Picking Up the Pieces

by Evilhumour

Chapter Six: Page Turner, Gentle Step

Chapter Six

Page Turner

Page was right behind Wind when there was a rush of magic as somepony teleported into the office.

“Good day, Miss Turner,” the mare said as she emerged from the bubble of magic. “I must speak with you.”

Both Wind and Page were left stunned to see Gentle Step appear in the middle of the room, with the military mare staring at her.

“Um, I suppose we can talk-” Page began only for the Captain General to close the door behind them, separating Page from her friend.

“As I am to understand,” the Captain General said as she stalked towards Hush Tone’s chair. “Memorizing Gaze is to be the liaison between Equestria and your Queen, correct?” she asked while the smell of her breath was oddly familiar for some reason.

“Y-yes,” Page said. “One of them, at least, along with myself. Can I ask what this is about?”

The Captain General tapped the desk, looking off to the side for a bit. Page could taste her nervousness before she finally spoke, “How close is he to be working with your Queen?”

Page frowned at that internally, wondering exactly where this was leading to. Still, Page had no reason to lie to the mare as it would only cause problems in the future. “Fairly close, ma’am.”

Of all the emotions Page had expected from the mare, the sudden wave of bitterness and jealousy was decidedly not among them. What was going on, what was she really after?

“I see,” the Captain General replied with almost no emotions in her voice. The mare licked her lips before she flashed her narrow eyes at Page. “Is she planning to make him her mate as to further her position against Equestria.”

Page let out a gasp as the pieces finally fell into place; the Captain General was in love!

And was viewing her as a potential rival!

Shaking her head as she back, Page stammered, “I don’t have any plans for hi- I mean our Queen has no plans for him! She owes him a great debt of gratitude for his service but I swear, she, our Queen, has no desire to make him her Royal Consort considering what happened in the past.”

Page’s heart was thundering in her chest at her slip with the Captain General staring at her with wide eyes.

“You’re the Changeling Queen of the Badlands Hive,” the mare said in a slow tone, lowering her head.

Page knew that while she could try and spin a tale to protect herself, past experiences told her how dangerous that was. So she decided to take a breathe of air to calm herself before replying, “Yes, I am the Changeling Queen, ma’am, and as I have said previously, you have no reason to feel threatened in your romantic feelings towards Memorizing Gaze. I have no desire to seek a relationship with my Royal Protector so you have my blessings to seek a partnership with him.”

“Romantic feelings, relationship, partnership, what are you talking about?” the mare asked Page, with clear confusion in her voice and emotions.

“I’m talking about the love you have for Memorizing Gaze,” Page said with a small smile on her face.

“Love Memorizing Gaze‽” the mare sputtered, reeling back in surprise. “He is my oldest friend, the idea I would be in love with him is so absurd that it doesn’t deserve any more words!”

“Captain General.” Page said as soothingly as she could. “I can feel your emotions, as powerfully as you’re broadcasting. You might not realize it, but you do love him. Believe me, I can tell.”

“He is my oldest friend,” she snapped, shaking her head. “Sure, we were always playing together as foals, and yes, a small reason to why I joined the Guards was to be like him, but it doesn’t mean I love Mems.” The Captain General stood up and began to pace. “And seeing him in trouble like this morning was very distressing and so what if I did take my first day off when I learned of him resigning due to those fuc-individuals in Internal Affairs but it doesn’t mean I love Mems.”

“And the fact you came here to learn if his Queen would take him as a husband meant nothing, right?” Page ventured carefully.

“Right,” the older mare said defensively, nodding her head.

“And you were jealous that he could be with another nymph meant nothing?” Page could see the anger in the mare’s face this time before she cleared her face.

“Of course!” the mare shouted, turning to glare at Page with her horn lowered.

“If that is all true, then can you explain why you are getting so angry?”

“I-” that caused the Captain General to pause on the spot before she lowered her hoof and began to mutter words under her breath. She then fell backwards onto her plot with a dazed look on her face. “By the Goddesses, I am in love with Memorizing Gaze.”

Page gave her a kind smile and trotted over to the mare. “I am glad to hear you admit that and,” Page began to address the Hivemind about her first few commands, beyond telling them that the Great Library was a safe place for them to be and that they were to head there. “I have just told my Hive that there is a pony that has their eyes settled on the Royal Protector of the Queen, so you won’t have that much competition but you will need to move qu-”

“Royal Protector?” the mare snapped her head upwards at Page, causing her to freeze and bite the inside of her cheek at her second slip of the tongue.

“Yes,” Page admitted reluctantly. “Memorizing Gaze is a direct descendant of the family that is bred to protect the Royal Family, the Sages of the Past, and the Hivemind Body. Each generation gives birth to triplets with the oldest drone becoming the Royal Protector, and the other two become the Sage’s Protector and the Hivemind Protector, respectively.” Page saw the mare was waiting for more. “And a main reason to why there is no chance between me and Memorizing Gaze, besides the fact I am with Night right now, is that his ancestors betrayed Queen Chrysalis by giving King Blueblood all the information he needed to invade the Hive. While I do not agree with Chrysalis’s actions and I am eternally grateful for the help Memorizing Gaze gave us, I still have a bit of anger at him for what happened all those years ago.”

“I see,” the mare said as she stood up, shaking her head slowly. “Thank you for telling me all this as well as…” she trailed off as she began to blush. “The other matter. You do not need to worry, I will not reveal your true identity.”

“Thank you.” Page nodded. “Memorizing Gaze is still here, by the way, if you want to see him. He and Matron Hush Tone are looking for a place where he can set up his office, since the Matron has offered the Great Library as the center for helping my changelings now.”

“I-” the mare began before she shook her head. “Thank you but no thank you. I have certain matters to attend to back in the office. Have a good afternoon, Miss Turner.”

She then teleported out of the room, leaving Page alone for a moment before Wind Breaker opened the door, peeking inside.

“Did what I just hear really happen?” he asked as he moved inside the office.

“If you mean that Gentle Step, the Captain General, is completely in love with Memorizing Gaze and she knows that I am the Queen, then yes,” Page said a bit distractedly.

“What do we do about all that, Page?” Wind asked her.

“About her being in love with Memorizing? There’s really nothing more to do other than what I already have,” Page said. “I might have to talk to Memorizing himself about this later, tell him I support them in their relationship. But otherwise, I think they’ll be just fine. As for her figuring out who I am… she’s already promised not to tell anypony, and I believe her.” She smiled. “But now, you and I need to go make lunch for everypony.”

“Right.” Wind Breaker nodded. “So, which way was the kitchen again?”

Page laughed, and the two set off.

Gentle Step

Gentle Step blinked her eyes as she teleported back into her office. It was not the ideal place to deal with the fact that she was in love with Memorizing, but she already said she going to her office. She should be able to panic there in peace without anypony seeing her lose her cool and all four of her Captains were in her office.

“Hello,” she said carefully, wondering why they were all here. “We are not scheduled to meet today…”

“Well,” Sweet Surprise said with a grin on her face. “There are matters that forced us to meet impromptuly like this.”

“Matters?” she asked, wondering where Sweet was going with this. Gentle was still rattled by the revelation but she knew that she had to keep her wits up.

“Well of course,” Blazen Sun said, stroking his beard that was not hiding his own grin. “Not everyday we get a new Captain to join our rank, sir.”

“New Captain?” Gentle ventured carefully.

“Yes, and he came highly recommend,” Violet Lulamoon said with Standing Wall nodding at her with excitement.

“Who are you talking abou-”

“Hello Gents,” the voice from behind her almost caused her to jump out of her coat. Spinning around, she saw Memorizing Gaze standing right behind her with his normal fangy grin on his strong face and how had she been this blind for this long. “It is nice to see you again.”

“Likew-”

“Excuse me, Captain Gaze,” Sweet Surprise said as she walked over to them. “But the Captain General prefers to be called by her titles or sir. No nicknames as she is very professional.”

Much to her displeasure, Sweet Surprise did not explode under her glare.

“As I was saying, it is very to see you again,” Gentle said as she looked up into his blue eyes and felt herself begin to get lost in them with a portion of her mind studying all the details on his face.

“I am sorry about this morning, sir,” Memorizing said, with Gentle making a mental note to send the Luna Guards on heavy patrol duties outside of the city. “After I have spoken with the King, he promised me that Internal Affairs will not bother me about my tribe again.”

“Good to know,” Gentle said while willing her tail to stay in place. “I-”

“So are you two going to going on the Captain’s Meet?” Blazen asked with a sly smirk on his own face.

“The Captain’s Meet? There is no need for it,” Memorizing said before Standing tsked and shook her head.

“Nonsense, it is tradition for the Captain General to spend the evening with their new Captains,” she said as Gentle began to figure out their entire plan.

“Still, both the Captain General and I know each other and this-”

“Why do you not ask her if she would accompany you on the Captain’s Meet, Captain Gaze?” Violet prompted.

Rolling his eyes, Memorizing looked at Gentle Step. “Captain General, would you do me the honor of accompanying me to the Captain’s Meet?”

“It would be my pleasure,” Gentle replied with Memorizing blinking in surprise.

“Excellent,” Blazen said as he walked over to Memorizing side and began to direct him off to her private arming chambers. “Come, let us get you prepared in private, young stal-drone.”

“I-” Memorizing began to say before the older stallion pushed him out of the room, leaving the four mares alone which meant Gentle could kill Sweet.

“You,” she hissed, with her eyes narrowed.

“Are welcome,” the unicorn grinned. “I highly doubt you would have had the courage to do this yourself, Gentle and we could not let you pass this by.”

“You can punish her later, Gentle,” Violet said as she patted the mare on the side, ignoring Sweet’s squawk of protest. “Just enjoy yourself tonight.”

“And while I would normally highly advise against this, do what Sweet Surprise would do,” Standing Wall said as the white mare was now pouting playfully and Gentle knew that these ponies were truly her best friends and could not help but smile.

“Thank you all for this,” Gentle said softly before looking at the Captain of the South. “I expect you to bring your spouses in so I can meet them and express my gratitude.”

“Wait what?” Sweet Surprise looked surprised at this announcement.

“I do believe it is a proven fact that spouses influence each other and I would be honoured to meet them.”

“Well now, that’s not completely necessar-” she began, looking nervously.

“And I would love to meet the mare and stallion that managed to win one of my dearest friend’s heart,” the other unicorn added in.

“I don’t know; Hot Rod and Sound Mind are both very bus-”

“And as you said, you don’t have anything to hide, right Sweet?” Standing Wall asked with a wide grin on her face.

The married mare let out a sigh, hanging her head in defeat. “I will see what I can do.”

“Wonderful,” Blazen said as he walked up behind her with Memorizing sans his armour standing behind him. “I am very eager to meet this Hot Rod of yours, Sweets and do be afraid, because I believe I speak for us all that we will strive to embarrass you.”

The white mare groaned loudly, causing everypony in the room to chuckle, including Gentle herself. She then felt something bump against her side and saw that Memorizing was looking down at her, smiling his gorgeous fanged smile at her.

“Shall we go?” he asked.

“Yes,” she replied as she teleported the two of them out of the room.

Comments

[nickle241]

ah co-workers, you can always rely on them to put you in awkward situations for the hell of it... thats probably why i hate most of the people i work with.

[Evilhumour]

8395757

And they claim it is for your own good!

[nickle241]

8395813
and then they can't seem to understand why you aren't willing to share your problems with them.

[Evilhumour]

8395814

Well after this, I don't think the other Captains will be too willing to share details.

[Copper Springs]

This chapter was both really sweet and pretty funny. Page needs to be more careful. First the Order, then her friends, then Hush Tone and now Gentle Step. This secret isn't very secret. I'm so glad Gentle realized her feelings!! And now they are going on a date!!!

[Asolem2]

“ Well ,” Sweet Surprise said with a grin on her face. “There are matters that forced us to meet impromptuly like this.”

Matters of Love