Brushed Away 3: Hearts Entwined

by TheVClaw

Chapter Twenty: Big News Before A Big Night

Gilda groaned with displeasure as she sat at one of the back tables of Sugar Cube Corner. While she was glad she wasn’t the only gryphon in the room like last time (aside from her girlfriend now sitting beside her), she wasn’t exactly happy about Rainbow Dash wanting to know so much about her newfound relationship since the last time they met. Even though the fact that Dash was supportive was a relief, the questions she asked while the Gryphon Scones were baking proved to get tedious rather quickly. Gilda was leaned against one of her claws with an annoyed-sounding purr while Dash sat across from her.

“Soooo,” Rainbow Dash had a chipper grin on her muzzle as she looked between Gilda and Greta and asked, “Did you have a crush on her for a while or something? Because I remember how quickly you went to check on her when she fell that one time.”

Greta tried not to giggle when she remembered that event, clearly having thought that herself. Gilda groaned while tugging her feathers in an effort to keep herself calm. “No,” growled the gryphoness with obvious denial in her tone. “For the last time, I didn’t have the hots for her when we first became friends! It was just, like... normal friend stuff! Gal-pals!”

Greta rolled her eyes and looked away from her mate with a smirk. Troy and Canvas, who were seated beside Dash at the table, both noticed her silent rebuttal. Canvas tilted his head to the side and asked curiously, “I take it you have an opinion on that?”

Gilda whipped her head around to see Greta’s smirk, and her feathers ruffled out in irritation. Despite how upset her girlfriend looked, Greta shrugged and added her input. “Well… I wouldn’t say normal friend stuff.”

Gilda snarled at her while Dash and the other couple giggled at her remark. “What the heck do you mean by that?!” said Gilda with a huff. “It wasn’t like I was acting weird around you!”

“Oh really?” asked Greta as she glanced over at her girlfriend with a raised brow. “Gilly, you couldn’t even wait a week after becoming friends to ask to preen me!”

Dash covered her mouth to keep from cracking up. When Gilda turned to glare at her, the mare was staring back with wide eyes as she tried to ask, “G… Gilly?!”

“Sh-Shut up!” Gilda tried to look angry, but the heavy blush that came through on her cheeks made her look more embarrassed than anything else. She avoided eye contact with Dash and muttered bitterly, “It… it’s just a stupid nickname…”

She also added while turning back towards Greta, “And I told you that offer was NOT an invitation for anything! You were covered in mud! What was I supposed to?!”

“Oh, I don’t know,” responded Greta with a roll of her eyes to go along with her smirk, “maybe not try to sniff underneath my wing while doing it?”

“GRETA!” Unfortunately, despite that rather loud outburst from Gilda, it was nothing compared to the laughter from the other three.

“Jeeze,” said Rainbow Dash with a confounded smile on the embarrassed gryphoness. “I knew you had a thing for sweaty guys back at flight camp, but--”

“SHUT UP, I DID NOT!”

Even though he didn’t want to add any more fuel to the fire, Troy couldn’t resist saying in addition, “It kinda sounds like it, Gilly.”

That caused another bout of laughter from him and Dash. Troy was trying especially hard to not completely laugh out loud, but his rapid breathing was fairly loud in comparison to Rainbow Dash’s. Gilda glared at him strongly with a pout, but she couldn’t say anything before overhearing Canvas’ voice. “Dude,” said the stallion in a smug tone towards his fiancè, “do you really think you should be laughing about nicknames?”

Troy instantly stopped cackling and shot a wide-eyed stare back at Canvas. Gilda’s ear tufts stood up with interest. “Oooohhh…” An evil grin spread across her beak. “What is it?”

Troy’s whole body tensed up with hostility, which wasn’t helped when he heard Pinkie Pie’s voice shout out from the kitchen. “OOH! I know! I know! It’s Teddy Gryphon!”

Now it was Gilda’s turn to start laughing, and she even went far enough to point at the mortified gryphon while doing so. Troy laid himself face-down against the table, desperate to ignore the onslaught of laughter provided by Dash and the other two gryphons. Canvas, despite giggling as well, still couldn’t help wincing when he saw how embarrassed his fiancè looked. “Ummm… sorry,” he muttered guiltily.

From the way Rainbow Dash struggled to breathe, it was clear that Troy’s nickname was brand new information. “Oh, man!” she cried out while wiping her eyes with a hoof. “I am SO using that in my wedding toast!”

“Don’t bother,” mumbled Troy while keeping his head down. “Lyle already called dibs.”

“Awww!” Dash’s expression turned to a displeased pout as she crossed her forelegs and slouched in her seat.

Hoping to bring the conversation away from his gryphon’s sulking, Canvas brought his attention back to Gilda and said with a shrug, “Well, I think Gilly is a pretty cute nickname to have.”

While Gilda groaned and looked away from the stallion (as well as her snickering girlfriend), Canvas added, “Also, I could understand if you really were trying to preen her as a friend. Heck, Troy and I were friends for months before it became anything more than that.”

Greta’s brows raised in surprised as she nodded to the pony. “Wow, really? Gilda and I started dating after two weeks!”

Gilda blushed as she rubbed the back of her head with a claw timidly. “Uhhh… heh heh heh, yeah…” After taking an apprehensive breath, she glanced over at Troy with a smirk on her beak. “Honestly, a couple months is a pretty long wait for a gryphon. I guess you really were confused for a while, huh?”

Troy sighed briefly before pulling his head up. “Yeah,” he added in agreement, but his glance went towards Rainbow Dash as he said, “Even though a lot of ponies started making assumptions about us a lot sooner than that.”

“Well, it was pretty obvious!” retorted Dash defensively. She sighed as well and looked back at Gilda to clarify. “He’s just mad because a few of us had a bet on them hooking up.”

“A few?!” asked Canvas with a confounded, wide-eyed stare on her. “There were over thirty ponies in on that betting pool!”

Pinkie yelled from the kitchen again. “Actually, it was thirty four!”

Canvas and Troy both groaned annoyedly after hearing that unwelcome detail. Of course, the awkwardness quickly shifted when Pinkie popped her head out from the serving window to say, “And speaking of which, you still owe me thirty bits, Rainbow!”

Dash winced and tried to look away from the pink mare. Troy narrowed his eyes on her suspiciously. “Wait, what? I thought you won that bet on us.”

“Yeah,” added Canvas in an equally confused tone. “You bragged about how much money you made for over a week.”

“Oh, not that bet, silly fillies!” said Pinkie Pie cheerfully, not noticing how Dash was trying to make a “cut-it” gesture with her neck. “Back when Dash and I went to Gryphonstone, she tried to bet me thirty bits that Gilda didn’t have a crush on Greta! And I won!”

Gilda’s eyes bulged out of her skull as she roared, “You did WHAT?!”

Even though Pinkie seemed fairly nonchalant when Gilda glared at her, Dash looked more worried about the gryphoness’ justified anger. The pegasus put her hooves up innocently and said, “Hey, I was betting you were straight, okay?”

Gilda peered back at her with an especially bitter stare, clearly not being helped by that statement. Troy and Canvas were looking over at Dash as well with unhappy glances. “Really?” asked Canvas flatly. “Again?”

“No, not like again!” stated Dash bluntly. “I literally made the exact opposite kind of bet that time!”

“So?!” asked Troy annoyedly. “That’s not a cool bet to make! I mean, how would you feel if you found out the entire town made a bet on you becoming marefriends with someone like… Applejack?”

“Oh, come on! That’s not cool, dude! Applejack and I are like sisters!” Just getting a brief mental image of that idea was enough to make the mare shudder deeply. “Eugh... That’d just be awkward.”

“Yeah,” said Pinkie Pie in agreement, “and that betting pool was really boring too! We had to stop it after a year because neither of you two did anything.”

“Just thinking about it is enough to--WAIT, WHAT?!” Rainbow whipped her sights back to Pinkie with a shocked expression as soon as she caught what her friend just said.

Pinkie was frozen at the serving window with her eyes wide open. Before she could say anything else, the sound of the oven dinging was enough of an excuse to make the mare shoot back into the kitchen. “Ooh! The Gryphon Scones are ready!”

“Ohhhh no! You’re not getting away that easy!” Now more aggravated than anything else, the blue pegasus shot into the kitchen to confront Pinkie while the others overheard her. “Just what kind of bet did you guys have on me and Applejack?!”

Gilda couldn’t resist giggling with a sense of schadenfreude on her smirked beak while taking a sip of her coffee. “Hopefully that’ll teach her.”

---

By the time the sun was beginning to set, most of the day’s errands were completed. After Angela and Blade returned from helping Fluttershy (and getting on good terms with her again), Twilight was able to suggest some ideas regarding what was being served for the wedding. So, along with having their scones tested and approved by the happy couple, Gilda and Greta were offered the opportunity to assist with preparing some more meat-based foods for the wedding reception. Even though the idea of serving meat at an Equestrian wedding may have been taboo, the Princess had all the proper paperwork necessary to make sure nothing was technically illegal.

Twilight did a third run-down on her lists, and was pleased that everything has been checked-off to perfection. In fact, according to the remaining wedding plans, there were only two more events that had to happen before the wedding itself: the first were the bachelor parties, which wasn’t exactly something the Princess was keen on; and the second was the rehearsal and dinner, which was something she was especially not comfortable thinking about due to past incidents.

Fortunately, it seemed that any mention of the word “rehearsal” was either brief or unneeded (especially from her friends), so Twilight wasn’t feeling that uncomfortable. However, a much different kind of discomfort came when she heard a lot of talk from the triplets from outside the castle. The Alicorn huffed and put her scrolls away, hoping that her assistance wasn’t needed as she went to the front doors.

Meanwhile, the tone was starting to get heated outside the castle as a cart containing two wooden barrels was parked near the door. Since Blane was the only one of the three triplets who actually owned a business, he was slated to be the financial planner of the group for things before the wedding. Unfortunately, his patience was starting to wear thin as he tried to talk with the orange mare keeping the cart full.

“Oh, come on!” griped Blane as he looked between Applejack and the cart. “You already gave me the price for the two barrels of cider the other day! You can’t just raise it like this at the last minute!”

Applejack looked quite offended by that remark as she retorted, “Now you wait just a minute! When Ah give a price, Ah never raise it unless there’s a reason!” The mare pouted and pointed a hoof at the bill statement in Blane’s claw. “And Ah very clearly remember what kinda price Ah gave ya, and it ain’t no different from what you have there!”

Twilight opened the door to the castle, but she was unnoticed while Blane and Applejack kept bickering. Blaze and Blade were leaned against the wall and nodded to her. “Hey Princess,” said Blaze nonchalantly.

“Umm, hello,” replied Twilight as she kept her attention on business deal. “Could one of you bring me up to speed on what’s happening?”

“Well,” began Blade with a shrug, “we arranged to get some barrels of hard cider for our little bachelor’s shindig with Troy tonight, but there’s a disagreement on what the price was.”

Twilight sighed after giving the two a thankful nod, and then walked past them to see the issue herself. Even though this wasn’t exactly the same kind of International Diplomacy she was used to, the Princess figured she could put her skills to use here.

“Are you blind!?” Blade was getting fed up, and shoved the statement back in Applejack’s face so she could see the price listed. “You really think you could slip an extra eight hundred bits in there without me noticing?! I distinctly remember you saying that the number started with a one! Does THAT look like a one to you?!”

Twilight opened her mouth to intervene, but Applejack snatched the listing before she was able to say anything. Applejack spent a good ten seconds silent, but only three of those were with her eyes on the paper; the remaining seven were focused up at Blane as she carried the strongest, deadpanned stare that Twilight ever saw.

“Well?” asked Blane as his patience grew thinner.

Without saying a word, Applejack held the paper up for him to clearly see, and turned it rightside up before handing it back to him. Blane’s angered expression instantly dropped when he looked at the bill in its correct position, and he seemingly ignored the sound of both his brothers slapping their claws over their heads. Even Twilight had her eyes narrowed on Blane with a slightly open mouth, seemingly trying to fathom what he was thinking. Meanwhile, Applejack raised a brow as she bluntly asked, “How’s the price now, Big Bird?”

Since the previously agreed price of one-hundred sixteen bits was clear as day on the page, instead of the previously assumed number of nine-hundred eleven bits, Blane didn’t try to contest it any further. Instead, the gryphon just looked back at Applejack with a very shaky and apologetic smile on his beak. “Uhhh… Y-yep,” he said faintly. “That looks okay.”

Since the matter was settled on its own, Twilight smiled and left the two to finish their transaction. She went back to Blane’s brothers as she decided to clarify a few things with them. “Alright,” she began with a happy, but still professional-sounding tone, “I already know of Lyra and Bon-Bon’s plans for Canvas’ bachelor party, so I just wanted to make sure your guys’ plans won’t collide with theirs.”

Blaze raised a claw in assurance. “Hey, don’t sweat it. We already found a great place out of the way to do some grilling, so we shouldn’t get any noise or smell complaints. And after we eat, we’re planning to fly to Cloudsdale to hit some of the clubs.”

“Plus,” added Blade with a chipper tone of his own, “we got Troy’s friends Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane joinin’ us.”

Twilight’s face turned confused. “Wait, really?” she asked skeptically. Her eyes narrowed on them as she asked, “You did tell them what you were planning to do, right? Like… food-wise?”

“Dash is cool with it, and she said she’ll bring Thunderlane up to speed before we meet up.” After giving that answer, Blaze’s beak clenched in briefly before he could add without laughing, “Plus… we kinda wanted to bring him around after he suggested something we should do to Troy.”

Blade covered his beak while giggling as well, which prompted Twilight to instantly turn suspicious. “Why? What are you two planning?”

“Well,” began Blaze, “the idea is--”

“SSHHH!!! Don’t tell ‘er!”

“Guys,” stated Twilight in a more authoritative voice, “I really don’t want to get in the way of your plans, but if--”

Twilight’s words were cut off when a loud scream was overheard from quite a distance away. When Twilight turned around to see what that was, she saw a silver speck shoot up into the sky from the other side of town. She and the others also heard a faint voice coming from the speck shouting out, “Yyyyyyeeeeeeeaaaaahhhhh!!!”

“What the heck is that?” asked Applejack with her eyes strained in focus on the figure.

Blane was the first to recognize who it was before shouting in surprise, “Dude, it’s Troy!”

Even though he was still at the other end of Ponyville, Troy was clearly flying in circles as he kept screaming in obvious glee.

“Hmmm…” Blaze tilted his head while staring up at his younger brother. “Judging by how happy he sounds, I’m guessing that either the Cakes finally started making maple bacon cookies, or... he actually got that Manehattan role.”

Just as Blaze finished his assumption, Troy was already zooming through the entirety of the town. He swept past the castle at lightning speed as he shouted out, “HINNYOFTHEHILLS!!!”

After leaving a gust of wind strong enough to make everyone brace themselves, Troy was already gone to keep shouting in flight. The group were frozen momentarily, but Twilight and Applejack were the first to react by gasping in happy surprise. “Oh my gosh!” shouted Twilight with an excited glance at the orange mare. “Can you believe it!?”

“Honestly, no,” admitted Applejack with a shake of her head while smiling, “but what do Ah know about theater?!” She then looked towards the triplets to say, “Congrats on your brother, boys!”

Blaze and Blade responded with a celebratory chest bump to each other. “Buck yeah!” shouted the two in unison.

Meanwhile, Blane slumped with a disappointed sigh. “Oh man, I thought it was the cookies.”

---

Meanwhile, many of the ponies at the other end of Ponyville were now out of their houses or shops to look up at the sky to see Troy’s overzealous celebration. Derpy Hooves, who was the one to give him that letter last-minute, seemed especially surprised and relieved at the reaction the gryphon gave when opening it. Lyle was standing next to her while outside Lyra and Bon-Bon’s sweet shop, but he kept his focus on the letter that Troy dropped to the ground after reading it.

“Wow!” said Lyle with an impressed smile as he looked through the details. “This is awesome! I didn’t think they’d choose him so soon after his audition!”

“I know, right?” added Derpy in an equally surprised tone. “I knew the letter was supposed to be urgent, but I didn’t think it was for that.”

Troy zoomed above the street again and quickly spouted off, “BRIDLEWAY!!!”

Lyle snickered at how Troy was acting, but quickly became confused when he caught what Derpy said. “Wait, urgent? Then, why wasn’t it given to him earlier today or something?”

“Uhhh…” Derpy bit her lip and looked away from Lyle apprehensively. “It may have… been one of the things that fell out of my bag at the beginning of my shift…”

Even though it was clear the grey mare looked guilty after admitting that detail, Lyle shrugged as he looked back up at the growing dusk skies. “Oh. Well, don’t worry about it. I won’t say anything.”

Derpy smiled with a thankful nod at him. “Thanks.”

Meanwhile, the inside of the sweet shop was just as active as the skies above it outside. Tenor was barking wildly while looking out the window, clearly wanting to know what got his winged owner so excited. Lyra and Bon-Bon also looked thrilled while hugging behind the front counter. “Oh my gosh!” shouted Lyra as she tried to lift her wife and twirl her around. “Troy is gonna be on Bridleway!!!”

Due to the unicorn’s especially tight squeeze on her, Bon-Bon wheezed a little as she replied, “Y-Yeah…”

Lyra quickly realized how hard she was hugging Bon-Bon and let her go. “Heh heh… oops. Sorry.”

“Nah, it’s alright,” said Bon-Bon assuredly as she rubbed her back with a hoof. She then turned back to her wife with a hinting smirk and added, “Although, I think there’s somepony else who’s just as excited as you about Troy’s new job.”

Lyra’s eyes shot wide-open. “Oh, of course!” She then ran from behind the counter to the rear living space of the building. Bon-Bon giggled at how quickly her wife went to find the stallion, but her ears twitched when she heard growling from the front. As soon as she turned around, the mare screamed bolted from the counter to stop Tenor.

“NO!” shouted Bon-Bon while the Saint Bernard tried to tear open a giant bag of cotton candy. “No, Tenor! Bad dog!!”

Meanwhile, Lyra was quick to find Canvas sitting at the kitchen table in her home; however, her happy expression became skewed when she saw how silent the pony was. She stopped momentarily at the doorway while Canvas’ back was facing her. “Ummm… Canvas?”

“Oh! Uhh!” Canvas shuffled in his chair to turn around with a smile towards Lyra. “Hey! Ummm, what’s up?”

“Well,” began Lyra as her tone became more concerned, “I feel like I should ask you that same question.”

Even though Canvas seemed perfectly alright, the unicorn could still notice the way he just barely bit his bottom lip while smiling. Canvas didn’t get up from his chair, but he still sighed casually with a wave of his hoof. “Oh, it’s nothing,” he said in as convincing of a tone as he could muster. “Really! It’s just… a lot to take in, that’s all.”

Lyra’s narrowed her eyes on him suspiciously. While she may have known the stallion to be somepony to hide about certain things (especially regarding problems), she wasn’t sure what to think of Canvas’ behavior. Technically speaking, there were a few reasons why she felt Canvas would be uneasy, like maybe the pressure of getting a new place for Troy’s new job. Of course, there was always the chance that Canvas wasn’t lying, and was just surprised to hear of it so soon.

The unicorn was just about to open her mouth to ask one of those things, but a heavy crash made her whip her head around while her wife yelled out, “NO! Get back here!”

More shouts and barking made Lyra immediately forget what to say, and she just bolted from the kitchen while saying, “J-Just stay here! I gotta check things out at the front!”

With that, Lyra was gone. It took a good three seconds of silence in the kitchen before the stallion was brave enough to sigh in relief. Given his position in the chair, it was nothing short of a miracle that Lyra didn’t see what he had on the table in front of him. After making sure the mares were occupied at the front of the shop, Canvas turned around to stare down at the scroll in front of him.

Canvas couldn’t say he was surprised that nopony noticed the scroll Derpy gave him, especially since it was after Troy read the acceptance letter he got from Bridleway. While everypony else watched the gryphon turn to an overexcited mass of emotion that shot into the sky like a firework display, Canvas took a quick read of the scroll to see what it was about. In all honesty, the pony knew that his news was just as amazing as Troy’s; in fact, it may as well have been bigger in comparison.

Unfortunately, the news Canvas was given didn’t make him feel happy at all, despite how great it was.

Canvas’ heart was pounding in anxiety as he scanned the details of the scroll over and over again. From an outside perspective, the news would’ve sounded absolutely amazing; after making paintings for both Celestia and Luna, getting the chance to make a painting for Shining Armor and Cadance was an absolute dream come true. Plus, getting an extended vacation in the Crystal Empire to do it only sweetened the deal.

However, the scroll presented three distinct issues that the pony absolutely couldn’t ignore. Firstly, the date of his scheduled arrival in the Crystal Empire was in less than two weeks. Not only would that mean that he’d have to leave immediately after his Honeymoon, but he wouldn’t have any time to help Troy during his Bridleway process. Getting an apartment for them in Manehattan, keeping Troy comfortable after rehearsals, seeing him perform in dress rehearsals before the big show…

Canvas closed his eyes as he rubbed his temple with a hoof, hating how much this was building up already.

The second issue Canvas noticed was just how long he would have to be in the Crystal Empire to do the painting. According to the scroll, Shining and Cadance wanted to keep things hushed in regards to their expectant child; even though he already knew about it, Canvas was aware that it was still a big thing that was meant to be revealed in a special way in the Crystal Empire. While he was beyond honored to have the chance to make a painting of them during Cadance’s pregnancy, that also meant that he could be away from his husband for over a month.

The very first month of their marriage.

Finally, just the fact that this was happening at the same time as Troy’s rehearsals brought an even harder bout of grief that made Canvas slump down at the kitchen table. How long would it be before the show premiered? How much time could Canvas spend between his own job and Troy’s? What if he missed the premiere show? What if he tried to say no to Shining and Cadance’s offer?

So many question were swimming through Canvas’ mind. He leaned forward even further in his seat, his teeth gritted as he struggled not to freak out over this news. He knew that there would be some separation if Troy got the role for Hinny of the Hills, but he thought they had a plan for if that happened. But now, all that the artist could think about was how it could work if he took his own offer. How much could he see him? How much could he help? Could he even be able to help?

But most of all, would it be worth it?

With all those thoughts crowding in his head, it was enough to make Canvas grab his scroll and stumble over to the bathroom so he couldn’t be seen in this state. He loved Troy, and he couldn’t be happier that he was reaching his own dream. Canvas wanted nothing more than to be happy for him, and to be the husband he knew Troy wanted. After closing the door behind him, the pony began to hyperventilate while leaned against the bathroom wall in darkness and building anxiety.

This is my dream. This… This is both our dreams! So why… Why… Canvas felt like he was being pinned underneath a press, with his chest being compressed with more and more weight as it became harder to breathe. The pony’s thoughts became more upsetting as he laid hunched-down in the bathroom and tried not to cry.

Why can’t I feel happy about this?

Comments

[Grekoy]

Oh no. Here comes the jitters.

[Necrogen Lord]

I thought Canvas got the bill for all the male strippers.

[SageBrony07]

Great chapter. Looks like big choices are going to have to be made.

[jxj]

Excellent, this should be interesting.

[RandomDudeNumber005]

nothing is ever easy is it ?
oh well happy wedding stuff first, worrying later. ONWARD

[Spectrumancer]

To be fair, I suspect the Princess of Love, also known as the Princess of that giant love-powered laser beam projector in the north, would be quite understanding if he turned down the commission offer.

[Ocean Mist]

Poor Canvas!

[Truthseeker]

Wedding stress SUCKS! But it's worth it in the end.

[DerpTape]

And here we have the definition of too many things going right, making everything go wrong.

[Omegathyst]

“Oh, come on! That’s not cool, dude! Applejack and I are like sisters!” Just getting a brief mental image of that idea was enough to make the mare shudder deeply. “Eugh...That’d just be awkward.”

Thank you! I don't get the Appledash hype, I really don't.