“Nervous?”
Hearing the Hivespeaker’s sudden question almost made Nymph jump.
“A little,” she admitted, looking around edgily.
The two of them were walking through the streets of Ponyville - with her wearing her usual disguise of a black unicorn with green heart for a cutie mark - which had an interesting effect on the ponies they passed. Most of them smiled and said hello to the Hivespeaker, while grimaced, glared, or looked away from her. In return, the Hivespeaker, though hadn’t said anything to them, looked at the ponies with a mixture of disappointment and warning to not voice their opinions about his companion. But that was not what was causing Nymp to be nervous. Rather, it was their destination.
They were going to Rarity’s birthday party.
“I hope she’ll like my gift,” Nymph thought for about a millionth time as she moved the small wrapped box she was levitating a bit closer to her face. “Maybe I should have-”
“Relax,” the Hivespeaker told her humorously, interrupting her train of thoughts. He looked weird without his armor on, not to mention that such scars as his looked out of place on a pony. He wore a saddle-bag, though, where he kept his gift for the birthday pony. “Rarity isn’t going to eat you. Can’t you get back to being all happy like you were when you got back from Sweet Apple Acres?”
“I’ll try- wait,” Nymph paused to look at him, confused. “What do you mean, Hivespeaker? You haven’t seen me when I got back…”
“No, but I have happened to walk by you quarters once you teleported back,” the earth pony replied, glancing at her and smirking. “Should I mimic the squeaks you were making, or will we move on with the conversation?”
“Um… move on, I suppose,” Nymph decided, blushing.
“I also happen to know that Big Mac is performing tomorrow with the Ponytones, so I figure this all means he invited you.”
“W-well… yes,” Nymph replied hesitantly, not sure how was he going to react.
“Good for both of you.”
Nymph blinked. “Just like that?”
“Um, Hivespeaker, excuse me, but…” she started, wondering if she really wanted to know the answer to this question. “Do you really have nothing against it?”
“Why should I?” the Hivespeaker said, smiling warmly. “Unlike some ponies, I don’t pry to others’ relationships. Also, unless you had known I was nearby the instant you teleported to the Abbey and went out of your way to pretend that you were genuinely happy - in a rather embarrassing way I might add - this proves more than anything else so far that you are being honest with everypony.”
She hadn’t thought of that in this way before. The Hivespeaker was right that she hadn’t noticed him passing by her room, she was too absorbed by Big Mac asking her out to pay attention for things like that. Nymph just couldn’t believe that there was someling - “Well, somepony,” she amended - earnestly interested in her, somepony who she liked too.
“I suppose…” she said, giving the Hivespeaker a shy smile as they were about to finally reach Carousel Boutique.
The party must have already started; they could hear the music coming from inside. Nymph could also sense happiness of six ponies and one baby dragon. She took a deep breath to calm herself as they were about to enter a party that could quite possibly turn into a disaster because of her.
Despite how adorable he found Nymph’s reactions to be and how heartwarming her and Big Mac’s relationship could be, Matthias forced himself to push those thoughts away as he was about to become a target of something utterly terrifying.
A mare’s rage.
Resigned, he knocked on the door.
“Coming,” he heard from amongst the music deeper inside.
As he expected from Rarity, she didn’t let her guests wait too long. Barely a few seconds after Matthias had knocked the door stood open.
“Happy birthday!” he greeted her, moving closer to embrace her in a hug. “Hope we aren’t late?”
“No, you’re just on time,” Rarity replied, giving him a friendly peck on the cheek. “So glad you could make it- wait, where’s Storm?” she asked, her eyes going from him to Nymph.
“Here goes nothing…”
“I am terribly, terribly sorry, Rarity,” he started, doing his best imitation of ‘please don’t kill me’ face, “but I had to send Knight Storm Clash on a mission…”
He stopped under the gaze Rarity gave him.
“Let me guess:” she said, narrowing her eyes, “there was some ‘evil spirit of some kind going on a rampage on the other side of Equestria’, am I right?”
Matthias chuckled nervously, surprised and unnerved that she remembered the joke he uttered when she had invited him and Storm to her birthday. “No, nothing of that kind,” he assured her. “But I had to send him to Cloudsdale on Order’s business. I’m sorry, but he won’t be back until tomorrow.”
Prior to coming here, Matthias had spend long time thinking what to tell Rarity. He decided to cover for Storm and say that it was his fault, because that way he wasn’t downgrading him in the white unicorn’s eyes, which could have happened if he said something along the lines of ‘he’s looking for a gift for you’. Matthias also felt necessary to mention that the pegasus wouldn’t be back until tomorrow, in case his time limit would run out and he would have to go find him, as much as he believed that Storm would succeed.
He was a bit worried that the pegasus paladin hadn’t returned yet, but when Matthias gave him his deadline, he felt certain that he was doing the right thing. The Light seemed to approve of his choice. What that meant for Storm, he was not sure, but he trusted him to find what he was looking for and get back…
… eventually.
“You couldn’t send anypony else?” Rarity asked with pretense as she moved back to let them in. “It was bad enough that I couldn’t have Serenity here, and now-”
“It was to Cloudsdale,” he reminded her.
“You could have asked Twilight to cast a spell to let Guard or that unicorn to walk on clouds.”
If it wasn’t her birthday, Matthias would not be able to resist replying: ‘or to give them wings’.
“Sadly, there was no time. I am terribly sorry, Rarity.”
Rarity sighed. “Oh well, no use crying over spilled milk, I suppose. Although,” she added, glaring at him, though there was a spark of amusement in her eye, “for your sake, I do hope your present is something breathtaking. If you want any piece of the cake, that is.”
Though Matthias was certain that his gift would do just that, he felt brief anger at Storm. “He’s going to clean the Abbey’s toilets for a month…”
As he threatened Storm in his head, Rarity turned to greet Nymph. “Sorry about that, darling, I’m being a terrible hostess. Welcome.”
“Don’t worry, miss Rarity, I understand,” the changeling in disguise replied, smiling nervously. “Happy birthday,” she added, giving the unicorn her gift.
“Thank you, dear, and please, just ‘Rarity’. Now come along, I was waiting for everypony - which” she added with a glare at Matthias as she led them further into the domestic part of the building, “I suppose that means this is it - to open presents. But before that go and mingle.”
The other girls were already there, either talking or trying some of the treats and punch placed on a table. Matthias smiled in greeting, but before he joined them he followed Rarity to another table, where a small pile of presents was and placed his along the others. He then asked Rarity where he could leave his saddlebag.
“You can put it in the kitchen if you want, in the corner.”
As Matthias turned towards the kitchen, he noticed that Nymph was looking a little lost. Her eyes traveled across the room shyly, not sure what to do. When they rested on him, Matthias pointed subtly at Fluttershy and nodded encouragingly, knowing that the kind pony would be a perfect conversationalist for her.
Once he left his saddlebag in the kitchen - where he saw Spike baking muffins - Matthias found his eyes drawn to one particular pony, and for once it wasn’t Twilight. As if feeling his gaze, Rainbow Dash turned and began trotting towards him. The paladin almost immediately noticed that she was walking a bit oddly, and recognized the signs of a body being sore.
The realization that struck him of what must have happened since he last saw her must have reflected on his face, because Rainbow’s cheeks turned crimson by the time she reached him.
“I… am torn,” Matthias said quietly once he found his voice. “Should I be shocked, confused, amused…”
“Yeah, well,” Rainbow Dash, though she seemed slightly embarrassed, interrupted him, “I know that I should laugh my tail off.” Seeing Matthias’ confusion, she explained in the same quiet tone; “Daring told me. You’ve missed on a threesome!”
When she uttered the word ‘threesome’, the same tingling sensation that he felt since last night when he thought what would have happened if he had accepted Daring’s offer run through his spine. And while a part of him did regret it, he knew he had made the right choice.
“I had my reasons,” he told Rainbow Dash, who looked as if she was about to burst with laughter.
“Yes, Daring told me that, too,” she replied, grinning.
Matthias’ eyes grew wide.
“So, what’s there to stop me from telling those ‘reasons’ of yours?”
“Why would you tell her that?” Matthias asked, knowing only too well who she meant.
“Cause we all still think you two should be together? Plus, you know, it will be hilarious.”
“Oh?” Matthias, who was struck by an idea, smiled maliciously. “As hilarious as…” he trailed off as he leaned to her ear.
“OKAY, I”LL KEEP QUIET!”
Nymph, like everyling in the room startled by the sudden outburst, looked away from Rarity and Fluttershy to gaze at Rainbow Dash. The pegasus pony, who just now must have realized that she caused a commotion, chuckled nervously and waved.
“What’s with the sudden wave of fear and embarrassment?” Nymph wondered briefly, curious about the almost instantaneous change in her emotions - from gleeful into that - but she quickly lost interest as the two mares resumed their effort to persuade her to join them on a spa date.
Once everypony looked away, Rainbow Dash turned to Matt. “I can’t believe you would stoop so low…” she hissed.
“Oh please, we both know that even discounting my previous life I am far from being a paragon of virtues,” the stallion replied, smirking.
“Remind me to scare the living Tartarus out of you someday by telling you ‘I’m pregnant’,” Rainbow bit back, still feeling embarrassed by the thought of what he could tell the others.
“So, on to the other matters…” Matt began somewhat awkwardly, as they trotted to get something to drink. “Should I warn our friends to not let you stand behind them, or-”
Rainbow silenced him with a gaze, though guessing by his smile he was more amused than scared by it. “I should have asked the same after that thing with Applejack.”
“You asked me to do that,” he reminded her as they poured themselves some punch.
She rolled her eyes. “Anyway, I will tell them myself. I actually talked a few days ago with Twilight that I might be… you know, both ways.”
“Hm…” Matt hummed. “Kinda puts your drank shenanigans with Applejack in a new light, huh?”
Rainbow Dash found herself once again glaring at him, though this time she kept him in her gaze for a while longer. Finally, she said: “Daring is better in bed that you.”
She took some enjoyment in the shocked expression on his face, but before Rainbow could explore this wound in his ego, Pinkie’s voice rang above the small crowd: “Alright, it’s time for the birthday girl to open her presents!”
Rarity rolled her eyes at Pinkie’s enthusiasm, despite that it made her smile as well. She trotted towards the table where all the gifts her friends gave her were. She was saddened that there was no gift from Storm, although, to be honest, she missed his presence even more. Normally, a mare would feel offended by a thing like that. Rarity, however, understood that his duties came first (and therefore, she was mad at Matt, not at Storm).
Pinkie enthusiastically pulled her out of her dark thoughts. “Open mine first!” she exclaimed, practically shoving her rather big package into Rarity’s face.
Everypony else gathered around. Smiling - and deciding to not scold her pink friend - Rarity wrapped the present in her magic and began to unwrap it. She was curious what it could be; the box was a square cuboid. Since Pinkie looked as if she was about to burst, Rarity quickly unpacked the decorative paper, took off the lid, and levitated up-
“It’s a Dance Hat!” Pinkie exclaimed as Rarity and everypony else admired the big round hat with quite realistic fruits decorating its top.
“My, quite exotic,” Rarity commented, genuinely surprised and pleased that Pinkie picked such a fine piece of clothing. “Thank you very much, Pinkie Pie.”
“That’s not all!” Pinkie added happily while Rarity put the hat on her head. She quickly sprinted to the record player on the corner of the room and swiftly changed the disk. “Look how funny you can dance with it!”
The music Pinkie had played wasn’t something Rarity listened usually, it was much too lively and jumpy that the classic work of, for example, Octavia, or Beethomare. Oddly, the last time she had listened to it was, if she remembered correctly, at the last party Pinkie Pie had thrown. However, this time, for whatever reason, she felt as if magic went through her body. Her hips began to swaying in the rhythm of the music, and before she knew it, she was dancing, quickly joined by the others.
“Oh, yeah, I’m feeling it!” Rainbow Dash said after a few seconds.
The music Pinkie played lasted a few minutes, and when it was over, Rarity quickly used her magic to change the discs again. Excitement was good, but she wanted to finish unpacking all her gifts first. Everypony stopped dancing, some breathing heavily, and returned their attention to the birthday mare.
She quickly went through the presents of the remaining six of the friends she was celebrating her birthday for third year straight. All were dear and heart warming, especially Spikey-Wikey’s set of threads of very unique colors, as she had run out of her supply just a few days ago.
“You’ve mentioned it to me,” Spike replied when she asked him how did she know she needed them. “Well, complained about needing to buy them when I was nearby to be exact, but…”
“Oh, thank you very much,” Rarity said, kissing him on the cheek.
As usual, Spike gave a soft sigh and fell to the floor. Rarity suppressed a giggle and turned to the remaining two gifts, this time from her newer friends. Curious just what exactly changelings gave each other for birthdays, she concentrated on Nymph’s present.
With her magic she quickly unwrapped her gift to reveal as strange, almost tear-shaped, green gem.
“What’s this?” she asked, intrigued, as she held the gift in her hooves. “It doesn’t look like an emerald, or any kind of gem…”
“It’s a resonating amber,” Nymph quickly explained, sounding a bit nervous. “It reacts to magic. Here.”
Rarity watched as Nymph’s present rose from her hooves, held by a green aura of changeling’s magic. But something happened the second she reach to it with her spell. The resonation amber began emitting hard to describe sounds. To Rarity, it reminded a weirdly well put together mash of noises of rustling leaves, insectoid wings’ buzz, and mountain streams.
The odd but beautiful music stopped as Nymph laid the amber back in Rarity’s hooves. Without waiting, Rarity lifted it with her magic. The music started again, but this time it was different. It sounded a lot like the classical music she loved, but there were some jingle sounds, which her ear connected with the sound gems made when struck against one another, as well as dropping of water. Then Twilight tried, and in her case the amber produced sound of rustling paper, hum of magic, and something that everypony agreed resembled laughter.
“That’s a beautiful gift,” Rarity told Nymph, smiling. “Thank you very much, Nymph.”
The changeling blushed and looked down, murmuring something along the lines of ‘it was nothing’. Rarity chuckled warmly and moved on to the last gift, the one from Matt. She wondered what that could be, even though she was only jesting earlier when she said that unless the present would be something amazing she wouldn’t let him have a piece of cake. After all, even though they only knew each other for a few months, in this time she came to consider him one of her best friends.
“Even if because of him Storm’s not here…” she mused before she realized it. Him, too, she knew for a short time, shorter than even Matt, and yet… there was something charming in that pegasus that made some of her thoughts draw closer to him rather than to the white earth pony.
Turning her mind away from Storm Clash, she unwrapped her last birthday gift. Inside there was an ornate wooden box. Rarity gazed for a moment at the decorative gold and silver before she opened the lid.
And gasped.
Inside there was a small jeweled necklace. The chain was shaped to resemble a vine, with very tiny leaves shaped on it, but Rarity had almost missed that detail. She was so mesmerized by three gems, one blue, one silvery, and a bigger golden one in the middle.
Matthias could barely stop himself from grinning as he looked at Rarity’s breathtaken expression, having her warning still fresh in memory.
“My word,” she finally said, holding up the necklace so that everypony could see it “this is…”
Now he couldn’t help himself, he had to say it: “Breathtaking?”
Rarity glared at him, but she quickly brightened and nodded. “Where did get such a beautiful thing? I don’t recognize the craftship.”
“That’s not surprising,” he told her humorously. “It used to be my sister’s.”
Despite being prepared for it, Matthias had almost thought he had gone deaf in the next second, so shocking was the silence that followed his words. Out of everypony here, only Nymph didn’t know about Celie - and that she was most likely dead - and even she was looking at his with curiosity and confusion.
“Your… your sister?” Rarity asked, her eyes wide. “But how-”
“Brann dropped by yesterday. I had asked him to bring some things from my old homeland so I will have breathtaking gifts for the birthdays of each of you… at least for this year,” he added with a wink, addressing all seven of his closest friends..
“But where had Brann found this necklace?” Twilight asked. He turned to her; he could read curiosity from her face, but she tempered it with compassion, as it was a delicate matter, and was careful as she formulated her question. “I thought you said that nopony knows what exactly had happened to your sister.”
“True,” he said, for a moment saddened. “But Celie donated that necklace for a charity auction, organized by the Church of the Holy Light, a few years back. I asked Brann to track down its current owner and buy it back for a fivefold of its original price.”
“And where did you get that many bits?” Twilight continued. “I know you wouldn’t have him pay for it, and I also know you wouldn’t take so much - as this necklace was obviously expensive already - out of the finances Princess Celestia gave you.”
“Oh, I have my ways,” he replied with a wink.
Those ‘ways’ happened to be telling Brann the location of his family’s secret vault, hiding a few private treasures. It was much, much smaller when compared with the royal treasury of Lordaeron, but it would have made anybody - given the location, probably a Forsaken - extremely rich.
And Matthias had Brann gave away everything that he hadn’t used to fund his errands to the orphanages across the Azeroth and the one in Shattrath City on Outland. The dwarf immediately agreed, taking a great amusement in the thought that the former Lich King was giving away a fortune to orphans.
“How many of those had lost their parents because of me?” he had wondered back then.
Now, though, his thoughts were occupied with the matter at hoof. Namely, Rarity looking dubiously at the necklace created by the elves of Quel’Thalas and given to his and Celie’s paternal great-grandmother as a wedding gift and then passed down the line to his sister. “I’m not sure if I can accept it,” she said, her hoof brushing the gems symbolizing the sun and two moons of Azeroth.
“Yes you can,” Matthias replied; he spend a long time wondering what to give to each of his friends, and he was not going to be proven wrong of his choices. “You remind me of Celie in many ways.”
One of his friends took upon herself to list those ‘ways’: “Being stuck-up, fancy, sophisticated perfectionistic-”
“Rainbow Dash!” four ponies interrupted her in unison, looking at her sternly.
“Yeah,” Matthias replied her, grinning.
Seeing the gazes they gave him, he laughed along with Rainbow, who had probably made her comment to relief the tension. “Of course, there were more, how to say it, charming qualities to her than just those. But one of the first things that made me see resemblance between you and my sister, Rarity, was how you scold Sweetie Belle, how she should act and how shouldn’t.” He smiled as nostalgia hit him. “When I was younger than your sister, I heard from Celie - and, to be fair, from a lot of others as well - many times things like: ‘You should sit straight’, ‘Be presentable’, ‘You shouldn’t look bored, Arthas,’ or ‘How many-’”
“Wait wait wait,” Rainbow Dash stopped him, confused. “‘Arthas?”
Matthias opened his mouth to reply… and then froze as he realized what he had just said.
Alerted by the sudden noise, Angelic Heart rose her head from ‘In the Service of the Sun’ by Captain Day Light and looked at her charge. Princess Moonlight Shadow was in her crib, still laying and still with her tiny eyes closed, but she was laughing as if she heard the best joke of her life. Or, given her age, as if somepony had blown raspberries on her belly.
The middle-aged maid glanced at her sleeping liege, afraid that the noise might awake her. Luckily, Princess Luna was sound asleep. Soon the laughter of her daughter ceased. Making a mental note to report that to the Princess later, Angelic Heart shrugged her shoulders and returned to her book.
She turned it’s pages, and, confused, tilted it vertically and unfolded the piece of paper to see the long drawing of the book. A smirk crossed her features. “You old liar... you’re not that big…”