//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: Interactions 3 // Story: Piece by Piece // by Eltirions //------------------------------// 10 December 1008 At that moment, Rainbow burst in, mane and coat still dripping a little. At least the smell was gone. ‘’I hope you saved some for me!’’ The pegasus leapt onto her chair next to Rarity. ‘’I could eat a whole house.’’ Flurry giggled as Rarity raised an eyebrow. ‘’Crystals, I’ve heard, are hard to digest.’’ It took Rainbow all of two seconds to recognize what Rarity was doing, and she played along masterfully. ‘’I can handle anything!’’ she boasted, pushing her chest forward. Rarity tried really, really hard not to stare at her chest fluff. But she knew from experience that it was so soft and warm and- ‘’I’m sure you can,’’ she managed to say as her brain continued to think about Rainbow’s chest. ‘’I just don’t think the stomach ache would be worth it, darling.’’ ‘’I,’’ Rainbow said pointedly, ‘’don’t get stomach aches. I’m too awesome.’’ ‘’You are!’’ Flurry agreed with wide-eyed innocence. ‘’You beat all of those guards! It was so cool!’’ ‘’Glad you think so, kid.’’ Rainbow reached out and ruffled the filly’s mane. Flurry reached her head up a little, leaned into Rainbow’s hoof. ‘’What did those guards do to you?’’ Rarity inquired out of morbid curiosity. ‘’Nothing, I just grabbed the off-duty ones,’’ Rainbow snickered, ‘’and kicked their flanks. It was good practice, and once they were past the first round they actually started working together and fighting back. Still too easy.’’ Rainbow was probably exaggerating, but it wasn’t a full lie either, else Rarity would have figured it out by now. She wasn’t as skilled as Applejack at sniffing out dishonesty, but Rainbow couldn’t lie about her own skills to save her own life. ‘’Rainbow, tomorrow auntie is going to teach me how to lift more than one thing with magic!’’ Flurry brightly informed the older mare. ‘’That’s very nice of her!’’ Rainbow said. ‘’But I had an idea that I think you’re going to like too. Both of you.’’ ‘’Oh?’’ Rarity leaned forward. ‘’Do tell, darling.’’ ‘’So, I talked with a couple of the guards after I was finished showing them how good I am,’’ Rainbow said, ‘’and they mentioned that they were surprised to see Flurry. I asked what they meant and they said that the two of you were both a pretty rare sight in public.’’ Flurry ducked her head, while Rarity tipped her head in acknowledgement. ‘’And?’’ Rainbow was going somewhere with this, obviously, but Rarity hadn’t the faintest clue where. ‘’Well, if your own guards barely see you, imagine how the rest of the Empire must feel.’’ That’s… oh fuck, that’s a pretty good point. ‘’I-’’ Rarity kept herself from swearing out loud, but just barely. ‘’I had forgotten that.’’ ‘’Well don’t worry!’’ Rainbow said cheerfully. ‘’I have just the way to fix it!’’ She spread her wings to look more imposing. ‘’We go on a nationwide tour!’’ What? Nationwide tour? ‘’The Empress arrives on the 22nd,’’ Rarity sputtered, ‘’we have to be there for her. We can’t visit all of the Empire’s cities in time- how are we even going to travel?’’ ‘’We’ll be back before the 22nd, we can if we only visit the important ones, and train,’’ Rainbow replied as if she was reading from a list. ‘’I wasn’t just thinking about this under the shower, y’know.’’ Well… ‘’Rainbow Falls, Snowybury, Quebuck, Hedgewards and Ponytown,’’ Rarity thought out loud. ‘’Those are the Empire’s largest cities after Crystal City. The train tracks are all repaired, it’s just the trains south that need some more work, but that’s nearly done too. If we leave on the 12th, we can make it back…’’ This could actually work. Slowly, a grin crept up on her face. ‘’Rainbow, you’re a genius!’’ she cried out. ‘’I know!’’ Rainbow said exuberantly, grinning as well. ‘’We stay two days in each city, that’s plenty of time, right?’’ ‘’It should be,’’ Rarity agreed. ‘’We can leave in the evening and arrive in the early morning to maximize our time everywhere.’’ ‘’So we’re going to travel?’’ Flurry spoke up. Rarity turned her head to see the filly was almost vibrating with excitement. ‘’Yes, we are,’’ Rarity confirmed. ‘’But… it’s not going to be just fun.’’ Each city was going to go all-out, even with the limited time to prepare. There were going to be parades and feasts everywhere. ‘’There’s going to be a lot of stuff because of you,’’ she said gently. ‘’Ponies are going to celebrate a lot, and you’re going to be meeting a lot of different people and travelling a lot, Flurry. It’ll be exhausting.’’ ‘’But fun, right?’’ ‘’Heck yeah!’’ Rainbow said. ‘’Once the boring parts are done, we can go do whatever you want!’’ Flurry’s eyes lit up. ‘’Everything?’’ ‘’Within reason,’’ Rarity added with a small glare at Rainbow, who just kept on grinning. ‘’But yes, we’ll have plenty of time even with the boring parts to explore each city.’’ ‘’Then let’s go!’’ Flurry declared. ‘’Tomorrow evening, after dinner,’’ Rarity decided on the fly. ‘’And I need to find someone to do some of my work here, but that’s not a problem.’’ It was, but Flurry didn’t need to be bothered by that. Whatever happened, Rarity would be going on a tour with Flurry and Rainbow tomorrow, in the train. ‘’So, what’s for lunch?’’ Oh, Rainbow. |-x-X-x-| 10 December 1008 Everything still hurt. ‘’Urgghhh…’’ Evening groaned, part-exhaustion part irritation. Shrouded fully agreed with that. ‘’Cheer up!’’ Darkheart, cunt that that he was, said with fake happiness. ‘’You still have to patrol, but this time it feels like you’ve been in a fight already!’’ Glade opened one of his eyes and glared at Darkheart. Shrouded wasn’t even the subject of the glare, and he still felt cowed. Darkheart, it seemed, gave no fucks, which would be admirable if it wasn’t so fucking typical of him. Oh well, at least he’d been just as mangled as the rest of them. ‘’Please tell me this won’t happen again,’’ Evening pleaded without hope. ‘’It wasn’t going to,’’ Darkheat confirmed, still smiling with a fake smile. ‘’But I’m sure Commander Rainbow would be just as pleased to continue training with us.’’ Shrouded grabbed his third mug of coffee and downed about half of it, then glared at the mug. The mug, predictably, didn’t do much back, mainly because it was a fucking mug. ‘’What have we done to deserve this?’’ Evening asked the roof. The roof also didn’t answer her. ‘’Well, we did sign up for the Night Guard,’’ Shrouded volunteered. ‘’Could have guessed this would happen.’’ Evening huffed. ‘’I hate everything about this,’’ she primly informed all three of them. ‘’Why did I sign up again?’’ ‘’Good of the nation, protecting our Empress - Princess, at the time -, a sense of duty,’’ Darkheart listed off. ‘’Boredom,’’ Glade added without opening his eyes. Evening glared murder. ‘’Oh very well.’’ She got up from the table. ‘’If I am not appreciated here, I’ll just go somewhere else.’’ Glade opened his left eye again. ‘’Go to your husband,’’ he suggested smoothly. ‘’Rady,’’ Evening sputtered as she flushed red, ‘’is not my husband!’’ Ah, this again. ‘’Forgive me, you sure act like a married couple,’’ Glade apologized without meaning it. ‘’Go on then.’’ He waved at her with his wing. ‘’Fuck you too,’’ Evening blurted out, before darting out the room and slamming the door behind her. Glade and Darkheart both chuckled, while all Shrouded managed was a wave of his hoof at the door. ‘’Bye,’’ he muttered under his breath, before downing the other half of his cup. ‘’So,’’ Darkheart began after half a minut'se silence, but was interrupted by a polite knock on the door. ‘’Yes?” he called out. The door opened to reveal a member of the palace staff, a white mare with a red mane. ‘’I have a letter for Sergeant Shrouded Night. It was delivered to the Palace during lunch.’’ Shrouded raised an eyebrow. Post to them went through a private mailbox; who would send him mail to the Palace’s public address. ‘’I’m Shrouded Night,’’ he said as he sat up a little in his chair. ‘’Then this is for you.’’ The mare walked over to the table and hoofed him the letter. Shrouded took a moment to look at it, but found nothing out of the ordinary. The letter was indeed addressed to the Palace, and to him. ‘’Huh,’’ he said, before opening the letter. Honourable sergeant, Good day to you. We are Morning Candle and Ruby Rose, the father and mother of Star Glitter. Yesterday, you bought our daughter a small statue at the market, which she has been very happy with so far. The statue has earned a place of honour on her bedrest, and she has been showing it to anyone who comes by. We just wished to thank you for your generosity. We are not poor, but we are not rich either, and an expense like this would have been a blow to our monthly finances. Still, we want to repay you for your kindness by inviting you to dinner tonight, or another date if tonight does not fit into your schedule. Our address is Hercindia Street 48, if you want to come by. Dinner will be at six. We hope you have a good day. Kind regards, Morning Candle Ruby Rose Well. He could safely say he hadn’t expected this. ‘’So what is it?’’ Glade asked as soon as Shrouded lifted his eyes from the letter. ‘’An invitation to dinner from the parents of that filly I bought a statue for yesterday,’’ Shrouded replied, still a little shocked. ‘’Captain, permission to-’’ ‘’Granted,’’ Darkheart said with a smirk. ‘’I’ll get Misty to fill in your shift. A little punishment for leading us into a trap.’’ Glade snorted as Shrouded nodded. ‘’Thanks, cap.’’ ‘’Don’t thank me,’’ Darkheart dismissed. ‘’You’re the one that’s spending the evening with two civvies and their overexcited child.’’ That’s one way to look at it. Glade’s cackling certainly didn’t help. |-x-X-x-| 10 December 1008 It was nice to be back in Ponyville. Hoof City was nice, but it wasn’t home like Ponyville was.  Sweetie and her… companion had been met by her friends as soon as they stepped out of the train. After an enthusiastic greeting, followed by a party from Pinkie, Sweetie had settled back into Carousel Boutique, together with Twinkle. That had been one of their many disagreements: Twinkle had insisted on sleeping inside Carousel Boutique, so he could be certain Sweetie was safe. She had insulted just about everything about him she could think of and even threatened to sic Discord on him, but he had held his position until he’d haggled her into being allowed to sleep in the guest bedroom, while Sweetie stayed in her own room. Rarity’s room remained empty, and Sweetie hadn’t gone into it. Apparently, Applejack had been making sure the Boutique was kept clean and safe to live in. Sweetie had thanked her profusely, which the older mare had, predictably, brushed off. Sweetie sighed, and moved her gaze from one of the towers of Twilight’s castle to the School of Friendship. It remained closed as long as Twilight was unwilling to come out of her castle, which she apparently hadn’t done since receiving the news Celestia had been banished. Spike came out once or twice a week to get supplies and talk, but Twilight hadn’t been seen for months. Spike assured everyone that she was fine, but Sweetie had her doubts. ‘’Oh, don’t worry about Bookbutt, she’ll be alright.’’ ‘’Ga!’’ Sweetie exclaimed as she whipped her head around. ‘’Discord! You scared me!’’ ‘’I know,’’ the draconequus chuckled as he floated down to the ground. ‘’That was the point.’’ He stopped a few centimetres above the ground, then laid back in the air. ‘’So, how are you doing?’’ ‘’If you’ve been reading my mind, you already know that,’’ Sweetie said dryly. ‘’I’m not reading your mind,’’ Discord rebutted . ‘’I’m simply picking up your stray thoughts, which is something you ponies do all the time. None of you can keep your thoughts to yourself, even when you're not talking.’’ ‘’Oh.’’ That makes sense. ‘’Well, I try not to, thank you very much,’’ Discord quipped. He lifted his claw up, and a twirling mannequin appeared in it, doing a very good ballet dance before vanishing into biscuit crumbles. Sweetie ignored that. ‘’Is there something you want?” she asked him. ‘’Yes,’’ Discord replied, and then didn’t elaborate. After half a minute passed, Sweetie sighed. ‘’Gonna tell me?’’ Discord shrugged. ‘’Haven’t decided yet.’’ For all the love of… ‘’Just kidding,’’ he suddenly chuckled. ‘’I want you to come have dinner with us tonight.’’ That wasn’t half as bad as it could have been. ‘’I’d be happy to,’’ Sweetie said. ‘’Scootaloo can’t cook to save her life and having apples in every dish is starting to get boring already.’’ ‘’I’d imagine so,’’ Discord said with a smirk. ‘’Dinner’s at seven, at the cottage. We’ll be waiting.’’ And he teleported himself away with a snap of his fingers. Sweetie got up from the grass as well and brushed off some debris that had gotten onto her coat. As predicted, Twinkle stepped out of the shadow of the tree he’d been watching her from under. ‘’Miss Belle.’’ ‘’I’m going back to the Boutique,’’ Sweetie primly informed him, before beginning to walk away. ‘’As you wish,’’ Twinkle said as he fell in behind her. Sweetie hated that he had to follow her, but she put up with it for now. He wasn’t a bad pony, truly, but the fact he was present at all irritated her beyond belief. She shook her head to get away from the thoughts of him. Right. Dinner. I’ll have to tell Applejack I won’t be there tonight. But as she made it down to the farm, her mind wandered back to her unrequested protector again, despite her best efforts.