Little loony Luna and crazy caffeinated Celestia's life in Canterlot

by Vidhwansak

That's nice, Lulu!

That's nice, Lulu!

Chrysalis was humming to herself as she sat down on her bed. Quackum was currently with another pony, who was her designated caretaker when Chrysalis wasn't around to take care of her. While originally apprehensive of the idea of another pony taking care of her duck, she had learned to trust in this caretaker, especially after seeing who it was. In fact, that very caretaker was coming along any moment now...

A faint knocking on her door caused Chrysalis to smile. Ah. She arrives here at last. Striding over to her door, Chrysalis took a small moment to compose herself before opening the door, revealing Quackum perched upon Fluttershy's head. "Hello, Fley Truths. I trust that Quackum has not been difficult for you?"

In Ponyville and certain trips to Canterlot, Fluttershy was just the shy animal caretaker most ponies saw her as. However, if she was needed in a meeting (which was very often, considering she funded quite a bit of projects in rural areas and certain other plans regarding wildlife) or something else that required her presence for whatever reason, she came to Canterlot as the mysterious Fley Truths, the quiet yet fifth richest and most influential pegasus aristocrat in Equestria, who could almost never be found unless Princess Celestia herself requested her presence. However, she made quite sure that if her friends in Ponyville ever chanced upon her in Canterlot, they would have never known that it was her on a first glance. This process was a very lengthy one, but it involved dyes, a simple alteration to her voice via a very tight-lipped unicorn, changing her mane style, and clothes, to name a few of her procedures. Instead of a naked, buttery yellow pegasus with a pink mane, there was a now snow white pegasus with a flowing light yellow mane, styled in a way that simply spoke elegance yet seemed practical (while also not being similar at all to her usual hairstyle), along with a dress that wasn't too overly flashy but still with that look that would stand out just slightly in a crowd. This, in front of her, was Fley Truths, the original form of Fluttershy.

"Not at all, Princess Chrysalis, Quackum behaved herself quite well, if I say so myself." Gone, too, was Fluttershy's hesitance to speak up; she now spoke firmly, with a smile, and with confidence behind her words. "She is a very great duck, so you better be taking good care of her when I'm not doing it." Quackum quacked, most likely at the compliment, and jumped off of Fley Truths' head to land on her owner's head.

"Of course, Fley Truths, you have my word that Quackum is under great personal care. Now, Princess Celestia wants you to join her for a meet involving you, your projects, Ponyville, and the builders guild."

Immediately, Fley Truth's smile turned upside down into a frown, and she sighed as she ran a hoof through her mane, mostly at the spot where Quackum was sitting on just a moment ago. "They're still trying to get clearance to clear the Everfree? Those ponies..." Fley Truths left Chrysalis, muttering about how selfish some ponies could be. Not halfway down the hall, she was met with Luna.

"Greetings, Princess Luna." Fley Truths bowed low, and Luna returned the bow, though it was not as low as Fley Truths'.

"Good day to you, Fley Truths! I trust everything is going well?"

The pegasus shook her head, and pointed at Chrysalis with a hoof. "Princess Chrysalis has told me that Princess Celestia wishes me to be present for a meeting regarding the builders guild and the Everfree; they still want to clear it for some project of their that clearly conflicts with one of my projects, and I have to defend it today, it seems."

A look of remorse was on Luna's face as she looked out towards the general direction of where the Everfree was. "Ah, yes, the Everfree forest would be something I would dearly miss if it was cut down. I should really take a stroll through it someday; even though it probably hasn't changed much, it would be nice to seem the old castle ruins again in my free time. Do try to convince them not to cut it down, will you? It's one of my favorite places."

Fley Truths reached inside her dress to pull out a small sheet of paper, with many, many names already written upon it, all of whom had exceptional standing in Canterlot and were very powerful. She also procured a pen. "I can do better than that; if you sign here, I'll have written proof that you yourself do not want the Everfree cleared, and that might give me a little more leverage over the builder's guild that these names may not be able to provide me."

"Very well." Luna levitated the offered pen up, and signed her name clearly on one of the few spaces left on the paper.

Fley Truths nodded, and after she packed everything back up within the folds of her dress, she walked past Luna. Chrysalis had watched the exchange with interest, and as Luna walked towards a now curious Chrysalis, she spoke. "You actually like the Everfree, Lulu?"

"Of course, Chrys! Why, it's amazing! All that wild, untamed magic in such a heavily dense forest is remarkable! You also can't forget that it's where Tia and I used to live. It's a shame ponies want to clear it."

"That's nice, Lulu! Though...I have to ask, why did you chose the Everfree, out of all places to build your first castle in? It doesn't seem like the kind of place you'd want to live in, given the choices in Equestria." Chrysalis stepped aside, and Luna entered Chrysalis' room. The two alicorns wordlessly sat down across from each other, and after a short moment of silence, Luna began her explanation.

"Well, the Everfree at the time wasn't as wild or filled with that much magic as it is now. Quite a few centuries ago, it was just a forest, though with a rather curious amount of magic power laced throughout the area. Why? I'm afraid even I don't know the answer to that, but the presence of magic nearby seemed to be a good place to build the castle, since this particular magic was easy to shape by our spell-casters and ourselves, which intrigued my sister and I. Heck, even earth ponies and pegasai could use the magic! We created a settlement, a small one, mind you; it was supposed to be nothing more than a small research outpost. Over time, that settlement seemed to make way for a town, a city, a fortress, and then it finally stopped at a castle, surrounded by a small legion of homes and businesses. More and more ponies were hearing wonderful things about the Everfree castle, how it was a center of trade, how safe it was, the amazing magic in the air; it was where everypony wanted to go, so, everypony did go.

"Now, you're probably curious about this magic; it was in the air, faint, but rather noticeable. The magic also manifested itself in a physical form, quite unlike anything I've seen before. If you merely thought about magic, and held a hoof out, a small blob of 'magic' would appear on it. The color of this magic blob varied between the ponies that gathered it. While unicorns could more easily gather this magic, they could not gather it as much as an earth pony could, or be able to get higher 'quality' magic, which was in the air. All three races benefited from this magic because it had special properties; you could make medicine with this magic, it was easier to shape than clay, making it ideal for construction and statues, and it made for some very, very durable armor; in fact, Tia's crown is made of only the finest magic gathered there."

Chrysalis wasn't expecting a history listen on the Everfree, and she gently picked up Quackum from her head, and set her on the ground, where she began looking for food. "Well, that was something I didn't know. Physical magic; that seems like something many, many ponies would be interested in, especially unicorn scientists. What do you think about the magic in the forest today?"

"Sadly, I cannot be certain, what with my last visit being when I tried to bring eternal night, but from the few minutes I've been in the forest, the magic has increased exponentially. While this is a good thing, the magic located in the forest has now attracted the attention of many monsters; I doubt a pony could gather magic in the forest without predators noticing the sudden drain of magic in the area, and they would be drawn to the spot in moments. It's just as well, really; the technique has most likely been lost through history to our little ponies, and I don't think I want any aristocrats to try and make an even bigger profit then they already have on this."

"Ah, I see. Hmm...Do you think we could leave and go visit the forest for a moment, to show me this magic and to give you a chance to walk around the Everfree again? We can dump our work on Tia and Moonie."

"You're evil, Chrys. I'm in!"

Author's Note:

Fluttershy babysits Quackum

Chrysalis and Luna talk about the Everfree forest

More backstory, yeah, because I wanted to write something about the Everfree and I couldn't think of anything humorous

Comments

[Smirkythread]

Uhhhh....what?

This, in front of her, was Fley Truths, the original form of Fluttershy.

So, Fluttershy is apparently one of the richest pegasi out there, is a noble and has a whole other color scheme going on. Also it seems she's not as shy as she usually is........what the heck?

Why is she lying to her friends about all this, never mind the fact that this brings up a big issue with Pinkie and Rarity. Remember that point where she made them both cry by calling them useless? They forgave her because they 'knew' that it was just all the pent up emotions in Fluttershy talking, and apparently now that's a lie.

Unless of course I'm getting this wrong and she became a more active noble after that incident by using the lessons she learned. Still doesn't explain why she hadn't told her friends, especially RD.

[Inkblot]

did chrysalis meet nightmare moon already?

[Vidhwansak]

3036048

I think you're reading a little too deeply into this but I shall explain my own poor reasoning on why I made Fluttershy like this so that you can try to understand where I'm coming from with making Fluttershy's character like this

...I actually have no sound reasoning other than the fact that Fluttershy very much would prefer living a simple lifestyle rather then the glamour of being a noble and kept it hidden because she doesn't want to mix her simple life with the 'high' life

No, but seriously, I can't really explain it; however, I got the idea from 'The importance of being Ernest', which could probably answer your questions a whole lot better than I could. I'm merely basing Fluttershy off what happened in 'The importance of being Ernest', in which two characters from the play both give an excuse to go into the city/countryside with a different alias, in order to make sure that they cannot be connected with their real persona back in the countryside/city

I think that's what I was trying to do with Fluttershy anyway

As to your other points about calling Pinkie and Rarity useless, not telling Rainbow Dash or any of her friends

Fluttershy, after the lessons from Iron Will, has mixed up her assertiveness training with her slightly rude way of dealing with other nobles, at least, in my headcanon (and we all know headcanons aren't going to be accepted by anyone else, so take it as you will)

Fluttershy doesn't tell her friends because it's better for her to keep things seperate

I think I repeated myself somewhere in there

I'm sorry if this all seems like excuses but most of the story is what I consider to be a part of my headcanon or taking ideas from other books and applying them to certain characters because they seem like they would fit the idea nicely, so understandably I may write something you might not agree with or will make sense and I encourage you to call me out on it if you want to see me fumble around trying to explain things

3036196

The story's done but it won't be the next one

[Smirkythread]

3036659
You're right, I don't like it very much but it makes sense. The problem I have I think is that to me it sounded like the Ponyville Fluttershy is the fake persona while the one you made for the city is the real one.

That's what I meant when I said I didn't understand why she was lying to her friends. I thought she was lying completely about herself.

[xv22shasokais]

We can dump our work on Tia and Moonie.

Not more than one chapter and she already taste the magic of bureaucratic teamwork.
Poor Moonie, no more stand-up comedy for her.

[celestiaandluna111]

Who's Moonie?

[Sage Probo]

3039115 Nightmare Moon. See previous chapter for details :3

[Razzy]

Moony gonna deal with the magic of bureaucracy.

Huh, interesting take on Fluttershy.