“Ra… Rarity?” She whispered, tentatively checking to see if the pony she was with was still asleep.
“Mm… Fluttershy, I thought you might give me a few more minutes. But, I suppose the time for resting is done. I hope you slept well?”
“Rarity,” Fluttershy rolled over so that she could lay on her belly, “What happened last night?”
“Oh, well, THAT is a story worth telling!” Rarity clopped her hooves together, her excitement at the opportunity to regale her friend showing.
“But,” Rarity ever-so-matter-of-factly stated as she looked around the bedroom, “this is certainly not the place for such a tale of drama, suspense, and revelry!”
Fluttershy sighed inwardly; she could tell that there was going to be plenty of sidetracking in this story.
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“Well,” Rarity beamed at her friend as they sat down at Star Buck’s coffee house, “you said that you wanted to know what happened last night. What is there that you would want me to tell?”
The pegasus shuffled on her stool, “Are you sure that this is the best place to be talking about this?” she questioned as she looked around at all the other ponies within the café, completely ignoring her spiced tea, looking in the direction of some loudly accented conversation.
“Fluttershy, look harder at everypony,” Rarity gestured nonchalantly at the entire café, “or better yet, just listen for a moment.”
“Isn’t that—“ Fluttershy was about to ask before Rarity cut her off with a hush.
As Fluttershy began to just listen to the general conversation flowing through the café, she soon came to the realization—almost everypony was talking about their exploits from the night before. And almost every single one of them seemed to be so engrossed in their conversation, that one pair in particular didn’t seem to notice her staring.
“Okay, but I still don’t see why this is a better place to talk than—“ Fluttershy was cut off by Rarity quickly placing her hoof over her muzzle.
“They may not be listening now, but there are certain phrases that will get their attention, darling, and what you were about to say certainly reins at the top.” ^1
“There actually is a reason that I brought you out here. That being, I honestly can’t think of a place that jogs my memory better.” Rarity stated as bluntly as possible, “The espresso is also incroyable, if I dare say.”
“And you don’t think that the ponyrazzi wouldn’t just love to listen in on us secretly?” Fluttershy queried, as she the idea dawned upon her.
“Darling,” Rarity patted her friend’s hoof, “I learned one interesting fact from Fancy Pants the first time I came to Canterlot for an extended visit. There are certain places that the ponyrazzi have worked out with the celebrities around here, as sort of an… ‘agreement’, that they ‘leak’ a few tidbits here and there, and the ponyrazzi will in turn give them places where they can speak freely.”
“Wow…”
“And look again, Fluttershy.” Rarity pointed with her hoof, “Do you see anypony you recognize?”
Fluttershy scanned the crowd, wondering what Rarity could possibly mean, she noticed the thick accent again. She looked as hard as she could, when she finally noticed where—or rather from whom—the accent was originating. Photo Finish was loudly arguing with one of her mane stylists about some new policy on hair spray. She looked around again, and Hoity Toity was speaking with some unknown about something that she couldn’t catch the gist of.
“Are you quite ready to hear about the night? Or are you going to ask if someone drugged the tea?” Fluttershy jumped, but then nodded her head she realized that Rarity was being heavily sarcastic.
“I… all right.”
“Great!” Rarity clopped her hooves again, “So what is it that you want to know?”
“Everything…? If that’s alright with you.”
“Hmmm…” Rarity tapped her muzzle contemplatively, “Well, that certainly is a lot to cover. Where does your memory begin to faulter?”
“I can remember up until the time that I got back to Fancy Pants’ house after walking with Big Macintosh to the castle.”
“Oooh, yay!” Rarity giddily giggled like a gleeful gal gossiping gaily, “That’s where the fun begins!”
“Well, I was just finishing writing out the contract with Autumn Leaf…”
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“And you’re certain that she’ll come to you when she’s ready?”
“Sir, I can guarantee that when Fluttershy begins to look for a wedding dress, I’m certain she will look to me for it. I can’t think of anypony she knows who could even make one!”
“All right,” Autumn gave her one more look before finally letting that point go, “then I believe we have come to an agreement!”
“But we didn’t set a price for the first shipment!” Rarity blurted out, louder than she had intended.
“Oh,” Autumn chuckled as he watched the alabaster mare turn beet red, “don’t think that I forgot about that. While Big Macintosh was the one to point this whole thing out, you did play a role in all of the events that brought me back to my daughter, and this is the least I could do.”
“S-sir, that is far too generous than I could possibly—“ Rarity was cut off by a gregarious laugh from Autumn, which soon became a full boom of laughter, with Autumn waving to her to give him a few moments to calm himself.
“Oh,” He hiccupped a little as he calmed back down, “ ‘too generous’, from the Element of Generosity, that is a hoot. But,” he continued immediately after Rarity began giving him the stink eye, “I must tell you, what I did after Fluttershy left was more than just erase my memory of her. I damn near erased my soul with it.” He looked down at his hooves, and began to scuff them along the table, as a school colt confessing that he stole the cookie from the cookie jar would.
“When I erased Fluttershy and her mother from my mind, I was left with just myself. Each of us had been a single child, and her grandparents had died long ago.” Staring at a small gem he had brought with him to show for quality, he gave an inward sigh, and began rolling it on the table.
“When you have nothing but yourself to look after, you get greedy, selfish, vain. I had actually come in here, planning on bleeding you dry for each and every gem.” He finished his sentence with a growl, and then smacked the gem off.
“I honestly can say that at this point, I could retire with enough money to make sure that my great-great-grandchildren were well-off. I’m damn tired of hoarding every single last bit for no damn reason. I want to be able to actually care about someone again, and not be worrying about something vain!”
As his eyes went back up to Rarity’s, they were streaming tears. She made a move to talk, but was again cut off.
“But,” he said, wiping a few tears with the back of his hoof, “that doesn’t make you conceited. Your business, your passion, requires them, to make the best dresses and suits you can. You actually use them so that ponies can feel good about themselves, to help show the world that each gem is as unique as the dresses you put them on. I can honestly say you gave me the most passionate presentation that I have heard since I started this business.”
He hopped down form the table, and walked across to stand directly next to Rarity.
“Madam, I would be honored if you would use my gems for your masterpieces.”
Rarity blushed furiously as he kissed her hoof, and then excused himself for a moment to compose himself. She watched him amble out, his head hung high as a vigilante who had just admitted to taking down the corrupt king. How anypony could handle such an emotional roller coaster was beyond her, and she couldn’t help but admire his mettle. He had given up on ever having a family, and now he was suddenly being introduced to his daughter’s coltfriend, and—from what she could interpret—wanting to give up what he had spent all of the life he could remember building up.
“That poor stallion… I can honestly say that I’m not envious of him.”
“Envious of who?” Fluttershy called from within the doorway, causing Rarity to jump.
“I was just saying that I wasn’t sure that I have the mettle your father has shown over the years, is all.”
“Oh, I’m certain you could have gotten through it, Rarity,” The pegasus assured as she rubbed her cheek against the fashionista’s, “You would have had plenty of ponies to support you, like you do now.”
Rarity chuckled in disbelief, but accepted the sentiment.
“So, how was dropping Big Macintosh off?” Rarity inquired as she trot towards the door, her sub-concious telling her that if she moved toward the door, she would move the conversation away from her phonetic fumble.
“Oh, it was wonderful! Princess Celestia seemed just so eager to show him around the castle, she almost seemed to glow!”
“Well, it sounds like they will have a great time!”
“And with Big Macintosh gone, I’ll be able to have the whole day to spend with my father!” Fluttershy grinned as she let her mind drift to the thought.
“Oh dear, I should have figured that he hadn’t told you yet,” Rarity silently scolded herself, and began to break her friend the news.
“Your father told me that he has to go back to work— he’ll be back tomorrow, he promised, but he has to move several meetings around to be able to spend at least the next week with you.”
“Oh, okay…”
“But,” Rarity clicked her tongue as she thought of a way to cheer the melancholy pegasus, “that doesn’t mean we can’t have a nice time by ourselves!” She pulled a datebook out from her saddlebags, and flipped to today’s date.
“Why, it’s Thursday, isn’t it?” Rarity clopped her hooves together with delight, a devious grin appearing on her face.
“Yeah, what’s so—oh no,” Fluttershy began to back away from Rarity, as she had done under the fashionista’s questioning about the gala dress. “No, Rarity, you know how long it took me to get comfortable enough with Aloe and Lotus—“
“And it took me lying,” Rarity interjected, “and then blindfolding you halfway there to get you in the building!”
“I promise you, the spas in Canterlot are just as wonderful!”
“Rarity, I really don’t think that—“
“Oh, and the ones that have those foreign masseuses! C’est magnifique!”
“But I don’t have enough bits on me to—“
“And after, we can go shopping for—“
“Rarity!” Fluttershy snapped, finally damming the flood of ideas and suggestions coming from her friend, “If you don’t remember, I’m not exactly flush on bits right now, and I certainly don’t want to be such a bother to go and interrupt my father’s meeting to ask for them.”
“Well, I suppose you’re right, that would be rather rude.” Rarity tapped her chin in thought, trying to summon some idea of what the pair could do for fun.
“Though, there is one thing…” Fluttershy offered, after a minute of silence between the pair.
“What might that be?”
“I’ve, well, I guess that it isn’t that great an idea…” Fluttershy immediately backed down, as soon as she realized she would have to enunciate the idea.
“Oh go on,” Rarity implored, “I’ve got nothing I can think of, to be honest. Any idea is better than none.”
“There is this one thing Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie are always talking about…”
“Oh,” Rarity scrunched up her nose as she tried to think of what either of those ponies could have to do in Canterlot that wasn’t terribly expensive.
“It’s a place called ‘Unified’?” Fluttershy offered the name, hoping that the name would spark some memory for Rarity.
“Well, I’ve never heard of it, but if two of our friends are willing to sing it’s praises, then I suppose we should try it. Do you happen to remember what sort of attire they usually wear to these places?”
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“I should have realized it was a rave the second you mentioned neon legbands!” Rarity attempted to say to her friend, over the sound of the blaring bass, and general commotion of the club. Fluttershy continued to amazingly stay stock-still, even as multiple ponies bounced off of her, and continued their chaotic bouncing around.
“Come on, we need to get out of here before I lose my hearing!” Fluttershy grabbed Fluttershy’s tail with her magic, and began to trot towards the general direction of the exit. She had no idea how a pony was supposed to get out of this chaos, because of how the club’s entrance had been.
“Who designs a club to have a trap-door as an entrance in the first place obviously hasn’t read any building code!”
She shuddered as she remembered exactly how it had gone—She and Fluttershy had waited in line for almost a whole hour, that wasn’t the horrid part, they had expected that. But then, when they had gotten to the front of the line, the saw the bouncer pony pull a lever after the pair of stallions before them had stepped inside, and then they had to whisper “Spitfire’s left knee-high” to the bouncer when he had asked them how their day had been. That should have been their second indication that it was a rave.
“Oh, once we get back to Ponyville, I am most certainly going to give Rainbow Dash a piece of my mind!” Rarity mumbled to herself, as she finally squeezed herself out of the crowd, and into a slightly less claustrophobic area of the club, next to the private booths and the bar.
“Fluttershy, I think it might be best if you wait over by the bar. There seems to be enough air to breathe over there, and I need to ask around where the exit is.”
Fluttershy shakily nodded, and then meeped, squeaked, and apologized her way to the bar, and sat down on one of the stools.
“Now, who can I…” Rarity facehoofed as she realized that the bartender would obviously know where the exit was, and began to make her way towards the bar, only to be stopped by somepony calling her name.
“Rarity! Hey, over here!”
Rarity craned her neck to see if she could pick out where the voice was coming from, but could soon tell by the instantaneously spreading sea of ponies.
“Rarity, what are you doing here?” Twilight chuckled, the thought of the high-class pony coming here was certainly odd enough. “I thought you were supposed to be up here doing a business deal!”
“Well, I was—“ Rarity’s voice cracked as she attempted to make herself heard yet again, “But I—“ After her voice cracked a second time, Twilight motioned her friend to follow her, to a booth blocked off by three guard ponies.
“I’ve brought a friend!” Twilight told the guards, as she pointed her hoof to Rarity. They shifted to unblock the entrance the of the booth just long enough to let the two mares through.
As they stepped into the booth, Rarity saw the faint glint of a shield-spell, and figured that Twilight must have learned a few things from Shining Armor. When she passed through, the rest of the club seemed to suddenly go mute, and she could hear herself again.
“Anyway, what were you saying?” Twilight giggled again, as Rarity began to rub her ears as if something had suddenly blocked them.
“Well, it’s a story longer than I plan on being in here. Long story short, Fluttershy and I were looking for something to do, and she had remembered Rainbow and Pinkie Pie being absolutely gaga over this place. Why are you here?”
“I’m here to crowd-watch!”
Rarity blinked, prompting the princess to continue, “As a Princess, it’s my job to make sure that Equestria is as safe as possible, and that includes how the buildings are made. You see how everypony on the dance floor is moving in a counter-clockwise direction?”
Rarity looked over, and then nodded, prompting Twilight to continue on that there was only one fire exit at the moment, and it was behind the DJ’s booth, which was at the “top” of the square-shaped dance floor. She told Rarity that right now, she had been talking with the club’s manager, who had gone off for some reason, saying that it would be a lot smarter and safer to have exits at the top-right, and the bottom left of the dance floor, along with re-doing the doors of the exit to also be better suited as emergency fire exits.
“Oh, well that sounds… lovely?” Rarity tried to sound supportive, though she honestly could think of several better ways for a princess to contribute to Equestria, but if this was how she wanted to, then there really wasn’t any changing her mind.
“So, now do I get to hear the abridged version of what all happened?” Twilight asked once she realized that she still didn’t know what could really drive Rarity to such a place.
“Well, if it’s okay with you, I’d like to tell her what happened, Rarity…” Fluttershy spoke, as she tip-hoofed her way through the barrier, and to the booth.
“Oh, sure!” Twilight beamed warmly as she watched her friend sit down with them, “Sorry Rarity, but you tend to aggrandize walks down the street into something rivaling Socrates.”
Rarity accepted the statement, and let Fluttershy begin the story. When she had finished, she had been crying at quite a few parts, and asked if she could go to the restroom to clean and collect herself for few moments. Twilight told one of the guards to escort Fluttershy to the restroom, and then turned back to Rarity as soon as the pegasus had left.
“Wow,” Twilight was still a bit wide-eyed from her amazement at the chain of events, “That is certainly a lot for anypony to handle in such a short time.”
“Oh I know! I honestly can’t say that it hasn’t been enough of a rollercoaster for me, let alone that poor girl.”
“And what is Big Macintosh doing?” Twilight inquired, as she realized that one pony was still currently unaccounted for.
“Oh, he’s getting a tour of the castle with Celestia.” Rarity blushed, as she remembered her own tour she had received from Celestia, and how awfully important it made her feel.
“He’s getting a private tour? Wow, that’s unusual.” Twilight whistled as she thought of how lucky Big Macintosh was.
“And then he’s going to be spending the night there, so Fluttershy and I were left to our own devices, since Fancy Pants and Fleur were out for a date of their own.”
“Oooh, I remember the first night I spent at Canterlot castle,” Twilight’s wings flared at the memory, “It was so nice! She had even stayed up all night giving me a biology lesson!”
Rarity did a spit-take when she had heard the words ‘biology lesson’. She had read more than enough romance novels to know that no sane person has ‘biology lessons’ into the night.
“What’s the matter Rarity? Something taste wrong with your drink?”
Rarity coughed, as she shook her head, which made Twilight think everything was just fine, and her companion had just swallowed wrong or something.
“Oh, she had taught me so many things about my own anatomy I didn’t even know about!”
Rarity coughed again, and then froze. Was Twilight really saying she and Celestia had…
“Oh, it was certainly one of my favorite nights at the castle, I had learned so many things about Celestia, and myself!”
Rarity excused herself, and headed towards the mares’ restroom. When she got to the restroom, she found Fluttershy finishing washing her muzzle.
“Fluttershy, I—“
“Oh, it’s you, Rarity. I was just about to be done in here, I promise.”
“Fluttershy, we need to talk.” Rarity motioned for Fluttershy to come closer, and lowered her voice.
“I think Big Macintosh is getting more than a ‘private tour’ with Celestia.” She whispered, while glancing around at every word to make sure there were no eavesdroppers.
“What makes you say that?” Fluttershy bit her lip, which Rarity took as a sign of worry of the worst. Oh please don’t let her have found out somehow…
“Well, on Twilight’s first night at the castle, she had also received a ‘private tour’, which she had said was followed up by a ‘biology lesson’. An all-night, ‘I learned so much about my own body biology lesson’.”
“Rarity? I think you need to think for a second. We’re talking about Twilight Sparkle here.”
“Yes, what about her?”
“The pony who gets excited when they come out with a new encyclopedia, and thought that the word ‘slang’ meant a new kind of sling-shot?”
“Yes, and?”
Fluttershy sighed as she tried to think of how to get Rarity to see that Twilight barely even had a grasp on colloquial implications.
“She honestly thinks when Applejack tells Rainbow to stop bragging about their “rolls in the hay” that that’s what she means. And you and I both know Twilight is smart enough now to know what sex is.”
“Well, that certainly makes sense.” Rarity nodded as her subconscious slowly made sure all the puzzle pieces were extra snug.
“So, what do you want to do now, Rarity?”
“I think… wait a second, Twilight only recently turned 21, didn’t she?”
“Rarity, she’s a princess, you know she can’t drink in public!”
“Yes, but I wanted to show her why she shouldn’t drink period. Only problem is, I perform rather lewd—and occasionally painful, poor Caramel will never walk the same— acts when drunk.”
“Oh no…”
“Come on, you talked me out of the spa!”
“Oh… okay…”
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As she held up yet another glass of vodka, her hoof began to quiver. It had been about 2 hours ago that she had begun to drink, and she was beginning to show signs of being unable to continue.
“Oh, boy…” Her stomach began to feel a bit queezy, and she patted it with her hoof to ease it’s churning. She looked to the club, and found that the neon lights had suddenly begun to blend together into a sea color.
“You see, Twilight, this is why you shouldn’t drink. Okay?”
Twilight grimaced at the sour look upon Fluttershy’s face, and tried again to explain to Rarity that Princess Celestia had quite-well explained the dangers of drinking to her when she had come of the age that young ponies might begin to experiment with alcohol.
“Now then, I believe that Fluttershy will want to go back to Fancy Pants’ estate, she already looks a bit green around the gills.”
After receiving instructions from Twilight Sparkle on how to exit the club, the mares proceeded to step out. Fluttershy, on her part, seemed to have retained her balance, but was insisting that Rarity walk in front.
“You know, Fluttershy,” Rarity called behind her, “it wouldn’t be uncouth at all to ask for a shoulder to lean on.”
“Oh I know,” Came the response, which sounded oddly relaxed, considering that the pair was currently walking down a dark ally. “You just keep swa-… I mean…”
“What am I doing, dearie?”
“Oh, just keep going,” Fluttershy prompted on, snickering the entire time. The pair continued onward, until a drunken stallion stumbled out of an ally between the two. Rarity, who for her part, had begun rambling something on about how she honestly couldn’t remember seeing Fluttershy drunk before this. The drunken conversation didn’t reach her attention until she heard her name.
“Hey, did yer’ friend lose a bet or somethin’?” The pale blue pegasus whispered to his fellow drunk.
“Nope!” Fluttershy giggled drunkenly as she turned her attention back to Rarity.
“I just like seeing her cute little hips go back and forth.”
“Really?” The stallion looked back to the alabaster mare, and to his drunken surprise, they were in fact cute, and they did in fact sway back and forth as she walked.
“Shoot, wish my coltfriend had hips those cute.”
“Oh, I’m pretty sure everypony wished they had hips like Rarity.” Fluttershy and the drunken stallion both shared in drunken guffaws, even after Rarity turned to glare at the mystery fellow.
“Listen, Sir, I’m terribly sorry about this, but my friend here is quite inebriated, and I would like to get her back to bed—“ Rarity caught her slip just as the pegasi began to whoop at the unintentional innuendo.
After fuming at the still howling drunkards, Rarity grabbed Fluttershy’s tail with her magic, and turned smartly on the heel of her hoof and began to march away.
“Oh, come on, Rarity, are you li*hic* my…” Fluttershy began to protest, breaking into a fit of giggling after hiccupping.
They soon came to Fancy Pants’ mansion, where Rarity promptly dragged Fluttershy to her room, and tried corralling the inebriate onto the bed.
“But Raaaaaaaaaarity, it’s so coooooooold!” She whined as Rarity continued to shove her towards the ever-so-cold bed.
“Well, I’m sorry, but I don’t have the energy to play ‘Babysitter’ all night with you!”
As soon as Rarity was satisfied that Fluttershy was far-enough onto the bed that she wouldn’t just slide back off, she zipped over to the door, and slammed it shut.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Rarity sauntered victoriously to her own room, and drew herself a hot bath. She allowed herself to soak in the misting water, not exiting until she drowsily allowed her mane to droop partially into the water. After she dried herself off, she moved over to her bed, which was conspicuously messy. She couldn’t recall leaving it as such, and she would have expected the housing staff to have straightened the bed by now.
“Oh well, I suppose that after tonight I might be excused for my lack of grace in my sleep.”
She stepped onto the bed, and plopped her head onto one of the many pillows, when she noticed a rather pungent odor… an odor that smelled like…
“Heeeeeeey there, cutie-butt.” A drunken Fluttershy whispered as she crawled out from beneath one of the ruffled sheets to lay next to Rarity.
“How did you—but I—“
“I’m drunk,” Fluttershy cut off the stammering mare, “lil’ miss sexy-cakes, not dumb.” Fluttershy grabbed onto Rarity, with the latter trying desperately to wiggle away.
“Fluttershy, I’m feeling quite uncomfortable with this!”
“Really?” Fluttershy giggled as she rubbed her cheek against Rarity’s barrel, “Because you’re pretty comfortable to me.”
“Yes, but I don’t…” Rarity cut herself off as she realized that Fluttershy had fallen asleep, her breathing almost immediately falling to a faint murmur.
“Well, I suppose that is almost cute enough to make up for all this…” When Rarity tried to wiggle her way out, the grip around her became more firm…
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“And so, I was trapped in that bed with you until you woke up.” Rarity finished her story with a final sip of her espresso, which had become as icy as her glare.
“I’m sorry Rarity. I didn’t know I became so clingy when I was drunk…”
“I suppose it’s my fault for insisting on that silly little lesson for Twilight anyway. So, what was so important that you needed to know if you let slip?”
“Well, I…” Oh goodness, what am I supposed to say?
“Would it have something to do with your inebriated comments on my physique?”
It’s better than what I was thinking, so…
“Oh, I’m so sorry Rarity. I’m usually not so rude but I—“
“Darling, we all have a curious side,” Rarity interjected, “I just wish that you had said something about it sooner. Celestia only knows that I began to question it myself after a certain somepony was such a prude to me at the Gala…”
After that, a not-entirely unwelcome silence settled between the two, until it came time that Fluttershy was supposed to meet up with Big Macintosh at the Castle.
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“And so, I honestly couldn’t believe my eyes!” Rarity, who in return for having forced Fluttershy to drink last night, was regaling her with the story of her first inebriation, “There Caramel was, still trudging on in the hoof and a half deep snow!”
“Oh, well that certainly sounds like you had him scared for a while!”
“Oh I did,” Rarity chortled as she knocked upon the entrance to the castle, “And it took a whole week of therapy before he would even speak without my say-so.”
The door opened to reveal a pair of guards, who then led them to the sleeping quarters. They were let into the bedroom that Big Macintosh was supposed to meet them, but were only greeted with a few stray bubbles. Fluttershy headed into the guest bathroom, to see if he was taking an oddly timed bath, with Rarity soon following. The cherry-wood doors that usually separated the two rooms were cracked open just enough for both mares to sneak a peek inside, to which they were greeted with a sight of Big Macintosh, relaxed as could be, muzzle deep in bubbles, with an icebag on his head.
“How ya doin’?” His voice sounded from within the giant mass of bubbles.
“I’m fine,” Fluttershy giggled as she stepped into the overflow of bubbles on the floor, “How are you?”
“I’ve got a new dent in my head,” He answered as he pulled himself out of the tub, furthering Fluttershy’s giggling at the sight of what looked to be a bubble-monster, “but other than that Ah’m fine.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that, sweetie.” Fluttershy pecked him on the cheek, as she handed him a towel, “And how was your night with Celestia?”
“It’s a shame we didn’t…” Big Macintosh stopped himself when he saw Rarity standing within the doorway, and adjusted his sentence to get the point across discretely, “Get to see everything, but Ah don’t blame her for it.”
“Really? I’m certain that she at least had a good time?”
“Ah’m sorry to say that last night tired her out, and she decided to sleep in today.”
“I guess that’s as good a way as any to end a trip in Canterlot, I guess.”
Big Macintosh froze when he heard that sentence, and asked if Fluttershy could repeat herself. She repeated it, and watched him sprint out the door, yelling something about being way behind on packing.
“He does realize that all he had to pack was two shirts and a tie, right?” Rarity asked as she watched the crimson stallion blast his way through the palace.
“I have no doubt he does, but one thing Applejack always told me is that he insists on packing his things a certain way, and it ruffles his feathers if he doesn’t.”
“Then I suppose it’s high time we followed him…”
Rarity trot out to follow him, with Fluttershy moving to follow, but was stopped by a voice calling her name.
“Hello, Fluttershy!” Luna exuberantly greeted as she trot towards the pegasus.
“Princess Luna, it’s very nice to see you!” Fluttershy dipped into a quick bow, before returning to her normal stance, “Why are you awake?”
“Since my sister’s indulgences last night have made her… disposed, I have been taking care of the Day court in her absence. I had been told by the guard that you had arrived, and I simply wanted to see you before you left.”
“You didn’t have to Princess, I’m certain that—“
“But I wanted to. What my sister seems to fail to notice is that many ponies have realized that we princesses—or at least I have been given this treatment—are not entirely bastions of righteousness. So, ponies are far more willing to forgive us for the occasional— and sometimes silly—indulgence.”
The lunar princess looked around before adding “Speaking of indulgences, my sister and your stallionfriend did not, if he hadn’t informed you yet, ‘done the deed’, as I believe the young ponies say.” She snickered to herself before adding that Celestia had in fact gotten so intoxicated that she had passed out before anything even remotely intimate happened.
“Did she at least have a nice night?” Fluttershy asked, with Luna replying that according to Celestia’s dreams—which were seldom and rather uncomfortable at times—that she had had a great time last night.
“At least she had a good night!”
“Indeed,” Luna agreed, before pointing out that Rarity was calling for her by the door. As she rejoined her, Rarity asked what they were talking about.
“Long story short, I think I know where Big Macintosh’s dent came from.”