Arranged happiness

by cealdra

chapter 3

No matter how small an establishment is, when you start shouting it will draw attention from anything in it to. Rarity soon found out the hard way as she could feel the burning stares of the other patrons. Normally an absolute embarrassment, but that was the least of her concern. Her main concern lay with her friends right now.

Taking a long drink from her wine to collect her thoughts the pristine white Unicorn looked at the two mares in front of her. One had hidden her face in distress and shame while the other had a sheepish grin in an attempt to hide her own insecurity about it all. Her voice was filled with barely contained venom and fury as she spoke “How did this happen, I thought it was out of practice and impossible between members of the same gender.”

Twilight sighted as she explained the ordeal, how her uncle had been 'volunteering' in the castle-archives and found an ancient document that would allow him to sell the hoof on one of the members of his family into marriage to anything sentient and had found a willing counterpart in Fluttershy's father who desired nothing more than a noble title for access to the royal court instead of having to wait weeks for a normal court appeal. And ending with the meeting they had last night.

Rarity could do nothing more than shake her head in disgust at the motives of the stallions in question. As the avatar of generosity the sheer amount of greed sickened her beyond words. “I am sorry to hear that you cannot reverse this travesty. I cannot say for sure, but I think the others will stand by you in this just as I will.” She thought for a while before speaking up again “You wanted to discuss the best way to bring the bad news. Well now, let us speak while we eat.”

The next few hours had been filled with ideas and the thoughts on it. They had ranged from the simple but impersonal things such as sending a letter or an invitation to the wedding, which were dismissed due the fact it might hurt Pinkie's feelings if she could not organize the reception, to having them all gather at the library for the announcement.

In the end it was chosen that each of the three present would invite one of the remaining friends to a sleepover in four days. They had chosen that date due it would be Saturday and everypony should be available for it. Fluttershy being the only one able to fly would speak with Rainbow Dash, while Rarity would speak with Pinkie Pie and Twilight would go to Applejack. The last two had been chosen by random chance as Twilight had promised a few weeks ago to help out at the farm with cleaning an old barn which had been invested with rather nasty fungi. It could have not been more ideal for Twilight. Her white friend however fared not so well, having drawn the short straw so to speak she had to invite the last of their friends. A task not easily achieved as it was often a task alone to let the pink mare stand still and listen for longer than five seconds. Let alone inviting her to a rendezvous not of her own designs.

They had remained for a little while longer, simply catching up on the most recent events in their lives other than the obvious. Fluttershy surprised her companions by taking a glass of wine herself. Albeit filling it only to halfway. But it was not before long that the bill had been paid by Twilight. Something what had always surprised her friends. For all they knew Twilight lived of a stipend but she always seemed to be able to do what she wanted. Even going out for lunch every day. Either her royal stipend was really royal in amount as well or there was more to this mare then what was expected.

As they said their goodbyes all of them went in a different direction. Rarity had proclaimed she needed to go to a client before going to bed to discuss how a dress had been fitting and thus could not walk with Twilight until the marketplace. But the truth was, she had something to discuss with a certain doctor in the hospital concerning a couple of the healer’s newest patients. Calling in a favor owed for sacrificing her last bit of a very fine silk to make special bandages for a rather unfortunate burn victim. Of course she would never stand in between a doctor and his duty of healing, but she sure as Tartarus would do her best to make sure the recovery would be as slow and agonizing as possible. That would teach those brutes to mess with a mare's love life.

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

The days until the sleepover had drawn by slowly, both mares had their worries. Despite what Rarity had said they both worried about what their remaining friends would say besides the fact they themselves were not completely at ease with the thought of their situation.

Twilight had opted to have it at the library, not only did it have more room than Fluttershy's cottage there were also less animals around that could be disturbed. But with every passing minute she was beginning to regret it. Without Spike keeping the place clean had proven a task unlike any other. How the little guy did it was beyond her, but she had almost spent the last two days attempting to clean it. But she finally managed it with minutes to spare even. As agreed both Fluttershy as Rarity would be there about half an hour earlier than the others.

As clockwork her friends had been arriving in their usual order, of course the order was a bit out of line by having two of them come earlier than the others. But Pinkie had like always showed up first. Although she seemed a bit down at the fact that she was not the first completely this time. After her came Applejack and of course a few strokes before being the agreed time Rainbow Dash had shown up.

During most of the evening Fluttershy and Twilight had been trading glances with each other. So far everything had been going well. But as the unavoidable came the tension between the both of them started to rise. Very soon they would run out of games to play and topics to discuss. Walking towards each other they looked towards the other for a final time before Twilight cleared her throat.

Just before this they had silently agreed to let Twilight do the talking. It had been an agreement made with a few nods and common sense. They both knew the pegasus would simply fall shut and fail to utter even a single word let alone a complete sentence.

At the sound of Twilight’s obvious attempt to get attention seemed to be working as four sets of eyes turned to their reaction. Taking a deep breath the bookish pony steadied herself and began. “Well as you all might have wondered why I invited you over for this sleepover. Some days ago Fluttershy and I were called to the house of my parents.” At this point Twilight chose to ignore the blatant confused stares they were receiving. “At this meeting we both learned of a plan thought up and executed by my uncle and her parents. I know most of you dislike the long detailed stories and certainly when they revolve around politics and the likes so let me cut directly to the chase. They had come in possession of an ancient contract. A contract they could use to literary force two ponies to marry. In other words, Fluttershy and I are to wed coming spring. And nothing, not even the princesses can nullify the contract.”

The silence hanging in the room was deadly. But it did not last long; both mares were drawn in a bone crushing hug by a pink blur while two others were simply spouting venomous aspects about the situation. But none of those present had spoken a bad word about the mares involved themselves, only voicing concern and compassion for them. When Pinkie finally released both mares she just looked at them, both standing nearly flank to flank due the massive grip the earth pony seemed to possess. Her sad pout slowly turned into a small smile which turned into her trademark grin as she stared a bit longer. Before speaking up, almost completely out of the blue.
“You know, I do not know if it’s just me but I think the organizers of this had a good eye for detail. You two DO look kinda cute together.”

The statement, no matter that they all knew who it came from, caused a massive groan from most of the ponies present, all besides Fluttershy who hid her face blushing like a madman and Pinkie herself who looked around with a 'what did I say' expression on her face.

After Pinkie’s rather strange ice-breaker the conversation about the situation had been flowing more naturally. Although there had still been cries of outrage it had been geared more towards attempting to make plans for the coming spring. Planning only interrupted a bright white flash blinding all ponies present. When their eyesight returned they could see they were no longer alone and almost instantly dropped into a bow. For before them, stood the solar princess, but something was clearly wrong.

Her face, normally adorned with a gentle smile had a saddened expression. Nopony could even ask about her presence as she looked around the library's main chamber and sighed.
“Are all of you acquainted with the situation at hoof with Twilight and Fluttershy?” As the alabaster alicorn looked around she could see the nodding of confirmation. “Then let me start with an apology towards you two; Fluttershy, Twilight I hope that one day you can forgive my sister and me. We truly thought all of these repulsive documents had been destroyed eons ago. We had spent the better part of the week in the archives turning it upside down. Rest assured the few we had managed to find are gone now. What happened to you will never happen again.”

For the first time in her life Twilight saw her mentor in a state resembling remorse or grief. She knew she had to forgive her, or she would never be able to live with herself again. It had been a mistake, an honest mistake. But one thing gnawed on her mind. A single question. With uncertainty in her voice she voiced it out loud. “Why princess? Why did you ever draft such a thing in the first place?”

The question, just and soft in its setting but spoken unintentionally harsh voice made Celestia cringe even more. Shining Armor had told her how both mares had been looked upon by the ones who forced this fate on them. A simple outlook which she could have stopped not just once, but three times. First, by not giving in to the wishes of the nobles all those eons ago. Second, by not allowing the media and those bothersome nobles to know the full truth about the lavender filly living in the library. And last but not least asking the avatars to take an oath of secrets, which bound all who know about the true identity of the avatars to never be able to reveal the information. At the time she had done so to protect the six mares from the relentless media.

Her student and her friend deserved an answer even if it was flawed; with a heavy heart Celestia looked up and let her eyes glance over the mares in front of her. “It was during our first years of reign. Our parents had been killed by Discord not more than a year before; the gruesomeness of our war against him still lay heavy on the heart. Two little fillies, barely 10 and 13 years old thrust into the world of diplomacy and war. We were still so naive; we were tricked by our vizier who had been bribed by the higher nobles. A century later Luna and me were nothing more than puppets for the nobles. Until, we both rebelled against them, and their corrupt ways. But the damage had already been done. We had signed many of laws and contracts. It took nearly three full centuries to destroy every trace of the corruption these items had caused, so Equestria could become the land it is today. Unfortunately it seems we were not thorough enough.”

The regal mare looked up as she felt a warm embrace combined with the sound of gently flapping wings. A soft well-mannered voice spoke to her before she could see who it was. “Although I am sure you know the grief it caused, I forgive you. And I am sure Twilight agrees with me, you could not have known this single piece had escaped your eyes. As much as I hate to admit, my father did teach me one thing. Anything what thinks on its own is prone to make mistakes. It is not your fault that the small mistakes and oversights of those with power tend to have larger impacts.”

In the corner of her eye she could see the lavender face nodding, albeit still worried and slightly disheveled by the information just been given. A smile, however brittle came back to Celestia's face.
And as the gentle hooves of the avatar of kindness released her she looked around the small group once more.
“Thank you, it means a lot to an old mare like myself. But I am not here sourly to ask for forgiveness.” Within a second her horn sparked and eleven scrolls appeared in front of the mares, three for Fluttershy and Twilight and two for the others.
“These scrolls contain information for all of you. The one with the red seal is basically an I-OWE-YOU. If you bring this to the treasury, they are obliged to pay for your own wedding and it will allow you to use the ballroom and gardens of the castle for the event whenever that should occur. This includes the one of Fluttershy and Twilight. Let’s just say the budget it grants you is similar to the one of Shining Armor and Cadence.”

This tidbit of information alone had caused a few moments of awed shock. They had seen the extravagance of the wedding first hoof and however it had been organized one could not say it had been a cheap event. “It is the least I can do. I know each of you has been rewarded for your services in the past. But still, both Luna as well as myself had planned to give you this the moment one of you got married. We had just hoped the circumstances would have been different.”

The princess waited for a few moments to let it all sink in a bit more. Although her facade was one of serious business she was smiling inwardly. She had achieved the impossible; even Pinkie Pie was at loss for words on this subject. A feat she was a bit proud of achieving. But her time was short; an ambassador of the Tauren tribal covenant was due to arrive in a hour. And it was custom by internationally accepted terms for the hosting nation's rulers to be present at the ambassador’s arrival.

“The second scroll is an invitation, or rather an announcement so to speak. Shining Armor has spoken to me on how both Twilight and Fluttershy had been looked upon. Something which has struck me personally. The time has come for the avatars of harmony to be known to the world. I am hoping I can welcome the six of you at the press-conference. Your scroll contains the details of what I am planning to say and where and when it shall be held.”

All what was heard after hearing the announcement was a soft *eep* followed by the distinct sound of a fainting pony.

Authors notes:
Special thanks to TwilightWaffle for putting up with my horrid grammar long enough to smooth out the rough edges.

Comments

[Kail]

This chapter is a bit smoother then the others. A suggestion? The way you write the dialogue is very formal, and while it works for some of the characters it falls a bit short for others. Fluttershy's forgiveness to Celestia was a bit to proper for her I think. Anyway good chapter, till next time.

[cealdra]

1804916

To formal you say, i`ll try and keep it in mind.

[BenRG]

Interesting idea about early Alicorn history. It's as fair an explanation as any other as to why the Princesses had ever allowed such a law to exist.

So... Celly is going public about the Elements? I had a 'Avengers' flash for a moment there and I'll be interested to see what you do with this idea.

[Bujin]

Nice chapter. Really interesting story in my opinion.

[Phaoray]

I liked it and all I can add is I agree with Kail on Fluttershy being too formal when speaking to Celestia.

[Camlio]

I simply look at it as Fluttershy wants to impress Twilight. Since Princess Celestia is as much of a mother figure to her as Twilight Velvet is, it would make sense that Fluttershy would be especially formal when addressing her.

[Nightroad]

I liked it :3

I particularly liked the...oh how do I put it....the way you described the politics of early Equestria and the way the nobles used the young alicorns. Adds a little...reality in a sense of that in itself makes any sense

And as for Fluttershy's formal-ness, I see that as kind of normal. I mean, the timid pony is just acting how she's supposed to with royalty, correct?

[Creed Miles]

IDEA make an oc that is an honorable thief ( think sly cooper) break into the bastards and ditch's respective houses and find some blackmail. take or leave my idea i dont care its just after what i saw with the rarity idea i thought i would throw my idea into the ring.
great story
th05.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2012/124/8/a/i_boop_your_nose_by_beavernator-d4yh7do.png

[cealdra]

1948810
Well i`m not a big fan of rouges myself (you try getting pickpocketed a few times ) but i look into any lead i can. I`m not a vindictive person by nature so thinking of suitable stuff is kinda hard for me.

Aswell: Next chapter should be going to pre-reader somewere next week.

[Creed Miles]

1948875 have you ever played sly cooper he only steals from criminals. once again just a suggestion

[cealdra]

1949044
Sounds a bit like robin hood, but no never played it. Did play the Thief series (when they came out actually O.o (damn i feel old atm))
But i think i said it somewere before, i might be the writer but any suggestion is welcome.
And trust me, i`ve got for atleast one of them something very very nasty planned

[Creed Miles]

1949057 As a thank you for being so kind with your replies i give you a cuteness coma
24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m121w0OURn1qm02wmo1_400.gif
i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/208/183/90298%20-%20animated%20artist%253Atomdantherock%20artist%253Avalcron%20celestia%20filly%20gif%20luna%20spinning.gif?1322379782
s3.amazonaws.com/kym-assets/photos/images/original/000/175/676/59938%20-%20applejack%20artist%253AEternal-Equilibrium%20cute%20fluttershy%20mane_cast%20mane_six%20pinkie_pie%20rainbow_dash%20rarity%20twilight_sparkle.jpg?1316398013
applejack.ponychan.net/chan/files/src/134919105269.png
th05.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2012/124/8/a/i_boop_your_nose_by_beavernator-d4yh7do.png

[cealdra]

1949076
Please, for the sake of the story dont make me watch more of those. I doubt i`ll be able to take much more cuteness.
As for replies, i often am online, either writing or lurking or reading. So I take time to comment, to me responding to a idea or a well placed comment seems like the right thing to do.

(And do you perchance know any bookstore i could get such a cute Twilight of my own with a stack of books?)

[Sejen]

Suggestions for storyline?

The one that wanted a title and access to the royal court: He gets "invited" by the princess to attend every single meeting of the royal court.... EVERY.... SINGLE.... MEETING.... refusal would be a bad idea... and after Equestria finds out who the mane six are... his popularity will be lower than that of a changling queen at a wedding...
The one that wanted a heir to take over his bussiness: After Equestria finds out who the mane six are...He find out that his company has sold shares to a number of investors: five from Ponyvile, two from the Crystal kingdom, two anonymous investors from Canterlot, two Unicorns also from Canterlot, and several guards previously under the command of Captain Shining armor.... I wonder what will happen at the next shareholders meeting?

[Yobikir]

okay they most likely found all of these documents. But what if not? They are the Princesses, why don't they just make a law which makes all unused of these documents null and void. heck it could be as simple as
'Every document which has royal seals older then a century and is not finished(aka, everything filled in) loses all credibility'
or
'Every seal set beneath a document not completed loses its meaning'