Violets are Blue Chapter 4
The first rays of sunlight shone through the tiny slits in the blinds, casting their glare across the bed and laying right on top of Carbon’s eyelids. He snorted and opened one eye, then groaned and clutched Lilo tighter in their warm, cuddly embrace. However, the sunlight refused to go away, and it even seemed as if the light intensified as he refused to move and get out of bed. Carbon fought a losing battle with the relentless sun, eventually forcing himself to roll onto his back and stare at the ceiling.
“It is way too early to go to work,” he whispered to himself, careful not to wake Lilo. “Perhaps watching that fireworks show isn’t all it’s cracked up to be if you have a call for eight the next day.”
Carbon rolled himself out of bed and took the time to stretch his wings. The joints cracked after a night’s rest, sending shivers down his spine that left a smile across his lips. Stretching his legs and neck afterwards, he made his way out of the room and down the small hall towards the bathroom. He closed the door behind him and took a towel down from one of the racks, tossing it over and letting it hang from the top of the shower door.
Squinting at the water controls, Carbon turned the shower on and watched as steam filled the inside of the tub. He smiled and stepped in, closing the door behind him, shutting himself out from the cool air in favor of the sauna building up inside of his own bathroom. He let water soak his fur down to his skin, the warmth filling his entire body and relaxing the muscles that were left tense from the day before. He let the water take over comforting him and went straight to preening his wings, sticking he muzzle between his feathers and pulling out any of the loose feathers that may be hiding.
Feeling content with the status of his wings, Carbon reached over for a shampoo bottle. He found that the bottle felt full, but he shrugged and squeezed some of the shampoo into his hoof. He turned and closed his eyes, his back to the water and massaging the shampoo into his mane first, then working down his legs, stomach, back, and eventually ending with his tail. With his entire body drenched in a soapy mess, he turned back around and went to wash his hooves, but when he looked down he let out a scream.
Carbon’s entire body was soaked in what appeared to be blood. He frantically tried wiping his coat off by scrubbing himself under the water, but it appeared that the blood had stuck to his body.
“Oh no, this can’t be good,” Carbon said to himself. He scrubbed even harder. “Don’t tell me that this product wasn’t tested! Those… I knew those environmentalists and animal activists were going to be the death of me someday.”
As Carbon found that the blood continued to stick to his coat no matter how hard a scrubbed, he reached back over for the shampoo bottle and frantically scanned it over. The instructions of how to apply the shampoo confused him, stating that users should wait twenty four hours before applying, coat and protect the hairline, perform a hair strand test, and lastly apply the dye to their hair. Carbon’s ears flopped back, and he turned the bottle back around and tore off the label. The label underneath read “Ponetene removable red hair dye.” He looked down at himself and saw that his coat had turned a light shade of pink.
“Lilo!” Carbon shouted out of the bathroom.
Lilo’s eyes flicked open and she smiled.
~~~
Carbon glared at his reflection in the mirror next to the front door of the apartment. Although he wore his white lab coat, donned his brown saddlebags, and had his safety goggles strapped to his forehead, no matter how hard he had scrubbed himself down in the shower he did not wash away all of the red dye out of his fur. Carbon was left staring at a very light pink version of himself, comically clashing horribly with his dark blue mane.
Lilo came trotting out of the kitchen with a brown sack secured in her mouth, smiling and humming to herself along the way. She skidded to a stop next to Carbon and opened up one of his saddlebags to plop the sack in, then secured the bag back up. She stole a glance at him and made a small pouting face.
“Oh, come on, Carbon,” Lilo said. “Being pink can’t be all bad. Maybe some of those silly professors down in the liberal arts ring won’t even notice you.”
“Or I might just get noticed by my boss and never live this down for the rest of the time I work at the university,” Carbon replied with a little hint of panic. “I mean, it’s not like everyday an employee of yours comes back after the weekend with his entire coat pink.”
Lilo giggled and gave Carbon a shove. “Hey, count this as payback for that time you mixed sulfur dioxide in my own shampoo bottle, replaced the hoofsoap with super glue, told me it was safe to eat peanut butter, and got me enrolled in a changeling fetish fashion competition.”
“I have to say, you look pretty good in a ball gag,” Carbon quipped.
“Oh, you had to go there,” Lilo growled as she lunged at him.
Carbon hopped out of the way and chuckled. “Did I ever tell you how much I loved your humming? I think the dissonance makes it spectacular!”
Lilo sighed and rolled her eyes, settling for leaning into Carbon and kicking him in the leg. “I can taste the damage control from here. Lucky for you, I like you too much to drain all of the love out of you and leave you as an emotionless husk.”
“That’s comforting,” Carbon replied, wincing. “However, I guess walking around for a few days while I struggle to get this pink dye out can’t be too bad, right?”
“I’m glad you’re starting to see it my way,” Lilo giggled, nestling her muzzle into Carbon’s neck.
“Well, I must be off to work, but I’ll see you sometime later tonight,” Carbon said, giving Lilo a quick peck on the cheek.
“Bye, Carbon,” Lilo said, “I love you.”
Carbon gave Lilo one last nuzzle before he departed out the door of their apartment.
~~~
Turning the last corner onto Canterlot’s largest street, Carbon met the full frontal force of the smells and sounds of the marketplace. The very center of life from all corners of Equestria condensed into one square kilometer of market stalls, shouting vendors, equally noisy customers, and street entertainers trying their best to make a few bits day to day. No other place in the whole nation lived up to the diversity or grandeur of Canterlot’s market.
Carbon’s ears flopped back against his head and he took a deep breath, trotting down the street the rest of the way. Although the market was nowhere near his usual path towards the university, there was a certain errand he wished to do first before faced the probable ridicule of his co-workers.
Winding his way through the shops and throng of ponies standing in front of various market stalls, Carbon finally stopped in front of a rather colorful shop decorated in various masks and trinkets. Several other ponies were crowding in front of him and a zebra stood before them, two balls of colored water swirling around above a hoof. The name of the stall was “Naroke’s Secret Shop.”
Naroke herself dressed in various golden and silver jewelry, with rings wrapped around her neck and hooves and various piercings on both her nose and ears. She wore a blue cloak with a large hood, although she kept the hood pull from her face so that her audience members were able to get a good look at her blue eyes.
“Gather ‘round, ponies of all age and size,” Naroke began, letting the two colorful water balls rise into the air.” Prepare yourselves for something that may come as a surprise. You’ve all seen the magic of a wily unicorn, but what of a pony who does not have access to a horn?”
The ponies around the stall stared in awe as the colorful balls swirling around Naroke’s hoof changed direction, now righting themselves into a vertical ring in front of the zebras face. For a moment the balls continued to spin around in a ring, but increased in speed gradually as Naroke continued.
“Ponies have seen each other in a single perspective for so long, imagine if they had been seeing everypony from another view all along? Ponies of different colors and shapes and size, all warped into something unreal right before your eyes. Cast your gaze into my transforming mirror, maybe then what I say will become a bit clearer.”
The two orbiting balls expanded towards the center of the rotation, making a large circle in front of the shop that divided into two halves based upon the colors of each of the balls. In one of the halves of the circle, a mirror image reflection of the group in front of the stall stood before everypony for them to see. However, the other half of the mirror took everypony’s colors and mane styles and transformed them into their inverted colors, making the cluster of ponies like sickly and dull.
“We are so fortunate to live in such a world that is colorful and vibrant,” Naroke added over the “oohs” and “aahs” of the audience, “but now imagine if we lived in such a way as we can’t.”
The other side of the mirror changed rapidly, replacing the dull and inverted ponies with gender swapped, replicates of themselves. Everypony let out a gasp as they spotted themselves in the mirror, including Carbon who stared wide-eyed at his own female reflection. Smaller and more petite, Carbon’s eyes increased in size while the size of his wings decreased. His mane and tail also grew out, now more messy than ever before.
“Not quite the image that any of you were expecting?” Naroke asked, poking her head through the mirror and distorting the images. “A powerful device, my mirror of reflecting. Confined we are to these uniform and earthly ways. Don’t we all feel like we need to break away from our days? Come and look at the wares of my humble shop, perhaps you’ll find something of interest to buy or swap.”
Most of the ponies in the crowd took a few glances over Naroke’s wares before they departed, leaving Carbon alone with Naroke and one other earth pony mare who had taken a particular interest in a magical convection lamp. Both Carbon and Naroke ignored the mare as she touched her hoof to the lamp and immediately recoiled, yelping from the heat that burned her hoof. She sucked on her hoof and gave the lamp an angry glare.
“Carbon, my most loyal customer and dependable friend,” Naroke said, smiling at Carbon, “it’s not like you to pass through these shops full of sales and trend. On the way to work, you usually are, fully avoiding Canterlot’s massive bazaar.”
Carbon paused for a moment to allow Naroke to take a few bits from the earth pony mare. He watched as the zebra carefully bagged the convection lamp, then offered a smile and a wave as the other mare departed.
“Yeah, well, something a bit interesting was brought up between Lilo and I yesterday,” Carbon said, stepping closer to the shop. “I’m really not sure how to proceed, to be honest. I was, uh, hoping you could help me.”
“Something interesting between you and Lilo, you say?” Naroke asked, leaning over the front desk of the stall. “Not to be brash, but this is not something that I hear everyday.”
“Just because you know that I’m a former member of that crazy university fraternity does not mean…” Carbon trailed off when he saw Naroke’s lips curl into a thin smile. “I like living a quiet life, okay? And it appears that Lilo does, too. I mean, it’s not exactly popular to announce an interspecies relationship.”
“You living the quiet life put Canterlot’s most notorious pony trafficking criminal behind bars,” Naroke commented. “I’m surprised you two aren’t practically stars.”
“Well, with a little request to the princesses, Lilo and I were opted out of any direct involvement with the whole thing,” Carbon grumbled. He looked behind him, checking to see if any ponies happened to be listening in on the conversation. “This is not what I came to talk to you about, though.”
Naroke rested her chin on her forehooves and blinked at Carbon, allowing for him to continue. He took a deep breath and glanced around the stall once again to make sure nopony was listening in.
“I’m thinking about asking Lilo to marry me,” Carbon said. When Naroke merely cocked her eyebrow, he added, “I’m not really sure what to do in this case. Should I get a ring? How do I ask her? Should I take her somewhere to ask her?”
“Only you can answers those questions yourself, Carbon,” Naroke said, turning around and opening up a large trunk in the back of her shop, “but I can offer you some advice that might help you continue on. You two are quiet and reserved ponies, there is no need to feel like you need to do this during activities. Just be yourself and do what you think will be most comfortable for you both, there is no need to take unnecessary measures of this special oath.”
“That’s it?” Carbon asked, looking down at his hooves and squinting at the ground. “Are you sure? This isn’t just me asking her on another date, or… asking if she wants to come to work with me or something. This is, like, a change from us acknowledging what we have to commit. It’s not more complicated than just a ‘be yourself’?”
Naroke turned back around and placed a silver horn-ring down on the desk. “Don’t blow this out of proportions, you scientific nimrod. You and Lilo hold something too precious for you to turn it into some flawed. Relax and breathe deep, all of your wits you need to keep.”
Carbon closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and when he opened them back up he stared at the ring that Naroke had placed on the table. Lilies were engraved around the sides of the ring, and sunlight glinted off of the sides. Carbon picked the ring up in a hoof and was surprised to find the trinket warm to the touch.
“Now run off and get to work before you are late,” Naroke added with a wink. “From what I understand, research assistants are frowned upon when they are late.”
Carbon plopped the ring into one of his saddlebags and nodded at Naroke, then disappeared into the market crowds as he headed straight for the university. A huge grin stretched across his face and he had a slight spring in his step, propelling himself faster and faster through the crowd. He didn’t care if a few ponies gave him a few curious looks for his bright pink coat, he had a silver ring in his pocket all ready for tonight.