Twilight and Tress wondered if Fancy Pants was truly a Canterlot noble, one would think he was like a majority of the nobles in Canterlot. Fleur was going to be marrying this stallion they were soon going to meet and they wondered how the two came to the conclusion of getting married.
Thus far they had the bachelorette party for Fleur planned out a few days before her wedding, it was going to be a very simple affair and at a fast food restaurant with very few ponies knowing about it. They had quite a good lunch while discussing it at a fancy venue that was a bit rich for them.
“Fleur I have to know, will there be any complications or ponies that wouldn’t want you to marry Fancy Pants?” Twilight was not going into this situation as blindly as she would any previous situation with the thought that nothing could go wrong. She was actively expecting things to go wrong now.
“Now that you bring it up, well there is my ex who was only interested in my body and cared nothing else about me who I only dated for three days and he never let me live it down.” Fleur paused and sighed at what she was about to say. “I swear that he’s somehow using magic to try and get me to like him. Every time we have an argument I feel a spell trying to take me over to make me love him, I only get as far as hugging before I leave as fast as I can.”
“Haven’t you tried to go to some pony about this unicorn trying to force themselves on you with magic?” Tress was now instantly angry with the stallion even if she has never met him. There were certain abuses of magic she just couldn’t abide by and she knew that they existed because of Twilight.
“I didn’t say it was a unicorn that this happens around. It happens around this pegasus and I’m trying to avoid him at all costs. I just know he’ll try to ruin my wedding if he finds out about it. I haven’t seen him around lately though and I was thinking of being optimistic that I won’t see him any time before or after the wedding day ever again.” Fleur wouldn’t put it past the pony to somehow show up at an inopportune moment to try and entice her from the most incredible gentle stallion she has ever met. They were almost at Fancy Pants house and she was feeling alright since she hasn’t seen him in a week or two.
“With me around and knowing my luck, I expect we’ll be seeing him in the next few minutes. Tress you have permission to slug him if some magical compulsive force is causing Fleur to like him.” Twilight didn’t like violent impulses, but she didn’t mind her friend being violently protective.
“That works for me.” There was no getting around the fact that Tress disliked any pony taking advantage of some other pony since meeting Fluttershy. She’d even punch a mare if they were taking advantage of a stallion. This meant she’d even hit Fleur if she was leading some poor stallion on.
They didn’t see any signs of a pegasus on approach to Fancy’s mansion. They all trotted up to the door and it was Fleur who took the initiative to knock on it with a eager look on her face.
“Huh, guess you were wrong mom.” Barb just yawned and crawled into one of her mother’s saddle bags and curled up in there.
“Hello how can I... well, this is awkward.” The changeling gave a sheepish grin to the flat looks it was receiving from Twilight and Tress.
“Okay, just what are you doing here of all places? I thought you weren’t going to try and sneak into the wedding or interfere with it.” Twilight’s flat tone caused the changeling to wilt slightly.
“I’m here for a completely different reason then that I swear.” The changeling wasn’t receiving very believing looks and there was a slight rise in hostile emotions. “I’m here to help sort out emotions between two ponies at the behest of the pony that hired me.”
“What exactly are you?” One quick explanation of what changelings were to Fleur later. “So Fancy hired you to help with making sure our relationship was strong?”
“Yep that’s about the size of it, I think.” The changeling smiled, it didn’t have to use a disguise or anything to get some food and it liked the idea of how much easier it sounded to be a symbiotic parasite. “You’re feelings are a reading a little wary of my presence, but that’s to be expected and I’m not going to change what I am to meet your needs. Huh, now you’re radiating acceptance? Ponies are just plain weird sometimes.”
“Remember that he likes that particular brand better and try to take him out for walks at least twice a week. He needs some playtime once in a while as well.” Fluttershy came up to them talking to a stallion and between them was a happy looking schnauzer. She seemed to be doing what she did best, talk about animals and giving advice to others about what they needed to do to have a healthy relationship with their pets.
Twilight was looking at who she suspected to be Fancy Pants. He had a debonair quality about him with his fancily styled blue mane, a mustache on his face and white coat. In fact, if Twilight didn’t know any better having a white coat was a common unicorn thing. He was wearing a blue vest underneath a tuxedo jacket, underneath that was a white collar shirt with a purple bowtie. The last thing of notice is that he had a monocle and he looked incredibly fancy wearing it. His cutie mark was three crowns.
“I’ll try to remember that Ms. Shy. Fleur it is simply smashing to see you here my dear and it looks like you have brought some friends as well?” Fancy was immediately upon Fleur within seconds of seeing her, he tenderly lifted one of her hooves and kissed it. Fleur blushed immediately at his sudden smile and the immediate treatment.
“Whoa… heady… there’s so much love flowing between them I’m getting pretty high off of this.” The changeling started to sway slightly before falling onto its side. It slowly rolled onto its back and its tongue hung out of its mouth as its legs waved lazily at air. “Dude, this feels awesome, why did we ever start stealing love previously again?”
“No wonder changelings like love so much if that’s their reaction to a huge mass of it. I should ask it when it’s in the right state of mind later if they’ve ever fed off of nomadic hippie ponies before. Free love and all that you know.” Twilight commented, clearly fascinated by the reaction to Fleur nuzzling Fancy Pants neck and him doing the same for her.
“I’m more shocked to see him not treating Fluttershy like a one hundredth class citizen. Just to remind every pony here, such a class doesn’t exist. It might as well with the way I’ve seen nobles treating other ponies here in Canterlot.” It was something that earned points in Tress’s book, being nice to Fluttershy went a long way to earning a high opinion from her. Especially the fact that he didn’t even sneer or scoff in her direction added to the positive outlook Tress was having about this stallion.
“Oh, Mr. Pants wouldn’t treat me like that at all; he took me in for a whole winter when I was still living in Canterlot as a vagrant. He said it was payment for helping his schnauzer get all better, it was a little much given all the food and the room he gave me for something that was a small issue. He also doesn’t mind that I’m gay and he’s really been quite nice about it.” Fluttershy was a good seal of approval to have when it came to judging the character of other ponies. “He’s nothing like Blueblood at all Tress.”
“Madam Ravel, I believe I’ve seen you working with the ever lovely Fleur here once upon a time. You are quite the beautiful young mare and if I didn’t have Fleur to dote on I would be trying to court you immediately.” Fancy was respectful of Tress’s personal space and even bowed to her. “Besides, I rather lead by a better example than what that the boorish brute Blueblood sets. I will play nice with him, but any stallion that would dare demolish a playground for foals just to put a statue of himself in its place will barely get the barest of my best verbiage. He’s not someone I recommend spending especially too much time around.”
“Well you’re certainly charming on a number of levels, but you’re barking up the wrong tree pal if you think I’d go for you.” Even as Tress said this she had to watch as Fleur draped herself over Fancy in a loving manner while smiling a tiny smile in her direction. Tress looked around vaguely wondering if her cat would show up and just shrugged when it didn’t. She glared Fancy in his blue eyes. “If you ever hurt Fleur I doubt an army of bodyguards or even the celestial guard would be able to stop me from reaching you.”
“My you’ve got quite the fire in you! It’s why I love Fleur so dearly and makes me see why she’s always talking about you. You’re one of the few friends she has you know and I’m glad to see that you genuinely care about her even if it’s not in the same manner I would myself. It’s that fire for life that draws me to her, not her looks and I find things are never boring when she’s around.” Fancy Pants looked like a joyful friendly stallion and appeared to be a great conversationalist. He was laughing off Tress’s threat as if it were nothing, which would have been his reaction even if he wasn’t taking it seriously.
“Oh trust me, I would like to know the feeling of boring. Being around Twilight is like standing at the epicenter of magical mishap just waiting to happen. I get enough excitement every week doing seemingly boring tasks for other ponies without her weirdness magnet going off all the time.” Tress knew Twilight wouldn’t say anything about it even if it hurt her feelings, it was no less the truth of the matter.
“Of course, I say to each their own as life is too short to spend all your time hating others for who they are or the situations they’ll get you into.” Fancy Pants was enjoying this conversation, Fleur had some good friends. Speaking of which, he decided to bring up something about Fleur as a compliment. “My dear did you recently have someone do your mane and tail, they look marvelous.”
“Thank you for noticing; Twilight Sparkle there is a mane care enthusiast and she does good work. She’s Tress’s best friend and I feel a bit jealous of that, but not too jealous as I have my best friend right here.” Fleur wrapped her hooves around Fancy and he blushed heavily and coughed into one of his hooves.
“Fleur please, there’s a proper time and place for things like that.” Fancy was feeling pretty hot under the collar now and shifting under the beautiful mare who was slightly goosing him, but he did love the feeling of her hooves ever so much as they trail down his back legs. “It wouldn’t be proper, not in front of these nice ponies and especially not before we are wed.”
“Now there’s a stallion with a good sense of honor, your definitely a friend of ours now and with all the chaos that that will entail. I’m just going to apologize in advance for what’s going to happen at the wedding since we’re going to be there and all.” Tress started snickering about whatever weird thing she could come up with that was going to crash the wedding. In fact she was beginning to think of apocalyptic scenarios that were downright hilarious, several fifty foot tall mares chasing after a tiny bouquet thrown by Fleur just to name one.
“Like Tress said we apologize for any inconvenience that may happen while we’re around, trust me it’s not something you should take too lightly.” Twilight agreed that something was going to happen to cause a mess, it wasn’t just a feeling either.
“Poppycock, I’d enjoy and even welcome the coming excitement and surprises that could spring up. Now what’s that in your saddlebag miss Sparkle?” Fancy noticed Barb in Twilight’s bag as the dragon squirmed around a bit; they were all enjoying each other’s company quite fine thus far.
Off to the side Fluttershy sighed wistfully and smiled at friends meeting new friends and forming bonds. Fleur and Fancy were warming her heart up to excessive levels, causing it to beat excitedly as it was so nice to see other ponies being happy together. After a moment she noticed the schnauzer chewing on the changeling.
“Now stop that, it didn’t do anything to you so leave it alone please.” The schnauzer listened to Fluttershy and wagged its tail as it went to her for some attention; the black bug creature wasn’t hurting anything so the dog didn’t really need to rough it up anyway. “Now if you behave I’ll see about finding you a nice dog bone to gnaw on instead. Wouldn’t you like that much better?”
Fluttershy walked off with the dog who was barking happily at her. They left the dazed looking changeling lying on the floor. After a moment the changeling let out a long excessively loud belching noise, causing all the conversing ponies to turn to it for a moment before they went back to their conversation.