Violets are Blue Chapter 5
“Rosebud! We ‘ave ponies waiting at table five!”
“On it, Chester!” Lilo shouted back at the nut brown earth pony stallion.
She gathered up her small notepad and pen under one of her disguised pegasi wings and trotted out of the backroom of the restaurant. Glancing across the main room, she found that two earth ponies occupied table five, one of them light grey and looking down at a newspaper while the other dull orange one idly held their conversation. Both looked as though they had recently gotten off of an early shift construction job as they were both covered in dirt and cement.
The establishment itself resembled that of an older style diner from several decades ago. The walls were painted white with a string of black and red diamonds running along the top, while the floor was like an enormous chess board with black and white tiles sized a bit larger than an average pony’s hoof. Red booths traced along the outer perimeter of the restaurant while the center held plenty of white tables with red chairs. Towards the back of the restaurant held a milkshake bar for ponies to sit on top of red stools in front of a very long and wide counter.
Lilo put on a smile and hummed to herself as she cantered over, the little paper hat as part of her work uniform bobbing up and down. Nopony else sat inside the restaurant aside from the two stallions, allowing her to easily make her way over to them through the sea of tables and chairs.
“Good afternoon, gentlecolts!” Lilo exclaimed, sitting down next to the table and whipping out her notepad. “Today’s special is a berry stuffed tomato on a bed of lettuce, half price for only two bits. Can I get something for you two to drink?”
The pony reading the newspaper looked up first and said, “I’d like an iced tea, thank you.”
“Water is just fine, thanks.” The other pony said, nodding his head at Lilo.
“Alright, a water and an iced tea coming right up.” Lilo said, tucking away the notepad.
“Now, as I was saying,” the orange pony said just as Lilo turned around. “the princesses still haven’t made a statement on Zumas breaking out of prison.” Lilo froze mid-step, her ears perking. “What do you think of that? I mean, you’d think that Celestia would at least use some sort of damage control so that the media doesn’t tear her apart, but both her and Luna have remained holed up in the castle with that changeling advisor of theirs while a few extra guards go searching through the city.”
Lilo continued on to the soda fountain and milkshake maker behind the bar, getting to work on the two ponies’ drinks while she listened in on to their conversation. The pony reading the newspaper looked up again, giving the other a dull expression.
“Perhaps the princesses figured that he’s not much of a threat anymore?” the grey pony suggested. “I mean, you’d figure that if this Zumas character was broken out of a high security prison he would have the entirety of the royal guard scanning for his ass through the city, but I haven’t seen a single glimpse of either of the princesses since the whole ordeal. Perhaps after these… what? Two years? Perhaps after these two years he’s made a significant change?”
“Zumas? Change? That’s a good one,” the orange pony retorted. “Ponies like him don’t change, they just become more clever. Setbacks like his are just ways for them to learn from their so-called mistakes rather than repent their dastardly ways.” He rolled his eyes and sat back in the chair. “No, Zumas is going to go right back to business as usual, which now that he has several hundred counts of multiple crimes involving black market trading and pony trafficking, it’s clear that he is a very dangerous pony to the state.”
“And I’ve heard that merely two years in the castle prisons can leave ponies changed,” the grey pony replied, folding the newspaper up. “What if this escape wasn’t some fluke error made by the castle itself? What if it was set up to let this pony back into society? What if he really has changed? I don’t recall a successful break out of the castle happening in close to twenty years.”
Lilo came trotting back with the water and iced tea balanced on a tray atop her wing. She strode up next to the table and set it down, then pushed the water and iced tea to their respective owners. Once both ponies had taken a sip of their drinks, she sat down and leaned the tray up against her chest.
“Oh, don’t start with your conspiracies now,” the orange pony groaned. “Every time we bring up something about the castle, you have some outlandish explanation for it.”
“I didn’t mean to overhear your conversation,” Lilo interjected, her ears flattening against her head, “but did you say that… that Zumas has escaped from prison?”
“Yeah, the bigwig Canterlot illegal cartel leader known for his exploits on both the animate and inanimate,” the orange pony said with a wave of his hoof. “He escaped a few days ago, sometime when the festivals began. Apparently he was seen fleeing with several other ponies and a griffon.”
“Nopony has seen him ever since?” Lilo asked nervously.
“Nah,” the grey pony replied. “Last anypony saw of him was that gang of his disappearing around some corner and never being seen from again. For all we know he escaped into the dangerous underground.”
“Oh.” Lilo said as she looked down at her hooves. A cold shiver ran up her spine and tingled at her neck. Zumas, the unicorn who thrust her into servitude at his brothel and nearly killed both her and Carbon, free once again in the city.
“I don’t think there is much we need to worry about,” the grey pony continued. “He has been locked up in that castle for two years now. For all we know the ponies and griffons that were with him were undercover guards.”
The orange pony scoffed as Lilo took out her notepad and pen.
“It’s still troubling news,” Lilo said, “but how about we take a moment to forget all of that and focus on some delicious food. Have you two decided what you want?”
“Oh, yes,” the orange pony said. “I’d like the special.”
“I’ll second that,” the grey pony added.
“Alright, two specials. Is that everything?” Lilo asked, shakily writing down their orders. When nopony opened their mouth, Lilo smiled at the two and said, “Coming right up!”
Tucking the notepad under her wing and spinning around on one hoof, Lilo trotted back to the kitchens of the restaurant and pinned the piece paper that had the two earth ponies’ orders on it. Several earth ponies in the back sat around a table piled high with different colors of chips and cards.
“Two specials!” Lilo shouted at them, causing the earth ponies in the back to stir and quickly get to work. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Chester walking towards the back rooms of the restaurant, and she galloped over to him before he was able to much further down the hall towards his office. She tapped him on the side and he stopped to look at her.
“Hey, Rosebud, there somethin’ wrong?” Chester asked.
“I don’t mean to bother or ask on such short notice, sir, but d-do you think I could take the rest of the day off, today?” Lilo asked, kicking a hoof out in front of her.
“Feelin’ under the weather today?” Chester asked, looking her over. “Well, I don’ see why not. You ‘ave a full week’s worth of sick leave. I’ll ‘ave Rosemary cover for you tonight. You go ‘ome and get some rest.”
“Thank you, Chester,” Lilo said, letting out a sigh. She watched him continue down the hall for a moment, then turned and walked out of the back rooms of the restaurant and into the streets. The blood coursing through her veins ran cold, and only when she was out of sight of the restaurant did she finally break into a run.
Rounding a corner into the marketplace, Lilo stumbled onto a horde of ponies congregating around a unicorn who stood on top of a pile of boxes. Ponies raised their hooves angrily as he spoke, a few even shouting back at him. A stack of newspapers lay next to the outer rim of the throng, and Lilo walked over to them to pick up one, which brought her into closer proximity to the herald.
“...infest our streets and pose as ponies who we once knew and loved!” the unicorn shouted. “Changelings will stop at nothing to get what they want, what they desire. Their original motivations are still present, their blasphemous ideals are still corrupting what used to be our glorious throne, twisting and turning the two princesses into some kind of sloth foals. They sit back on their massive chairs and look down at us with the same kind of hungry contempt that the matriarch bug once held!”
Several ponies shouted their agreement, their voices sending waves of anxiety and pain through Lilo’s body as she picked up a newspaper in her mouth.
“Will we let this social neglect plague our streets for much longer?” the unicorn asked, slamming his hoof down on top of the boxes. “Or will we take action against those who we thought were our proud and benevolent leaders? Have the princesses see our ways, our truth, and let them know that their ponies are displeased, nay, angry with their speciesist policies! We will not let…”
The unicorn’s voice died beneath the roar of cheers from the ponies standing around him. Lilo slipped away and disappeared further into the marketplace, galloping as fast as she could back to her and Carbon’s apartment.
~~~
Carbon turned one last corner in the apartment complex and walked down the length of the hall to his apartment, whistling to himself. The air had not warmed up since this morning, but that didn’t deter him as he stopped in front of his door. He fetched his keys out of the saddlebags on his back and put the key into the lock, but he found that the door was already unlocked. He put the key away and pushed open the door, peeking his head inside.
“Lilo?” Carbon called into the apartment. He saw that Lilo paced back and forth along the length of their living room, muttering to herself and buzzing her wings frantically. “Lilo? Are you okay?” He stepped into the apartment and closed the door behind him. “You’re usually not home for another few hours.”
Lilo stopped her pacing and picked up the newspaper before galloping over to him. She dropped the paper face up on the floor so the front headlines were visible to both of them.
“Carbon, look,” Lilo said as she pointed at the paper, “Zumas escaped Canterlot Castle. He’s free, here, in Canterlot.”
“Zumas?” Carbon slid his saddlebags off and sat down, picking up the paper and reading the captions below the mug shot of Zumas. “How is this possible? How did he escape?”
“He had help from a team of ponies and a griffon. They freed him a few days ago and rumors speculate that he disappeared into the sewers.” Lilo held a hoof up to her temples and looked at the floor. “Carbon, what are we going to do? Zumas surely would not have forgotten what we did to him those two years ago. We’re the reason he was in prison in the first place. He’s… he’s going to come looking for us. I know he is.”
Carbon scooped Lilo up into a hug and stroked the back of her neck with one of his hooves. “Shh, it’s going to be okay, Lilo. We’ll think of something. Remember how you said you wanted to see Ponyville?” Lilo nodded her head and clutched Carbon, allowing for him to continue. “We can move out there until we know what to do. I heard the residents there are very friendly, and I’m sure the two of us could pick up some jobs to keep us on our hooves until we find a new place.”
“But what about the princesses? Or Queen Chrysalis? Can’t we ask them for help?” Lilo asked. “And what about your job here?”
“I’m sure the princesses are doing everything in their power to find him,” Carbon said. “But we can’t rely on their protection alone to help us. Remember… Remember what happened last time?”
Lilo shivered. “I-I remember.”
“So, what do you say? How about we pack up and take a little vacation to Ponyville?” Carbon asked. “We’ll stay there until we can decide on a new place, then see where our life takes us?”
Lilo hugged Carbon and thought for a moment. “It’s been so nice finally settling down and having a permanent place to live, Carbon. Everyday I didn’t have to wake up and worry whether or not we need to move or if there was going to be enough food, or…. or something. You’ve taken such good care of me, found me a job, have kept me fed. And it’s not just me, plenty of changelings are in the same situation as I am now.”
“I know, Lilo, I know,” Carbon said with a sigh. “I want to stay here, too, but with Zumas free and us in his sights we don’t have much of a choice. I don’t want to risk losing you a second time to him.”
They both sat in silence for a while, wrapped up in each other’s hooves as the thought of Zumas walking around free in the city sank into their minds. Finally Lilo stirred and looked up at Carbon, giving him a kiss underneath his chin.
“I guess Ponyville is our only option,” she said. “I wouldn’t mind living there for a while, anyways.”
“That’s settled then,” Carbon said with a smile. He then jerked a little and gasped. “Oh, Lilo, I have something I want to show you.”
Lilo tilted her head and asked. “What is it?”
“We have to go there, first,” Carbon replied. “And it’s a secret! No spoilers. You’re going to have to wait and see for yourself.”
“Carbon, you know I’m not too big on surprises.”
“You? Not big on surprises? Oh, come on, you can’t tell me you didn’t like that surprise cheese cake I made you for your last birthday.”
Lilo pouted at Carbon for a moment, then sighed and rolled her eyes. “Alright, fine. Where are we going?”
“To the park,” Carbon said, getting up and walking to the door. “Your surprise is in the park.”