Piece by Piece

by Eltirions

Chapter 18: Preparations 6

11 December 1008

Rainbow was just about to gather some guards to train again in an attempt to give the children something to do when the door opened and Rarity finally walked in, followed by Lily Merrimare.

‘’Darlings!’’ Rarity greeted everyone with that dazzling smile of hers. ‘’It is a pleasure to see you all again! Did you have fun together?’’

‘’Hi auntie!’’ Flurry hopped off her chair and walked forward, meeting Rarity in a hug. ‘’We had lots of fun!’’ she answered Rarity’s question.

‘’That is good,’’ Rarity said as she returned the hug Flurry gave her. ‘’I’m glad you and your friends enjoyed yourselves.’’

‘’What am I, chopped wheat?’’ Rainbow quipped.

Rarity rolled her eyes. ‘’You’re never forgotten, darling.’’ She took a sideways step and pointed at Lily Merrimare. ‘’Everyone, this is my new secretary, Lily Merrimare.’’

‘’Hello,’’ the pegasus said, ‘’it’s a pleasure to meet you all.’’ She bowed her head at Flurry. ‘’And an honour to meet you, Princess.’’

‘’It’s nice to meet you too,’’ Flurry said after a moment. ‘’Are you coming with us on the train ride?’’

No, she isn’t.

‘’Yes, I am,’’ Lily Merrimare answered. ‘’And, if she wants to, my niece will come too.’’

‘’Indeed, Sugar may come if she wants,’’ Rarity agreed. ‘’I’m sure the train can fit one - or two - more on it.’’

Had they been alone, Rainbow would have tried to talk some sense into Rarity. However, doing that with the foals - especially Flurry - present, was not in any way a good idea. So, she held her tongue.

‘’Anyhow,’’ Rarity continued, turning to the foals, ‘’I must apologize for how long we took. I quite forgot the time, I’m afraid.’’

‘’No sweat,’’ Rainbow remarked. ‘’We had fun anyway.’’ That sounded a bit more crude than intended.

‘’I’m glad to hear it,’’ Rarity said. ‘’Now, we still have some time left, but we do have to start packing for tonight, and I’d prefer to have that done before dinner.’’

‘’Can’t it wait?’’ Rainbow asked. ‘’What are we going to do after dinner then?’’

‘’Oh, I’m sure we can think of something,’’ Rarity replied dismissively.

‘’But auntie,’’ Flurry spoke up, ‘’we’re going to have a late dinner, and then my friends have to go home afterwards. I can’t play with them if I have to pack.’’

Rarity blinked, as if she had forgotten that. ‘’Forgive me, darling, I hadn’t considered that. In that case, we can pack after dinner. You’re not going to see each other for some time, after all.’’

Predictably, the faces of the foals all lit up at that. ‘’Yay!’’ they cheered together. It was a cute sight, Rainbow would not deny that.

‘’So, what do you want to do, Flurry?’’ Rarity asked. ‘’I have a free schedule now, after all.’’

‘’I have lots of toys!’’ Flurry chirped. ‘’We can go play with them!’’

Toys. Of course.

‘’Cool,’’ Rainbow said. ‘’What kind of toys?’’

‘’Knights and princesses,’’ Flurry replied, ‘’and dragons, like Uncle Spike! And wizards too!’’

Rainbow resolved to get Flurry a Wonderbolt (or Shadowbolt, she wasn’t picky) action figure for Hearth's Warming Eve, coincidentally solving the problem of what she was going to get the filly.

‘’Well, that sounds like fun indeed,’’ Rarity commented with a smile. ‘’I think we’ll all go play in your room then, no?’’

‘’Sure!’’

‘’Perfect!’’ Rarity turned to face Lily Merrimare. ‘’Darling, if you would, you can head back home to pack and then have a tour and dinner here, or can you do it in reverse. It matters not as long as you make sure you are in my office by seven.’’

‘’As you wish, my- Rarity.’’ Lily Merrimare bowed her head a little. ‘’I shall head back home, and then I’ll come back for dinner with my niece, if she wants too.’’

‘’In that case, I’ll see you at dinner. Good day, Lily.’’

‘’Good day, Rarity.’’

Lily said her goodbyes, then left the room. Rarity, Rainbow and the foals all made their way to Flurry’s room, which was still big enough for all of them. Rainbow would have loved such a big room when she was a kid.

Not that she had had a bad childhood. But still. Big rooms were big rooms.

Rainbow and Rarity kept to the edge of the room, as the foals began to examine and then play with Flurry’s extensive toy collection.

‘’So, how did the conversation go?’’ Rainbow softly asked Rarity. The outcome was obvious, of course, but Rainbow wanted to know how that had come to be.

But Rarity shook her head. ‘’I’ll tell you more on the train, together with Lily.’’

Rainbow scowled, but nodded anyway. ‘’Okay, but I want the full story.’’

‘’Of course,’’ Rarity agreed, as if that was obvious. For a moment it looked like she wanted to say something more, but she didn’t.

‘’Auntie, Rainbow, come play with us!’’ Flurry requested suddenly. ‘’We need more people so we can use all the toys!’’

Rainbow jumped off her chair and Rarity gracefully slid off it. ‘’Who’s my guy?’’ Rainbow asked no-one in particular.

Flurry pointed at a pegasus mare, clad in silver armour and wielding a spear and shield, red mane contrasting sharply with her deep blue coat. ‘’You’re gonna play with Sir Gleaming Shield!’’ she instructed. ‘’Auntie Rarity, you can play with this one!’’ And Flurry held up a figurine of a unicorn mage, a white stallion with an orange mane. ‘’This is Archmage Dusk Shine!’’

Well, it could be worse. Rainbow was still going to get Flurry a Wonder/Shadowbolt figure for Hearthswarming, but a guard was the next best thing. Well, a member of the Cloudsdale Royal Legion would have been better, but anything of them was hard to get outside of Cloudsdale.

‘’She looks positively delightful, darling,’’ Rarity remarked as she laid down next to Flurry and took the figure from her. ‘’What adventures is she going to experience?’’

‘’Together with Sir Jack Apple, the Thief Bubble Berry, the Scout Rainbow Blitz, the Druid Butterscotch and the Sorcerer Elusive,’’ Flurry pointed at a yellow guard, a bright purple thief, a orange scout, a green druid and a red sorcerer as she listed off the names, ‘’they will save the kingdom of Prince Crescendo,’’ she pointed at a white unicorn with a crown, ‘’from the evil wizard Sundown Glare!’’ She held up a dark unicorn with a blood-red mane and a wizard’s hat.

Flurry moved the figures around until everyone had at least one, with Prince Crescendo standing behind the gathered heroes and Sundown Glare being in a small castle on the other side of the room.

Well, this’ll be fun.

|-x-X-x-|

11 December 1008

Lilac made her way back home as quickly as she could. It wasn’t as far from the Palace as it could be, but it was still quite a distance.

Not that the home itself was bad. Winter had a very generous salary, and she had used it to buy an apartment only half an hour away from Heart Square, which was impossibly expensive to anyone else.

Lilac didn’t slow down until she stood in front of the door to the complex. She fished the key out of her pocket, unlocked the door and got up the stairs and to the door to their home.

She really was lucky to have such a lovely marefriend.

The key slid into the door, and then the door opened with a click. ‘’Sugar, I’m back!’’ Lilac called out as she stepped into the hallway.

A few seconds later, as Lilac was hanging her scarf on the rack, Sugar’s yellow face, complete with moderately-unkempt mane that had more or less the same colour as Lilac’s coat and slightly darker blue eyes, appeared from the doorway to her room, which was connected to the main hallway. ‘’And, how did it go?’’ she asked without preamble.

‘’I’ve got the job,’’ Lilac replied with a smile.

‘’Great,’’ Sugar said without much enthusiasm. ‘’Congratulations.’’

Lilac gulped. Today was full of revelations she was not looking forward to. ‘’But I have to go with the royal tour tonight.’’

Sugar stared at her.

‘’You can come too,’’ Lilac hasted to add. ‘’And…’’

‘’And what?’’

Lilac would have scolded Ocellus for her tone- probably would, later. ‘’And… I told the Governess our story.’’

‘’WHAT!?’’ Ocellus shouted.

‘’Quiet!’’ Lilac snapped. ‘’As you can see, I’m not imprisoned or harmed in any way. The Governess- Rarity, as she told me to call her - wants to speak with me about it in more detail tonight, but it doesn’t look like she’s going to have me locked up. Or you, for that matter.’’

‘’But… but why!?’’ Ocellus stammered. ‘’Why-’’

‘’Better she knows now,’’ Lilac said in a reasonable tone of voice, ‘’than she figures it out herself. You saw how that almost turned out with Winter.’’

They’d been dating for a month, already living together, when Ocellus had accidentally let her concentration slip and turned back into a changeling. Lilac, after lots of talking, managed to convince Winter they meant no harm, and that she was sorry for deceiving her.

Lilac did love Winter, after all. She hadn’t ever expected to fall in love with a pony, but here they were.

‘’... I guess,’’ Ocellus sullenly admitted after a few seconds. ‘’But now what?’’

‘’We go on as normal,’’ Lilac answered firmly. ‘’Rarity will probably bring Commander Rainbow Dash with her to the conversation tonight, so she’ll know too, but other than those two, no one else needs to know. We’re still safe here, don’t worry.’’

‘’I don’t think we’re safe anywhere.’’

Ocellus had developed a dark sense of humour over the past months. Perhaps it was a coping mechanism, but it still hurt Lilac to see her once so bright and excitable niece turned into this sombre and dark being.

‘’Come here,’’ she said softly.

Ocellus crossed the distance between them in what Lilac was sure was record time, and Lilac wrapped her forehooves around the not-filly in a hug.

One thing ponies are better for than lings: their coats are very soft.

Ocellus’ wings touched Lilac’s own. When making their disguises, Lilac had been forced to pick between pegasus and unicorn, and had settled on pegasus in the end, as unicorn magic was pretty hard to replicate while also maintaining a disguise so people didn’t see it wasn’t actually unicorn magic.

‘’You don’t have to come with me,’’ Lilac said softly after they’d been hugging each other for some time. ‘’You can stay here with Winter, if you want.’’

‘’Are you kidding?’’ Ocellus asked, her voice muffled by the fact she was burying her muzzle in Lilac’s chest. ‘’Of course I’m gonna go with you.’’

Lilac hadn’t really expected anything else, but the confirmation still felt good. ‘’Everything will be alright,’’ she whispered. ‘’We’re safe. Chrysalis can’t get to us here.’’

‘’Are you sure about that?’’

‘’Yes,’’ Lilac lied. She knew perfectly well that nowhere on Equus, and perhaps even outside it, was safe from Chrysalis while she lived. One day, Lilac would kill that bitch with her own hooves; she’d promised as much.

‘’You’re lying,’’ Ocellus accused without any heat.

‘’Am not,’’ Lilac said.

‘’Am too.’’

‘’Am not.’’

‘’Am too.’’

‘’Am not!’’ Lilac faked indignance very well, in her own opinion.

It had the desired effect: Ocellus giggled a little, before lifting her face up from Lilac’s chest and meeting Lilac’s eyes with her own. ‘’Am too, infinity,’’ she declared authoritatively.

After a second of staring, both of them began to giggle. Ocellus loosened her hold on Lilac and Lilac reciprocated hesitantly, before pressing a kiss just under where Ocellus’ horn would normally be. ‘’Never forget I love you,’’ she said softly.

‘’Love you too,’’ Ocellus said immediately, and Lilac felt a spark of something inside her at those words. She wasn’t sure what it was, but it had been growing more defined over the past months.

Probably just emotions, she decided dismissively after a moment of thought.

‘’Come on,’’ she said aloud. ‘’Let’s get packing, and then we’ll go to the Palace. We’re going to have dinner there.’’

‘’With the Governess and the Princess?” Ocellus asked.

‘’Yes,’’ Lilac confirmed. ‘’And presumably Commander Rainbow Dash too, though I haven’t asked that.’’

‘’What do you think they’ll serve?’’

‘’No idea.’’

Not that it really mattered. Changelings could eat food, but they fed on love, and what other species considered normal food didn’t do much for them.

That was why Lilac found it so curious that Ocellus had taken an interest in cooking, of all things. Winter wasn’t a majestic cook, but she could do it well enough, and she was always happy to show Ocellus how she had to do certain things. Still, Lilac wasn’t going to complain if it meant Ocellus did more than her school work and reading books in her room all day.

‘’Probably something complicated,’’ Ocellus decided after a few moments of silence. ‘’Anyway, what do I need to pack?’’

‘’Well, we’re gone for nine days, not including tonight,’’ Lilac said, ‘’so what do you think you’ll need?’’

‘’Books,’’ Ocellus immediately declared. ‘’A jacket too.’’

‘’I’ll pack our toothbrushes,’’ Lilac said, ‘’but you have time. Dinner isn’t for more than an hour.’’

Though maybe, if we’re early, we could do the tour before dinner.

‘’Actually,’’ she corrected herself, ‘’make a bit of haste, so we can have the planned tour before dinner. Or at least part of it.’’

‘’Sure,’’ Ocellus agreed. ‘’I don’t have much to pack anyway.’’

Lilac didn’t either, and after writing a note for Winter and laying it out on the dinner table, they left for the Crystal Palace.

Author's Note:

Right, here we are with Chapter 18. Only 2 POVs this time, and the plot is moving forward. I think Chapter 19 will be the last chapter during 11 December 1008, and then we'll get to Rainbow Falls!

Comments

[Martydi]

‘’Love you too,’’ Ocellus said immediately, and Lilac felt a spark of something inside her at those words. She wasn’t sure what it was, but it had been growing more defined over the past months.

Probably just emotions, she decided dismissively after a moment of thought.

I smell skittlebugs.

[Eltirions]

10999967
*clears throat and looks away* I would never!

[ShiningBeacon]

I'm picking up a lot of what may or may not be foreshadowing in this chapter, and I like it.

[Eltirions]

11001197
Well, we have some nineteen days left after the 11th, and considering I put over 10K words into every day... well, I can't very well write a longfic just filled with fluff, now can I?

[The Great Scribbly One]

A changeling chef, now that's a thought. Ironically might be a decent way to pick up some background emotions, both appreciation for the food and if one worked in a fancy place possibly some romantic stuff too.

[Eltirions]

11032853
Indeed, indeed.