//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6: Marmalade Or Jam? 
// Story: Harmonic Gift From The Stars 
// by DTavs exe 
//------------------------------//

Two mares came out of an inn from Dodge Junction they looked upset about something, “That’s the last inn of the town AJ! What are we gonna tell the girls!” Rainbow Dash asked her friend.

“Ah don’t know, sugarcube, but Ah reckon we need to think something and think fast, the others will come in the train this evenin',” the pair kept walking down the road going nowhere.

“I told you we should’ve taken the train yesterday but NOOOoooo, the diligent pony needed to make sure her trees bloom,” Rainbow said in an obviously sarcastic way.

“Dangnabbit Dash, ya know it’s important to me! What if Ah leave and dem trees don’t bloom?”

“Dude, you barely did anything but watch trees yesterday! Besides Bigmac, Apple Bloom, Granny Smith and now even Sugar Belle are there to help,”

“Ah know, Ah know and Ahm sorry, Ah should trust my family more for that, Ah reckon Ah wasn’t expectin’ the town to be that full for the… what was it?,” 

“The Big Book Summer Convention and that is not the only event in town this week, there is the Summer Summit for Animal Caretakers that Fluttershy wanted to attend, the Biggest Donut Contest for Pinkie and the opening of Dodge Junction History of Fashion Museum that Rarity wanted to see, all the same week!” Rainbow breathed in and let out a long sigh “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be so hard on you, or at least I should have pushed more before or even come by myself, I offered them to secure the lodging after all...” suddenly Rainbow stopped making Applejack crash, face first on Rainbow’s haunches.

“Why in tarnation you stopping all of the sudden?” 

“I promised them I was getting the rooms AJ and I even make a Pinkie Promise, Pinkie is going to eat me alive!” Rainbow started trembling and even forgot to flap her wings falling unceremoniously on her side on the ground, there she lay on the ground eyes like saucers meanwhile Applejack just stood there facehoofing.

“Applejack is that yo’?” A white coated mare with a red mane asked Applejack “mah stars, it really is yo’, how have yo’ been gal? Cherry Jubilee held Applejack on a bone crushing hug.

“Cherry *gasp* please *gasp* need air,” Cherry let go of Applejack who fell on her butt “nice t’see you too Cherry Jubilee, it’s been a while,”

“Wait did you said Cherry Jubilee?” Rainbow sprung back to life grabbing Cherry’s hoof shaking it fast  “Do you remember me? I’m Rainbow Dash, you let us work sorting your cherries and let us stay at your place a few years ago,” she said all excited.

“Oh yeah, Ah remember that yo' an' yer friends not only almost destroyed mah cherry sortin' machine, stole one of mah best workers an' then lef' without even sayin' goo'bye,” Cherry said with a stern look on her face, Rainbow let go of her hoof and shrugged backing off a little bit but Cherry let out a chuckle and then laughed putting a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder “Ah's just messin' with yo' filly, no hard feelin’s, so what brin's yo' here, Ah mean besides th' crazy week full of festivals an'stuff?”

“Oh well you see Cherry, my friend here and Ah was just trying to find rooms for our friends, they be comin’ this evenin’ but we don’t have no luck finding a vacant inn” Applejack explained their dilemma.

“SOOoooo, we were wondering if you could accommodate us like last time,” Rainbow asked putting puppy eyes, surprising Cherry and even Applejack who facehoofed again.

“You can’t go asking ponies to stay at their places just like that, sugarcube!”

“Ah don't mind it Applejack, however mah house is pow'ful full with fambly, Ah'm sorry but Ah don't have enny room t'spare,” Cherry sadly responded, at which both Applejack and Rainbow hopelessly lowered their heads “wait a minute, Ah don't have enny room but Ah knows a pony who jest might,” this brought hope to the younger mares.


~♥~♦~♣~♠~


The three mares walked through the streets to the oldest part of town, until they reached an old but very well maintained building.

“The Gentle Doves? What a weird name for an inn,” Rainbow said as they entered the building and they were welcomed by elegant decoration and delicious perfume, but something didn’t seem right, for an inn, there sure was a lack of guests at this time of the day and all the employees seemed to be females there were mostly ponies, but she could see some jennies, zebras and at least a griffon, “Woa, this place looks expensive I didn’t think there would be a place this fancy on this town… um no offence,”

“Non taken,” Cherry said and then directed herself to the mare on the counter, “can yo' tell Breeze, Cherry Jubilee is here t'see her?” the mare nodded and went to the back room “Breeze helped me when Ah first came t'this town, it was hard times but thanks t'her help, Ah now own one of th' most trimenjus farms in Dodge Junction”

“Who?” both Rainbow and Applejack asked at the same time.

“Madame Belle Breeze, but mon friends call me Breeze, Oh Chairry eet eez been a while, you nevair comé visit anymaire,” Breeze greeted with a prench accent kissing Cherry in both cheeks, she was a tall and slender unicorn mare with cream beige coat and blonde mane, she was wearing a big red gown with black lace and a hat to match, you could see that she was an older mare, but time has been generous with her, she then looked at Rainbow and Applejack, “Zo who are yur friends Chairry, what can ai do fair you ladees?” 

“Yo' see Breeze, mah friends are in a bit of a pickle an' Ah thunk ah could ask yo' t'help us out,” Cherry asked.

“Sai non maire, a friend of Chairry eez a friend of mine,” she approached and checked them from head to tail, which made Rainbow and Applejack uncomfortable “Oh oui, zéy are strong and beautiful, zey might need a bit of a makeovair but ai can 'ave zem wairkéng right awai,” 

“Say what?” Applejack asked lifting her eyebrow.

“NO WAIT, that’s not what Ah meant, they have been tryin' t'git lodgin' all over town but ev'ry inn is full, so Ah was wonnerin' eff'n yo'd have a spare room for them an' their friends that will come this evenin' Breeze,”

“Oh why didn't you said zo soonair, of curse I'll 'elp yur friends, 'ow many aré we talkéng abut?” 

“Eight ma’am, including us and a baby dragon,” Rainbow quickly asked hoping that wouldn’t be to many.

“Oh pleasé, call me Breeze, ai said mon friends call mé zat and a friend of Chairry eez a friénd of mine, non? ai don't 'ave zat many spare ruhms, but if yur friends don't mind shareng zé same ruhm ai 'ave un zat weehl fit zem all of you confairmabuhl,”

“We’ll take it!” both Applejack and Rainbow said at the same time, which made Breeze giggle.

“Silky dair, please 'ave zum doves 'elp you prepare ze 'salle des fêtes' wiv éight separated béds,” the young mare nodded and ran upstairs, “Silky Hoovés, such a dilijent mare, she réminds me of you when you wairked fair me all those yairs ago,mon amie” Breeze said almost sounding nostalgic.

“Salle the what?” asked Rainbow.

“Oh mon apulogees, that's 'ow we call ur biggest ruhm, fair whén wé 'ave many guésts zat come een group,”

“Wow, so like a party room? No inns that Ah know of have something that fancy,” Apple stated “I just hope we can afford it,”

“Don't bé seehly, ai weehl be glad to 'ost Chairry's friends, but just zo you know zis eez not an inn air a 'otél.”

“Then what is it?” Rainbow asked.


~♥~♦~♣~♠~


After arranging everything, Cherry left for her farm, Applejack and Rainbow decided to prepare to receive their friends that should arrive on the train in an hour, both were sporting huge blushes on their faces.

“Ah don’t know Rainbow, Ah don’t really mind but our friends… do you think they will be ok sleeping on a brothel?”

“You know this is our last chance AJ, is this or the streets and I’ll never hear the end of it from Rarity if that happens, besides I pinkie promised and you know how is Pinkie with those,” Rainbow said defeated “at least they promised trying to keep it a secret as best as they can,”

“Rainbow… IT’S A BROTHEL! How the hay are they gonna keep it secret, do you even know what they do in there?”

“I know, I know, just stick to the plan, we need to make sure to spend the least time on the brothel so and stick to the room from 9pm to 7am the busiest times of the place, nopony leaves at those hours for the next week and we will be fine,” they reached the train station and waited until the train carrying their friends arrived, they greeted each other and walked to the Gentle Dove.

“Oh the decor in this place is magnificent, I’m surprised you manage to reserve a room in such a place,” Rarity said while checking the curtains, the decorations and the walls “and those uniforms, even if a bit risqué they are really well made,” Rarity approached some of the employees but Rainbow Dash stopped her.

“Let’s not disturb the workers, shall we, the room is over here,” Rainbow directed the group to the ‘party room’ remodeled to accommodate them for this week, Spike was carrying all of Rarity’s luggage as always, everypony else carried a modest suitcase, everypony except Twilight that besides her suitcase, she brought another two boxes.

“Twi, what in the hay are dem boxes?” Applejack asked meanwhile Twilight put down her luggage.

“Oh well, since we will be here all week and the music box is charged, I thought we could listen to a song, one box has my recording equipment and the other has the music box,” Twilight levitated down the two humongous boxes.

“But I thought you wanted to keep it a secret until we are all sure it’s not dangerous,” Rainbow asked confused.

“It’s ok, so far it hasn’t behaved in a dangerous way and I can make a sound dampener spell on the room,” Twilight opened the box containing the enchanted recording equipment.

“I don’t think that will be necessary Twilight, here touch the wall,” Twilight turned to check what Starlight meant, she touched the wall and gasped.

“Oh yeah, there is a dormant sound dampener spell on the wall already and it seems it covers the entire room, by the looks of it it will activate once the door closes, weird why would an inn have a spell this advanced?”

“I don’t know, you don’t know, they don’t know, not even Spike knows, why should we care? I say let’s finish unpacking and listen to that song,” Rainbow said as fast as she could, she and Applejack actually knew what was that spell for, but they definitely won’t say anything “hey, should the music box be on this... well, box? There is just another box,”

“Oh yeah, I actually put the music box behind several layers of protection, not even the sunlight would penetrate this beauty, well it’s already pretty dark so I guess we can just close the door, windows, put ourselves comfortable and listen to the song,” Twilight finished installing the equipment and everyone decided that Fluttershy would be the next to press the button, she did and they could hear the voice of a female alien asking for her sisters…



“So it’s another story this time, about this female alien Lady Marmalade?” Fluttershy remarked.

“Well that name sounds delicious,” Pinkie added, pulling a marmalade bottle and some toast from her hair, spreading it and eating it.

“Whatever does she mean by giving it a go… oh, you don’t think she is a-” Rarity started but then was interrupted by Rainbow.

“AW COME ON! Seriously? I mean… what a nice song...”  Rainbow quickly corrected herself.

“Twilight I think the spell is failing, I don’t think giuchie or yaya dada means anything,” Starlight shared with Twilight.

“No, I don’t think so, I made it  in a way that if it worked for one alien language it should work for every alien language of the same species, but maybe is a different language, I didn’t think one song could have different languages,”

Twilight was also confused but she knew she prepared the spell so it should work, ‘maybe that part of the song wasn’t even meant to be understood, maybe it was just sounds,’ she thought and then came the next part, and it seems that the only two ponies that understood it were Rarity and Twilight, both blushed.

“Hey it sounds like they’re speaking ‘fancy’ like the owner of the place!” Applejack mentioned at which Rarity corrected.

“It’s actually Prench, not ‘fancy’ darling, how come they are speaking Prench Twilight? I thought you made it so it will be translated to Equestrian,” 

“I did, but Bocafloja’s spells work for one language at the time, I thought I fixed that but I guess since they are talking in a different language now, it translated the first one to equestrian and the second to the closest to it, instead of Equestrian,” 

“But what were they saying anyway?” Starlight asked,

“Um… ” Rarity lifted Spike with her magic, put his face on her chest and covered his ears with her hooves, she then wispered “they were saying ‘Do you want to sleep with me tonight?’ so we can guess, what is their trade,” Spike was in cloud nine at all this.

“Oh, my, so they are… on the satin sheets… *eep*,” Fluttershy was profusely blushing as so was everypony in the room.

Rainbow and Applejack were sweating, is like the music box was against them, luckily their friends were still in the dark about this place, if their hide wasn’t on the line, this would actually be so funny.

“Ha, it seems that every culture has prostitutes and that includes aliens as well,” Starlight giggled drinking some of the hot cocoa.

“Well is a profitable endeavor, I’m not saying I agree with their form of work or that I would partake in some of their services, but they are sometimes the only kind of work a young mare can get,” Rarity said still holding Spike.

“Indeed and did you know, if it weren’t for prostitution, there probably wouldn’t be a Dodge Junction,” Twilight said.

“Whatever do you mean, darling?”

“Oh, if my memory doesn't fail me, Dodge Junction was just a small camp where some ponies worked the mine, the same one that is near here, it was quite lonely and the workers were desperate for… um… intimate companionship, so a young mare from Prance saw it as an opportunity, she opened the first brothel, in the very heart of what it is now Dodge Junction, she single hoofedly jump started the economy of the town, bringing more workers and building business, that was about 30 or 35 years ago, her name was Madame mmmm, something about the wind or breeze, I don’t really remember it,”

“We get it, brothels are important, the song ended, why don’t we go to sleep?” Rainbow interrupted Twilight and jumped on her bed and faked snoring.

“Why is Rainbow acting so strange, Applejack?” Starlight asked 

“Yeah, she didn’t even touch her cocoa,” Pinkie grabbed the cup and swallowed the entire contents, “MMMmmmm sweet warm cocoa,”

“Um… Ah dunno, Ahm sleepy too, gotta sleep now, g’night everypony”

“Pair of weirdos, what are you doing Twilight?” Starlight asked her friend and former mentor who had her horn glowing tempering with the recording device.

“I’m modifying the spell again, I believe if I remove some limiters, it will translate to Equestrian even if there are more than one language on the song.” Everypony else went to sleep and only Starlight and Twilight were left up.

“Isn’t there a reason why Bocafloja put those limiters? Isn’t that why he had several amulets with the spell for that very reason?”

“Yeah I know Starlight, but that was with tiny medallions, this is a huge machine, I’m sure that whatever was the reason I can handle it… and I'm not buying recording equipment for every language, those things are expensive, there you go, now we should understand in Equestrian even if there are multiple languages, *yawn* I guess I’m sleepy too, let’s go to sleep.” and so they surrendered themselves to Luna’s domain


~♥~♦~♣~♠~



The next morning Rainbow woke up and scanned the room, all her friends were there, except Spike and Applejack, Fluttershy was the only other pony who was awake, so she asked her “Hey Flutters, where is AJ and Spike?” 

Fluttershy stopped making the bed and looked at her friend “Oh, Applejack woke up early and went running, she left a note and Spike woke up a few minutes ago, he wanted to explore the building,”

“Oh I see, good for him,” she laid on the bed again until she remembered where they were “wait!… oh man!” she got up and ran downstairs hoping that he wouldn’t see something that would make Twilight burn her alive, she was going down the stairs when she could hear Spike’s voice and several other femenine voices giggling.

“And then I jumped with the Crystal heart on my claws and at the last moment, WOOSH, Princes Cadance grabbed me and the heart putting in on its right place and saving the entire Crystal Kingdom!” Spike described making gestures with his arms and tail.

“Wow such a brave dragon, no wonder they call you ‘Spike the Brave and Glorious’” a young red coated pegasus mare said, 

“Fo' sho'nuff, Ah can hardly believe he did all thet stuff, but Ah have nevah meet a dragon befo'e so what do Ah know” a yellow coated unicorn mare added.

“Ay, pero es que esta tan lindo el dragoncito, me lo quiero comer a besos,” a brown mare said smooching Spike, at which he just blushed.

Rainbow knew enough Casquillano to know that the last mare was bad news, “Woa, woa, woa, hooves off the baby dragon!” Rainbow snatched Spike from the thirsty mares.

“Baby dragon?” the three of them asked at the same time.

“Well… technically yeah I’m a baby dragon, but-” the three mares disappeared around the house, leaving a dust cloud with their shapes “-I’m already… what the hay?” 

“Ok, listen to me Spike, don’t let them near you, am I clear?” Rainbow said shaking the poor dragon, concerned about Spike’s chastity.

“What’s the problem? They were just employees of the inn,” 

“Oh, yeah, I mean, you shouldn’t distract them, they need to do their work!”

“Ok, ok, Dash, it’s almost time for Twilight’s convention anyway, I need to wake her up.” 

Spike went upstairs leaving Rainbow with her thoughts, ‘this might be a bit harder than I thought.’ she thought.

Rainbow and Applejack spent the rest of the week trying their best to keep the secret that they were sleeping at a brothel, waking up early to send their friends to their respective events, sleeping late in case somepony left the room to tail them, stopping thirsty mares from drooling all over Spike, Applejack even had to stop Madame Belle Breeze from recruiting Fluttershy and Rarity for her brothel meanwhile they were discussing the decor and the ‘Doves’ uniforms. 

All in all it was a great experience knowing the Madame and her employees, but at the end of the week both mares were exhausted, finally getting ready to leave back to Ponyville, everybody said their goodbyes outside the building.

“Goodbye Breeze,” everypony and dragon said in unison.

“Au revoir mes amis, and pleasé considair mon proposal Fluttairshy, I would love to 'ave you as un of mon doves, goodbyé mon petit papillon,” Breeze hugged Fluttershy,

“I would love to, but I have my animals to take care, I can’t just leave them to come work on an inn,”

“Oh oui, an inn, o-ho-ho-ho-ho” Breeze laughed with a hoof covering her muzzle.

Everypony except Rainbow and Applejack left to get their train.

“Thanks Breeze,  we really appreciate keeping the secret all this week, we couldn’t have done it without you,” Rainbow said.

“Yeah and Ahm sorry if we were a bit judgemental ‘bout your work here, we see now that you do a lot of good on this here town and that’s what really matters,”

“Don't monshe-on eet, that's what friends aré fair, by ze wai, ai wasn't lyeng whén we met, you could be un of mon bést doves if you wént,” 

“I’m sorry Breeze, but we have our family, friends and jobs that we are responsible for,” Rainbow politely declined so did Applejack.

“Oh can't blame a mare fair tryeng, can you? Au revoir mes amis, at least promize me zat you weehl visit, ai love seen mon friends”

“We promise,” both said, waved goodbye and walked to the train station.


~♥~♦~♣~♠~


“So,” Spike suddenly talked “are we going to address the elephant in the room?”

“Whatever do you mean, Spikey-wakey?”

“You know, the ‘inn’ we stayed” he said making air quotes “that wasn’t an inn but a brothel right?”

“Oh yeah totally a brothel,” Starlight affirmed and so did everypony else, seems that nopony was fooled by Rainbow and AJ's attempts to keep it secret “are we going to say something to Rainbow and Applejack?”

“Nah, let them think we never discovered it, they did their best to keep the secret,” Twilight said and everypony agreed “after all, it was a very... enjoyable learning experience,” everypony laughed and some of them lightly blushed.


To be continued