//------------------------------// // Chapter 19 - A Chance Meeting // Story: Servant of the Queen // by A bag of plums //------------------------------// When Chrysidea had awoken that morning, the first thing she realized was that her fever had gone down. After almost a whole day of sleep, she was feeling much better, and she hadn’t even taken the medicine Nurse Cardiac had given her. In fact, the bag of medicine was in a bin beside her study desk. After washing up and brushing her teeth, Dea had a simple breakfast of two eggs and a sausage before heading back to her room to finish her homework. She might’ve skipped out on school today, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have to finish her work. She had even called ahead, asking Canvas Splash if there was any work for the classes they shared. Thankfully, there had been none. The maids had been especially nice to her that morning, checking in on her every hour, asking if she needed anything. Dea replied politely, smiling to herself every time they sent her a bit of gratitude and care. She was excited. She definitely felt well enough now, meaning she would be able to go out later when Adagio and the others got back from school, and Chrysidea couldn’t wait. In the meantime, after settling her homework, the young changeling decided to head out to the second floor living room to hone her skills and knowledge on the Neighstation. She had yet to meet her mother’s character in the game. She recalled this game being around for decades, meaning her mother wasn’t exactly in this game. Dea figured she just needed to get far enough to see what her mother’s character looks like. Dea was still in control of Bowman, her character from last time, but now, she had a second companion, another man named Dark Sorcerer, who’s face was pitch black, like he was wearing an executioner’s hood under his large orange hat. Chrysidea remembered this character, seeing as he was her mother’s love interest in the movie. He roughly looked the same, except that he had full facial features in the movie and that his hat was a lot smaller. The one in the game was huge. Bowman and the Dark Sorcerer had already left their kingdom, heading to the outskirt towns to check on the damages. It was in a cave next to one of those towns did Chrysidea finally challenge her first boss. It was a dragon, but instead of arms, it had two more heads jutting out, but still used them as arms anyway. “I feel sorry for those heads…” Dea watched them as they were used to walk forward towards her characters before the fight began. The turquoise haired girl had already fought through plenty of little monsters, ranging from goblins to bears, to get to this boss, so she was fairly familiar with the combat mechanics by now. The dragon boss proved more difficult to kill than all the other monsters and Dea had to revive the Dark Sorcerer once, but otherwise, she got through it without too much difficulty. “Yeah!” she cheered. “I think I’m getting the hang of these. Video games are pretty fun.” Once she arrived at the next town, Dea saved the game and powered down her Neighstation, going back to her room to just lounge around. She held Mishter Schniffs up and tossed him into the air, catching him when he came back down. “Another day out, Mishter Schniffs!” she told him happily. “Where do you think we’ll go today?” “Anything you want to see, Chrysidea?” her plushie spoke. “Any sights you want to see?” “Hmm…” Dea put a hand to her chin and looked up at her ceiling. “I don’t know. I haven’t been around enough to know what to look out for.” “Well, I’m sure you’ll find something to amuse yourself with. Just look at how much fun you had on the escalator.” “That is true…” Dea thought back to the fascinating machinery. “Well, I hope something interesting happens then. I can’t wait to see what’s in store!” “If you hope enough, it might come true.” “Really?” Dea looked in her doll’s eyes. “I don’t know.” Schniffs tilted his head. “I really just said that to make you happy.” “Oh…” Chrysidea stared gormlessly at her plushie before plopping him back onto her bed. “Well, okay then…Sometimes I really don’t get you.” “Well… It really isn’t my fault.” The changeling princess checked the clock in her room. One-forty five. She had been playing for a couple of hours. The sirens wouldn’t be home for more than an hour. Not feeling inclined to play more Finest Fantasy, she instead picked a book from her bookcase and lay down on her bed to read. It was a book on alchemy that seemed oddly familiar. Curious, Chrysidea turned to the front of the book, only to roll her eyes. It was a renaissance era book, written by none other than her own mother. “Well, no point reading this.” She put the book back on her shelf. She had spent every other day of her childhood learning alchemy from Chrysalis, and was quite good at it, certainly better than some old book could teach her. With nothing more to do, Chrysidea ended up heading back to the living room to play more Finest Fantasy. After all, she still wanted to meet her mother in game. Sunny Flare sat in history class, busy counting her fingers back and forth, waiting for the bell to ring to release them to the next class. Today had been supposed to be a good day. She and Sour Sweet had planned up a huge prank where she was going to dunk Silver Rose with a bucket of slime. She had bought it on her way home yesterday and she couldn’t wait to use it, but when today came, Silver Rose wasn’t here. She was sick today and that just put Sunny off. She had wasted a lot of time planning for something she couldn’t do. What a week of pranking… Or at least, it was supposed to be the whole week… And since that day with the Trenderhoof incident, more of the boys had been getting bold, making kissing faces at her and them pointing at their backsides. It disgusted Sunny to think that there were these kinds of people here at Crystal Prep. Because of Silver Rose, they now refused to leave her alone without reminding her of that unfortunate event. And to compound matters, the school had deleted all of the photos of Silver Rose off the site. On the bright side, Principal Cinch still hasn’t found out who uploaded it. “It’s all your fault, Silver…” Sunny watched as Mr. Fowl move to the next slide, which was a picture of an old castle. “You’re the one who’s made life harder for me… Just you watch. I’ll make you regret ever stepping foot into Crystal Prep Academy.” “Did you say something, Sunny?” Mr. Fowl turned his bird-like head to her. “Nothing, Mr. Fowl…” she said. “Just wondering how you’re so good at teaching.” “Hmm…” the teacher replied, but continued his lesson. Sunny thought about planning more pranks the next week. She didn’t know if she could keep it up everyday. Maybe once a week, or twice a month… She decided to talk to Sour Sweet about it after school. She refused to simply stop her pranks as long as Silver Rose fails to see that she needs to step off. She had also heard what had happened to Silver yesterday, how she had suddenly collapsed outside before the first bell. Maybe she had caught something really harmful. Serves her right… Sunny scoffed in her mind. She, of course, didn’t want Silver to die or anything. That wasn’t her goal, seeing as she wasn’t some sadistic crazy girl. But Sunny was willing to think that the new girl had gotten what she deserved after messing with her and the Shadowbolts. That’s your penance, Silver Rose. You better watch out! Whatever happens in the following week, Sunny just knew that it wasn’t over between Silver and her. This was only the start of the war. Moonglade stood in front of her closet mirror, brushing her hair, making sure it was all in place before doing a twirl. She smiled. Everything was in place as usual. “I’m ready!” She threw her room door open and skipped along, all the way downstairs. “You sure take your time, Moonglade,” Aria said, lounging on the couch. “Hey, disguises take time,” Moonglade told her. “If I could get it done in five minutes, believe me, I’d like to do it.” “Well, whatever. Can’t blame you.” Aria waved her hand and got up to a sitting position. “So are we going?” “Yay! Another outing with Moony!” Sonata jumped on the spot. “And another outing with you three!” Moonglade smiled. “Shall we? I’m excited to see what else we can find today.” “Your aunt’s already waiting in the car.” Adagio pointed a finger to the entrance. “She says it’s up to you where you want to go today.” “I get to pick?” Moonglade was overwhelmed. “But I don’t know anything about Canterlot.” “Well, how about we go on a tour of Canterlot then!” Sonata suggested. “That’ll help you get the lie of the land.” “Not a bad idea, Moonglade. She’s thinking for once,” Aria nodded. “But it’s lay of the land, doofus.” “Hey, don’t call me a doofus!” Sonata complained, stomping a foot. Unfortunately for her sister, she had stomped down on top of her foot. “Ow!” Aria hopped around, holding her hurt foot. “Really, Sonata? Ow ow ow!” “I’m sorry!” Sonata looked guilty, but Aria waved her off. “Girls, let’s just go. Please…” Adagio was on the verge of slapping herself in the face. Moonglade decided to move along, ushering the sirens to the mansion entrance, wanting to just get out and explore the city. She just knew there was going to be plenty in store for her out there, just waiting for her to show up. “Hey, sweetie!” Aunt Ivory gave her a warm smile as she entered the black car in front of the manor. “How’re you feeling now?” “Good enough to explore Canterlot, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade buckled herself in. “This is going to be so exciting!” “She wants to go around all of Canterlot, Ivory,” Adagio explained. “That way she can map it out in her head for future use.” “That’s a very good idea,” Ivory said and turned back to face the front. “If you’re all set, then off we go!” Moonglade looked out at all the different buildings as Ivory Wings drove down the hill and towards the outskirts of Canterlot city. Adagio pointed out at various different interesting locations, explaining what each one was, with Moonglade listening attentively and keeping her eyes out at the roads, mentally mapping out everywhere they went and remembering where the interesting places were. Places she wanted to go around and see again were a pottery shop, a small shop that supposedly sold the city’s best milkshakes, a convenience store and a small theme park, just to name a few. Clothes and jewelry never really did interest the young changeling. For clothes, she already had plenty, and they were likely all branded goods, the best of the best, given to her by her mother. As for jewelry, Moonglade just didn’t see the need to wear them. They just made you heavier and increased the chances of it snagging on to something, or worse, attracting the attention of the common criminals. After a traffic light, Ivory returned to the pottery shop, stopping the car in a small parking lot nearby. “First stop, dear.” She turned around and nodded. “When you’re done, come back and I’ll drive us over for some milkshakes. Looking at the time, I think that’s all we’ll have time for today. We’ll check out the rest another time.” “Alright, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade opened the car door and stepped out. “Are you sure you don’t want to come with?” “Someone has to stay and watch the car,” Ivory replied with a wink. “You enjoy yourselves out there.” “If you say so, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade waved to her as the sirens joined her. “You’re missing out, Aunt Ivory, but we’ll see you later! Thanks for driving us here.” “No problem. You girls have fun now.” Moonglade and the sirens made their way around to the front of the stores along the road, looking for the pottery shop she had seen on the drive around. If she had remembered correctly, it was the third one from the carpark. And she had been right! Waltzing into the shop, Moonglade marveled at the various shapes of clay-sculpted bowls, jars and other assortments, ranging from ones as small as her palm to ones that stood a little more than half her height. “Wow, check this all out!” She put her face close to one, adjusting her spectacles as she looked at it. “They’re so well crafted.” “Yeah, not bad,” Aria Blaze said, looking uninterested as always. “Ooh, look at that one.” Moonglade drew their attention to a glass windchime. “It looks and sounds so pretty!” She brought a hand through it, closing her eyes as she listened to the sound it made. Then she darted off to another section with waist high pots, peering into them through the top. As usual, some of the people around smiled and pointed at her, probably wondering what fascinated her so much. “Looks like you’re having a lot of fun,” Adagio said, giving her a nudge. “I’m away from home.” Moonglade looked back up. “Of course I’m having fun. All this is new to me. It’s like experiencing a whole new world.” “Will you be buying anything?” Aria pushed a finger through a hole in a peculiar looking jar. “You seem really interested in these. Maybe those glass chimes?” “Sure, why not?” Moonglade plucked a chime from its mobile and quickly had it wrapped in a paper package by the clerk. She used her new credit card to pay for it, then shoved the wrapped windchimes into her handbag before thanking the clerk for her time and assistance. Thankfully, no one recognized her this time. Just as she was about to call the sirens to leave, a loud crash outside made her jump. “What was that?” Moonglade turned to look out the entrance. “Did you hear that, girls?” “Hmm?” Aria waved a hand dismissively. “Yeah, probably some accident. You know how it is with cars and stuff.” “No, she doesn’t,” Adagio mentioned. “She’s never seen one before, have you, Moonglade?” “Yeah, never.” Deciding to make it a first, the blonde haired girl left the store to have a closer look outside. There was a stationary bus and car by the side of the road, and a roaring fire hydrant beside the car, its top gone, now spewing a tall pillar of water. “Hmm… at least that’ll make sure there aren’t any fires.” Moonglade pointed at the fire hydrant. “Always looking on the bright side, aren’t you?” Adagio quipped. “If our gems weren’t broken, this’d be a great place to gather some negative energy…” “Yeah, maybe…” Moonglade looked at the man beside the car. He looked pretty angry about it all, but by the looks of it, this accident was likely his fault. “Well, maybe we should get going.” Adagio turned around to beckon her sisters, but Sonata was nowhere to be seen. “Sonata? Oh, where did she go now?” “I think she’s still in the shop.” Aria pointed a finger over to it. “Ugh. Sonata!” the orange haired siren called one more time. “Come on, let’s go get her…” Moonglade watched them go back into the pottery store, then looked back at the accident. The car’s front was dented, but the bus had escaped almost unscathed, with some minor bumps in the back. The girl didn’t see how the bus would be at fault in any way, but that was just her inspection of the scene. The tan-skinned girl was just about to go back into the shop to look for the sirens when a boy on a bicycle caught her attention. He had blue hair and blue skin, and he was riding on the pavement, heading straight for her. Reacting with only one thing on her mind, Moonglade held out her hand and grabbed one of his handlebars, channeling her love into her strength, stopping the bike completely. Unfortunately, the boy went flying above her, bouncing once on the cement pavement before stopping a meter away. Oops… Letting her reflexes take over, she knelt on top of the boy, her fingers hooked and ready to strike. Then her common sense reasserted itself and she pulled the boy back to his feet, dusting him down. He had on a blue stripey shirt over a white shirt with what looked like a baseball bat on it. “Are you alright?” she asked him. He didn’t seem malevolent. He must’ve just been paying attention to the accident and didn’t see her in front of him. He rubbed his head, smiling a little. “Oh, erm… I’ll live… Hey, I’m really sorry about that. Wasn’t looking where I was going. I should’ve been more observant.” Aha. I was right. “Yes, you should have,” Moonglade told him as she dusted her own coat and skirt. “You are not injured?” The boy slightly puffed out his chest and put his arms on his hips. Moonglade laughed internally. He looked like he was trying to be all tough about it. It was rather amusing of him. “Well… I guess I’m all good. It wasn’t too bad. I didn’t hurt you, did I?” Moonglade thought about what to say to him. In the end, she went with, “No, you didn’t.” “That’s good. Well, umm…” The young changeling watched him, noticing he kept glancing at her, then looking away almost as quickly. She smelled a tendril of something soft and tasty, but the boy kept concealing it from her. “Well, I’m Home Run. Nice to meet you, errm, and sorry for the trouble.” The blonde haired girl saw no reason in hiding her name from him. “Moonglade,” she said. “Hmm?” The boy paused for a while, before realization struck him in the face. “Oh, your name! Oh, my bad. I was… that was silly of me.” This boy is a little… airheaded, isn’t he? She laughed in her head. But why did I tell him my name? He continued to stand there, until the situation started becoming a little awkward. Moonglade didn’t know what to do, so she nodded and headed back into the pottery shop, looking for the sirens. When she was far enough inside, Moonglade turned around again, watching the blue haired boy pick up his bike and cycle on, though a little wobbly. That fall must’ve really hurt. She smiled to herself. That had been a fun experience, even if she almost got run over by him. She didn’t know anything about him, but he seemed nice. And he was a little cute too, in the sense of a dog trying to grab a frisbee and failing. “Home Run…” she said. That was his name. She eventually found the sirens, almost bursting out with laughter when she saw what they had gotten themselves into. Literally. Adagio, Aria, and a store clerk were trying to help Sonata squeeze her head out of a tall ceramic vase, two of them pulling at her body, while the clerk pulled at the piece of pottery. “Next time… Don’t stick… Your head in these things…!” Aria yelled at her sister as she fought to pull her head out. “I just wanted to see what it looks like on the inside!” Moonglade heard Sonata wail from within the vase. “You didn’t need to put your head in there!” Adagio complained. “Sooorryyy...” Sonata whined as the clerk pulled particularly hard on the pot. “Whatever, Sonata. Moonglade. Come here and help us pull.” It wasn’t easy, but after about ten minutes of pushing and pulling, Sonata’s head came out of the pot with an audible pop! “Aaaah!” She fell back against Aria and Adagio as the clerk stumbled back with the large vase. “Boy, I thought I was going to have to live with that on my head for the rest of my life…” “Now I’m wishing you did…” Aria groaned underneath her blue haired sister. Moonglade, who had gotten away unscathed, stood there, just barely containing her laughter. “Well, if you girls are done now… Let’s head back. We’ve been here longer than we planned. It’s milkshake time!” “Wow, is this the place?” Moonglade walked in with a hop in her steps as Ivory Wings held the door open for them. “Yes.” Ivory smiled at her niece’s excitement. “This is where you’ll supposedly find the best milkshakes in town. I haven’t tried them, but I heard it said.” “So does this work the same way as the food court at the mall? We just go up and order?” “That’s right. Maybe you’d best ask the sirens what flavor they’d like.” After a general consensus of Prench vanilla (Sonata), mint double fudge (Adagio), and I don’t care (Aria), Moonglade walked up to the counter, wallet in hand. She did keep a few bills in there for situations like this. A credit card for food was seriously weird, at least, that’s what Moonglade thought. Moonglade got herself a strawberry milkshake and Aunt Ivory a chocolate one as she paid up for all five. Her white haired aunt helped her carry them as she accepted the change from the cashier. “Thank you!” she said politely. “You’re welcome,” the cashier answered with a smile. “Enjoy your drinks.” “So what did you get for Aria?” Adagio looked at the drinks. “I’m curious.” “Raspberry surprise,” Moonglade answered with a slurp. It tasted really good. “Hey, these really are the best. Well, best I’ve tried. Are they really?” She looked to the sirens and her aunt. “Supposedly they are,” Ivory Wings said, pointing to some plaques on the wall. “They’ve won best establishment for a few years now. Stands to reason their products would be the best.” The elder changeling checked her watch. “Well, time to head back. Let’s go, girls.” “Alright.” Moonglade took another slurp of her milkshake as she headed out, her internals all smiling from the delicious drink. Sonata was really drinking it all down. She had taken a deep breath, then sucked at the straw, her milkshake’s contents already draining halfway mark. The walk to the car was short and sweet, as was the journey back to the manor. All the girls had finished their drinks by the time the car pulled into the driveway, where they were greeted by Silver Platter. “Did you have a good night out?” the butler asked amicably. “Yep!” Sonata chirped. “It was great!” “Sure was.” Moonglade pulled out the packaged windchime from her bag. “I got something new for the house.” “Is that so?” Ebony Wings said as she glided gracefully from inside the house wearing a black silk shift. “Mother, you’re home!” Moonglade excitedly unwrapped the glass chimes. “I got these. They’re really pretty.” Ebony held up the windchime, listening to it tinkle in the evening breeze and gazing at how well the colored glass caught the light. “It is very pretty,” she agreed. “Where would you like to hang it up?” “Hmm, maybe over the front door? Or would that be too obstructive?” “Over the front door it is,” Ebony said, handing the windchime to Silver Platter. “Please get it done as soon as possible.” “At once, mistress.” The butler got to work immediately. “So, did you have fun, my daughter?” Ebony waltzed back in through the hall. “Yes, mother. Today was a great outing. We’re continuing my tour of Canterlot tomorrow!” “That’s nice,” Ebony smiled. “Well, I have a gathering to get to tonight, so I won’t join you for dinner. We’re celebrating the end of our filming on The Error in our Suns.” “I didn’t even know you were part of the cast on that one…” Ivory muttered. “What? That’s what I’ve been working on most days and nights.” Ebony looked aghast at her sister. “That’s my current one besides my ads and video game voice acting. And you didn’t know, you say?” “You never mentioned it by name,” Ivory said defensively. “But okay. Go and enjoy your party. We’ll be fine on our own, won’t we?” “Yup!” Moonglade nodded. “We’ll be fine, mother. You have fun!”