• Published 26th Jun 2012
  • 1,533 Views, 10 Comments

A Royal Problem - Wearin Hat



Twilight Sparkle has been tasked with solving Princess Celestia's problem. Can she do so?

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“It’s not that bad, Twilight. You can hardly tell anything happened thanks to your fur.” The white unicorn assured her friend to the best of her ability.

An aggravated grunt came as the immediate response to the comment. Twilight was hardly amused by this turn of events. Today was quickly turning out to be one of the worst she had ever experienced. At every turn something went wrong and tried its absolute best to ruin her mood. The only positive Twilight could assign to the day was that having Pinkie Pie as a friend allowed her to take the brunt of the day’s annoyances in stride. What was quickly wearing her thin was the frequency with which the issues continued to appear. First she has to halt her research to solve a significant problem, then she has to search for assistance due to her lack of knowledge regarding sibling issues, particularly annoying was that Rarity proved to be of very little help, worst of all had to be nearly blowing it with Chrome thanks to his sensitivity, and, to top it all off, she had been clubbed hard in the face by her constant tormentor Ditzy Doo.

“Wonderful, maybe we can invite her to drop another piano on me? I’m sure my fur will cover up those scars too!” The tone of her voice carried the very noticeable trademarks of anger and fatigue. She had been definitely looking forward to sleeping the day away before, but now she would have to postpone her sleep to make sure the clumsy mailmare hadn’t broken anything important in the purple unicorn’s cheek.

Taken aback by the sudden rudeness of her voice, Rarity scoffed inwardly as she continued to trot alongside the tormented librarian. “Really Twilight, there is absolutely no reason to talk in such a manner. Nopony is at fault here and I’d think that you of all ponies would recognize that.” Though she felt bad that her friend was in pain and grieving over her situation, the white unicorn couldn’t help but turn a sour eye to the behavior the studious pony was displaying. If anything, then the generous pony had thought that with the presence of a young foal would be enough to inspire maturity of some sort.

“Yeah, Twilight, how could Miss Doo have known you’d be trying to leave when she was knocking? She always comes by to see Chrome in the mornings and it isn’t a normal thing for anypony to go barging out of his door like you did.” Speaking up from the other side of Rarity, Sweetie Belle trudged along with a look of concern on her face. She knew that it was easier to simply embrace the anger such a situation would cause, but she had learned well from her sister that the high road was always the better path.

Not used to being the one to be lectured, Twilight sighed as she kept pace with the older of the two siblings to her left. She knew she shouldn’t hold the accident against the mailmare. If anything she should be the one apologizing for trying to leave so suddenly. Immediately regretting the curses she had let slip during and since the incident, the purple unicorn settled on the fact that she’d try to make amends with her accidental attacker at some point. Such a task was an easy one to accomplish. Ditzy was well known for her love of muffins, so all Twilight would have to do is apologize and buy the clumsy pegasus a treat to smooth things over.

That’s when it occurred to the studious unicorn the details of the encounter. She had hurriedly opened Chrome’s front door and tried to rush outside to get home quicker and get some much needed sleep. Instead of being met with the cool breeze of the morning air, Twilight had been clocked in the face by the waiting mare. Though she hadn’t bothered to stay and strike up a conversation in her aggravated and tired state, the purple unicorn managed to recall the sorrow plastered across the wall eyed pony’s face. She could easily see how bad it hurt the mailmare to make such a mistake and Twilight remembered hearing a muffled attempt at an apology after the fact. This was the detail that stuck out to the studious mare.

Normally when ponies had to carry anything they used saddlebags or, in the case of unicorns, their magic, but no, Ditzy had been carrying something in her mouth when she had introduced her hoof to the purple pony’s face. This stood out to Twilight due to the sweet smell that emanated from the package and only now could she regret hurrying away in anger before inquiring about the odd thing. Using her intellectual prowess, the studious mare was quick to connect the smell to that of the muffins the mailmare was so very fond of. Having identified the object of confusion, she moved on to the confusing circumstance of the vent.

Why had Ditzy shown up that early? Twilight was aware that the mailmare’s route had to start about this time in the morning due to the large area she had to cover in one day. Furthermore, why had she brought muffins to a customer? Surely ordering muffins from the mail couldn’t be the answer. That’d be too silly, something that almost forced the smart pony to conclude that Pinkie was somehow behind the delivery. However, she held her tongue as Twilight picked out the last odd detail from Sweetie Belle’s mini-lecture. She comes to see him in the mornings? What does that mean?

Her eyes suddenly went wide with shocked thought that managed to push the pain in her cheek to the back of her mind. “I wasn’t aware that Ditzy had a special somepony…” Was that it? Twilight hadn’t made it a point of hers to become well acquainted with the mailmare beyond the typical banter shared between friendly ponies. More convincing was that she knew next to nothing about Chrome at the same time. She hadn’t even known that the playwright lived in Ponyville, so it was of no difficulty that she could not know such a detail.

Giggling from the purple pony’s side managed to stay her thoughts before the idea became cemented in her head. This was mostly due to the genuine look of repressed laughter between the two sisters to her side. “Twilight, darling, you should really stop trying to look into things like that. Chrome and Ditzy aren’t special someponies. Trust me, all of Ponyville would know if the two were betrothed.” The way the generous pony smiled following her statement assured Twilight that if Rarity had known about such a relationship, one between an old friend of hers and a single mother, then the very gossip-prone mare would’ve let everypony know quickly.

Incapable of keeping her two bits to herself, Sweetie couldn’t help but mimic her sister’s tone of voice as she spoke, “Yeah, Chrome and Miss Doo are just really good friends.” Once more following her sister’s example, the filly’s actions following her exclamation betrayed her thoughts on the matter. Rather than some reminder of her being gossipy, Sweetie Belle began to giggle cutely and bounce around as her mind became clouded with an undoubtedly cute image making it clear to Twilight that the small unicorn would love for her friend to find a special somepony and be happy.

“Sweetums is right. Chrome and Ditzy’s meetings are just further evidence of his generosity. He’s been eating breakfast with her every morning since that nasty incident with Dinky’s father. True to his nature, Chrome defends and supports Ditzy and her family in any way he can.” Rarity spoke matter-of-factly to the purple unicorn to her side. She hoped that Twilight would catch onto the details of the story without her needing to go into detail about Dinky’s sire in front of Sweetie Belle. “What else would you expect from somepony whose special talent is empathy?”

Finally finding an avenue of discussion that would lead away from the pegasus and thus allow the purple unicorn to focus back onto the notably more important matter of Princess Celestia’s troubles. Twilight was glad to have Chrome’s support in the matter, but she had to know for herself what had happened between him and his brother. Such knowledge would be key in her understanding of the position the stallion’s observations would be coming from. Plus, it would help her to solve whatever issue was plaguing her newest friend.

Crafting her words carefully, as much as she could manage in her current state of fatigue and pain, Twilight wanted to make sure this conversation went in the direction she needed it to. “I’ve never heard of a pony with a cutie mark like that. Such emotional sensitivity would definitely explain why he was so touchy about talking about his brother.” Wincing at the clumsiness of her comment, the purple unicorn decided that she was in no condition to be plotting out convoluted discussions that would go just as she planned them to. “You wouldn’t happen to know what happened between the two of them, would you girls? I know it is certainly a personal issue, but it would help me understand what do about Luna and Celestia if I knew more about it.”

Both white unicorns stopped in their tracks as they eyed the studious pony carefully. Their expressions shared a sense of disappointment towards Twilight’s question. “You want to know about Chrome’s brother? No wonder he looked all sullen and hurt when we got downstairs.” The purple unicorn could only blink in surprise at Sweetie Belle’s use of words. She hadn’t thought that it would be that obvious that she had brought it up in front of him.

“I must agree with Sweetie. It would’ve been most unwise to mention Chrome’s brother in front of him.” Taking a moment to compose herself from the shock, Rarity ushered her little sister forward as the two trotted back into pace with the purple pony. “As for what happened, the matter is quite tragic. You see darling, Chrome and his brother moved to Ponyville together back when they were both frightfully young. They shared a house over near Sugarcube Corner for almost a year before they had a very public falling out. I really don’t know much more about that situation, however. Chrome has refused to ever speak about it with me. If you’re seeking information about that then I’d have to suggest you seek out his older brother or drop the matter completely.”

Frustration once again creased Twilight’s brow as she took Rarity’s words in piece by piece. She really didn’t want to have to go to such lengths for this whole issue. In her eyes this assignment had to proceed smoothly and contain very little deviation. If war was a possible consequence then she couldn’t afford to waste any time she would normally use to get a well rounded vision of the situation like she normally would. However, such an end game called for her to do this carefully. There existed one huge problem with this issue; who was Chrome’s brother and where was he? It wasn’t like she could ask the playwright about it and she doubted that many pony’s knew the particulars of the issue.

“And I suppose you don’t have any clue as to where his brother is, do you Rarity?” As though it was planned out as some cruel storyline, the white unicorn sorrowfully shook her head in confirmation. This practically solidified it for the purple pony, there would never be an easy task for her to complete. It was always something of monumental importance or something where pony’s lives were at stake. It could never be anything as simple as helping a squirrel store his stash of nuts for winter, help somepony stand up against a bully, or something involving a self-solving conflict.

“It isn’t like he’s that hard to find or anything like that. He never goes far from Sweet Apple Acres. Especially when there are ponies there he can show off to.” Sweetie Belle spoke with surprising malice as she spoke more to herself than to either of the two unicorns standing to her right.

Not expecting the filly to know anything about the issue, both Rarity and Twilight eyed her with
confusion. “Sweetums, how do you know where he is? Did Chrome tell you?” The hints of jealously in the generous unicorn’s voice were evident as she pried for information. Normally Twilight would giggle towards the way the sisters acted around each other, but this time she had invested interest in the filly’s knowledge.

Shaken from her mind, the young unicorn turned her eyes to the ground in shyness towards the sudden attention. She hadn’t meant anypony to hear her. Rarity always spoke about how rude it was to talk mean about other ponies behind their backs. However, Sweetie could hardly care about being gentle with this information. All she cared about was that Chrome not getting hurt again by his brother and she could see no negative to telling her sister and Twilight about the whereabouts of this stallion. “No, I see him all the time when we’re crusading over near the orchards. He lives somewhere over there or something like that. All I know is that he’s an annoying show off who likes to race Miss Dash over at the farm rather than work like he is supposed to.”

An explosion of joy occurred within the studious pony as she turned to look towards the quickly approaching front door of Carousel Boutique. She now had a firmly planted plan that would allow her to handle this matter as efficiently as possible. In fact, a check list of things to do had already begun to take shape within her mind. First she had to collect Spike, second she had to go home, third she had to write Princess Celestia with her findings and requests, fourth she had to get some sleep, and lastly she had to wake up and go meet this mysterious brother she needed to know about. It was all Twilight could do to keep from blowing up in excitement that things were going so smoothly. In fact, at this point the purple pony was sure she could solve this whole issue and keep anypony in town from knowing about Celestia and Luna’s problem.

“Wait, what do Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have to do with Chrome and his brother?”

The question slapped Twilight in the mouth harder than when Ditzy had floored her earlier. Tired from lack of sleep and stress, the purple unicorn could only assume a visage of frustration towards the situation’s difficulty and mutter curses under her breath. “Buck.”