Chapter 2
Little sisters were the bane of all existence and Flurry Heart thought about sending a letter to Auntie Celestia to express this. She would understand because she too, had a bratty younger sister. Of course, Flurry loved her sister, she did, really, but there were times when she just felt fed up over the issue of Skyla’s continued existence. The trouble started at birth, when everypony just had to fawn over the adorable newborn. Flurry couldn’t remember much from that time, other than she was peeved. About the only thing she remembered with any clarity was that her Uncle Gosling was there for her and tried to be her friend.
Rounding the corner, she took a few more steps towards the double doors and then threw them open so she could make her grand entrance for supper. Passing through the doorway, she let her wings unfurl and she strutted her stuff, because why not? Her long conversation with Dim had left her feeling better—she could face her bratty sister for certain—and she knew that she would blow her mother’s mind with what she had to say.
“You’re late,” Shining Armor said to his tardy-for-supper daughter.
“Hello to you too, Daddy.” Reaching the table, Flurry clambered up into a chair, sat down, and did her best to look as grown up as possible, while also ignoring her sister. Picking up her napkin, she gave it a flick to unfold it and then tossed it back down to the table in a wad, leaving it just the way she liked it. The fact it annoyed her sister to no end was a bonus.
“So, tell me, oh daughter of mine, when do we get the heartfelt and stirring speech about you leaving home to go and live with your aunts and your uncle?” Reaching out with her foreleg, Cadance took her husband’s fetlock into her own and gave it a squeeze.
Rolling her eyes, Flurry’s grown up facade crumbled and she let out an annoyed snort. “Actually, Mom, I’ll have you know that I’m ready to take my etiquette lessons seriously and I’ll stop sabotaging the dressmaker’s efforts—”
“What?” Her mother’s tone was curious and cool.
“Finally, my sister comes to her senses and will stop being an embarrassment to the entire family.” Skyla sounded relieved and she bounced in her chair to get a better view across the table. “Flurry—”
“That’s enough, Skyla.” Shining Armor silenced his daughter with a terse command. “Flurry, what game are you playing?”
“No game, Daddy.” Flurry did her best to sound as innocent and submissive as possible, just as her co-conspirator had instructed. “After thinking about it for a while, I understood that I have some obligations that I need to grow up and deal with. Maybe I’ll have fun with Sumac.”
“Well alright then.” Shining Armor let go a sigh of relief and smiled. “See Cadance, I told you that she would come to her senses. That’s because Flurry is Daddy’s little filly.”
There was a perverse shiver of glee that went pinging up Flurry’s spine when she saw the sour expression that appeared on Skyla’s face because of her father’s words. It was delightful and she took pleasure in watching her sibling squirm. She reveled in her sister’s discomfort and upset, finding that there was a sweet satisfaction to be had from it.
“So you are going to cooperate then?” Cadance asked while one perfect eyebrow arched.
“You sound like you don’t trust me.” Flurry poured herself a glass of water, lifted it, and gave her mother a dismissive look. Tipping her glass, she had a drink while maintaining eye contact.
“I don’t.” Cadance folded her hooves atop one another on the table in front of her, glanced at her husband, and then back at her daughter, Flurry. “Give up, Flurry. You’re not smart enough to carry a plot through to its end.”
I’m not, Flurry thought to herself, but Dim is, and he prepared me for this. She did her best to look disappointed, but not too disappointed, because she didn’t want her mother to catch on that she was acting. “Fine, you got me, there is something that I want,” she said, saying the words that Dim had coached her to speak.
“Ah-ha! There is my little filly that I know so well!” Cadance’s eyes narrowed and she lifted her hoof so she could make a gesture at her daughter. “Okay, out with it you little pink mercenary.”
Scowling, Skyla looked absolutely disgusted while Shining Armor’s lips pressed into a tight, straight line. Flurry remained silent, allowing the tension to build, and doing what she had been told to do. She pretended to be weighing her decision, hemming and hawing, and did her best to present a genuine look of concern.
“I want a luxurious ski vacation for me and the Wipe-Outs during winter break. One week. Minimal adult supervision. And I get to choose the adult who supervises.” She took another drink of water and then gave her mother a hard look. Now, it was just a matter of who blinked first and she settled in for a good long stare.
“Your bargaining position isn’t very—”
“Try me, Mom. Just try me. I’ll fly south where I have friends.”
“Flurry, don’t you dare make threats!”
“Then we have reason to bargain, Mom, so I don’t follow through with them.” Flurry maintained her calm while ignoring the distracting faces that her sibling was making. “Give me what I want and I’ll give you what you want. What is my cooperation worth to you?”
“Not a ski trip,” Cadance replied while shaking her head. “No way, Flurry. You… you will do as you are told, little Flurry Heart!”
“Well, what a sad, sad story I’ll have to tell the day I join the Underwatch—”
“You wouldn’t dare!” Cadance blinked once, then twice, and then her eyes narrowed.
“Pertinax mater irrumator praetores,” Flurry whispered, hoping to finish her mother off. She heard her father gasp, but she did not turn away and kept her eyes locked upon her mother. Now was not the time for distraction, not when there was a contest of wills to be settled. “My demands are reasonable. Me, my friends, and our ski lodge. Twilight is my chosen adult. Say yes and you get a pretty little princess doll to dress up and show off. Say no… and I’m going underground.”
Biting her lip, Cadance began to tap her two front hooves together, and she squirmed in her seat while considering Flurry’s offer. A minute or so passed, then another, and the seconds seemed to crawl on, stretching out like a prisoner on a rack. Banging her hooves against the table, Cadance made her response.
“Fine, but Twilight gets to bring Pinkie Pie and Seville!”
Hmm, Flurry thought to herself, this is exactly what Dim said would happen. Pinkie Pie had her Pinkie-Sense, but perhaps both Twilight and Seville could keep her occupied. Twilight could be distracted or misdirected. As for Seville, Flurry liked Seville because he kept to himself. He was practically her uncle and he could be managed in the same way that her Uncle Gosling could be managed.
“Okay, fine… I don’t like it one bit, but I guess I don’t have a choice.” While Flurry spoke, her mother let heave a breathy, ginormous sigh of relief and Flurry did her best to look crushed. Dim had told her to hard-sell her look of absolute defeat so that her mother’s pride would be engaged—it would leave her vulnerable to further suggestion.
“You know, for a moment there, I thought you were going to lose, Cadance.”
“Hush, Shining.” Cadance restored her focus and stared at her daughter unblinking.
Skyla’s head bobbed from side to side while she looked at both her mother and her big sister. She stuck her hoof into her mouth—a foalish habit—and began to gnaw on it. The little filly slumped down in her seat and her head almost vanished below the edge of the table. Her father nudged her, a gentle touch, and she did her best to sit up straight, to be the prim and proper little princess that her father believed her to be.
“One ski trip.” Cadance’s words were a heavy deadpan. “Consider your demands met.”
“Very well, Mom. You now have one obedient, compliant daughter who will do what she is told and will not complain. You will have your precious cotillion and I will be the belle of the ball. I’ll even let you take pictures, so that you may embarrass me later.”
“Oh, that’s generous, thank you, Flurry Heart.” Cadance gave her daughter a sincere smile. “I hope they hurry up with the food, I’m starving.”
In silence, Flurry Heart savoured her moment of victory.
There was little that Sumac could do but squirm while Wormwood paced back and forth. If the big nocturnal pegasus was upset about his daughter’s failure, he didn’t show it. Gloomy on the other hoof, was quite upset and had excused herself into the kitchen for a short time, leaving Sumac to wonder how things might have gone down had he and Pebble not been here when Silver Lining dropped the bad news. When Gloomy had returned to the room, it was pretty obvious that the lecture in waiting would be dropped like a bomb the moment that Pebble and Sumac were out the door.
“Sir, there is actually something I wish to speak to you about,” Pebble said to Wormwood as he paced through the narrow but long living room of the house he called home. “I would like to take Silver Lining to the Crystal Cotillion as my date.”
“Oh?” This made Wormwood stop in his tracks and he looked down at the filly in such a way that suggested that she had said something outrageous. “Now, why would I agree to that?”
“Because,” Pebble deadpanned in reply, “your daughter failed at something that can be sorted out if given enough time and you, you’re not cruel enough or stupid enough to rob her of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to punish her over something so petty. At least, I hope you’re not. I would be disappointed with you if you were, being the pillar of the community that you are.”
“Mmm, going right for the jugular.” Wormwood nodded and his fuzzy ears twitched. “I approve. Now, what might motivate you to act with such aggression…” His words trailed off and he extended one wing to rub his chin. “You’ve latched onto the throat, but can you score a kill, I wonder?”
For the first time, Sumac noticed the tension just hanging about and he felt Silver Lining grip his foreleg with her talons. On the couch beside him, she leaned over and her weight bore down on him, a sensation that he didn’t mind. Silver Lining was trembling and Sumac couldn’t blame her for being scared. Pebble might have bitten off more than she could chew, but there was little he could do but remain silent.
Pebble seemed to be blushing a darker, ruddier brown, and she kept her head pointed up at an odd angle to maintain eye contact with Wormwood—an impressive feat unto itself—evidence of haughty arrogance, brash confidence, or both. For Sumac, this was when Pebble was at her best and he loved her most; when she was crazy-brave, stubborn, and sticking her neck out just for the sake of doing so.
“She is one of my best friends and I am hoping that she can be something more.” Pebble’s voice wavered, her deadpan was gone, having fled her, and she sounded like a scared, insecure filly. “I am still coming to terms with losing Olive, a dear friend of mine, and this is a crazy, desperate bid to keep what is left of my foalhood friends together by making something a little more long term. So if you refuse, not only are you going to crush her, but me as well.”
Wormwood said nothing in return—in fact, he had no reaction at all—and Sumac was glad that it was Pebble doing the talking, because it seemed as though Silver Lining’s father was in the mood to strip souls bare. So far, Pebble hadn’t flinched and she dealt with Wormwood in the same way she dealt with every other adult in her life.
If only Sumac had looked over at Gloomy, he might have seen that she was reacting to the tension in the same way he was. She squirmed as though her insides were being tied into knots and her eyes were both troubled and hopeful. The mare’s ears kept rising and falling, like two pump handles, and if this kept up, there could be no doubt that water would come to flow.
“I want her to be more than a friend,” Pebble said to Wormwood. “I want a big family like the one I grew up in. Sumac is the Heir to Lulamoon Hollow and this is something I take seriously. I might even take it more seriously than he does. This is an opportunity like no other and I’ve worked very, very hard to make myself worthy of it. I want to make a difference. Lulamoon Hollow is a place where I can make a difference. But if I am going to pull this off, I know that I am going to need the help of my friends.”
With a measured turn of his head, Wormwood turned to look at his adopted daughter, and then in silence, considered her for a time. His face was a book written in some unknown language and it was impossible to read. Shifting his weight from the left to the right, he let out a rumbling sigh and stared at Silver Lining with what could only be described as paternal affection.
“You want a good future for your daughter and so do I.” Pebble also shifted her weight and she looked a little bit sweaty. “So we share a common cause and this familiarity gives us a platform for negotiation. I know how grown up all of this must sound and I am pretty sure that you are doubting me right now, but you are wrong to do that.” Emboldened, Pebble took a somewhat more hostile stance. “Never bet against an earth pony hoping to start a family.”
Wormwood said something at last: “That… that is something I trust.”
“All of Lulamoon Hollow will be my family,” Pebble continued and there was a hopeful tremulation in her voice. “I want to be a matriarch like the earth pony mares of old. I want those ponies to prosper. I want their success to be my success. I am competitive, I am ambitious, and I can be petty about it—I want to harness this and make it work for me and I want to be able to brag about how well off the ponies of my demesne are.”
“Therein lies truth, Pebble Pie.” Wormwood looked down at the filly, lowered his head, and stood nose to nose with her. “You might just be the most competitive pony I know. So that’s the game, eh? Competitive dynasty building?”
A furious blush overtook Pebble and she let out a squeak as she peered into Wormwood’s eyes. “I hate losing more than anything.”
“And having a poor peasant with nothing to show for all of their hard work… that would push you right over the edge, wouldn’t it?” Wormwood’s smooth voice was almost hypnotic and perhaps a little amused, having extracted some of Pebble’s secrets out of her.
“Like nothing else,” Pebble breathed in reply. “I would hate it. I can’t stand losing.”
“So, as a father, am I to understand that you and Sumac would be engaged in a competition to make my daughter happy?”
The words struck Sumac like a hearty slap in the face and he heard a gasp from Pebble. With a savage rip, the heart of the matter had just been exposed, laid bare, and the colt saw the truth of it all: Wormwood was looking after his daughter’s interests and was far, far more capable of ruthless exploitation than Pebble was. In fact, Pebble could learn a lesson from all of this, and it would be prudent for her to be taking notes. She was just learning how to play this game, and Wormwood was already an undisputed master of cold, calculating negotiation.
“I have something to say,” Gloomy blurted out and she began to rub her front hooves together. “All this talk of games and competition make me uncomfortable and I don’t like it! Sumac, Pebble, the both of you should know… little Silver has strong feelings for the two of you, I’ve sometimes snuck into her room and read her diaries and—”
“MOM!” Covering her face with her forelegs, Silver Lining flopped over on the couch and did her best to appear to be dead.
“What? I don’t care what you think of me right now! I’ll do anything to protect you… anything!” Gloomy’s voice rose in pitch and volume. “You are what is most dear to my heart… you’re my Silver Lining!” She stammered for a moment but found her words again so that she might continue to pour her heart out. “It’s not like she has options… there are no other griffons around and she’s so attached to both of you. It’s no wonder she feels the way she does. Why, she made it clear what she really wants—”
“Mom, no, Mom, nononono, Mom, please don’t say what I think you’re about to say! I wrote that in a fit of lovesick desperation!”
“Wrote what?” Sumac asked. “Lovesick? Desperation?”
“No!” Silver Lining let out an ear piercing screech of protest and every ear in the room twitched in pain. With surprising speed, the chubby griffoness lept from the couch, bounded through the living room, bounced off the armchair, and then with her claws scratching against the wood, she vanished up the stairs with an alarming rapidity.
It was Pebble who recovered first and she stood there, blinking, regaining her senses. Looking up, she dared to face Wormwood’s gaze once more and cleared her throat to get his attention. “I’ve already had a dress made. As you have already no doubt figured out, I’ve been planning this for a while. I’ll let that be the evidence of how I feel about Silver Lining. Nothing else needs to be said.”
“Very well, you have my permission,” Wormwood said and he made a gesture at Gloomy. “And what about you, dear?”
“I can’t say no… but I worry. How I worry.” Gloomy’s voice cracked and all of her usual cheer seemed gone. “She wrote a story in her diary about having eggs with you. It is very revealing… she bared her heart in that story. I don’t know what normal griffon love is and Silver was raised around ponies, so I don’t think she knows either, and she is really scared and insecure and she wrote this beautiful, amazing story about looking after her eggs, how fragile they were, and how they symbolised all of her hopes and dreams and how easily everything could be broken and everything in those eggs would come to an end and it made me cry because it was just so beautiful and it made me think of when I looked after her egg and as her mother I just want her to be happy and I—”
Wormwood made a patient interjection: “Gloomy.”
Hearing her husband’s voice, the mare went silent and began to sniffle.
“See that my daughter has the time of her life,” Wormwood commanded.
“Will do,” was Pebble’s somewhat muddled response and she seemed shaken by everything that had been said.
“We’ll discuss some of these other issues later.” The nocturnal pegasus gestured at the stairs with his leathery, membranous wing. “Now, go on, both of you, go see if you can cheer her up while I try to sort her mother out. No funny business! I’m trusting you to behave yourselves in the privacy of my daughter’s room.”
Sumac nodded, bounced up off of the couch, and then bounded to the stairs, his hooves clattering on the hardwood floor. Pebble was just behind him, but she overtook him and shoved him out of the way so that she could be the first to go up the stairs. He bounced off of the wall with a thud, wobbled into the banister while regaining his senses, and had to scramble to keep his balance. It was fine for Pebble to go up the stairs first, because this gave him quite a view of her generous, ample backside.
They were going to the cotillion… together.
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8388811 Sorry couldn't help it.
Both plot threads of this deliciously devious story are utterly delightful! Though personally, I actually do hope that Flurry joins the Underwatch. I suspect that she'd be rather happy there, actually.
Teenage wipeouts on a mission. This is going to crash and burn in the most glorious way possible.
... This is going to crash and burn. Flurry is playing a dangerous game, and i feel this is just the start of her and Dim's scheme.
As for Pebble, im pretty sure that was sinply a matter of being honest and correct.
I wonder, it's been over five years, is it still just Wormy, Gloomy, and Silver?
poor silver, her parents look like they might have put her on a downward spiral, they piled too much exspectation on her, they try to control too much of her life, and they dont give her the space she needs. I knew I guy who had parents like that, he had a psychological breakdown and tried to kill himself and the last I heard he got sent to a psych ward.
Now I gotta wonder what Flurry and Sumac are planning. Hmmm.
8389450
Nothing. Nothing at all.
Flurry has yet to speak with Sumac, so no plans have been made.
Not sure how it will crash and burn keep in mind Flurry and Pebble are only two of the many schemes on going. We can't forget all the nobles both from the Crystal Empire and rest of Equestria.. This doesn't count any plans that various members of the royal family might have though those might be more in the lines of thwarting any untowards plans of the other nobles
missing open quote
8389453
Indeed. I expect collusion at some point, maybe. Though it could just be me getting antsy with all this conspiring.
8389415
10 bits says this is the middle of Cadence's and Dim's scheme.
Bargaining, the chapter. Very interesting views on the characters.
Though, yeah, Flurry should write Celestia and get set straight about little sisters. Nightmare Moon and all that, y'all.
I know that things are at stake, but... Yikes.
Oh yes, Princess Flurry Heart: Destroyer of Mud-Monsters, Mistress of Disobedience, and Slayer of the Undead. The Heroine of the realm of pony, all must bow down to their queen!
Annoying your sister simply by behaving, this strategy is winning already.
Wow, Cadance.
Hmn. I'm not convinced this incident is serious enough to deploy the Underwatch threat on. That feels like the sort of thing you can only really use a handful of times before it stops working.
It still baffles me how you depict different stages of maturity so naturally. You can write the mind of a young pony dealing with problems too big for him, smart adolescents trying to reconciliate their minds with their changing bodies, and witty adults with complex relationships, and switch between thses perspectives like it's nothing. Sometimes I wonder if the author of TSSfFF is really the same as Quesadilla or The Masks we Wear. The writing style is sometimes so different from one story to another that it's hard to see if they really are from the same author.
Competitive dynasty building, nice way of putting it. I can't imagine what Gloomy and Wormwood are thinking. Pebble clearly will do all she can to protect Silver Lining but she has pretty much decided that Silver Linings best interests are with the Lulamoon family. It definitely could be an upgrade in status for Silver but hard to say if a griffin of her disposition would have her best interests met by being taken in by the Lulamoons. The family isn't the most gentle of families and given Pebble's current focus on dynasty building their days of being downright ruthless (not evil but likely a bit amoral) in their family advancement might not be at an end.
Hard to say where Pebble's care for the well being of others around her and her care for the future of Lulamoon Hollow begins and ends. It is in sync at the moment but this could easily turn to one being at the mercy of the other in priorities.
8390051
Flurry isn't that smart yet to know when to drop her threats.
I wonder if Dim is helping Flurry entirely straight or not, or if he's trying to expose her to what she's refusing to do to show it's not nearly as bad as she thinks - still a situation that she can control and make work to her desires from inside the system instead of wild childing it out and about. Such as if he took a not-quite-conflicting contract from her mother to make this happen.
Because Cadence can't be this dumb. A single ski trip, basically a short vacation, in exchange for Flurry spending the rest of her life as a proper princess. That's not a good deal at all, it's not one someone would settle for.
8390310
Nowhere does it say spending the rest of her life as a proper princess. Nowhere. Just good behaviour for the cotillion and nothing more.
8390324
So the part where she talks about cooperating isn't 'total cooperation', but 'temporary cooperation', then?
8390380
Yes. For the cotillion. For the event.
I didn't have her talk like a lawyer to explain everything to the reader, I had her talk to her mother.
8390380
Yeah, this is not a lifetime agreement.
Wait did I miss a story? What happened to Olive?
8390420
Nothing yet, but she is going to Canterlot soon.
8390389
First part cleared it up for me. Considering general context of her issues with doing anything her parents wanted - which were issues with her not acting like a perfect princess as it was presented, when a few words skipped my memory I'd figured that giving in to these demands she's steadfastly refused was more of a long-term acceptance (once you say yes, you're stuck). Wherein the deal seemed skewed from that missed understanding, creating my own confusion which has been solved.
I hadn't the slightest problem grasping your use of familiar speech in writing, since I've had to explain it to people who took it at face value over the time I've been a reader.
8390394 Not pratical especially considering the life span of alicorns
Wait, Olive died?!? I really need to read more of these.
9240445
No, not yet anyway. She went to Canterlot to join the Guard