Violets are Blue Chapter 9
Carbon and Lilo sat next to each other in the corner of a small sandwich shop located near the border between Canterlot’s rich and middle wealth districts. Wooden tables and chairs lay strewn out neatly together all over the floor, and towards the back of the shop sat the counter reserved for customers to place their orders. Large chalkboards hung over the counter spanning across the entire length of the shop, filled with dozens of possible orders and leaving nary a centimeter left of space. Regarded as a strikingly modern establishment, ponies were left in awe at the generous combination of orders that they could place, seeming as if everypony from across Equestria could be accommodated to their variety of tastes.
Between them, Carbon and Lilo—once again disguised as Rosebud—shared a large chocolate milkshake piled high with whipped cream. From their spot in the shop, they both looked out onto the street and all of the ponies passing by them. It was a beautiful sunny weekday and ponies crowded the streets as they went about their business towards the marketplace or their workplace.
“Aww, look at the two fillies!” Lilo giggled, pointing out of the window towards a pair of fillies who rode in one of their mother’s saddlebags.
The mother had stopped to speak with another pony who she passed by in the street, and the two quickly became absorbed in their conversation. Seeing their opening, the two fillies gave each other a devious look before one crawled out of the saddlebag and onto her mother’s back. Noticing that her mother hadn’t given any pause to the conversation to check to see what all of the commotion was going on behind her, the filly slid her tongue out of her mouth in concentration and reached over the other side of her mother’s back to pull a few pieces of candy out.
From her view inside of the sandwich shop, Lilo let out a squee just as the filly slid back into the saddlebag with her sister and distributed the candy among both of them. Their mother appeared to be none the wiser as she casually carried on her conversation with the other pony.
“Carbon,” Lilo said, resting her head on his shoulder, “do you think we could stop by the university’s hospital one more time? So that we could say goodbye to all of the foals staying there?”
Carbon looked over towards a clock that sat above the chalkboards at the back of the shop. A faint smile formed on his lips before he turned back to Lilo and nodded his head.
“I’m sure we can find the time once we get home and finish packing our things up,” Carbon replied. “Our train doesn’t leave for another three hours and the hospital wouldn’t mind us coming by for a short visit.”
Several quiet clicks sounded from Lilo’s throat. “Thanks, Carbon.” She lifted her head from his shoulder and took a few sips from the milkshake. “How long is the train from Canterlot to Ponyville?”
“A little over an hour,” Carbon said, taking a few sips himself. “Ponyville’s pretty close thanks to its location relative to Canterlot. Anywhere else and we’d need to travel around forests or mountains.”
Lilo nodded and returned to looking out of the window. A purple earth pony with a bushy pink and white mane and tail led along a troop of fillies and colts headed directly for the castle. Most of the foals had their eyes trained on her as she spoke to them about something, although there were a few in the back who had their own agenda. Talking amongst themselves, they giggled and lagged behind as their eyes were focused more on the ponies that were walking around them.
“I’ve never noticed, but does Canterlot really get so many tourists?” Lilo asked.
“More so than ever, it seems,” Carbon said as he, too, watched the trail of foals. “Having a changeling as our Head of State and Social Affairs has certainly sparked some interest across Equestria, although it might also have something to do with the former Lord of Chaos suddenly having a change of heart.” He frowned for a moment and took a sip from the milkshake. “Not to mention that Canterlot is expanding in size, diversity, and magical innovation. Many of the newest public buildings are being held together by powerful magic crystals from the caves underneath the city. Even if you’re a pegasus or an earth pony, you’re going to at least want to see what those buildings look like, right?”
“I suppose so,” Lilo said with a shrug. “I hadn’t realized that Canterlot had gotten so big. Going to the marketplace or trying to set up a reservation for a popular restaurant nowadays is like you’re swimming in a densely pack school of fish.”
Carbon chuckled. “And let’s not forget abou-”
“Um, excuse me, sir, madam,” a pony said from next to the table.
Carbon and Lilo both paused and turned to look over. The pony who normally stood behind the counter to take orders was now standing next to their table. He nervously glanced over his shoulder at a brown earth pony and dark grey pegasus that sat across the shop. They both gave a slight nod of their heads, and the employee returned his gaze back to Carbon and Lilo.
“Is there something wrong?” Carbon asked, cocking an eyebrow.
“Would you and your, um, marefriend happen to have been involved in a brothel raid a few years back?” the employee asked in return.
Carbon glanced over at Lilo, who looked on at the employee worryingly. He turned back to the employee and cautiously gave a curt nod.
“Yeah, we had some involvement,” Carbon replied.
“A couple of customers suspect that your marefriend is a changeling and are… unnerved by it,” the employee said. His face drooped when he saw Lilo recoil. “They’ve asked if I could speak to you about it and, well, I have no choice but to ask you two to leave.”
“Leave?” Carbon asked, his voice growing cold. “We’ve been coming here for two years now. We never have caused a problem here, always paid our bills, Rosebud and I even met here. You’re asking us to leave simply because she is a changeling?”
The employee sighed. “I’m sorry, and although I would enjoy if both of you stayed, if several of our customers are uncomfortable by your marefriend we have no other choice. If it’s any consolation, you’ll get a full refund of your purchase.”
Carbon glared at the employee for a moment, then he and Lilo got to their hooves and collected their refund. The employee showed them to the door, and Carbon gave one last look back towards the earth pony and pegasus and caught them both staring at him. A shiver ran up his spine, and he trotted up beside Lilo and hurried them along from the sandwich shop once the door closed.
As they walked through the streets, Carbon noticed that several of the ponies that they passed by were giving both Lilo and he strange looks. He looked down at Lilo and saw that she hung her head and stared dejectedly at the ground, sniffling. He extended a wing and placed it around her back, slowing them down to a slow walk.
“Hey, Lilo, sweetheart,” Carbon whispered to her, giving her a nuzzle, “that was just a badly timed run-in with some angry ponies. You saw how awful the employee looked, right?”
“Yeah, I saw him,” Lilo said quietly, “but Carbon, that still doesn’t change the fact that ponies won’t hesitate to show their hatred my way if they can do it. Why try to get me thrown out of a sandwich shop if I wasn’t bothering anypony unless it’s just to send the message across that changelings are still hated?”
“Some ponies will never change and it’s unfair to live with that, but we can’t keep our muzzles buried in cynicism and believe that everypony hates changelings. There’s always the outspoken few in the minority crowd of many. We can’t rely on them to speak for most of Equestria.”
“Even if they are a few,” Lilo said, “it doesn’t make a difference if they are able to instill fear into other ponies or make the lives of other ponies miserable. Why can’t they just leave us alone?”
Carbon sighed. “I don’t know, Lilo. Come on, let’s just get home so we can get ourselves all packed up. Maybe that little visit with the foals at the hospital will lighten things up?”
Lilo perked up a little, lifting her head and giving Carbon an affectionate nuzzle. She let her tail wrap up in his, and they quickened their pace so as to move along with the flow of other ponies walking the streets.
“There isn’t anypony else that I would rather tell me that I’m no different than a pony,” Lilo said. “I love you, Carbon. Th-thank you.”
“I love you, too, Lilo,” Carbon replied, smiling at her. “You’re perfect the way you are. Let’s get home.”
~~~
“And I said to the doctor,” Carbon said, snickering, “Can you put this back? It needs to cook longer. Another three months maybe?”
Lilo chortled and bumped herself against Carbon’s side. The two of them climbed the last set of stairs before the floor where their apartment resided, regarding the apartment with an atmosphere of satisfaction and nostalgia. Once they had themselves packed up and ready to go, they would be leaving the apartment and moving to Ponyville in their hopes to escape Zumas. For two years they both lived here and carved a living for themselves, but now they were moving onto new vistas and new adventures.
“Did you really say that to the doctor?” Lilo asked, giggling.
“I did!” Carbon said. “I totally said that to him.”
“And what did the mother think?”
“She was laughing so hard that we had to hold the foal from her for a moment before we could let her touch him,” Carbon replied, grinning.
Lilo giggled, but then it fell short when both she and Carbon saw the door to their apartment cracked open. A gust of wind picked up and the door swayed on its hinges, indicating that it was indeed wide open for anypony to step inside.
“Carbon, you locked the door before we left for the sandwich shop, right?” Lilo asked.
“I always do,” Carbon said, creeping forward. “Wait here, I’ll go check inside.”
Lilo held up a hoof, but she was too late as Carbon already crept forward and pushed the door open. The apartment was completely dark without a single piece of furniture having been tipped over or wrecked. The heater was still on as they had left it, although most of the heat had been sucked out of the apartment due to the door being left open. Upon seeing nopony skulking around so far inside of the apartment, Carbon scrunched his nose up.
He stepped into the apartment and left the door hanging open. Everything was eerily quiet aside from the pitter patter of his hoofsteps on the carpet, and the chill from both the cold and rising fear made all of the hairs on his neck stand on end. He first went to the kitchen once he made sure that nopony was hiding in front of the couch. When he poked his head in, he was met with several unwashed dishes stacked on top of each other from the previous night, but there was nopony lying in wait for him.
Carbon huffed and stepped back out of the kitchen. Glancing down the hallway, he didn’t see any of the doors having been left disorganized. He shrugged to himself and thought it wouldn’t be hurt to check. Making sure to stay as quiet as he possibly could, he crept over to the bedroom and looked inside.
Nopony lay in wait for him, but he wanted to make sure. Carbon very slowly crept into the bedroom, his eyes trained forward and watching the bed for any sign of movement. He held his breath and strained his eyes in the darkness.
As Carbon passed a corner in the wall leading to the closet, he saw out of the corner of his eye the butt of a speak being thrusted right at his head. He had no time to react, and when the spear made contact he was sent careening with the wall next to him. His head spun and ached, and he thought that perhaps he saw a few stars, but he groaned and lifted his head up.
Standing over him was a large, dark grey griffon with turquoise feathers surrounding his eyes. His tail resembled that of a tiger rather than a lion, and he had spots lining all over his chest feathers. He grinned down at Carbon, then picked him up by the neck with one of his taloned feet and pinned him against the wall.
“Going somewhere, are we?” Nero asked.
Carbon struggled against Nero’s grip, kicking his hind legs out while clawing at the griffon’s talons with his forehooves. He gasped for breath, and stared in horror straight into Nero’s eyes.
“Zumas got you spooked, huh? Quivering in your hooves now that he is back? Off to run somewhere else, thinking that he’s never going to find you in this small, small world?” Nero dragged Carbon up against the wall. “I don’t know what kind of stunt you’re trying to pull, pegasus, but Zumas wants to have a word with you and your changeling marefriend, and when Zumas wants a word, he’s going to get a word. You didn’t think he would leave you alone after what you two did to his operation last time, would you?”
There was a shriek from outside of the apartment, then some scuffle followed by a loud thump. Carbon’s ears perked and he struggled more ferociously against Nero’s grip, but the griffon had him pinned securely against the wall.
“Carbon!” Lilo screamed just as the door to the apartment closed. “Help! Please!”
“Let her go!” Carbon shouted at Nero, who just gave him a wry grin.
“I said that Zumas wants to have a word with you two,” Nero said.
Carbon went to bite down on Nero’s talon, but the griffon easily tossed Carbon across the room and into the closet doors. There was a crack as the doors were torn from their hinges and Carbon slumped to the floor. He groaned and struggled to get some balance on his hooves, but they slipped out from underneath him.
“Carbon! Please, don’t le-” Lilo said just before she was cut short by another loud thump.
Nero advanced towards Carbon, and his talons stopped directly in front of his face. The pegasus looked up, panting and aching all over his body, but he still managed to give Nero the most vehement glare he could muster in his current state. Nero simply shrugged it off and grinned down at him. He lifted the butt end of his spear again and thrusted it at Carbon’s face. Sharp pain stabbed through his neck as the world faded to black.