//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: A Friendly Visit // Story: Love Among Princesses // by Betty_Starlight //------------------------------// I widen my eyes and say to my daughter, “You have a very nice castle here!” She smiles, “Thank you! I mean, it’s no Crystal Palace, but…” I giggle, “You’re so modest!” I look around her throne room and marvel at the sky-blue banners with their curvy yellow wording… “These look fantastic!” “Well, I simply asked for the best seamstress in Appaloosa and they delivered!” I glance back at her, “Is that so? Well, I must say, they did a tremendous job!” Her glare turns harsh, “Mom, what do you want?” I stare back at her, “I want my daughter back… Even if she is a cowpony now…” She frowns, “Well, why didn’t you come see me earlier?” I blink, “The truth is, I just didn’t know how to? I mean, what should I do? Write you a letter? Hello estranged daughter, I’d like to visit you soon! Please write back! I mean, how should I even word it?” Her view lowers, “Something would’ve been better than just not doing anything!” I shake my head as new determination forms within my mind, “Look! I’m sorry this couldn’t get resolved sooner, but…” Her eyes go skyward, “So what then?” and back down to me. “You want to try and resolve this now?” I blink and smile before correcting my face as I’m not sure how I should look, “Well, yes!” before widening my eyes. “Flurry Heart, neither of us can go back and change the past… But it is possible for us to have a future together!” “Did Celestia put you up to this?” “No! Honestly, since you uh, suddenly decided to take an interest in my life again after I started dating her, that’s when I realized that it was time you and I set aside our differences…” Her eyes widen, “Oh! Right! The lesbian alicorn family or whatever!” I smile patiently at her before tilting my head to the left slightly, “Well, yeah! That!” She smiles and giggles, “It’s still funny how it all worked out!” before lowering it. “But that doesn’t change the fact that we both did what we did…” I straighten my neck and mouth, “How exactly did we grow distant, dear daughter? What do you believe happened?” She blinks, “Well, I just lost interest, I guess? After dad died, you stopped talking to me… Then, Twilight told me that a princess was needed here in the south and I decided to accept the position, since, well, there didn’t appear to be much for me left at the Crystal Palace… And so, this is what happened!” I blink when it suddenly strikes me like a thunderbolt, how I’d been acting for the past several years… “I grew distant?” She sighs, “Well, yeah! I’d try to talk to you and you’d only give one word answers… It’s almost like when dad died, part of you died with him… Th-the part of you that seemed to care about me…” she blinks again. “I-I’m sorry I didn’t come to you about this… I really should’ve been a better daughter!” My eyes widen, “What do you mean, child? I’m the one who is at fault here!” Her face has a stoic expression as she says, “Uh, mother?” My eyes widen at attention, “Yes Flurry?” She blinks, “Will you hug me, please?” I shake my head when it suddenly strikes me what my daughter is asking of me, “Uh, s-sure Flurry Heart!” before trotting the necessary 8 feet to her equine form and embracing her tightly with my forehooves… “I’ve missed you daughter!” I say as liquid begins to pour from my right eye… She returns the embrace tightly, “I’ve missed you too mother!” <*****> “And so, what did you learn?” The big white princess asks me as we both lay in bed together while she holds me from behind in her hooves… I stare at the wall blankly and reply, “That you have a big butt!” She giggles and fidgets as she begins to tickle me, “Not about what we just did! I mean, about your daughter!” “He he! Stop it!” I fidget a bit before she lowers her hooves from my pits. “I learned that she felt I grew distant after my husband died and she thinks you’re putting me up to reconciling with her.” “Well, do you think you grew distant, Cadance?” I sigh and grow silent for a moment, “It wasn’t intentional! I mean, sure she came over sometimes and we would make small talk and eat dinner together… But there was always something wrong or off about our meetings, but I just, didn’t know what to say anymore…” “You probably should’ve worked on that then?” I continue to stare blankly, “Well, I know that! It’s just that, well, where do you start?” “You could’ve tried asking her about it?” I sigh again, “Well, that would’ve been logical, yes?” “Why didn’t you?” I stare at the wall blankly for another moment before finally replying, “I was scared…” “What were you scared of?” I’m silent once more… “I was scared that Shining was the glue that held us together… I was scared that since that was gone, there would be no more link between me and my daughter…” She holds me more firmly from behind, “Even if that were the case, don’t you think you should work on your relationship with her?” Yet another moment of silence before, “Probably?” She snickers slightly, “Well, you can’t change the past! But you can move forward!” I sigh, “Well, tomorrow we got that boring tour of Appaloosa and then, I can finally be with my daughter!” She’s silent for a moment herself before finally saying, “Actually, I have a much better idea…” <*****> I frown at the white princess pony on the other side of the breakfast table, “Okay, I’ll stay here for a longer breakfast, since you insist and since well, there isn’t anything else on the agenda until Flurry is done later this morning!” I lean forward slightly, “Uh, how did you get us out of the tour, anyway?” Suddenly, the big ornate blue double doors behind Celestia in the dining room burst open to reveal a white alicorn in cowpony apparel, “Cardboard cutouts! You left cardboard cutouts to greet Rayburn outside the castle?” I stare at her, “Why did you do that?” She looks back with a timid frown, “Well, it doesn’t need to be perfect! It just needs to make him think we’re there for a few minutes!” I widen my eyes, “And what are we to do when we’re found out?” She smiles, “I believe that’s when you talk to your daughter!” Flurry shouts, “If you wanted to talk to me, you could’ve just asked!” I look at Celestia, “Didn’t I already do that?” Celestia raises her neck to speak at Flurry, “She already did that! That wasn’t good enough!” “So you left cardboard cutouts?” Celestia grins again, “Well, yes! Obviously!” I can’t take anymore and finally swivel my body to the left on my chair to stare at the young white alicorn over my shoulder, “Flurry, I believe we need to start over!” She nods, “Obviously! But I have princess duties!” Celestia speaks again to Flurry, “Don’t worry about that future stepdaughter! I already took care of it!” Flurry looks at Celestia with a perplexed expression, “What?” Celestia grins widely and giggles, “Please Flurry! I was princess millennia before you were even thought of! You don’t think I know how to get out of royal duties?” Flurry furrows her brow, “What did you do?” Celestia finally gets off her chair to the right and continues to grin at the other white alicorn, “I took your place!” before trotting slowly around the table and on her way out the door, she says curtly to Flurry Heart. “Have a good day with your mother…” I then stared blankly at the white alicorn child with her dark brown Stetson hat, “So uh, I guess we should be hitting the ol’ dusty trail now, or?” Flurry smiles and giggles, “Stop it, mom!” I widen my eyes and barely suppress giggles, “I’m sorry! But uh, cowpony getup!” She finally puts the sides of her mouth closer to her eyes as she chuckles slightly and says, “I know uh, how about I take this stuff off and we just be together for now? As mother and daughter?” I smile back, “I’d like that Flurry!” <*****> As I flapped my wings hard, it suddenly became apparent to me that I don’t really do this as often as I should! I felt the hot breeze going through my mane as I stared at the barren landscape below me and asked my daughter, currently flying on my left, “So uh, what’s out here anyway?” “Oh, you’ll see mom! It’s a special place I go to when I want to get away!” I stare down at the desert and say blankly, “It’s an oasis, isn’t it?” “No!” My daughter suddenly blurts out! “Well um, okay, yeah, kinda!” I smile as I suddenly notice palm trees and a small pond up in the distance, “I think I see it?” She adjusts her neck forward to stare at the same patch of vegetation I’m looking at, “Uh, yeah! That’s it right there! Come on mom! Lets go have some fun!” <*****> I feel the warm desert wind blow through my mane from the barren landscape on my left as the white alicorn in front of me smiles while widening her robin’s egg blue eyes and saying to me, “This is my escape!” I smile and nod, “Royal duties can get rather taxing, no?” She frowns, “You said it mom! I uh, come here to get away sometimes…” I turn my head right to look over the lush vegetation of the oasis and see a tranquil pond there with many plants and birds surrounding it as I say, “How did you find this place, anyway?” “Sometimes, I like to go flying!” I adjust my neck back to Flurry, “What?” She smiles and blinks her big light blue eyes, “Sometimes, I’ll just fly around the desert during the evening hours after everything is done and everypony’s already gone home… It helps center me… Anyway, I stumbled across this place one day and decided to check it out!” I smile back, “Oh? So what do you normally do here?” Her eyes widen, “What do you think? Come on mom! Lets go for a swim!” before turning her body left and beginning to trot fast towards the pond that direction… She soon leaps in the air, and flaps her wings a few times for additional lift and that raised her equine body in the air over the water before it came down crashing with a resounding splash! I smile while turning my neck to gaze at this sight. “Come on mom! The water’s great!” I begin to run towards the pond at full gallop, and it’s about 40 feet or so away, “Alright Flurry! Stand back! Mom’s gonna show you an Alicorn Cannonball!” “What?” She says while her neck wades in the water with the rest of her body underneath… I leap in the air at the water as I begin flapping and use my magick to create lift on my equine body and I fly overhead doing a loop in the air before careening towards the water with all four legs bunch together to make an enormous splash when I finally make contact! (To be continued… )