> A Canterlot Pony
>  by Zeck
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Changing Appearances 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Fiddlesticks, you a going to wear a groove in the floorboard, and my mother will not be pleased.” 
“What? Oh, sorry!” Fiddlesticks jumped off of the floor, but gravity quickly reminded her that she had nowhere else to go. She landed on the wooden floor with a thud. “Sorry!”
Her cousin closed her purple eyes and sighed. “Fiddlesticks, you need to relax.”
“Right. Relax. Yeah. Yeah, I can do that,” Fiddlesticks replied as she continued to pace back and forth in the living room of her aunt and uncle’s home. 
“Fiddlesticks, you are doing it again,” Octavia said. 
“Right.” Fiddlesticks walked over and sat down on the couch next to Octavia. Immediately she began tapping her front hoof on her hind leg. Twenty seconds later, she jumped up and began pacing all over again. 
“Fiddlesticks,” Octavia sighed with a smile. “You must relax. Everything will be fine. Be—”
“Yo, Tavi!” a voice shouted as the front door flew open. 
“Eep!” Fiddlesticks jumped and her favorite hat fell on the floor. She scrambled to pick it up and in doing so she face-planted squarely on the floor. 
“Vinyl, how many times have I, and my parents, asked you to at least knock?”
Fiddlesticks tucked her face under her hat and pulled it down as tight as she could. She was terrified that a certain sky blue musician was standing in the doorway with Octavia’s marefriend. 
“Sorry Tavi,” Vinyl said. 
“And stop calling me that!” 
“Why? There’s no pony else—oh. Uh, hey, Fiddlesticks.”
“Hi, Vinyl,” Fiddlesticks said from under her hat. 
“Um…what are you doing down there? If you’re playing hide and seek, then I win because I can see you.”
“Fiddlesticks, it is okay,” Octavia said. Fiddlesticks felt a hoof gently tap her on the back and she poked her head out from under her hat. “Beauty Brass is not here yet.”
“B.B.?” Vinyl asked.  “She’s coming over? Sweet! We can—”
“Beauty Brass is coming over to spend time with Fiddlesticks,” Octavia said as she shot Vinyl a look. “Alone.”
Fiddlesticks stood up and straightened her white cowboy hat. The orange bandana around her neck suddenly felt tight as she tried to speak. “N-Not alone. We’re just…going out. Together.”
“On a date then?” Vinyl asked as one side of her mouth curled up in a grin.
“No!” Fiddlesticks shouted as color flushed into her cheeks. “We’re just…going out.”
“Yeah,” Vinyl teased. “Out. On a date.”
“We are not!” Fiddlesticks said.
“Oh look!” Vinyl said as she looked over her shoulder and out the door. “Here she comes now.”
“What? No!” Fiddlesticks pranced in place for a few seconds and then dove on the floor again, pulling her hat down over her face. “I’m not ready!”
“Totally going on a date,” Vinyl chuckled. 
“Vinyl, you leave my cousin alone or so help me, I will tell the story about our first date.” Octavia said as she patted Fiddlestick’s back. 
“You wouldn’t dare,” Vinyl shot back, but Fiddlesticks could hear the fear in the Unicorn’s voice. 
“Close the door,” Octavia said. “And then go get Fiddlesticks a glass of water. She is hyperventilating.”
“I am not!” Fiddlesticks said as she shoved her chin out from under her hat. She stuck her tongue out in the direction she figured Octavia was. 
“On it,” Vinyl said as she disappeared into the kitchen. 
A second later, Fiddlesticks felt Octavia pulling on her tail and forced her to come out from under her hat and stand up. 
“Look at yourself,” the cellist said as she grabbed Fiddlesticks’ hat and placed it back on her head. “You are a nervous wreck. What is wrong? You have spoken with Beauty Brass on many occasions.” 
“Well, yeah,” Fiddlesticks said. She reached up and adjusted her hat a bit more until it fell the way she liked it. 
“So why are you acting this way? She has not changed, I promise.”
“Because Vinyl’s right!” Fiddlesticks shouted. She immediately glanced toward the kitchen, terrified that the D.J. had heard her. “This is a date!”
“You have spent time with her alone before,” Octavia replied. 
“But as friends!” Fiddlesticks hissed, careful to keep her voice down. “Never on a date!”
“Fiddlesticks, you are being silly. If you do not wish to spend time with Beauty Brass, you can just tell her.”
“I didn’t say that!” The yellow Earth pony leaned forward, suddenly terrified that she had given Octavia the wrong impression and that Octavia would tell Beauty Brass that and then they wouldn’t be able to…hang out like they usually did. 
“Do you like Beauty Brass?” Octavia asked. 
Fiddlesticks swallowed as she stared at her cousin’s face.  So many ponies told her that they looked alike, but she didn’t usually see it. Sure, they had the same mane style (even if Fiddlesticks’ was a bit more wild) and sure they had the same cutie mark, but Fiddlesticks was bright yellow with a rich blue mane and tail. Octavia was grey with a black mane and tail. 
Besides, Fiddlesticks wore a hat, her bandana, her shirt, and her favorite sash. Octavia only ever wore that little bowtie. 
Fiddlesticks just didn’t see the resemblance that everypony else did, but right then, as she stared at her cousin, she began to see some common traits. 
“Yes,” she said as she looked down at the floor. “I…I do.”
“And I think it is very clear that she likes you,” Octavia said.
“Painfully clear!” Vinyl called from the kitchen. 
“Quiet you!” Octavia shouted and then she turned back to Fiddlesticks. “So what is the problem?”
“It’s a date!” Fiddlesticks said again. Why was Octavia having such a hard time understanding that? It wasn’t two friends just hanging out. It was a date. Which involved…stuff. Stuff that Fiddlesticks had no practice with. Like, what if she tried to kiss Beauty Brass and she said no? Or worse, what if Beauty Brass kissed her and she screwed it up? What if she was so bad that Beauty Brass never wanted to speak to her again?
The doorbell rang and Fiddlesticks’ blood froze in her veins. No. Beauty Brass couldn’t be here yet. She wasn’t ready. She still needed to…needed to do something! Anything! 
“Go upstairs and splash some water on your face,” Octavia said. 
“Right!” Fiddlesticks answered as her mind began to work again. Yeah, that was a good idea. That would give her time to think and calm down. Time to collect herself. 
The doorbell rang again and Fiddlesticks jumped. “Coming, Beauty Brass,” Octavia called as she made a shooing motion with her hoof. 
For a moment Fiddlesticks stood still, her blue eyes glued to the door. On the other side of it was the most fantastic mare she had ever met and she was dying to see her, but as soon as Octavia reached the door and began to open it, fear took over and the fiddle player bolted up the stairs to the bathroom in the blink of an eye. She slammed the door behind her and listened to her blood pound in her head. 
After a while, Fiddlesticks remembered why she had rushed to the bathroom. She took several deep breaths and walked over to the sink. She turned the water on and stared at herself in the mirror. She looked fine as far as she was concerned. Her hat was on, her mane was combed, and she didn’t have any dirt on her face. Still, she splashed some water on her cheeks to be sure, and then took one last look at her reflection. 
“Okay, I can do this,” she told herself. “It’s not that big of a deal. B.B. and I hang out all the time. It’ll be fine.” 
Fiddlesticks headed for the door and opened it. The moment she did, the sound of her cousin’s voice drifted into her ears. She froze, the door only slightly open, and listened. 
“Are you sure about this, Beauty Brass? Fiddlesticks is not a Canterlot pony.”
What’s that mean? Fiddlesticks thought. Does she think I’m some sort of—
“Do you remember the Grand Galloping Gala? Do you remember all the fuss those ponies caused? That is the type of pony Fiddlesticks is.”
Fiddlesticks closed the door as her heart sank. How could her cousin say such a thing like that? Okay, so she was raised on a farm and Canterlot was extremely…foreign in a lot of ways, but she knew that. And she did her best to behave whenever she visited the city. 
“Fine,” Fiddlesticks said as she looked at herself in the mirror again. “If Octavia’s worried that I don’t have enough class for Beauty Brass, I’ll show her.” Slowly she reached up and took her hat off. She immediately regretted the decision, but she fought the urge to put it back on. Next she pulled off her bandana, because when was the last time she had seen anypony wear a bandana in Canterlot, and then she took of her sash. All that was left was her favorite green shirt. 
Fiddlesticks always wore this shirt. She wore it so much that the edges had become frayed and a small rip had started near the bottom of it. It was part of her, but it didn’t fit in Canterlot. Slowly, she pulled it off and set it aside, and then looked at herself in the mirror. 
“I feel naked,” she whispered. She desperately wanted to at least put her hat back on, but she fought the notion. How silly would she look in Canterlot if she walked around with just a cowboy hat? No, she would leave her hat off. This was for Beauty Brass, after all. 
“Fiddlesticks?” Octavia called. “Beauty Brass is here.”
Fiddlesticks thought for a moment. What would a classy pony like Octavia say? 
“I shall be down in but a moment,” she called back, trying to put on a fancy accent like her cousin. She took one more deep breath, ran her hoof through her mane a few times to straighten it, and then opened the door. She began to make her way down the stairs, painfully aware of how naked she felt with each step. 
“There you are, Fiddlesticks!” Beauty Brass said. “I was starting to…uh…”
“Greetings, B.B.,” Fiddlesticks said as she reached the bottom of the stairs. “I mean, Beauty Brass. A…” Shoot! What was a good word to use to say that she was happy to see her? “A pleasure to see you, as always.” Yes! That was refined! 
“Um…likewise,” Beauty Brass said. Her purple eyes drifted over Fiddlesticks for a moment and then she shot Octavia a look. 
“Fiddlesticks, um…” Octavia stared at her cousin and Fiddlesticks did her best not to squirm. A proper Canterlot pony didn’t squirm when under such pressure. 
“Where the blazes are you clothes?” Vinyl spat out. “I mean, I’m not complaining. You look hot, but—ouch!”
“Vinyl!” Octavia said as she pulled her hoof back. 
“What? She does! She always wears that same old shirt, so it leaves a little bit of mystery to—ouch! What they hay did you hit me for?”
“You talk to much,” Beauty Brass said. The sousaphone pony turned her gaze back to Fiddlesticks and smiled. “You, uh…you look nice, Fiddle. You always look nice.” Fiddlesticks felt a little blush come to her cheeks. “But, uh…why the sudden change?”
Fiddlesticks cleared her mouth in an attempt to buy her time to come up with a classy response. “This is Canterlot, my dear.”
“My dear?” Vinyl repeated, but she fell silent when Octavia raised her hoof again. 
“A ratty old shirt and silly cowboy hat are hardly appropriate clothes…things,” she finished. “So…shall we be on our way?”
The sky blue pony blinked several times. Twice she glanced over at Octavia and Vinyl, but Vinyl remained quiet and Octavia simply blinked in response. “Well, if you’re sure you don’t mind going out without your hat.”
Fiddlesticks swallowed. She almost turned around and ran back up the stairs, but the little voice inside her head told her to stop. “It’s fine, dear.”
“Okay,” Beauty Brass said. A huge smile spread across her face and she spun around and literally skipped out of the door, her wavy brown mane bouncing with her. 
“Fiddlesticks, are you okay?” Octavia whispered as Fiddlesticks began to follow Beauty Brass out. 
“I am fine, cousin,” Fiddlesticks hissed back. Without another word, she closed the door to the house and stood outside next to Beauty Brass. 
“So what do you want to do?” Beauty Brass asked. She casually took a small step closer to Fiddlesticks. Her tail gently brushed Fiddlesticks’ back leg and the fiddle player jumped. 
“Oh, right!” she said. Shoot. She had totally forgotten that she had to actually do stuff with Beauty Brass. What did fancy Canterlot ponies do for fun? She had been so busy trying to be a Canterlot pony that she hadn’t thought of what a Canterlot pony did. 
“Are you hungry?” Beauty Brass asked as she took another step closer. 
“Sure!” Fiddlesticks replied and she stepped away. Canterlot ponies didn’t snuggle in public. It was very un…un-Canterlot. “I mean, if you are then I am.”
“Okay,” Beauty Brass said, her face falling a little for a moment. “There’s this great pizza place over by Donut Joe’s.”
Fiddlesticks ears perked up. She loved pizza! It was so good. So many different types of cheese and toppings. It was the perfect dish, and even though her cousin said it would kill her, Fiddlesticks was certain she could eat it every day if she was allowed to. 
Fancy Canterlot ponies don’t eat pizza! she thought a moment later. So what did Canterlot ponies eat? There had to be some sort fancy place they could go to that would show Beauty Brass just how classy she could be. 
“How about we find a nice sit-down place?” Fiddlesticks offered, hoping her nervousness wasn’t showing. 
“Well, okay,” Beauty Brass said. “If that’s what you want.”
“Yes, of course it is,” Fiddlesticks said with a smile. “Dear,” she quickly added after a moment. 
	
> Called Out
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Fiddlesticks stood outside of the restaurant, trying to stop herself from crying. 
“Hey, Fiddle, relax,” Beauty Brass said as she nudged her. “It’s not a bit deal.” 
Fiddlesticks sniffled and rubbed her eyes with her hoof. “But…but…I wanted to take you…to…” 
“It’s fine, honest,” Beauty Brass said. “I don’t really like this place anyway. Portions are way too small.”
Fiddlesticks had made a critical mistake when she had taken off her shirt. In doing so, she had left her money at home in the shirt’s pocket. She had spent the better part of an hour wandering around Canterlot with Beauty Brass, trying to find some place that was worthy of Beauty Brass’ social standing, until she had finally settled on this restaurant. She couldn’t even pronounce its name, so it had to be good. 
Only, when they had arrived and looked at the menu outside, Fiddlesticks had seen how steep the prices were. She had figured she’d just get a small salad, but when she had gone to see how much she had, she had instantly realized that she had no bits on her. 
The yellow mare hung her head and her blue mane spilled down around her face. She raised her head instantly, but her mane covered one of her eyes. She tried to blow it away, but the stubborn hair stayed where it was. 
I look like a wreck. Why did I leave my hat? 
“Oh, I like your mane like that,” Beauty Brass said with a smile. 
“Huh?” Fiddlesticks stopped messing with it and stared at the blue pony in shock. Beauty Brass was just teasing her. She had to be. No pony in Canterlot walked around with their mane draped in their face. 
“It looks mysterious,” Beauty Brass said as she took a small step closer. Her purple eyes narrowed a bit and a smile came to her lips. “Very alluring…”
“Uh…well…” Fiddlesticks took a step back as Beauty Brass drew closer and she bumped into the wall of the restaurant. She let out a little yelp and jumped forward, realizing her mistake too late. She crashed into Beauty Brass and the two stumbled backward. 
“You okay?” Beauty Brass asked as she massaged her cheek. 
“Yeah,” Fiddlesticks replied as she rubbed the top of her head. She looked up and once again found herself staring directly into Beauty Brass’ face. “Um…sorry.”
“It’s fine. I like being close to you.”
Fiddlesticks swallowed as Beauty Brass started to draw close again. “Well, uh…I guess lunch is out.”
Beauty Brass pulled back and cocked her head. “What? Why? Because you don’t have any bits? I can pay for our meal if you really want to eat here.”
Fiddlesticks blinked. She couldn’t let Beauty Brass do that. A Canterlot pony never let another pony pay when they couldn’t afford it. Surely it was some sign of social disgrace. “Uh, no. That’s…okay. I’m not really that hungry anyway.”
“If you say so…” the blue Earth pony replied. She blinked her purple eyes twice. “You want me to help you fix your mane then?”
Fiddlesticks wanted nothing more. The thought of Beauty Brass being so close to her and running her hooves through her mane was terrifying but exciting. Plus, it was getting really hard to see with only one eye. She almost said yes, but then she saw several ponies walking down the street and panic seized her. What would they say if they saw Beauty Brass doing something so…uncivilized in public? What if she ended up being shunned because of it? Fiddlesticks couldn’t risk that happening. 
“No thanks,” she said. “I’ll get it.” She took a deep breath and ran her hoof up through her mane, catching as many of the long blue hairs as she could. She slowly pushed them up and back, until she felt the majority of them fall behind her ear and come to rest on her shoulder. 
“There’s that pretty face,” Beauty Brass said with a warm smile. 
Fiddlesticks blushed. “Thanks. So…what do you want to do?”
“Whatever,” Beauty Brass said. “What do you want to do?”
Fiddlesticks bit her lip. If this was back home, she could think of plenty of things to do, but she was in Canterlot, and she wasn’t sure if her idea of fun was acceptable or not.
Besides, she wasn’t that familiar with the city in the first place. She had no idea where the attractions were. Throw in the fact that she had left all of her spending money back at her aunt and uncle’s place, and that probably narrowed their options down to very little. 
Think. There has to be something in Canterlot that doesn’t cost anything.
“Do you want to go to the lake?” Beauty Brass asked.
“Yes!” Fiddlesticks replied instantly. “That sounds fun.” Canterlot had a beautiful lake just outside the city that the mountain waterfall spilled into. Fiddlesticks always loved walking over the drawbridge and watching the water swirl beneath her. Best of all, there was no charge to simply stand by the water’s edge. It would be perfect. 
The two ponies began to make their way to the city gates. They passed countless high-society ponies as they walked, all of them looking much more posh than Fiddlesticks could ever hope to. With each step she felt like she was sticking out more and more. 
“How have you been?” Beauty Brass suddenly asked, causing Fiddlesticks to jump. 
“What?” she asked as her nerves calmed down. 
“We haven’t seen each other since Vinyl and Octavia had that big fight.”
“Oh, that.” Octavia and Vinyl had had a really messy breakup just over a month ago, but thanks to a lot of planning by Lyra and a fashion show by Rarity, they had gotten back together. Fiddlesticks had played for the show, and Beauty Brass had been there. “They’re back together now. And Octy tells me that Vinyl is trying really hard not to mess up.”
“A little too hard from what Octavia tells me,” Beauty Brass said with a laugh. 
Fiddlesticks smiled. “Yeah, she was over today before we left.”
“But you didn’t answer my question, Fiddle.”
Fiddlesticks blinked. “Um…what question?”
“How have you been?”
“Oh.” That was right! Beauty Brass had just asked how she had been. “Great, actually. I’ve been—” She stopped short as her activities flooded into her mind. She had won first prize in fiddle contest back home, the farm was just about ready to have another harvest, which meant that she had been busy getting all the equipment ready, and she and her little band had a hoedown  to play for coming up, but none of that sounded all that impressive; not in Canterlot, anyway. “I’ve been good.”
“Oh.”
“So…what about you, dear?” Dear! I have to remember to keep using dear!
Beauty Brass turned and raised an eyebrow. “Nothing much I’m afraid. Business kind of died off for a bit. That song your cousin sang made us super popular. We were booked for two weeks straight, but it was pretty obvious that Octavia was falling apart because of what had happened, so we all sort of took a break.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
Beauty Brass waved a hoof. “Don’t worry about it. My lips were killing me, to be honest. But now she’s back to normal and business is picking up again. That’s why we’re all in Canterlot right now. We’re playing at some fancy party later this week. It looks like we might be getting busy again, so I figured I’d ask if you wanted to go out with me while I still had some free time.”
“G-G-Go out?” Fiddlesticks stammered. She reached up to pull her hat down, but was painfully reminded that she wasn’t wearing it. 
“Yeah.”
“Y-Y-You mean, like…like go out and, uh…” Fiddlesticks’ cheeks were burning as she desperately tried to look straight ahead and not at the pony walking close beside her. “Just…go out and…have a good time…right?”
“No,” Beauty Brass whispered into Fiddlesticks’ ear. The feeling of her breath caused Fiddlesticks to shudder. She felt her knees grow weak and she was about to say something, but thankfully they reached the exit to the city just then. 
“Here’s the lake,” Fiddlesticks said with relief. She trotted ahead slightly until she was at the drawbridge. She walked over to its edge and stood up on her hind legs so she could look over the side. She felt a few strands of her mane trying to break free, but she wiggled her ears to keep them in place. 
A moment later, Beauty Brass was leaning over the side with her. “Pretty,” she said in a quiet voice. 
“Isn’t it?” Fiddlesticks replied. She loved watching the water pour out of the lake under the bridge. She looked ahead to where the water formed into another waterfall and tumbled down the rest of the mountain, out of sight. “I’ve always loved watching this water. It’s so clear!” She looked back over her shoulder and up the mountain, tracing the waterfall up until she could no longer see it. “Where do you think all this water comes from? I mean, it’s so weird, isn’t it? There’s a giant waterfall spilling down this huge peak in the middle of Equestria. It could be the snow melt, but it seems like there’s too much water for it to be just that.”
“Do you not like me?”
Fiddlesticks froze. The question had hit her so hard and she had been so unprepared for it that it felt like Beauty Brass had literally punched her. “Wha…?”
“It’s a simple enough question.”
Fiddlesticks’ mouth went dry as she tried to speak. “W-Why would you ask that? Dear?” She slowly stood down from the railing so she could look at the mare straight on. 
“That’s why,” Beauty Brass said as she too got down. She locked eyes with Fiddlesticks and refused to look away. “You keep calling me dear.”
“Well, um…that’s because—”
“Because what?” Beauty Brass asked. “You’ve been acting like you barely know me all day.”
“Well, we’re in Canterlot, so, uh…”
“So what?” Beauty Brass’ eyes narrowed dangerously. “So you think that you have to put on that fake accent thing?”
“Well, I—”
“Because it’s getting really annoying,” Beauty Brass said. “You’ve never spoken like that before. And what’s with the avoidance? Suddenly you don’t like pizza, and then suddenly you’re not hungry, and then when I say something you run away. Do you just not want to be around me?”
“No, B.B., I like being around you! Honest!”
“Well that’s not what it seems like.” Beauty Brass closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them again. “You keep acting like some sort of stuck up pony.”
“It’s because we’re in Canterlot!” Fiddlesticks pleaded. “I just thought—!”
“Thought what?” Beauty Brass snapped. “That all ponies from Canterlot are stuck up? Newsflash, Fiddle, I’m from Canterlot! Does that mean that you think I’m stuck up?”
“No! But Octavia said I wasn’t so I…”
Beauty Brass made a face, and for a moment, Fiddlesticks thought she was going to yell at her some more, but then the blue Earth pony snorted. She raised her hoof to her mouth and covered it as she snorted again. “You were eavesdropping?”
“Yes!” Fiddlesticks said, tears coming to her eyes. “I heard Octavia say that I wasn’t sophisticated enough, so I’m trying to—mmph!”
“Go back to Octavia’s place,” Beauty Brass said as she placed her hoof on Fiddlesticks’ mouth. It felt so soft. “Talk to her. Then, get your stuff and meet me at the pizza place next to Donut Joe’s.”
“But I—!”
“Do it, or we’re done.” With that, Beauty Brass turned and walked back into Canterlot, leaving Fiddlesticks alone on the bridge. 
Great! She hates me now! the fiddle player thought bitterly. Slowly, she began to make her way back to her aunt and uncle’s house, trying to fight the tears that were building in her eyes. She wasn’t sure how long it took her, or how she even managed to find her way since she was staring at the ground most of the time, but she eventually found herself standing in front of the door. Without knocking, she pushed it open. 
“Hey, Octy,” she said as she walked in, still looking at the ground. 
“Whoa!” There was a loud thud and Fiddlesticks looked up, but all she saw was Octavia lying on the couch. Oddly enough, her bowtie was nowhere to be seen, nor was Vinyl. 
“Um…greetings, Fiddlesticks,” her cousin said, running her hooves through her mane a few times. “You are home early.” 
“Yeah…”
“Care to tell me what happened? You look fairly depressed.” 
Fiddlesticks walked over to the couch and sat down next to Octavia. She thought she heard some sort of muffled noise, but she figured it was just her imagination. 
“Beauty Brass yelled at me. She…she thinks I don’t like her.”
Octavia blinked, and Fiddlesticks saw the genuine surprise in her face. “That…is very different from what I was expecting to hear.”
“It’s your fault!” Fiddlesticks said as she turned on her cousin. She hadn’t meant to say that, and she knew it wasn’t true, but she was just so distressed that she needed something to take her frustration out on. 
“I doubt that,” Octavia said with a bit of ice in her voice. “But, I will listen as you try to justify it.”
“I heard what you said to B.B. when I was upstairs.”
“I very much doubt that as well,” Octavia replied.
“You told her I wasn’t a Canterlot pony! You made me sound like some sort of…of…backwater hick! Look, I know I’m not as refined as you, but B.B. likes, well, liked me anyway! And they you had to go and say those things about me! How could you?” 
Suddenly, a strange muffled noise filled the house, followed by several thumps against the couch. Fiddlesticks gave her cousin a look, her anger momentarily replaced with confusion, but her cousin kept her eyes focused straight ahead. 
“Probably just, um…rats,” the cellist said, but the thumping against the couch didn’t stop. 
“Your mother would have a fit and burn this house down before she let rats move in,” Fiddlesticks said. Slowly, looked over the back of the couch to see what was causing so much commotion. When she saw it, her face turned bright red and she instantly sat back down and looked straight at the door. 
“Um…why is Vinyl tied up behind the couch with your bowtie stuffed in her mouth?”
“Because Tavi likes it roug—” Octavia raised a pillow and slammed it down behind the couch, silencing the Unicorn. 
“You…may have interrupted something,” Octavia said, her cheeks turning red. 
“Don’t think that means we’re done though!” Vinyl said. Her head poked up from behind the couch and she rested her chin between the cousins. “As soon as you explain how badly Fiddlesticks messed up, we’re picking up right where—ouch!” 
“Goodbye, Vinyl,” Octavia said as she smacked Vinyl in the face and the Unicorn fell backward. “Vinyl is correct though. You misheard what I said and came to a terrible conclusion.”
“Uh…we can go over this some other time,” Fiddlesticks said as she rose to leave. “I don’t think I want to—”
“Sit.”
“Okay.”
Octavia took a few deep breaths before she started. “Fiddlesticks, sometimes it is hard to believe that we are related. My family is very…”
“Stuck up?” Vinyl offered from behind the couch. 
“Yes,” Octavia said as she rolled her eyes. “Although I would not have put it that way. And your family…”
“Isn’t?” Vinyl said again.
“That is enough, Vinyl,” Octavia looked over the edge of the couch and dropped another pillow. “But you are still my cousin, and I care about you deeply.”
“Then why did you say those things?” Fiddlesticks asked. 
“Because I care about you, and I like you the way you are. But Beauty Brass is originally from Canterlot.”
“I know,” Fiddlesticks said. “She…she told me. That’s why she was so upset with how I was acting.”
“As well as she should be. The reason Beauty Brass moved away from Canterlot was because she was tired of the way ponies act here.”
“But then why did you try to talk her out of seeing me?” Fiddlesticks asked. “You made it sound like I wasn’t good enough for her.”
“I was protecting you, not trying to take Beauty Brass away,” Octavia replied calmly. “Like I said, I care about you. I did not want you to get hurt. I told Beauty Brass that stuff for your sake. I did not want her to drag you along and tease you if she was not going to like the real you. I warned her that if she did not like you because you were not what she was used to, I would not let her near you.”
“Basically it boils down to Octavia didn’t want B.B. playing games if she wasn’t serious about you,” Vinyl said. “And B.B. got rather cross at Octavia for even suggesting that.”
“She…she did?” Fiddlesticks asked.
Octavia nodded. “Indeed. I take it you did not hear the part where she said why she likes you is because you do not act like the ponies she grew up around and is constantly playing for?”
“No…” Fiddlesticks said, feeling more than a little embarrassed. For a long moment she just sat there, but then she sprang up. “My clothes! I have to get my clothes! B.B. said I have to meet her at the pizza place!” 
Without another word, she dashed up the stairs to the bathroom and found her clothes neatly folded where she had left them. She quickly slipped them on, relishing the feel of her hat back on her head as she adjusted it so it fell right into place, and then she tied the bandana around her neck. She looked at herself in the mirror once more, this time proud to see herself, and then walked out of the bathroom and back down the stairs. 
“Nice!” Vinyl said, still lying on her back tied up behind the couch. “I’ve always thought you looked pretty hot in that—mmph!”
“You dropped that,” Octavia said as she stuffed her bowtie back into Vinyl’s mouth with her hoof. Fiddlesticks shuddered at the sight. She had had no idea her cousin was into…this stuff. “Vinyl is correct though. You do look much better this way.”
“Thanks, Octy,” Fiddlesticks said. She nodded toward Vinyl quickly, avoiding eye contact as she pulled her hat down—Oh, how she had missed being able to do that—and then made her way for the door. “Well, um…you two, ah, have a good time.”
	
> Skipping Stones
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Now, don’t you feel silly?”
“Mm-hm.” Fiddlesticks opened her mouth and stuffed a slice of pizza in as far as she could. She bit down and savored the taste of three cheeses flooding into her mouth. She chewed, squishing the tomato paste around in her mouth and then swallowed. “Sorry about being, well…silly.”
Beauty Brass took a bite of her own slice of pizza. She was much more elegant, but the look on her face said that she was still enjoying it. “Now isn’t this better?”
“Yep!” Fiddlesticks took another huge bite and leaned forward as the cheese stuck to the pizza while she pulled the slice away. She tried to keep it on the table and stuck her tongue out in a vain attempt to reel the stray cheese back in. 
“Heh heh,” Beauty Brass giggled. She pushed a napkin toward Fiddlesticks. “You have some on your chin.” 
“Oh.” Fiddlesticks wiped her face and blushed. “So…thanks for lunch. I was starving all day.” 
“Judging by the way you scarfed that pizza, I believe it.” 
“Heh.” Fiddlesticks looked down and blushed. She and Beauty Brass had downed a large three-cheese pizza in the span of ten minutes. Well, actually it had been mostly Fiddlesticks. Beauty Brass had eaten maybe a slice and a half. “Sorry. Should we order another one?”
“Not unless you can eat it all,” Beauty Brass replied. “I’m full.”
“Do you want to go back to the lake?” Fiddlesticks offered. 
“Depends,” Beauty Brass said with a grin. “Are you going to pay more attention to the water than me again?”
Fiddlesticks blushed. “I…uh, was just thinking we could…skip rocks or something?”
“Sounds good.” Beauty Brass stood up from their table and Fiddlesticks quickly followed. They walked out and Beauty Brass’ tail gently brushed Fiddlesticks’ nose. The yellow mare blushed and followed the other mare out of the restaurant. 
For a while, the two Earth ponies walked in silence. Neither said anything, and Fiddlesticks noticed that they weren’t exactly heading for the city’s gates. She was afraid she had done something wrong, but then Beauty Brass gently nudged her with her flank. Fiddlesticks looked over at her, but the mare was staring up at the sky, whistling. Smiling, Fiddlesticks flicked her blue tail so that the tip snapped on Beauty Brass’ flank. 
“Hey!”
“Wasn’t me. Must have been a fly.” 
“Oh really?” Beauty Brass grinned. “Look out! There’s one on you. I’ll get it!” Beauty Brass swung her whole hip this time and crashed it against Fiddlesticks. The yellow pony lost her balance and tilted to one side before she steadied herself. 
“Did you get it?” she asked.
“I think so.”
“Oh no! There’s another one coming right for you! Run!” Fiddlesticks flicked her tail again and grinned. 
“Oh no! Don’t let it get me! Ah!” Beauty Brass broke into a run and started dashing in the general direction of the city’s gates. 
“Faster B.B.! It’s gaining on you!” Fiddlesticks called as she gave chase. She followed the sky blue pony through the streets of Canterlot, dodging countless ponies and ignoring the weird looks and huffed breaths they got. She didn’t care about any of that. She was chasing Beauty Brass and having fun. That was all she cared about. 
Beauty Brass reached the city gates and dashed across the drawbridge. Fiddlesticks followed her, her hooves thumping loudly on the bridge. She turned the corner at the end of the bridge and followed her crush down to the lakeside. There, Beauty Brass stopped, and Fiddlesticks tried to do the same, but her hoof slipped on the grass. Instead of stopping, she tripped and crashed onto the grass at Beauty Brass’ hooves. 
“Oh my gosh, are you okay?” Beauty Brass asked as she leaned down to check on Fiddlesticks. 
Fiddlesticks spit out a mouthful of grass. “Yeah, I’m fine. I tumble in the dirt all the time.” She stood up and brushed herself off, and then readjusted her hat. “There’s a good one.”
“A good what?” Beauty Brass asked.
“Skipping stone.” Fiddlesticks reached down and scooped up a perfectly smooth stone in her hoof. Then she stood up on her hind legs and pulled her hoof back behind her head. She whipped it forward then, making sure to snap the joint in her ankle to give her hoof that extra whip, and sent the stone flying. It hit the water and skipped across the surface four times before it sank. 
“Nuts,” she said. “Best I’ve ever been able to do is seven. What about you?” She came back down on her front legs and looked at the ground for more stones. 
“I don’t know how to do it,” Beauty Brass replied.
“What?” Fiddlesticks asked, stunned. She looked up from her search in surprise. “But it’s so easy.”
Beauty Brass blushed and looked down. “I…uh…can’t really stand on my hind legs like that.”
Fiddlesticks blinked. She had learned to stand on her hind legs from such a young age that she often forgot that it wasn’t a common trait for ponies. “Well, do you want me to help you?”
“Sure,” Beauty Brass said. 
“Okay, first. Let’s find you a stone. Hm…ah! This one looks good!” Fiddlesticks bent down and scooped up a smooth stone by the shore. She then turned to Beauty Brass. “Okay, now you have to, um…hm.”
“What?” Beauty Brass asked. 
Fiddlesticks held the stone as she looked at the sky blue mare. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do now. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. She knew what she was supposed to do, she just didn’t know if it was…okay. 
“You, uh…need to stand up now. You…want me to help you?”
“Yes!” Beauty Brass said a bit too quickly. Fiddlesticks pretended she didn’t see the glint in her eyes when she spoke. She walked over and put the stone under her hat. Then she just looked at Beauty Brass. Her shiny blue coat, her beaming purple eyes, and that classic little bowtie that she always wore. Fiddlesticks had always thought she looked elegant, but in a different way than her cousin. Octavia always seemed to shine so brightly that she was unapproachable. Beauty Brass was different. She was refined like Octavia, but the aura of being unapproachable wasn’t there. Her eyes bled warmth, and her smile was always bright and welcoming. It was part of the reason that Fiddlesticks liked being around her so much. 
“Uh, Fiddle? Hello?” Fiddlesticks blinked when Beauty Brass spoke. “You still there?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m good.” Fiddlesticks shook her head. Where had her thoughts been going just now? “So, now you’re going to need to…stand up.”
“Yes, we covered that,” Beauty Brass said with a smile. “You were going to help me with that part, remember?” 
“Yeah.” Fiddlesticks swallowed. Her heart was suddenly beating really fast as she stepped behind Beauty Brass. The mare’s brown tail swished slowly and brushed the front of Fiddlesticks’ leg. Her legs quaked for a moment, but she forced herself to close the distance. “So, what you want to do, is…push up with your front legs.”
“Like rearing?” Beauty Brass asked as she looked over her shoulder. 
“Yeah, like that. Only…you want to go past that no return feeling. You know how you get that feeling how, if you’re go any further up, you’ll fall backward, so you stop? You want to push past that.”
“What if I fall?” Beauty Brass asked. The smile on her face said that she already knew the answer to that. 
“I’ll…catch you.” Fiddlesticks stood up on her hind legs instantly and held her front hooves out. She was about to give Beauty Brass a few more pointers, but the mare wasted no time. The second Beauty Brass saw that Fiddlesticks was standing, she pushed off on her front hooves and reared up into the air. Fiddlesticks leaned forward as her friend fell backward. She had only meant to steady Beauty Brass, but the sousaphone pony was going too fast.
“Nice catch,” Beauty Brass whispered as she snuggled against Fiddlesticks’ chest. “I knew you wouldn’t drop me.”
“You did that on purpose,” Fiddlesticks replied, her heart beating so hard that her chest was starting to hurt. She also noticed that her mane was itching under her hat—something that didn’t usually happen to her. 
Beauty Brass nuzzled her cheek against Fiddlesticks’ neck. “Why would I ever do something like that? Now, weren’t you going to show me how to skip a rock?”
“Right,” Fiddlesticks said, trying not to inhale the scent of Beauty Brass’ shampoo. She reached up and pulled the smooth stone out from under her hat and placed it on Beauty Brass’ hoof. “Now, don’t want to throw it. You want to snap your hoof. Like this.” She reached out with her foreleg and ran it along the length of her friend’s foreleg. It was so soft and smooth, not coarse like her own from working on a farm for so long.
“That tickles,” Beauty Brass said as Fiddlesticks guided her hoof through the motion slowly. 
“Er, um…” Fiddlesticks’ mind went blank for a terrifying second. “You have a really soft coat,” she said quickly. 
“Thank you,” came the reply, and Fiddlesticks desperately wanted to bury her face under her hat, but she knew that she would drop her friend if she tried. 
“So, you think you got it?”
“Yeah!” Beauty Brass licked her lips and narrowed her eyes. “Don’t drop me!” 
“I won’t.” 
Fiddlesticks had meant to brace herself before Beauty Brass attempted the throw, but the sky blue mare wasted no time. She flung her foreleg forward, much too hard and without any of the snap and whip, and lost her balance. The stone sailed through the air and sank into the lake without a second thought, and the two ponies began to fall toward the ground. 
Beauty Brass went stiff instantly, sticking her hooves out in order to brace herself, but Fiddlesticks was faster. She relaxed her hold a little and leaned into fall until her hind legs adjusted to the motion. She then wrapped her forelegs around Beauty Brass’ stomach again and spun her around, causing her to relax and fall safely into Fiddlesticks’ forelegs. 
The end result looked like Fiddlesticks dipping Beauty Brass low to the ground in a dance as they stared into each others eyes.  
“Nice catch,” Beauty Brass said in a quiet voice. Her lips were so close…
“Uh…yeah…” Fiddlesticks replied. Her eyes were so pretty too…
“Did I do it?”
“Nope.”
“Hm…” Beauty Brass reached up and grabbed Fiddlesticks’ hat. Before the yellow mare could ask what she was doing, she pulled it down over her blue eyes.  Fiddlesticks was about to protest, but then she felt something press against her lips. It was warm and wet, and for a moment she began to panic because of the strange feeling, but then she found herself leaning into it. She closed her eyes, savoring the sensation as her lips tried to cover more of—
“Whoa there, cowgirl,” Beauty Brass said as she pulled away. “A little restless, I see.” She lifted the hat off of Fiddlesticks’ eyes and smiled up at her. 
“Uh…sorry! Sorry! I-I didn’t—”
“Shush,” Beauty Brass said as she gently put her hoof on Fiddlesticks’ mouth. It wasn’t the same feeling as her lips, but it was still enjoyable. “If anypony should be apologizing, it should be me. Do I need to apologize?”
Fiddlesticks shook her head, her mouth still sealed by her friend’s hoof.
“Good. Did you like that?”
Nod. 
“Me too.” She leaned up and quickly kissed Fiddlesticks on the cheek. “Now, let’s try that rock skipping again. I want to get the hang of this.” Fiddlesticks’ heart sank for a moment, and it must have shown on her face, because Beauty Brass laughed. “Relax, Fiddle. We’ll have plenty of time for that later.”
“Promise?” Fiddlesticks asked, her cheeks burning. That had been her first kiss, and her mind was going crazy now. She wanted more. She wanted to spend the next few days doing nothing but kissing B.B. She wanted to run her hooves through her brown mane. She wanted to stare into her purple eyes for hours. She wanted to—
Beauty Brass leaned forward again firmly pressed her lips against Fiddlesticks’, silencing all of her random thoughts with that single action. 
“Promise.” 


	*                                                  *                                                  *



Fiddlesticks stood outside her aunt and uncle’s house, trying to collect her thoughts. She quickly decided that it was a futile effort and knocked on the door. She had learned her lesson the last time she entered without permission. 
“Come in,” came her cousin’s voice.
“I’m back,” she called as she opened the door and walked into the plush mansion. Octavia was sitting on the couch with Vinyl passed out soundly on her lap. For a moment, Fiddlesticks felt a twinge of jealousy. She wanted to do that with B.B. 
“Hello, Fiddlesticks,” Octavia said in her cool voice. “Welcome back. May I assume that, seeing as you have been gone for a few hours, that things went well?”
Fiddlesticks blushed and pulled her hat down to hide her face. “Yes.”
“That well, hm?” Octavia teased. 
“Sh-Shut up!” Fiddlesticks shot back, lifting her hat up. “We didn’t do anything like what you and Vinyl were doing!” 
Fiddlesticks had the brief satisfaction of seeing her cousin blush, but Octavia quickly recovered. “I should hope not. Otherwise, I would need to have a serious talk with Beauty about stealing something so valuable from my cousin on her first date.”
“B.B. would never do that!” Fiddlesticks protested, but then she blinked. Why was she getting so worked up defending her friend all of a sudden? And to her cousin, the one pony she trusted more than any other? 
“Come have a seat,” Octavia said as she patted the couch. “Vinyl is not waking up any time soon, which means I am not moving, and so I would like to hear all about it.”
Fiddlesticks walked over and plopped down on the couch. She didn’t know where to start, so she decided to start at the beginning. “Well, B.B.’s not very good at skipping rocks.”
Octavia giggled. “I imagine that made her frustrated.” 
“Yeah,” Fiddlesticks said with a smile in her eyes. “At first she was just messing around, trying to get me to help her and hold her. I really like holding her. She’s so soft and warm. And her mane smells liked—”
“Are you sure you want to share that much with me?”
Fiddlesticks blushed. “A-Anyway, she started actually trying and she still couldn’t get it. It was kind of funny.”
“Did she stomp her hoof really hard once?”
“Yeah!”
“And then glare at the water?”
“Yep! That was her, all right. She finally got one to skip three times. She was so happy that she tackled me. She was on top of me and then we…uh…yeah…”
Octavia blinked her amethyst eyes once and smiled. “Was that your first kiss?”
“No,” Fiddlesticks replied, looking down at the floor. “My first kiss was when she tripped and pulled my hat over my eyes. She’s um…really good at kissing.” 
“Or, she is rather terrible at it and you simply do not know any better.”
“Hey!” Fiddlesticks said, but she could tell that her cousin was joking. “So, after that, we kind of wandered around Canterlot for a while. We got a bite to eat and then…well, we decided we should probably get back home. B.B. didn’t want you to come looking for her, thinking that I was in trouble or something.”
Octavia stroked Vinyl’s cheek and the white Unicorn’s hind leg kicked a little. “Will you be seeing her again?”
Fiddlesticks reached into the pocket in her shirt and pulled out a folded up piece of paper. She held it out for her cousin to look at it. “She convinced me to sign up for this talent show thing. It’s in two weeks, and she said she’d be staying in Canterlot for that long, and she thinks I have a real shot at winning.”
“I am glad to hear it.”
Fiddlesticks smiled as her heart fluttered a little. “We’re also going out tomorrow to get some breakfast. Do you two want to come?”
Octavia looked down at the sleeping D.J. and smiled. “If this thing decides to wake up early enough, I would love to join the two of you.”