The Duchess' Mansion

by PonySage86


Protector

Dear Teresa Sparkle,
my dear student, I am happy to review your inspection report and to find that all is well with Duchess Rarity. I shall now respond to all your questions and concerns, Yes I am aware that Captain Dash is at the mansion, it really is no matter to concern yourself with Just a women living her life. As for Ms. Pie, I assure you that she is not dangerous. Patty is a very kind girl, I've actually spoken to her myself and can give you my word on that, just remember she prefers to be called Patty, Not Patricia. And as for your last concern, I took note of how you went into, excruciating detail about how there is no librarian to keep the books organized and maintained, So I have decided to appoint you as the mansion's Librarian and Duchess Rarity's assistant, Along with the letter is another for the Duchess explaining the situation to her as well as a small gift for you and her. Enjoy your new job and remember to have fun.
Her Royal Majesty,
Queen Celestia.

Having received the letter early in the morning, Teresa wasted no time in delivering it to Duchess Rarity, Teresa is not upset to have to leave her duties at the castle,she considers the Queen giving her this position an honor even if she is nervous about it. but the mansion and its employees are so nice, she's sure she'll have a good time. She only has one concern.

Duchess Rarity is frowning.

Teresa's POV

"What is that woman thinking?" Duchess Rarity says with a sigh.

"Is there a problem Duchess Rarity?"

"Just Rarity is fine, and no not a problem. Well not with you dear, but that teacher of yours" She replies, now I'm confused.

"What's wrong exactly?"

"As you may be aware I became Duchess because my parents were killed in an attack on their carriage while on their way to Canterlot. Well you likely don't know this, but many in the nobility believe the queen favors me, gives me more attention or grants me special treatment as a result of that tragedy. I could deal with these fools easily enough because their claims were baseless."Rarity takes a deep breath "But now she has gifted me with her prized student as my assistant simply because I did not have a librarian, I'll likely receive a lot of grief in court for this" I shrink in my seat, unsure what to say.

"Now now, none of that" Rarity smiles at me." It's not your fault, and it's nothing I can't handle just slightly annoying is all. Please try and have a good time here" Rarity pats my hand with hers to reassure me.

"Now is there anymore business you need me for?" Rarity asks while she puts the Queen's letter away and pulls out a different piece of paper and starts writing on it.

"Oh, actually the Queen sent one more thing it's uh........here we go, It's an invitation to a party she's throwing next week, she sent both me and you one" I explain as I pull two invites out of my shirt pocket.

"Oh how lovely, I do so enjoy a good party, is it alright if I bring a date?"

"Of course it's OK. Are you seeing someone?"

After I say that Rarity gives me a look, it's a look I know all to well, it's a look my mother and the Queen give me when I say something naive. When I apparently don't get something that's obvious, I've gotta say something to make her stop giving me that look.

"Oh shouldn't you bring Captain Renee instead? It's wise to bring your bodyguard places" For some reason I think that made the look worse. Think Teresa think.

"Uh...Where is Captain Renee by the way? shouldn't she be here?"

"She's in the front foyer, she's watching the road to see when-" Before Rarity can finish that sentence, The woman in question kicks open the door to Rarity's office open with a huge smile on her face.

"The carriage is here!! She's back! She's back!" Captain Renee yells while jumping up and down.

"Really? Wonderful! I'll wait outside, You go get Sweetie, come along Teresa, there's one more person who lives in the mansion you have to meet" Rarity says before her and Renee run outside the room leaving me alone. having no other options I decide to follow Rarity down the halls and out the front door.

I see the carriage coming down the dirt road (apparently the one I arrived in didn't feel like doing that) as Captain Renee comes outside carrying Sweetie and places her on the ground. The carriage comes to a stop and a girl around Sweetie and April's age comes walking out. She's an avian with short purple hair, she wears a long sleeveless orange shirt and purple shorts. she has a pair of purple boots and an orange backpack on her back. Once she emerges from the carriage, Rarity,Sweetie and Renee all run forward and wrap her in a group hug.

"I missed you so much Squirt!"

"Sarah dear it is so wonderful to have you back"

"Now me you and April can have all kinds of fun!"

After all of their hellos, Rarity signals to me with her hand quickly before returning to the hug.

"Sarah dear this is Teresa, she just joined us as our librarian. Teresa this is Sarah Dash, Renee's little sister, I mentioned her yesterday, she just returned from a kind of summer camp for Avians" Rarity introduces me and Sarah to each other, not yet having broke the group hug.

"It's nice to meet you ma'am, and it's great to be back but I can barely breathe guys" Sarah manages to gasp out, the three huggers release her and take steps back.

"So your sticking around egghead?"

"Yes I am Captain Renee" She gives me a look " Umm, just Renee?" She smiles.

"Hi there, I'm Sarah! But I guess you already knew that. I'm also the second greatest Avian in the world next to Renee, I'm gonna grow up to be just like her" Sarah says excitedly while Renee gives a cocky smile.

"Well it's nice to meet you Sarah I just arrived recently and look forward to getting to know everyone here, yourself included" Renee and Sarah both give me a kind of 'of course you wanna know me, I'm awesome' look.

"Well Sarah, why don't you and Sweetie go find April? I'm sure the three of you would love to get started on your games" Rarity says. Sarah and Sweetie give each other excited grins before running past the three grown ups present, I watch them run past.

And my body freezes as I finally notice something wrong with Sarah.

Her right wing is orange and rather small, but that's normal for an avian of her age, what bothers me is her left wing. or rather, the fact that she doesn't have one.

I rapidly blink to make sure my eyes aren't tricking me and unfortunately they aren't. Sarah only has one wing, as this information finally clicks in my brain I let out a gasp and hold one of my hands to my mouth, I then notice Renee standing next to me with a rather blank expression on her face. Her eyes move to look at me.

"Don't stare and don't ask about it, you'll only upset her, and trust me when I say you don't want to do that" Renee warns me, I nod to show I understand, Renee then takes Rarity's hand and they follow the two young girls back into the mansion.

Now I'm at a loss of what to do exactly, My curiosity would get the better of me if I spoke to anyone and I'd end up asking about Sarah, and Renee's warning makes me decide to avoid that for right now. Thinking for a moment I decide to satisfy another curiosity of mine, I walk off into the apple orchard looking for Chylene.

30 MINUTES LATER

I throw my right hand into the air as a barrier of light appears in front of me, three blades made out of wind come flying towards me and dissipate upon hitting my shield. I lower my shield and see Chylene across the rows of apple trees making hand motions, once she completes them she points her left hand at me and three small tornadoes appear and rocket across the ground towards me. I channel my magic and spin my body, causing my body to turn into light and disappear I then reappear past Chylene's tornadoes as they go by. I raise my right hand and a ball of energy appears in it, but before I can throw it Chylene claps her hands and when her hands separate a cloud appears in front of her. I throw my energy ball and it makes her cloud explode, only to discover she's not behind it. I spy Chylene moving quickly between the trees, looking closely I spot that there are little tornadoes on her feet causing her to move as fast if not faster than she can fly without any physical effort on her part. As Chylene moves between the trees she throws more wind blades at me, not very accurately though almost as if she's not even trying to hit me. Observing her movement patterns I use my magic to throw a glyph on the ground where I predict she's going to end up, she passes over the glyph and it explodes into light, disorienting her momentarily, I use the opportunity to use my teleportation spell again and appear in front of her. acting quickly I create two circles of energy and place them around her, immobilizing her.

"I-I guess I lose, I hope I showed you enough Aeromancy to make you happy" Chylene says while trying to move her head so her face can hide behind her hair, I release her from my spell so she can do that.

"Actually that was better than I'd hoped for, Aeromancy is fascinating, I'll have to ask you to show me more sometime"

"Oh I don't know, I don't fight often, there are much better aeromancers than me"

"Even if that's the case your help is much appreciated" I try to reassure her, it works and she moves her face out from behind her hair.

"So have you met Sarah yet? I hear she got back today"

"Actually I did....um I was wondering-"

"About her wing?" I look at Chylene, before looking at the ground and nodding.

"It's OK, Sarah and Renee just don't like talking about it. I know you're probably curious. I can't tell you much, but I can give you a little information" I give Chylene a nod and gesture her to begin.

"Well you see, when Sarah was four years old, that's about six years ago now. She got into some kind of accident, I don't know all the details, but Sarah got hurt and Renee didn't show up in time so when she got Sarah to the hospital the doctors couldn't save her wing. Renee took it really hard, she felt so terrible that she couldn't protect her sister that she made a vow, a vow that she would become a protector, she would never allow someone to come to harm if there was some way she could prevent it, that holds especially true for Sarah. the only reason Sarah was allowed to go to camp this year was because Renee knows the camp owners and trusts them" Chylene's story wasn't to long, but it told me what I needed to know for now.

"She wants to protect....everyone?"

"I know it sounds silly, but she's very good at protecting people, just ask Rarity" Chylene explains with a smile.

"Why?" I try to ask, but my question is cut off by someone shouting.

"Chylene!" Both me and Chylene look around wondering who yelled when suddenly Renee lands with a thud in between us.

"There you are, Sarah scraped her knee while the girls were playing, could you come take a look at her just to be safe?" Renee looks a very worried, probably more than necessary.

"Of course, lead the way Renee, have a nice day Teresa" Chylene gives me a little smile and a wave before her and Renee go flying towards the mansion.

Once their out of sight I walk over to a small bag I brought out with me and pull a book out of it, I decide now is a wonderful time to begin reading and so I sit down under one of the apple trees and begin.

As I begin nearing the end of my book I hear a noise and put the book down. I look around but see nothing, except there's an odd looking area further out in the orchard. Curious as to whats over there but not wanting to miss out on my book I continue reading while I walk over to investigate.

Once I arrive I realize the sound I heard was just a bird, It rustled some leaves when it landed in a tree, but there's something odd about this tree, It's not an apple tree, looking ahead there are a lot of trees that aren't apple trees in fact this isn't part of the orchard, it looks like a forest or something, taking a moment to put my book away for now I decide to investigate just a little bit.

It is a forest, a strange one at that, there are flowers and herbs and other plants I'm not familiar with everywhere. I begin walking through the forest observing all there is to observe, I even pick some plants and flowers and put them in a pocket of my bag. There is something odd about the forest, I just have a strange sense of unease while I walk through it, although I write it off, I don't have a reason to worry.

Until I hear noises.

I look around as I begin to hear rustling and snapping twigs, I see shadows moving around in the distance, getting closer by the minute, until I can make out what they are. Timber wolves, wolves made out of pieces of wood animated by magic spirits, they only reside in- that's when I make a terrible discovery, I have heard of this forest, the Everfree forest , not a place you want to be alone, but I try not to panic, I'm an excellent mage, I can get out of this.

I begin taking steps back while channeling a spell in my hand, when the wolves get close enough I throw a large fireball from my hand which explodes, destroying one of the wolves and causing the others to take a couple steps back, I then begin running in the direction the mansion is in as the wolves begin chasing me.

using my magic, I create barriers and throw more fireballs to slow the wolves down. I run into a clearing and take a moment to turn around, there are still ten wolves chasing me, I begin charging another fireball to throw, only to feel myself get forced to the ground. One wolf had split off from the pack and had gotten ahead of me and was now holding me down. I'm about to call out for help when suddenly the weight of the wolf on my back disappears and is replaced by a loud wood shattering sound. One of the ten wolves chasing me begin charging me on the ground, only for a large tornado to appear around me which tears the wolf to pieces.

As the tornado surrounding me disappears, someone lands in front of me, someone wearing purple armor, with blue wings and rainbow hair.

"Renee? What are you doing here?" I ask as Renee turns to face me.

"Whats it look like?" Renee says with a grin as she draws her two swords "I'm saving you" She proclaims before Charging the wolves.

The wolves charge as well, one of them reaches Renee first and she blocks it's claws with one of her swords and uses the other one to impale it's shoulder, she then manages to lift it and slams it into another wolf, before thrusting her swords at another wolf, sending a sword made of wind into it's head slicing it in half, she spins her body around as the wolves surround her creating a wall of clouds which rumble before blasting lighting, blowing three more wolves apart. The wolf she hit with another wolf and the wolf she hit it with begin to get up, she flaps her wings and jumps above the wolves and points her swords down while she begins spinning quickly, sending a barrage of wind blades down on the wolves. two more wolves try to swipe her with their claws as she lands only for her to flap her wings, propelling her backwards out of their range, she swings one of her swords at them and a huge wind blade moves across the ground slicing one of the wolves in half, the other wolf charges her and tries to swipe her with it's claws again, she blocks it's claws every time it tries to slash her, until it lunges with it's fangs, she holds up one of her swords and the wolf bites the blade, Renee gives the wolf a smug grin before using her wings to propel her and the wolf into the air at blinding speeds, the wolf releases her sword only for Renee to put her swords back in their sheathes and grab the wolf's tail as it begins to fall, quickly spinning the wolf in circles she releases it sending it rocketing to the ground, smashing into pieces upon hitting the forest floor. Renee lands and looks over at the one remaining wolf.

"Boo" Is all she says before the wolf turns and begins running deeper into the forest, Renee raises her hand to the sky and the clouds rumble before she lowers her hand to her side and lighting strikes in the distance, rain then begins to fall and extinguishes the fire my spells from earlier had started. I can only stare at Renee in disbelief as she turns to me with only a semi serious look on her face.

"Yeah, probably should have warned you about this place huh?" Renee says, trying to make a joke, she walks over and holds out her hand, I accept it and she pulls me up.

"You're not hurt are you?"

"No, you arrived just in time. I have to say that was.... rather impressive" I say, still utterly dumbfounded.

"Well I was a captain in the army"

"Yes and an Aeromancer it seems, a very skilled one at that." I'm say amazed, I'd heard aeromancy called weather magic before, but she actually manipulated the weather. I didn't know aeromancy could do that, and her skill. She is far superior to Chylene with her magic in combat

"Yeah well, just watch, I'm full of surprises" Renee says with a laugh, she then pats me on the shoulder and gestures for me to follow her, I do and she leads us out of the forest, once out she begins rubbing her chin with her right hand as I stand to her left.

"Hold on, I feel like I'm forgetting something. What was it?......Oh yeah!" Renee says before her left hand shoots up and smacks me on the back of my head.

"Ooooow!! That really hurt! You're wearing gauntlets you know!"

"That was for wandering off, you should have realized there was something wrong with that place! Even if it hadn't been into the Everfree forest you shouldn't wander off like that" Renee scolds me. Then she grabs my shoulder and makes me face her and speaks in a softer tone.

"You're an employee here now, which means I will protect you, but I can't do that if I don't know where you are"

"Then how'd you find me?"

"Fire explosions kinda make a lot of noise ya know"

"Oh well uh, thank you for saving me Renee"

"Don't mention it" Renee then leans in close to me and whispers "Seriously don't mention I saved you after you wandered into the Everfree forest, you will never hear the end of it"

"Uh.......OK"

"Yo Jack! Come over here!" Renee yells, in response I see Jacqueline come out from behind a tree, carrying a basket full of apples.

"Renee, first ya let down ah bunch ah rain on me while I'm harvesting apples and now yer bothering me?" Jacqueline complains as she walks over to us." Teresa? she get you with that rain too?" I finally notice, that the rain did in fact drench me.

"Yeah it did, but it's not really a big deal" I'm still amazed, she manipulated the clouds near the mansion? from that far away?

"Jack I need you to walk Teresa back to the mansion OK? I would, but I've gotta go talk to Rare" Renee does not give Jacqueline a chance to answer before she flies off to the window of Rarity's study. Jacqueline sighs.

"I still got work to do, I'll take you back, we can get changed, then I'll get back to work" Jacqueline says before once again leading me back to the mansion.

We get inside, I head to my room and change into dry clothes before heading to the library and spending the rest of the day relaxing with my books far away from any trees.

Renee's POV

"She wandered into the Everfree?" Rare asks me with a shocked look. "Thank goodness you found her in time"

"Yeah but it's not a huge deal, I think she still could have gotten herself outta there herself"

"Darling I'm sure your assistance was quite welcome" Rare says with a smile "It seems you've saved yet another member of the staff then?"

"I do that a lot huh?" I really do, oh well I'm not complaining. Feels good to help people.

"Well, onto more casual conversation, you will be coming to the party with me right?" I give her a grin.

"Just try to stop me from going" I say while laughing "By the way Rare, did you get a reply?"

"I did, they've packed their bags and are heading over right now" Rare gives me a big smile, as big as the one she gave Sarah when she got off the carriage earlier.

"Great, it's been awhile since last time they were here" The door to the study opens and Sweetie and Sarah come in, only certain people are allowed in Rare's study Rare of course, then me, Sweetie and Sarah, otherwise you need her permission. April is probably waiting outside.

"Hey girls whats up?"

"Well you see um-"

"I wanna- I wanna fly, can you.....carry me please?" Sarah finishes for Sweetie with her head downcast.

"Yeah,no problem, I'll be out in a minute Squirt" I say in a soft voice and give Sarah a smile before her and Sweetie leave the room, I turn to Rare.

"Well my lady, my duty calls" I give her an exaggerated bow and take her hand and give it a little kiss before grinning at her. "I must be off"

Rare giggles a little and waves me away, I give her another bow before leaving her to her paper work and going outside to play with the girls.