//------------------------------//
// 115. Gossip with the pegasi 
// Story: Rebirth of the Damned 
// by Borsuq 
//------------------------------//

	The buzzing of the fly slowly grew even louder. It managed to stir Spike from his nap, to the point that he opened his eyes to search for the irritating insect. He didn’t have to look far; the itching on the top of his nose told him its exact location. The baby dragon, still half asleep, grabbed what he held in his claw and tried hit the fly.
As the duster collided with his face - and the fly got away - Spike rose from the table with a yelp. Angry at the troublesome bug, he looked around the library. Twilight had asked him to clean the shelves, but he really didn’t feel up to it. All he wanted was to fall back to sleep…
Yawning, Spike lay back on the table… and immediately jumped into the air as the loud bang of the door slamming against the wall informed him that Twilight had just returned, and that she was angry.
“I’m cleaning!” he quickly said, dusting the closest shelf. “See?”
“Spike, I need you to buy me some new quills!”
Confused and startled by her tone, he looked at her. To his surprise, Spike saw that Twilight hadn’t come alone, as Rainbow Dash stood next to her. But what really puzzled him was the pegasus’ muzzle; or, quite frankly, the lack of it. For whatever reason, somepony had cast on Rainbow the same spell that Trixie cast on Pinkie Pie two days ago.
Strangely, however, she seemed unfazed by it. In fact, it seemed to Spike as if she was trying to hold back the laughter, if the grunts she was making as well as the fact that she was holding her sides were of any indication.
Twilight, on the other hoof… Spike didn’t remember her coat changing into such intense shade of red since that night after their return from Crystal Empire, when he had caught her and Matt sharing a bath. And her gaze looked a lot like the one she had when Spike had - quite stupidly, in retrospect - told her the memorable “It’s just a test”. One of her eyelids was even twitching. It looked that if Rainbow Dash was amused by something, then whatever it was; Twilight was clearly angry by it.
“What is going on?” he finally asked after a few seconds had passed.
He didn’t get a reply. “Go buy quills,” Twilight repeated instead.
“But we just bought a bunch yester-” Spike tried to say.
“NOW!” Twilight snapped, losing patience with him.
Since the last time the lavender unicorn looked at him that way it ended up with the library being shot into the sky, Spike decided that satisfying his curiosity wasn’t worth staying here. He run of the doors and closed them hastily behind him.
As he ran out of the door and into town, he made a mental note to spend about a half a day on shopping for those quills.
 
 
When Spike left, Twilight paused only to make sure the door was closed before she turned to address Rainbow.
“Okay, I’m going to cancel the spell now,” she told her warily. “Do you promise to control yourself?”
Her friend just looked at her and shook her head in contradiction. Twilight, still burning with embarrassment, undid the spell anyway; she couldn’t really discuss this matter with a pony without a mouth, couldn’t she?
“Now, Rainbow…” she started once her pegasus friend was given her muzzle back.
Unfortunately, the second after that Twilight found she couldn’t get a word in edgewise in the cacophony of laughter. Sighting, the unicorn facehoofed while she waited for Rainbow to calm down.
“You… you…” Rainbow stammered, trying to say something with great difficulty. Holding her sides, she pointed at Twilight. “You kissed a mare!”
“She kissed me!” Twilight snapped; she would have blushed in this moment, if her coat wasn’t already red. “I didn’t kiss back; I just stood there in shock!”
But for some reason, that still made this situation very funny to Rainbow.
“And do you really want to start talking about kissing mares?” Twilight asked her, hoping that reminding her of her drunken tongue’s escapades would bring her down back to ground.
As it turned out, bringing Rainbow down in any context wasn’t going to be easy. “Whatever; you kissed Trixie!” the pegasus snorted, still laughing at her expense. “The mare that kicked your flank out of Ponyville!”
Twilight was also aware of the irony of what had happened on the station, but she wasn’t going to admit it. Instead, seeing that for the moment her attempts at talking with Rainbow Dash were doomed to fail, she conjured chain and cuffs, binding the pegasus to her floor to ensure she wouldn’t try to get away from the library.
“I’m going to make some tea,” she said, trotting towards the kitchen. “In the meantime, try to calm down.”
Throughout the next ten minutes, Rainbow continued to laugh, putting a real strain on Twilight’s patience as she made them tea. The unicorn began to wonder if she should just search for a memory altering spell or something, but soon the noise from her living room had gradually grew quieter. It seemed that Rainbow began to calm down as Twilight had asked her. By the time the unicorn returned with the cups, she was quiet, with occasional grunts of laughter escaping her every few moments. Sighing, Twilight released her and motioned her to sit by the table, where she put the two cups of tea and sat herself.
“Sorry,” Rainbow Dash murmured when she joined her; she was still bearing a grin on her face, although she at least tried to change that, if her visibly strained face muscles were of any indication. “But I just kept imagining how Matt would react to that…”
“What does he have to do with it?!” Twilight snapped, growing red again, as a snicker escaped her friend. “It’s not his business who I- I mean, who’s kissing me, just as it isn’t mine who he kisses!”
And yet, despite her words, a small part of Twilight’s mind thought: “What would he think? Would he get angry? Wait, what do I care if he gets angry?!” the rational part of her snapped.
“Oh, I didn’t mean it like that,” Rainbow replied, grinning. “I mean, you know how most stallions react to the sight of mares kissing, right?”
“No, how?”
Strangely, her answer managed to calm down Rainbow Dash. The pegasus looked at Twilight as if wondering if she was kidding, but, seeing nothing but a sincerity, she sighed and said:
“They would be turned on?”
“... really?” the unicorn asked, not convinced. Rainbow, however, nodded. “That’s just… odd. Why would stallions like seeing mares kissing? Shouldn’t that worry them about the threat of losing potential marefriends?” Twilight tapped her hoof against the table, pondering. “Perhaps I have a book somewhere here about the study of-”
“Twilight, I think you’re about the only pony that could have made this conversation boring,” Rainbow interrupted her.
The unicorn stopped talking and rolled her eyes, trying to hide her embarrassment. At least she got Rainbow Dash to calm down again.
“So, you say that Trixie had kissed you, huh?” the cyan pegasus asked. “Why?”
 



 
Serenity gave the apartment a last once-over, checking is she had forgotten something important. The small building that Princess Cadance had ordered to be altered into a chapel was near the center of the Empire, while her old living quarters were almost at the edge of the perimeter. Because of that, Serenity had decided to move into it once it was finished. Of course, the Princess had offered her a suit in the castle, but she declined, and not only because it didn’t feel right for her to sleep there.
Ever since Nymph told her that Sentinel and Princess Blue Hope had an affair, her mind couldn’t stop conjuring images of them… doing things in whichever part of the castle she was in.
“To think that after all those years of my foalhood being spend on fearing the Headless Horse I wouldn’t be able to sleep due to that…” Serenity thought, shaking the thought off and continuing checking if she had left something. This was the last roo- “By the Light, how could I forget this?!”
She quickly jumped for the framed photograph standing on the nightstand. It was her most prized possession (which ironically made her leave it behind when she traveled to Ponyville, out of fear of losing it): the photograph of her entire family from when she was still a filly, before that accident. Serenity smiled as she watched her brother smiling awkwardly as their mother - who looked a lot like her - hugged him, and her little self as she stood on their father’s back, balancing between-
“What a beautiful moment.”
The sudden sound of a gentle voice behind her made Serenity jump in panic… and drop the photograph. The crystal pony for a moment forgot about the other pony as she watched as her most treasured memento slowly, as if the time had stopped, descended down. But before it hit the ground a blue aura enveloped.
Serenity sighed with relief as the photograph was returned to her hooves. She turned around to thank the other pony… and only now did she remember that she knew that voice.
“Your Highness!” she exclaimed, falling down on the floor in a bow.
“Please, Serenity, stand up,” Princess Cadance sighed uncomfortably. “I will not stand ceremony within your own home.”
She did her best to hide her discomfort as she rose from her hooves. The Princess, as marvelous as ever, was in her old, small house, and yet seemed not bothered with her surroundings. There was annoyance in her gaze, but it quickly disappeared once their eyes met, so Serenity had guess that it was caused by her bow. She wished she could be as relaxed as Cadance; not only she was in the presence of the ruler of the Crystal Empire - which was stressful enough - but also, for the first time, she wasn’t wearing her armor. And somehow, despite knowing that Princess Cadance wouldn’t attack her or anything, the loss of her protection bothered her.
“I hope you don’t mind that I barged in unannounced,” Cadance said once their eyes were more or less on the same level; as an alicorn, the Princess was naturally higher than most ponies, even if by just a little. “You left the door open.”
“Of course, Your High-” Serenity hastened to reply, but she was stopped.
“Cadance.”
“- Cadance,” the crystal pony corrected herself, recalling what the Princess had told her earlier. “Sorry. And of course I don’t mind.”
“I’m happy to hear that,” Cadance said, smiling.
Despite the situation, Serenity felt herself calm down at the sight. And as the nervousness ebbed away, she reminded herself how a good host should act.
“Would you like some tea?”
“I would love some,” Cadance replied, letting her pass her and exit the room.
Serenity put the photograph on the table in the living room and strode to the kitchen, quickly preparing tea for herself and the Princess. As the chapel was equipped with cookware, the paladin still had a kettle and some teacups.
When she returned to Cadance, she found her looking at the photograph. “You had such a lovely family,” she commented once Serenity sat next to her, placing the teacups on the table. “I’m so sorry for you loss.”
“Thank you, Cadance, but I’m alright,” the paladin said, smiling sadly. “And thank you for saving the photography earlier.”
“Think nothing of it,” Cadance replied, taking a sip of tea. “I must admit, I am a little bit surprised that your father was a pegasus.”
Serenity smirked. She had expected such reaction. “The Princess might be the ruler of the crystal ponies, but she still doesn’t know some bits of our history.”
“It’s not really that surprising. There was quite the number of ponies that came to the Crystal Empire during Discord’s reign over Equestria.”
“Yes, I know that, but I had thought that most of them had returned when my aunts had defeated him; after all, when the Empire had returned, I saw no sign of any kind of pony besides the crystal ponies… although I could swear that there was one earth pony, but I might be mistaken,” Cadance added thoughtfully.
“Yes, some of them returned, but a lot of those that came to the Empire stayed with their families until death. And since you are probably wondering, Cadance; their offspring were all crystal ponies, and it’s been like this for centuries,” Serenity said, and, seeing the Princess’ confused stare, she explained: “Whenever a crystal pony and a pony from Equestria had a foal, then when it was born here in the Empire it would always be a crystal pony; outside of it, the chances for the specific kind of a pony would be the same as from the mixed couples of Equestria.”
The Princess looked at her in thoughtfulness. “Hm… does the Crystal Heart’s magic have something to do with it?”
“That’s what most of ponies think,” Serenity replied. “In truth, though, nopony knows for sure. But thanks to that the most of the citizens of the Crystal Empire throughout the history were all crystal ponies, despite the occasional marriages through the past thousand years with equestrian ponies; there was even a few of our kings and queens who married a pony from Equestria, with the last one being our last queen’s father, King Halcyon, who married a pegasus.”
“Yes, I am aware of that. Queen Blue Dawn, correct?” Serenity nodded, feeling a strange sense of pleasure that the Princess had learned the names of her predecessors. “How do you know all of this, anyway?”
“Oh…” she muttered, a tad embarrassed. “I just… history was my favorite subject back at school; my parents were really surprised when my cutie mark didn’t turn out to be some sort of history book.”
“I see…” Cadance mused, savoring her tea. “I must admit that, sadly, most of my own knowledge about the Crystal Empire’s history and its Royal House is currently extended to the century prior to King Sombra’s takeover.”
“That’s understandable, Cadance, you and your husband had a lot on your shoulders this past two months,” Serenity replied. “If you want, I can tell you some stories.”
“I would love that. However, I’m afraid I we won’t have too much time today… perhaps you could tell me about other rulers of the Empire that married ponies from Equestria?”
Serenity happily obliged. There was quite a few queens and princes from Equestria, even if still the majority of royal couples were all crystal ponies.
“And there was also… a rumor,” she added uncomfortably after she listed all equestrian members of the royal family.
“A rumor?” Cadance asked, intrigued.
Serenity felt a bit odd, practically gossiping about the matter from over a thousand years prior - for her, in Cadance case it would be a two thousand years - with a Princess no less, but since she asked…
“Well… there was this rumor that Queen Serendipity had an… affair with Commander Hurricane, and that was the real reason why she gave him the Windtear, because she really liked his... ” she trailed off, blushing. Cadance, in contrast, had giggled, enjoying the gossip. “But I think it’s just a rumor, really. Probably born due that ‘bard’…” seeing the Princess’ eyes sparkling with interest, Serenity sighed inwardly. “During the Equestrian-Griffonian War, the griffons had attacked us and laid siege to prevent the possibility of the Crystal Empire joining Equestria.”
“Brilliant strategy,” Cadance commented.
“Yes, King Friedrich was maybe an excellent strategist, but he was also bloodthirsty and arrogant. He thought he would conquer the Empire quickly, given how small it was. However, thanks to the Crystal Heart we held them off, and Commander Hurricane led a charge that broke the siege. Afterwards, we agreed to join Equestria in the war, but the Commander and the relief force he led had spent a few days in the Empire recuperating. During their stay, one of the soldiers, who had a beautiful singing voice, was asked to perform some equestrian songs, and one of them… well…” she muttered, now more red than yellow. “It was praising Commanders achievements, and one of them was: ‘making a goddess moan’.”
“Oh my…” Cadance murmured, now also slightly flushed. “‘A goddess’?”
“Yes, I don’t know what that is supposed to mean,” Serenity quickly took the subject, glad to concentrate on something other than the private life of ponies long dead. “There was certainly no alicorn alive during that period of time.”
“Well… anyway, I can see why such a song would cause rumors like this. But you said that you don’t believe it to be true?”
“Yes. While Commander Hurricane was known to lead quite an… adventurous private life, like all pegasi back then, he was in a relationship with his adjutant Private Pansy since a few months prior to war. Even after her death at the talons of griffons, he was said to be… dispirited in that matter,” Serenity said, her voice growing sad. But then she remembered another bit of information she took from the history books: “Then again, his often visits to the unicorn castles in both New Unicolt and Canterlot led many to belief that he was close with an unknown number of Platinum’s maids. Some historians assume that a part of the old rivalry he had against her was awakened after Pansy’s death and he slept with her maids to spite her.”
“Ah yes, I recall reading about that,” Cadance giggled. “So you say that there is no chance at all that the successors of Queen Serendipity have this… adventurous pegasus’ blood in them?”
Knowing that this also referred to her brother’s love, Serenity felt slightly offended, but nonetheless she replied calmly: “The Queen’s only daughter and heir was born a good ten years prior to war, and before that she and Commander Hurricane had never met face to face.”
“Sorry if I offended you,” Cadance said with a giggle. “I just find it amusing how pegasi had once viewed those matters.” She took a last sip of her tea and placed it on the table. “Did you know that I used to be a pegasus?”
Serenity, a bit taken aback, nodded. She knew; as a crystal pony, she was naturally curious about the newest rulers of the Empire. “Yes, I asked Lady Twilight during my stay in Ponyville about you and your husband. She told me how you became and alicorn after you compassion had defeated a spell of an evil zebra witch doctor that hexed the entire village you were raised in, and that afterwards Princess Celestia had adopted you as her niece.”
“There’s a bit more to this story, but it’s mostly correct,” Cadance nodded, smiling. “Twilight didn’t tell you that I was found as a foal by the Everfree Forest, didn’t she?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Serenity said, shocked. “What do you mean; ‘found’?”
“Exactly that; ponies found me alone on the border of the forest. Their village is on the opposite side of the Everfree Forest from Ponyville. The earth ponies took me in and raised me for five years. I still visit them from time to time, even if I now barely remember those few first years,” Cadance added with warmth in her voice.
“But… who left you there?!”
The Princess shrugged, her eyes betraying only a hint of sadness. “I don’t know. I was too little to remember. Besides, does it matter?” she asked, smiling. “Wherever I came from, I am very happy with my life.”
“Being an alicorn princess, a ruler of an empire, having a loving husband… yeah, I can see that,” Serenity counted in her head, feeling just a tiny little bit of jealousy.
“You know,” Cadance added, “Princess Celestia had found it disturbingly amusing that I was found not far away from the spot another pegasus was found over a thousand years ago,” Serenity glanced at her in confusion. “Shadow Bolt, Princess Luna’s consort.”
Serenity’s eyes widened in apprehension. She knew that name, and now that Cadance had mentioned, she recalled how a guard had found him while patrolling the border for the forest during Discord’s reign, when the royal family of Equestria hid in the old, abandoned castle in the middle of the Everfree Forest. How he grew up to be the first night guard, the love of Princess Luna, and the father of Princess Moonlight Shadow.
“That’s… really odd when you think about it,” she commented, unsure what to say.
“Yes, Luna had the same opinion,” Cadance replied with a sad smile. “After she was rescued from Nightmare Moon by the Elements of Harmony and returned to Canterlot, we’ve spent quite some time together, bonding and getting to know each other better. I wish I could have met Shadow Bolt; Luna had nothing but endearments to say about him.”
“Yeah, me too…” Serenity said wistfully. “I would like to meet a lot of amazing ponies that are no longer here.”
“I would like to see my family one last time,” she added, glancing at the photograph.
Perhaps the Princess noticed her glance, or she had just realized how long they talked. “I think I took too much of your time for today,” she said, rising. “You were in the middle of moving out, after all.”
“Oh, no, I didn’t mind,” Serenity quickly retorted. “It was quite nice talking with you, Cadance.”
“I’m glad to hear that. Perhaps you would like to join me in the spa on Friday, around noon? You could tell me more interesting things about the Crystal Empire’s history.”
“I would love to,” Serenity replied, smiling.