Color had his new suit, folded perfectly and placed in a bag, floating alongside him. Feeling as prepared as he was ever going to be, he headed towards the train station, only to bounce off of it and follow Derpy's directions. "First left..." He turned and looked around, but there were a lot of places.
Only a few of them looked like a pony could rest there. One promised to be a bed and breakfast. That sounded right, and he walked in. It was brightly lit, colorfully decorated, and strangely almost empty. "Hello?"
"Hello!" came a female voice from the back. "One moment!" Hoofsteps announced her approach as she rushed into view. "A new customer, hello there! Are you looking to get a room? Breakfast is complimentary!"
Color imagined a muffin was, perhaps, one of those options. Had Derpy gone with that every time? He smiled a little. Muffin lived up to her name. "Muffin sent me, and said I should wait in her room."
Her smile suddenly took on a meaningful tone, brows waggling. "Oh ho, our little Muffin has a suitor? How exciting!" She turned and pointed. "Her room is second on the right. She never locks it, but she never leaves anything, so no harm there."
He brightened quickly, cheeks warming. "No! No, I mean... we're friends, not... that."
She put a hoof on his shoulder. "Pardon me for assuming, but if things happen... she is a nice mare and you look like a nice stallion, so..." She wandered off with that awkward thought in the air.
Color shook his head with a little smile. He headed for her room. "Nice mare." She was looking out for her friend. He couldn't fault her for that, even if he wasn't looking at Derpy with those eyes. He entered the simple room and paused. There was a problem.
Namely it was a tiny room with one bed. Perfectly fine for a traveler that needed a place to collapse at the end of the day... But there were two of them. "How..." He snapped fingers he had formed out of his magic. "Of course." He reached for the bed and pulled off some of the bedding, forming a little makeshift cot on the floor. "I'll ask for replacements, and ta da, two beds." He looked quite proud of himself for his simple solution.
He sank down on his makeshift bed and pulled out his pad, getting to drawing. Since he was thinking of her, he gave Derpy a turn, drawing her in the skies with a big smile and her walled eyes. There was no hesitation there, just a simple joy for a simple mare. She wanted for little, but gave everything to the moment.
"Hello!" Derpy walked in without hesitation, not even knocking, though it was her room. "So glad you came! Oh, what happened?" She looked between him and the bed. "Did I miss an earthquake that threw you onto the floor? Oh no! Are you hurt?!"
Color sat up quickly, turning around to face his temporary roomie. "I just put the bedding down here so I wouldn't be asking you to share a bed."
"Why not?" She tilted her head. "It's plenty big enough." She stepped over and reached for the bed, bouncing a hoof off of it. "But now it's missing its blanket and stuff..."
"We can ask for another," assured Color with a little smile.
"Or I can sleep here." She crashed down right next to him and reached with a wing to fold around him. "Comfy! How did your day go? What's in the bag?" She was eyeing, with one eye, his new bag.
"That's a suit." He magiced it up onto the nightstand out of the way. "Um, you... really don't have to..." But she was quite happily pressed to him. "I mean..."
"I had a dozen really hard deliveries together." She blinked softly. "One time I ended up at 1202, when I shoulda been at 1220! That was silly of me, but I found it and they were so happy to get their box." She smiled with a happy expression. "Did you get any, oh!" Her wing withdrew, only to scoop up his art pad he had abandoned. "Let's see."
He squeaked with horror and grabbed for it in his magic, snatching it right out of her wing.
She pouted. "Aw... I can't see? You're an artist, right?" She pointed down at his rump. "Says so right there."
He considered, well, what harm was there? He flipped it open with his magic, but her hoof slapped down, stopping it mid turn. "Is that me?! Oooo, do I look that good?" She tilted her head at the depiction of herself. "I look so happy!" Her wings beat against the air, but she remained on the ground. "Did you ever draw yourself?"
He willed the paper to turn once the surprise wore off and Derpy gasped with renewed wonder. "Oooo, look at her!" She tapped at the page rapidly. "She looks so pretty! And important. Like, um, the princess! Yes, just like her." She stuck out her tongue a little. "Those kinda ponies can be tricky to make happy sometimes."
It was the picture of Libelous, descending the stairs. "Do you like pictures?" he asked. "Do you draw?"
"Not very good." She shrugged a little. "Not nearly as good as you do, and you even color in it. Wow!" She nodded firmly. "I'm a mailmare, but I like to think I'm good at that." She tapped at her own chest. "I found you when I needed to, and you got your letter. That's my job."
He set the pad aside carefully, only for her to snatch it back up and get to browsing his other pictures, gasping and marveling at each picture. "You really are good at this..."
He momentarily considered snatching it away, but that, he decided, would make for more hard feelings than anything productive. Instead he gestured at a light, turning down the flow of oil and dimming it. "We should get some sleep."
"Do you have plans tomorrow? I have to work." She set the pad down without any further prompting. "A mailmare's job is never done!"
"I..." He realized he had no plans. He had to wait for Libel to be free and to have dinner with her. "Hrm..."
"Not sure?" She pulled up the blankets over the both of them and snuggled up with Color eagerly. "It's nice having company."
He smiled a little, willing the light out entirely. "It is..." He didn't normally share sleeping arrangements that intimately, but Derpy was doing a great job of making that seem like a thing two happy ponies just kinda... did... "I... don't normally share a bed with a mare."
She perked an ear at him. "You prefer to share it with stallions? I mean, uh, that's alright too!" She burst into airy giggles. "Oh no, I sound like a bad pony. Forgive me!"
"No! No, I mean..." He put a hoof behind his head in the dark. "I like mares just fine." An image of Libelous sprang to mind, smiling at him in that 'I have everything under control' way. "Just fine... I don't, uh, normally share beds at all."
She snuggled in closer. "We're healthy ponies, no sniffles, so no harm." Wrapping him in her hooves, she held him close. "And you're nice and warm, almost makes me forget we're on the floor."
She was warm too, and soft, and... asleep. His momentarily dirty thoughts faded into a little smile. She was delightful, and innocent. He settled beside her and soon they were both asleep, sleeping together harmlessly.
The next morning, he was awaken by a wing tickling his nose. With a sneeze, he sat up to see Derpy all dressed and ready to go. "I have to swing by your town later. Want me to tell my brother anything?"
Her brother? Oh yeah! "Tell Day Dreamer that I'll be staying a few extra days and I'm alright. And sorry I didn't tell him ahead of time."
She saluted with a wing. "You got it." She grinned with an uncharacteristically naughty expression. "I'll also tell him that I slept with his best friend." She burst into giggles as she fled with an ungainly but speedy fly down the hallway, lost to sight long before he could argue her idea.
Color smiled a little at where she had been. She was silly, he decided as he rose and began his day. "Oh yeah, free breakfast." He trotted off in pursuit of that.
Libel tapped at the top of her desk with a hoof. Her immediate work was complete, giving her time to think about other things, like the date she had with that oaf. He hadn't impressed her all through the conversation. Why had she even agreed to meet him, let alone go out with him? She rolled her eyes with a grunt.
Because her mother had told her to, indirectly. He was a stallion that showed interest in her and he wasn't a total washout. Perhaps it could work out...
Perhaps pigs would take a great flight across Equestria.
She shook her head and lifted the receiver in a wing. No reason to put it off. She heard a click and cut off the butler before he could get much into a hello. "Tell Thumper to be ready for tonight, six." She rattled off an address.
"Very good, Ma'am. His schedule has an opening then. I'll--"
She hung up. There. She had done her part.
That left her time to think some more, about stallions. There was another she was supposed to make time for...
Speaking of him... "In the palace..." She rose to her hooves and strode out. "I'll be back in a few hours." Her secretary nodded as she passed by. Libel launched herself out the nearest open window and took flight directly for the castle.
If he was fibbing about that, that would settle things quite nicely. She landed just in front of the stairs. It was rude to land much closer than that. Propriety required that the guards see one walk up those stairs, and to address them. She nodded to the two taking up the position. A pegasus and a unicorn. "Good afternoon."
"Ma'am," said one firmly, watching her. "How can we help?"
"It's a little thing." She sat and held up two hooves close together. "I'm considering an article, I'm Libelous Word, by the way, Canterlot Canter. I was considering an article about art in the castle. I hear new artists have a chance at being displayed in the palace alongside the older 'more classic' pieces. Is this true?" She was not a reporter, but she had tried her hoof before.
The other guard tossed his head towards the entrance. "We make sure it stays safe, ma'am. If you want to have a look at the art, you're welcome to have a viewing for yourself. Don't open doors or pass by any velvet rope and there shouldn't be a problem."
Libel smiled brightly. That had been easy. "I think I'll do just that. Is there somepony I could interview that would know more about them?"
They both shared a glance before a one shrugged. "Stop by the office." He pointed up. "Third floor, west side. Room 3...30. There's a stallion there that knows the records of the castle like the back of his own hoof."
"Oh, Record Checker?" The other nodded in firm agreement. "He knows everything there is to know about the palace. He's your pony, for certain." The two seemed happier, in content agreement about this fact.
"Record Checker." She pulled out a pad and scribbled with a wing-held quill. "I'll be sure to visit him, if he has the time to spare. Thank you both." She passed them, heading inside with a confident smile. Of course they let her in. She belonged in that city, with important ponies, getting things done.