Dicty
‘What is wrong with her this time?’ I dragged both of my hooves down my muzzle in frustration. ‘This is the third time she is crying today!’
Chrysalis held Keratin in a tight hug bawling her eyes out while Ponera did her best to comfort her. They were making a scene in the middle of the new town square and I couldn’t find the strength in me to deal with it.
Opening my wings and flying on the roof of one of the domes I kept an eye out for trouble while our new monarch managed to calm down… again. I was hoping that Spine woke up soon so that I can go back to Manehattan. I missed my old job.
The queen has been jumping from depressed to cheerful, from happy to crying ever since Patchwork left and it's only gotten worse. She didn’t freeze yet, which was also worrying me as that was another piece of today’s madness that didn’t fit.
“Patch and White Light are right, she needs help,” I watched as lings passed them by. A small few would scowl at Chrysalis' behavior, but their numbers dropped significantly. Being properly fed by the queen’s regular love output mellowed out the vast majority of changelings. Some left, refusing to accept the change, but those won’t be missed.
I felt my ears perk up when two passing earth ponies walked up to the queen.
I couldn’t hear what they talked about but their managing to calm her down in just under five minutes is a pleasant surprise.
One of them pulled Ponera to the side and both of them sat down just under me. I took a few steps towards the edge hoping I could pick up a few things from their chat.
I used one of Patchwork’s tricks and enhanced my hearing, cringing at first at the sudden influx of sound.
“…often?” That was the earth pony mare. Her brown coat was almost dark enough to be black.
“Usually, no,” Ponera answered, “but she has been like this since the prince left this morning.”
“Oh... Hmm,” the mare lowered her head in thought and she stayed like that for about a minute making both myself and Ponera look around awkwardly.
“Hazel?” All three of us raised our heads to look at the new arrival. The green-coated stallion left Chrysalis’s side and approached us with a light trot, “Do you think that Quick Input would be able to talk to her?” He gave a quick tilt of his head towards the, now significantly calmer, queen behind him.
“I was just thinking about the same thing, Vivid” Hazel smiled at her… co-worker? I didn’t have time to talk to these ponies much. “But you know that he hasn’t done something like this in years.”
“Eh, it’s like galloping; even a Canterlot unicorn can do it after a warm-up,” The stallion named Vivid shrugged his shoulders.
“What… who are you talking about?” I couldn’t see her muzzle well, but by her voice, Ponera was confused.
I, on the other hoof, heard enough.
Standing straight I opened my elytra and with a quick buzz, I rose into the air and made my way to one of the domes that housed the pony team.
I’ve spoken to Quick Input twice since his arrival. He struck me as a well-read and intelligent individual, but this is the first time I’ve heard that there may be more to him.
I regret that I never looked into the background of all the ponies that arrived here. We could have a counselor or a psychologist here with us among their number and…
“Stupid… gah… It’s just one thing after another since then… I should have just stayed in Manehattan,” I grumbled passing a few smaller groups of flying lings heading to and from work.
Well, I’m here, and we may have something somepony that could help the queen. Why none of us thought to ask before I am simply going to chalk it up to all of us being tired from constant work in the last two weeks.
Patchwork
The evening was gently rolling into place by the time I left Zap’s home.
She was positively fuming by the time it told her every bit of info I had on telecommunication development but I also saw her squeak and giggle like a madwoman so I have no idea what her problem is at the end of the day.
There was something about how she had a breakthrough moment but I did not ask her about the specifics.
After a quick apology to Drop for taking so long (she did not even make an attempt to enter the house (‘I have to sit down and talk to her about her ‘job’ at some point’)) I made my way back to Velvet in the form of Rainbow Blitz with just a bit darker fur color.
I got some hooves pointed at me by a local four-pony pegasi patrol making me question my choice in transformation but otherwise, there were no issues. Although it kind of makes me wonder…
‘I’ll have to look up some names at some point. I don’t want to step on any hooves if I shift into someone I know about only to cause an incident when the form is recognized.’
Landing at Velvet’s home, after a quick chat with her family I told Vel about another pony I wanted to visit, Night Light. Unfortunately, it is getting late, so I’ll have to extend my stay in Canterlot for another day. Hopefully, Chrysalis is handling things.
…
Morning greeted me in the form of my marefriend’s alarm clock.
The annoying thing woke me up from a good nap and I reached out to make it pay for doing its job.
Just as I was about to bring a claw on it the blaring stopped and I cracked one eye open to see what happened.
“I just happen to like that clock, love,” a quick glance above me showed a stern-looking Velvet, but her emotions betrayed her amusement.
Grabbing and tilting the clock so I can see the time, I frowned when the clock arms showed ten in the morning.
“Fuck… I need to get going…” I yawned and let go of the clock.
“Can’t you stay for breakfast,” Velvet hopped onto the bed and started nuzzling me and nipping at sensitive areas around my neck where the chitin was the thinnest and I let myself enjoy the affection.
Twisting around once I sat up, I grabbed her around her withers and pulled both of us down into the covers, her happy squeal turning into laughter when I started aggressively nuzzling her back.
Still laughing at my silliness Vel twisted around my grip until we were belly to belly and returned my rougher nuzzles with gentle ones. Twisting her neck around she all but guided me to the right spots and a few more gentle bites to my shoulders told me everything I needed to know.
…
Closing the door of Sparkle's residence behind me I looked over my current shape of Night Front.
I haven’t used it for a while now so I had to add a bit of height in order to ease some discomfort. I’ve gotten used to being myself so taking a smaller shape like a pegasus was certainly something I had to get used to, again.
‘I should practice more with smaller forms… or figure out how to deal with my organs. Other changelings probably don’t have this issue.’
Taking a deep breath of fresh Canterlot air I sighed enjoying the gentle warmth of the sun on my faux fur.
‘Need to visit Celestia and Shield before I leave.’
Returning back to the here and now, I took a quick glance around me and decided against flying. There will probably be a few ponies that will stop me for a quick chat with questions on my whereabouts, but that was a problem for later. If I even manage to run into them.
Taking a deep breath of fresh Canterlot air I shivered slightly in enjoyment knowing that warmer days were upon us as spring would be settling in. It used to be the other way around for me, I did not stand summer. Ah well, just one more thing that has changed since I got here.
I frowned for a moment, and, finding a nearby low wooden bench I settled down on my barrel, with my legs under me, for a minute to sort out some of my thoughts.
I have been in Equestria for roughly three years now… but between everything that has happened from then to now… looking at the city from the ground properly, seeing ponies mile about (a vast majority being unicorns), and the local bookstore being slowly decorated by its owner in lovely pink hearts… When even IS Hearts and Hooves Day?
Aside from seeing the ponies celebrate Heart’s Warming Eve during my ‘prison’ days I never actually paid any attention to the date. What about the dates of other holidays?
I know how to be a pony, but what about other stuff about their culture that goes unsaid?
Magic… I have neglected it badly especially since the whole training with Celestia started. And while I agree with her that I should focus on what I enjoy using and what I am the most proficient with (shapeshifting) I shouldn’t have ignored the rest.
I kept a close eye on the clock visible past the bookstore’s display while I made some decisions. I did not want to waste too much time as it has become a precious commodity at some point, but that needed to be addressed as well.
Sighing I opened my senses a bit to get a feeling of the ponies around me, passing by and moving through their lives.
There weren’t many foals outside, their exuberance is always welcome as is their sincerity (harsh though it may be sometimes), but there are plenty of others that I could feel out.
Mothers and fathers, or just couples, in general, trotting around made me especially smile since I could easily sense their love. Older couples made me sigh and almost melt into the low wooden bench as their love carried a feeling of maturity and depth clearly lacking in the younger couples. The younger ones however practically saturated the area to such a degree that I could almost describe it as a cloud of love.
Of course not everything was perfect.
Occasional sour emotions, anger, sadness, and distaste also floated about. Some of the older unicorns (particularly if they are well dressed) certainly took an affront to everything that passed them by if it didn’t fit their opinions.
Interestingly, their emotions were without focus, until a particularly nasty noble unicorn stallion passed by in a chariot.
His ugly emotions were full on blast and pointed at an earth pony mare and a unicorn stallion that entered a nearby café.
Thankfully, his chariot did not linger and in about twenty seconds he was out of sight, and out of mind. A dying breed of unicorn supremacists that barely accounted for less than half a percent of the city at this point… so I figured at least.
Shaking my head and snorting at the lingering emotions I let myself enjoy the view of the busy street for another ten minutes.
‘I need to celebrate Hearts and Hooves with Velvet. I missed too much because of ‘work’… I must do better.’
…
I knew that Night Light’s family belong to a minor noble line, but I did not expect such a… humble home.
“It's just a house,” I mumbled. I didn’t expect a mansion but… c’mon. “I guess it does explain a few things.”
Twilight Sparkle was shown on several occasions to be a humble pony… for lack of a better word. I have also used the word privileged on some occasions but a few of the fans always thought I put some negative connotations to it. I have not.
It doesn’t surprise me that Celestia took her as a student so readily if she ended up a mix of the best of both Twilight Velvet and Night Light: talented, intelligent, organized, and humble, along with the lack of many hardships a ‘normal’ life would give.
I haven’t read much about Light’s family as a whole, but one thing that stood out about them, from what the notes I was given, was that they could trace their lineage VERY far back, and, along with Sparkle's family lineage, they were staunch supporters of Celestia when she took the throne along with her sister.
Shrugging I took a look over the house before I knocked.
While the third plate did not have the crem-de-la-crem of society, several of the noble houses still had their homes located on them. Not many large mansions, heck I could probably count them on the four claws on my hoof, but you knew where they were… bloody things were gaudy enough to blind someone.
No, no; the third plate along with the fourth one seemed to be kind of a cutting-off point. I would call it a bridge but I would wager that is not how the nobles saw it. Especially the ‘last few’.
All that said, from what I was able to see from my trip today was that smaller, or lesser, noble houses still liked to flaunt their riches. Young money, or something along those lines.
This, however, was a normal house. A normal PONY house, but a house non the less.
It had the standard that I have come to associate with unicorns in Canterlot, namely, it wasn’t square, and there are two towers sticking out of the sides. I could almost see a telescope sticking out of one of the windows from the right tower if I tilted my head far enough.
Tall and cylindrical, the house walls were white, as was the majority of the city, with two stories above the ground floor, but the roof was in the shape of a turban, deep purple in color, and without any noticeable seams that I would able to use as a reference point for roofing tiles.
A quick glance around me confirmed that, barring an occasional typical square (standard) shaped house, every house that a unicorn either entered or left from, had a unique shape and design with a few similarities; gems being the most visible one.
At six points in the front (and probably in the back) of the house wall, starting from the middle left and right of the main door, are six blue gems in the shape of a triangle each in individual sockets. Each of those sockets was surrounded by what I could only guess is gold paint connecting to the other gems and encircling the entire wall creating a separation that I assumed showed where the floors are.
The fact that between each of those golden lines was a window only served to prove a point, but then I noticed that there were two windows on the left and right of the door, about half a meter further from the gems.
The outside did not have any form of illumination but, then again, it wasn’t necessary as just on my left was a tall light pole standing about two meters from the door. I’m guessing that in the evening the entire house is lit up like a lighthouse in a thunderstorm and with the way it looked, it may as well be.
I couldn’t see what was on the roof, but I know for a fact that there is a chimney (probably made from the same bullshit material as the rest of the house is made of), and of course, one or more decorations, sometimes in the shape of the lead family tree cutie mark.
The two towers on the side were on different elevations, one on the left just hugged the building on the side but it is facing the neighboring house and it's almost hidden from sight; the other was separated by a short ascending corridor and peaked a good meter above the roof.
Sighing I turned to look slightly up to the roof of a nearby low square house where I knew Drop made her temporary nest before I approached the house of my friend.
The heavy-looking wooden door had no bells (of course, this was Equestria) but hanging down in the middle was a decently sized knocker in the shape of a telescope.
Craning my neck to the right side I looked at the right tower where I could just barely see the edge of the window with the telescope.
Shaking my head I raised my left hoof and lifted the knocker using it twice. I cringed a bit at the loud noise coming from it and I wondered if someone would or had already filed a noise complaint.
“Coming!” Recognizing the voice coming from inside I focused my senses on the building but only Night Light’s emotions came through, slight annoyance, but predominantly happiness.
It took about a minute for the door to open, and Night Light to freeze with wide eyes.
“You’re back!” Joy exploded from him and I was pulled into a hug which I somewhat sheepishly returned. Other than Velvet I am still touch-shy compared to ponies.
“Not exactly back, my friend, only visiting,” His emotions dipped a bit to sadness, and I pulled my head back just to see his ears wilt back, “for now anyway.”
Letting go Night pulled back from the hug and stepped to the left inviting me inside with a hoof, “Well, if you are still busy then all I can say is: thanks for visiting,” he smiled.
Nodding my head in thanks I entered the house quickly wiping my hooves on the doormat before actually stepping in.