"I don't see the educational value in this." Tempo was wandering down the aisle of the carnival. There were games on one side, junk food on another, and attractions just over there.
Loud music encouraged levity in the ponies there. The smell of popcorn and cotton candy filled the air, jostling against the candy apple stand they were wandering past. In the distance, ponies screamed on a thrilling ride.
Cadance laughed, nudging against Shining Armor, her obvious date. "This is for fun."
Tempo glared at Blueblood, who squeaked in fear. "You said this was for education."
Blueblood laughed nervously. "I... Um..."
Cadance turned to get Tempo and Blueblood in her view at the same time. "Blueblood, you need to stop lying. Tell her."
"I say..." He curled back, tongue thoroughly tied.
Tempo whirled on Cadance. "Tell me what?!"
Shining snickered softly. "He totally likes you."
Tempo blinked softly. "We are friends, that's to be expected."
Shining shook his head. "Not that kind of--"
Blueblood crashed into him. "Silence, you fool! Let me... tell her properly."
Cadance clapped her hooves. "Please, go right on ahead." She grabbed a box of popcorn to eat some, ready to enjoy the show.
Tempo blinked slowly, glancing between the furiously blushing prince and her grinning sister. Comprehension was just beginning to dawn as Blueblood stammered, shooting pleading looks at Cadance.
"I, ah, may have slightly stretched the truth about today's...educational agenda," he finally managed. "But only because I wished to, well..."
He scuffed a hoof, looking ready to melt into the carnival floor. Tempo tilted her head, surprise shifting to something gentler. She hadn't noticed before how boyishly charming his flustered expressions could be.
"Out with it, Prince Blueblood," she pressed, but kept her tone free of its usual sternness. "Did you want to discuss something...just between us two today?"
Heart thudding, the prince risked meeting her violet eyes. "Tempo, I...I greatly enjoy all our time together. Studying with you has been the highlight of my days for a while now and I..."
He trailed off, a shy yearning writ across his face. Tempo felt something stir in response, a fluttery warmth she hadn't experienced before. Without the abrasive front he put on in public, this earnest, sensitive side of him rather appealed to her.
"I was hoping to get to know my fair tutor better beyond just academics," Blueblood managed softly. "If you might honor me with the chance for, perhaps, an outing or..."
His voice dropped to a mumble. "...or a date..."
He cringed as soon as the words left his mouth, bracing for certain rejection or mockery. But Tempo found herself smiling, a blush rising to match his. The sounds of the carnival suddenly felt far away leaving just the two of them hovering there.
"Just a chance is all I ask," he repeated weakly into the silence. Heart hammering, Tempo stepped forward to gently bump his shoulder.
"Well, as we're already here among the ring tosses and confections, perhaps we shall see if this outing counts enough to start with?"
Blueblood looked ready to faint in relief. Behind them Cadance silently punched the air in triumph while Shining just grinned like he'd won big at the races. Tempo shot the two a wry but grateful smile before turning her attention back to the elated prince at her side.
"There are things we must discuss." Tempo suddenly stole Cadance's box of popcorn in her magic. "I am not a normal mare. You need to know this if you intend to court me."
Blueblood inclined his head, confusion mounting rapidly. "I've been around you for some time, my dear. You have some interesting tics in your speech and behavior, but nothing outside the bounds of normalcy, I assure."
Tempo brought a popcorn to her mouth, touching it. It was enough to get a taste of it. "Middling quality. They overcooked the butter." She pressed the box back to Cadance. "I am a pony, but I'm not a pony."
"You are... but you are not?" Blueblood looked between Tempo and Cadance. "Um... You appear to be a lovely pony. A princess, in fact. I could scarcely imagine a more lovely pony."
Shining tapped at Cadance, slurping at his cup of soda. "What is she talking about? Is she just being weird about something normal?"
"Not exactly." Cadance wrapped an arm over Shining. "But, since you're here, you should hear this too..."
Tempo grabbed Blueblood's right forehoof and drew him closer with it. "I am my sister's sister. But." She pressed that hoof against her chest. "What don't you feel?"
Blueblood was red as one of those candied apples. "I... say... Um..." His heart thundered in his chest. He was touching her, and not a casual brushing. She was holding him right against her. It felt...
Wait.
As hard and loud as his heart was pulsing, his hoof, it felt... nothing. She was soft, she was lovely, but there was no thumping there. No heart was replying to his press, even when he leaned curiously in, pressing with his own strength instead of casually accepting her pull. "Ma'am?"
"I am a doll." Tempo inclined her head. "If you want... to... have a foal... I am probably the wrong pony to court."
Shining blinked slowly. "Um... is she joking?"
Cadance squeezed Shining firmly. "She is not. That is Tempo. She is a pony, and a doll."
"I say..." Blueblood drew his hoof back, standing upright. "May... I have a little time to... process this?"
Tempo turned away. "Take the time you need." She marched away, leaving the rest alone.
Cadance slid in next to Blueblood, leaving Shining alone a moment. "Not the right words."
"They were the honest words, ma'am." He rubbed behind his head. "This is quite the reveal... Please, a moment." He turned away from her, marching off towards the entrance of the carnival.
Cadance sighed. "Lovely..." She went back to Shining's side. "They both need room, but are you up to some fun?"
"With you? Always!" He kissed her cheek with a smile. "But I have questions."
She snorted, the two walking off together.
Tempo couldn't leave. That would have been abandoning Cadance, and she protected her sister. If she wasn't sure of anything else in the world, she knew she did that, which meant not leaving.
"Miss." A pony, dressed in an ornate hoof and flowing clothes was seated before a crystal ball she rested her hooves on. "You look in need of my services."
Tempo paused, turning to the stranger. "What services are you... offering?" She looked up to the sign above the mare. Fortunes Told, Past Lives Discerned, Love Lines Untangled, or so claimed the sign.
The fortune telling mare smiled knowingly. "I can feel you are in dire need of what I have. Come, sit. Let's begin. Is it a love problem that sends you past me today?"
Tempo jerked with surprise. How did that stranger know that?! "Um." She sat across from the mare. The chair was simple, but functional, beneath her. "So... Which will you be doing?"
The mare tapped gently. "That is partially your choice." She turned a hoof flat-side up. and inclined her head at a smaller sign with prices.
Ah. Right. Many things took bits to make happen. Tempo was a princess, she had those. She willed out her bag of bits and fetched a few to put on the mare's waiting hoof. "Let us begin."
The fortune teller smiled in satisfaction as she made the bits vanish with a flick of magic. "Very good, very good! Now, what question weighs most heavily on your mind today?"
She gazed at Tempo over her crystal ball, taking in the tense set of the princess' shoulders and her brooding expression.
"Affairs of the heart, I sense," the mare declared, not waiting for a response. Her horn lit as she waved it over the crystalline orb. "Reveal this one's romantic troubles..." she intoned mysteriously.
Shadowy shapes swirled within the orb but Tempo could discern no clear images yet. She leaned forward, curiosity warring with skepticism inside her.
"I see you carry a great protection in your heart...towards one so dear, so precious." The fortune teller nodded knowingly. "A love ever reaching outward, not inward."
The smoke cleared just enough for Tempo to glimpse herself shielding a smaller figure - was that Cadance? before it obscured again.
"But now tender shoots turn towards you, wishing to bask in your radiance..." The smoke rippled. "Two colts, is it? Young hearts hoping for the light of your love in return..."
Blueblood and Shining's anxious faces appeared briefly. Tempo reared back in surprise. Fortuitous guesses or something more at play here? Either way she found herself drawn in...
"Yet you guard your own heart fiercely. What scares you so?" The fortune teller tapped the orb, its surface clearing to reflect Tempo's own conflicted features. "Tell Madam Silverleaf what troubles you, my dear. Let the cards guide us to discern your romantic fate..."
She pulled out an ornate deck as Tempo organized her turbulent thoughts. Could this strange seer truly unravel the tangled threads of her heart? She steeled herself, then began hesitantly... "There are things about me, my very nature, that may prove difficult for a suitor to accept..."
Tempo frowned faintly. "Shining had better not have interests in courting me. That would hurt Cadance, and I would hurt him."
Silverleaf laughed musically. "How terrible your anger is." She placed down the first card. "Let's look into your past first. It's what put us here." She turned the card over and paused. "How interesting..." She looked up at Tempo. "Do you know your past? Where you came from?"
Tempo thought backwards. "I..." She was created, but she was created for a reason she immediately rebelled against. Where had that come from? "I don't entirely know..."
Silverleaf set her cards down and moved her hooves over the orb. "Then it is time to ask the spirits. They allow us little glimpses." She wagged her hoof in request.
Tempo put a few coins on that hoof. There was a listed price for spirit requests.
With the payment in hoof, quickly tucked away, the orb's fog listed ominously. "Let us look back. Think to the earliest moment you can remember, and we will press past that barrier. Come, spirits, speak..."
There was nothing but fog, but a peek, there, there was Tempo, swirling around a room over a scared Cadance. It was her first moments, going back, back, to when she had been just a doll, glaring at Cadance passively, but just before they got to there, the view yanked away, and it was dark.
Silverleaf inclined her head. "Spirits... Come now... She wants to know more than she already knew." She caressed over the smooth glass. "Spirits..."
A faint image, more an impression. Infinity, then one. Back, back.... A strange little girl. She wasn't a pony. A human girl was smiling brightly at something, until something brought a look of shock to her face. The image ended, the vision concluded as the fog rose up to fill the orb entirely.
Silverleaf hummed gently. "I feel... we have seen your past life. What a curious creature you were." She gently tapped at the orb. "Thank you, spirits. You have shown us."
Tempo frowned faintly. "But... That did not say where I came from."
"Didn't it?" Silverlead smirked softly. "The very first moment you remember was rebellion. Before then, the spirits showed your last life. That was not the first moment you remember, dear mare. That was the first moment you were. Before that, we leap to lives already lived." She sat back, looking self-satisfied. "Your past is revealed, as promised."
"As promised," trailed Tempo. "Thank you." She slid to her hooves, walking woodenly. "Thanks."
She forced herself to hurry. Where was Cadance? She had to keep an eye on her sister. That she protected Cadance was the one thing she knew for certain, and she really felt like she needed something she knew right then.