"Are you sure you're reading that map right?" Discord asked Capper as they rode on their horses going away from the castle and into some woods.
Capper held the map up, "I'm sure of it! Lady Chrysalis's manor is on this side of the kingdom."
"It feels like we're going nowhere!" said Soarin, pointing to the empty road.
Flash looked up to see dark clouds gathering, commenting, "And I don't like the look of that sky. If it storms and we don't get back before dinner, then we broke our promise to Fancy."
Cheese motioned, "We need to hurry then."
Capper stated, "Give me a little time to figure this out, after all we've never been outside of the palace before."
Spike exclaimed, "It is rather exciting!" he gestured around their surroundings, "The fresh air, the beauty of the world, it's amazing!"
Capper then pointed in a direction, "Okay, we go that way!" he moved his horse and the others followed.
After some time, the brothers were still riding on making Discord complain.
"We're lost!"
Capper countered, "We're not lost!"
Soarin voiced, "But shouldn't we have been there by now?"
His brother shrugged, "It seems that the Lady Chrysalis likes to isolate herself from the rest of the world."
Cheese mentioned, "No wonder Father made this arrangement with her, because if they think alike…"
Spike nodded, "I agree."
Flash looked at the sky again, "Those clouds aren't going away, in fact, they look darker than they were a few moments ago."
Suddenly a rain drop fell onto his head followed by a flash of lightning and crash of thunder. More raindrops fell before it became a downpour.
"Well, that's just great!" Discord shouted out.
"We need to get to the manor, now!" Spike yelled.
Capper bellowed, "This way!" he signaled his horse to run.
The wind and rain beat against them making it hard to see anything and their clothes were getting wetter by the second. Then in the nearby distance they saw lights coming from windows. As they got closer they saw a large neo-gothic house.
They would have marveled at the architecture, were not for the rain making them cold and drenched. They got off their horses and Discord knocked on the dark double doors.
Inside, a young woman with butter-cream skin and rosy pink hair wearing simple garment heard the knock and went over to answer it. Upon opening one of the doors, she came face to face with a young man with dark hair and gray skin. The two made brief eye contact and stood there in wonder. But when Soarin nudged Discord, he came out of the trance and so did the girl. Discord addressed her, "Pardon us for intruding like this, but could we please get out of the rain to warm up?"
She looked at all the boys being wet and made a sympathetic look before saying in a sweet voice, "I wish I could… But I'm not allowed to bring strangers into the house…"
Discord said, "We understand, but it seems this storm isn't letting up anytime soon and we're far from home so we don't have anywhere else to go."
The girl bit her lip and said, "Give me one moment." she went back inside and it seem she was taking forever until she came back, telling them, "Quickly, come inside." she led them in.
"Thank you." Discord told her making her slightly smile.
They got inside where they saw five other girls standing on the side. A girl with straight purple hair and violet eyes spoke up, "We need to hurry; we can't let the housekeeper know you're here."
Flash found himself ogling toward this girl, and the same could be said for the other boys as Capper found himself staring at the blue-eyed girl with purple hair that had curls. Spike looked at a girl with long blonde hair and freckles. Soarin gawked at the girl with rainbow hair. And Cheese was mesmerized by the girl with poofy pink hair, it just looked so lively.
The girls gestured them to follow and they did so. They were lead into the kitchen with the blonde woman using a poker to stoke the fire making the room much warmer.
Then the girl with the rosy hair brought in towels giving them to the men.
The blonde woman told them, "Stand by the fire so you can get your clothes dry."
Spike went up to her with a smile, "Thank you, milady."
The girl felt herself blushing to his kind words, "You're… welcome…"
The blue-eyed girl spoke, "How dreadful that all of you had to be caught out in such dreary weather."
Capper smiled at her, "Perhaps, but then we would not been able to meet such dazzling beauties."
The girl tittered and uttered, "Charmer."
The girl with the violet eyes asked, "Just why were all of you out there, if you don't mind my asking."
Flash told her, "Not at all! We came to see Lady Chrysalis about an important matter."
The girls eyed each other before the violet-eye girl spoke again, "I'm afraid she won't be back until tomorrow. So you'll have to come back then to see her."
Soarin said, "That's okay, it wasn't that important anyway."
Cheese shook his head causing water to drip down, "It isn't."
The girl with the pink hair noticed and grabbed another towel as she approached him, "Your hair is so wet! Let me dry it out!" she wiped his curls making him chuckle.
"That tickles!"
That made her giggle too.
He commented, "That's a cute laugh you have."
"Aw, thanks!" and kept drying.
The rainbow-haired girl went to Soarin, "Do you need anything?"
"No thanks. I'm alright."
She slightly smirked, "Good, because I hate the idea of serving a freeloader."
He smirked back, "Not to worry, I know when to quit when I'm ahead. But we can't thank you girls enough for letting us in."
"Hey, my sisters and I didn't like the idea of you six shivering out in the cold like that."
The boys exchanged looks when hearing the word, 'sisters'.
Spike whispered to Flash, "Do you think…?"
He whispered back, "Well… there are six of them…"
Discord uttered in, "So it's got to be them!" he turned to the rosy-haired girl, "Tell me my dear, how long have you been in this house?"
"Oh goodness, it's been so long that I can't remember how long it's been."
The blue-eyed girl added, "We've all lived here for awhile now, it's understandable."
That confirmed it for the princes. They were Chrysalis's daughters.
The girls watched the boys with intrigue as they kept drying themselves out by the fire. When Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie had begun their day they never once thought they would meet six young men half drown from a storm.
Applejack whispered, "Strange lot ain't they?"
Rarity pointed, "Perhaps, but you can tell from their clothes as wet as they are that they are noblemen."
Twilight mentioned, "And they did want to see Lady Chrysalis about something so that confirms it."
Fluttershy suggested, "They could be apprentices working at the palace."
Rainbow uttered, "Whatever they are, they'll have to leave the moment the storm lets up."
Pinkie said, "She's right. Madam Cinch would be furious at us for letting men in here without the proper invitation."
They nodded their heads in agreement.
Just then one of the men suddenly sneezed and Fluttershy realized it came from the man she spoke with at the door.
"Oh my, I hope you're not catching a cold." she commented.
"It's nothing." he replied.
"Still, you should have some tea so you won't get sick." she went to put a kettle on.
Applejack added, "I got some warm apple cider on the stove, do you boys want any?"
The one with damp bright green hair raised his hand, "I would."
"So would I." said the one with blue hair.
"Me too." said the brunette.
She joined Fluttershy and poured the cider in a few mugs. As she served to them the brunette and blue-haired one grabbed for their mugs. The green-haired one was about to grab for his when Applejack tried to hand it to him and they touched hands for a second.
In that one moment, a strange sensation ran through them that they ended up staring at each other.
At the same time Twilight was walking by when she accidently tripped and bumped into the blue-haired man and he dropped his drink. "I'm so sorry!" she said and bended down to pick it up but he bended down too and the two touched hands making them lock gazes, forgetting about the spill entirely.
Rarity saw the looks and smirked knowingly. The dark purple-haired man came up to her with a smirk on his own as they watched their companions make goo-goo eyes.
"It would seem my brothers are smitten with your sisters."
"Indeed…" then she spotted a tear in his sleeve and told him, "Don't move." she quickly grabbed a needle and thread out of her dress pocket and started sewing the fabric. He watched on in bewilderment and when she was done their hands briefly touched but the feeling they got from it was amazing as they eyed each other.
Pinkie offered the brunette man a plate of chocolate chip cookies, "Cookie?"
"Don't mind if I do!" he reached for it just she was about to hand one to him and once their fingers touched, a shock of electricity ran through them and they stared right into their eyes.
Fluttershy had finished making the tea and poured a cup. She brought it to the man. He eyed it with hesitation but once he saw those adorable eyes of the girl's, he took it but in doing so he touched hands with her and they gawked at each other.
Rainbow saw all of them ogling and wanted to retch at the sight, the man with light blue skin and light green eyes saw her grimace, making him slightly chuckle, asking her, "Too mushy for you, uh?"
"Well I should say so!"
"Don't worry, I'm not all that romantic either."
"So if we touched hands too, we wouldn't end up like them, right?"
He held his hand out, "I would think so, wanna try it out?"
She eyed it for a bit before shrugging, "Eh, what do I got to lose?" she reached for his hand and when she touched it, she was about to let go but for some odd reason she couldn't… She looked into the man's eyes and an unusual feeling overcome her. She could tell the man was just as entranced with her as she was with him.
For the longest moment all six duos couldn't stop staring at each other.
Suddenly a loud voice shouted out, "Girls! Where are you?!"
That broke them out of their states and the girls gasped and crippled in fear.
Twilight declared, "You have to go!"
Rarity pointed, "She can't see you here!"
Pinkie motioned toward the window, "But lucky for you the storm has stopped!"
Applejack and Rainbow started to usher the boys out.
The princes were confused by their insistence but concluded that the woman calling for them was their governess and they weren't allow to socialize with men without a chaperone.
They quickly made it outside where the clouds were starting to clear up and the sun was starting to shine through. They got on their horses but not before they exchanged one last look with the girls they touched hands with.
The girls gave back their looks before they heard the woman's voice again and gestured for the boys to get going.
They expressed their thanks and rode on.