//------------------------------// // Chapter 17: Meanwhile // Story: The Party Girl // by Godslittleprincess //------------------------------// Roughly a week after Diamond Tiara’s birthday, Timber Spruce joined his sister at their table for breakfast. Gloriosa set a plate with two thin rashers, a fried egg, and a mound of hot fried potatoes in front of her brother as he sat down. The two of them consumed their hot meal in a silence as cold as the Griepsburg climate, not even making eye contact with each other. “Don’t forget that you have to fix the fence again today,” Gloriosa noted as she finished the last bite of her food and got up from the table. “I won’t,” Timber grumbled as he did the same. He crossly tossed his plate and utensils into the sink before storming out the front door. He stopped in his tracks as he slowly looked up, suddenly becoming aware of what was happening right in front of him. “Gloriosa!” Timber called, running back inside the house. “You’re not going to believe what I just saw!” Timber pulled Gloriosa away from the breakfast dishes and towards the closest window that was facing their front yard. Although annoyed, Gloriosa decided to see what her little brother was making such a big fuss about if only to humor him. Nothing in the world could have prepared her for what she saw. The town’s children and many of its adolescents/young adults were not only patching up Timber and Gloriosa’s fence but rebuilding it sturdier than ever. A small group led by Sunset Shimmer and Cerulean Brush was even painting flowers and leaves on the finished parts of the fence. Additionally, Gloriosa could see several people watering and fertilizing the saplings with an unexpected amount of tenderness and care, the kind of care she often wished her own brother would show them but never did. However, her heart nearly jumped out of her chest when she saw Diamond Tiara hauling a heavily full watering can towards a huge, weathered-looking spruce tree. “Oh, no! She better not!” she exclaimed as she raced to the front door with Timber following after her. She opened the door just in time to see Apple Bloom say to Diamond, “Whoa, better leave that one alone, DT. That tree’s real special to Miss Gloriosa, and she’d probably get real mad if she knew someone from your clan so much as touched it.” “What’s so special about that tree?” Diamond asked, setting the watering can down. “That’s Gaea Evergreen,” AB explained. “Miss Gloriosa and Mr. Timber’s great-grandparents started this whole nursery from just her, and you see all these letters in hearts carved into her trunk?” She pulled Diamond closer to the tree to give her a better look but kept herself between her friend and Gloriosa’s tree. “Those belonged to her parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents, and when Miss Gloriosa falls in love and gets married, she’s going to put her and her husband’s letters on Gaea, too. This tree and Mr. Timber are all Miss Gloriosa has left of her family, and I reckon that her family is the one thing Miss Gloriosa cares about more than the feud.” “How do you know all that?” “Miss Gloriosa and Mr. Timber’s grandparents were friends with Granny Smith. My family knows a lot of things about their family.” Diamond Tiara looked from the tree to the watering can still in her hands to Apple Bloom. She handed the watering can over to the young Apple and said, “Well, if this tree means that much to her, then maybe you should water it. Upsetting her would totally ruin the whole point of having all these people come over to help her and Mr. Timber, wouldn’t it?” “It sure would,” AB agreed, taking the watering can and proceeding to water the tree with it. Gloriosa and Timber watched the whole exchange with their eyes wide and mouths gaping. “What in the world is going on?” Gloriosa gasped. “I have absolutely no idea,” Timber replied. Roughly a month after Diamond Tiara’s birthday, Lady Chrysalis and Lord Tirek met each other by the Battle Bell backed by a handful of their most loyal clan members. A young man with dark green skin, violet eyes, and a bright red buzz cut stood particularly close to Lady Chrysalis. “I hope you have a good reason for calling us here, Lady Chrysalis,” Lord Tirek said gruffly as he stared down his fellow clan leader. “I most certainly do,” Lady Chrysalis replied before gesturing to their present company. “Haven’t you noticed the utterly dismal lack of attendance from the rest of our clans? I’m not talking about just today. Oh, no! I’m talking about every single time the Bell’s been rung for THE PAST MONTH! And do you know where they have been?” “Let’s see,” Lord Tirek began in a rather bored tone. “The children have been at the schoolhouse, and everyone else has been having afternoon teas, barn raisings, quilting bees, etc. By the way, didn’t your youngest son start a crafting club a few weeks ago?” “Don’t you dare mention that, that disappointment in my presence?!” Chrysalis shrieked before continuing, “Anyway, yes, it would seem as if our clansmen have been distracted as of late, and I know exactly who to blame for this turn of events. Do you?” The blank stare Lord Tirek was giving her made Lady Chrysalis groan as she put her hand over her face. “It’s that mountain girl and that boy living with the postman’s family, you idiot!” Chrysalis cried. “If we want things to go back to the way they were, we need to find a way to get rid of them.” “And how are we supposed to do that?” Tirek retorted. “I am willing to offer a truce,” Chrysalis replied, “a temporary truce.” Everyone present gasp, none louder than Lord Tirek. “Are you mad, woman?” Tirek exclaimed. “Just what would our ancestors think?” “Do you want our clansmen to keep occupying themselves with teas and barn-raisings and quilting bees or do you want us to go back to destroying each other the way we always have?” Chrysalis countered. “We need that girl and that boy gone, and the best chance we have of eliminating them is by working together. As soon as all this is over, we will never have to work together again.” Lady Chrysalis extended her hand towards Lord Tirek. Lord Tirek eyed her hand suspiciously and glanced around taking note of how few were still participating in the feud. He frowned deeply as he thought about the lady’s proposal and the town’s current state of affairs. Upon further review, he grudgingly extended his hand towards Chrysalis’s and shook hands with her. Meanwhile in Paardenstad... “Please, please, please,” a cocoa-skinned, ginger-haired boy close to First Base’s age pleaded with a middle-aged man. The man had white skin and wavy cornflower blue hair and wore a fancy suit and a monocle. The man was seated behind a large, polished, elaborately engraved wooden desk, trying to suppress his growing annoyance with the boy. “Mr. Button Mash, for the umpteenth time, absolutely not,” the man retorted, his highfaluting British accent underlining the irritation in his voice. “I know it’s hard for a boy your age to accept, but your father and everyone else on that ship are likely gone. We’ve searched everywhere they could have ended up, according to Mr. Chips’s estimations, and we have not found a single survivor.” “With all due respect, Sir Fancy Pants, there’s still one place we haven’t looked,” a boy about Flash’s age with light purple skin and dark blue-gray hair wearing thickly rimmed glasses interrupted. “Mr. Micro Chips, you know as well as I that anyone who might have drifted in that direction is as good as dead, and I am not wasting even one ship to search there,” Fancy Pants scoffed. “But someone could have ended up there and survived,” the younger boy, whose name was Button Mash, insisted. “I know our chances of actually finding anyone are unbelievably slim, but we have to try.” “If you want to go to Griepsburg so bad, cover your own expenses. I will not be aiding you.” Both Micro Chips and Button Mash sighed as they exited Fancy Pants’s office. Outside, two boys their age were waiting for them. The older one was named Sandalwood and had light orange-tan skin and a head full of green dreadlocks. The younger one was named Pipsqueak and had brown hair and a brown birthmark over his left eye. “Well, what did Mr. Fancy Pants say?” Pip asked. “He said absolutely not and that if anyone actually did end up drifting towards Griepsburg, they’re as good as dead,” Micro Chips deadpanned. “Okay, that was harsh,” noted Sandal. “So, what now? We’re just giving up on our friends, many of whom think of us as family, their only family?” Pip retorted disbelievingly. “He did say if we wanted to check out Griepsburg so bad, we’d have to pay for the trip ourselves,” Button added glumly. “Well, can we?” “Theoretically, we can,” Micro Chips answered. “We might have to ask Ms. Love Tap and the rest of our parents for money, but we should be able to scrape together enough to take a carriage and a ferry there.” “We’d get there faster if Mr. Fancy Pants just let us use one of his ships,” Button grumbled. “Well, Sir Fancy Pants isn’t letting us use his ships, so we’ve got to work with what we’ve got, alright?” Micro Chips snapped. “Hey, hey, calm down,” Sandalwood butt in. “Let’s just focus on getting to Griepsburg and checking the place out. Who knows? We might actually find someone this time.”