66 - Goodbye Summer, Hello New Friends - Part Three
Letters From a Little Princess Monster
Goodbye Summer, Hello New Friends - Part Three
Cheerilee was enjoying the party.
No, that was not quite right. Cheerilee was intensely enjoying the presence of all of her joyous students at the party, in a shared happiness that bubbled out all over and validated her decision to go into elementary education instead of molecular biology like the school counselors in Canterlot High had urged.
They said I would be bored teaching elementary school. Shows how much they knew.
She was even taking great pleasure in her role as Private Snitch to Princess Cadence, She Who Dominated The Canterlot High School Social Calendar. Cadence, after all, had been in her graduating class, as well as Shining Armor, and both of Their Highnesses wanted to know all about Twilight Sparkle and how she was adjusting to Ponyville.
It had not been a new pen-pal relationship, just one with far more letters than before. All three of them had kept in touch after school even before Twilight Sparkle had rather dramatically freed Princess Luna from her evil alter-ego, but now Cheerilee was keeping a daily diary and sending them consolidated updates by way of whichever Royal Courier stopped by every week. It was a form of report card that she was happy to provide to them, and which Twilight was scoring straight A’s in her book. Twilight had even managed to get Diamond Tiara to make up with the rest of the classroom, which Cheerilee had considered less probable than another alicorn dropping into Ponyville in a pillar of light and proposing marriage to the quiet schoolteacher.
The only worm in the party apple was Spoiled Milk, who just had to butt in when Cheerilee was at her happiest in order to ruin her happy glow with school budgetary items. Certain ‘optional’ items in the budget had been snipped out in order to pay for the yearly class trip to Canterlot next week after Summer Wrap-Up, provided the Cutie Mark Crusaders did not burn something down with fireworks and get grounded again this year.
For this year’s trip, she was hoping to convince Big Mac to be a school escort. After all, she had not been having any luck at all coordinating their schedules to spend some time together during the entire summer so far, although it had been unusually busy, even for Ponyville. He had even been uncharacteristically coy about their traditional Summer Wrap-Up Celebration together-time, where they would spend the day among the booths and exhibits and the night looking up into the sky at the fireworks show.
There have been a lot of fireworks lately. I wonder what’s going on?
~ ~ ✶ ~ ~
Big Mac and Applejack had just gotten the wagon out of the barn and loaded up with empty baskets at the crack of dawn when a fluttering in the sky caught both of their attentions. At first, they thought it might be Rainbow Dash, but the glint of gold and deep purple armor on the descending dots put that misguided assumption to rest quickly. In moments, two Royal Guards, one of each type, landed gently in front of the apple farmers and bowed.
“Hiya, Insomnia. Uh… Whoever you is.”
“Lieutenant Flash Sentry,” announced the pegasus, sweeping up from his bow and fixing Applejack with a pleasant smile. “Royal Equestrian Courier Service, at your command.”
There was an awkward pause, followed by Insomnia prodding his counterpart with one webbed wing. “You’re supposed to deliver the letter now, newbie. It’s daytime, so you’ve got first.”
“Oh! Right!” Flash dug into his saddlebag and produced a gold-embossed letter, which he held out for Applejack.
“Says here this is for Big Mac,” said Applejack, reading the cover from where Flash had it gripped in his teeth. “He’s the big ‘un over there.”
Big Mac took the golden letter from the courier and ripped open the top, although he held it where Applejack could see the contents too.
“Done request the pleasure of your company,” said Applejack, moving her head back and forth to see around Mac’s foreleg, “at the Ponyville Summer Wrap-Up Festival. Well don’t that beat all. Princess Celestia wants you to escort her at the festival.”
Insomnia cleared his throat, drawing attention to where he also was holding a large envelope in his teeth, with a dark fringe and chased in silver ink. Big Mac picked that one up too and opened it up, only for Applejack to give a long whistle while reading it.
“Well, don’t that beat all. You got two princesses done want you to escort them to our little shindig. Which one you gonna pick, Luna or Celestia?”
Big Mac stood for a while, weighing the two letters, before passing them back to their respective couriers. “Eeyep.”
“Yes?” echoed Flash Sentry, looking at the invitation. “So, you’re going to attend the celebration with Princess Celestia?”
“And Princess Luna?” asked Insomnia.
Big Mac nodded.
Insomnia bowed and returned the dark invitation to his saddlebag. “I shall inform Her Highness of your decision once she awakens this evening.” He nudged the immobile Flash Sentry in the flank. “As my colleague will inform Her Other Highness once he completes his rounds in Ponyville and returns to Canterlot.” He prodded Flash again. “Which he needs to get started on. Now.”
“Oh! Right!” Flash burst into the air and flapped away in the direction of Ponyville, leaving Insomnia to shake his head once he was far enough away.
“Newbie. We’ll get him settled in soon, Miss Applejack. Until later, a pleasant day to you both.” With a flick of both dark wings, the nocturnal pegasus rose up into the air and began to soar in the direction of Canterlot. He left behind an awkward silence which Big Mac was attempting to fill with a casual whistling while checking the empty baskets on the wagon, but after a few wrong notes, he turned away in the direction of the barn.
“Both of them?” asked Applejack with a sharp edge to her voice that could have peeled the paint off an entire fence.
“Eeyup,” said Big Mac, vanishing into the barn to get more baskets.
“At the same event?” she asked in a more astringent tone.
“Eeyep,” drifted Big Mac’s voice out of the barn.
“You are going to die, you big galoot!” shouted Applejack. “They’re gonna kill you, and bring you back so they can kill you again. We ain’t gonna need no casket for your carcass either, on account of there won’t be enough ashes left to fit in an envelope!”
The barn only amplified Big Mac’s low chuckle. “Eeyup.”
~ ~ ✶ ~ ~
Cheerilee shook her head and returned to enjoying the party. Whatever was bothering Big Mac would wait until she cornered him at the festival. At least things were calming down around the town since Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara got put back inside their own heads and Trixie took off with Spike on some sort of dragon-thing. Now that the Cutie Mark Crusaders finally earned their cutie marks, it might even—
“Twitchy tail! Twitchy tail!” shouted Pinkie Pie, leaping around the main room of Sugarcube Corner like a rubber ball, pushing ponies of all sizes back against the wall until a huge open space was created. Even the punch bowls and cake were evacuated to the far end of the room and Cheerilee found herself next to the pink party pony, flattened against the wall and waiting for whatever came next.
“What happens now?” asked Berry Punch, who was displaying her Ponyville survival instincts by remaining just as flat against the wall on the other side of Pinkie Pie.
“Three… Two… One…” said Pinkie, then stopped. After an awkward pause, the glass in the windows began to tremble, the building shook, and Cheerilee found herself pressed even harder against the wall when there was a blinding pink flash and the top of an entire hill appeared in the Sugarcube Corner main room. Scattered around the heap of dislocated turf and soil, a half-dozen zebra lay in various sprawled-out positions, two ibex were holding themselves extraordinarily still as if they had been turned into statues, and an elderly burro caught Cheerilee’s eye with the most droll expression of resigned exasperation she had ever seen.
“Presto!” declared Trixie, standing up on her hind legs in the middle of the chaotic scene. “Behold, the Sugarcube—” she blinked once, looking around the room before shaking off her confusion and continuing in a quieter voice “—Corner main room instead of just outside of the front door which would have been a lot more convenient.”
Scattered applause started, growing in volume when the party attendees realized that no more unexpected guests would be teleporting in. Trixie continued with her introduction while stepping down from the heap of dirt and grass in the middle of the room and over in the direction of punch bowl. “Ladies, please make yourself at home at the party. Pinkie Pie will ensure your proper attire and provide refreshment while the rest of the Ponyville residents introduce themselves. Twilight Sparkle, if you will…”
Trixie looked around the room, then cast a questioning look at Cheerilee.
“She was here just a moment ago.” It was a sign of how much Cheerilee had gotten accustomed to her new old/young student that instead of looking down at the rest of the ponies scattered around the room, she looked up at the ceiling light fixture, where a small purple alicorn was curled around the light and out of line of sight from the rest of the partygoers. A small smile and an encouraging head nod from her teacher was all it took for Twilight to spread her wings, flutter down from the ceiling, and give Cheerilee a glowing warmth under her heart that no other career would ever have been able to match. The little alicorn touched down in front of one of the teleported guests, a changeling to Cheerilee’s surprise, and helped him to his hooves.
“Hello, father.” Twilight’s words were clearly audible in the room, and triggered some sort of startled reaction in the five zebra mares standing up around her, but nothing compared to the jaw-dropping shock they displayed when she added, “Mother has been very worried.”
“Mother?” said the oldest zebra, who had sat back down on the flattened grass which now covered the floor of the room. “And this is your father?”
“Adopted,” said Twilight quite distinctly with short pauses around her carefully enunciated words. “Still mom and dad, but not first mom and dad. They’re in Canterlot.” Her eyes drifted sideways to pierce through Cheerilee’s good feelings with a simple glance at her teacher. “Maybe see them during our class trip. If we have time.”
Cheerilee could not say anything through the lump in her throat, so she just nodded. She was not sure when Zecora had entered the now-redecorated room, but the zebra waited until Twilight had finished, then walked forward to nuzzle gently across her adopted daughter’s neck, followed by a similar nuzzle for the undisguised changeling beside her.
“Welcome back, mate of my heart. It seems like years we have been apart.”
One of the zebra abruptly gasped and blurted out, “Mate!” only to be pushed back when a taller and much more stern zebra pushed herself forward, winding up nearly nose to nose with her Ponyville peer.
“Your words are not right.
Our kind do not mate with bugs.
Or others. Ever.”
The last word came out in a cold hiss, nearly a snarl, but Zecora did not flinch.
“Watch your tongue and hold your ire, for you are a guest, dear. Have some punch and meet Flower’s friends before you rest here.”
“Wonderful idea, Miss Zecora,” said Trixie in a near purr while floating party hats over to each of the new guests. “As mayor — temporary, of course — of Ponyville, I’d like to welcome you to our friendly little town. Some of our helpful friendly town residents—” she cast a pointed look into the crowd and her friends all started to move forward “—will show you around and introduce you to everpony. And, of course, Twilight’s little friends will tell you how their got their cutie marks today. Come on, everypony. Let’s show our new guests some of the Ponyville hospitality that we’re famous for.”
~ ~ ✶ ~ ~
Less than an hour later, Cheerilee found herself being dragged into a shadowed corner of Sugarcube Corner. She would not have minded so much if it was Big Mac doing the dragging, but it was Trixie, and she still reeked of brimstone and filth from her trip.
“Question,” said Trixie with just a hint of manic desperation in her eyes. “Do you know anything about Zebras?”
“Zebra,” corrected Cheerilee. “The plural doesn’t have an ‘s’ at the end.”
“Then you’re the expert.” Trixie bit her bottom lip and peeked back out at where several of the zebra were being shown around by Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. “Primitive matriarchal society with female nature-based shamans and cultural taboos against these powerful mares mating. How do you think they will react when one of their kind not only breaks their long-standing tradition, but winds up pregnant too? Oh, and by a changeling.”
“I don’t think…” Cheerilee stopped herself. “This isn’t theoretical, is it? I mean, Zecora? And a… Not that I’m biased or anything, but… I don’t think any changelings have ever…” She stopped for a long moment and considered the possibility. “I wonder where I’ll seat the foal in my classroom.”
“Short-term solutions, please. Oh, and while you’re at it, tell me if you get any bright ideas about how to unstick a dragon from the front door of the town library.”
“Dragon?” Cheerilee pressed a hoof to the bridge of her nose. “How did Spike—”
“Friend of Spike’s… Well, an adult dragon under the command of the Dragonlord, who is over at the library with Spike right now—” Trixie cut off and craned her head to see over the crowd. “Correction. The blue one right over there by Spike and the Cutie Mark Crusaders, talking to Twilight and Zecora.”
The two of them watched ponies, zebra, dragon and Dragonlord for a while before Cheerilee said, “Ponyville.”
“Yeah.”
~ ~ ✶ ~ ~
“Good afternoon, Your Highness.” Flash Sentry bent into a deep bow at the bottom of the Royal Dais and produced several envelopes and a scroll for Princess Celestia, which she wasted no time in floating over to her and examining.
“Good afternoon yourself, Lieutenant Sentry. How was your trip?” asked Celestia. She tucked the scroll away for later, when Luna would be up and they could read it together, and opened up the envelope addressed to her. “Did the griffons give you any trouble?”
“No, Ma’am. One of them was waiting on top of their fortress with Green Grass’ weekly letter to your student, just like Courier Insomnia said they had been doing before. Cranky bunch, though.”
“Oh, really.” Celestia put aside her letter for a moment and looked at Flash with her features settling down into a sincere expression of calm benevolence. “How so? Be specific, please. I don’t like having to pull answers out of my couriers one bit at a time.”
“Uh…” The new courier was obviously hesitant at raising his concerns, but swallowed and proceeded anyway as she had commanded. Requested. Same difference. “Nothing really specific, Ma’am, but there were no griffons out enjoying the morning weather, and the clouds in the farming valley were looking untended. Either the aerie is losing griffons faster than intelligence estimated, or they were intentionally kept inside. Plus, it just felt… weird flying up there. Like something really cold was watching me.” Flash shook his head. “I’ll have a full report for the Department of Diplomatic Support Services by the end of the day, as per procedure.”
“Very well.” Celestia returned to reading the letter, which was written in impeccable mouthwriting, far neater than anything Trixie had ever sent her before, almost as if it were written by a professional. The spelling was even perfect, right up to... Celestia hesitated, flipped to the end of the document, and looked back at Courier Sentry with a question that was not a question. “The Dragonlord is in Ponyville.”
“Is that the one who was stuck in our library doorway?” asked Flash. “My little cousin said something about it at her party.”
After reviewed the report, this time skimming it from front to back, Celestia started talking almost under her breath. “No. She’s a library patron, there by special request of Dragonlord Ember… Well, well. Another one. They change so fast. And Zecora is pregnant, interesting.”
Celestia stopped and put the report back in the envelope. “I’ll save this one for my sister. She loves talking with dragons. And they are mostly her books, after all.”
Flash hesitantly leaned forward with a question obviously on his lips before Celestia cut him off. “Yes, dragons are bad-tempered and aggressive, like my sister lately. Luna has been looking to release a little frustration.” Celestia rubbed her ear. “She’s taken to nipping at me for no reason. Well, let’s see what is in this other one.”
It was the work of a moment to unseal the other large pink envelope, which had only a tattered wedding announcement and a sheet of paper inside. Celestia read it, put it back into the envelope, and wrote across the front of the envelope in large letters.
“Deliver this immediately,” said Celestia in short, clipped words as she floated the envelope back to him. “You are currently the fastest flier in the Royal Equestrian Courier Service, if my memory is correct.”
“Yes, Your Highness.” Flash held the closed envelope up and read the address. “Diamond Tiara’s mother. Who is that?”
“Lieutenant Sentry.” Celestia’s voice was quite firm and very direct. “Your superiors in the Service will be able to provide you with directions to the recipient. You are dismissed. Now.”
In a flash, the only sign that Flash Sentry had been in the room was a mustard-yellow feather, slowly swirling in the downdraft of his rapid departure.
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There's 'Express Delivery' and there's 'Now' when spoken by Princess Celestia.
"Luna," chided Celestia gently. "There's a simple solution to our romantic conflict. We each grab a leg and--"
Hehhe.. oh the snarl were about to read into.
Been looking forward to Flowers father getting home for a bit now.
Trixie had Menace helped her with spell check, she is a natural editor.
So. Big Mac's a dead stallion, walking. Got it.
8462023
Or like Trixie said, the Princesses might trying to revive droit du seigneur.
8462018 More like Cheerilee, who was standing right there with Trixie.
8461991 It's not really the way he expected arriving in town, and not really... well, anything he's expected in the last few months. He's been winging it, which is about as good as you can do around here.
8462023 Yes, but he's walking proud.
8462033 Keep an eye on that phrase for the next arc.
Ah, Mac's a guy after my own heart. Provided two options? 'Yes' is the only correct answer.
Well, Trixie has certainly improved greatly with her magic use. That was some heavy-duty teleportation right there.
And I love how Zecora grounded the other Zebra. That was a beautiful display of 'not your home, not your rules'
So, Twilight decided to meddle. But this was for the best intentions possible - Spoiled indeed shouldn't be allowed to marry Filthy. Especially with an attitude like that.
Then again, Tiara could have told her dad about how she feels. Communication is important, filly.
This will be fun. Also the way Flash described his trip to the griffons... ominous. Unless I'm reading too much into it.
WOW!
Trixie has really come around here. Showing responsibility, knowledge, powerful magic, and true caring!
Okay seriously though, who names their kid "spoiled milk". That's just asking for problems.
... media2.giphy.com/media/ZiHVfHBpoULkc/giphy.gif ... Considering the level of, um, personal engagement I guess is the best word to describe Big Mac's activity regarding current relations with the princesses it almost feels like he's hoping that, one way or another
, this will be the end of the royal attention.
If this were any other pony I would assume the hill came too out of respect for the zebra's wishes. But since it is Trixie, it is surely to be a smart ass, if you'll pardon my slur. Or she just miscalculated something. ... Miscalculations were made.
Made it to the end, and oh my god, Ponyville will burn. Again. So excited.
8461955 my mind went to quartering at your last sentence, though i guess in this case it'd be halving....maybe thirding if cheerilee gets in on it
Sounds like the set up to one of those "_____ walks into a bar" jokes.
8462071
Pretty sure it won't end in death by snu-snu but every stallion in the area will probably be rather envious.
Nice to see Flash being given a cutie-mark talent (that matches his name, too) and a role in a fic which isn't just 'butt-monkey'.
Is Scootaloo Flash's cousin in this?
If it came up in one of the other fics I don't remember it.
Damn, Big Mac has balls (Well the princesses presumably already know that).
I'm waiting for the three way cat fight between Luna, Celestia and Cheerilee before they join forces to tear Mac into tiny tiny pieces, still what a way to go.
“Both of them?” asked Applejack with a sharp edge to her voice that could have peeled the paint off an entire fence.
“Eeyup,” said Big Mac, vanishing into the barn to get more baskets.
“At the same event?” she asked in a more astringent tone.
“Eeyep,” drifted Big Mac’s voice out of the barn.
Nice chapter, good work.
8462375
Eh, hopefully they'll all learn a friendship lesson about sharing and it'll end with a four pony roll in the hay loft.
Excuse me, I have to go design a 'All Of The Above Is OK!' sign for Mac. Because the longer this whole quasi-harem thing drags on, the funnier.
I have to say, though, I'm kinda missing one of the things I really loved about Monster in this story - those moments where it's crystal clear that she's both genuinely trying to be a good pony, and simultaneously that she is horribly broken and alienated by her experiences and is utterly fucking terrifying. I know we're going to see less and less of those moments as her re-socialization and reintegration into pony society proceeds, but that frisson of 'what the fuck are you?' under Monster's awkwardly adorable behaviour were always really, really cool.
8461955
Start licking the hoof at the end.
8462071
Everypony dies. Not everypony gets to die of two-timing alicorns.
P.S. I confess to being extremely curious: why is the Table of Contents chapter title "Goodbye Summer..." but the in-text chapter title "Farewell Summer..."?
Fascinating to see how you fold in new canon as it comes to light. And I'm always a fan of Flash and Scootaloo being related.
Ohhhh my...
8463840 Shush, you.
8463330 Um... (sounds of frantic typing) I don't see a mistake. Now.
8463276 How many licks does it take to get to the center of... I better stop there.
8462879 8462698 8462715 I've got a section of Her Royal Morning Coffee where Dry Roast is musing on his role. In the story, Alicorns 'compete' for the most desirable mate, with the victor claiming the spoils. Dry finds himself being 'competed' with between Luna and Twilight, and has resigned himself to an early demise (with benefits) because Luna may have lost the competition between her and Cadence, but this one she's determined to win. And she stands a good chance of it, since Twilight only visits Dry at his store for coffee and kisses while sleepwalking. Or maybe...
There was a quite solid bump at Dry Roast’s flank, a push of immense inevitable force that shoved him through the doorway, around the counter, and in the direction of the coffee machine. Twilight Sparkle had her head down and her eyes closed, with more knots in her mane than Dry had ever seen before, and an intense urgency to her grunted order this morning that had him pulling levers and floating out a foam cup before he had even stopped, and urging the machine to greater speed every time Twilight’s hot breath ruffled the hairs on the back of his mane. He barely managed to get the steaming container of coffee away from the spigots before Twilight latched onto it, lips first, and in a feat of immense stamina, drained it of every drop without coming up for air.
Then she shifted her attention.
Some unknown number of minutes later, Dry Roast swam dizzily back to the real world. He was flat on his back, which probably kept him from falling over, and Twilight Sparkle was slowly rising to her hooves at one side, which was probably the reason why he was flattened. The empty foam container floated by his nose, gently bonking against him until Dry managed to grab it from Twilight’s magic and send it swooping in the direction of the coffee machine. Somehow he managed to stand up while producing Twilight’s order, modified by a low grunting noise which he translated out as a reduced number of chocolate pumps.
He floated the resulting coffee order over to the nodding alicorn with the slightest worry that she might repeat the process, or even go further than they had back in her bedroom. Thankfully, she merely took a small sip before staggering in the direction of the shop front door, which gave a merry jingle when she stepped out into the town en route to her crystal castle.
In a flash, uh?
KILL IT WITH FIRE.
Also your meter's been off for a while.
8463840
It's happening a little bit quickly for my tastes to be honest. And I'm not much of a fan.
8594208 Hey, the official card for Scootaloo for a while said she was Cheerilee's sister. Sometimes, I don't think they check before printing. Ok, I know they don't, because I have a Soarin' card that claims his name is really Spitfire.
"Forget it, Trixie. It's Ponyville."