Blood is Denser Than Water (Twilight) Part 2
The meal was absolutely delicious—so delicious I may have let my manners get away from me. I might have traumatized several tourists with some very unprincess-like behavior, but I adored every course, and my only regret was not having more.
No. There was one other thing I regretted, but that had less to do with the meal and more to do with somepony I saw during the meal.
It was while Rarity was generously paying for everypony’s meal that I noticed him peering through one of the windows—orange coat, blue mane, and a stoic salute as our gazes met. Inwardly groaning, I suppressed the urge to pretend I hadn’t noticed and gave a small wave and smile. Business with Flash was always awkward since the break up, but that was no reason not to be friendly.
Thankfully, Rarity was thoroughly distracted and didn’t notice. She was too busy digging through her saddlebags looking for an appropriate tip—having had just enough bits for the meal itself. Last thing I wanted was her gushing about a love triangle with a long lost flame come to win me back.
Time to excuse myself without making a scene.
“Really, Rarity, it’s fine.” I smiled. “If you’re going to insist on paying for the meal—despite all our protests, by the way—then at least let me and Fancypants cover the tip.”
“Quite right.” Fancypants nodded.
“Besides—" I conjured a quill and some ink along with my checkbook "—you’re stressing so much about the bill that the sweat is starting to cause your mane to fray.”
Writing out a decently sized donation to our server’s dream pub, I gave the check to the somewhat nervous griffon shuffling on his appendages beside us. Seeing the sum, he almost fainted. Fancypants likewise hoofed him a check—causing him to actually faint—and I made some vague work related excuse to allow myself to leave as Rarity rushed off to the restroom to obsess over her mane. I knew she wouldn’t be out until she found something wrong with it, and Fancypants was too polite to do anything other than wait to escort her home—even if he was arching an eyebrow at me questioningly—thus I was in the clear to discreetly make my exit.
Stepping outside, I took a look near the window I’d spotted him at only to find nopony there. Typical Flash. He was probably waiting to ambush me on my lonesome as I made my way back to Castle. Easiest way to get him to come out was make sure I was on my own.
And the easiest way to do that was going up.
And up.
And up.
And even further up until I was easily more than half as high as the top of Mount Canter.
Suitably isolated, I pulled some moisture from the air to make a cloud big enough for two and waited for the wallflower to appear. The time it took for such to occur was always five minutes on the dot—a punctuality I had always appreciated. I counted the seconds down while trying—as always—to quiet the butterflies in my stomach. At the ten second mark, I closed my eyes to do Cadance’s breathing exercise.
Three.
Two.
One.
I opened my eyes to see Flash opposite me on the cloud. I hadn’t even heard him land, but that was par for the course with him. Pegasi guards were really quiet when they wanted to be.
“Twilight.” Even sitting, he tried to keep up his rigid posture—only allowing a small nod of familiarity to break it as he greeted me.
“Flash!” I smiled, inwardly wincing at his cool tone. At least he hadn’t gone with Princess like the last few times we met. “I heard from Shiny that you got promoted to captain. What are you doing here?”
He stared at me for a moment, biting his lip. “I— I was sent here on a mission that the Prince didn’t trust anypony else with.”
Odd. He was calling Shiny by his title, and those two were thick as thieves.
“Oh? What kind of mission? The only thing out here at the moment is the change… lings….” Ruffling my wings, I suddenly felt like such an idiot. Of course my BBBFF wouldn’t just let things go while he stewed in the Empire.
“Shining sent you to secretly guard me, didn’t he.” It was a statement, not a question.
There was a terse nod from Flash. “And to spy on you.”
“Spy on me?” I blinked.
He snorted. “More to spy on the bug than you, but I had orders to ensure you weren’t being mind controlled.”
My brow furrowed. “He’s not a bug!”
Flash gave the teeniest, tiniest smile. “And you aren’t mind controlled.”
“And I’m not mind controlled!” It was my turn to snort. “Does Cadance know about this?”
“I was ordered not to tell her.” Flash gave me a pointed look. “But my mission is over and done with, so I no longer need to keep it secret from you.”
I scowled at the cloud beneath me, kneading it with my hooves. The butterflies in my stomach had long since been incinerated to ash, and I had to actively suppress the urge to go give Shining a piece of my mind.
“And why are you telling me?”
Flash stood, saluting. “Because, frankly, this whole mission was a load of horseapples, ma’am. My honest assessment of the situation is that Prince Morpheus means you no harm, and doggedly clinging to the idea that all changelings are a potential threat is more likely to harm you than giving him the benefit of the doubt. Any real changeling threat is just as likely to target him as it is you, so working with him instead of against him is the most sure fire way to protect you.”
I groaned. “Is that really it? You’re still obsessing over protecting me? I told you. I don’t need saving.”
“That changeling assassin would probably beg to differ—" I winced at his reminder of that, and he quickly shifted gears "—but that isn’t why I’m here.” He bit his lip. “Protecting you is just part of the job: a part I was never able to completely turn off.”
Dropping the salute, he bowed his head. “I’ve been watching you and Morpheus, together, for several months, however, and—real relationship or not—I can tell you two actually care for each other. I don’t know how Shining— the Prince is going to react to my report, and it didn’t feel right not to give you fair warning.”
I didn’t know whether to smile at his stoic sincerity or exhale in exasperation at how rigid he insisted on being. “Well, thank you then, I suppose…. Really no reason to be so formal about it, though. For Celestia’s sake, we’re supposed to be friends, and you were never this formal when we were dating.”
He looked up, frowning momentarily before breaking into another microscopically small smile. “We are friends. It’s just hard to remember that sometimes, you know? Not all of us can be the Princess of Friendship.” He stepped off the cloud, plummeting a moment before a silent flap of his wings brought him back up into a hover before me.
“Maybe someday I’ll find somepony else, but, until that day comes, I’m not sure I’ll ever really move on.” His wistful sigh showed the most emotion I’d gotten out of him this entire conversation.
I wanted to say something to that, but he was gone before I could muster a reply. A quick burst of his wings took him soaring away. I almost went after him, but he hit one of the Prevailing Westerlies and shot into the horizon before angling his newfound momentum north with a level of skill and control far beyond my capabilities.
I could probably catch him with teleportation, but it was quite clear he really wanted our conversation to end there, so I simply gave a sigh of my own. “Not really what I was looking for, but I guess I can call that progress.” Sitting up, I squinted into the distance to watch the retreating speck of my ex-coltfriend. “Maybe I should sic Rarity on him? I mean, if he has to find somepony else to move on.”
Shaking my head, I looked down at Ponyville. As much as I hated to admit it, Flash was still a low priority problem. He had been for years, and the best solution to his lingering pain was time. Any meddling on my part had a decent chance of backfiring, and it wouldn’t do to agonize over the past when I should be focusing on the future—or, in this case, the changelings’ future.
Squinting at my domain, I watched everypony going about their business below me—thinking, planning, scheming how to make the rest of Equestria as okay with the state of things as Ponyville. Everything was calm and orderly despite the knowledge of changelings among us. Only a hurried chase between a hulking black speck and and a suspiciously pompous white speck seemed to be out of—
Oh. Hera was hunting Blueblood. That was g— I mean, that probably wasn’t good. Sighing, I ruffled my wings before beginning the long glide down. Perhaps, if I took my time, the issue would resolve itself.
From a cloud just above the town, I watched the chase unfold, internally debating how to handle things. The issue had not resolved itself. In fact, the situation had merely worsened, as the Cruasders were now also hounding the pompous prince for a comment he’d made made—shrieked, really—as he and Hera passed them. Before I could intervene, however, one very familiar irate purple pony princess, one prickly prince, and one simmering scribe appeared from the direction of Castle.
“Don’t worry. I have it under control.” A bunch of small message spells abruptly buzzed through my mind like a swarm of bees. “Spike was being difficult again. Accidentally spoiled ruse. Not his fault. Left Blueblood alone to talk. Forgot to soundproof room. The pompous ass eavesdropped in. Sloppy methods. Hera did not approve. Sorry for the wait. Needed another sub. Had to get Third Eye. What in the name of— Why are the Crusaders chasing—" The last few messages cut off as Morpheus forgot the word limit upon arriving at the scene.
“What is the meaning of this?!” A magenta aura lit the imposters horn as Third Eye grabbed all those involved in the chase.
“That jerk called Errant a maggot!” A colt with a cream-colored coat and a chocolate-brown mane buzzed his wings in an attempt to lunge through the air. His sister looked just as mad, huffing her frizzy orange curls out her eyes as she picked up a nearby ball and took aim at the prince and threw.
“Pound! Pumpkin!” Third Eye caught the projectile. “This is not the time to make things worse. Apologize.”
The Cake twins muttered half-hearted apologies.
“Little cretins, I called all of you maggots!” Blueblood harrumphed.”Your little game almost got me caught by that thing—" he vehemently pointed at Hera "—and I am rather fond of living! I think I can be forgiven any rudeness when I was trying to avoid getting my throat ripped out!”
Hera snorted. “At no point did I make any promises of bodily harm. I merely said I was going to teach you a lesson.”
“A threat if I ever heard one!” Blueblood haughtily threw his muzzle in the air—much more confident with my apparent appearance. “Go on, then, Sparkle! Do away with this vile, little vermin!”
My wings twitched involuntarily. Vermin? Vermin?! Oh, how I suddenly itched to go give Blueblood a piece of my mind and screw the consequences. All earlier reluctance to face him was gone. I had had enough of self-centered officials coming to my town and bothering my friends. The only reason I didn’t swoop down to lecture the little twerp into oblivion was the fact that the changelings below probably deserved the honor more than I did.
Third Eye arched my eyebrow, schooling my face in that calm, expectant, way Celestia had been trying to teach me. “Is this true, Hera?”
“A lesson in proper etiquette, Your Highness.” Hera bowed her head. “I caught him eavesdropping on my lord—" She turned to glare at the unicorn. "—very sloppily. I only wished to educate him in how to properly listen in on a conversation.”
“Ha!” Blueblood sneered. “As if a Princess of Equestria would ever accept such—"
“Of course,” Hera droned on, “when he shrieked like a filly and ran for his so-called life—just because I approached him undisguised—ve came to the conclusion a lesson on context was more in order.”
“You call hunting me through this backwater hamlet a lesson in context.” Blueblood’s temple seemed ready to burst.
“Yes.” Hera saluted my imposter as she gave her a very no-nonsense look. Despite floating several feet off the ground, the warrior somehow made it very professional. “If the prince here had bothered to pay attention, he would have seen I could have caught him at any time, and that I was purposely elongating the pursuit. All he needed to do to cease the chase was realize that, although I could have harmed him, I had no intention of doing so.”
Hera allowed herself a slight shrug—massive shoulders clicking and clacking as they rolled. “If he had simply bothered to stop running, he could have saved himself a great deal of trouble.”
“He still called Errant a maggot.” Pound Cake pouted.
“Enough.” Blueblood rolled his eyes as Third Eye hummed in thought. “Princess Twilight, you cannot possibly be considering this villain’s side of the story.”
“Well… Hera has made a habit of chasing reporters only so long as they ran.” Third Eye glanced about at the various onlookers. “In fact, I’d wager that’s why nopony in town bothered to stop and help you. She’s done this before and never hurt a fly.”
Several towns ponies nodded.
“But I caught her blasted prince pretending to be you!” Blueblood raved. “I had every right to be scared for my life!”
“You found Mo here pretending to be me because I delegated the task to him.” My double deadpanned. “If you had bothered to ask him, you would have found I’ve been quite busy dealing with ponies like you for the past month, and I wanted to take a break from hearing ponies rant why changelings can’t be trusted.”
She ruffled her wings. “You’d think ponies would realize I’m serious about negotiations, but no. Ponies keep coming from all over Equestria to try and lecture me, the Princess of Friendship, on how we can’t possibly be friends with them.”
Closing Prince Blueblood’s dangling mouth, Third Eye deposited everypony on the ground. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I was just reaching the good part of my book, so if you’re done interrupting everypony’s day, please relay all your remaining problems with the negotiations to Morpheus.” She turned and gave the changeling prince an irritatingly long nuzzle before taking to the air.
She looked to a still grumpy Spike as she flew away. “I’m going to need a nice pot of coffee to settle my nerves when we get back....”
Blueblood stared after her retreating form before composing himself with a humph and glowering at Mo. “You have not heard the last of this.”
The lord sighed, covering his face with a hoof. “Yes, yes…. I know how this goes. I regularly deal with changelings much worse than you. I promise I won’t embarrass you too much when you attempt your petty little revenge scheme.”
Blueblood fumed, but said nothing—instead walking away with his snout violently rising skyward.
Morpheus stared after him as he retreated, eyes glassy. As the pompous prince faded from view, though, I landed beside him, and he shook himself from his musings.
“He deserved more of a lecture.” I glared in the general direction Prince Blueblood had headed.
“He’ll get his comeuppance.” Morpheus bared his fangs in a half-hearted grin. “Ve’ve already ordered his cook to put a fly in any meal he orders for the next week and a half. I doubt he’ll enjoy knowing I have him bugged.”
I giggled. “You’re just awful sometimes, you know that?”
He thrummed. “Only when I need to be.”
As my giggles subsided, I sighed. “You know, I almost wish we could do that to my brother. Did you know he sent my ex here to spy on us?”
Mo gave a lazy nod, eyes glassing over. “Yes… ve had gathered as much over the last few months, although it took us awhile to be sure. Wasn’t my place to tell you, though.”
I simply nodded. Figured Mo would know.
The prince chirped a mournful little tune on his wings. “Now that he actually told you, though—at least, ve assume he told you given ve had trouble noting and identifying him—I can tell you that the poor fellow was also the cause of the whole kissing booth incident at the Summer’s End Festival. Ekho just couldn’t find it in her to say no to that much heartache.”
I flinched. “Yeah…. He’s having a hard time— Wait! What do you mean he was behind that?”
Morpheus shrugged. “Exactly what it sounds like. He misses you.”
“Most coltfriends would be worried about something other than the pain of an old flame.” I grumbled rather half-heartedly as I recalled the end of my conversation with Flash.
Mo shrugged. “He seemed like a nice guy, and I can respect somepony able to hide from me for so long.”
“Yeah, yeah….” I ruffled my wings. “We can figure out the Flash problem later, though. He only told me he was here because he was heading out to report back to Shining. We can probably expect my BBBFF to show up sometime soon over the next couple of days, and I have no idea if that’s good or bad.”
“Oh.” Morpheus’ eyes went glassy. “Ve weren’t expecting another visit so soon. Maybe I should train with Hera just to be safe.”
I slugged him in the shoulder. “Be serious! I’m not about to let you fight my brother!”
The prince frowned. “Ve were being serious, but, if you insist on doing it your way, what did you have in mind?”
“I—" Biting my lip, I fidgeted beneath Morpheus’ expectant gaze. “I don’t know….”
Stats
Page generated in 0.047 seconds
Total duration
1,060 users online
2,114,412 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Two chapters in one morning? You spoil me, sir!
That was some darn good acting on Third Eye's part.
Pet peeve of mine: It's "pegasus guards", not "pegasi guards". "Pegasus", in this case, is an adjective describing the guards. This is rather like saying "humans guards".
Poor Flash. I guess it was Twi who broke off the relationship?
Yummy. This story is delicious.
You spoil us, sir.
Your petty bunker can't hide you !
I will come for you after I burned Flash into cinder to...
... offer you a drink. Because this story is damn awesome, Flash non withstanding.
Plus, he is suffering, so that as good as any appearance of Flash is going to get.
8284579
Actually, it's the House of Lords that's throwing everything off.. It was originally planned similarly to the house of reps and the senate in the us, but the old pegasus and unicorn aristocracy really wanted some power. Unification was then further complicated by Celestia and Luna arriving and sort of stumbling into the role of reluctant diarchs -- they were just wandering the world at the time -- and then eventually again with Discord arriving and implementing the House of Kumquats,.
No pony likes to talk about the House of Kumquats.
8284105
Agreed. But the cattle were willing to eat animal protein, was my point.
Flawless work, as always.
I'm perfectly fine with how you wrote Flash here. Then again, I tend to write Flash, human and pony, as being a mature, reasonable and thoughtful individual (barring outside circumstances), and your take on him seems to line up with that.
Oh, and a couple things you might want to address...
There's a second 'made' there.
That sentence seems to hang there. What happened? Did something get cut off, or did you forget a period?
Nice to see Flash handled as a non-antagonist in a story where Twilight is kinda-sorta shipped with someone else. Far too often people treat him as a bad guy, which always seems so not quite right for someone for whom all the characterization we do have makes him out to be a reasonably good guy. I like how he was portrayed here.
8283958
There's a MASSIVE difference between eating your own kind, and eating meat. Humans can eat Cow, Chicken, Fish, etc. just fine. It's only when they eat HUMAN meat, that it becomes a problem. I'm sure it's something similar in this fanfic.