"Well, girl. You're here!"Marigold said sarcastically.
Many of the mares on the street were ruder than what she had met on the Cloudy Dream.
But never in her wildest dreams did she expect, on touring the castle for the guide and Marigold to cross paths with Celestia herself!
"Mare Mighty," the princess said impatiently with a sigh, "usually you need permission to be up here, near the Royal Residence."
"I asked a guard if it would be ok,"she was a little too comfortable talking to the princess, perhaps she was with the liberal party,"if I showed the less looked at places, I thought, you would be out...besides its just Marigold and me..."
"Marigold?"
She became very interested in Marigold upon hearing her name."I will continue the rest of the tour."
"Your Majesty!" Now came the formal addressing of a subordinate and member of the court, almost swallowing. "It isn't fitting...."stuttering." for your Majesty"maybe now a relization of the political problem she had caused. "to be giving tour for some commoner..."she began to protest. Maybe worried for her tour company's reputation?
"Fear not for the licence," Celestia produced an enormous bag," I will send you a copy of the rules and regulation, again..."
and gifted the guide with bits."Will this be enough for the tour?"Silence followed.
Mare Mighty rejoiced and raced away, rushing off to enjoy her new largess.
How had this all come to pass?
Off the Cloudy Dream, down the gangplank, past the smiling guard and through the door of the aerostation repair dock!
Marigold found herself going down a busy street.Capital City was the mess, as Saffron said.
Down that same street her ears turned to the approach of what sounded like a huge crowd of angry mares moving toward her,she having lost the trail of signs leading to the office that would give her information, to the number booth giving her a number in the queue...ah bureaucracy!
It wasn't a riot. Surely not! The guards flanking all entrances off, guiding traffic, the mares, that direction, weren't alarmed. For the better part of valor,though, Marigold decided not to be carried along with the crowd. She backtracked against the stream and made a turn where the guards had left their posts momentarily ,allowing her to slip away from the hustle.
She found herself in one of the higher class, beautified neighborhoods: private, plenty of air, space and sky. She would have left, but she was fixated on the landscaping scene before her.
"Oh! Look at all the colors in that landscaping!"she ,being a florist, justified herself as just wanted to see the magnificent arangements, walking and looking every where! Every once and a while she stopped for a sampled smelling.
"I could just die here...!"she though dreamily after taking a deep breath sinking her head deep benieth the foliage, drawn deeper in.As the spaces between buildings became wider and wider.
"UHhm..."she heared somepony clear his throat. She opened her eyes to an irrate unicorn gardner, pointing out the devistated flower rows while marigold felt a swollow wad in her mouth that she had been chewing like a "stupid cow" on cud!
Ah! Ponies. You have to watch them as they brose around the wares.
"Cough!"It went down wrong, and she coughed."I beg your pardon!" she fumbled for her purse."I'll pay for the damages!"she blanched at the cost but counted out the bits.
"Your lucky my employer's wife, Crosswords Puzzle, is not around."He said counting over the bits, again."Otherwise she would have bound you over to the jendarm for damage to "The Puzzle Estate.'"He said as he rolled over a cart levetated out a shovel and began replacing plants.
"I'm sorry!" she gushed."I know what its like when somepony thinks all your work is simply a snack!"
"Bah!"grummbled the gardner. "She care not for an the greens, says workin the dirt is the occupation of mud ponies!"
Marigold looked agast.
"She onely carin cause its a statis thing...usually Lord Doctor Puzzle does the arangeing...but not today." he said. pushing the next shovelful with a clunk."I'm greatful, truly I am! He useally aranges them to complicated maths or riddles then asks us to guess...then Crosswords guesses wrong his missus and him get arguing and we staff for a week,we get no peace !"he shuddered.
"Please sir!"she said humbly."I'm looking for the queue booth."
"Here for the selection huh?"He looked her over."Welp."he looked at her with a preditory grin."If I give something, you have to give me something."
It was then Marigold realize they were alone."Oh boy!"marigold thought." get ready to run girl."
"Don't be so ansy!"he said with pouting lips." I'm too old to care about such things!"He mopped his uncovered brow with a stained hooferchief blowing his nose, "just workin on my plants," putting it back in his pocket."but I wants that hat on your head!"
"Oh, yeah, hee hee."Marigold said witha nervious chuckle." I can do that..."
When Marigold found the office she was hoofed a number, it was a big number.
It would be hours before transport could be arranged to take her group to the pens, she sighed. Exaggerated with all the hormones in the air, her sigh sounded like a desperate and despondent gasp. "I have to take my mind off things!!!"
She didn't relizes how mellow her walk amoung the flowers had made her."I should never have wandered into those gardens."she grumbled.
She walked off and found a park.
"How about that! A nice park!Not like the estates, but nice."The colors of the flowers from the estate burst over her memories like vibrant fireworks."Sigh. Most smells calms but color excites!" She felt the panic inside her chest begining to rise she began to pant out of excitement."Come on Marigold! Keep it together!"she squeeked.
Here, now being out in the city, from the estate, she felt presures inside rapidly inflating. Was like turning on a switch to an air compressor."Preasure going in at a faster rate than going out," she felt dizzy."Calming at the estate!" Her head began to spin."I feel like I'm going to burst." she consentrating cross eyed on the limp branch of a fern"Look at the greens, dumby!"she fixated upon the tendril" All that calming green,yes...."She felt herself relaxing.
"Blarpogaboop*"
She let out a ugly ghastly burp,aromatic, tasteing of pine sap. Something that should never come up from the guts!
"Oh no." she said with wilded slanting eyes, started to hiccup,"Pentifors!" belched again."I did not (burp)eat(hic) Pentifors! Ponies don't eat(belch) Pentifores!" she whined. She started gassing out the other side.Nasty sounding as the belching.
"No!Hiccups? Gas? Both ends all at the same time?"She figeteted. She was making a scene, she was out of control. "What to do?" Then the burning. In desperation, she plunged her head into a nearby fountain and started to scream, drinking water at the same time. "Get the feelings out! quench the acidic fire in my gut. Owie!"
She felt something poke her in the butt, pulled her head out to look.
"Burrrrrp."that was the last of it.
"Uh.No drinking of the public fountains,miss." said the guard holding his spear."And before you embarrass yourself..." he pull open the back of his lips showing his teeth."I'm married! Thee!" he directed her attention to the gold ring on his tooth.
"Why just what I need! A story! Get my mind off things, let me see if I can cox it out of him!"she tapped her hoof to her chin. "What to do?"
"Ring on the tooth? OH! "She said sugary. "Did you go through the "Rites of Megan", the oath you take and ceremony?"She thought of Captain Updraft and his wife. "I'm such a terrible romantic!" The stallion was giving her a doubting look. "If you tell me.." Marigold grabbed a stick in her mouth and drew a circle around her."...I'll sit her quietly in this circle and listen. Maybe it will give me a clue what marriage is like!" as she plopped down a little harder than she would have liked. A sound came out like sitting on a woope cushion making her cringe.
The stallion chuckled. "Lady, nothing can prepare you for what marriage is like." He said with a pleasant smile.
"Hey, Mighty." another guard appeared. "Are you having trouble with a loiterer?"
"No we're fine, Glam Arms." Rolling his eyes he said sitting down leaning against the fountain. "I was just going on break, and this little lady saw the ring in my tooth and wanted to know about the "Rites of Megan."
Glam arms scrunged his face."Are you sure?" he said sourly. "We have a lot of wild mares in this city, almost mustang, we aren't supposed to be out of sight for safty," he looked at her, up and down,"or temptation."
At this, Mighty was up on his hooves in an instance in the others face. "I've had enough of your innuendo young buck! "he snorted. "I'm your superior and I have a right to take a break! I took my oath before witness and Celestia herself and my best friend performed the ceremony!"He looked the sky in frustration."Its only because we are short hoooved that I'm out here.Me! From the academy! Doing traffic duty and hoofing street patrols!"
"If its too much trouble I can move along."
"Sit back down, your in custody.In that circle you are and that circle you will stay until your released!Understand?" As he sat back down again the younger stallion stuttered. "Its only because the wives said to be careful in these days."
"Look." he picked up his spear leaning beside him and began encircling himself as he spoke. "I've had my exercise last night. Tonight, I will have to do my due duty! One is all and I want nothing more!" he finished the circle.
"Of course." smirked Glam Arms.
"What was that?" said Might looking at Glam Arms angerly as he spat out the spear handle.
"Nothing..."
"I'm in a public place, I'm here, she is over there." he picked up a hoof pointing at her."We are going to remain in our respective circles! Nothing is going to happen...."he rubbed his chin in thought considering."Ya."he considered."Uh,check on us later."
"As you wish,Mighty, sir!" Glam Arms left with a swish of his tail.
"Young bucks."He grumbled.
"Let me see." began mighty turning his attention to Marigold. "It was in the spring,"
Marigold listened intently. Didn't matter if the story was boring or inane, she had to get her mind off her body and aside from leaving it the best thing was to let the mind wander distract by the anecdodal discription from another. A yarn.
Mighty described the proposal, the attempted escape of elopement, the kidnapping by friend to celebrate lives before with games and stories and for the males, jousting...he just kept losing.How they all passed out, had to be woken up, dragged up, impressed into wedding clothes. Then the wedding, such simple vows...."In the sight of," word of memory," do you take, I pronounce you." Then he lifted his bride on his back. She stayed there for the rest of the day, they were one. Cake and dancing and then home. Over the threshhold she tumbled off laughing and he closed the door behind, under one roof together.
"And then?"Marigold leaned forward."What happened after?"
The old stallion swished his mouth and considered carefull before answering."Young lady, you will just have to find that out yourself."He chuckled.
"Oh."Marigold relaxed her position disapointed."Great story, I hope I'm not late. I..."she looked to the number panel, in expectation for her number to be close at hoof on the board.
No where near.
She looked up to the sky, her body language unhiden in its expressions.
"Hours away."she said softly.
"If you want."started the stallion, Marigold looked at him, she had forgotten he was there."My wife is a tour guide of the castle, they're giving free tours today."
She remembered. "There was a sign advertising tours. A tour of the palace is just what will do!"
She got up to leave but stopped when given a glare by the sitting guard. She turned to leave going round the fountain the opposite way.
"Bye, Mighty, nice to have met you."
"What's your name?"
"Marigold."
"Please say hello to my wife," he sighed."Tell her I'm thinking of her."
After Marigold had left Mighty spoke."You can come out now, Ad Dow."
A stallion rose from the brush." Glam Arms told me you might need watching, he's in a team of three."The eager cadet spoke with lightning rapicity." You know what was told.' At least teams of two. In eye sight at all times.' I was practicing my inconspicuous surveillance technique!"
"Sigh.I was hoping, really hoping, you were in the brush over there." he said in the labored speach of an academic point to Ad Dow's right.
"Am I really that good surveling?" Ad Dow asked hoping he had please the instructor.
"No." said Mighty flattly."That brush consists of..."He then listed the numerious itchy oily plants the Cadet was ingulfed in pointing to a sign any cross eyed mare could see as Ad Dow looked around himself, horrified.
She found the guide wearing a curt red jacket with a cap, like a bell hop, with her legs over her desk staring at the ceiling, bored out of her mind!
Seeing Marigold she fell out of her chair and excitedly began showering swag from the city's local business on the mare.After Marigold found her voice out of the pile."Am I the only one?"
"Yes,yes,yes!"her voice sounded like a claxon. As if Marigold had won a grand prise at a fair.
"Oh, and I saw your husband...Mighty."
In an instant, the mare spun around and glared hatefully at Marigold. For a moment she thought the mare would pounce like a savage beast.
"Um!"Marigold spoke quickly."He sent me,It was at the park fountain, I stayed in my place, he in his, Glam Arms was there and another gaurd was watching from the poison oak, he said he's thinking of you...Please don't hurt me!!!" she cried.
Her eyes brightened and she stood back."He's thinking of me? How sweet!"Like the flip of a switch the Mare relaxed."I'm, I'm sorry." she said. "There are just so many mare around... and.."
"He's yours...I understand."
"Honestly, I haven't felt this way since he was a cadet in the academy."she shuffled her legs."All the guard, all the armed forces and every last soldier in the EUP! And still its not enough!"She lashed her tail. "Just to think of those..Mustanga, leering at my boe!"she stomped her hoof before putting it to her chest and taking a deep calming breath.
"We'll start the tour immediately," she said with a smile a hoof pointing the route."This way."
The tour was exactly what was needed. Boring as could be!
At least for the guide.
Marigold was full of youthfull energy, following all the activities, measuring out all the distances with her hooves, writing notes in a notebook as the mare spoke,as if every word where the most impartant in the world, wearing the guide out!
Coming across a guard, they were given permission to tour parts of the castle normally off limits to look at the architecture."Please stay ahead of me and don't look where I tell you not to look."
In some of the motiefs featured a dark mare like the alicorn Celestia.
"Is that Nightmare Moon?"asked Marigold.
"She was my sister, and is Luna."The guide and Marigold crossed paths with Celestia! She invited Marigold for tea after dismissing Mare Mighty, rushing off to enjoy her fortune.
"So."Celestia said."I suppose you want me to explain all the pictures here."
"Actually, I was more intrested in her."
"Really.In Nightmare Moon?"she said glummly."The epic battle where I 'saved Equestria'?"
"No...I've heard all that. Every Nightmare Night!"she shook her mane."No. Tell about your sister. Tell me about the times before."Celestia cocked her head at this."Please tell me about your sister!"Marigold said almost desperately like a hyper child. Unable to tell excitement from exhaustion.
"Well,you are either very thoughtful or very manipulative."Celestia thought.
"No." she thought as she watched the mare make a monumental yawn."You are very worn,and it is only late morning. Speaking the true self. Other times you would be a foal! I will have to keep an eye on you."
She watched Marigold as she pointed at pictures, told stories from their foal hood. Simple ones. After hour of this thinking it was going in one ear and out the other, Celestia decided it was time for tea.
"So you love your sister very much?"
"Yes I do."
"I know(yawn), I'm sure(yawn) that someday you'll be joyfully united with her.(great big long yawn)."
A symphony of two, duet.
This statement of two: an agreement made between the parts that know, and the part that does not. Fellow travelers, walking, together, for a moment, down the same path. The two peacefully yoked together for a moment, or the ticking of a sixth of that, bearing the burden of the exposition, under the masterful arcs of one conductor, agreement, perhaps never to coda again. Both, gently guided in the same direction.
By a conductor Celestia instinctively knew .
Celestia looked back at the pony, at the start of the yawn, surprised at such a statements, and looked quickly away before the yawn ended.
"Time for tea,"Celestia said with a smile."My little pony."
At tea. Marigold began to speak incoherently."How wonderful to know that our strugles as mortals are know by those, through experience. Truly wise rulers have been anointed over us!"such strange words."As they perform their holy ministry of ruling!"Marigold yawned. As she lifted the cup to her mouth it dropped.It never made it to her lips. Celestia caught the falling mare and cup without spilling a drop and gently placed her cumfortably on the cushion.
Celestia brought the tea to her face. It had never been touched.
Late in the night,Marigold opened her eyes and sat bolt upright on the the cushion she was enjoy a little too passionately, she jumped up."How could tea make one fall asleep? And in the royal presence!" She must have been more tired than she thought.
Darkness. The moon coming up. It was late. "How late?" Marigold started to shake and then she burst out crying.
"I've missed the selections!It's all my fault!" She reproached herself. "If only I had listened to my giant's advice!" She sniffled."Had followed my parents teaching!" she remembered the visioned she had seen."I would not have come to this!Under the sky in the valley of shadows! That ruined pony was me!"
"All that work, to nothing!" she cried.
Something soft and gentle touched her face and wiped away her tears.Celestia was sitting at the table with her looking tired.As soon as Marigold had sniffled away her tears Celestia wispered something in the mare's ears making her look agast at the princess then a playful smile apeared on Celestia .
"All is not lost. I think there is one left."