//------------------------------// // 13- Engel // Story: The Chalk Prince and the Clover // by FrostTheWolf //------------------------------// When Fluttershy had offered her home as a place for Albedo and Klee to stay during their time in Equestria, she wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. The pegasus was only aware of a couple of things regarding the siblings at the time. Mainly though, Fluttershy knew that they were very far away from their home, Albedo was working with Twilight to try and find a way back and the two of them were in need of a place to stay. Given their circumstances, it would’ve been wrong for Fluttershy not to extend a hoof in friendship and provide a place for them to rest while they were here.  Of course, there were still a few things that Fluttershy did not happen to know or understand at the time, but they were things that she could inquire about later. Preferably, once they had all settled in, “Here we are,” the pegasus said happily as she opened the doors of her cottage and let Albedo and Klee come inside, “Welcome to my cottage.” As they all stepped inside, the alchemist set his tired sister on the living room couch while the pegasus made her way to the kitchen. “Would you like to have some tea? I can put on the kettle for you if you like.” “Why, that’s very kind of you,” Albedo replied, before taking a seat right by Klee as his sister's head rested on his left thigh to serve as a temporary pillow to rest her weary head, “I think some tea would do quite nicely.” Fluttershy nodded as she prepared the kettle and left the water alone to prepare a tray with an assortment of treats and condiments for when the tea was ready. This included various treats from Sugarcube Corner that her friend Pinkie Pie had given her along with some milk, honey and sugar cubes for the tea when it was ready. She happened to provide a lot of options, on the off chance that Albedo was either a picky eater or rather hungry after the events of the day. Yet, she was also uncertain as to what exactly he would like to have. “You have a rather nice place here,” she heard the alchemist’s compliment, before he took only a single biscuit and placed it on a small plate, “Do you live out here by yourself?” “N-not always,” Fluttershy replied, “I have some animals that stay at the cottage with me… though, i-if you mean live here with other creatures, then Discord does come here sometimes.” “Discord, you say?” he then asked, “He was mentioned earlier today while we were seeing Harmonia. Something along the lines of being ‘Equestria’s chaotic troublemaker’ if memory serves me right.” “T-that’s not… inaccurate,” the pegasus said, “T-though, he’s not the same as before.” Albedo paused for a moment, a bit puzzled by her words, “Could you elaborate?” “W-well, he u-used to be a bad guy who wanted t-to spread chaos throughout Equestria,” Fluttershy explained, “T-though, that was a few years ago. M-my friends and I reformed him and have helped him find a way to use his chaos magic for good now, even though i-it took a while for him to get there.” “I see,” the alchemist replied, “To be entirely honest, all that was talked about with regards to Discord was the kind of magic at his disposal and how it was different from my alchemy. I did not know anything else until what you just shared.” Fluttershy was a bit surprised to hear that. Though, before she could mention anything else, her ears perked up at the sound of a tapping noise in the kitchen. As she turned her head, the pegasus could see Angel Bunny on the counter. Though, happy wasn’t exactly the right way to describe his mood. “O-oh there you are, Angel. I was wondering where you were… Is something wrong?” All the rabbit did was cross his front forelegs and tilt their head towards the guests in the living room. Almost as if he was asking ‘Who are they?’ “O-oh, that’s Albedo and his sister Klee. They’ll be staying with us for a while until they find their way home,” Fluttershy told the rabbit while trying to assure Angel that everything was going to be alright. Though, the rabbit wasn’t entirely convinced as he raised an eyebrow. Which, to Fluttershy, was seen as a sign of doubt, “Angel, there’s nothing to worry about. Now, I want you to be on your best behavior while they’re here, alright?” That just had the rabbit let out a deep sigh, before leaping down off of the counter and hopping over to the living room table as the tea kettle began to whistle. Even though Fluttershy had been rather friendly with their guests and appeared to trust them, Angel wasn’t entirely convinced. He wanted to see what they were like for himself and determine whether or not they had good intentions. Otherwise, it would be just like when Fluttershy first brought Discord into her home. Though, as the young rabbit made his way over to the table, the only thing that he really noticed that was on the floor was Klee’s backpack. A rather big satchel with a doll that had the face of a rabbit given its long ears and small face. Yet, Angel wasn’t sure what to make of it. If anything, it looked like the doll was somehow mocking him since it had the tail that resembled that of a raccoon on the end of it.  Of course, being fixated on the doll meant that the Angel wasn’t paying attention to Fluttershy’s guests as the pegasus arrived at the table while using her wings to hold onto the tray she was carrying. “Here we are. The tea is ready,” she said, before the pegasus noticed something, “Is something wrong?” “Hmm?” Albedo asked, “What do you mean?” “Well, you don’t seem to be eating very much,” the pegasus pointed out, “Do they not taste well? My friend Pinkie baked them herself-” “Oh, the food itself is rather good,” Albedo tried to reassure her, “It’s just that I… dhave a rather small appetite. It’s nothing against you or your friend, but seeing large portions of practically any meal only end up in tragedy.” Fluttershy was now a bit confused by how Albedo phrased his sentence just now, “How so?” “Well, there’s always two scenarios I find myself in whenever this happens. Either I overeat and the taste that made a meal unique is lost to me or I don’t finish and the rest of the food ends up going untouched and being wasted,” the alchemist explained, before handing a cup over to Fluttershy so she could pour some tea for him, “It’s why I don’t typically go to restaurants back home. Though, in doing so, it also means I spend more time preparing my own food back home.” “So, you like to cook?” the pegasus asked, handing the tea cup back to Albedo with an outstretched wing. “Sometimes. I do find some aspects for cooking similar to how I would work with alchemy,” Albedo admitted as he took the tea cup that Fluttershy handed to him and began to add in some milk and sugar, “Both processes require ingredients, sometimes in particular measurements and you need to be careful with how you put them together or else the end result would be… poor.” Fluttershy couldn’t help but chuckle at that. Though, before either of them could say anything, they heard a small yawn come from right next to the alchemist as Klee was slowly beginning to wake up from her nap. “Mmhmm… W-wha-?” “Hey Klee,” Albedo said, gently resting his hand on her shoulder as she tried to rub away the sleep from her eyes, “Did you have a nice nap?” “N-nap?” She asked, before readjusting her cap as she looked around to realize that they weren’t exactly in the Everfree like she thought they were and gave a disappointed pout, “Aww… Klee missed the rest of our adventure.” “Don’t worry, Klee. There will be more time to play later,” her brother assured her, “Right now though, there’s someone I like for you to meet,” With that, Albedo had Klee turn to face towards Fluttershy as the pegasus sat in her chair, “Klee, this is Fluttershy. She’s one of Twilight’s friends and we’re going to be staying at her home while we’re here.” As she heard that, the little girl looked around the room to try and take in her surroundings. However, her attention was soon fixed to the floor and what was nearby her own bag as she squealed happily. “So cute!!” Unfortunately for Angel, they did not realize that the little one’s attention was directly focused on them. That was, until after Klee had picked him up and began to hug him tightly as if the rabbit was a stuffed animal. With his efforts to struggle and slip free of her grasp only being met with more resistance. It felt as if Angel were in a massive bear bug from Henry, only to come from a creature that was much smaller than the grizzly bear. “Um, Klee,” she then heard Albedo speak up as she turned to face her brother, “I don’t think they’re enjoying that. Could you let them go, please?” “Why? It’s so soft and-” The moment that Klee’s grip loosened, Angel took off as if the rabbit was being chased by a Roc, “Oh… Did Klee do something wrong?” “U-um… Klee?” Fluttershy then spoke up, “A-angel Bunny d-doesn’t really like it when you grab him like that.” “But Klee does it all the time with Diona and she doesn’t get mad,” Klee replied innocently, remembering her friend who worked as a bartender for the Cat’s Tail tavern back in Mondstadt. That response had Albedo let out a sigh as he looked back towards Fluttershy, “Forgive my sister. She has a tendency to act impulsively at times. It’s… a bit of a habit.” “I-i see,” Fluttershy replied, “That doesn’t sound… too bad.” “Albedo, can I please go look around?” she then asked as both the pegasus and the alchemist looked back to the little one. “Sure. As long as you stay on your best behavior, alright?” That just had Klee giggle for a moment as she looked back at the two of them with a smile, “Hehe… don’t worry about me. Klee’s a big girl!” After his near close encounter with the tiny crimson terror that squeezed him like a teddy bear, Angel was definitely convinced that there was something suspicious about Klee. For her to terrorize him and act so innocent, nothing about it made sense at all. It made just as much sense as about any time that Discord had happened to stop by to visit. Though, as he was outside, something caught his attention. In one section of the backyard, a giant hole looked to have been dug up with a sign poking out of it. As he got closer, the rabbit could begin to make out what was written on it. Klee’s super secret special hiding place for her most precious treasures! Please don’t take them like Mr. Fluffball did. He had no idea who or what ‘Mr. Fluffball’ was, but Angel had a strange feeling about what Klee was hiding. The rabbit took it upon himself to investigate further to try and see what exactly the little girl was hiding. Though, when he finally finished digging, Angel only found what looked to be a vanilla colored spear, with the top half looking like a rabbit while the bottom half had the symbol of a clover. At first glance, the rabbit didn’t really see what exactly made this thing a ‘treasure’ and just threw it over his shoulder. Though, as it landed in a nearby creek, the treasure let out a massive bang and before the rabbit could tell what was going on, several fish from the creek landed in the backyard just mere inches from him. Followed by a joyful cry from a young innocent girl. “Big brother, look! It’s raining fish! Best day ever!!”