//------------------------------//
// 21 — Lunch Part I: Awkward Before 
// Story: Ms. Glimmer and the Do-Nothing Prince 
// by scifipony 
//------------------------------//

Awkward. My actions made returning to our classroom that way. More so, considering how Cadance galloped down the hall, overwhelmed, sobbing. No more awkward than after riding a pony on impulse. You'd done that. O-kay. Now you had to talk normally. Your states had inalterably changed, but talking about it felt... Riiiight. Awkward.

I shooed away the janitor, but kept his barrow of brooms and mops. Protégés, wizards, friends, and a princess cleaned up the fallen plaster, broken glass, spilled water, disintegrated light fixture, and a tumbled over mountain of books. Silently. But for the slop of the mop, the whisk of the brooms, and the clatter of softly placed hooves.

We ended up reading our copies of Mnemonics. Sunburst retreated to his desk, spreading out his notebooks, studiously writing. Divorced of the heavy saddlebags I'd carried, I saw a stallion my age. Attractive. He'd helped form my conception of stallion-hood as a foal, which didn't help. Avoiding where my mind went, I then avoided thought of the Prince, then Citron. That led to the grey coltish EBI agent I'd shared a hotel room with, before being accepted into Celestia's school. 

I turned to Moon Dancer. "I'm hungry. I invited you to lunch. Wanna go?"

Her purple eyes lifted behind her glasses. She nodded.

"What about us?" Sunset said, loudly. When I looked, Twilight pointed at her own chest and Sunset nodded.

I giggled. Yep, I did that. I'd fixed broken things.

Streak held her primer, wings out, blue feathers splayed on the table. A yellow pencil flicked around in her lips over a notepad. Her first fifteen minutes with the book, she'd gotten Hurricane's armor to glow dull red as if taken out of a forge, but without getting hot. That'd sold her on Celestia's plan. Total concentration, that pegasus.

"Streak. We're going to lunch. Wanna come?"

She mumbled around the waving pencil. "Lemme wri dis down." As we clattered down the front steps from school, Sunburst oblivious we'd left, she whooshed out the front door. Guards tailed us before we reached Alicorn Way; still no Firefall.

"Where to?" asked Sunset.

I said, "There's La Esquina Izquierda—"

"Equidorian?" asked Moon Dancer. "Um. You know night wings cook really spicy? Burn a hole in your stomach, spicy?"

"How about hay burgers?" chirped Twilight, bouncing her withers off Moon Dancer. They both tittered.

Doña Asada had introduced me to her native cuisine. "They'll make their melon and squash dishes mild... If you ask... Um, there's the Hay Burger!"

Twilight said, "Not at lunch. It's packed dock to muzzle."

Sunset said, "Not if you're Ms. Glimmer, I'll bet."

I pointedly turned away from the restaurant. "Pulling rank would make me really popular at school."

Sunset nodded, but had a hoof to her chin as she walked. "There's The Hooflyn Delicatessen—"

I lowered my voice, "That's a bad choice, Sunset." 

That was Boss Running Mead's favorite restaurant. Outside was where the sting operation to catch him three days ago had devolved into a firefight between the constables and his goons—and coppers he’d mind controlled. Running Mead had waved an envelope of fragrant nettle ewe under Sunset's nose, knowing she suffered withdrawals; she had later cringed under a toppled-over café table to avoid flying Force bolts. I'd earned my cutie mark by ripping out the gangster's cutie mark and corking it inside a bottle of claret.

Sunset said, "I need to face my past. Besides, Celestia sent Running Mead to Tartarus."

"Who's Running Mead?" asked Twilight.

"One of the reasons Celestia pardoned me and Streak."

Sunset said, "I heard the deli has good pickles, sauerkraut, and corned aubergine to go with crispy hay fries."

"I'm in," said Streak in concert with Twilight. Moon Dancer nodded. 

The pegasus hovered as she spoke. "Sunset's right. Going somewhere the flank adored, and will remember as lost to him, will heal the three of us."

"Long walk," I pointed out. 

"So?" Streak asked, performing a barrel roll.

I swiped a hoof at her, which she easily dodged. We took the first residential street east. Century old trees held huge rustling canopies of yellow, orange, and red that shaded sidewalks littered with leaves. They crunched under hoof. A center island sported roses. Ignoring the grandness of the ivy-covered brick or pink-grey flagstone mansions on either side, it felt like strolling through a village.

Birds twittered and I heard the bzzz-bzzz of a cicada. I caught a shadow in my peripheral vision. 

When I glanced right, the Prince leapt bushes crossing to our side of the parkway. No bodyguards.

"Ms. Glimmer! How fortunate to meet you!"

"You're Royal Highness," I said in surprise

Memory of Sunburst yelling his side of our shared tragedy—and my forehead pressed against the floor apologizing—flashed in my mind. I thought of Sunset and Citron intimately together, then us four sleeping in her bed last night. My deal with the Prince this morning surfaced, an ache reminding me where I'd been body-slammed. 

When Moon Dancer noticed the prince, she eeped and stopped, Twilight with her. I walked by them, forcing the prince to catch up.

I waved off Streak, who hovered looking skeptical. My guards closed ranks. I shook my head at them and everypony gave me a few pony lengths of space.

Cinnamon scent wafted over me, overwhelming my overly sensitive nose. He seemed winded, despite being in good shape. Was that a limp?

"You okay?" I asked. 

He smiled, his blue eyes momentarily twinkling. "I needed a recharge. I'm better for seeing you. I can't join you, but might we share dinner tonight?"

What had Ms. Maple said in the nurse's office? I needed to talk it out. I felt unstable—me seeing him now, remembering clearly what I'd experienced with him before and after the bath last night. Wasn't sure I was ready to talk.

I said, "How about tomorrow—"

He reached out a hoof. The soft frog delicately traveled up my neck, brushing aside my mane, to rest below my torn ear. He rotated my head, kissing me. I did not miss the slight skritch aside my ear—it electrified me. He had learned me well. All other thought abandoned, forgetting I had an audience, I returned the kiss deeply. My pounding heart opened up again and I reached my forelegs around his neck. 

After a few seconds, as I took a breath, the prince disengaged our lips and untangled himself from my embrace. My forelegs nearly collapsed as my shoes clopped one-two on the pavers. He gave me a horse grin no self-respecting prince would give anypony but his filly-friend. "Tonight? Dinner?"

"Yes," I breathed, in barely a whisper.

He tipped his indigo fedora with the black feather in the silver band, then dashed across the street, leaping the central growth. His hooves clattered away, then abruptly quieted in the distance.

Sunset muttered somewhere near my left ear as I stood stunned. "Lower your tail. It's embarrassing."

I blinked as Streak whooshed by, singing, "Princess Glimmer's got a colt friend!"

"Hey!" I yelled. 

She whooshed by again, singing "Starlight and Blueblood sitting in a tree / K I S S I N G !—" 

"Stop it!" I jumped at her, but she dodged. "I'm going to kick you!"

She blew a wet raspberry at me. "Gotta catch me, and I'm wearing Hurricane's armor. Just you try."

"You have to sleep, little filly!" I countered as I continued walking toward the restaurant. 

She hovered floating backward out of reach, sticking her tongue out of me. 

"Juvenile."

"Right. I'm your senior, so I can do whatever I want. I'm your friend, and you happy makes me happy." She sobered, pointing a hoof over her shoulder where the prince had disappeared. "I have your back, too, if he doesn't work out."

"Me, too." Sunset said, having kept pace. As Streak corkscrewed up through the canopy, scattering dried leaves in her wake, Sunset continued, "You had a totally secret life all those months at school?"

"As Boss Running Mead's enforcer. Yeah."

"She seems like a good friend. Am I your friend?"

"Always direct," I said, swishing my tail to get the kinks out. I couldn't believe I'd raised it simply being kissed. "That's one of the things I like about you."

"Except with Celestia."

"You will earn those five bits I wagered."

"But I'm not your friend?"

I leaned into her. "You're more: a big sis and a friend. What you did, standing up to Sunburst for me like that, made me love you." I blinked away sudden tears. There I was again, feeling my heart opening up.

She jerked back, but kept pace.

I laughed. "Yes, you are my friend. The first I'm admitting it to since I was a foal. These last few days have turned me inside-out. There are so many ponies who were my friend and I didn't understand or acknowledge it. I've a lot to think about."

She leaned into me and we walked companionably.

My tail wasn't laying flat, though. Which reminded me about the Prince and my behavior. Sunset's more pressingly, especially if Citron was her first. "Um. Do you know about Maiden's Cure?"

"The spell or the expensive herb?" she asked. 

I stepped aside as she got a crooked grin. 

She said, "You mentioned it the day you introduced me to nettle ewe—"

When I'd ridden her. "Mind-controlled—"

"I understand that, but I looked it up. Mrs. Squick will give you a better preprepared potion, good for the last day or so, if you ask. You can buy something cheap, good for a week either way, at the university store. It works on stallions, though why a mare would trust what a colt said, I don't know." She grinned. "Citron came prepared with a sealed vial with the 'smiling mare every mare trusts' on the label. He'd prepared for you."

Celestia had baited her trap with him. He hadn't known he'd meet me that morning the sun didn't rise, but he'd hoped and prepared nonetheless, then had fought at my side as we helped save Equestria from the curse of broken harmony.

I sensed a subtext to her remark, but Sunset went on, louder. "Princess Mi Amoré Cadenza is going to be jealous next time you meet. Fair warning."

I remembered the trick the prince confessed to playing.

Twilight piped up to my right, startling me. How long had she been listening? Did she think she listened to a live romance novel? She asked, "You mean Princess Cadance?"

Sunset asked over my rump. "Mi Amoré has a nickname?"

I said, "She does."

"She's only Canterlot's best foal-sitter!" Under her breath, Twilight sang, "Ladybugs..."

"You know her?"

Twilight nodded, rolling her eyes. "My family's been friends of the palace since before I was born. My father is the Chief Archivist of Canterlot, which is how I've always had all the best books despite my family not being wealthy. The princess is my mother's most royal fan and reads all her novels. Shiny and Cadance attended Canterlot Academy High School together. When the princess needed a job for her, I got her as a foal-sitter—and I helped her learn Equish!" She looked very proud, until she asked, "Why's Cadance going to be jealous?"

Sunset answered, "She's dead set on marrying Prince Blueblood. She thinks that as an elevated princess, he's the only pony she can marry."

Twilight's purple eyes flicked from mine to the central manicured planter in the direction she'd last seen the prince disappear a block or so behind, then back, trying to figure out what she'd missed. In-between the wide old elms, I realized the thorns made the red roses dangerous to jump.

I shivered. That kiss. My lips tingled anew. Had he asked me to follow him that instant—

Twilight said, "Who else would Cadance marry?"

Sunset whispered in my ear, "Twilight's a little unobservant."

Twilight growled. "I heard that! I thought you were being friendly."

"I am!" protested Sunset, strategically keeping me between the two of them. "Your foal-sitter should study the royalty and peerage of the country she became a citizen of. She could marry her best friend and be done with it, foaling a herd of little ponies if she wanted."

"Best friend?" Twilight asked.

Sunset shook her head, making a disgusted sound. "All you study is magic, Twilight. There's a wider world. Were your foal-sitter to marry your brother, he'd be elevated to Prince Consort. Not a reigning prince, though Shining Armor could be a prince-regent if he were widowed with an underage foal."

Twilight gasped. "Cadance and Shiny... married?" She stopped and we continued beyond her. "I could be an aunt?"

Sunset and I looked at one another. We covered our mouth and giggled.

Moon Dancer and Twilight started talking intensely, Pistachio behind shook her head. I caught Moon Dancer looking at me as we approached The Edge. (It was a trendy new section of Canterlot between the Upper and the Lower where a developer had been able to tear down an old warehouse some years ago.)

Why had Moon Dancer reacted when the prince showed up? Why did she give me shy looks, now? Because Blueblood had kissed me? Intuition told me it didn't add up.

Wait! The Prince had asked me to dinner—but hadn't said were or when. I huffed and rolled my eyes..