A Drink

by Chemtest

Ice

Celestia, back in her disguise, takes a seat at the same table as usual, resting her head on a hoof while she awaits Teardrop. She mutters under her breath, sarcastically, “Judge me. Acted like a foal…” She turns her eyes to a corner in the room, where the cloaked mare and stallion that argued the night before now sit together more happily, enjoying a small meal and talking over the romantic candle the owner had put there the day before, “Would Sombra have this in his Kingdom? Would the Nightmare have two ponies bond with no thought of possible danger in their everyday lives? Would Discord afford the stability needed?” She frowns, looking away again.

After a minute, Teardrop trots up, “Hey, Smiles. What’s got you feeling so down?”

Celestia looks over, her frown leaving, “Hello, Teadrop. I’m sorry, I just had… an unpleasant conversation.”

Teardrop smiles, sitting down, “Well, here, let me cheer you up.” She reaches into her robes, pulling out a bouquet, which she presents to Celestia, “For you.”

Celestia blinks, floating the bouquet closer to her, “Midnight Lavender surrounding three Sunrise Orchids.”

Teadrop smiles more and nods, “You said they were your favorite, so I got them. Oh, here.” She floats out the dark blue flowers, wrapping them around Celestia’s head, as if they were a royal circlet, then floating one of the bright yellow orchids up and nestling it behind Celestia’s ear, “There you go, Smiles. Looks more beautiful than normal.”

Celestia smiles softly, “Thank you, I appreciate the gift… and I love the fact that you listened enough to recall this. Now I feel like I should have gotten you something in return.”

Teardrop grins, “Oh, you did get me something in return. Your company.” She then chuckles, and shakes her head, “No, but, really, you don’t have to get me anything. Though I do have another surprise.”

Celestia smiles more, raising an eyebrow, “Another? It seems you are as full of surprises as you are… adjective or noun.”

Teardrop smiles back, winking, “Well, I think you’re pretty full of adjective or noun yourself, Smiles. Perhaps you’d like to adverb verb noun adverb verb adjective noun?”

Celestia smiles wider, lightly giggling, “Why, yes, I would like to adverb verb noun adverb verb adjective noun, since pronoun exaggerator adjective.”

Teardrop grins, “Ah, pronoun exaggerator adjective? Well, pronoun’s noun is adjective which I’d like to verb.”

Celestia giggles a tiny bit more, and shakes her head, “That was silly. What is this other surprise, Teardrop?”

She smiles, standing up, offering a hoof, “Why don’t you come see, Smiles? I’m sure you’ll love it.”

Celestia takes her hoof, standing, nodding at Teardrop, who then trots out. She follows after her, looking around slightly, “I don’t get out here that often. It is beautiful, in its own way.”

Teardrop looks back, smiling, “Pony ingenuity, Smiles, it’s all around here. You know, my roommate actually specializes in that, she’s an engineer. She’s constantly studying and tinkering on this or that machine, trying to be the next Zap Apple, and hey, if she can manage what he did, props to her. I don’t really get it, myself, but technology is pretty cool. Thing about technology, though, it fades, and becomes obsolete. Words never do.”

Celestia nods, “But most technologically is quite old. For example, the train was invented by Zap Apple in the 1800’s, and we still use that. And the wheels that trains run off of were created sometime in the 300’s, by the old Romauian Empire. Technology is a tree, where every branch relies upon the branch that came before it, and technology can be an old, old thing. It is a fascinating thing, too, but dangerous, as are words.”

Teardrop grins, “Yeah, but words are a lot harder to suppress than technology, thus words are better than technology. I have no bias and I am not accepting constructive criticism at this time.”

Celestia smiles, “Words are powerful indeed. They can be strong distractions.” She then giggles as Teardrop runs into a wall, falling onto her flank, “They can be quite stunning, one might say.”

Teardrop smiles, standing up, “Well, that was on purpose, so yeah. I still win.” She then trots around the corner, “Come on, it’s here.”

Celestia trots after her, eyes widening as she sees what’s here. A hidden little park square, fenced off and with bright lights of all colors hanging from the fence. Inside the fence is a pool of frozen water, it’s reflective surface dazzling all around with the multicolored lights, “What is this?”

Teardrop grins, “You see, my roommate has an eccentric aunt, and she owned this little piece of land. So she decided that instead of building a house here, she would enchant a pool of water to be permanently frozen, for ponies to have fun with. She even invented this thing she calls ‘ice skating’.” She floats out four shoes from her robes, with skates on the bottom, “Wanna try?”

Celestia smiles, and nods, “Oh, I’ll try.” She trots up, taking the shoes, and putting them all on, slowly trotting up to the fence. Teardrop grins more, opening the gate, letting Celestia take her first steps onto the ice. The one hoof she puts on slips out from under her, and she puts a second in, trying to stop her fall, only for that to slip as well. She leaps flowed with the last two hooves in a final attempt to stop the fall, but they also slip out, causing Celestia to slam her belly against the ice, “Ow…”

Teardrop smiles, stepping past her, and offering a skate-wearing hoof to her, “Don't worry, it takes a bit of getting used to.” She pulls Celestia back to her hooves, using a shoulder to stabilize her, “It’s all about the position of the blades on the ice.”

Celestia nods, leaning away, managing not to slip this time. She slowly tries to take a step forward, and as soon as she does, her other three legs slip, sending her back down. Teardrop helps her back up, smiling softly, as Celestia then tries again. This time, instead of trying to trot, she attempts to paw at the ground, the force from such moving her forward some, “Ah, I see.”

Teardrop smiles more, “Come on, Smiles, let’s see it.”

Celestia smiles back, slowly moving her hoof in the same pattern, then doing it on the other side, giving herself forward momentum. She glides across the ice, and ever so slightly tilts her skate’s blades, causing her to spin around and face Teardrop. She grins, “See? Knew I could do it.”

Teardrop grins back, “Oh yeah? Try to do this.” She then skates rapidly towards Celestia, angling her blades so that she slides around her, behind her, and then spinning to come to a stop, smirking, “It takes a lot of practice, keep in mind.”

Celestia nods, then begins to slowly skate towards Teardrop, angling her blades to attempt much the same. She picks up speed, and in doing this, loses the angle she had, her hooves slipping out from under her, causing her to slide completely underneath Teardrop, somehow not tripping her.

Teardrop grins, helping Celestia get back up, “Not quite what I did, Smiles.”

Celestia looks back at her, and grins back, “Give me time.” She then leans away, skating around the edges of the ice, keeping her blades angled so she’s looking at Teardrop the entire time, “I’m a quick learner!”

Teardrop smirks, spinning to face her, “Oh, you can go in a circle, impressive. Last I checked, I did more than go in a circle, Smiles.”

Celestia grins more, “Oh, just you watch.” She then shoots off towards Teardrop, attempting to angle her blades properly. However, her speed is too great, so she catches her front left leg on Teardrop’s front right, getting their legs interlocked and sending them both falling and sliding.

It ends with Teardrop and her pressed against each other, face to face, as their sliding comes to a stop. Teardrop smiles, blushing heavily, “Hey, Smiles, I have another surprise.”

Celestia begins to respond, only to be cut off.

Teardrop leans up, giving her a short kiss, breaking it off quickly to see her reaction.

Celestia blushes, looking down at Teardrop, and teleports away.