//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: The Maid 
// by Dinkledash 
//------------------------------//



Prince Silverhoof looked down at the brass key that lay inert on the ground.  He then looked up at the cage, cursed annamannatite to deepest Tatarus, and turned to Deathworm.  "Listen old fellow, I can't use my magic to levitate the key to the lock, because the nullification field is at least three feet out from it, and when I get to close to the cage myself, I can feel myself passing out.  So I have an idea."

The dragon raised his eyebrows and rested his forlegs on his elbows, propping up his chin up on the heels of his claws.  "This is going to be good."

"I'll just nip down to the village and fetch an earth pony to open the cage.  Or maybe a pegasus.  I'll be right back!"

Dragons aren't technically capable of delivering a proper hairy eyeball, but a scaly eyeball can be just as effective, particularly in a dark cave.  "So, you're going to just go down to the village and hire a farmhand to come to the dragon's cave, walk past all the mountains of gold and gems, say hello to the dragon who has been looting the countryside and raiding all the farms in the area for the last century, and turn the key for you.  Then we'll all have tea?"  He raised his claw, pinkie talon extended with all due etiquette.

The prince rubbed his chin.  "Perhaps with sufficient financial persuasion..."

"And say you do find your enterprising young stallion, and bribe him sufficiently.  Will you then guide him up the winding passage from the foot of the mountain, through the hidden ways, and then he performs his service and returns to his farm?  He will of course not return with a battalion of armored earth ponies with crossbows, bent on vengeance and loot."

"But you've taken my word of honor that I would not return or betray you."  The prince scuffed his hoof on the rough floor of the cave.

"You are a prince, and your word of honor is sacred to you.  The same could not be said of the peasantry at large."



Clementine scowled at the paragraph before her.  Just get a long iron rod and weld the key to the end of it!



The prince stamped around the cave.  "Surely there must be some way of getting an earth pony here without them learning the way up the mountain!"

Deathworm looked thoughtful and nodded.  "There is.  Give me a few minutes."  Without waiting for a reply, the mighty wings unfolded and the dragon was unwinding upward.  The first beat of his mighty wings scattered gold and gems into the air and nearly knocked Silverhoof over, as his sinuous black coils drove up powerfully through the air to the roof of the cave, where a patch of light showed through the gloom.  He compacted himself and dove through the opening, leaving Silverhoof below, brushing gold dust and fragments of gems from his mane, coat and the frills of his floofy white shirt.

Having nothing else to do, the prince practiced his fencing forms for perhaps a half hour, until he heard the sounds of wings from the rooftop.  The dragon entered the cavern at speed, a red dun mare clutched in his talons, shrieking in protest.  




Clementine shook her head.  The iron rod would have been easier.



Deathworm hovered before the prince and dropped the screaming earth pony in front of him.  She landed in an undignified heap, the cave ringing at the scattering of gold pieces.  She stood and shook herself off, shouting words unfamiliar to Silverhoof, but based on their volume and tone, he assumed she was swearing.

"TARNATION!  HORSEAPPLES!  SUGAR-SUCKING FRUITBATS!  How DARE you, you scaly, black, hornswaggling son of a MUD SNAKE!"  She shook her hoof at the bemused Deathworm and turned to face Silverhoof.  "And who the hay are you!?"  A wavy tawny mane framed a face that would be most pleasant if it were not purpled in outrage.

He smiled his most charming smile.  "Goodmare, I am Prince Silverhoof," he bowed elegantly, making a handsome leg, "and it is my pleas-"

"Can it, Silverpoof!"  Green eyes flashed with anger.  "Can't you see that there dragon is a gonna eat us?  Why ain'tcha usin' that fancy sword of yours?"

"Well you see, he doesn't really like to eat pony.  We're kind of, well, gamey and a bit on the dry side for him."  She turned her head and looked up at the dragon, who nodded in response.

"So wait, you two are friends!?  What the hay kind of prince are you, anyway?"

"Oh, I'm sure you'll see," chimed in the dragon with a bass rumble.

Silverhoof cleared his throat.  "As I was saying, goodmare, I require a service of you, for which you will be appropriately compensated."

Her eyes bulged.  "You sent your dragon out to ponynap me?!"

Deathworm coughed.  "I am not HIS dragon.  I am my own dragon, thank you very much."  

The prince shifted his weight backwards.  "Well, not exactly, you see..."

"Oh!  I see alright!  And how is this mere peasant commanded to serve yer high and mightiness?"  Her green eyes blazed with injured dignity.  "Do ya need yer delicate hooves polished?"

He glanced at his hooves.  "Do you think they need it?"

She glanced up at the dragon, who rumbled, "Told you."

She turned her furious gaze back on the unicorn, who continued, "You have the privilege to be of important service to her Most Regal Majesty, Princess Everheart, for only with the aid of an earth pony, may she be freed from her imprisonment."

The mare glanced over at the prison and saw the alicorn lying within.  Her breathing slowed and her scowl was gradually replaced with a grin.

"A alicorn princess?  A alicorn princess!  Well, well, well!  If that don't beat all!"  She was smiling broadly, practically beaming at Silverhoof.  "Why jest this mornin', ah was sayin' t' mahself how much ah wished ah could help me a alicorn princess.  Ya see, it was four in the A of the M, and ah got up to tend my flock like ah do every mornin' at four in the A of the M, an' ah was figgerin' about how much of mah sheep's wool ah was going to have t' take t' market t' be able t' pay mah taxes, and I was a-thinkin' maybe if ah was careful, ah might be able t' get me a new hat with what was left over after the taxes, an' the food for the month, an' the taxes on the food for the month, an' the new water bucket ah need, an' the taxes on the new water bucket ah need, but then ah realized there'd be taxes on the hat, so I'd just have ta wait fer next month."  

She paused for breath, then continued with relish, "An' like said, ah was a-hopin' that there'd be some way ah could thank a alicorn princess fer all that the government has done fer me, like keepin' them pesky rustlers from stealin' mah sheep no more'n two or three times a month, an' fer buildin' such ha quality roads with them nice deep ruts and the extra-thick mud at the bottom, fer makin' sure that dragons ain't makin' no trouble for me," she glanced upward at Deathworm who smiled and nodded politely, "an' most 'specially fer seein' to it that mah coin purse don't never get too heavy and throw mah hip out."

The Prince smiled brightly.  "Excellent!  Then just take this key and open the door to the annamannatite alloy cage that drains unicorn and alicorn magic, and drag the princess away from it!"

She took the proffered key, and looked it over.  "So, y'all need me t' open th' door, 'cause unicorns an' alicorns an' acorns and all them fellers get all their magic drained away by this here annabanana stuff?  Why can't the dragon do it?"  Deathworm waggled his immense talons at her.  "Oh, ah see."  She turned, tossed the key over her shoulder, and with a mighty buck of her rear legs, kicked the key straight into the pile of treasure, where it disappeared under an avalanche of gold and gems.  "OOOPS!  AH DROPPED IT!"

Silverhoof stared at the pile of treasure in stunned horror while the dragon chuckled like a pot that was boiling over.  "Oh, I LIKE her!  She has SPUNK!"



Clementine had reached the end of the chapter, and closed the book after marking her place with a slip of paper.  In the past week, she had been fitted for a fine new uniform, shown how to fix her mane properly so that it stayed under her cap, for the most part, how to tie her unruly tail into a passable bun, and been shown the basics of upstairs service.  She was shadowing the only other earth mare maid, a young, plum-colored pony with a white diamond marking on her face between her eyes named Gooseberry.  

Clementine followed Goosberry around and dusted, folded, changed linens, swept, mopped and cleaned fireplaces alongside her, and did most of the dirtiest work.  Gooseberry called her "scut pony" and "pot filly" and was sure to point out every spot of soot left uncleaned and bed linen not perfectly aligned.  When she found her work acceptable, she did so only in grudging terms.  It was not the sort of treatment Clementine was used to; Cookie worked her hard and pointed out her mistakes, but when she did well we was rewarded with a compliment and sometimes a sweet.  She was used to little or no regard from anypony other than cook and the undercook, and received none from the rest of the staff, all of whom were unicorns.  That's the glamor, she thought.  They aren't snobs.  Gooseberry, on the other hoof, seemed all too aware of the unicorn filly.

Her reprieve arrived every day after lunch, when she attended Lady Rubymane in her library.  She would fetch her books and fluff her pillow and serve tea and little cakes, and when her ladyship's eyes grew tired, she would read to her.  The lady of the manor did not receive guests in the library and none of the other staff would dare interrupt, save for Mr. Glass to announce an unexpected visitor or to report some other urgent matter.  When Lady Rubymane did not require her immediate attendance in the library, she was to dust, periodically check the books for silverfish and other vermin, ensure that the oil lamps were topped off, and when all else was done, she was to sit and wait in a small room next to the library, which was equipped with a wooden chair with a soft cushion and a desk, both suited for her smallish stature, and an oil lamp of her own.  She conjectured that these were used years ago by Lady Rubymane's children and had been kept in the attic.  

In the desk drawers, she had found deposited a baker's dozen of books, with "The Silly Prince" on top of the stack in the top drawer.  The other books appeared to be of a more scholarly nature, including the massive "Historia Coram Reginae," blessedly translated from the original Old Ponish, which had a drawer to itself, a grammar, a mathematics primer, an atlas of the known world, a bestiary, a book on rhetoric and another on logic, a book titled "Anatomia Equorum, Gryphes et ceterorum" which was not translated from Old Ponish but which was extensively illustrated with anatomical drawings, and a primer for Old Ponish, an old, ink-blotted book on penponyship, a dictionary, a thesaurus, several empty notebooks, a set of quills, a quill knife, and ink.  This trove of knowledge took her breath away and brought tears to her eyes, but it also filled her with trepidation.  I have so much to learn! 

Within the novel she found a note from her benefactor.  



I will always encourage you to read for pleasure, Clementine, but I believe it is my duty to ensure that you also read to better yourself and prepare yourself for whatever your life may become.  You may read one chapter of a novel every day if  you have the time, but when you are not attending me, learning your duties as an upstairs maid, assisting the other staff or spending time which Cookie, whom you must not neglect, I insist that you spend your time in study.  I will periodically quiz you, as it suits my whim. - R



The service bell rang and Clementine at once opened the center drawer of the desk, placed the novel within, and closed it, then stood and quickly walked out of the nook, around the bookcase that screened it from the main part of the library, and onto the richly decorated silk rug at the center of the room.  She curtsied and bowed her head, appreciating the fine knotwork shown in the medallion patterns before her, the brilliant, dominant red against the tan background, with robin's egg blue, gold, and almost secretly hidden hints of green cleverly combining to both please and trick the eye.  "My lady?" she asked, as she reached the nadir of her curtsy.

"Thank you, Clementine, please come here and tell me what you see out in the garden."  Lady Rubymane was sitting in her comfortable if not entirely stylish overstuffed chair, gesturing at the bay window.

The maid hastened to the window and peered out into the afternoon.  It was springtime and there were gardeners about, with wheelbarrows, shovels, mattocks, watering cans and pruning hooks, but at the moment there was only one visible.  The pale yellow colt, not much older that she, but considerably larger, with a jet black mane and tail, was planting something in a border in front of a copse of round bushes with deep green, elongated oval leaves.  "I see one of the gardeners, my lady.  He's planting something next to those big bushes."

"Can you tell what they are?"  She squinted.

"What he's planting, or the bushes, my lady?"

"What he's planting, child.  I know those are my Rhododendrons."

"Yes, my lady.  I mean, no my lady, I can't tell.  All I can see is he's digging."

"Rhododendrons are allelopathic.  He can put an annual border there, but if those are perennials, they'll die in the fall.  Rhododendrons make poor neighbors; their leaves are poisonous to other plants when they drop.  Be a good filly and run out and set him straight, would you?"

"Right away, my lady."  She curtsied and headed for the storage room filled with disused furniture, which Mr. Glass curiously referred to as the lumber room, where a door leading out to the garden was located.  She passed through, closing the door behind her, and trotted towards the gardener.  The air was warm and the sun shone down on her and she was sweating a bit after only a hundred yards when she reached the colt.

He stopped digging, grounded his shovel and looked at her, glancing at her uniform and her horn.  "Ello, miss."  Close up, she could see that he was heavyset with broad shoulders and a jaw that was already square despite his youth.  He was sweaty and covered with dirt and smelled like manure, which he probably was working with.  But his blue eyes were friendly.

"Hello, ah, master gardener." She knew not to curtsy to him, but it never hurt to be polite, so she'd been taught by Cookie.  "My name is Clementine, what is yours?"

His face split with a smile.  "Look a' that, a fine mare from the big 'ouse askin' me name."  A fine mare?  Where?  "The name's Bumblebee, miss Clementine."

"Well it's nice to meet you.  What are you planting here?"  She gestured at the holes that he was digging beneath the rhododendrons.

"I dunno.  Flowers I guess.  They're in the cart."  He gestured with his head to a low wooden wagon upon which a few dozen pots in which small seedlings grew.  They had long, oval, pale green leaves but as yet were low and were not flowering.

Clementine shook her head.  "I don't know what they are either.  Are they penny - I mean, per-en-ni-als?"  She sounded the word out slowly.  "Perennials?  That's it."

Bumblebee shrugged.  "I don't even know what that means."

"Really?"  She glared at him.  "What kind of gardener are you?"

He sighed and looked at the ground.  "A bad one.  Actually," he looked around and then looked her square in the eye, "I ain't supposed to be here.  My big sister Pansy Peas is one of the under-gardeners, but she's been home sick at the cottage for the past few days and we need the bits, so I came in her place.  Please don't tell nopony."

"Anypony," she instantly corrected.  "And you're in the soup anyway.  You know who's watching us from the window over there?"

He peered at the window but could see nothing.  "I dunno.  Pansy says nopony don't pay not mind to gardeners, no-how."

Clementine winced as she tried to parse out the stream of double-negatives.  She glared at him and replied in an irritated manner, "Pansy says nopony pays any mind to gardeners, anyhow."

Bumblebee looked at her in puzzlement.  "You know Pansy?  Anyways, she don't talk fancy like that.  Nopony but you unicorns talk all high-falutin' like that."

"I'm just trying to help you with your atrocious grammar, Bumblebee."  Is he right?  Am I high-falutin?  

"Hey!  You leave mah granma out of this!"  His color deepened and his expression darkened.  She stifled a laugh; while he was just a colt, he was a big one, easily twice as heavy as she was.  If he got sufficiently angry, he could hurt her badly and she had no way to defend herself with her useless horn, unless she managed to poke him in the eye.

She composed herself and assumed a contrite posture.  "I'm sorry, Bumblebee.  I meant no offense; I'm sure your grandmother is wonderful."

That seemed to mollify him.  "Well, OK then.  So just what kind of trouble am I in now?"

Oh, that's right!  "Lady Rubymane observed you from her library window and noted that you were digging near her Rho..." she paused and collected her thoughts, "Rhododendrons, which are alleopathic," she recited.  "Annuals may be planted near them, but when they drop their leaves in the fall, any perennials planted nearby will be poisoned.  So you see, we must determine if these are perennials or annuals."  

As she spoke, his insouciance evaporated.  Be the time she finished speaking, he was on the verge of tears.  "Oh Celestia, no!  I've gone and put my hoof in the manure this time!"  Tears started running down his face and his voice grew panicky.  "The lady done seen me and I ain't supposed to be here and now you're here and even if you wanted to you can't help me!  She'll see I don't know nothin' about gardenin' and she's a gonna send me home or worse and we won't be able to buy food and maybe she'll be so mad she'll throw us outta the cottage!"  

Clementine stared as the bulky colt collapsed in front of her, sobbing his eyes out.  "Oh no!  She's not like that!"  An idea struck her.  "Hey!  I can go and look up the plant in a botany book!  No wait, she's in the library."  She paced, formulating a plan.  "We'll go ask one of the other gardeners, they'll know!  Just stop crying!  You're being a baby!"

There was a flash of light behind her, a pop, and a rush of air.  She whirled and saw Lady Rubymane standing a few feet behind her and her heart nearly leapt out of her chest.  She had read about teleportation spells in some of her novels, but had assumed they were fictional.  "My lady!"  She remembered to curtsy, though she wasn't sure if the servants' protocols she had studied covered responding to the lady of the house teleporting into the garden.  When in doubt, curtsy and say, "My lady."

"Clementine!"  There was heat in her voice.  "What has happened?  I sent you here to inquire about the nature of the planting, not abuse my undergardener!"  She turned and looked at Bumblebee, who was now frozen in sheer terror, standing but bowing low, his eyes to the ground, shaking.  "And you!  Wait, who are you?  Are you new?"

"My lady, this is Bumblebee.  He's Pansy Peas' little brother, begging my lady's pardon."  She had never seen Lady Rubymane upset before, but she'd only actually met her a week ago,.

The unicorn looked at her sharply.  "We're not in private now, Clementine.  You will speak only when spoken to.  Is that clear?"  She wasn't angry, but she was stern.  The effect was immediate and Clementine felt like she physically shrunk as she curtsied and kept her head downcast.  "Yes, my lady," she said quietly.

She turned back to the yellow colt.  "Calm down, youngling!  I'm not going to hurt you!"  Bulbee's teary cornflower eyes peeked out from under the shock of black mane and he swallowed loudly.  "Pansy Pea... she's pink with a curly blonde mane, isn't she?"

"Y-yes m'lady.  That's her," Bumblebee quavered. 

"Where is she, Bumblebee?"

He seemed resigned to his fate.  "Oh, m'lady, I'm sorry.  I ain't supposed to be here, m'lady, I ain't no gardener."

"I gathered as much.  Now tell me where your sister is."  Her tone was one of mild impatience.

"Back at the cottage, m'lady.  She's home sick and I come to do her work.  We need the coin, m'lady.  Please don't throw us out!"

"Throw you out?  Of your home?  The very idea!  How long has she been sick?"

"Two days, m'lady."

"But she gets five sick days a year.  She'd just have to let the head gardener know she's ill and he'd still pay her for the day."

"M'lady?  Is that how it's supposed to work?"

Lady Rubymane raised her hoof to her face and frowned, covering her eyes.  "It appears I shall be having a discussion with the head gardener."  She lowered her hoof and sighed.  "Just how sick is Pansy?"

Bumblebee looked down and scuffed his hood.  "Oh, she say's it's nothin' to worry about, m'lady.  She'll be back on her hooves soon enough."

"So, you're not worried about her?"  The aristocrat raised an eyebrow.

The colt paused before responding and swallowed.  "I am worried, m'lady.  I think she's awful sick, but she don't wanna scare me."

"Tell me about her illness."  Her voice was soft, but firm.

"M'lady, she started with a headache three days ago, and she was saying how she ached all over.  Then yesterday morning when I woke up, she had chills and asked me to go to Digger Greenleaf and see if I could cover for her.  When I got back she was still sick and said her muscles was real stiff, m'lady.  This morning she wasn't no better.  And..." he paused.

"And what?"  There was a tone of mild alarm in Rubymane's voice.

"And she told me not to worry 'cause ma was gonna take care of her."

"So, your mother is..."

"Our ma is dead, m'lady.  Her and pa died two years ago in the flash flood."  Clementine gasped involuntarily.  She vaguely remembered several days where she was not permitted to go outside to due to the extremity of the spring rains.

The unicorn's mouth set in a hard line.  "Do you feel any chills?  Aches?"

"No, m'lady.  Is my sister going to be alright?"  Fear congealed like a cold, hard lump in his stomach and it showed on his face.

Her face softened.  "I'm sorry, but I honestly don't know, child.  I'll do everything in my power to see that she is."  She turned to Clementine.  "Take Bumblebee into the house through the kitchen door and ask Cookie to see to it that he's cleaned up.  Then go to the library and fetch Medicus Antiquorum's 'Morbos Curationesque Equorum.'  Then collect him and meet me by the back gate; I'll have the carriage brought up.  Oh, and bring two sets of clean sheets, an iron pot for boiling water, and some towels.  And hurry."  She vanished in a flash of power.

Clementine turned to face Bumblebee, who's eyes were welling up again.  "Come on, you can cry in the carriage.  We have to hurry!"  Her own heart was racing and she put her hoof out to touch his shoulder.  He seemed to take strength from the gesture, wiped the back of his fetlock across his grimy face, and took off at a gallop for the house.

She chased after him, catching up halfway to the residence as he paused, not knowing where the kitchen door was.  "Here, to the left.  Follow me."  They went around to the back of the great house, down a straight but narrow paved path to the portal where kitchen deliveries were made.  It was left unlocked during the day, so she opened the door and entered a corridor that led into the kitchen, where Cookie was upbraiding Thistlewhistle and the new scullion, a coal black earth filly named Peppercorn, about their slowness in cleaning up after lunch.  She turned upon seeing Clementine and smiled, then scowled as Bumblebee entered behind her.

"What are you doin', silly filly, bringing that dirty colt into my clean kitchen?"  

"Sorry Cookie, her ladyship wants you to get him cleaned up as quick as you can, and please be sweet to him, his sister is awfully sick.  I have to run and get some things!"  She sprinted past the flabbergasted kitchen servants and ran up the stairs as the cook's face softened, looking at Bumblebee.  

Clementine quickly collected the sheets and towels from a linen closet and put them into a basket at the top of the stairs, then trotted to the library to grab the medical book.  It was a thick tome, up on the third shelf of one of the taller bookcases, so she pushed a rolling stepladder that was discreetly kept in a corner to the base of the bookcase, pausing to move one of the firebuckets that Rubymane had recently placed in every room.

She reached up with both hooves and dragged at the volume; it was surprisingly heavy, so she pulled harder, putting her back into it.  It slid out, but in her pulling, she had overbalanced and fell backwards, the heavy book atop her.  The ornate plaster medallion in the center of the tray ceiling was eclipsed by the bulk of the massive, ancient book in her vision as she plunged towards the floor.  Clumsy!  Oh Celestia, help me!  

While it was not unusual for ponies to cry out to the goddess-monarch of Equestria, few actually imagined Celestia would come to their aid, unless she happened to be in the room at the time.  After establishing herself as the supreme power in Equestria upon banishing her deranged sister Luna to the moon five hundred years ago, she was no doubt quite busy maintaining the orbits of the planets and moons, ensuring the sun rose and set as appropriate to the seasons, and defending her borders from other nations.  Clementine fully expected to be seriously injured.

As the back of her head struck the ornate rug and the book slammed into her face, she felt no pain.  Instead, she felt heat,  an odd pressure, and a sense that time was slowing.  Her head seemed to sink into the rug and the hard wooden floor underneath as if it were a down pillow.  The book flowed down the sides of her face, and she heard what sounded like a deep, distant bell sounding.  Her ears popped.  In an instant though, reality reasserted itself and the book sprang back into solidity, rebounding upwards to land on her stomach, with sufficient momentum to knock the wind out of her.

She lay on the floor for a minute, feeling that she could not exhale, panic building as she wrapped her forelegs around her belly, tears welling up in her eyes as flashes of light filled her vision.  Her lungs burned, but then her spasming diaphragm relaxed and she was able to exhale, then quickly inhale a shallow, shuddering, delicious breath.  She took progressively deeper breaths as the stars before her eyes subsided.  Within a minute, she was left with a headache and abdominal pain that were manageable, and so she collected herself and rose to her hooves.  Thank you, Celestia!  She slowly bent to pick up the heavy book, failing to notice that the fibers of the rug were now aligned in a radial pattern, their focus being where her head had struck, or rather sunk into, the floor.

The book was massive, but she was able to managed to carry it to the basket.  Then, with great effort she was able to drag the basket down the kitchen stairs, reaching the bottom just as Cookie came in with the still damp Bumblebee.  "Come on, help me with this, Bumblebee!"  He nodded to Cookie who patted his head and smiled kindly at him then grabbed the basket between his teeth and picked it up, following Clementine out the door again.  She led him through the herb garden to the back gate, the smell of rosemary filling her nostrils.  She loved the thick, resinous aroma, how it stuck to your hooves when you prepared it, and especially how it tasted when baked into bread.

A tall, wrought iron fence enclosed the house and gardens, and the back gate was kept open during the day to allow deliveries from the farms around the village.  As she reached the gate, she hesitated.  I've never left the house grounds before!  At least not since I was found by Cookie!  She blinked at the sudden realization that she was going on what she could only consider an adventure; a visit to a new place, on an urgent mission.  Stop it, this is serious!  She felt ashamed of her excitement, looking at the forlorn colt.  "Now don't you worry, Bumblebee.  Lady Rubymane is the kindest and wisest of ponies.  I'm sure she'll..." 

She paused as a wagonette came down the path, pulled by two sturdy earth pony coach stallions, one chestnut and the other a dappled grey, silent and with their eyes kept to the front, in deference to her ladyship.  There were four seats on the plain black four-wheeled vehicle, two facing forward and two back so that four could easily make conversation.  Rubymane sat in the rear right seat wearing a dark brown cloak, plain but of a very fine weave.  A broad-brimmed hat of similar color and quality was set upon her head, tilted back to rest upon her horn, the ensemble completed by a veil that served to obscure both her horn and her features.

Silver-white light glowed, illuminating the unicorn's face under the brim of the hat, sparkling through the gauze of the veil; the effect was mysterious and somewhat dazzling.  The basket with sheets, towels and book rose, stopped briefly, and then rose again after glowing somewhat brighter.  "Come children, we must make haste."  "Morbos Curationesque Equorum" glowed and was lifted into the noble's lap as the filly and colt scrambled up the iron step attached to the side of the bed of the wagon, then sat across from Rubymane.  Seeing they were seated, she pitched her voice to the coach ponies, "Gentlecolts, to the village please, your best safe speed."

The stallions acknowledged with twinned m'lady's in deep voices, and the wagon started forward, gathering speed until they were moving along faster than most ponies could run, the wagon swaying and bumping on its springs.  "Clementine," said Rubymane, "I had forgotten how heavy 'Morbos'  was.  I hope it didn't give you any trouble."

"My lady," Clementine replied with a sidelong glance at Bumblebee, "I remain whole, despite the book's best efforts."  Whether Rubymane cocked an eyebrow or gave her a questioning glance in return, she could not see.  The veil rendered her inscrutable.  

"My dear, this is the first time you have gone into the village, is it not?"  The filly nodded as Bumblee rocked with the motion of their passage, momentarily distracted from his worry by the spectacle of pine, maple, oak and cypress whipping past on both sides.  "I haven't been there myself in nearly ten years.  I'm traveling incognito because we have no time for the alderponies to make a fuss.  Prepare yourself dear, it is quite different from the house."

"Yes, my lady."  She thought of the novels she had read, and their varied descriptions of villages.  She scolded herself for it, but could not help but be excited by the thought of novelty.  A small smile escaped, and she turned her head so that Bumblebee might not see it.  This was a serious mission, after all.  A mission!