Equestria Exiles: Dawn of Dream Valley

by Paradise Oasis

quiet time

Quiet Time

"So you're name's Golden Harvest, correct?" Shadowvale asked simply. "I had seen you around the castle several times, before the - ah, 'incident'."

"Yeah, though my friend Cherry insists on calling me 'Carrot Top'." She replied with a laugh. "I'm originally from Ponyville."

The two had met down in Inky's canteen for lunch, seeing it was where most of the 'higher up' ponies at Dream Castle tended to dine. It was just after lunchtime, so the two had managed to avoid the crowds.

"What was it like growing up in a pony town?" Shadowvale asked curiously.

"It was rather nice... everpony knew everypony." She smiled at the memory. "I grew up there with my friends Lilly, Daisy and Rose."

"Do you ever miss them?" He asked, sipping his cider.

"Yeah, it makes me a little sad to think about how I left them all behind." Her ears drooped . "But I am glad I got to meet all my new friends here, like Cherry!"

"I never knew what it was like growing up with friends." The Changeling sighed. "In the hive, we were all very cold and distant with each other. My little battalion was always considered strange, for having developed feelings of camaraderie towards each other!"

"How sad." Golden Harvest whinnied. "Well surely you can all make some new friends here!"

"Hm, perhaps." He mused, taking a spoonful of his tomato soup, before looking back up at her. "Tell me, Golden... did you have a very special somepony back home?"

"Well, there was a unicorn stallion I went out with a few times." She replied. "He and I took Derpy's daughter Dinky to the Canterlot Rodeo one year, when she was to sick to go."

"Really? What happened with him?" Shadowvale asked, downing the rest of his cider.

"Eh, he ran up a huge bill from eating snacks at the rodeo, and left me stuck with it." Golden Harvest Snorted. "I had to stay behind in Canterlot and clean the stands for days after that deadbeat left to pay his debt."

"I can see how that would end any potential relationship." Shadowvale replied with a chuckle. "But I hope that hasn't soured you on finding a good boyfriend out there."

"Oh, I may consider dating again, if the right stallion came along." She finished with a small smile. "By the way, you missed our dinner the other day, Shadow. Where exactly did the queen send you on that mission?"

"Oh, would you look at the time!" Shadowvale suddenly hopped up, and galloped away from the table." I've got to meet Mayfly for a battalion drill! Later!"

"Wha... of all the nerve!" Golden Harvest snorted, and trotted away indignantly. From outside the canteen, Cherry Jubilee watched the whole exchange with disgust.

"Ah cain't believe Carrot Tawp is associatin with that ornery critter!" The earth mare snorted. "An' it's even worse she's gettin' feelings for it, too!"

"How do you think we feel about the matter?" Thornspike hissed, materializing next to Cherry. "Our Lord, fhillyandering around with a lowly pony mare!"

"Ah agree, they're terrible for each other!" Miss Jubilee nodded in agreement. "This cain only lead to disaster!"

"Yep..." He agreed, looking over at her. "Wanna go get something to eat, and talk about it?

"I was gonna get a salad anyway." Cherry snorted, as the two trotted in to find a table.

Back in the kitchen, Inky was congratulating Blueblood on a job well done.

"I can't believe it, Blueblood!" She smiled, looking around at the busy employees, and orderly workplace. "You've managed to get all of my mess halls in the castle in order, get my entire staff up to peak efficiency! I don't know how you did it, but you made my life a heck of a whole lot easier!"

"Tw'was nothing, miss Inky!" Replied, taking off his chef's hat, and bowing to her. "A stallion of royality has to know how to both command his subjects, while commanding respect from them at the same time!"

Whatever you're doing, keep doing it!" She replied enthusiastically, tying an apron on. "Our quality and efficiency is up to the point, that I was thinking of actually thinking of opening an actual restaurant styled canteen for the upper class of the Dream Valley herd! One so posh and luxurious, even the queen would come to eat!"

"Ohhh, getting my sister to come! Splendid idea!" Blueblood whinnied, suddenly inspired. "In fact we should name the place after her favorite hoof apparel- the Satin Slipper!"

"Her favorite hoof apparel?" Inky looked at him quizzically, as she trotted up to a workstation, and began to cut a pile of cucumbers. "Still 'the Satin Slipper' sounds posh enough to draw the ponies in! I'll just need to requisition the materials from the castle's construction stallions!"

"Trust me, Miss Inky...." He trotted up beside her, Levitating a knife to help her. "This will be the finest eating establishment in the everfree forest!"

...

"Nurse Redheart, a moment of your time?"

The nurse pony spun around to see a Pegasus at the door of her clinic.

"Oh, Sassaflash! Please, come in!" She was putting away some bandages and gauze. "What can I do for you? Do you need a checkup?"

"Oh no, nothing like that!" Sassaflash replied with a smile. "I just came here to talk to you about Noteworthy!"

"Oh, him?" She snorted, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, he's been down here to my clinic a lot, doesn't seem to be anything wrong with him, though. I just think he's worries to much."

"Ummm, Redheart?" The Pegasus replied, rolling her eyes. "There is something wrong, you just havent been noticing it. See-"

"Look, Sass, I'm the nurse here!" The normally unflappable and overly practical nurse grumbled. "I'm sure I'd be able to spot any illness if were to-"

"-he likes you." Sassaflash finally spat out, plain and simply.

"Wait, what?" The nurse pony stopped dead, and stared blankly at the Pegasus. "Run that by me again. You just said he likes me?"

"Correct." Sasssaflash replied. "That's why he's been coming down here all the time!"

Sassaflash had never been very close to the pony nurse, but she knew her well enough to say that when it came to an emergency, nothing would phase Nurse Redheart. Be it a brutally broken bone sticking out of a pony's leg, or a pony having a heart attack- the cool, level-headed nurse of Ponyville was always ready for any eventuality!

But nothing could have prepared Sassaflash for what happened next...

"He likes me!!! He actually likes me! No stallion has ever liked me before! What should I do, what should I say?" The mare's lip trembled, and she started to cry. "Oh no! The way I've been treating him! I thought he was just being annoying! What have I done!?!?"

With a sigh, the Pegasus trotted over to comfort the sobbing earth mare. Meanwhile, two stallions in an apartment upstairs, were having a very different yet similar sort of conversation.

"You like her, don't you?" Caramel asked the other pony bluntly.

"Well... um... er... that is..." Noteworthy rubbed his hooves together nervously, looking all around the room and blushing.

"I thought so." His friend replied with a chuckle. "Look, Noteworthy, you can't just beat around the bush with this kind of thing! You need to tell her how you feel!"

"But what should I do?" Noteworthy asked him, his teeth chattering. "Should I ask her out, or wait for her to ask me out?"

"It's always best for some pony to take the first step, Note." Caramel advised him. "Otherwise, nopony is going anywhere!"

Noteworthy thought for a moment, then looked over at the other pony, and nodded.

"You absolutely right, Caramel! I'll do it!" His face suddenly lit up. "First time I see her tomorrow, I'll ask her to a play the the castle theatre with me!"

"Well, it's a first good step!" Caramel agreed, shaking his mane. "I wish you the best of luck!"

....

Behind the locked doors of the throne room, North Pole and Minuette were looking over the latest reports coming in from Golden Harvest and Cherry Jubilee on Agriculture. Needless to say, the two unicorns of court were not pleased.

"This is insane!" The chancellor stallion grumbled. "Even with all the tons of fruits and vegetables we'll be harvesting from the castle's crop this fall, we won't have enough food to feed the castle's ponies for the immediaste future!"

"The small allotment of food we brought from Equestria, coupled with what few fruits actually grow out here, weren’t going to last us forever, North!" The blue mare replied with a sigh. "We need some way to feed several thousand ponies between harvests!"

"And we can't trade for it, either!" Pole grumbled, looking over the statistics and data. "Not with Caterlot's total lockdown they have us on, with the outside world!"

"A pity we cannot eat meat, like the griffons do." Minuette snorted, stamping her hoof. "There is enough wild game out here in the everfree forest to keep a herd well fed between harvests!"

North Pole stopped at that and stared at the unicorn lady in waiting. "My dear, did you just suggest 'eating meat'?"

"Yes, yes I did..." Her ears drooped, realizing how that must have sounded to him. "I'm sorry, Pole, I guess it was just how desperate we-"

"No, it's not a bad idea!" The unicorn put a hoof to his mouth thoughtfully. "I think there were some digestive alteration spells the mages were working on in Tambleon! If the laboratory survivors brought them here with them..."

"But Pole! Eating meat?!? That's totally savage!" Minuette snorted in horror. But then, after a few moments, a smile slowly began to spread across her face. "Oh, I so love it when you act like an animal!" She trotted up to him, throwing her hooves around his neck.

"That's because ponies are animals, my dear!" He put his hooves around her, and pressed his warm lips against hers.

Their bodies pressed against each other, the two ponies slipped down behind the queens throne, and celebrated the brilliance of North Pole's plan together.

....

"Princess, we must move against these traitors, NOW!" Capitan Chocolate Tail snorted, stamping his hoof as he stood before the royal throne. "Not only did they sneak into our castle and attack our guards... but they were spying on Equestria, as well! Preparing for an invasion , no doubt!"

"Now calm yourself, good captain!" Celestia replied gently, staring down at the unicorn stallion from her throne. "We don't have full details on what is going on here yet! And until we do, I would prefer not to condone any sort of action that might lead us to war!"

"But the flutterponies are already outlaws, my Princess!" Chocolate tail protested. "And Dream Valley is full of exiles we banished from the kingdom! They have motivation enough to attack us, and if they should win the Crystal Empire to their side, we'll be surrounded on all sides!"

"Clearly, captain, you do not know my niece!" Celestia snorted. "Cadence would never turn on this kingdom, nor would she ally herself with those who would. While I will give you that the Flutter Ponies must be hunted down, I will not tolerate an attack on an alicorn's good name!"

"My princess, your niece may not be of untrustworthy nature, but those flutter Ponies most certainly are!" Into the throne room trotted Twinkleshine, one of the chief unicorn mares of Princess Celestia's solar court. "It may be in their genetic makeup to be untrustworthy!"

"Chancellor Twinkleshine, why on earth would you say that?" The alicorn asked in surprise. "No pony is simply born bad!"

"Princess, I was looking over some of the early reports that the Tambelon scientists sent to Princess Luna- which your sister neglected to ever bother reading, I might add." She levitated a scroll up in front of Celestia. "It appears they stabilized the flutterwing spell in the flutter ponies, by infusing changeling DNA into their genetic structure."

"What? The flutter ponies are part changeling?" Chocolate Tail asked in shock.

"They cannot shape shift, they didn't receive that part of the changeling genetic makeup, thank goodness!" Twikleshine replied. "But it is what allows the flutterwing spell that is cast upon them to be permanent. As well as being the mysterious source of their 'utter flutter' ability, I'm certain."

Celestia looked Twinkleshine over... this gifted young unicorn that had graduated from the same class as Twilight Sparkle at the magic academy. She had severed as a royal courtier these past few years well, working her way all the way up to the head of the solar court. "Twinkleshine, I leave these matters in your capable hooves. Equestria looks to you to sort these troubling matters out!"

"Thank you, my Princess!" The young unicorn mare looked away, narrowing her eyes. "It will be a pleasure..."

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