The magical kingdom of Equestria, home of the three human races. The physically strong and hard working Humans, the magically gifted intelligent Elves, and the Avians a race of humans with wings that gift them with flight. these races were once at odds but now live in harmony under their queen, Celestia the goddess of the sun, she rises and sets the sun for everyday while her sister Luna rises and sets the moon. It is at this moment as the moon begins to rise and the sun is setting that a carriage with Celestia's sun emblem on the side carries a young elf woman to her destination. The girl wears a purple vest over a white button up shirt, her purple skirt ends at her knees and is followed by a pair of long black boots with all the laces neatly tied, her long purple hair has a lighter pink strand going through it. She reads a letter shes holding one final time before arriving at her destination.
Dear Teresa Sparkle
I hope this letter finds you well, I require your assistance with a small errand. As you may be aware I am conducting inspections on all important figures political or otherwise, I do this not out of mistrust but for safety, these inspections are as much to insure that all my subjects are well guarded as it is to insure no shady activity is occurring. Now I know your aware of Duchess Rarity, she has a mansion not far from the small town of Ponyville and I wish for you to be the one who inspects it. You must simply arrive at the mansion and give it a look over, search for anything suspicious and make sure the building is well defended. I expect a full report of the Duchess' activities, her staff, and if the mansion is safe. Use your magic to send your report to me as soon as it's finished, I truly thank you for your cooperation and help in this matter Teresa, happy travels.
Your Mentor,
Queen Celestia
Finished reading the letter Teresa sighs and runs a hand through her hair to make sure it's straight, she left in quiet a hurry.
TERESA POV
"It's not like she gave me much choice"I think to my self as the carriage I'm in begins to slow.
"It's not like I wouldn't have done it if she'd given me a choice"And that's true, I'm always willing to help the queen if she needs me to. Honestly I'm just nervous, I've never met Duchess Rarity before and I need to make a good impression, my actions will likely reflect on the Queen.
"We're here ma'am" The driver says as the carriage comes to a stop.
"Thank you, there's no need to wait by the way, I'll be staying here tonight" I inform the driver, I step out and hand him some money for his troubles (unaware he'd already been paid by the Queen) and face towards the mansion as he tells his horses to get moving.
"Seriously?" I ask. Apparently by "We're here" he meant that he was in front of the long dirt road leading to the mansion, looks like I'm walking.
As I begin walking down the road I can't help but notice that there are trees everywhere, apple trees to be specific in fact it looks like an orchard that you'd see on a farm, I wondered if the Duchess allowed the citizens of Ponyville to plant things here or if she just really likes apples.
I'm interrupted from my thoughts when I see another person down the road. A human girl is standing there and seems to be looking at the trees. She is wearing brown cowboy boots, some brown shorts, a short sleeved white shirt, her hair is long and blonde and done up in a big braid, and to top everything off there is a brown stetson hat on her head. If my theory about the Duchess letting the people of Ponyville plant things on her property is true then this is most likely the farmer who owns the apple trees. I still have a ways to walk and talking to someone might distract me from how tired I already am so I decide to approach her, I'm a fairly average height and when I get close I can tell she is a bit taller.
"Um...Hello there" I say while trying not to pant to much, it feels like I've been walking forever.
"Oh, yer that girl I saw get off the carriage right? Are ya tired? Ya've only been walking round three minutes" She asks while looking concerned. I don't get out much so sue me!
"I'm fine.....what are you doing?" I try to get the conversation away from me.
"Just inspectin' ma apples, gettin close to ready for harvesting, what brings ya to this neck of the woods?" Great back on me, I don't really like talking about myself in case you didn't know.
"I'm here to speak to the Duchess, is she in right now?" I hope I don't have to wait to long to speak with her.
The cowgirl looks at the sky "Nah shes probably not here right now, but she'll be back from her flight soon enough, come on I'll walk to the mansion with ya" she says then begins to lead the way down the road, but something she said confuses me.
"Wait, I thought Duchess Rarity was an Elf" I stat as I catch up to the girl and walk beside her.
"She is, she likes to have Re- wait, where are ma manners? I never introduced ma self, my names Jacqueline Apple but most folks call me Jack for short, and whats your name?" I can't believe I forgot to introduce myself.
"Teresa Sparkle is my name I'm the Queen's personal student" I probably shouldn't always refer to myself as that, but I just love saying it.
"Well it's an honor to meet ya, so like I was sayin, the Duchess has.......wait a minute.."Jacqueline stops walking and I stop as well, there was a noise not far off the path, I wondered if I should cast a spell or something until.
"APRIL! SWEETIE! You two get out here right now!" Jacqueline's shouting startles me and I just stand there confused until two young girls come walking out from behind one of the trees.
The girls are the same age, one of them is a human and wears a pair of blue jeans and a yellow short sleeved shirt, with a red bow keeping her red hair in a ponytail. The other one is an elf and wearing a light purple dress and her hair is curly with two different shades of purple in it. for some reason neither is wearing shoes as they step out from behind the tree and walk over to us, everyone is quiet for awhile, I assume Jacqueline is waiting for some kind of explanation.
"We're sorry sis, we were just playing outside is all" The little red head says quietly, while the other one doesn't speak.
"It's almost dark out, you know I don't want you outside at night, and Sweetie you know your sister don't like you out here neither, and where are your shoes?" Jacqueline responds.
"We lost them" The red head explains.
"Lost them? How? Sweeties got at least five pairs of them" Jacqueline says rather confused.
"I dunno, we just lost them somehow, Is Rarity gonna be mad?" The purple haired one says.
"Nah she ain't gonna be mad Sweetie, You'll find them when we get you two inside, now follow me and Teresa here on back to the house" After saying that Jacqueline begins walking down the road again, me and the two girls following quickly after.
"So who are you girls? I'm Teresa" I decide to talk to them, at least learn their names, one of them was April and the other had only been referred to as sweetie.
"Well I'm April, That's ma big sister right there, and Sweetie here's sister is the Duchess lady"The little red head who I now know for sure is April explains, upon April explaining who she is Sweetie perks up.
"Yeah! My sisters really important! She bosses everybody around and I can too! except when....I get in trouble" Sweetie starts off strong but ends rather quietly. hey wait a minute.
"Your name is Sweetie?" I ask, not really believing someone would name their kid that.
"What? no my name is Belle, Belle Diamond, everyone just calls me Sweetie though" Sweetie explains, and I find that odd too, even April called her Sweetie like it was her name.
"Um.....Why do they do that?" I ask honestly puzzled why everyone would call Sweetie, Sweetie instead of her real name.
"I don't know, they just do" Sweetie says while shrugging.
"Well I'll call you Belle Sweetie....oops" I called her Sweetie even though I didn't mean to, But before I can work out the mystery as to why this is a thing we arrive at the mansion's front door.
"All right girls you two go find your shoes before Rarity gets back and takes you shopping for more" That gets both of them moving quickly, I just wave as they leave.
"Bye April! Bye Sweetie!....Darn it!" Why is calling her Belle so impossible!?
I take a moment to admire the foyer of the mansion, it's a rather large room with two doors on the left and right, and a big stair case in front that splits into two stair cases, with a painting sitting above the split in the stairs. the painting looks like Sweetie and who I assume to be the Duchess sitting and smiling together in beautiful dresses.
"The Duchess will be back any minute, how about you wait for her in the library? I'll tell her to come see you when she gets back" Jacqueline offers, I assume she has other things she needs to do right now, but I don't care, what I do care about is where that library is, now how to respond without seeming like a spaze or something.
"You have a Library!? Where is it!? ShowMe!ShowMe!ShowMe! I haven't read a book in almost six hours!" I yell while jumping up and down and shaking her. Not looking like a spaze, totally nailed it.
"Uh....OK, just follow me up stairs then" Jacqueline says as she begins leading the way, we go up the stair case that leads to the left and enter a door which leads to a hallway, after walking for a bit we reach a door on the left, Jacqueline opens it and my jaw drops, there are book shelves everywhere! This room is nearly twice the size of the foyer and it's...it's...it's just so beautiful I feel like I'm about to cry. Jacqueline backs out of the room slowly while I begin spinning in circles and sighing blissfully, oh sweet literature never will I abandon you again.
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Sometime later as I'm reading someone rudely starts tapping me on the shoulder, I decide to ignore them but they keep doing it and it's starting to annoy me. The more I ignore them the more they tap me or shake my shoulder, Until I can't take it anymore.
"What do you want!?" I snap as I turn around, only for my eyes to immediately go wide. I just snapped at the Duchess....I just yelled at the Duchess!! Crap, not good, not good, I'm about to open my mouth to apologize when a woman standing next to the Duchess pulls her backward gently and puts herself between us. It seems the Duchess' bodyguard found my actions threatening, just perfect.
"You, start talking" The woman commands me in a slightly husky tone, though shorter than the both me and the Duchess by a few inches her voices still commands respect. Actually she looks familiar, have I seen her before? She's wearing a purple set of armor with a diamond engraved on the chest plate, defiantly the Duchess' personal guard, she even has two sheathed swords at her sides. she's an Avian with large blue wings and her hair is multiple colors reminding me of a rainbow, then it hits me.
"Captain Renee?" It's gotta be her, Captain Renee Dash, she was incredibly famous in the army not to long ago, she climbed the ranks very quickly, she easily could have become a major, a colonel, or even a general someday, but a year ago she left the army, shes still in the reserves if Equestria needs her, but no one had seen her since she left, how did Duchess Rarity get her as her personal guard?
"Yeah that's me, The one and only Renee Dash, I have a feeling you're not a threat maybe a little rude but not a threat sorry if I scared ya" Renee says as she enters a more relaxed stance and I thank Queen Celestia herself I yelled at the Duchess and all that happened was I got called rude. Captain Renee than stands to Duchess Rarity's right, Captain Renee holds her left elbow out and Duchess Rarity hooks it with her own as silence takes over the room. After a while Captain Renee moves her right hand, prompting me to speak.
"Oh um hello there I'm Teresa Sparkle, I'm here to talk to Duchess Rarity" OK, rocky start to my first time meeting the Duchess, but I can salvage this.
The Duchess Is a pretty Elf, though her ears are covered by her hair which is purple, long and curly, she's wearing a simple but elegant white dress which goes all the way down to just above her ankles which are covered by a pair of high heel shoes. looking closer i can tell she has a thing for accessories as she's wearing three rings on each hand, on her left hand are a red ring, an orange ring, and a yellow ring, on her right hand is a green ring, a blue ring, and a purple ring. The Duchess smiles at me as she introduces herself.
"I am Duchess Rarity, terribly sorry for disturbing your reading but Jacqueline told us that you wished to speak with me, but she did not explain why. So who sent you Dear?" Duchess Rarity's voice is as elegant as she looks, it's almost musical, both women give me a smile as Captain Renee gestures for me to speak, probably assuming I wouldn't otherwise.
"Oh well the Queen sent me here" For some reason I can't think of, they both tense up when I say that and Duchess Rarity clings harder onto Captain Renee's arm. After staying silent for a moment Captain Renee is the one to speak.
"Is this about military action?" I just stare for a moment, not sure why they'd jump to that idea but eventually I shake my head and they both relax, I assume Captain Renee doesn't want to return to battle, and Duchess Rarity probably doesn't want to lose such a strong bodyguard. Captain Renee once again gestures at me to speak and I sigh internally.
"I'm just conducting an inspection, making sure the mansion and everyone in it is safe, and checking the staff to make sure no employees are untrust worthy" I explain to them, once again Duchess Rarity smiles before she speaks.
"Well that sounds reasonable, me and Renee will be happy to give you a tour and introduce you to all of our staff, but it must wait until tomorrow as it is getting late, come we'll show you to an available room" And with that the Duchess and Captain lead me through the mansion to a spare guest room.
"There are lots of people for you to meet tomorrow so rest up bookworm" Captain Renee says jokingly, she then once again gestures for me to speak and this time I externally sigh.
"I'd really rather you didn't do that, I don't need to be instructed when to speak" I say probably more irritably than I should have as Captain Renee narrows her eyes at me.
"Are you talking back to me?" She says in a dangerous tone that makes me shrink backwards into the guest room.
"Good, I like it when people speak their minds, all the yes men I met in the army annoyed the crap outta me" Captain Renee says while laughing.
"Then why did you sound angry?" I ask honestly confused.
"Because I also like messing with people. well I'm tired after all that flying earlier you feel free to wrap up here Rare I'm going to bed" Captain Renee says while walking away, leaving me speech less. did she just address the Duchess with a nickname?? I've never heard of that before. Duchess Rarity just chuckles as she walks up to me.
"Isn't she fun?" She says while smiling, I guess nicknames are cool with her.
"I suppose so, but I should get some rest too, I'll see you in the morning Duchess Rarity" After I speak the Duchess simply nods then turns to leave.
"Very well, we shall speak more in the morning Teresa my dear, Renee darling! wait for me!" Duchess Rarity then goes down the hallway to catch up to Captain Renee.
I yawn as I head into the guest room and close the door and lock it. I lay down in bed to prepare for my Inspection tomorrow.