Act Three Chapter Three - Company of Four
“What was that?” Peridot asked as the crowd exploded into cheers as ponies shouted blessings for the Empire, the Heart, and Princess Benevolentia.
Lumine’s smile gleamed, literally, thanks to the immediate effects of the Heart. “A magical manifestation of Harmony itself,” he explained, turning to her. “That’s what all of us have been hoping you might help to understand.”
“Me?” Peridot answered doubtfully. “I’m just a glorified medic. I can mend broken bones and banish fevers. I don’t know anything about magic at THAT sort of level.”
“That’s just the thing!” Lumine said excitedly. “You can heal injury! Oh sure, healing spells are nothing special. Not to say that your spells aren’t special, quite the contrary actually. Thats why you’re here after all. What’s special is you. Lots of ponies have healing as a special talent, thank goodness. They just know how to properly take care of an injury instinctively, how to clean it or wrap it or the best way to ease discomfort. They still have to receive training to properly bring their talent to light though. But you…” he pointed a hoof at her chest, “you don’t just wrap and bandage injuries. You actually heal them. You put things back the way they were. And most importantly it wasn’t just some spell you learned, it came naturally to you through your talent, and that is something special.”
“I don’t know,” Peridot said sheepishly. “I hope I can help.”
“Well the princess seems to have the utmost in confidence in your abilities,” he responded. “Oh uh, our princess that is. Though I’m sure your princess, well princesses, do as well or else they wouldn’t have recommended you in the first place.”
Peridot looked at her hooves, unsure. Lumine poked her in the shoulder, “Come now, this is no place for that. Look around you, this is the Crystal Fair! The biggest party this side of … well.. everything I suppose. Besides look at yourself.” He gestured to her coat and mane, transfigured by the Heart’s magic, “You’re a crystal pony now, well not an actual crystal pony as the effect is temporary, but in any case you’re not allowed to be glum during the Fair. You don’t want the Heart to soak up those negative feelings, now do you?.” He flicked his head toward the growing celebration, “Let me show you around.”
Peridot smiled at the thought of joining the party. “Where are we going?” she asked as they cut their way through the crowd.
“Ahh well, what would a Crystal Fair be without paying respects to the Princess herself?” Lumine answered as he cut around a heavy mare trying to corral a trio of bouncing foals. He waved a hoof toward the front of the crowd, “Princess!”
A moment later a guard called out for everypony to make a path and Lumine and Peridot walked to the front of the pack, to meet the waiting monarch. Peridot bowed deeply as she approached the princess. To her surprise, Lumine trotted straight to her and offered a friendly hoofbump. To her even greater surprise the regal dandelion colored mare returned it with a laugh.
“Lumine!” the Princess said happily, “You made it, I thought you had forgotten!”
“Forgotten?” He answered, in mock disbelief, “How could I with all that racket you ponies are making out here while decent folk are trying to work?”
The princess looked past Lumine and saw Peridot standing nervously, “Well Lumine, aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?”
“Huh?,” he said before blinking and shaking his head. “Oh yes! Allow me to introduce Peridot, my new assistant from Equestria. She arrived only a short while ago.” Lumine stepped to one side, and held out a hoof. “Peridot, please meet Princess Benevolentia,” he leaned over and whispered loud enough for the princess to hear, “or Benny if you want to get on her nerves.”
“Hey!” the Princess protested. She shoved him playfully. “Don’t make me tell her your old nickname.”
“It’s.. um.. very nice to meet you, your majesty,” Peridot said, still unsure about Lumine’s very public familiarity, “you have a beautiful city. I hope I can be of service to you.” She bowed low, in the style of the court back in Equestria.
The Princess giggled quietly and waved a dismissive hoof, “There’s no need for that. You’re my guest and I want you to be comfortable. Please just call me Benevolentia, or Princess, if you want, or Princess Benevolentia if you really want to but please, none of that ‘your majesty’ stuff.”
Peridot, calmed by the princess’s friendliness decided to take a chance, “Just don’t call you Benny?”
Lumine stifled a laugh and the princess shot him a look of annoyance.
“You know what?” she said slyly. “You get to call me ‘Benny’. This meanie has to keep calling me Benevolentia.” She stuck her tongue out at him, “Bully.”
“Dork,” he responded.
Peridot stared,, dumbfounded. “Did you two grow up together?”
“Unfortunatly.”
“Unfortunatly.”
They responded in unison before sharing a glance and breaking down into laughter.
“Well, Lumine, I suppose I ought to get back to work…” Benevolentia said wistfully. Peridot got the impression she’d rather be at the fair, trying to throw darts at paper targets or getting her face painted.
“I suppose so,” Lumine answered. “I was going to take Peridot around, show her the celebration.”
“Sounds great. You couldn’t have picked a better day to visit the Empire, Peridot,” she said. “You and Lumine should meet me and Dutiful for dinner at the castle. If you’re going to be staying at the palace with us we should get to know each other.”
Peridot smiled, “I’d like that! Want me to bring anything? I’m a pretty good cook.”
“Dessert?”
“Sure!” she answered happily. “I know just the thing. I’m sure your kitchen has everything I need.”
They bid the princess farewell and let her get back to her subjects. They squeezed their way through the crush of ponies surrounding the princess and made their way towards the wild music rising from a cluster of game booths. Peridot stopped and looked back to the princess beyond the crowd once they were clear and found herself treated to a wave from the royal mare, which she happily returned.
“What did you think of the princess?” Lumine asked as he bought the two of them each an over sized ball of crystal cotton candy on a stick, from a vender.
“Mmmph…” Peridot responded before deciding it best to swallow her mouthful of cotton candy and start again. “She was great, not what I was expecting at all!”
“What were you expecting? Some stuck up stodgy mare with her nose perpetually in the air? An uptight noble too good to be bothered meeting a single one of her subjects? A delicate flower to be guarded and protected from the slightest breeze, lest she shatter and blow away on the wind? Some other stereotypical princess?” Lumine joked. “Come to think of it that’s a fairly apt description of her mother. Not that she wasn’t a wonderful ruler mind you, she simply didn’t have the congenial disposition that Benevolentia does.”
“She seems like a good friend,” Peridot said thoughtfully.
“Oh she is. My father was the old captain of the guard so we spent a lot of time at the palace when I was growing up. Benevolentia is like a sister to me,” said Lumine. “An older sister who used to always find a way to land us in a world of trouble, that is. I think I spent most of my foal hood grounded thanks to her. Is she really that different from the princesses in Equestria?”
“Very,” Peridot explained. “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are very, how do I put this, other worldly.”
“They’re creepy?”
“Oh no,” Peridot laughed. “Anything but, they just always seem…. detached. As if they’re watching us from on high, like they’re our parents and we’re their children. Maybe it’s because they’re alicorns. They just invoke a sense of…. reverence, I guess.” She shrugged.
“Maybe its because they control the sun and moon,” Lumine offered.
“Could be, I dunno. What I do know, though, is that that game of ring toss is calling my name,” Peridot said, pointing to a nearby booth.
“Sounds good to me! Let’s see if you can’t win me something nice,” Lumine joked as Peridot’s handed him her cotton candy.
They spent the next few hours cleaning out the prize cabinets of about every game booth they could find. Finally, happy, full of sugar, and laden with prizes Peridot asked if there is anywhere she might lay down for the night.
“Lay down?” Lumine asks. “You can’t go to bed yet. What would the Princess think to be snubbed so? What would your princesses think? Why, you have an appointment for tea with royalty.”
“Oh my gosh! I forgot!” Peridot’s eyes shot open before letting out a long yawn. “We better get to the palace then,” she added sleepily.
Lumine led the way back to the palace gate. A guard took them to a high balcony where the princess waited. Peridot groaned at the sight of so many stairs.
“Oh good, you’re here,” Princess Benevolentia said happily when they arrived.
“Sorry, Princess. I hope we’re not late,”said Lumine. “I was showing Miss Peridot about the fair and I’m afraid we found ourselves a bit tied up. You should have seen this mare. If it involves throwing a ring, ball, or dart over a peg, through a loop, or at a balloon she is absolutely unstoppable. I dare say the game vendors weren’t unhappy to see us go at all. In fact there was one booth in particular where in one had to bounce a coin off of a…” The Princess coughed politely. “Oh yes.. of course..”
Lumine hurriedly found a cushion and joined the princess at the tea table where she sat, Peridot did the same.
“So, Peridot, did you have a good time at the fair?” Benevolentia asked.
She nodded emphatically, “You should have seen me! I was the terror of the concourse.” She laughed, “They’ll probably start boarding up their windows when they see me if I come back for the next fair.”
The Princess sighed wistfully, “I wish I could still go, I’m glad somepony had a good time. I tried a few years ago but all the booths just let me win.”
“Well that’s no fun,” Lumine interjected.
“Say, Princess Be… um… Benny,” Peridot amended, earning an amused look for the princess, “is the Prince still coming?”
“Mhm,” she answered. “We let the servants have the night off so he’s getting the tea.”
Just as she answered, the prince appeared on the balcony.
“Talking about me behind my back I see,” The grey maned, silver crystal earth pony joked in a deep voice.
Lumine rose quickly to his hooves and bowed deeply, clearly not sharing the same familiarity with the prince that he did with the princess. “My Lord…” he offered formally. Peridot stood and bowed as well.
“Lumine,” the prince acknowledged politely, allowing him to relax and return to his seat. The prince greeted his wife with a peck on the cheek before setting the large tea trey he was carrying on the table. “And you must be our guest, Peridot.”
“Yes, my um, lord,” Peridot answered, unsure.
“I’ve heard good things about your talent, I trust you will be able to justify the faith we are placing in you by granting you access to the Heart,” he said raising an eyebrow.
Peridot nodded, still bowing, “I hope so.”
Dutiful accepted the answer and joined his wife at the table, sweeping his white trimmed red cloak to one side as he sat.
“Psst...Peridot,” the Princess whispered. “You can stop bowing now.”
“Oh.. thanks.” She stretched her neck and returned to her seat.
“Tell me Lumine, have you explained your research to our guest?” the Prince asked.
“Not yet my lord,” he answered. “I thought it best to take Miss Peridot out into the fair so that she might see the motivations for our efforts first.”
The Prince nodded, “And what conclusions have you reached, Peridot?”
“The Princesses told me that you want to establish settlements beyond your city borders... the equestrian princesses I mean… but that you don’t want to ask anypony to leave the protection of the Heart’s magic,” Peridot answered carefully. She remembered the teeming throng of the fair. “But,” she continued, “you don’t have a choice because your population is booming. You’re trying to preserve your way of life against the results of your own prosperity.”
The Princess nudged Dutiful, “Told you she was smart.”
The Prince smiled, “That she is…” He returned his attention to Peridot and Lumine. “Your Princesses have told me that your talent allows you to project the forces of Harmony through your magic. Is that right?”
“I don’t know, My Lord,” Peridot answered honestly. “I know that I can heal and reverse damage... and that is what the Princesses and my Grandmother told me. Together they helped to create the Heart so I guess I have to have faith in their opinion.”
“Hm… well Miss Peridot we will have to see. If nothing else your visit will help deepen our friendship with our cousins in Equestria.” The Prince leaned across the table and grew gravely serious. “However… there is one thing I will not brook in a friend...dishonesty.”
Peridot swallowed hard, “I understand, My Lord.”
“Do you? Do you, honestly? It seems we have only been friends for a few minutes and yet you have already broken that trust.”
The very sky seemed to darken as the prince stared into Peridot’s eyes. “I… uh… what do you mean… My… My Lord?”
The Prince leaned in closer, his frown deepening, “Did you, or did you not promise… PROMISE, MY WIFE that you’d make dessert?”
Peridot broke into a rambling panic, “I’m Sorry I was so caught up and I forgot I can go straight to the kitchen and make something I only need like twenty minutes please forgive me I’ll never…” she saw a smile spread across the Prince's face. She stared, dumbfounded, for a minute before she and the prince broke out in laughter.
“Ow!” the prince cried as Benevolentia thumped him across of back of the head with a manicured hoof.
“Dutiful! Don’t do that to her!”
“I’m sorry my dear,” the prince laughed heartily, rubbing the back of his head, “I couldn’t resist.”
The Princess shook her head at her husband. She extended a wing and lifted the tea trey onto her back, “Why don’t we all relocated down to the kitchen so we can enjoy our tea while Peridot whips something up?”
“Sounds good to me! I’m famished,” the Prince declared. “Lumine, you can fill our friend in on your research as she cooks.” He pointed a hoof a Peridot. “And you…” he said, trying, and failing, to keep a straight face, “this dessert of yours better be good.”
Peridot smiled and rose to her hooves to follow the others down the stairs to the kitchen, “My lord, you simply haven’t lived until you’ve had my brownie pudding. If you don’t like it I’ll have myself banished myself.”