Secrets of the Everfree

by PaisleyPerson

Chapter 2: The Hayburger

Chapter 2
The Hayburger

I lightly rapped on the library door as I trotted inside, just to let Twilight know I was here. She looked up from her book, and cast me a warm smile. “Hi, Acrylic!”

“Hey, Twilight. Is Blaze still here?”

“In the kitchen with Spike,” she answered, nodding towards the doorway. “I think Spike’s trying to teach him how to make triple-decker nut-crazy vanilla cream cookies.”

“I sure don’t mind that,” I chuckled. Spike’s triple-decker nut-crazy vanilla cream cookies were the best in all of Ponyville. He was also the one I knew to make that flavor.

“Well, don’t be expecting Spike’s. I think they were trying to put a ‘unique twist’ on them.”

“Oh yeah? How’d that turn out?”

“Actually, really delicious,” Twilight licked her lips. I laughed.

“Well, let’s put that to the test, shall we?” I nudged the door open to find the two young dragons baking at the stove. They were currently waiting for the next batch to come out, so they leaned against the table and casually chatted. As usual, Spike did most of the talking. Blaze was much more at ease around him than anypony else, but had always been quiet. The squeaking of the door’s hinges attracted their attention. Spike was the first to speak up.

“Oh, hey Acrylic!”

“Hey, boys.” I pushed the door the rest of the way open and strode inside. A heavenly scent reached my nose. “What have you been up to?”

“We’re making triple-decker nut-crazy vanilla cream cookies,” Spike answered. “Your favorite.”

“With a touch of lemon and powdered sugar,” Blaze proudly added. My mouth watered.

“You two are evil, you know that? You’re just teasing Twilight with that smell!”

“We gave her a few,” Blaze justified with a giggle, realizing he wasn’t in any actual trouble.

“Well, I guess that’s alright, then,” I teased.

“You want one?” The tray Spike offered was too enticing to say no. Not that I’d have said ‘no’ anyway.

“Don’t mind if I do,” I grinned, plucking one of the bulkier desserts off the top of the platter. Blaze’s face lit up in anticipation as I sank my teeth into the doughey sweet.

“Well?”

“This is fantastic! You boys made this?”

“Yep! It was Blaze’s idea to put the lemon in,” Spike proudly beamed.

“I knew you liked it,” he blushed. Then his brow furrowed. “Does Torchwood like lemon?”

“Even more than me.”

“Good.” Blaze seemed to huff a sigh of relief.

“Are you going to stay for lunch?” Spike asked.

“No, actually. Torchwood wants to treat us out to the Hayburger.”

“The Hayburger?” Blaze’s eyes lit up. We’d only been here a week, so he was dying to try out the different restaurants around town.

“Oh, you’ll like the Hayburger,” Spike voiced. “Drink an extra chocolate milkshake for me while you’re there, okay?”

“Okay!” Blaze didn’t need convincing.

“Come on,” I giggled. “Torchwood’s probably back by now. He’ll be waiting for us.”

“See you tomorrow,” Spike waved as I started back out, Blaze on my back. “Oh, hey Acrylic? Can we start practicing in your shop tomorrow instead of the library?”

“Sure thing,” I promised. “That good with you, Twilight?”

“Of course! Just make sure that you’re back for lunch, Spike. We’re having Fluttershy over, remember? I’ll need a little help setting up.”

“I’ll be there,” he declared.

“See you then!” Blaze waved and shut the door behind us as I led the way out. The cobblestone roads made the trip a little extra bumpy for Blaze, but he didn’t mind. There were a few other ponies out, and the clopping of hoofsteps rang through the square. It was still too quiet for me, so I struck up a conversation.

“Did you have a good time?”

“Oh, yeah! Spike is teaching me all kinds of stuff about how to be a good assistant,” he giddily chimed. “It’s just... until now, I haven’t learned how to be your assistant. That’s why I’m so excited for tomorrow! I like helping Twilight and all, but I’m supposed to be your number one assistant, not Twilight’s number two.”

“Oh, Blaze, you don’t have to prove yourself to me. You’re already my number one.”

“But I haven’t done anything yet,” he pouted. I gave him a sad smile. Spike had gotten it in his head that he had to be my assistant. But in all honesty, I didn’t see Blaze as assistant material. We had formed more of a mother-son relationship over the many months I’d cared for him and his brother Garble. It was great that he wanted to help, and I wouldn’t object, but I could never really think of him as any old assistant.

“You’ve already done more than you can imagine,” I told him. He looked puzzled, and sat quietly astride my back as he thought over my words. I chuckled quietly to myself, and turned my attention back to the road. The Hayburger was just up the way. I steered us for the restaurant, bringing Blaze out of the recesses of his mind.

“That’s it, right? Spike showed me when he took us on that tour of Ponyville, but we didn’t actually get to go inside.”

“Yep, that’s the Hayburger. And there’s Torchwood!” I eyed his dark coat from the window, already in line. I somehow managed to attract his attention, and he waved. Blaze hopped off, and I waved back. Torchwood stepped out of line long enough to greet us. I painfully noticed that even Blaze was a little shy around him, though he allowed himself to be pulled into a loose embrace.

“Hey, kiddo. Have a good day?”

“Yeah,” was all he got out of Blaze. Torchwood cast me a glance to ask, ‘What now?’ I could only helplessly shrug back.

“Well... what do you feel like? I’ll get your order in if you go find us a seat. This place is filling up fast.”

“Okay. Can I get a hayburger with extra crispy hayfries?”

“And the chocolate milkshake,” I winked.

“As you wish, my liege,” Torchwood jokingly bowed; that was quite a feat, considering his incredible height. Blaze didn’t really find it funny and just walked off to find a seat. I scooted into line beside my fiancé, who sighed. “Am I doing something wrong?”

“He just needs to warm up to you,” I assured. “I had months- over a year, actually. You’ve had a week. Just give it time.”

“We both know it’s more than that,” he quietly said. I was silent as we shuffled forward in line. Admittedly, I did know that it ran deeper. Granted, Blaze’s first impression of Torchwood had been a hero who rescued his mother from being mobbed by a group of angry dragons. However, his second, more recent experience had involved watching him fire a nearly fatal shot at Twilight. It hit me instead. Even I still shuddered at the experience. I knew it wasn’t his fault, and didn’t blame him for it. It had been the darkness in his thestral side coming out. It had since been vanquished. There was nothing more to blame, but Blaze couldn’t quite comprehend this just yet.

“You know it wasn’t your fault.”

“Wasn’t it? That was my shot. I almost killed you because I wasn’t strong enough to fight it.”

“You promised me you’d let it go,” I reminded. He looked away. “Look, there were times that I couldn’t fight it either. It kept bubbling up and trying to take over. It wasn’t. Your. Fault.”

“Can I get your order?” A rather tired and frazzled looking clerk interrupted us from the counter. The pony ahead of us had just moved off. We stepped up to fill the space.

“Yes. I’d like two hayburgers and one order of extra crispy hayfries.”

“Would you like a drink with that?”

“One bottle of spring water and a small chocolate milkshake,” he put in.

“Make that three. A hayburger sounds good to me too,” I decided. “And a lemonade to drink.” The cashier looked over at me for my order, but gave me a queer look when her eyes settled on my face.

“Hey, you’re that thestral couple that’s getting married, aren’t you?”

“How’d you know?” Torchwood suspiciously pried.

“Everypony’s talking about it!” she ecstatically exclaimed.

“They are?”

“Of course! This is the first thestral wedding in centuries! It’s a huge event!”

“Well it’s certainly a special day for us, but I wouldn’t call it a huge event...”

“Is it true that Princess Celestia invited you to host the ceremony at the palace?”

“What? No!”

“What about the dragons? Are you really inviting them to the wedding?”

“The only dragons that are going to be there are Blaze and Spike, but they’re local,” I stated, brow furrowed in confusion. Why was Equestria making such a big deal out of this? Did they expect it to be different just because it was two thestrals getting married?

“Garble isn’t coming?” Torchwood almost looked surprised.

“He’s welcome to come, but he’ll never stand for that ‘mushy stuff,’” I answered. Getting off track, I turned back to the clerk. “Look, can we just get our order in?”

“Oh! Of course. Congratulations, by the way.”

“How much do I owe you?” Torchwood asked.

“Sixteen bits,” she answered.

“Just sixteen? That can’t be right,” he muttered, running the numbers in his head.

“Oh, I gave you a slight discount. Just between us, hmm? Consider it a wedding present from the Hayburger to you,” she giggled in such a sugary voice I was almost sick.

“I’ll go get the napkins,” I hastily excused myself. Torchwood almost glared at me for abandoning him to the waitress. I cast a somewhat apologetic glance back. I gathered the napkins, ketchup, silverware and whatnot before finding Blaze at a booth. He was doodling on one of the paper placemats.

“How’s it look?” he asked, holding it up. Though the drawing was crude, it had seriously improved since the first drawing he’d shown me. (With nothing better to do during our exile in the Frozen North, I sometimes taught my companions what I knew.) I could even identify it as his brother.

“Much better,” I complimented. “You’ve improved a lot.”

“It doesn’t look much better to me,” he pouted. “Nothing like what you do.”

“I’ve had years,” I explained. “Experience comes over time. You have to practice before you can get good at something, right?”

“Yeah...” He didn’t look convinced.

“Do you want me to start teaching you again?”

“Would you?”

“Sure! This won’t be just in my spare time, either. I’ll give you a real, proper class to practice.”

“That would be awesome! Do you think it’ll impress Garble?” I knew better than to say yes. He was ‘too cool’ for that kind of thing, now that he was back with his clique. When it was just us three, Garble had let his sensitive side show through. But now that he was back with his crew, he had to toughen up. He didn’t want any of them to think he’d gone soft. I’d noticed an instantaneous change the first time we went to visit them.

“We’ll see,” I said instead. Blaze wasn’t deterred.

“This’ll be great!” Encouraged by our new appointment, he continued doodling. I shuffled my hooves, a little embarrassed about the question I was about to ask, but curious nevertheless.

“Hey, Blaze?”

“Yeah?”

“Have you been hearing... rumors about our wedding?”

“Rumors? Well, Pinkie keeps insisting that it’s going to be the best wedding ever.”

“No, that’s not what I meant.”

“Well, what kind of rumors?”

“I don’t know. It just seems like everypony expects our wedding to be something special, just because we’re thestrals. I don’t want to have to live up to expectations on our special day. That kind of defeats the purpose.”

“That’s stupid,” Blaze wrinkled his nose. “I haven’t heard anything like that.”

“Well, maybe I’ll ask Rarity. She’s always up on the latest gossip. It’d also explain why she’s been so stressed about getting my wedding dress absolutely perfect...”

“Hey, Miss Acrylic!” I recognized the cheery young voice.

“Hi, Apple Bloom, girls. I haven’t seen you guys in ages. How’ve you been?”

“Okay, I guess. But we still don’t have our cutie marks.”

“Give it time,” I smiled. “They’ll come eventually.”

“About that...” Sweetie Belle shuffled her hooves before mumbling something to Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom whispered back, then jabbed a hoof at Scootaloo. They seemed to be arguing amongst themselves.

“Yes?” I prompted.

“Well,” Scootaloo finally spoke up. “We were wondering if you could help us find our special talents.”

“Me?”

“Yeah! I mean, you’re such a good artist and all, we wondered if you’d teach us.”

“It would be so cool to have a painter’s cutie mark!”

“We asked Rarity, but she said she was too busy,” Sweetie Belle huffed.

“She said not to ask you yet, since you had so much on your mind with the wedding and all...”

“Congratulations on that, by the way!”

“Yeah, congrats. So we’d understand if you were too busy, too.” I wasn’t sure what to say. I was flattered that they thought me experienced enough to pass on my knowledge, but was I really capable of doing so? Ever since the attempted thestral uprising, I hadn’t been so sure of my own capabilities.

When Princess Celestia and Princess Luna took away my wings, it also removed my cutie mark. I’d gotten it back in the end, though slightly altered. I’d been puzzled by why it disappeared in the first place. Through all my friends’ crazy mishaps and adventures, never once had they lost their cutie marks. So why had mine vanished altogether? When they transformed me into an earth pony, had they taken away something that would prevent me from finding my calling in life? A part of my thestral side that was critical to fulfilling my destiny? In pondering such questions, I was left with an even bigger one: ‘who am I?’ Everypony kept trying to dismiss the incident as a side effect of the spell or a simple fluke, but I couldn’t help but believe that my cutie mark held deeper meaning than I previously thought.

I doubted myself, but here these three young fillies had enough confidence in me to ask if I would be their teacher! I couldn’t help but smile. Perhaps through teaching, I too would learn.

I looked down at Blaze- I’d already promised him personal time. But he nodded vigorously, glad for the company.

“I’d love to,” I smiled.

“Really?”

“Yeah. I’ve already promised to teach Blaze. You three are welcome to join us.”

“You’re the new dragon, right?” Scootaloo peered up at the orange hatchling beside me.

“That’s me,” he proudly boasted.

“We haven’t actually met. I’m Scootaloo.”

“I’m Apple Bloom. And this here’s Sweetie Belle.”

“Hi!” the white unicorn filly piped up.

“Oh, I already know you,” he casually waved. “Acrylic painted all your portraits while we were living up in the Frozen North.” I elbowed him. “What?” he hissed.

“You did?” Apple Bloom beamed.

“Wait, you went to the Frozen North?”

“Yeah! We lived up there for almost a year.”

“Was it cool?”

“It was a lot colder than that,” he corrected. “More like icy, sub-zero, winter weather all the time.” Giggles erupted out of the girls.

“You’ve got to tell us all about it, sometime!” Scootaloo begged.

“Really? You want to know about the Frozen North?”

“More like dragons in general. They’re so cool! I mean, we’ve talked to Spike and all, but he was raised around ponies. I want to know what real wild dragons are like!”

“Well, okay. We’ll do that.”

“Why don’t you sit with us?”

“Yeah! You can tell us everything over lunch!” Blaze looked to me.

“Can I?”

“Go have fun.” I nudged him out of the booth with a wink.

“O-okay!” He wasn’t used to the special attention, and wasn’t quite sure how to react at first. But once he settled in, he regained his confidence. Torchwood didn’t take much longer to appear with the tray.

“He left us?” he observed, noting Blaze over with the fillies.

“The girls didn’t really leave him with much of a choice,” I replied, moving Blaze’s food onto a separate tray to bring to him. Torchwood grinned at the comment. Blaze was already engrossed in his storytelling, and barely looked up when the tray was set down. The girls were fixated on his claw gestures that depicted the tale. Smiling to myself, I slid into the booth with Torchwood, somewhat relieved to finally have him to myself. It was getting harder and harder to find time alone with just the two of us.

“They asked me to give them art lessons,” I went on.

“Did they, now? What did you tell them?”

“I’m going to do it.”

“That’s a big leap from studio artist,” he noted.

“I know. I wasn’t so sure about it myself, but maybe it’ll help me.”

“To find out what your cutie mark really means?” Though I had purposefully chosen to leave that off the end of my sentence, he read my mind. I looked away and bashfully nodded.

“I know everypony says that it was just a fluke, but I think it was something more than that. I can feel it! Maybe through teaching, I’ll learn something myself.”

“The teacher often learns more than the student,” he nodded. “I suppose at some point or another you were bound to pick up an apprentice. I just didn’t think you’d wind up with three of them.”

“I’ve got four, counting Blaze,” I corrected. He nodded, letting his gaze drift away. “I’m sure you’ll get one of your own, too.” I knew how badly he wanted an apprentice. In the sectors we used to live in, school wasn’t an option, so it was everypony’s dream to become skilled enough in their field to take on and train an apprentice of their own. Fire dancers had become so rare, it was difficult for Torch to find one. And now that we had rejoined Equestria, the mentor-apprentice relationship had all but died out. Regardless, Torch’s desire to pass on his knowledge had never died out.

“Perhaps,” he disbelievingly agreed.

“Deliveries go smoothly?” I asked, changing the subject. I slid his water across the table.

“More or less,” he replied, turning over my burger. “Pish Posh has another new order, and Pristine Gallery wanted to make sure you were thanked for getting her last minute placement in so quickly.”

“She’s so sweet,” I smiled. The poor mare often found it hard to say no to her clients, and sometimes got in over her head with work. She’d recently started turning to me to help her satisfy customers.

“I also got Graphite’s package to him...”

“And?”

“And I also asked him about being my best colt.”

“And?! What did he say?” I almost jumped out of my seat in suspense.

“Well, at first he wouldn’t take me seriously, and accused me of pulling some kind of cruel prank,” he admitted with a dry chuckle. “But in the end, I convinced him. He’s in.”

“That’s fantastic!”

“It was quite a relief,” he sighed. “For a while, I wasn’t sure if he’d say yes. He got mad at me for ‘getting him back like that.’” I laughed.

“Poor Graphite. He feels so bad about before that he can’t comprehend that we’ve actually put it behind us.”

“I hoped this would help him understand, but it almost pushed him farther away,” Torchwood agreed. “Your friends, on the other hoof, can’t seem to get involved enough!”

“They’re pretty excited, for sure. We added blue to the color scheme, by the way. It was the only way I could finally convince Rarity to settle on a wedding dress. Now she’s calling in the rest of the girls to design the bridesmaid gowns.”

“I feel bad for them,” he joked. “I’d hate to have to act as a living mannequin.”

“Just you wait. Rarity hasn’t gotten to your suit yet,” I reminded with a mischievous grin. He realized the torture to come, and pouted. I playfully poked him. “Oh, it’s not that bad. She’ll take a few measurements, ask for input, and send you on your way.”

“Promise?” He jutted out his lower lip to add a pitiful effect.

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” I vowed with a smile.

“So, has anypony replied to the invitations?”

“The Cakes promised they’d be able to stay for the reception. Applejack is obviously coming, but she said that she had a few ‘friends’ she wanted to bring along. If I know her, half the Apple family will probably turn up.”

“What about Discord? Is he coming?” I rolled my eyes.

“It’s Discord! He’ll show up if he feels like it.” Torchwood chuckled agreement.

“Who else?”

“Well, Twilight and Rarity want to bring their folks. Then there’s the mayor, Tanzanite Miner, Earthen Flame, the Solo twins, Colgate, Bon Bon, Lyra Heartstrings, Ditzy Doo, Time Turner, Rose, Vinyl Scratch, Octavia, Carrot Top, Cloud Kicker, Berry Punch, Sea Swirl, Filthy Rich and his family...”

“So in other words, everypony said yes?”

“Minus three,” I confirmed with a nod. The sad look in my eye instantly identified the trio of ponies still unaccounted for.

“Still haven’t gotten ahold of your family?” he asked.

“I’ve asked around, and nopony’s seen them. I’ve checked the Ponyville campsite, and they’re not there. I don’t want to spend the biggest day of my life without them!”

“We’ll get ahold of them,” he assured.

“They don’t even know about you,” I sighed. “How are they going to react? I should have visited them before now. It was just too painful...” I bit my lip.

“Not all the thestrals were there at the Tree of Harmony, you know. Some of them are still spread throughout the Everfree. The news may not have reached them.”

“You think they’re still out in the forest?”

“It’s a possibility. Should we ask Twilight to send a few scouts out?”

“Actually, I think this is something I should do myself.”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

“Would you?”

“Of course.”

“It might be a good idea to get the official documents from Twilight, though. They might not take the news seriously from the two thestrals who left in the first place.”

“Good idea. Do you think we should have somepony else tag along to prove the point? Somepony who isn’t a thestral?”

“Who did you have in mind?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Do you think you could talk Rainbow Dash into going back? She’s been warming up to thestrals pretty quickly.”

“I’m sure I can convince her,” I winked.

“You know, Twilight might like to come along herself. After all, who better to welcome the rest of them back than the Princess herself?”

“I suppose it couldn’t hurt to ask...” I mumbled. I wasn’t sure how they’d react to an alicorn after all this time. A pegasus didn’t look so threatening, at least. Torchwood didn’t notice the hint of worry in my voice.

“Good. Are you going to be busy after lunch? We can take off as soon as we’re finished.”

“I’m sure I can take a break,” I confirmed. He gave a definite nod, satisfied with our new plans. I took a small, thoughtful bite of the hayburger. Was my family really still out there?

Comments

[Dragon of Shadows]

“Just you wait. Rarity hasn’t gotten to your suit yet,” I reminded with a mischievous grin.

can i add in a maniacal chuckle after that?

[FireDash121]

nice
reading it for the 2nd time already