The Tiniest Changes

by Venlinelle

Hijinks, Part One

Author's Note:

The notes are at the top this time because this marks the beginning of a chapter (well, three chapters) with a markedly different tone.

I was thinking after writing the other chapters of this fic (as well as a Heathers story I've been writing) that I seem to only write emotional, intimate conversations by default, and decided to see if I could write something more overtly comical. As a result, I ended up with this absurd mess of a somewhat romantic comedy. Really, it should be a different fic entirely, but I wrote it with this AU in mind, so it's staying here.

This first chapter is, obviously, extremely short; this is a sort of cold open, and the way-too-long other two chapters are the vast majority of the story. Since it's so short, I'll post part two tomorrow.

It was a beautiful day in Ponyville.

This was only the first thing that went wrong.

Starlight trotted down the central street leading away from the crystal palace, treating those she passed with waves and ‘Good morning!’s. This earned her a great number of confused looks, as it was, as she would later learn, 4 PM. For that matter, she really wasn’t known as much of a trotter, or a waver, or a Good Morninger, but she was off to visit a very good friend whom she hadn’t given nearly enough time lately, and that made up for the discrepancies in her mind.

Except the good mornings. Those were a result of a faulty alarm spell.

She had a few items on her itinerary before her arrival. The first required a visit to Bon Bon’s Bon Bons, so she took the well-practiced turns down the dirt paths that made up most of town. She could fly—really, she probably should fly, given that it gave her the opportunity to practice either her wing technique or her magic—but there were two reasons she dreaded going to BBBB (B4, as she’d heard certain ponies call it, though she'd always found the abbreviation ridiculous), and she didn’t need the anticipation to be worse.

She was, of course, making the anticipation worse by choosing the slower route, but her conscious mind didn’t need to know that.

The shop was considerably off Mane Street, and opened onto a road that in a denser town would’ve been termed an alleyway, and which served to display the backs of every other building on it. Bon Bon said she positioned it as far away from Sugarcube Corner as was convenient. Starlight privately thought that there was nothing about the location that could be considered at all convenient; it was the only place in town that gave more trouble to find than the castle map room.

Regrettably, it was also the only place in town that sold orange mocha truffles, and she was friends with ponies with terrible taste.

“Good afternoon, Princess!”

Starlight rolled her eyes fondly, the yellow door swinging shut behind her and the bell ringing cheerfully. “Afternoon! Just Starlight is fine.”

Bon Bon waved her hoof. “Whatever you say, Princess.” She began searching under the counter. “Your usual, I assume?”

“Yup. Business still going well?

Bon Bon leaned in conspiratorially. “Don’t tell anypony, but ever since Pinkie’s started focusing on whatever wild things go on in that palace of yours, I’ve been stealing more and more of her customers.”

“Don’t worry, my lips are sealed. How’s Lyra?”

Bon Bon shook her head. “Haven’t actually seen her since yesterday. I’m not sure what she’s up to, but being with her, you know, I’ve gotten so used to being concerned that I don’t worry at all anymore about the little things unless I have to.”

Starlight thought about Discord, and the Elements, and the pony she was visiting. And the princesses, new and old. And the general track of her life. “I know what you mean.”

Bon Bon carefully set a box on the counter, and Starlight counted out a number of bits she’d long since memorized. “You?” Bon Bon asked. “How’s your marefriend? I see her taste hasn’t gotten any better.”

Starlight froze. “I don’t have a marefriend.”

Bon Bon raised an eyebrow, and then, for good measure, raised the other one. “Whatever you say, Princess. You know, you’re just making things difficult for yourself.”

Starlight levitated the box to her side. “I am not. I’m telling the truth.” More or less. According to the least inaccurate understanding of her feelings on the situation she’d been able to come to.

“Right… Well, tell her I said hi. And that I poisoned one of the truffles.”

“I’ll do that.”

---

A few minutes later, she’d made it to the tea shop, perusing options under the watchful eye of a pony whose name she could not for the life of her remember. At one point Starlight had been tempted to ask again, but, upon realizing that she was instinctively planning to make the clerk forget that she’d asked, she’d hastily changed her mind and given herself a lecture.

Having selected an unusual-looking variety of lapsang tea, she walked to the counter, and the clerk gave her a knowing look.

“Your special somepony is going to love that one, if I know her at all!”

Starlight winced. “Yes, thank you, how much will that be?”

---

Roseluck hurried Starlight away from the flower stand. She always did; the longer a pony stood around, the more chance there was that they’d somehow damage the flowers. Or something.

“Hurry along now, don’t you worry! Tell your special somepony I said hi and come back soon! Royalty is good for business!”

“She’s not—slow down!”

---

“Ooh, better run Starlight! It’s not morning anymore 'cause your alarm spell went off wrong, and you don’t want to keep your special somepony waiting!”

“Pinkie Pie—“

---

Groaning, Starlight knocked on the door of a blue wagon, various items levitating around her and mud in her mane from a disastrous attempt at flying while carrying things to save time.

If she isn’t home…

But, after a brief second, the door burst open.

“Starlight!” Trixie leapt out and directly into her, causing her to drop everything unceremoniously onto the ground and somehow fall on her face and her back at the same time. “Oops. Ooh, you brought me truffles! You’re the best marefriend a pony could ask for! How’s B4?”

Starlight groaned into the ground.

Comments

[Surfing Pikachu]

Oh, based on how heated the last chapter was I assumed the romantic interest was Chrysalis.

[Venlinelle]

11751938
I do really like them as a ship! Starlight's interactions with everypony are pretty gay, so who knows, maybe they'll all end up dating eventually. Trixie would probably have a deeply stupid interview process for Chryssy to go through first, though.

[Fetch]

11751938 in MLP Time Loops, the Looping version of Chrysalis is an item with the Looping version of Trixie, if I recall correctly.

[ramdom_player201]

First chapter to have casual interactions with the everyday background ponies. Nice chapter as always. I liked Roseluck's part the most. Seems that Starlight isn't being treated differently in Ponyville outside of the occasional being called Princess.

[Razzy]

Nice change of pace.

And denial is just a river in Egypt.