Since the incident with Luna, I have been unable to change my magical aura back to the toxic green it used to be. Most likely those damned Elements of Harmony forced my magic to stick with Luna’s azure hue for them to work and as a consequence made the change that I made to myself permanent. Yet another thing I can blame Celestia for, along with what she did to Luna and me all those years ago. I had to work tirelessly to bring my hive back to get my mind off of it. That took roughly twenty-five years until I managed to have a full working hive again. Every time it was the anniversary of Luna’s banishment, I looked at her old regalia necklace for a full hour before getting on with the rest of the day.
That’s how it always was until roughly nine hundred and eighty years later. That was when I was walking around Canterlot as a blue Unicorn mare with a lime green mane and tail and a cluster of jewels for a cutie mark. I was walking down one of the streets that hid my view of the castle that Celestia now resides in to actually get a proper look around the city that’s cropped up in the last few hundred years. My hive was well off for a good long while so I figured I had time.
“Hello, ma’am. What brings a beautiful mare such as yourself to this part of town?” a white Unicorn stallion with a black mane and tail with a gradient of white to black on his muzzle and lower legs to his hooves asked.
“The sights, actually. I’ve never really been to Canterlot before and figured this would be the place to go to,” I replied with a blink as I stopped my walk to look at him. “What’s your name, sir?”
“My name is Freezer Burn, Miss. I work here in Canterlot with my ice magic,” Freezer said with a small bow. Freezer Burn and ice magic. Right.
“Well, my name is Jewel Shine and since you’re already talking to me, do you think you can show me around?” I asked with a small smile.
“It would be my pleasure, Jewel. Is there anything that you’d like to see first?” Freezer said with a smile.
“I actually don’t know anything about Canterlot besides the castle so what would you suggest?” I asked with a slight tilt to my head.
“Well, how about the shopping district then? It may sound sexist, but mares love to shop do they not?” Freezer said.
“They do, but I’m not really one of those mares. It would be nice to look at the shops anyway,” I shrugged with a chuckle.
“Well, you’ll have to tell me what kind of mare you are so I can think of places you’d like to see then,” Freezer said with a grin as he began to lead me to the shopping district.
“Well … hmm. Let’s see. I like jewelry if you can’t tell from my cutie mark but I also like talking with ponies and going wherever. I’m not really that fussed,” I replied with a thoughtful smile as I tried to figure out what Jewel Shine would actually like. I did not anticipate this question at all.
“Well, the shopping district has jewelry shops in it as well as small stalls that ponies have set up for things like popcorn, fresh donuts, trinkets, and things like that. So, you might like it more than you initially thought,” Freezer said.
“Either your coat is too white or you don’t have one but I can’t really see your cutie mark,” I said casually after glancing at his flank and then stared straight ahead. “There’s popcorn, in the shopping district.”
“Oh, my cutie mark’s white so it blends in with my coat. It’s a stack of ice cubes. Everypony always wonders about my cutie mark since it’s not easily seen like everypony else’s are and yes, they have a few popcorn stands throughout the district,” Freezer answered. Popcorn is a relatively new concept for me so don’t blame me if I get excited about it.
“If there’s popcorn, then what are we waiting for?” I asked with a grin and immediately ran ahead while not letting him know that I already knew my way to the shopping district by leading him there.
“For you to get lost apparently,” Freezer said with a chuckle as he ran to catch up with me.
“I doubt I’ll get lost,” I said with a roll of my eyes and grinned to myself.
“Well, if we get close then you can just follow the smell of popcorn and other foods until we get there,” Freezer commented.
“Right, got it. So you work as an icemaker?” I asked him as I slowed down with a sheepish smile.
“I make ice, sculpt it, basically anything you can do with ice I do so I live pretty comfortably on that even if I am technically a ‘noble’,” Freezer replied.
“You don’t like the sound of the word ‘noble’ either?” I said quietly with a hesitant nod in agreement.
“Not really. Most of the ponies I work for are nobles and they just seem like stuck up snobs. Besides, I’m a low noble which is basically just a well off regular pony. So, I know why everypony is either envious of the nobles or hates them,” Freezer replied.
“I just hate them because they think they’re so pure,” I said simply.
“And then there are some of them who won’t hire anypony unless they’re a Unicorn because they think we’re the ‘master race’ or some such baloney,” Freezer remarked.
“You don’t think that though,” I commented in observation.
“No, I don’t. Otherwise, the tale of Hearth’s Warming wouldn’t have needed to happen and we’d still be three tribes,” Freezer explained.
“What’s your stance on these black bug ponies that have been cropping up recently then?” I asked casually and hoped that he didn’t pick up the nervousness in my voice.
“Hmm, I don’t have enough information to form a reasonable stance on them as of yet,” Freezer replied thoughtfully.
“That’s fair enough. I don’t think they’ve been seen that much anyway but it is curious that they exist,” I said in kind and was glad that he doesn’t have a reasonable stance on them yet.
“Do you have a stance on them?” Freezer wondered.
“Well … some of them did pop up my hometown but it didn’t look like they were harming anypony so I would say that I like them so far,” I said slowly.
“Hmm, so long as they aren’t harming anypony and continue to do so then they should be able to co-exist with everypony,” Freezer said in thought.
“You just said you don’t have enough information on them but when I said what my stance was about them, you agreed with me?” I asked in confusion.
“I’d still like more information on them since a single pony usually doesn’t have the full story, but you’re the first witness I’ve run into so what you’ve told me carries a bit more weight behind it,” Freezer explained.
“Ah. That, right,” I said with a blush.
“Y’know, you’re even cuter when you blush,” Freezer commented. I laid my ears flat against my head and looked away with a brighter blush than before. Why did he have to say that? “Sorry, I didn’t mean to insult you or anything. I just trying to compliment you.”
“N-No, I just haven’t had anypony call me cute before,” I stammered.
“Really? They must all be blind if they didn’t see your beauty then,” Freezer said with a big smile. He’s hitting on me! I should know what to do but I avoided this situation for a reason. I don’t! I looked at him for a few seconds, smiled, then ran ahead when I began smelling different sorts of foods. Freezer quickly ran over to a nearby popcorn stand after he’d caught up and got a couple bags before levitating one over to me. “Here you go, Jewel. Fresh popped popcorn.”
“They popped corn to get this?” I asked as I opened the bag with my magic and peeked inside it.
“They pop kernels with heat to get them like this, but it’s not like corn on the cob kind of kernels,” Freezer explained as he dug around in his bag before bringing out an unpopped kernel. “See? The kernels are like this.”
“Sorry, never really had the chance to try popcorn before,” I muttered apologetically as I stared at the unpopped kernel intensely before grabbing it my magic.
“No problem. It’s something that a lot of ponies think when they first hear of and try popcorn,” Freezer said kindly before popping a bit of popcorn in his mouth. I blinked at him before giving a nervous chuckle and put a bit of popcorn in my mouth. It was crunchy and salty but other than that, it didn’t have any real taste to it so why did I find it so enjoyable to eat? He must have noticed the ecstatic look on my muzzle so I turned it into an apologetic one. “Aww, you smiling is much better than your apologetic look. I’m just glad you liked it.”
“Heh,” I said after swallowing the popcorn and immediately spun on the spot to stare at the different shops. There were clothes shops and jewelry shops. Magic shops and various booths. It seemed like this particular district had everything in it.
“Anything catch your eye?” Freezer asked as I felt his gaze rove over my body. I shook my flank a bit in thought before answering.
“The jewel shop does. Besides me, does anything catch your eye?” I said with a knowing grin when I turned back to Freezer. He cleared his throat and covered his mouth with a hoof as he blushed and looked away.
“Sorry, couldn’t help myself,” Freezer apologized.
“Here’s an idea. If you like the look of me so much, why don’t we go back to your place?” I suggested.
“S-Sure, ahem. Th-That sounds wonderful,” Freezer said as his blush intensified and he began leading the way to his place. I grinned to myself and snacked on the rest of my popcorn as we walked side by side.