good at it. In fact, the little twitches she was seeing within the feathers, normally the sign of a pegasus who was seriously thinking about getting the buck out of the area, something she'd had recent refresher courses on because that was just about Fluttershy's default state, would actually help because Fleur could present herself as a rescuer for the exact duration of one evening, and that because she couldn't afford to go back to anypony too often --
-- another look at the mare.
Maybe twice.
I could go to three.
Four. Four is the absolute limit --
-- three body lengths to go, the sway of her tail released a sea of spectator hormones, she was almost there --
-- which was when somepony said something.
They were words she didn't hear. But judging by what happened, she knew they had been exactly the wrong ones.
The metallic reared back. A forehoof lashed out, swiped across an earth pony's snout. Wings flared as the offending mare yelped, and then the offended one took flight, blue flashing as feathers shifted beneath the lights --
-- gone.
Fleur stopped. Took a long look at the mare who'd just scared off the most beautiful pony she'd ever seen, at least for those who weren't occupying a silvered surface. Memorized that earth pony's face, followed by pulling out several dozen casual plans for ruining lives and beginning a rather rapid review.
Which was when Pinkie caught up to her again.
"I told Sweetie she could stay," the baker told her. "She was really happy -- Fleur?"
...no, can't sabotage her standing in her House without knowing if she has one... "Pinkie -- do you really remember everypony?"
"Their names and birthdays," Pinkie promptly said. "What they like to order at the bakery as their usual. That they really don't like one-pony bands no matter how much I try to show her how great they are, when you'd think that because she's a musician, she'd know that already."
"The metallic who just left. What's her name?"
"The pretty pony I told you about when we met? That's Joyous!"
"Joyous..." Fleur exhaled the word, felt its flavor on her tongue.
Pinkie nodded. "Joyous Release."
...Sun and Moon bless her parents. There might be a more perfect name for a one-to-four-night stand, but Fleur couldn't seem to think of it.
"I'm just glad she came," Pinkie continued. "Even if she didn't stay long. I'm even glad she slapped Nicker! Because Nicker probably deserved it, and it means that now Joyous can slap ponies who deserve it. I know you might think there's a chance it wasn't deserved, but it's Nicker. Oh, and you can slap Nicker too. If she says something which would make a pony slap her. But that'll have to wait, because I'm going to find out what she said, and then I'll probably kick her out. And when I say kick, it'll probably be dragging her out by the tail. But it could be kicking, because it's Nicker and she'll be down to her last chance. Later, Fleur!"
She'd listened to, at best, half of it. "And do you know if Joyous is seeing anypony right --"
But the baker was already gone, and the crowd filled in the gap behind her.
The next ten minutes were frustrating ones. All Fleur could learn for a certainty was that Joyous was fairly new to the settled zone, had arrived with her parents (and still lived with them, although everypony expected that to change fairly soon), and was very obviously the subject of enough fantasies to justify a brand-new Archives building just to hold them all.
The pegasus she wanted had fled. The one she was stuck with had come out from behind the casks.
It wasn't that much of an advancement. Her head had ventured towards more or less open air, but only to give her a slightly easier means of speaking to the unicorn stallion. And that was something which almost gave Fleur hope as she approached (and found herself shutting down her talent again), right up until she heard what they were talking about.
"...so because you're new," the pegasus said, "I thought that maybe you didn't have a special companion yet! Because Dulci delivered some of your smaller things, and she said she didn't hear any pets." Looking embarrassed now, "I always ask her to check. Just for pets. Because I have a kindle of kittens at the cottage right now, and it's so hard to find ponies who'll take cats --"
"-- I had a kitten once," the stallion half-smiled, and Fleur looked him over for the second time, because it was so unusual to find a male using visible cosmetics. The white-furred unicorn wasn't anything exceptional: perhaps a decade older than she, a little overweight, with a toffee-hued mane and eyes pink enough to make her think of cotton candy. Outside of the makeup, his most notable feature might have been the eyebrows: dark and thick, like arcing lines of licorice -- and the reason she was focusing so much on candy was because the stallion had dusted himself with tiny specks of glitter, which made every breath he took under the lights into a dance of spun sugar.
"...you did?" Fluttershy hopefully asked.
"And then," the stallion sighed, "she turned into a cat." A wry smile. "Now, if you could find me a kitten where that doesn't happen..."
"...no," Fluttershy replied. "...it always does." There was a faint smile on the visible side of her face. "I'm sorry, Mr. Sweet. There's nothing anypony can do about that."
"I know," the unicorn ruefully declared. "But let a pony dream. It was nice to meet you, Miss Fluttershy. And now if you'll excuse me, I think there's a clear path to the band opening up. Which means I'd better move, before the Heartstrings mare spots me here. Have a good night."
He cleared out, politely nodding to Fleur as he passed her. It freed up the last of the approach path.
"...hi," Fluttershy uncertainly said.
Fleur looked around before replying, made sure there were no ponies openly listening. "I wasn't expecting to see you here."
"...Pinkie told me when the party was going to be, and... it's a little easier, knowing Pinkie's here. She stops things. Twilight too, but those are different things most of the time. I..." A long hesitation. "...saw you talking to Twilight. And then she talked to me."
Fleur felt the risk within the words as they arose in her mind, and still released them into the world. "What did she say?"
"...that she hoped I'd let her know, when I was ready. And..." Feathers rustled. "...that she doesn't understand why apples are dangerous, at least when they're in a bobbing tub. I think you really confused her with that one. I don't get it." Thoughtfully, "Even though I've seen apples being dangerous. Mostly when they've been kicked."
Fleur considered the weapons value of an unripe specimen hitting the snout, then changed the subject. "So you attend parties?"
"...mostly if it's just friends. We have parties a lot." A tiny smile. "...there's some -- side effects to having Pinkie as a friend."
"Laughter." Because it was time to see what would happen, at least for that.
Fluttershy quietly nodded.
"But this is more than just friends." There were at least two hundred ponies now... "A lot more. And you came anyway?"
"...I'm..."
Fleur waited.
"...the reason you're here. Instead of Canterlot. You were sent here because I asked for help, and... I know that could take... a long time. You're here because of me, and..." She took a deep breath. "...I know it's not easy, teaching me. I came because it's... your party, and I thought... I should be here. If I could. And I can't stay much longer, I have to get back to the cottage and take care of things for the night, but... I did come..."
She could have resented Fluttershy for that, and did not. Ultimately, it had been Celestia, and if Fleur hadn't been caught, then another pony would currently be serving out the harsh sentence. But --
She's trying. She's actually trying...
No questions about what had happened with Charlotte. Just Fluttershy, trying.
"...it's not easy," the pegasus quietly said.
"I was watching you," Fleur stated. "When I could."
"...I saw."
"You spoke to a few ponies."
"...clients, mostly. Plus there's always new ponies in town now, and there's so many friends waiting for them at the cottage, if I can just talk them into meeting the right one. That's hard. Not just finding, but asking, and hoping they'll come at all..."
And the rest of the time, you were hiding behind casks. For an indoor event, it probably would have been a closet or, in the absence of garment rooms, pressed into the most defensible corner available. It still meant Fluttershy was at least capable of being in a social setting, and she'd made herself stay for some time.
It was a good sign. It was the first truly good sign.
A wisp of music reached her ears. Her left forehoof tapped out the beat.
"Have you eaten?"
"...no. The rest of the refreshments are -- um... over there."
She's just about broke and she can't make herself venture out enough to reach the free food. One hoofstep forward, three gallops back. "I'll bring you something. Any preference?"
"...no sugar. Hentucky Blue grass, if there's any left."
Fleur nodded, turned and trotted away.
More ponies approached, now that she was away from Fluttershy and 'available' again. She was polite in her temporary dismissals, making it clear that she'd have the time to talk after she finished what she was doing, and that got through to most of them. A few of the more determined simply trailed along, breaking off after the rudest received an 'accidental' tail flick for his trouble.
Two hundred ponies or more, with the most recent arrivals well beyond fashionably late. Food. Connections. Things she could exploit. What was now a very boring bobbing tub. And music, good music, music she hadn't heard in --
-- Fleur stopped. Listened.
...why are they playing that?
The sound was in the air. The echoes were already in her head. And the baker had said something about reaching the right songs...
...her Element -- would it let her just know what kind of music would --
-- she got her legs moving again.
Sound travels. Music travels. That has to be it. That's got to be it. Whoever's playing it just knows a lot of music, and now it's time for that song. Or...
It had to be coincidence. The alternative was nightmare --
"-- hey!" A brown snout moved in from the right, and the rest of Caramel's face quickly followed. "Sorry I'm so late, but we had a major spill at the candy shop. And when it's sticky and it's all over the floor..." He grinned. "I keep telling Bon-Bon, just let the local kids know and they'll have it licked clean in a minute, but she never goes for it. How's the party been so far? Did I miss anything big?"
She didn't want to think about the music, and the earth pony had just given her something else to consider. "Not much, honestly," Fleur lied. "Except for my saying hello to a lot of ponies. I'm glad you made it, though." With a little touch of side-glance as she turned towards the table, her field gathering in the grass. "Not that I knew you were coming, when you clearly could have told me so many things..."
"The legends say there's stuff which happens," Caramel solemnly said, "to ponies who squeal on a Pinkie surprise party. And there the legends stop, for nopony survived to finish the tale." A brief pause, followed by a much more serious "Also, Pinkie Promises. Don't break them. Ever. Any luck with meeting somepony good?"
Which means he's checking on my romantic prospects, in the hopes that it'll somehow advance his. "I saw one pony before, but -- early departure." A rueful shrug. "Typical."
"It happens," he told her. His right forehoof casually tapped with the beat. "By the way, have you ever heard this song before? Lyra plays a lot of her own compositions, but this doesn't sound like her work. Maybe it's something which just caught on in Canterlot --"
Fluttershy is at the party. Fluttershy can be at a party. She can talk to stallions, at least when it comes to a limited subject range --
"-- follow me."
"And where," Caramel grinned, "are we going? We're not going off to find the party, because that's right here --"
"Just follow me!"
She wasn't sure what was in her tone. Fleur only knew it got the earth pony's eyes to open wider than she'd ever seen them. And then he was next to her, trotting along with a mixture of curiosity and confusion, with the presence of an obvious male companion temporarily keeping other suitors back just long enough for them to reach --
-- the pegasus poked her head out from behind the casks. "...I think that's fescue," Fluttershy said, "but it's okay, anything they had is fine -- Fleur?"
She also wasn't sure what expression was on her own face, and stepped aside so that Fluttershy wouldn't be able to readily examine it.
"Fluttershy," Fleur said, "Caramel has something he'd like to ask you."
The words reached four ears, and created the first moment of public connection earth pony stallion and pegasus mare would ever have. They both stared at her.
"Um," Caramel abruptly said. "Um... I -- I do?"
"...he does?"
There was an odd set to Fluttershy's jaw, something tense. Perfectly natural for a mare who'd just been thrust into an unexpected social situation.
"You do," Fleur said. "Right now."
"I..." Caramel tried (and failed). "Okay..."
The buzz was slowing around them. Getting softer, with the music starting to fall away.
He swallowed.
"I'll be at the cottage in two days," he said. "To pick up Shimmy's medicine. I'll have my payment ready."
Fluttershy nodded.
Oh, for -- "Caramel. You. Have something to ask. Fluttershy. Right now."
Desperate blue eyes focused on her horn, mostly because the stallion was so shaken that his aim had just been that off. The gaze slowly slid down to her face.
Fleur nodded to him. A tiny nod, no more than the width of four tail strands in each direction, as her lips parted just enough to mouth a single word, one only he could see.
Now.
She saw him take the guess and somehow, with the boost of unfilled fantasies speeding mental flight, he landed on exactly the right target. Watched his eyes go so wide as to nearly have the edges meet behind his head. Staring at her...
Another nod, which she just barely managed to make even smaller.
"Fluttershy..." He nearly choked on the word. "...I was wondering if you -- would... go out with me?"
Which was when Fleur saw that tension move from yellow jaw to the single visible eye, the expansion of the pupil from shock as hard lines began to set in around the snout --
-- but she also saw something else. Something which Caramel, his attention and fear now mutually fixed, completely missed. She saw the moment when Fluttershy glanced at her.
Fleur, whose motion was only spotted by a single pony, just barely nodded.
"...yes...?"