Timed Ramblings

by Midnight herald

Safehouse

Since Winter Exodus, hostilities had died down between the three tribes. In the capital, it wasn’t that strange to see earth ponies breaking bread with unicorns, or pegasi parking their houses above strongholds for weeks at a time. Friendship abounded in the giddy relief of peacetime and plenty, but Smart Cookie still relaxed as the door shut behind her. And earth pony this far in Little Unicornia this late in the evening attracted attention.

Smart Cookie tossed her hat onto a peg, shucked off her coat and stamped the snow from her hooves before nuzzling Clover happily. “Thanks for letting me stay tonight,” she said before entering the sitting room.

Like most of the rooms in Clover’s house, the walls were lined with shelves of books, artifacts, reagents, and bizarre curios. Unlike many of them, the stone-mortar walls had been plastered over and a fire blazed merrily in the crowded hearth. Smart Cookie flopped onto the raw-wool rug, a gift from some Northern dignitary, sighing happily.

“I didn’t get the details from your letter,” Clover said, lying down near Cookie on the rug, almost touching. “Not that I don’t mind your company, but what’s going on?”

Cookie rolled onto her stomach, sighing and rolling words around on her tongue. “Another anonymous death threat,” she admitted, leaning against Clover’s side. Clover’s breathing hitched slightly before returning to its steady, calming rhythm. Cookie snickered softly and nuzzled at the hollow of Clover’s throat. The blush that spread across Clover’s cheeks and neck sent a fluttery warmth racing down Cookie’s spine.

“I still don’t understand how you can be so casual about it,” Clover murmured, a little frown hovering on her elegant face.

Cookie smiled and shifted herself even closer to Clover’s side, looking in Clover’s deep eyes for a few long seconds. “I’ve got you looking out for me,” Cookie said, nudging at Clover’s shoulders with her hoof. “And for all the crap I get for being a ‘traitor to my race’ or an ‘embarrassment to earth ponies everywhere’ for the way I choose to live, nopony’s got the guts to actually kill a hero.”

Clover frowned and sighed, scowling at nothing in particular, or perhaps the world at large. “I don’t like it,” she rumbled, rising in one smooth graceful ripple, pacing around the room with her long, smooth strides. Smart Cookie clambered to her own four hooves and ran a quick interception, stopping Clover short with a hoof across the withers.

“I don’t like it much either, but there’s nothing we can do to change it,” she soothed, nosing Clover’s cheek reassuringly. “I’m safe here, right?” Clover nodded. “Then I’ll just keep coming back here when I need to, alright? Eventually this’ll all die down.”

Clover smiled, though some shadowy doubts still flitted across her visage. Smart Cookie herded Clover gently to the rug and settled her down, curling around her with a happy nicker. Traitor. Horn-lover, a tiny part of her brain accused.

“Clover, do you mind if I groom you a while? It’ll steady my nerves.” Smart Cookie’s heart soared with Clover’s tiny, jerky nod. So what if I am? she shot back. She nibbled through Clover’s forelock, feeling safer and warmer than she had in a while.

Author's Note:

Prompt 474: Choose one or more of the following: A visit from an old friend, overcoming a fear, a slumber party, changing the seasons, cutie mark stories, a wedding
Special rule: Your story must be set in the time period in between the founding of Equestria and the rise of Discord.

I totally wanted to write some ancient-ass multiracial shipping. From back when that was controversial. So I made this...

Comments

[Silvernis]

This feels a bit lukewarm, to be honest, but I do very much like the historical context. There was undoubtedly a lot of tension back when the three tribes were first learning to make ships, not war.