Fork in the Road

by Novelle Tale

Chapter 1

Lemon Hearts had only been working at Canterlot Castle for six months and it was with calm, creeping, dreadful acceptance that she realized she was about to get bucking fired.

“It all seemed simple enough,” she muttered idly, watching as Princess Luna stamped her way around the table. “Just… serve the Princess her meals.” With a gust of mana, the Princess swept up each and every fork into her magic to join the rapidly growing fork ball hovering shakily above her head.

“Where… where did I go wrong?” The Princess didn’t answer, unless the sound of squealing metal-on-metal counted. But really, why should she? She’d been back from the moon for even less time than Lemon Hearts’ contract.

“Retrieve the Princess,” she heard one nameless guard mutter quietly to another, and by the seriousness of his tone, Lemon knew it wasn’t Princess Luna they were talking about.

“And what am I going to do for my retirement plans? Sweet Celestia, what am I going to do about my rent,” and now she could hear it and feel it, now Lemon's anxiety was finally rising to match Luna’s upset.

“Ha!”

Lemon Hearts flinched at the sudden sound. She swung her head around and yes, it was Princess Luna alright, glaring with a strange mixture of amusement and resentment shining in her teal eyes.

“Our sister’s own name is a curse now, is it?” Luna snorted, stamped her hoof; the fork ball condensed in her magic, crunching into itself. “How exceedingly fitting.”

“Wh–”

WHAM!

The doors slammed open, and this time, the suddenness of the sound sent Lemon Hearts to the floor.

“What is going on in here?” Princess Celestia thundered. Lemon clumsily shifted her cower into something approximating a bow. The Princess paid it no heed regardless, striding up to stand toe-to-toe with Princess Luna. Luna met Celestia’s imperious glower with her own seething glare. Several beats of silence passed, teal eyes glaring into baleful purple ones.

“We are redecorating,” Luna finally snipped. The door guard snorted, immediately sticking his hoof into his mouth to stifle it.

“I can see that.” Princess Celestia’s gaze narrowed, and she glanced at the ball of forks, each one twisted and mashed beyond recognition, her gaze unfathomable. “And you are in no way, I am sure, choosing an unhealthy outlet for your frustration again,” she continued dryly.

“It is quite within Our rights to–”

“Act out like a small child instead of trying to address your emotions constructively?” Celestia finished, cutting Luna off. Luna sputtered, and then she lost control.

The fork ball, already hovering so precariously, shook, shuddered, and finally shattered, bits of metal going flying. The shrapnel shot out like bullets in every direction, shattering the glass tableware, pinging mostly harmlessly off the decorative armor suits lining the dining hall, and otherwise embedding themselves in the walls. Lemon Hearts’ bow was back to being a cower as she threw herself flat to the ground, covering her eyes—she wouldn’t be able to afford an eye doctor once she’d been well and truly sacked, she thought wildly.

The quiet that followed was broken only by Princess Luna’s ragged breaths and, somehow, Princess Celestia’s silent disappointment.

“My study. Now.”

In a flash of golden light, both princesses were gone.

The door guards rushed over to heave Lemon Hearts off the ground, the pegasus patting her down for any injuries. “No, no, I-I’m alright,” she insisted.

And then she promptly burst into tears.

____________________________

An entire box of chamomile tea and two weeks later, and still no pink slip was forthcoming. Surely angering a royal was… well, not treason probably (she hoped), but at least punishable with dismissal (she was sure)?

“I’m sure it’s fine,” Minuette said, chomping on her apple. “It’s not like you gave the princess something she was allergic to or something! Besides, I hear she’s still adjusting to being back from the moon.” She shrugged, and took another bite.

“I’d like to believe that, but you didn’t see her, Minuette,” Lemon Hearts insisted. She grabbed the next damp linen tablecloth in her magic, shook it out with a single sharp snap! and settled it carefully on the clothes line. “All I did was serve her her meal—the chef said braised carrots with glazed pears is her favorite!” she cried.

“Hmm, then maybe she just didn’t like it?” Minuette took another bite. “Her tastes could have changed over a thousand years. We definitely don’t like the same foods we did as fillies, right?”

“You would eat donuts for every meal if you could get away with it,” Lemon said, rolling her eyes even as she finished pinning the cloth in place and moved onto the next one.

“Yeah,” Minuette sighed glumly. “We can’t all have Pinkie Pie’s constitution, I guess.”

“Mere mortals shouldn’t wish for godly powers,” Lemon Hearts chided with half a smile. And then she remembered the precarious nature of her position at Canterlot Castle and the roiling anxiety guts were right back where they started.

“I can’t lose this job,” she muttered, snapping out a second and third linen and tossing them over the line to join the rest.

“You’re not gonna lose it,” Minuette insisted again. She leaned back against and tossed her apple core into the nearby bush. “And if you do, you’ll find another. Easy come, easy go, there’s always jobs that need doing.”

“That’s easy for you to say, you inherited your dad’s—wait.” Lemon Hearts blinked owlishly at her friend, lounging so carelessly under the tree in the dappled morning light. “Minuette, what are you doing here? And did you just litter on castle grounds?”

“Delivery.” She shrugged and leaned back against the trunk, utterly carefree. “New hourglasses for the Lunar Wing’s library.”

“And now you’re just here to, to hang out?” Lemon Hearts sputtered. “Wait, and throw your trash away!”

“It’s just an apple core, Lemmy, it’ll decompose.” Minuette stretched her hooves over her head. “Or maybe a bird will find it first. Who knows?”

“Minuette—”

“I think this nocturnal schedule might be bad for you,” Minuette said. Lemon blinked at the sudden shift in topic. “You were never this anxious before you got assigned to serve the Princess.”

“I was unemployed before I got assigned to serve the princess, what’s there to be anxious about when you have no job prospects and no future,” Lemon answered despite herself.

“You have to know that’s not true, Lemmy,” Minuette insisted, and for once her happy-go-lucky tone was edging towards sadness. “You’re super smart and capable, I’m sure anypony would hire you in a heartbeat after a single interview.”

“Not if my mother had anything to say about it,” she muttered.

“What was that?”

“Nothing,” Lemon Hearts answered quickly, cutting off her friend and her own train of thought. “But don’t you think you should be heading back to work?” she asked pointedly.

“Probably.” Minuette bounced up back to standing, hoovering her saddlebags back into place. “Oh, right! I brought you more tea.” She floated out a box of chamomile and passed it to Lemon Hearts.

“You don’t have to do that,” Lemon Hearts stammered, and Celestia be damned, she was turned red, she could feel it.

“It’s no trouble,” Minuette answered easily with another shrug and smile. “I know your mom is the only one who sells this brand in Canterlot, and that it’s your favorite.”

And that you don’t want to see her, was left unspoken between them.

“... Thanks, Minnie,” Lemon Hearts finally said. And she was grateful, really.

She just wished she could enjoy a cup of tea without it feeling like a battle each time.

“Anytime, Lemmy!” Minuette beamed.

“Speaking of time… I guess I should wrap up and head to dinner and bed soon.” Though ‘dinner’ was a late breakfast for everypony else. Lemon Hearts grabbed the empty laundry hamper in her magic, stifling a yawn. “See you later, Minuette.” She paused, turned, jabbed a hoof in her friend’s direction. “And throw away your trash next time!”

“But I did, silly,” Minuette chuckled.

“In a trash can.”

But Minuette was already giggling her goodbyes and trotting off. Lemon Hearts sighed, turning back to the castle.

Dinner, and then a nice cup of tea, and then bed, she decided firmly. Disappointed mothers and princesses be damned.

Comments

[Purple Seacow]

This seems quite sweet, the conversation between Minuette and Lemon has that casual ease friends have.
Also Luna's explosive mood is quite funny, I can easily picture her doing it in frustration.

If I could offer some constructive criticism, I found it slightly odd that Lemon would even speak out loud in the first scene, may I suggest turning that to internal thought instead? And have the "Sweet Celestia" being the only audible part?