Think humble. Think apologetic. Think "I've just done something wrong."
It wasn't that hard, once she got into the mindset, and for once, letting her nervousness show was actually helpful, in that it got a little easier to project the warm, disarming little grin she was using to cover up her normal one. Her 'scary' one. The one that, only today, she learned 'gave children nightmares.' She even remembered to adjust her gait after what Aria had said the other day; making sure to keep her head down a little more and trying not to let her hindquarters sway as much.
Admittedly, this routine would be easier if she weren't fighting the urge to make that detrimental grin on account of the looks she was getting while walking around with Blueblood. Pacing the carefully-polished floor, it was almost palpable to Adagio just how badly some of these ponies wanted to talk to her, Blueblood, or both, and the thrill of her plans making the transition to reality brought her to her current mantra.
Think humble. Think apologetic. Think "I've just done something wrong."
It dampened her fun a bit, but when they got back to the Pisces room, she'd be free to laugh and laugh and laugh! Until then, she let Blueblood lead her to the first Important Pony they could find. As it happened, that was a pony Adagio recognized as Sapphire Shores (Blueblood had pictures for most of the ponies on his list), who smiled brightly as she stepped in front of them.
"Ohh, somepony get me a seeing-eye dog, because I don' be-lieve my EYES!!"
She was wearing a white, shiny... thing with dangling straps and glittering curls sticking out in random directions from her hackles, like a once-respectable white dress had been torn apart, glued back together, and sprayed with a sticky, reflective fluid. Judging by the way the shinier areas of the dress looked a bit like water cascading down a smooth surface, this might well have been the case.
"Good evening Miss Shores," replied Blueblood, showing no outward sign of confusion or discomfort at the walking spectacle in front of them, "might you be making a contribution as well?"
"Pfft," she snorted, rolling her eyes and dismissively waving a hoof, "Blue, Blue, Buh-loo, you know I just have my agent sing all that number jazz!" She stepped closer to Adagio with a big, big smile. "Besides, I think we-" she dragged the word out as if it were part of a song, "ahhhhll know the big question tonight; who're your new friends, Blue?"
Almost reflexively, Blueblood gestured back and forth to the two mares. "Sapphire Shores, Adagio Dazzle, Adagio Dazzle, Sapphire shores. I'm sure you'll meet the other two in due time."
Think humble, think apologetic, think "I've just done something wrong!"
Adagio managed a sheepish little smile. "Hello there."
Looking her up and down, Sapphire nodded. "Hello here, there, and wherever else, Hon! Diggin' the spikes!"
Considering that Sapphire was looking upward when she said that, Adagio guessed she meant the hairband. "I, y-yes, it's-"
Something I probably shouldn't be wearing if I want to look friendly and approachable? Dammit, Aria, why didn't you say anything about that?!
"-umm... an, heirloom...?" She wanted to think that the nervous grin she was making was entirely deliberate.
Whether or not that was actually a good reason to wear spikes all the time may not have mattered, because the Pony of Pop™ stepped forward, wrapped her forehooves around Adagio's neck, and squeezed her. "Oh, you are just! Too! Kuh-YOOOOT!!"
It hopefully helped her act that Adagio blushed under the stares she was getting from over Sapphire's shoulder. The sensation was weird and uncomfortable, so she quickly wriggled out of the other mare's grip.
Blueblood continued to not look surprised. "You've never been one for the more formal avenues, have you, Miss Shores?"
She giggled, shooting him a little wink. "Maybe not, but I know I wasn't the only one, Hon."
"I've quite moved on, I assure you."
Still smiling, she nodded. "Same here, but still... good times, right?" That he didn't smile back told her how he still felt about the whole incident, but looking at the slightly lost face on his ultra-fluffy date reminded her that this was kind of a private thing. "So, you gonna be around long, lil' darlin'?"
Adagio snapped to attention. "Yes, I-I mean, we -my companions and I- we've only just gotten settled, for the most part...?"
Sapphire chuckled. "Well, I do hope y'all like it here!" She nodded to Blueblood. "You be good to them girls, 'kay?"
Considering what he was going to help them do, it took considerable effort not to smirk. "But of course."
"Great!" She again stepped close enough to pull Adagio into a hug, lightly nuzzling her face with her own. "Seeya 'round, cutie, and lemme know if you eeeevah need some help!"
Blushing again, Adagio at least had an easy time keeping up a meek smile. "Of c-course, thank you."
When Shores cheerfully sauntered off (somehow, it was news to Adagio that one could cheerfully saunter), Adagio kept her voice down. "That was the leading pop star you mentioned?"
"Yes," he answered while looking around for anypony that might have been heavily involved with the upcoming holiday, "she holds a few shows to sing spiced versions of Hearths Warming songs every year, though I don't know how much use that will be to you."
"Old flame of yours? I don't recall her being mentioned with the rest." He looked at her in surprise, but she only arched an eyebrow. "I may be able to use her relation to you somewhere down the road, and as it appears that she likes me, that may be soon."
Morally Flexible, Blueblood reminded himself, for the greater good, I must be willing to be Morally Flexible.
Taking ponies he'd known for years and knowingly turning them over to Adagio for her(their) insidious machinations was a horrible thing to do, but he again steeled himself with the reminder that this was for the best. "We were friends due to being stuck in a similar situation for a while, but there was never anything between us."
"And this situation was...?"
He glanced away. "Best discussed another time, as it's an issue she may not like learning you heard from somepony else."
Adagio just nodded.
Testing and/or teasing me with secrets, or earnestly telling me I'll have better luck if I get her to share on her own? Does the topic even matter? Time will tell, but for now: Think humble. Think apologetic. Think "I've just done something wrong."
---
Parties were great!
That was Sonata's primary thought as she inspected the snack tables, or whatever the fancy word for those was, because not only were they piled high with tasty-looking stuff, but ponies were watching her everywhere she went! Munchies and attention! All without that metallic, negative energy aftertaste! And speaking of taste, she started with the nearest cheese-wheel!
Not far from her, Marigold Harshwhinny leveled disdainful looks, both at the young mare making a spectacle of herself by sticking her face straight into the hors d'oeuvre table, and the many standing around just watching her do it. Rolling her eyes, she determined that, as usual, pointing out errors fell to her, and approached post-haste.
"Pardon me, Miss Dusk?" Irksome as it was to have to repeat herself twice before being heard, Harshwhinny kept a cool head until the response came, even if it was in the form of a dumbfounded look from a pony with her mouth full.
"Wuh? 'ow'd you know muh name?"
"I was paying attention when Prince Blueblood announced you. More importantly, while I can appr-... Would you perhaps consider closing your mouth when you chew?"
"'m tryin', buh thurs'allot'a chuz in thur!" Yea, yea, talking with your mouth full, but Sonata was with the prince now, so she was pretty sure she outranked everyone here!
Her eye twitching, Harshwhinny decided against a lecture about biting off more than one could chew in favor of her original thoughts. "While I can appreciate not wishing to offend anypony by flaunting unicorn magic to aid in the dining process, offending ponykind as a whole really isn't an improvement. Honestly, you would have to be doing parlor tricks to irritate anyone by eating with magic, so a little telekinesis won't-"
"Ooh," Sonata said excitedly, having chewed up and swallowed about 85% of that mouthful, "I can do tricks, wanna see?!"
Without waiting for an answer, Sonata conjured a big, glowing ball of outward-facing trumpets that blared in a variety of pitches, none of which would win any prizes at an orchestra contest, but sounded pretty neat to her. Whatserface must not have agreed, though, because she made a face like she'd found something wet and sticky stuck to the underside of her hoof, made a little 'hmph' noise, and walked away.
Yeesh, everypony's a critic. Well, whatever.
Since she was pretty sure she had literally her whole life's worth of missed meals to make up for, Sonata got right back to it!
---
In all her time staking out the Rainbooms, just watching them and waiting, Aria liked to think she had a pretty good thing going with patience. That said, the past twenty or thirty minutes of listening to Trenderhoof go on and on about himself and his stupid little exploits in 'journalism' (which, Aria had learned in detail, pretty much boiled down to "hey everyone come look at this thing I now know all about because I put its hat on") had her struggling to not scream something Adagio would tan her hide for at the top of her lungs, let alone maintain her passive, aloof expression. Luckily, Trenderhoof continued to read this face as her 'Goth' look, which unluckily kept him talking with fewer and fewer pieces of potentially useful information.
Then came hope, in the form of another pony who wanted to talk to her.
"Excuse me," some otherwise unremarkable noble-type cut in, "but I do believe I heard something along the lines of black lace fittings?"
"Er, yes," answered Trenderhoof, eyebrow raised, "Goth clothing is known to be intricate and-"
"Fascinating," interrupted the newcomer, who wasn't even entertaining a pretense of actually talking to Trenderhoof as he focused solely on Aria, "I'd love to hear all about your style, are your sisters dressed in light-Goth, then?"
Realizing that her dress was just a differently-colored version of Adagio and Sonata's, Aria felt the prickly panic of a hole in her story, but not having actually said that she was dressed Goth, she saw a way out. "No. Didn't actually have a lotta clothes with us when we got here, made due with what they dressed us in at the castle."
New Guy opened his mouth to say something, but was ironically interrupted by an even more pompous-sounding pony than Trenderhoof.
"I say," announced a grey stallion with white hair done up in a beehive-looking thing with a long twirly bit hanging off, sunglasses covering his eyes (despite being indoors, which Aria could have sworn was freakin' rude) that made it look like he was just really interested in the distant ceiling with how high he held his snout, "did I hear correctly? Those dresses are from none other than the Royal Palace?"
It probably would have been rude to respond with "That's what I just said, dumbass," even in line with the cold act she was going for, so it was fortunate that Interrupting Guy did his thing a quarter of a second before Aria opened her mouth.
"Ohhh, so the the princesses have an interest in Goth culture?"
"That's most likely recent," Trenderhoof said with an arched eyebrow in what Aria read as an effort to regain control of the conversation, "the return of Princess Luna and all things Nighttime would almost certainly call for some renovations in style to be made."
White Hair offered Aria a little smile as he lowered his shades. "Hoity Toity, by the by, pleased to meet you. You are staying at the palace, are you not? Have you witnessed either of the princesses in dark petticoats? Long veils? Black and white stripes?"
"No," she said in a tone that she hoped implied "and piss off." She didn't like Blueblood, didn't like Trenderhoof, didn't like ponies in general, but somehow, she liked this pony even less. It must not have taken, because he didn't even make a face like Trenderhoof did the first time she snubbed him.
"Princess Luna must have bat accessories at the least?"
Trenderhoof interrupted Aria's non-answer of "How should I know?" before it even left her lips.
"Actually, while the dark and 'spooky' have their place amid Nightmare Night decorations, the ghosts and ghouls are not actually a key element of Goth chic."
He looked so proud of himself that Aria almost wanted to say something contrary just to make him look like a doof, but, as what she guessed was in line with the plan, the stooges around her kept talking.
"I thought," said another new pony that didn't stand out, for some reason looking squarely at Aria with a hopeful smile as he spoke, "that anypony wearing bat paraphernalia was cultural appropriation."
"It's not," added Hoity, "at least when not done tastelessly. Thestrals tend not to be overly particular about anypony's fashion anyway, and the Goth scene most likely started with bat ponies."
This time, Aria had to speak up. "Bat ponies?"
The question won her four confused stares, Trenderhoof the first to actually answer. "Y-yes, the... the ponies with fangs and bat wings? You've never seen one?"
Cover story, cover story!!
"We're not from around here," she said with a mild shrug as she turned her head away, "never even heard of 'em."
"Little wonder, that," chuckled Hoity, "they aren't the most populous species to begin with, mostly come out at night and, frankly, tend not to be the most well-off, either, certainly not enough to attend a gathering like this." Besides, bat wings clashed with just about everything.
Aria barely grunted in reply, but internally, she skipped with merry joy at having a new nugget of info. A less privileged underclass of pony that fly like pegasi and only come out at night? She didn't need to think hard to know that Adagio could twist that into some kind of interracial conflict, maybe even spark a full-scale class war.
That reminded her to get back to mining for more, but...
"I heard they were all exiled when Princess Luna was originally banished."
"No," Trenderhoof flatly corrected Interrupting Guy, "no they were not."
"But that would explain the poverty," offered a noble mare Aria didn't recognize.
"Nonsense," said the guy that showed up after Hoity, "were earth ponies ever banished?"
Hoity, bearing neither horn nor wings, raised an eyebrow above his sunglasses. "I beg your pardon....?"
As Hoof-In-Mouth guy looked back apologetically, Aria internally sighed. It was going to be hard to get any useful information out of these ponies until they were done talking politics.
---
The party had been going for at least an hour and a half, and while internally pleased that she had gotten the names of several influential ponies as well as invitations to personally visit their places of business, Adagio could feel herself wearing down. More worrying was that she didn't have time to think about why she was getting tired so easily now, the docile act taking most of her focus just to keep an 'evil' smile from slipping and possibly putting off any of the dozen or so ponies near her at any given time.
This was her first time cooperating with someone other than Aria and Sonata rather than just using them, and she didn't have a feasible back-up plan for if that went wrong yet.
Luckily, her doubts and worries helped fuel the act, and judging by the faces of the ponies around her, her bashful, nervous routine was easily endearing her to the Canterlot Elite. And why wouldn't it? It wasn't as though they weren't all smug, stupid, self-important creatures shaped by their wealth and their community to latch onto any sense of superiority they could sniff out, and the looks she'd been getting, the patronizing stares of 'Oh good, something I can feel better about myself for' and 'this one is no threat to me' convinced her that the day of reckoning couldn't come soon enough.
Well, no, maybe not all of them act that way.
Sapphire Shores had offered her assistance if it were needed, but she hadn't felt condescending about it. Adagio had gotten a different vibe from her in general, and at least a few others that weren't openly thinking of themselves as royalty in waiting, but she knew that even they would show their true colors sooner or later, whether it was her own doing or not.
"Prince Blueblood," came the voice of a serious-looking pony in a suit and thick glasses, "I was hoping you'd still be here, saves me a trip back to the office. We need to talk about those renovations in the advertising department if we're to get the billboards up before Hearts Warming."
Nodding, Blueblood turned his head just enough to look at Adagio. "I'll need some time to sort this out, will you be alright on your own for a while?"
Wearing a smile that suggested faint, but visible anxiety, Adagio nodded and cantered off in no particular direction.
He's either testing me, specifically my ability to do this on my own, or he's honestly hung up with business at a bad time.
They were equally as likely at this point, she decided. She'd come to wonder if he'd intentionally set her up for that undignified moment with Sapphire Shores as a show of dominance, but he did nothing whatsoever to signal 'Yes, I did that on purpose, so you better follow my lead.' Or maybe, with this facade she had to put on now, it was actually Aria setting her up. She was the one that had taken the time to coach Adagio through it, saying that if she smiled like she was embarrassed about something, she actually looked pretty friendly.
If she was just trying to get me to humiliate myself, if she would dare prank me with something this important, she'll soon wake up face-to-face with a hollow pony suit made of her own skin.
Of course, again, the fact that this was actually working suggested otherwise. While nopony outright galloped over when they saw that she was alone, many eyes followed her as she cautiously wandered the area, though she didn't beckon anyone by looking at them for longer than a second. Not that that stopped ponies she wasn't looking at from stepping forward anyway.
"I say, hello there, Miss Dazzle!"
She turned to see none other than the host of the event and what Blueblood described as his Prench-accented shadow; Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis. The latter stared directly at her with a particularly intense, focused gaze.
Afraid I'll steal your stallion? Don't worry, dear, I already have my own wealthy, influential partner.
"Hello," Adagio answered in a polite, quiet tone, making sure to work just a bit of unease into her smile, "did you... need something?"
He chuckled. "Only the assurance that all is well with you, Miss Dazzle." He briefly glanced around. "Where is Prince Blueblood?"
"He is speaking with a colleague or business associate, I think."
"Ah," said Fancy Pants, unsurprised, "busy even here, it seems, but that's our Blueblood."
Then this is normal for him, and you didn't organize a distraction to speak with me alone?
"Is that common, then? He hasn't stopped to talk with such ponies since we got here."
"Well, as the head of a major financial government office, I suppose most of the city's businesses must speak with him here and there, and at gatherings such as these, those ponies tend to be in one place anyway, so it's hardly his own fault that some might jump at the opportunity." He briefly surveyed the immediate area. "Still, there was a time when he'd have at least had it wait until later, 'keep work at work' as they say."
Genuinely curious, Adagio let her tilted head and wide, innocent eyes speak for themselves.
Fancy smiled a little. "Princess Celestia's nephew was once a much warmer, happier fellow, the kind of pony that could lighten the mood of a room just by strolling in."
"If a bit of a ponce," added Fleur.
"Fleur," chided Fancy, only a hint of sternness in his tone despite the amused smile he visibly tried to surpress. He shook his head as she giggled into a hoof before looking back at Adagio. "He had his faults, like any of us, but..." His smile faded. "Well, I'm afraid I can't pinpoint when the change took place, but somewhere over the last... oh, several months now, I suppose, something in him has shifted. And not for the better, I fear."
Seeing the surprise in Adagio's face, realization sunk in that he might be needlessly worrying this poor filly. "I mean, that's not to say that there's anything wrong with Prince Blueblood, just that he used to be a more cheerful chap, right Fleur?"
It took Fleur a moment and a light nudge to rejoin the conversation. "Hm? Oh, yes," she answered, "a few terrible habits aside, he was once among the most spirited of Canterlot nobility."
Tempted though she was to ask about 'terrible habits,' Adagio sensed some kind of trap in the words, and decided against being labeled some nosy gossip by prying. That wasn't even accounting for the fact that Fancy Pants was apparently some manner of rival to Blueblood and everything he said had to be viewed through that filter. On that note, maybe she could run some mild counter-gossip of her own. "I couldn't guess what his behavior may have entailed before," she said with a modest grin, "but he has treated my sisters and I very well in our time here."
Looking pleased to hear this (perhaps even genuinely so), Fancy Pants nodded. "The hospitality of the royal family is well-known and long-standing in Equestria, ever since the first Hearths Warming, be it to foreign dignitaries or even those who just couldn't find shelter for the night."
And then Adagio smelled blood, sinking her fangs immediately by putting on a confused, faintly distressed face. "'Couldn't find shelter'? I, I thought the goal of this gathering was a charity drive?"
Perplexed, Fancy's smile diminished somewhat. "It is, and we raise tens of thousands of bits every year to aid those in need."
"I see," she said as though she were trying to work something out. "And, if I may, how much of that funding goes to soup kitchens and shelters as opposed to security spikes?" Fancy and Fleur stared back at her in shock, so she quickly clarified. "I haven't been here for long, so I couldn't speak of the situation in this city, but I've traveled far, and in that time, heard of measures taken by property owners to deter anyone from lingering outside their buildings." Deliberately averting her eyes for just a few seconds to show vulnerability, she took up a sad, but accepting smile. "I know they're referred to as 'anti-loitering' fixtures by those paying for them, but anyone can see that the placement of such things is always done to deter transients from sleeping in those areas, or even just stopping to rest."
Luckily for her group, they could just sing the owners of any establishment they chose into letting them rest not just on the premises, but inside, anywhere they wished. Or at least, they could before. Using the sense of loss to attain the necessary level of tremor in her voice, she took full advantage of the pitying looks on Fancy and Fleur's faces as they visibly inferred that she had been in this situation herself.
"B-but, uh," she continued, not certain that letting her growing fatigue show would help the performance, "I-I'm sure your generosity renders such things irrelevant, giving so much to ensure that nopony even need worry about coming across... deterrents, of that fashion."
The pained, regretful look on Fancy's face, his smile entirely erased, was answer enough. Adagio wasn't sure if he was thinking about homeless ponies in his local area or in less wealthy provinces than the nation's capital city, but his quiet, contemplative tone suggested that he knew he wasn't making the difference he wished he was. "Y-yes, we... things are, good, here in Canterlot."
Seeing Fleur gently place a hoof on Fancy's shoulder and him faintly smile back at her, Adagio waited until the instant that his mood seemed brightest before delivering the killing blow with a warm, grateful, and recently-practiced smile. "Oh, yes, very much so! My sisters and I are blessed to have been taken in here, and it means a lot that you would welcome us."
It was a good thing she was already smiling, because Adagio wasn't sure she could completely keep any grin off her face at the brief moment of shock and dawning horror that moved across Fancy's before he returned a slightly rigid smile. "Quite, quite, you... Please enjoy tonight's festivities, Miss Dazzle, to your heart's content."
He barely stopped himself from pointing her to the hors d'oeuvres table, knowing that she likely got plenty to eat at the palace, but his heart sunk just a little anyway when she perked up, said "I'll certainly try!", and wandered off. Before he could dwell on whether Blueblood only took those three fillies in under the guise of wanting to bring company for tonight or if he was going to be throwing them out of the castle tomorrow, Fleur's soft, honey-like voice sounded close to his ear.
"I would not worry for her, Mon Cher, I am sure she has been well-taken care of."
"What makes you so certain?"
"Well, she may have been a little on the thin side, but did you see that plot?"
If he had been drinking wine, he'd have spat it right out, feeling heat crawl up his neck. "Fleur!!"
Fleur De Lis, as usual, showed not the faintest sign of shame. "What? You must have seen it when she turned away, and one does not get such big, round flanks by being malnourished."
"Even so, it does not mean she and the other two were always so well-off! She may have been speaking from experiences long-past!"
"Oh," Fleur said idly as she looked in the general direction Adagio had gone, "that's sad."
"Yes," sighed Fancy, "yes it is. For her and everypony else."
He had seen "anti-loitering" spikes first-hoof, and knew exactly what she was talking about. He'd never approved of such things, not the least because the money could have indeed gone toward something that helped the homeless, not hid them, but that didn't stop a few business owners from having them installed in this very city. Knowing there was nothing he could do beyond publicly expressing disapproval of such practices (and he heartily did!), he sighed, looking at Fleur.
"Did you not say that you wished to touch that mare's mane, if only for a moment?"
Fleur giggled. "I did, very much, but the timing of the thing just wasn't right." She playfully nudged him with a hoof. "You didn't even introduce us."
Fancy blinked, then facehoofed, making Fleur laugh a little louder.
"Perhaps when next we meet? Prince Blueblood is sure to keep that one with him."
"One certainly hopes so; the colt could use a nice filly in his life."
Not far from them, Adagio rejoined Blueblood, who had wrapped up with the other pony.
"My apologies. Did you meet anypony interesting?"
She read that as 'did you get to talk to anyone, or were you just kind of wandering around?' Wearing the same smile with which she'd left Fancy Pants, she giggled. "I'll tell you later."
"I, see."
With how weary she'd been looking as the evening wore on, he'd been worried he'd find her either collapsed in a circle of gawking ponies or curled up in a quiet corner somewhere. Possibly in her own mane. Adagio (the real one, that is, if one assumed that the devious mare he'd been dealing with for the last few days was indeed the 'real' one) seemed like the proud type, but maybe...?
"Perhaps we should regroup at the castle? The others are bound to have had their fill of this by now."
Mulling it over for a moment, Adagio briefly scanned the party guests. Most of the ponies that expressed an interest had already introduced themselves or, she suspected, sent a friend to scout for them, and she alone had more than enough ponies to keep her busy for at least a week. "Alright. I think I saw Aria in the same spot as a little while ago, shall we?"
Quietly relieved, Blueblood smiled.
---
"I'm so sorry, but it seems we've found someone more qualified for the job, so I'm afraid we'll have to let you go."
It still burned her, the horseapples reason Suri had been fired from that stupid farce of a museum, but apparently thinking out loud that one of the Element Bearers' accomplishments weren't all that impressive was grounds for termination. That stupid, boot-licking suck-up curator wasn't going to get anything out of those mares anyway, and Suri took solace in the knowledge that he'd probably be closing down in a few weeks.
Hay, with the money he must have blown to get all those 'relics,' maybe he'll be ruined. Serves him right.
She'd gotten lucky with Fancy Pants being short on staff for tonight, but the job hunt would be on again soon. Not that it wasn't nice to know that she'd eat this week! That is, as long as she could avoid-
"Man, you've got a lotta jobs, huh?"
Her.
From the moment she saw Blueblood walk in with those mares, she'd done her best to avoid going near any of them, even the yellow, fluffy one and the purple, scowly one that she knew nothing about, but she was supposed to keep the snack table full and that got harder and harder to do without running into her blue nemesis. A couple hours into the party, here they were again; face-to-stupid-smiling-job-endangering-face.
"Yea," Suri replied icily, "I get around, okay?"
"Cool," Sonata responded without the faintest hint of understanding or even having cared, "do you have those circle things here?"
"Circle... things...?"
"Yea, y'know, the round ones!"
Suri's first instinct was to ask one of the other serving ponies if it was even allowed that guests order specific hors d'oeuvres as opposed to shutting their stupid, rich faces and just eating anything from the wide selection of random crap that was already all over the place, but all of them had long abandoned the main table in favor of walking around with trays.
Cowards!
That just left her, alone with the monster. "You mean the brie? It's right there, so-"
"No, like a sugary round thing!"
There were a lot of things cut into circles, but she didn't really know which ones had sugar. She pointed to the first thing she saw with frosting. "That?"
"Nope!"
"What about-"
"Nah."
Suri's eye twitched and her jaw clenched. "M-maybe, you could be more specific, okay?"
Rolling her eyes, Sonata let out a quick groan. "Ugh, you know, the twisty things!" It was too bad that she couldn't just use the Show Me spell, but they apparently didn't like tricks here.
"How can it be round and 'twisty'?!"
Sonata gave her a blank stare. "I dunno."
Must not rage, rage is the mind-killer. Or at least the job-killer.
She tried to think, but nothing she'd ever seen at any party she'd ever been to, high society or otherwise, fit the description of 'round, twisty, sugar-thing.' Then it occurred to her that this idiot probably wasn't thinking of something you'd normally find at either of those places, but something she saw somewhere else once, something they don't normally serve in Equestria. She and her sisters were from so far away that they were practically aliens, right? She had an idea.
"Do you mean like a... sugared, pretzel, or something?" For but a moment, she had hope when Sonata looked thoughtful.
"Uhhh..."
"...?"
"...Nuh-uh!"
Suri nearly swore. Explosively. Somewhere in the depths of her mind, she found that she still had some clean words left, delivered slowly so as to carefully control output. "Do you know what this thing is made of?"
"Food!"
"Specifically...?"
"I'unno, whatever they make other donuts out of."
Something crashed into something else in Suri's head, leaving large cracks and a worrying sound of leaking fluid. "It's a donut?! Why didn't you just start with that?!"
"I told you it was round!"
"A LOT OF THINGS ARE F-"
"Miss Dusk," came Blueblood's voice, freezing Suri solid in an instant, "it's time to go."
Sonata looked over to see the prince with Adagio at one side, looking a little sleepy, and Aria on the other, grumpy as always. "We going home?" Blueblood nodded, so she walked over to join them.
"Wait," uttered Suri as it clicked in her head what Sonata was trying to ask for, immediately taking a few steps to grab it from the table, "wait! Crullers! The things you were looking for are called crullers!"
Looking over her shoulder, Sonata smiled. "Aw, no thanks, I'm pretty much full anyway."
And off they went, leaving Suri standing perfectly still with the pastry in hoof. Very slowly, she lifted it to her snout and took a bite.
It wasn't as sweet as throwing it at Sonata would have been, nor screaming at her, nor even the mild, inconsequential victory of having found what she was looking for before she decided she didn't want it anymore, but it made her feel a little better all the same.