The room that had been granted to the Kirin for the duration of their stay was more spacious, luxurious, and beautiful than any building back at their home town. This hardly came as much of a surprise given that their houses were in the middle of a remote forest, whereas this room was within the walls of Canterlot Castle. Yet, despite this grandeur that surrounded them, Rain Shine felt no sense of wonder or awe as she looked around, her eyes wandering the strange environment of pristine sculpted stone like it was no more than plain rock. This detached gaze lingered on the beautiful decor until a movement drew her eye to Autumn Blaze.
The younger kirin had a cup of tea held carefully aloft in a faint telekinetic field as she exited the small kitchen, making her way to the central table of the living room, where Rain Shine sat. After a few more hesitant steps she delicately slid the tea cup in front of Rain Shine herself. The leader of the kirin spared Autumn Blaze a quick glance before she looked toward the tea, spotting the evidence of foal’s breath that swirled beneath the surface of the liquid. Face unreadable, she looked back to Autumn Blaze once again.
“Time for some foal’s breath tea!” Autumn Blaze said happily, nudging the tea slightly closer to Rain Shine with a hoof.
After a breath, Rain Shine nudged the tea away.
“Come ooooon.” Autumn Blaze sing-songed, “There’s really no reason to put if off as long as you said. We’re going home tomorrow, the politics are done.” She slid the tea cup back in front of Rain Shine.
Rain Shine looked directly into Autumn Blaze’s eyes, pointedly brought a hoof up to the tea cup, and nudged it away again. The simple motion caused something to snap inside the happy-go-lucky younger kirin.
“Yes I know you said you would take it on the train ride home!” Autumn Blaze exploded into desperation as if the words had burst a dam. Though Rain Shine hadn’t spoken, that didn’t stop Autumn Blaze from filling in Rain Shine’s words in a dialogue in her own head. “I want to talk to you! It’s been so weird having you like this! Again!” The usually upbeat tone was long gone from the young kirin’s voice, and the tone that had replaced it would drive a spike into any creature’s heart. Yet, Rain Shine looked back, eyes empty. Seeing the familiar distance in the look, Autumn Blaze’s voice grew tight and fraying. “Please… I don’t… I don’t know what to say to you right now to convince you. I know you don’t- won’t- can’t understand me when you’re like this. Not really understand me. You couldn’t last time either. Just drink it. Please.” Autumn Blaze punctuated the plea by pushing the tea cup slightly further towards Rain Shine once again.
With the air tense in anticipation Rain Shine looked once more to the tea. Slowly, she raised a single hoof to the drink and then, just as slowly, slid the teacup to the side of the table opposite herself. Glancing back to Autumn Blaze she saw the young kirin’s eyes rimmed with tears. Silently, Rain Shine stood from the table and moved to a seat by the room’s main window, letting the brilliant view of Canterlot at dusk take her thoughts away from her diplomatic assistant.
Autumn Blaze stood perfectly still by the table for several long moments before sniffling loudly and blinking the tears from her eyes, though they came back quickly as if to spite her. She made a quick pace to the door and gave one more glance to Rain Shine, which went unmet.
“I’ll be back later.” She announced loudly, the statement punctuated by the closing of the door in the wake of her exit.
Rain Shine didn’t take her eyes from the view, seemingly unperturbed by the exit of her assistant. However, even as dusk was shepherded out to make way for Luna’s night, Rain Shine made no move to ready herself for bed. She knew that as long as Autumn Blaze was unaccounted for a distant and pernicious part of herself would prevent any attempt at truly falling asleep.
Eventually Rain Shine’s eyes drifted away from the window and toward the only other thing breaking up the pattern of the room, the tea cup. Autumn Blaze had brought it all the way from the Kirin homeland, carefully wrapping it with her own hooves. Rain Shine had said there wouldn’t be much point, it wasn’t as if Canterlot wouldn’t have tea cups of their own but Autumn Blaze had insisted and now, in the terrible silence of her absence, the humble tea cup held the distant gaze of Rain Shine like a black hole held light.
She wasn’t sure how long had passed before the clicking of the door broke the silence. The noise sounding for all the world like thunder in the silence. It ripped Rain Shine’s gaze away from the tea cup to the source of the disturbance as Autumn Blaze reentered the room, eyes red in the obvious wake of a crying fit that had happened in the time she’d been gone.
She was not alone however, a mysterious figure in a simple heavy cloak followed behind. The figure closed the door behind them before shaking back the hood to reveal the tell tale black and white mohawk of Zecora.
Zecora and Autumn Blaze shared a look that seemed to hold a conversation that Rain Shine wasn’t privy to, after which the kirin retreated into the kitchen and disappeared behind the door. Zecora moved towards the window that Rain Shine had seated herself at and sat in the chair that, technically, had been designated as Autumn Blaze’s.
They sat in a heavy silence. Rain Shine’s eyes stayed locked on Zecora but found no matching stare as Zecora’s eyes instead looked around the room. Seeing it in a way that Rain Shine couldn’t, and displaying on her face all the emotions that Rain Shine might’ve felt had she been able to. Eventually the zebra spotted the tea cup on the main table and stared at it for many long moments.
“You’ve been a silly leader, I’m sure that you must know,
To think that your emotions were not something you could show.
As if your joy or sadness would make you less than real,
That we might think that much less of you if you did ever feel.”
Rain Shine’s eyes locked more attentively onto Zecora’s but did not betray any emotion. Zecora gave a half-hearted smile and stood to retrieve the tea cup that had been abandoned on the lonely table.
“Autumn Blaze has told to me the secrets that you’ve kept,
And every word she gave to me was given as she wept.
She worries for you dearly as she worries for no other
She views you as a caretaker, and even as a mother.”
Zecora returned with the tea, carrying it easily in her hooves, and then set it onto the windowsill. Where both of them stared at the slowly spinning contents.
“I think you’ll find that things up here were never quite so dire,
And none of us could judge you if you did go up in fire.
We’re all flawed and trying as you will clearly see.
So for the sake of all of us, why not try some tea?”
Rain Shine eyed the cup again, and felt that same tugging at her heart she’d been feeling on and off throughout the past couple days. Then realized she’d been feeling it constantly ever since her confrontation with Autumn Blaze. It pulled, straining, feeling like it was going to snap.
Reaching out, Rain Shine took the tea cup in frighteningly steady hooves. She looked at the contents once again, blinked once before carefully sipping it. The tea, cold from its abandonment some hours ago, was less like a nice herbal drink and more like a medical draught. Immediately she felt the strain on her heart begin to ebb in response. She looked up to Zecora and noticed that she was having trouble seeing the zebra because of how cloudy her eyes were from the tears she hadn’t realized she’d needed to cry.
“You’re truly as wise as Autumn Blaze says you are.” Rain Shine managed to croak, her voice out of sorts after so much silence. She hated herself instantly, cringing internally at the idea that she was interacting with another representative like this.
Zecora offered a smile in response.
“It is easiest to seem so wise in the light of dawn,
I only saw the path I’d cantered and told you how I’d gone,
For long ago I left my tribe, to a place they said,
That both the ponies and the forest there would rather I was dead.
It was not a simple journey, the ponies thought me strange,
But despite a rocky welcome, they didn’t make me change.
And now I know them happily, I’m welcomed in their homes,
And the librarian who lives there will gladly trade me tomes.”
Rain Shine sat silently in thought, looking into Zecora’s eyes. She’d gotten better at parsing the rhyming words and now was simply putting in the work to really understand, on an emotional level, what had been said. It gave her time as the effects of the foal’s breath tea took hold. Eventually, she spoke up. “Were you flirting with me at the meeting?”
Zecora, caught extremely off guard by the sudden drastic change of topic, blushed lightly and was momentarily struck silent as she tried to put together a beautiful rhyming sequence. She, both unfortunately and fortunately, didn’t have time as at that moment Autumn Blaze emerged from the kitchen.
The younger kirin was still sulking as she left the kitchen. This mood didn’t last long, however, for she soon turned her gaze to Rain Shine and saw the mostly empty tea cup in her hooves. Understanding immediately what it meant and being far too happy for words, she closed the distance so fast that Rain Shine barely found time to finish the tea before the impact as she was wrapped in a hug. “Sorry that I worried you Autumn.” Rain Shine said. The sound of her voice making Autumn Blaze’s smile widen.
As Zecora stood from the chair, recognizing that this was not her moment, both kirin’s gazes flicked to her.
“Thank you so much Zecora.” Autumn Blaze said, unwilling to let go of the hug she had started.
“Yes, thank you Zecora.” Rain Shine echoed. “I look forward to your visit to our homeland. There is still much we need to talk about.”
Zecora gave a curt nod to both of them, smiled, and pulled her hood back up before leaving the room, closing the door behind her.