//------------------------------// // 74 - Another quiet day // Story: A Penny for your thought // by Damaged //------------------------------// It was tough for Hay to focus in school for the next few days. Her thoughts kept drifting back to Stick and Penny. Not for the first time she had to take a deep breath and get back to her work. She wasn't a junior at the school, but she also wasn't in her final year, which meant she had a mix of required classes and electives. Her back hoof jiggled as she wrote, getting through the advanced mathematics work as quick as she could. Her chosen field hadn't changed, she still wanted to build things, and for that she needed all the numbers she could pack into her head. "It isn't a race, slow down Miss Cart." Hay looked up at the old mare. "Yes, Miss Inkwell." She tried to do as instructed, the kindly old teacher knew the topic inside and out and, by the end of the year, so would Hay. But there were so many things she wanted to think about right then. "Daydreaming, rushing through your work. Miss Cart, do you have somepony on your mind?" The words were soft enough that Hay hoped the other ponies didn't hear, some of them could be downright hurtful in the way they made up rumors from the slightest thing. But she was caught. She nodded to the teacher and got a chuckle from her. "Two actually… we… they are impossible to get out of my head." "Then don't. They like maths too?" The question hit Hay as odd, she actually hadn't asked either about any school subjects bar the ones they shared. "I… don't know." "Well, how about you work through today's work as best you can, and ask them. Maybe there is room in your head for friends and school?" Hay nodded to this advice. "I will ask them." It seemed to make the class suddenly easier, to have something planned. Her quill flowed over the page and her thoughts circled back and forth, whenever the problems mentioned ponies of course her two marefriends were the ones she pictured. "Papers to the front please." Inkwell's voice interrupted Hay, she looked down and realized not only had she finished the work, but she had ended up daydreaming a little as well. It made her smile as she gathered up the work and headed to the front of the room with it. "Thank you, Professor. The trick worked." Hay beamed to the teacher, the old mare was strict as could be, but fair and caring. "Knew it would. These friends are waiting for you I suppose?" Inkwell took the mare's notes and set them together in the pile to be graded. This got a nod from Hay. "Then go, find them and ask them if numbers can dance in their heads too." The beaming smile the two shared brightened the day for each and, with a light heart, Hay pranced from the room and down the hall. "Didn't you hear? She is totally herding with that horned bat and the changeling." The words drifted to Hay's ears and it made her pause and strain to hear more, but the gossipers, likely in a side-hall, had left earshot. Hay wasn't sure whether to be angry, upset or just… she really didn't know what. It was technically right, they were becoming a herd, although normally a herd had a stallion. She slowly trotted back to the library, where she had agreed to meet Penny and Stick after morning class. "There she is, what's the matter Hay?" Stick was approaching her even as she stepped into the big library, although the changeling drone kept her voice low to keep from offending anypony studying. "Nothing really. Overheard some not-nice things said about us… well, Penny mostly. Somepony called her a 'horned bat'." The explanation got a surprised gasp from the lunar unicorn. "True though, she is a horny-" Stick was silenced by Hay's hoof bopping her on the nose. Penny grinned. "Thanks, she is the worst when she starts using dirty puns." She walked right up to Hay and gave her a little hug. "So, apart from ponies talking about things they have no business in, how was your class?" Hay bubbled and danced from hoof to hoof. "It was maths, but I needed to ask you, both of you, do you like math?" There was a round of "sshhhh" from the ponies in the library. Hay had gotten a touch excited and been a bit too loud. Penny shook her head. "Not this again, lets go somewhere else, the garden?" Hay and Stick both saw no problem with this and nodded. It was a relaxed trot down the halls, each relaxing into the comfort of each others presence. "Okay, nopony to shush us out here. And yes Hay, I was quite the number nerd." This had Hay interested. "What sort were you focused on?" They all sat down. "Everything, nothing. I studied at a… well it would be the equivalent of this school, I did simple and advanced calculus. But it wasn't until I was older that I learned to love all the little strange bits to maths. I like particularly when you can do odd things with it." Penny leaned against Hay, bracketing the mare with Stick. Hay beamed at this, delight at finding things in common making her love for Penny deepen. "And you, Stick?" Penny scoffed. "Stick likes numbers, though she probably won't admit it. Bits are her numbers, she will tally them up and balance them." Stick looked a little surprised by this but sighed and nodded. "All true. I have already gotten Fancy Pants to agree, at the end of the year, to take me on as an apprentice. I am not sure either of us have worked out what I will be apprenticing, but I want to make sure my mares are both settling into their schooling and married life, before I start shaking up Equestria." "You never cease to amaze me, Stick." Hay rubbed her cheek against the drone's. "Professor Inkwell was right." "Inkwell?" Penny blinked and looked a little confused. "My math teacher. She saw right through me in class, assuming it was a mare or stallion that had distracted me. She told me to ask you both about math." Hay grinned and changed her target to Penny for a nuzzle. "I am glad she did. Have you been tested for your math skills?" Penny nodded. "Gingersnap gave me a basic test, but I am not really here for that, I am here to learn to use my magic responsibly and learn the history of the world." "Did you get a letter back from Princess Cadance yet?" Stick looked past Hay, to Penny. "I did!" Penny pulled a pink scroll from her bags, unrolling it with her magic. "She says that of course she would be happy to add an extra to the wedding, but she demands to meet all three of us beforehoof, we are going to need to get leave for a few days, to visit the Crystal Empire." Stick grinned and nodded. Hay, however, looked stunned. "Wait, THE Princess Cadance?" Penny looked at Hay. "Well, yeah. She did make us promise to let her officiate at our wedding." Hay opened and closed her mouth a few times and, pressed between the two mares, she fainted clean away. "You broke her." Stick's accusation toward Penny held no heat. The changeling did take advantage of the situation and nuzzled the unconscious Hay. "Yup, out like a light." "You brought it up!" Penny scanned the scroll again. "She says something about a surprise." Hay gave a little gasp as she woke back up, eyes looking glassy, she blinked a few times to clear them. "What… you said something about a princess?" Penny nodded and opened her mouth to repeat her news. Stick reached over and pressed a black hoof directly into Penny's maw. "Yes she did. Are you prepared to hear it this time?" Hay didn't look it, but she nodded anyway. "Okay, well, we were in the Crystal Empire, just before coming here. Princess Celestia had asked us to go and help a friend with getting ponies organized. There was the whole umbrum thing, you know about them?" Hay nodded, tilting her head. "Okay, so we were there during that and, while helping, we got to know the Princess and she wouldn't let us leave without having us agree that she could marry us together. So I guess she wants to meet you, to know who else she will be adding to the ceremony." Hay trembled and closed her eyes. "Okay Hay, calm down, they didn't mean to shock you by saying that the Princess of Love would not only be at your wedding, but officiating it. Your mother totally won't spend weeks in a whirlwind of planning to make the wedding perfect. You won't be under any stress at all…" Penny and Stick waited for the mare they loved to finish her little mantra, before both kissed her on opposite cheeks. "Nope, I am going to panic later, maybe after the wedding. Sweet Celestia, I am getting married to the best mares I know and the Princess of Love will be there!" Hay was breathing hard again. Penny opened her mouth. "You know there will be othe-" The black hoof returned, but Hay had already rounded on the other unicorn. "What? What were you saying? Stick, I am fine, just let her give it all to me now. Surely nothing could be as immense as the Princess of Love at my wedding." Hay looked between the two. "Right? Why are you looking like that?" "Celestia, Twilight and Fast will probably be there too. I hoped to ask Luna but she hasn't been around much lately…" Penny looked thoughtful. Hay looked broken. Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Okay, I need more story here. How could two ponies end up with all the royalty of Equestria and the Crystal Empire as friends at their wedding?" "The whole story? That is a lot. Oh, we are going to need to ask Discord for another dress." Penny looked a little worried a moment. "Another dress? Oh please, you know I can make hundreds of these things right?" Discord was suddenly there, and wearing a dress on each limb. He leaned in close to the three. "You know I have a small army of seamstresses, working day and night." Behind him, there were rows and rows of Discords, working away at sewing machines. Penny lifted a hoof in offering. "You got us covered though, right?" "Of course I do." He brought a paw down against Penny's hoof. "You sure I can't officiate? I could marry you together right now if you like?" All three mares were suddenly in dresses. "No, Discord please, we promised Cadance." It was like all the wind was blown out of the chaos spirit's sails. The dresses were gone and he slumped on the ground. "She will be the lucky pony to marry you three?" It was like the princess' name was his kryptonite. "Oh very well. She would probably send another letter to Fluttershy if I deprived her of this." Penny wasn't sure why she did it, she walked forward and put her forelegs around Discord. "Thanks for the dresses, though. You are still coming?" He looked shocked at first, but his expression softened. "Of course I am. I wouldn't miss it for a tea party with a princess." "But one with Fluttershy?" Penny's little jab put Discord off-balance, she liked being able to do it, but liked him too much to leave him so. "It's okay, I wouldn't ask you to choose between those." "A matching dress will be in your rooms. Just don't go growing anymore foals, I don't want to have to let out any seams." Discord admonished the three, looking particularly at Stick before disappearing again. "You invited him too?" Hay was over feeling shocked at the invitation list. "Wait, I have a wedding dress? Can we try them on?" "We just did." Penny walked over to Hay and kissed her. "Still need to get some lunch, too." Stick was looking thoughtful, her gaze on Penny. The mare smiled and nodded. "Sure do, lets see what they are serving today."