He was king of his own world, small though it was. Collector of shiny things and cool unicorn stallion, what more did he want? She's a wild one that has no respect for pony boundaries, or locks, or windows. What trouble could they get into together?
He was king of his own world, small though it was. Collector of shiny things and cool unicorn stallion, what more did he want? She's a wild one that has no respect for pony boundaries, or locks, or windows. What trouble could they get into together?
Angel landed quietly despite her powerful jump. Her large soft paws struck the hard stone and she continued to fall for that precious moment, decreasing the impact force of her landing considerably even as she turned her head towards her next target, her short tail wagging excitedly. With a great releasing of the coiled strength building in her muscles, compressed with the landing, she threw herself airborne.
It was night, or almost. The sky was a mix of oranges and reds. There were less ponies around, most heading indoors to prepare for night. That suited her just fine. Ponies got angry at her so easily, and she didn't like it when they yelled at her. She craned her head back as she soared, admiring the glittering castle she was approaching. So much of it reflected even the dimming light.
It was the holding place of shinies, obviously. She had worked her way towards it, bit by bit, night by night. Would that night be the one? She smiled a little to herself, rebounding off a roof towards it. "Yes," she said to herself, answering her internal question. "Tonight good night." Sure, she'd have to be extra super careful. The castle had ponies up at all times, day and night. They would surely yell at her if they saw her.
She heard a soft gasp, a little pony watching her massive frame blot out the light a moment as she soared overhead in an athletic jump. She paid the little one no mind, past them in a flash. The little ones usually gaped, wailed, or ran. Few actually shouted at her. They were meaningless in her quest.
"Your bath is ready, Trash Prince." The maid dipped her head low, ears off to either side in a show of submission. "Can I get you anything else?"
"Mmm, no, that will be all." The noble, Trash Prince, blinked his long lashes, thicker than many mares. He let an ear fall off to the side, weighed down by a heavy golden stud that glimmered in it. "I'll be enjoying that bath in a moment," he promised. "You're off duty for today."
"As you say." She slipped away, but not to go off duty. She had a castle full of other ponies besides him, and they needed her even if he didn't. The work of a maid was rarely over.
Trash stepped towards the window, giving a little toss of his mane along the way. With a glowing horn, he bid the window open for him, allowing the cool evening breeze in. "Maybe I should get a snack first..." Oh the competing desires. He turned away from the window, bored with it already and wandered deeper into his room, his tufted tail giving an agitated flick. "Snack, bath, then dessert? No, dessert in the bath!"
His tired-looking eyes lifted a little as he smiled, perfectly pleased with his idea. He strode from the room with a purpose, off to secure things.
Sailing through the open window came a furry form, catching about halfway in. Angel frowned and scrambled, pulling herself the rest of the way through the window with a little pop of a noise. She made it! Her eyes slowly swept across the room, nose twitching softly. A mare lived there, she decided. That wasn't that unusual for the castle.
Her eyes were being drawn towards glittering things. A collection of crowns. An array of silver and gold scepters of various sizes and lengths. Some had points, some did not. Some had great jewels at the end. She reached for them, trailing her large paw over them slowly with a slow gasp. It was everything she could have... wait.
She lowered her head to a cabinet where a bead hung free on a string. Angel's ears lifted a moment as she reached for it, pulling it open just for a mass of jewelry to fall free. The one bead had been part of a pearl necklace that now lay on the floor, buried among friends and peers.
Angel's eyes went wide as she crashed to her haunches, gaping at the collection beyond any that she had found before. She wasn't even sure what to do. Normally she'd be happy to find one shiny thing to pick up and run away with, but there was so much. Which did she take?
A knock came from the door, a hoof clopping on wood. "Sir? Everything alright in there? The servants saw something," asked a concerned male voice.
Angel flinched back away from the voice and went as quiet as she could be.
"Sir?" The knocking repeated, each touch of the hoof on the wood like a gavel of a judge, sentencing her to doom.
"Everything al--"
"He's taking a bath," came a female voice, muffled by the closed door. "He's not in there."
He? Angel looked around with a little frown. She had smelled a female, not a male. Either way, the two were leaving. She could hear their hoofsteps receding from the door. She was safe... She just had to pick which things she'd take with her. Oh, if only she had a bag or something, but she had nothing but her big paws and her big back, but things she put on her back tended to fall off.
That wouldn't do! She just had to pick the best, most shiny, most amazing thing. She stood up, looking over the treasure pile, licking her lips indecisively. Oh! Oh... Angel began to giggle, realizing the answer. She worked free that pearl bead necklace and threw it up, catching it on her horned head. With a little shaking of her head, great ears flopping about, it fell down around her neck, secure and ready to move. With growing mirth and delight, she began grabbing anything that could hang off of herself.
She affixed clip-on earrings along her ears, making each big floppy mass glitter and shine. She was becoming the shiny! Her heartbeat pounded with excitement at the idea of adorning herself with so much. Every pendant she put on; every bracelet she slipped onto her arms; every ring she worked her fat fingers through, she was living a dream she never even knew she had.
There were also many pierced earrings, but she left those alone. They were sharp! She wanted shinies, not sharp. She placed one of the crowns on her head. The first was too small and just hung on one of her horns. She put it away and tried another, and another after that, gazing in a convenient mirror to study how they looked. There. One was larger than the others, and fit snugly around both her horns at once. It wouldn't fall and she smiled at the image of golden glory on her head. She was... breathtaking. She could tell, she could barely breathe admiring herself.
"Oh my my my," came a male voice from behind her. She jumped up, making it halfway to the tall ceiling of the room and coming down facing the source of the voice. "Just look at you," spoke the pony that approached, his tail swaying, a crown resting on his damp mane, a smile on his lips. "I don't know what you are, but you are looking blinged out..."
Angel glanced to the window, but his eyes followed hers. Before she could jump, it slapped shut, glowing with the same golden hue as his horn. "Don't be in such a rush, pretty thing. You wear it so well, oh yes, far better than it just lying around. Just look at you!" He threw a hoof at her, waving it across her massive form. "Do you like it?"
Did she like it? She tilted her head at him with obvious confusion.
"Can you talk?" he tried, rolling the same hoof in the air. "Who's a good..." He tilted his head, looking over her. He didn't see the parts that would imply otherwise. "--girl?"
Speaking of that, her nose danced. Female. He smelled female. Why did he smell female?! Everything had gone from perfect to an uncontrollable tailspin in an instant. Breathing fast and shallow, she took a step away from him in an awkward motion. Her people were made for jumping, not stepping really.
"Now now, don't be shy," he cooed, fluttering those too-thick lashes of his at her. "I'm just a friend. And you, I think, could be a lovely little pet. Ooo, I always wanted one of those! Celly has her fire bird, pfft, who'd want that, burning my mane and jewelry? No no no no no! You're better, so soft and big and you wear jewelry so good!" He sat on his haunches and clip-clopped his hooves together with naked joy. "Guards!" he called.
Her eyes widened. He was calling for help. She bounded right over his head, sailing for the window she had come through.
Everything went dark. Her entire front was caught in something. She landed in an uneven heap, thrashing and kicking. She couldn't see the golden trashcan that had been summoned over her front, blocking her vision. She could hear the door opening. More ponies were coming. She'd be yelled at. She'd be caught. They'd maybe hurt her? She wasn't sure but it wasn't good! She got her hindfeet up against the lip of the can that was around her front and heaved as powerfully as she could, coiled into an unhappy ball to make it happen.
There, it moved, just a precious inch, but it meant it could move more. She moved her feet a little and pushed harder, working it up and off. With a loud suction pop, it came free. She could see the room!
There were three guards around her, spears already pointed at her. Their horns were glowing, holding up a big net. "Easy there," assured Trash Prince. "They're not going to hurt you, just relax."
She was feeling many things; relaxed not being one of them. Angel bounced up and lashed out a paw, hoping to kick one of the guards, but her jump was a signal to them, the net coming in, wrapping down and around her, held in all their magic, it coiled tightly and she hit the ground in a great mass of unhappy tsuki. She had been captured.
"We're going to be such good friends," promised the Prince with a lazy smile. "Get her a nice comfortable cage." He turned away from her, trotting towards his scattered jewelry. "And bring a maid to clean all this up. My new pet was a naughty little girl."
"Should we put her in the kennel?" asked one of the guards with a raised brow.
She could see Prince's backside and her brows went up together. He was not a stallion! From behind it was quite obvious that he was... a she, despite his, her? Their, despite their masculine voice and appearance from the front.
He tossed his head, the heavy gold ring that rested in his nose jostling, but his little crown didn't bounce at all. "No, that just won't do. She's my pet. I will train her and love her." He giggled a little, excited about the idea clearly. "Oh look at you..." His magic began to pluck up bits of jewelry that had fallen to the floor in her manic escape attempt. Clasped on earrings had fallen free to the floor and he collected them up, adding them to the original pile to be cleaned. "You like playing dress up? That's good. I do too."
Angel had been captured by some strange stallion-mare of a pony. She wriggled, but the net was quite tight and wouldn't let her get any leverage. She opened her mouth, trying to bite at the nearest thread, but it moved away from her as she fell over. She was being pulled by the guards. "Yes, Sir," assured one. "We're on the case."
She was soon placed in a bright gold cage. For better or worse, Trash Prince had not reclaimed a single bit of jewelry that she still wore. She still shined so bright.
For as eagerly as he had put her in that cage, he just as eagerly lost track of her, doing other things like helping the maid get all the scattered shinies back in the right place. "I've been meaning to re-arrange this just forever. Now's as good a time as any." They worked together, cleaning the tangled mess that had lived in that space into an opulent spread that could be browsed through.
She wished silently that she could have come after the great sorting. Maybe she would have gotten away if she could have gotten things just a little faster...
"Prince Golden Lash," came a firm female voice just outside in the hallway, firm steps approaching. "What is this I've been told?"
The maid dipped her head low enough to be resting on the floor, her eyes closed and body still. Trash Prince raised a finely-cared for lash at the intruder. "Auntie, what brings you around so late at night?"
Celestia did not properly restrain a yawn. "It's... only barely night. Still, I hear you imprisoned a tsuki and came run-- There they are." She turned to look at Angel, one ear on the rabbit-like creature. "Are you one of Toby's?"
Angel had never heard of Toby, and tilted her head curiously at the new, larger, pony. Was she a good or bad sign?
"She's one of mine," contradicted Trash with a lazy smile. "I caught her fair and square. Naughty little girl took so many shinies." He waved a hoof at the gilded cage. "She's still wearing most of it."
Celestia approached Angel slowly. "You will not be harmed. Can you understand me?"
"I tried that," interrupted Trash, rolling his eyes with a slow languidness. "She likes playing dress up though, so I like her."
"Golden Lash, silence please." Celestia held up a hoof towards Trash, her eyes fixed on Angel. "Can you understand me?"
"You know I'm the Trash Prince," he huffed, stomping a hoof with a displeased scowl. "That--"
"--is not your actual name," sighed Celestia. "Trash Prince is not a name I can accept in any relation of mine. What is wrong with Golden Lash? You have lovely golden lashes, you enjoy being adorned with gold, and, dare I say, your tongue can feel like a lash at times. Your name suites you well."
"Ugh, Celly! How a stallion represents himself is important! Respect my decision." He put a hoof to his chest, trying to assume as imperious a stance as he could. "I am the trash prince. My cutie mark agrees." He gestured back to it with a toss of his head.
"Fine, but that is a topic for another day." She set a hoof on Angel's cage. "We're not letting her answer. Dear, you're not in danger. Can you speak?"
Angel peered at the stallion that was a mare where it counted, then back at Celestia, who seemed alright at considering her(?) as a him. When did ponies get so confusing?! They were usually so easy to at least sex. Of course, then there was Celestia, awaiting an answer. Did she answer? Celestia seemed nice enough, and so much more calm than most ponies that started shouting at her. She dared a little nod.
"Lovely," breathed out Celestia, slumping a little in relief. "I am Princess Celestia. That is my distant nephew, Golden Lash--" She held up a hoof at him, forestalling the objection he was already preparing to fire. "Even if he prefers being called Trash Prince. What is your name?"
Angel brought her paws together, sitting up on her hind paws, rocking a little as she looked back and forth between the two ponies that controlled her fate. What were the right words to say? "Angel." She pointed at herself, then at Celestia. "Celly." The term Trash had used was far easier than the one she had used. She pointed at Trash. "Trash." That was easier then 'golden lash'.
Trash looked vindicated, standing with a smug expression. "See, my lovely pet understands what my name actually is."
Celestia rolled her eyes. "Yes, Nephew. Now, Angel, you did a naughty thing, trying to steal from a pony."
She peered at Celestia without understanding. That was the second time she had been called naughty, but what did that specific word really mean?
"If something belongs to a pony, you must ask before taking it," pressed Celestia patiently. "You did not. You took from him. Say you're sorry."
"What sorry?" she asked, head tilting with the question.
"She has no regret," he said as if in admiration. "She made herself blinged out, what's to be sorry about?" He trotted up beside Celestia. "Doesn't she look just precious?"
"She needs remedial education," noted Celestia with a little frown and obvious concern. "And she cannot just be your 'pet'."
Trash suddenly darted between Celestia and the cage. "Don't be so hasty! I can teach her!"
"You?" One royal brow raised high on her face. "What do you know?"
"I know she came to me." He tapped his forehooves together. "I know I caught her." He tapped them once more. "And I know I like her. I'll teach her everything she should know."
"She is not some wild beast. Do you understand that?" She leveled a metal-clad hoof right between his lazy eyes. "She is a pony."
"Not pony," argued Angel. She was certainly not one of those. She had big floppy ears, and big bouncy paws, and she was bigger than any other pony she'd seen, well, alright, Celestia came pretty darn close. "Not pony."
"She's better than a pony," giggled Trash, turning back towards her. "Angel, what a sweet little name. Angel, want to learn from me? I'll let you try on some other things, hmm?" He gestured towards his mighty collection of shinies. "Be a good student and I'll bring out the special ones."
There were special ones?! Her ears lifted for just a moment before falling, but her face was naked in its interest. "Special?"
"Very special," he assured. "Or you can go with Celly here, but I'll need my things back." His magic gently shook one of the bangles hanging off of her. "No more shinies."
Celestia frowned at the bribery in progress. "If you come with me, I will assign a pony who only has your interests in heart, who will treat you with respect."
Many of those words fell to dumb ears. Celestia sounded nice enough, but Trash was offering something she understood. More shinies. Even more shinies if she was good. Special shinies. She pointed at Trash. "No." She grabbed the bars of her cage and gave a little rattle. "No."
"No.... cage?" he ventured, reaching out to touch the same bar she was.
Suddenly she had him, her paw easily catching his hoof, his movements slow, while her dart was lightning fast. She drew his hoof into the cage and brought in her other paw, capturing his hoof between them, her blunt claws felt as she inspected him without a shred of care for personal space, or that she was pinning his body against the bars.
Celestia drew a sharp breath. "Nephew... are you alright?" she spoke slowly, as if a hasty word could set off Angel.
"She's... just checking me out, I think..." His eyes were on hers, even if she was looking at his hoof. "We're cool, right? You're gonna stay with me?"
She sniffed his hoof once more before releasing it, instead tapping at the bars. "No."
He drew his hoof back out of the cage. "Alright, my fiery little devil-bunny. I'll let you out, but promise you'll be good."
She peered at him silently.
"You will not get more of an assurance." She smiled gently, relaxing now that all hooves and paws where where they should be. "But I do not know Toby's people to be violent ones."
"She's fine." His horn glowed as he pulled the latch free, the door swinging open a few inches.
Angel turned to the squeak it made and leaped for it, crashing against the door, which just carried it open further, spilling her out across the floor. Free! She sat up with a big happy smile, clearly satisfied, but that faded quickly, realizing she was still in front of two ponies that could start yelling at her, and there was no obvious escape path.
Celestia nodded towards Angel, then Trash. "If you are certain you would rather be with him?" She inclined her head towards him.
"'Course she does, we have so much to do." He trotted past her easily, heading towards his scepter collection. "You didn't do much over here, don't like shiny sticks?"
As it turned, she liked shiny sticks just fine. She bounced over to his side in one graceful bound, eyes shining. He had told the truth and was ready to share shinies. Perhaps things could take a turn for the better. One of them he held in his magic, with a big blue gem at the end.
She took it in one paw, wrapping her fingers around the slender side before swinging it about, enjoying the play of lights off the blue orb at the end. "Pretty."
"Yeah, it's a nice one." He nodded slowly before looking over his shoulder at Celestia. "Auntie, could you get them to replace the cage?"
She rolled her eyes. "I'm going to sleep. I'll send somepony in on the way. You had best treat her with respect, or you'll have to answer to me and Toby." She walked free of the room, another yawn splitting her face, the day's demands too much to resist the siren's call of a soft bed.
Trash waved her off. "Don't worry about her. She's just a big worry wart. Alright, revision, revision. So... you're not a pet." He ran his hooves over one another, watching her place with his scepter. "That's better, in some ways. You're a creature; like a griffon or a changeling. Ooo, we're gonna have so much fun." He dance-stepped away, cantering to the door in time to open it for two guards standing there.
They nodded at him and pressed in to fetch the cage. Once it was unbolted from the floor, it only took one to float it away. That left one of them facing the prince. "What did you want to replace it?"
"Why don't you get a big pillow? Big enough for her." He pointed a hoof at Angel. "Biggest you have!"
"You're kidding," came another imperial voice, Luna's head coming into view, peering into the room and squinting at both Trash and Angel. "I... see..." But she did not press, instead withdrawing just as she came, head shaking.
Trash was paying her no mind at all, eyes on his new pet/friend/student. "Now, as fabulous as you're looking, you can't go to sleep in all that. Trust me, I've tried."
Angel sat up on her haunches, looking at him curiously. "Why?" she asked simply, apparently understanding his words well enough to question them.
His horn glowed as he pulled off some of the thick golden bands on his tail free. "They get stuck or kink. It hurts something fierce, right in the middle of a sweet dream, then you're awake and mad."
She nodded slowly, imaginging how the metal covering her could cause trouble if she tried to sleep in it all. She reached up with her paws and began brushing it all off, making a great mess as it rained jewelry all around her in no particular pattern. The crown was the last to go, requiring her to reach up and work it free of her horns to pop it off.
His magic grabbed the crown as soon as it was properly free. "I got that." Despite having just cleaned most of his collection, he was in no hurry to gather what she had dropped outside the crown he put away with the others. "Sleep well, Angel. Mmmm, that's a sweet little name for a big blinging mother. We are going to get along so well!"
Angel awoke with a big yawn and a languid stretch. That pillow had been so soft! Compared to her usual bedding, it was as if she had been transported to a whole new world of comfort. She rolled upright and looked around with quick darts of her head. There was Trash, sleeping with little equine noises.
She inclined her head faintly before approaching. She may never have a better time to inspect the strange stallion(?), or so she silently decided. The scent he put off was that of a mare. This made sense enough, her eyes resting on his mare parts, exposed as they were. Not that ponies typically wore much over their back ends.
Not that Angel did either. That wasn't a big deal, until someone sent such confusing signals and confused her... Angel sniffed softly as she leaned in, getting a whiff of his front, working over his head and mane. He had some un-pony scent worked in. Angel had no idea what it was, but it didn't smell like a horse. Did he do that on purpose, or was it the strange scent of a he-she?
She examined his face since she was there, following its lines. If she hadn't seen his other end, it would be easy to agree that this was a stallion. He had the muscles for it, she decided. Yes, built like a stallion. She trailed a single claw along one such muscle, making that leg kick a little as she followed it down.
Angel smiled a little, clearly bemused by the reaction, but her investigation continued. She moved her head back, looking over the big bright picture on his rump. All ponies had a picture there. Some were simple, some were ornate. His leaned towards the ornate, with a big golden trashcan glittering. It was slightly open, with sparkling purple stuff spilling out in a swirl. What did that mean? Well, it was a bright gold thing with sparkles coming out. He was a source of shinies, clearly.
He was the shiny pony. Angel nodded with growing certainty. Moving back a little more, she arrived at the centerpiece of the confusion. There was his contrast. Just under his tail as she nosed it aside was the ring of his anus and beneath that, leathery equine vulva. Soft sniffing revealed that he was healthy, ate well, and was reproductively ready.
Was he in heat? She leaned in a bit closer, sniffing.
"It's polite to ask first," came his sleepy words as he started to stir. "I didn't know we were doing that just yet."
She blinked rapidly and sat up, eyes darting with worry. Had she angered him?
"I didn't say to stop," he sleepily grunted out, looking over his shoulder at Angel. "Go on, if you're curious."
Angel lifted an ear briefly before it fell. It was alright? Well... She leaned back in and resumed her sniffing, trying to puzzle out the scent before her. No, not in estrus, she decided, just healthy, so far as she could tell. She was not a boy, she knew that. Were they better at knowing when a girl was in that special time? She wasn't sure. With a thoughtful huff, her breath washed out over his lips.
And they winked. Her eyes widened with shock at the sight of his lips moving on their own, unfolding like a strange flower just to clap shut again. Hers hadn't done that before! She glanced back at her big tail, frowning a little. Had it? She certainly never saw it do that...
"Done back there?" He slid up to his hooves, casually flopping from the bed, shaking out his body as he went. "Now don't you get any strange ideas. I'm a 'he'." He raised a bushy brow at Angel. "And don't you forget it."
Angel squinted a little. All evidence was pointing against that, but if he wanted to be a he... She hopped down easily, mostly sliding from the bed to be at his side. He hadn't yelled at her, not even once. As ponies went, he was not a bad one, being a not-shouting source of shinies. She had slept with him, in the same room. She inclined her head left and right in almost a metronome's regularity.
"You're looking especially thoughtful today." He wandered towards a large mirror, his magic grabbing a brush and working it through his mane. "How do they..." He glanced over when he saw her looking. "I usually have the maids do this. They know how to get my mane to sit the way I like it."
Angel awkwardly stepped over to him and sat down right behind him. She looked to his unkempt mane and the floating brush, then reached for it, snatching it away from his magic. He struggled against her briefly, the glow of his magic flaring brightly as she inexorably drew it away. He burst into laughter as she popped it free. "Really want that, do you? You can ask, Angel."
She tilted her head at him. "Have?"
"Sure, since you asked nicely." He inclined an ear at her, but was facing away from her. She started, noticing that he actually was looking at her, gazing into the mirror and meeting her eyes without turning around. "Hello there," he called, noticing her spotting his gaze. "What are you going to do with that brush?"
Angel tilted the brush up and down, experimenting with its heft as she lifted it powerfully enough that it left her paw a moment before she caught it on the way down. With a slightly more confident smile, she brought it down towards Trash's mane and began working it through the unruly hair. Her other paw moved in, taking hold of it as she began grooming him. "Mate."
Both of his ears jerked up at that word. "Hey, darling, my little angel of bling, we just met. We aren't mates just yet."
Angel kept right on brushing, fussing diligently through his mane. She met his eyes through the mirror. "Burrow mate," she explained. "Trash, Angel. Burrow mate. Burrow mate groom." She was no expert at how a brush worked, but she was clearly determined to try to restore his mane to something approaching how it appeared the night before. "Good burrow mate."
"Yeah, good burrow mate." He angled an ear back, only for it to be caught in the brush. Suddenly it was being groomed along with his mane, the soft bristles running over it in a soft tempo. "Fair's fair. Gonna make you so pretty."
Angel paused a moment, sitting up. "Groom?"
"The Trash way." He stood up and reached out a hoof. Various bits and bobs they had left on the ground the night before began to float up. "Time to rise and shine, my lovely angel! You just sit back and let Trash Prince make you shine."
"Groom. Trash groom, Angel groom." Though her eyes kept darting towards the shiny things, she resumed her brushing, working the brush not just through his mane but starting to work through the rest of his pelt, intent in her duty.
"Yeah, we'll groom together." He had a lazy but satisfied smile as he began to adorn Angel. He worked wings onto her ears, one after the other. "You have so much ear to attach bling to, I'm a little jealous. There is so much of all of you, my big blinging momma." He clopped his forehooves together with a pleased expression, his magic slipping a glittering chain around her neck and fastening it in place. "Nopony will be confused who's your friend."
Angel looked up at herself in the mirror, her movements slowing a moment as she beheld her form becoming that glittering avatar of shinies she had set down the night before. "Trash good groom." She smiled a little and pressed the brush against his side, working through his fur in slow firm strokes. "Angel good groom?"
"You're doing fine." He didn't sound entirely certain on it, paying far more attention to how he bedecked his new friend and not-pet with jewelry. "Oh, can't forget the cap." The crown floated over, but hesitated. "Mmm, nah. I don't think that's right for today." He waved it away and it floated where it had come from.
Angel pouted a little at not being given the crown and redoubled her brushing efforts. Surely if she brushed well enough, the crown would be given. She just had to get better at it. Special shinies for good burrow mates.
Trash turned slowly, looking her over appraisingly. "Not bad... Not bad at all. Now, you're with me, which means you're royalty."
"What?"
He cocked an easy smirk. "I'm a prince, and you're with me. It means we let other ponies do things." He leaned his head back just a little and let out a shrill whistle.
The door opened instantly, a maid pony entering with a lively trot. "You're up early today, Golden Lash."
Trash scowled at the maid. "I told you to--"
"--Begging your pardon, M'lord, but Princess Celestia's orders." She approached his bed and began making it with a glowing horn. "Did you sleep well, M'lord?"
"Aunty... Look, I have a name, and I like it. Is that too much to ask?" He glanced towards Angel. "Ponies, you know?"
She didn't know. She looked between the maid and Trash curiously. She leveled a fat, ring-adorned, finger at Trash. "Trash."
"See, she knows my name." Trash smiled vindicatedly, crossing his arms across his chest, hooves dangling. "Let's move on. Aunty doesn't think I can teach Angel here some things, can't have that. I want you to show her how to use a brush."
"A brush?" She left the mostly-made bed, approaching Angel directly. "Well aren't you a large one... Angel was it?" When Angel nodded, the maid smiled gently. "I'm House. House the maid. A pleasure to meet you, Angel."
Angel reached out a paw and set it right on House's head, horn going up between two fingers as she gently gave the new pony a soft stroking with her fingers. Ponies were so nice when they weren't shouting.
House laughed gently, patiently tolerating the petting. "Oh, is that the brush?" Her magic glowed around the brush held limply in Angel's other paw, taking it away. "What were you--oh!" She only just then noticed that Trash was looking not entirely bed-maned. "An excellent attempt." She brought the brush over to Trash. "Watch."
Angel's eyes focused on the brush, watching intently as the maid began the work of getting Trash's mane ready for the day. "Mate?"
House's cheeks darkened swiftly. "N-no! I am a servant, not a paramour," she insisted with a shrill worried note to her voice, though her brush never paused in its working. "As a maid, it is my job to help the nobles who live here look their best."
"And House here is one of the better ones, even if she's calling me by my dead name." He rolled his eyes, but sat there, accepting the brushing. "She can get a mane into shape as if it was born that way."
Angel bounced slightly in place, working out some of her nervous energy in her fidgets, though her eyes remained glued on the workings of the brush through Trash's mane, taking note of what different motions were made compared to her own. She hadn't been that far off, but there were many subtle things, too subtle for her to even grasp right away, try as she might. "Groom good."
"I was trained, and now so too shall you." House took the brush and pressed it against Angel's paw, giving it to her. "While Trash goes to handle his business, we will stay here. I will allow you to 'groom' me as I instruct you."
Angel sat up with a growing smile. "Groom, yes. Good pony." She reached for House, running a free hand down along her back. "Good pony."
"I'm not a dog in need of being told of my good nature," she insisted, but her smile was easy. "But I thank you. Go on, M'lord. I'll handle this lesson."
"You are surprisingly deft with those fingers," complimented House, her ears turned towards Angel though her body remained facing away. She could feel her mane being worked on, and see it in the reflection of the same mirror Angel and Trash had used. "You took right to how to make pony tails and knots with barely a mistake to be seen. I'm jealous!"
Angel felt her lips turning up, pride swelling at the compliments. "Why pony tail?" The thing she had made in House's mane was surely no tail, though it was on a pony?
"Because it sort of looks like one. We know it isn't really one." She glanced over her shoulder, her head still mostly forward. "And you make them so well. I see you have a mane, a little one." With that she finally turned all the way around, her magic reaching up and flipping up some of the hair that threatened to one day grow enough to cover Angel's eyes. "We should brush that. It's a bit short to do anything too fancy with it, but that's alright."
Angel's eyes crossed to focus on the part of her hair that glowed with House's magic. "Not fancy?"
"We'll make it fancy," assured House as her magic grabbed a comb and a few hairclips. "It's my turn. Sit back and let me work."
"House good groom," she practically purred, relaxing in place, eyes resting on House with trust. "Good pony."
She hadn't grabbed basic black pins, of course. With how much glittering metal hung from Angel, her tastes were clear. Gently combing the mop of hair into proper place, she worked in each new clip, arranging a rainbow across her brow of gems on metal bands that held the hair in place even as they made her all the more lustrous. "Now take a look."
Angel leaned right over House to get a better look at herself, eyes locked on the reflection of her forehead where the new touches rested. "Good groom! Yes, good." She raised her hands, gently feeling over the clips and the hair they were attached to. "Not think of... Good groom!" She had somehow become even more shiny! Were all the ponies of that magical place a source of shinies when treated well? It would behoove her to be on her best behavior...
House stood up, one leg stretching out behind her, kicking lightly. "I must return to my duties now, Angel. You be good and await Gol--Trash's return." She leaned in, whispering conspirationally, "Don't tell Celestia I said that name."
"Not tell." She canted her head at House, not understanding any of the dynamics going on there. "Good pony."
"And you are a good tsuki." She trotted right out of the room, her job complete. Angel was at least proficient with a brush.
This left Angel alone. She settled in place at first. Surely, the prince would be back soon? But minutes ticked on by without a sign of him. There was no food in the room, and nothing to do other than stare at at the shinies she wasn't sure she could actually touch. Sure, some were hanging from her. She felt confident she could touch those at least, and she did just that, running her hands up and down her ears as she admired each attached bit.
But she was getting hungry, and even shinies could only be admired so long in one sitting. She rose and stepped awkwardly to the door. The door was closed, but she knew how a knob worked. She took hold of it and gave it a turn and it turned just like that. Sometimes a door knob would refuse to turn, she knew they could do that. If this one turned, it meant she was allowed to go through it. Easy logic.
With building confidence, she pulled the door open, stepping around it as it swung to pop herself out into the hallway. A guard was there, watching her, but he didn't say anything. She decided that was probably for the best. The guard ponies could put her in a cage, or catch her in a net. The guards were not to be trifled with. She walked past him, trying her best to look calm and collected. She was Trash Prince's friend, her glittering jewels said that, he had assured. He wouldn't bother her, right?
He didn't stop her, she was past him, in a big long hallway that led away from the room. The ceiling was high enough and she was nervous enough, she stopped walking and instead sprang forward, sailing smoothly over the heads of other ponies. Some didn't notice her, but others gaped up at her airborne form. She landed lightly right in front of a well-dressed stallion. "I say..." He looked over her. "You did give me a fright, miss...?"
Angel's ears twitched softly, lifting for just a moment. The pony was talking to her and not screaming. Things were already looking up. "Angel," she provided, pointing at herself, then reaching for the pony. "What name?"
"Fancy," he assured, his horn glowing and gently warding her reaching paw. "Fancy Pants, at your service. Are you a delegate from the tsukis?"
Those sure were some words she couldn't quite assemble into a thought. She decided to forget them and focus on what she wanted. "Food. Fancy know food?"
"Looking for a snack?" He turned in place before reaching out a hoof, catching a passing guard. "Sorry to bother, chap, but I think the lady Angel here would appreciate a guide to the nearest available sitting room with some refreshments."
Angel felt her hairs standing on end. He had invoked a guard! Were shouts coming? But he just nodded at Fancy. "This way," he said calmly and began trotting away.
She gave him a soft thanking pet, and his magic didn't stop her in his moment of distraction. "Good pony."
He gave off the softest little snort. "And a good day to you, miss." With a bit of his own smile, he trotted purposefully down the hallway.
She let him go, instead bouncing behind the guard, letting him get ahead just far enough for a leap to bring her to just behind him once again as if she were hunting him in the least efficient way possible. They had to go down some stairs and through several more halls. She wondered if they had gone the wrong way, but he approached two other guards and opened a door they had been standing in front of. "In here, Miss."
Angel was quick to poke her head in to see a table emitting the most wonderful of scents. There were other ponies there, enjoying the spread of food, each seated properly on a little cushion and looking like they didn't want to be bothered. But who cared about them? Food! "Good pony." She wriggled her way into the room and hurried towards the table.
"Ah ha, so you are what 'Trash Prince' has been talking about." One of the ponies, male, was watching her intently. "I thought he was having a fit of fancy, truth told. Good to see he hasn't taken complete absence of his faculties."
"Blueblood, don't be like that," gently chastised a mare that was sipping from a floating cup of tea. "Hello there. Here for a snack?"
"Yes." She sat down at a place that seemed open. The cushion was large enough even for her larger rump and she settled on it, reaching a big paw towards a plate of glistening brussel sprouts that appeared to be glazed in something. It smelled great, which was all she really focused on. "Hello."
"You may shine on the outside... but the inside is still... rough, I see." Prince Blueblood was appraising her, examining intently as she pulled the entire tray over and began to pop sprouts into her mouth several at a time.
"That is why Princess Celestia said to lend a hoof," reminded the mare.
"I know our little golden boy. He will be cross if we assume he can't do what he's set his heart on, and he didn't ask us to help." He floated over a little hotdog and popped it in his mouth, chewing quietly a moment.
"Trash good pony," added Angel, trying to join the conversation. "Good mate."
The mare's face went a bright red as Blueblood roared with sudden laughter. "Has that boy forgotten that he's... ill-equipped for that?"
Angel blinked softly at him. "He good mate," she firmly corrected, reaching one hand to brush over her ears and then over the dangling chains around her neck. "Look what give. Good mate. Groom."
"I-I suppose that would make him a groom, yes." The mare was looking away, her face still bright red. "How... recently did you two meet? This is the first I've seen you."
"Yes, when did you and Goldie become mates?" prodded Blueblood, watching Angel fixedly.
Angel set down the tray, only to snatch up a pot of something hot but clearly filled with liquid. She put her lips right on its spout and sucked out hot tea. Her tongue reported that it was just as hot as she expected and the next pull was far more gentle, but she was nursing the tea right out of the pot. All the ponies in the room had begun to stare at her.
She could feel their eyes, judging, and not kindly. She lowered the kettle from her face a few inches. "What?"
A stallion from the other side of the table cleared his throat with a raised hoof. "You may as well finish it now... In the future, you really should pour a cup."
The mare from before grabbed another pot in her magic. "Like this." She tipped it, refilling her cup before setting it back where it started. "So we aren't all putting our lips on the same tea pot."
"What are we, earth ponies?" joked Blueblood, getting soft laughter from around the table.
The mare thumped him suddenly, swatting his shoulder with a hoof. "You know Princess Celestia would skin you alive if she heard you crack that joke."
"Just a little joke, between friends." He inclined his head towards Angel. "Were you listening? No more drinking from the pots."
Angel nodded slowly as she looked around. There was a cup just in front of her, next to the plate she wasn't using. She angled her pot and poured out the tea, overflowing a little as she got the timing off. She put the pot down even as she dipped her head and sucked off the top few inches free of the cup without seeming to actually touch her lips to the glass itself.
"At least she... listens," noted the mare with a cocked brow. "You are a curious one... The one other tsuki I met wasn't nearly as... unrefined... But listen to me go on. You're learning, and that's good."
Angel heard the important word. She sat up, looking to the mare. "Angel good pony?"
"Getting better," she held up two hooves close together. "One step at a time. You must tell me, having enjoyed most of them, how are the sprouts? You seemed to quite enjoy them."
Angel tilted her head silently.
A glowing arrow appeared over the abandoned platter, bouncing up and down gently. "Those."
"Oh!" She snatched one and gobbled it right up, chewing thoughtfully a moment. "Good. Very good. How make so good?"
"I didn't make them," demurred the mare. "You'll have to thank the chefs, but I'll be sure to pass on the word if you prefer."
"Where chefs?" What was a chef, for that matter, but she left that question sit.
Blueblood suddenly stood up. "I'm going to cut this off right there. They don't need a large well-meaning rabbit bouncing around the kitchen. You're looking for Trash, aren't you?"
Her attention snapped to Blueblood. "Know where Trash?"
"Yes, and I'll even show you. This way." He turned for the exit. "Enjoy your meals, everypony. We'll talk again later."
"Enjoy your walk," called the mare. Conversation began to slide to other things as the most interesting thing there left.
She followed after Blueblood, easily keeping pace with his easy movements. He kept glancing at her over his shoulder each time she took to the air. "Tell me, what do you see in him?"
Angel frowned a little at that. "Inside pony?" She didn't imagine there was much inside any pony she wanted to really interact with. "Nothing."
"There must be something. You came to him and declared him a mate." His tail whipped as if striking a fly, his face still quite forward. "What made you do that?"
The frown was replaced with an easy smile as understanding of a sorts arrived. "He give good shiny. He let live here. We live together, groom, den mates."
"D-den..." He turned suddenly. "That won't do. Ponies do not have 'dens' in the manner you speak of. Are you two simply mates because of shared habitation or... are you... doing things?" He hiked a brow at her, examining her intently.
Angel met his gaze, but hers was with far less conviction. Hers was the look of cluelessness as she muddled through his words. "Sleep together, groom, makes mate."
A soft chuckle escaped him as he turned around. "Very well then. I should have known that false stallion had found no real wife. You are just a ladyfriend he's sharing space with. How charming... But I should imagine you'd want a real stallion for... other needs."
She landed in front of him, cutting off his progress. He thumped right into her chest, clearly not expecting her sudden appearance. "What real stallion? What other needs?" she demanded, reaching for him.
He shied away, but she was faster, taking hold of his shoulders and hefting him up, dangling in the air in her soft but strong paws, his snout an inch from hers. He cleared his throat loudly, glancing about. "This is not polite conversation! Not for a public hallway at least."
She met the gaze of a passing aristocrat that was gaping at her and her captured pony. She smiled at him, which just made him scoot right along. "Where good place?" She casually put Blueblood on her back and started walking in the direction they had been going, ambling along with a new rider.
"We could visit your friend, Trash?" he proposed from atop her, leaning to the side to see around her head as his hooves held tightly to her, lest he fall from her. "You are a strong one, aren't you?" He could feel her powerful body flex and move beneath him in an intricate dance that carried her forward, not to mention having plucked him up so easily.
"What friend?"
Blueblood quirked an ear at that. "You don't know what a friend is?"
"Like mate?" She looked up over her shoulder at her captive stallion.
"Something of the sort... They don't need to live together. They don't need to groom one another. Simply enjoying being together, and making that a point, generally suffices."
"Oh..." She landed after a short hop, looking thoughtful a moment. "We friend." It wasn't a question, more of a blunt statement of an obvious fact. "Good friend."
"We are?" He raised a hoof to tap at a chin. "I had... thought you had become irritated with me, truth told... However, I will not look a gift... tsuki in the mouth. Very well, we are friends." Blueblood pointed to some stairs angling upwards. "That way if you want to find Trash."
"Good friend," she cheerfully called, wriggling carefully into the stairwell and starting to ascend with her precious cargo atop her. "Trash friend." She stopped just in front of a door Blueblood had been pointing towards. "Trash friend?" She twisted her head to look back at him. "Blueblood friend Trash?"
Blueblood softly clucked his tongue against his teeth. "It's... complicated. We are peers, of a sort, but we don't often see eye to eye."
"Angel will help." She nosed open the door, one hand grabbing the handle as she did so. "Put face to face, then friends." Surely it would be best if those she liked also liked the other people she liked. "Still not say what true stallion is."
His cheeks mildly darkened Blueblood coughed into a hoof. "I'll tell you later. For now, you need to go that way." He pointed down a hallway that he was quite soon bouncing downwards atop the tsuki. "You are very confident, hopping like this indoors. Are you not worried you may run into something?"
Angel landed lightly, though she slid on the smooth carpet a few inches. "Angel is good jumper. Not hit what not want hit. Blueblood is safe." She reached up a hand to gently stroke the side of the pony atop of her, assuming he was scared. "Safe," she repeated gently like a mother trying to calm a worried child.
"You needn't foal me so." He reached to pat the top of her bejeweled head. "You're the one out of place here, Miss Angel. I should be comforting you if anyone is to be comforted at all."
"Safe? Good." Despite her words, she walked awkwardly instead of jumping, like little microjumps that never took her far from the ground. "Where Trash?"
"There." He pointed to a simple single door where one guard stood. "They may not allow us past, however."
"Why?" Angel stepped right up to the guard, sniffing at him gently. A mare, both from the front and the back. "Trash?" She pointed past the guard mare into the room.
The guard stepped to the side, blocking Angel's progress. "Golden Brow is studying and not to be disturbed."
"I did warn... Auntie has been quite insistent on certain... activities and has been working us ragged to keep apace with a schedule she's devised for us to follow." Blueblood flopped atop Angel. "Simply dreadful, really. As if I don't have other things to do. Fortunately for me, today is my day off, so I don't have a tutor chasing me around insisting I read another few chapters for her wicked pleasure."
"Read?" She coiled on herself, allowing herself to look up at Blueblood more easily. "Tutor?" So many new words! "Look sad... Angel help?"
He sat up on her back. "I'm uncertain what you could do, but I appreciate the sentiment. Aunt Celly simply gets things in her pretty little head and we nephews are helpless before it."
Angel thought back to the biggest pony that was Celestia. "Boss pony?"
"Oh, yes, she is that." Blueblood nodded firmly, tapping at his chin. "In charge of everything she sees."
Angel inclined her head faintly to the left, just to slowly alternate to the right. "Angel see happen before." Celestia had wanted her to go to boring classes and do things her way. She truly was the boss pony, vast and terrible. "Trash stopped her, save Angel."
Blueblood's ears pricked. "He stood up to Auntie? Perhaps he has a spot more bravery than I would first have--"
The guard, still there, coughed into one of her hooves. "My loyalty comes to the throne first," she casually reminded, eyes on the two.
Angel wriggles her nose, sniffing at the guard. "Loyal to boss pony," she translated outloud. "Can tell Trash Angel came?"
"I will inform them," she assured with a salute.
Apparently satisfied, Angel turned away and launched down the hallway, carrying Blueblood away with her. "Now tell about true stallion and what Angel needs."
"We are still... not in a good place for that." He coughed into a hoof much like the guard had done. "Proper places and times and all that."
"Talk about boss pony?" She landed and looked around conspiratorially. "Angry at boss pony?"
"Angry is a strong word." He gently pressed into the center of her neck, rubbing the taught muscles there in what he hoped was a calming way. "She just aggravates me at times. I love Auntie, of course I do. She does a decent-enough job at things."
She reached for one of her big ears and gently pulled a ring free before curling on herself. In the motion, Blueblood was flung free, only to be caught by one of her powerful hands and drawn into the curl. Still stunned, he could only blink as she worked the ring onto his left ear. Thankfully she had never started using studded clips. "Friend."
He reached up a hoof to feel over where the ring was clamped onto his ear, holding itself in place but not piercing his precious flesh. "Um... thank you."
She sat up, leaving him there on his haunches. "Blueblood is stallion." This was a fact she was sure of. He looked like one and smelled like one and talked like one. No confusing bits there to be had! "True stallion."
He inclined his head faintly. "You seem to have put that together without my help. Yes, I am a true stallion." He sat up, looking quite proud of himself. "Trash is... not."
She puzzled through that, working her hands together softly. "Is stallion," she decided after a moment.
"He says that, and we go along with it..." He rolled a hoof. "But given the choice of how to make a foal, it seems clear which part of that play he'd be able to perform, and it wouldn't be the stallion's."
Angel reached for Blueblood, poking him on the nose. "Still stallion. Now what Angel need?"
"What... you... require is not readily known to me." He stood up, nose wrinkled. "You were proclaiming yourself to be his 'mate', which I had thought to meant a far more amorous--" He paused, seeing her confused look. "I thought you were making foals with him, or trying."
Her eyes widened and she sat up so quickly she bumped into a desk beside herself. The vase on it wobbled dangerously before it glowed with his magic, calming back down. "Angel not have foals yet," she got out, grasping where the conversation was going it seemed. "Want to."
"Of c..." He trailed off, blinking. "You want to?"
"Want to." She nodded firmly. "Safe burrow, food, shiny." She reached for her chest, brushing all the strands of jewelry that hung from her. "Yes, ready. Have foals, safe, raise good. Have friends." She pointed at Blueblood. "Help with foal, yes?"
"I..." Was he being propositioned? He could help her with having a foal, but that seemed...
Suddenly her face was nudging his forelegs right out of the way as if they weren't there, and her breath was felt right over a tightness back behind his hind ones. She was sniffing at him nakedly even as he tried, in vain, to control his more masculine urges. Her whiskers were tickling and teasing his increasingly exposed flesh and he looked around in a panic. Surely they would be seen at any moment!
"Why scared?" she asked as she took a microstep forward, nuzzling right into him, rubbing the side of her cheek against the proof that he was a true stallion without a shred of reservation or shame.
"I-is this the kind of assistance you wanted?" he asked with a squeak, his horn glowing and trying to push her back and away. At first nothing happened as she was far too strong, but she seemed to notice it and pull back on her own.
"What wrong?" she asked as she sat up. "Is alright. Boy thing. Boy do that." She pointed down at the 'problem'. "See before."
"W-where have you seen this before?" He clapped his legs shut to prevent further viewing of what should be private.
"Brothers." She lifted her shoulders. "No good for foals, but see things. Learn. Happen, boy thing. Girl not do that."
Uncomfortable questions rattled in his mind as he turned away. "I... see... Let us... be clear, are you asking me to..." He rolled a hoof, looking unable to finish the question.
"Help with foal, because friend, yes?" She smiled brightly, buck teeth displayed. "Angel help Blueblood, because friend. Friends do that, yes? We help."
"I won't do that." Blueblood shook his head softly. "While you've... aroused my curiosity, and I enjoy your strange company, I will not betray Trash."
Angel sat up at that, confusion on her face. "Betray? How?"
"You are... his. You two have a relationship. Going around that to..." He rolled his hooves over one another. "It would be very improper on many levels, not even including him, but it would be an unkindness to him too. No, I can't do that."
"Not like?" She turned to the side as if showing off her huge, not-pony, profile. "Make good kits."
"I'm certain you... will someday." He rubbed behind his head softly, looking a bit more awkward. It didn't help that the talk was doing nothing to make his firmness go away. "But talk it over with Trash first."
Angel chuffed, a rabbity snort. "Trash good pony, not true stallion. Can't do that." That was just biology, which she was no expert in, but she was fairly certain you needed that part that Blueblood was showing off, and that part she knew she had. Brought together just so, and kits happened. Easy science.
"And if you suddenly start to swell, what will you tell him?" He hiked a brow. "He knows he couldn't have done it, and so he will know you courted with another. His feelings will be hurt."
Suddenly it seemed to dawn on Angel, like someone had just turned on the lights upstairs and she perked right up. "He take Angel as partner. Not want her make kits with others, only him." She frowned softly. "But not true stallion. But is good pony. Is good provider. Is good friend." She reared up, towering over Blueblood as she worried her hands together, puzzling through the issue put before her. "Not want hurt."
"The best advice I can give is..." With her not quite as close, he got properly standing, his embarrassment hidden by the bulk of his body. "--to speak with Trash about this. Make your needs known and clear, so that he can act on them properly. Perhaps he'll surprise us both and come up with a dandy little answer to the whole thing and we'll laugh about it someday for even being worried about it."
"Good friend." She patted his head gently with her right hand, careful not to poke herself on his horn. That was a problem with some ponies. "Glad meet you." Suddenly her face was there instead of her hand, nose to nose with him. "We meet again? Talk?"
"Oh, um..." He took a single step back, perhaps a bit overwhelmed by her proximity. "We can talk again... For now, why don't you wait for Trash?"
"Yes." She turned and bounded away, just like that, no goodbyes given.
He sank to his haunches, letting out a slow breath. "What a curious thing..." He wasn't entirely sure what to make of her, so obviously physically overwhelming, but socially inept, simple-minded, and... "Auntie would be quite cross with me..." He had read about the tsuki, he had little choice in that matter. They were not as 'simple' as they appeared, just... innocent.
"To live life without worry." He laughed to himself as he rose and began trotting off to his own business. "I'm not jealous, you're jealous," he told nopony at all in a joking tone.
Angel landed lightly before a door. The door was open, and the same guard stood next to it. "Where Trash?" She could see inside the room, and there were no ponies in there. That didn't stop her from poking her head inside to make absolutely sure.
"He completed his training and left." The guard stood at rigid attention, barely glancing towards the large furry visitor. "I did inform him of your arrival."
"What say?" She bonked her head on the top of the door, though her horns hit it long before her skull had a chance, causing her to half-slide before she popped back out again. "What Trash say?"
"He expressed some concern of your safety, Ma'am."
Angel squeaked softly. "Angel is safe, right here." She patted her own chest firmly. "Where is Trash?" Visions of the curious pony sobbing piteously, worrying for her, flashed in her mind's eye. That was not something she wished on her friend.
"I couldn't say, Ma'am. Have you tried his room?"
"Room? Den! Yes, good pony." She suddenly grabbed the guard by both cheeks and rubbed them firmly, warming them under her soft pawpads before she was gone, bounding down the hall. "Angel is coming!"
The guard rubbed behind his head softly before reaching to put his fur back in place where she had mussed it up. "Some days are more interesting than others..."
Trash was tossing his head left and right, horn glowing, and different things coming with each toss, throwing things out of his closet. "Where are you hiding?" As if she was burrowed into his stash of shining jewels if he just dug deep enough. "Little bling momma, this isn't how this was supposed to go."
He turned away from the closet with a scowl, tail lashing. "Now calm down. She couldn't have gone far. She likes you, Trash." He turned with a stomp of a hoof. "Doesn't she? Of course... she does... Everyone loves... Trash." He sank a little, ear drooping. "Maybe she has all the bling she needs... and she doesn't want no Trash in her life. She just left, took it with her..."
A loud thump from the door made him jump with shock, coming down facing it as soft scratches and smaller thumps came. Did something crash into his door? With a glowing horn, he pulled it open and all he could see was fur. Fur and bling. "Angel!" he cried with joy. "Where have you been hiding?"
Angel ducked down and squeezed into the room before kicking the door shut behind herself. "Look for you. Found Trash." She approached with a happy smile, bunny tail twitching back and forth. "Learn many things?"
"Learn boring things," corrected Trash with a roll of his eyes, his posture already returned to its usual languidness. "But that's all better now that my lovely Angel is here. Now you come here and tell me what you've been doing. Did you learn how to, uh, groom proper-like?"
"Yes!" She cleared the room in a small jump and reached for him. Sure, he tried to escape, but he barely made it a step before she had him warmly gathered up and settled him between her legs to tart fussing on his mane. She grabbed the brush she had used that morning and brought it over. "Want pony tail? Have pony tail, pony have two pony tails."
He snorted at the thought of having two pony tails in his mane. "Nah, I'm cool with my style, Angel girl, but you can do that?"
"Yes." She ran her fingers softly through his mane, starting to brush it out, though the day hadn't had much chance to change it from the morning session. "Teach good, learn good. Do bun? Like bun?" She tickles the top of his head with her claws, brushing softly. "Angel like grooming."
"I like being groomed." He turned an ear back to her. Perhaps she really did like him. That was... a nice change of pace. "Uh, Angel, question. What do you think of me?" It wasn't a question he normally asked. He usually just assumed, a lot, and worked off that.
"Think lots." She tapped the flat of the brush against her own cheek a moment before resuming tending to his mane. "Think nice. Think friend. Think stallion. Think not true stallion."
"Woah woah, what?" He peered over his shoulder at her.
Angel inclined her head faintly. "Is stallion, because wants to be." She leaned in, smiling gently. "Is not true stallion." Being behind him, it was not hard for her to take a free hand and casually outline exactly what made him a not-true-stallion, her fuzzy digit running a circuit right along his leathery vulva as if that was a thing friends did when they felt like it.
The reaction was instantly, him surging to his hooves and scrambling away, spinning to face her with a heavy frown. "Don't do that!"
"Did Angel hurt?" She turned her hand around to inspect her dull claws. Tsuki claws were more designed for traction and digging. They weren't all that sharp, ground down with the work they put on them. "Sorry. Not want hurt."
"N-no, you didn't hurt me any, promise." He polished his chest, trying to play it off. "Just not somewhere you should touch without permission, ya dig? How would you like it if I did that?"
Angel's ears perked only to flop right back down. "Do you want?" She rose and turned to the side, showing her profile to him. "We are friends. We are mates. Touch."
"W-wait!" That hadn't gone the way he had planned even a little bit. She stood there, clearly doing just as he had asked. She was waiting. He let out a slow breath turning into a cocky smile. "You are something else, Angel. Don't you go up to ponies and start touching them back there, alright?"
Angel turned back towards him, nodding softly. "Last pony looked funny too. Is bad?" She could still remember Blueblood, clearly ready to mate, but entirely unwilling. That reminded her... "Want kit?"
"Wha?"
She pointed at him. "Want kit? Foal. Little you." She cradled her arms as if something were in them. "Raise, become adult?"
"I know what a kid is." He waved it away lightly. "That ain't my speed right now, alright? Ain't nopony have time for one of those."
That didn't quite click with Angel, shaking her head. "Pony have time for one." She poked Trash right on the nose. "Made you."
Angel burst into gentle laughter. "You got me there. Guess at least one pony has time for that. Thanks mom."
"I be mom." She put both hands on her belly. "Ready."
"Y-you..." He shook his head quickly. "What's the rush? You're a young... tsuki was it?"
That was a name she had heard, but still didn't register it was her, exactly. "Young, right time." She thumped her belly. "Can be father?"
He grew more tense with the pointed question. However much male he claimed to be, that was one aspect denied him. "I wouldn't be rushing for it even if I... could anymore."
She perked, setting the brush aside. "Anymore? Not always not-stallion-but-stallion?"
He looked over his shoulder at her before looking ahead, avoiding her gaze. "It's a long story, Bling Momma."
"Like story. Like Trash." She set her hands on his sides and pulled him in suddenly, plucking him from the floor to curl with him and flop to the ground in a warm furry mass.
He smiled gently in the embrace, going relaxed. It was really hard to stay angry at Angel, especially when she gave really good hugs. "Well... if you want to hear?"
"Yes, please, yes." She nipped at one of his ears and squeezed him closer into her fluff. "Tell. Listen."
"Well... alright." He let out a slow sigh. "But a story like this needs somethin'." He wriggled free of her grasp and went to the closet. "Time to swap up your accessories."
However much she defied him in other ways, she was perfectly reasonable when it came to taking off jewelry and putting new ones on. He made her into a much more tasteful royal figure, with a crown and necklace and jeweled shoes on her paws, even if they were made for hooves. She was soon almost-Celestia, if Celestia didn't have a magic mane and tail, and was also a big rabbit, with horns. "Good enough. So the story, it goes somethin' like this..."
"You have to learn a profession," she said so sternly, a little frown on her usually so placid face. "You can't rely on my hoof to hold your bits for the rest of your days."
"I already don't do that," I told her flat out. "I'm an artist, and you know it."
"Where is your art?" She looked around my room, one brow raising. "I happen to enjoy art very much. Are you a painter, or a sculptor?"
"There's more art than those two." I shook my head slowly, eyes closed.
"Poet? Glass blower?" She rolled a hoof in the air slowly. "Don't leave me to guess random things. Tell me."
Oh how mad she could get when she didn't have any of her 'important' ponies in view, and I wasn't one of those, trust me. "I am a trash wizard," I explained to her, a hoof at my chest. I felt so proud.
"You can barely use that horn on your head. You sleep during magic class and have shown no aptitude. By what measure would you be a wizard of anything?"
So cold. I tell you, I was a little hurt. "Well, fine then... Then I am a prince. I am royalty, you can't deny that, Aunt. A prince of trash!" And that was when I picked out that name. I still like it, mind. "And I rule over it with a careful hoof."
She put a hoof over her face. "You haven't shown me how this is art. What have you done?"
I tapped the ground. "You're standing on it, to start."
She looked down with a squint. "I see a floor in need of cleaning. Why haven't you allowed the maids to do their job, Golden?"
"But they have." I ran a hoof softly over the surface. "This is re-used pallets and--"
"You tore up my castle's floor and replaced it with junk?!" she blurted out, wings shooting out either way.
"And it's looking fabulous," I finished for her. "I worked in old rings from soda cans and glittering bits from the glass of old bottles and isn't it marvelous?" I really did like the look of it, trust me, Bling Momma.
Angel tilted her head at Prince. "Floor not look like that." She turned this way and that, looking at the perfectly standard floor. The walls also looked like the walls in much the rest of the castle. "Where art?"
"About that..."
She was livid! Furious. Kind of angry, ya know? "You will find a more respectable way to idle your days, and you will restore my room to the way you found it. You did not ask permission to tear apart my castle, Golden Lash."
"Trash Prince," I reminded her. Oh, that would just be the first of countless times.
"So long as you live under my roof, accepting my bits, you are Golden Lash." She thumped my chest with a metal-covered hoof, and let me remind, that kinda hurts. "I will be sending ponies in here to get this place back where it was, and I am not interested in arguments. Are we clear?"
"Boss pony not nice." Angel crossed her arms, on her hind legs and frowning down at her friend. "Why stay?"
Trash lifted his shoulders. "I ain't finished with the story, Big Momma. Now sit back down and let me continue."
So they tore it up. My first art installation, pow, gone. But I wasn't gonna give up, oh no! I mean, I already got my cutie mark. It was pretty clear, I think. I made magic out of trash, and I planned to do that, so I did!
I collected the choicest things and got better at working it. In fact, you're wearing it right now. Don't look like that. Trash can make really great bling. You think Celly was giving me tons of bits to buy the bling with? No! So I made it myself. I made all of it.
If I didn't tell ponies where it came from, they even liked it. Like clockwork though, Momma, the moment I mentioned how I made it, they lost all interest. Bigots. You... still like yours, right?
Angel tilted her head to the left, then the right. She brought up a pawhand to brush at her long ears, but they weren't festooned with rings that moment, done up like Celestia as she was. It took her a moment to move and find the big necklace dangling from her. "Pretty." She held it up, trying to imagine it as trash.
Trash truly had worked magic, she decided. Some kind of crazy magic that turned trash into shinies. This was a magic she could appreciate. She began to bob her head firmly. "Like. Good."
I knew you'd get me... So then Celly comes storming in, a bee already in her bonnet. Not a literal one. She was annoyed, get me? "You skipped class again!" she started, stomping as she came up to me. "And what is this?" She was eyeing all the shining goodness I was wearing. "I didn't authorize these purchases."
"Weren't no purchases to authorize, Auntie." I turned to her with my usual charming smile. Not that it ever seemed to work on her. "Here, I made one for you." I took out a necklace, the same one you're wearing actually.
She brushed it aside with a big ole' sigh. "Golden, go to class, just once, and pay attention. This is for your own good." She pointed out the door. "Now."
"Now? The class is already over?"
"The teacher is waiting for you. Now." She sent me scurrying, so I wasn't there to see the next part, but she told me, later. She only looked at my necklace after I was gone and she actually liked it.
She didn't take it, you can guess that. It's still right here, not on her neck. But she did like it. She even relaxed a little about my trash magic, even if she never did let me remodel the room.
Still hates the name though. So I was off to magic class. Now, see, magic. I like magic as much as any unicorn. It's sparkly and useful, but you have to memorize so much stuff to get it to work right. That ain't really my thing? I'd rather be working my trash magic, as the Trash Prince, you know?
One day I'm trying to transform a flower. Why? They seemed to think changing flowers was a fine thing to do. 'Easier than animals and they complain less', I think they said the reason was. Whatever. So I was to make this purple flower into a bright red flower. Trick was, that flower was only red when it was a lady flower and purple when it was a boy flower.
Did you know flowers had boys and girls? I didn't either! I didn't even know that when I was trying to do the magic. But I tried. Now, a little thing I didn't know until after the fact, you see, glass and metal in just the right way can really mess with magic. So, I try to zap this flower into being another color, but my magic gets caught up in the crown I was wearing that day. It bounces around all crazy, then ricochets around the room. Other ponies are squealing and diving out of the way, the instructor right along with them.
Kapow! It hits me right in the back. Right where I used to have a little prince. Now that was a wierd feeling. The bad kind of wierd. Sucked right up into me, felt like I was split open back there, which I was basically, but it was like someone took an axe to me, all wet and bloody and ick. I made quite the noise and crashed.
Angel had her hands on her face in a shocked expression. She lowered them a precious inch. "Cast spell again."
"Say what?"
"Cast spell again." She wriggled her fingers in a loose display of magic power. "Turn from girl to boy."
He smiled lopsided. "You think I didn't try that? That spell was meant for a flower, not a pony. It shouldn't have even worked at all." He glanced over his shoulder at where his altered genitals were hidden under his tail. "Lucky it only got one part of me instead of the whole thing."
"Trash Prince," she sighed out, grabbing him suddenly and wrapping around him in a great big hug of sympathy. "Hurt?"
"Nah, no... it don't hurt anymore." He wriggled a bit in her grasp but wasn't trying very hard to escape. "Just in that moment. That was something else..."
Angel suddenly rolled him over onto his back and began rubbing his belly with both paws, making him wriggle with poorly constrained laughter, though she was trying to gently rub rather than tickle. "Angel sorry. Not understand. Now understand. Poor Trash. Make all shinies?" She moved a hand to her necklace, then waved it at the vast collection of jewelry and rods and other things.
"Every one of them." He was smiling with confident pride, even if her other hand was making him squirm with belly rubs. "In fact... I wanted to make something for you, just for you."
"For Angel?!" She released him, both hands going back to her face in shock. "Trash... Good mate. Sorry say not stallion, is stallion." she nodded firmly with a little frown. "Fix, must fix."
"Nah." He set a hoof on her face. "I am what I am. Not freaking out about it anymore. I'm a stallion even if I got odd parts. And you are a mare, uh, rabbit mare. Tsuki mare? What are those called?"
She shrugged helplessly. "Doe."
"Doe! Right. You're a right pretty doe, big and in charge." He rolled upwards and set a hoof on her side. "My blingin' momma Angel. Hey, righteous manecut." He reached higher, brushing at her well-mannered bangs.
Angel's cheeks warmed with obvious nervous delight at being so complimented. "Friend help. Show how groom. Tomorrow, Angel groom Trash."
"And Trash will like it." He rose and approached his closet. His glowing horn began to put things away even as other things came out. "Tomorrow, I plan to show you where the magic happens. We're going to go on a hunt."
Her eyes lit up. "Hunt?" She hadn't had a chance to hunt since she came to Trash's room. "Yes, hunt!" She clapped her paws with growing excitement. "Hunt shinies?"
"Exactly." He nodded firmly even as he dug around in his collection. "Gonna find some things waitin' to shine, then bring them to my secret lab."
"What?" Angel leaned in from behind, sniffing at him lightly as if the answer could be found if she found the right scent.
"Where I do my magic." He threw a hoof out wide. "Where we turn trash into shiny things."
"Best magic," she quickly agreed, bouncing in place a full foot into the air with every excited bounce. "Yes. Angel good hunt. Angel find. Trash see."
"With you at my side, I'm totally chill." He pulled a long string out from the cluttered mess. "Here we go. This needs to shine."
Angel squinted at it, trying to imagine how the simple white string could ever shine. "Not shiny," she pointed out. "Magic?"
"It'll be a kind of magic," he agreed with that lazy smile of his. "Tomorrow. For today, my big momma done worked up a sweat. Time for a bath."
Angel looked over herself. She didn't have any obvious dirt or clumped up fur. She had groomed herself, with help, just that morning! "Angel groomed."
"You are perfectly pretty, but also a little stinky. Bath time." He grabbed her in his magic, but she was far too massive for him to lift into the air.
She could feel him trying with futility, tugging gently at her. She inclined her head before turning for the door. "Trash lead, Angel follow." She would obey her friend. He hadn't led her wrong so far.
Trash stepped over a small mound. "Still with me?"
Angel was progressing far more slowly, her nose scrunched and her eyes watering. "Stinks," she stated simply and as bluntly as the smell seemed to be attacking her.
"It does that. Part of the magic to get rid of that." He turned his head and lit up, ears perked as he trot forward. "Last Stop, ole' dog, how's it hangin'?"
"Some of us still have somethin' ta hang, ya damn eunuch." Despite the other unicorn's harsh words, the two met and thumped chests together, looking like old friends. "What's that big thing followin' you around?"
Angel looked over the new pony. They were wearing work overalls and had a scraggly mane. They also smelled of the junkyard they apparently... lived? in. "Angel." She raised a paw to point at herself, then pointed at him. "Last Stop?"
"Got it in one, Big Lady." He turned and pointed inside. "You lookin' to scrounge?"
"Exactly why I'm here. You know how that goes." Angel went to walk past him, but he thrust out a hoof, blocking him. "What's up?"
He pointed with his other forehoof, his back tense with the effort of holding his body up without either foreleg involved. He was indicating Angel. "I know you, and keepin' you out's more trouble than lettin' you in, but I ain't tryin' ta let more creatures up in here."
Both of his hooves thumped back to the ground with a faint huff of breath. Angel leaned in towards the smaller pony, though most ponies were smaller, compared to her. "Go with Trash."
Trash nodded softly. "Yeah, she's with me."
"She don't know the ropes. She goes in there, gets hurt." He ran a hoof over his own neck. "I get in trouble. I don't need Celly payin' a visit, yelling at me fer running things wrong when this here's the only way to run it."
Angel huffed and sat in place. "Can wait."
Trash peered at her, then turned towards the great piles of trash beyond the gate. "It takes me a while. You sure you're alright waiting here while I pick out the choicest bits?"
"Angel wait," she repeated with a thump of a paw on the littered ground. "Angel hunt." She rose to her paws. "Will be here."
"Wait wait... Momma, are ya gonna hunt, or be here?"
"Hunt. Be here." She inclined her head as if baffled at how one couldn't do both. "Go." She pointed past him to the piles he had meant to go to. "Trash hunt. Angel hunt. Angel hunt better?"
"A challenge?" His face lifted from passivity to a lazy smile. "And you're letting me have the junkyard pick? That's a big handicap there, my lovely big angel... Don't go crying to me when you lose." He turned back for the piles. "Headin' in."
"Yeah, you watch yourself too." Last shook his head as he started to wander away. "Ponies these days, lining up to get into the junkyard."
Last Stop was suddenly being touched. He looked over his shoulder as Angel pat him right on his pointy head. "Good pony." Without giving him a chance to respond, she leaped. Outdoors and with nothing to crash into, she soared up and away, the whole of the city spreading out under her.
He was left gawking at where she once was, then where she vanished into the sky in her powerful leap. "She..." He aborted the thought, shaking his head. He couldn't have stopped her from coming in if he wanted to. Good thing she didn't force the issue.
Angel knew how to hunt. She had done so plenty of times before meeting Trash. She had been hunting when she ran into him! Sure, that time had gone... oddly, but she still knew how to do it. She landed lightly on a roof, watching ponies go back and forth on the street below. She just had to find a good mark...
There was a mare with a child. Neither wore ornamentation, except for the colt bouncing around had a cap on, but it wasn't shiny. No. There was a stallion with a cane he didn't need, swinging it in his magic as he walked along relaxedly. He could have shinies, but not a lot, no.
Ah ha. A slightly round mare with a few shinies already hanging off of her. Wherever she came from, there would be more shinies. Angel began to prowl, leaping from one roof to the next, keeping the mare in view. The mare went into some kind of store for a little while, leaving Angel to wait impatiently. There, she was leaving, down the road... Angel followed her from above, leaping from place to place.
Hopefully, she just needed to go to one specific place... Yes, there we go. She was heading into an apartment building, a den for ponies. That would be where she lived. Angel clapped her paws once with joy, the first leg of her hunt complete.
Trash's horn glowed softly as he picked up bits and bobs from the pile. "Mmm, yeah... nah... mmm..." He peered at each in turn, either throwing it back into the pile or adding it to a slowly gathering ball of stuff he had deemed worthy of collecting. "Don't you worry now. Trash is gonna make you shine again!"
"Poor bling momma..." He imagined her frantically rushing around, trying to find anything worth making shine. Maybe she was rooting around in garbage cans? Those rarely had anything worth the trip. "I'll be a kind winner." His eyes turned to a glint and he extracted a plate of metal with barely any touches of rust on it. "You'll shine up good!"
Angel thumped against the wall, landing just beside the window. The mare had come and left her apartment, leaving it open to Angel's presence. With a careful nudge, she discovered the window wasn't locked, good. It was amazing how many ponies didn't bother to lock their windows. She tried to push it, but it didn't move. She coiled her fingers to get her claws in just so and pull it towards herself, the window swinging easily.
With a bit of wriggling, Angel popped into the apartment, tail twitching behind herself. It smelled like a mare that was trying too hard to smell nice. She was seeking a mate, Angel decided. Poor thing. That could explain why she had so many shinies, or it could just be the pony had good taste and liked shinies. Angel liked shinies for far more than mate attracting, so she couldn't argue that inner thought.
The interior was darker than the outside with no lights on and the sun was only able to get in through the same window she just got in through. With a twitching nose, Angel began searching for the shinies she was sure the mare had. They usually kept them... Angel wandered into the mare's bedroom, having to squeeze through the door. Everything was sized for a pony, not a big tsuki like her. Ponies were so inconsiderate that way.
Good thing they were cute, and had shinies. She forgave them for their terrible construction designs.
She saw a small table beside the bed. That was a popular place for shinies. Patting it and around it, she found a cupboard and pulled it open. Nothing but books and paper. With a huff, Angel turned and saw a much larger dressed. "Yes." She reached for it and started pulling each little container out. Horsehoes? Nope. She tossed that one aside. Underwear? Nope, tossed aside.
Ah ha! There was a whole container of shinies. Lots of round white ones and a collection of colorful studs and things. They were perfect. Angel gathered them up in her paws and began decorating herself as best she could. What she couldn't get to clasp onto herself or fit on her horns or wrap around some part of herself were discarded, added to the mess on the floor.
She had plenty of shinies. She made for the window she came in through and wriggled back out. All she had to do was meet Trash back at the stinky place and show off how good her findings were!
Trash set down his great pile of potentials. "You've all worked hard to get this far, but I can't take you all home." He wobbled a hoof over the mess. "Some of you will make it to the final round, but remember, you're all great." He smirked softly at his own humor as he began to poke and prod through the pile. "Mmm..."
Some things he pushed aside for being too corroded to salvage reasonably. Some just weren't sitting right with his muse. Others weren't the right shade or color he thought he had seen before. But some special ones were put in a newer, smaller, pile. The winners. "You are the ones that will be reborn into something new and wonderful. A gift to my big momma Angel." He leaned in with a happy smile. "I wonder how she'll like it..."
He gathered up his findings in his magic. "Hey, Last! I'm headin' home. Is Angel still out there?"
"Nope." He was up in a crane, leaning out and looking down at Trash. "She bounced off and hasn't come back."
"Huh..." He exited the gate of the junkyard and sat down where they had started. "Guess I'll wait..." He produced a cloth and started to polish and rub at his findings, working off the dirt and bits of rust to prepare them for the next steps to come. "No reason t'just idle..."
He wasn't keeping track of time, but he had a few pieces ready for more advanced procedures when the ground trembled faintly. Angel had landed right in front of him, making him jump with surprise. "Angel, you're..." He trailed off, noticing that she was sporting a new layer of bling. "How... What?"
Angel turned to the side, then switched to the other way, showing off her find. "Hunt good. Like, yes? Where trash?"
Trash blinked softly as he hefted up his catch in his magic for her to see.
"Is..." Angel peered at it critically. They were kind of shiny, but were not... shinies. They would have made a bird happy, but Angel was more demanding than a bird. "Not use magic? Turn to shiny." She reached for him, giving his shoulders a shake. "Trash magic."
"Trash magic isn't instant," he defended, tucking his finds away into pockets. "I'll make them all nice and pretty, promise. Now... hey, where'd you get that stuff?" His magic tugged at the big pearl necklace dangling from one of her horns.
"Hunt," happily replied Angel with a big smile. "Hunt good. Angel win?"
"Angel... wins," he allowed, though doubt was thick in his voice. "You need to tell me how you did that." He started to trot around her towards home. "But it's late, and we both stink. Let's put our things away and take a nice bath."
Angel perked at that, though her ears were quick to succumb to gravity and fall back in place. "Bath together? Angel will groom Trash. Good mate." She hiked a thumb at her back. "Get on. Go home faster."
Trash regarded Angel with his relaxed look, considering silently. "Alright... Be gentle with me, Big Momma." He turned away from the street and towards her.
Before he could even start climbing her, she grabbed him and casually placed him on her back, his legs going down side side of her body. "Hold tight," she instructed, then the world vanished, spreading out beneath them under the power of her powerful legs. With strong bounces that made the wind howl in their ears, the return trip to home was much faster than the lazy walk to the junkyard had been.
As they approached, Angel shook her head. "Window closed. Door." She landed right in front of two startled guards at the front doors to the palace. "Home!"
Trash waved a hoof slowly over an orbiting bit of plastic and metal. "Now it's time."
"Time?" Angel leaned in towards the two pieces. "What time?"
"Trash magic." He raised both his hooves to either side of the two, swirling them as his horn glowed brighter and brighter. "The cleaner you get them, the more care you put in, the better the magic works."
Angel sat and brought up her paws to clap them together properly in soft patpatpat noises. "Show trash magic!"
"Already on the case." He ran his tongue over his lips, tail swishing as the room became blindingly bright in a flash. The two fell to the ground, but were one. They had bonded together, becoming a ring with a spot for a gem, but there was no gem there.
Angel snatched it up, holding it towards the light in the room. "Shiny." It was, lustrous and new. The plastic and metal had run together in some kind of strange harmony that seemed to... work. Like the plastic, the ring was somewhat flexible, allowing her to shove it onto a large finger without much trouble. "Trash magic," she breathed out, visibly impressed with a dopey little smile.
"From the Trash Prince," noted Trash with a smile. "I have what will become the jewel right here." His horn glowed softly as a rock came into view. "Someone tossed this perfectly fine bit of stained glass. Their loss is our gain."
"Their loss, our gain," echoed Angel, bobbing her head. "Hunt. Good hunt. Their loss, our gain."
He inclined his head at that. "The way you say that... Where did you get those, Big Momma? Those aren't junk. Nopony threw those away. I know junk when I see junk." Despite his questions, he was already hard at work polishing and preparing the colored glass for its new life. "So lay the news out for me."
"Angel hunt," she said as if that explained everything. She looked over her shoulder where all her findings were in a little pile on a desk. She had taken them off for the bath, which reminded her... "Groom time." She grabbed a brush that had been sitting right next to her new shinies and approached Trash with purpose.
"Just don't get between me and the trash, Angel." He brought the glass close up, inspecting it as it twirled. "Almost... A nice big chunk. It'll be more than just the bubble on top. Mmm..." He raised a hoof to point at Angel. "I'll need that ring back. It's not done."
"Not done?" She paused her groom-stalking and held up the hand that held a brush, and had a ring attached. "Make more shiny?"
"More shiny," he agreed with a soft bobbing of his head. When she offered her hand, he raised a hoof to meet it, cradling the furry paw on the flat of his hoof. "How romantic," he chuckled out before leaning in and smooching the back of her paw, his magic slipping the ring free. "Now, let's make this ring even better."
"Better. Shinier." She clapped her paws with a happy smile, the brush falling to the ground, abandoned. "Trash Prince work trash magic!"
"The best kind." He nodded once firmly as if agreeing with an obvious fact. His horn began to glow hotter as the glass and ring circled one another. "And... Yeah." As he finished, a flash, but the glass did not become one big jewel, instead distributed, with the largest becoming the set gem, but there was plenty more than became little spots along the side of the ring, making it shine from more angles.
Angel snatched it from the air without hesitation, peering at it and turning it left and right and all around, her tongue poking out a little as she did so. "Better! Better! Trash magic!" Any hint that it had been anything but constructed specifically to be that pretty ring seemed to have vanished from her eyes. The glass hadn't been set on the inside, thankfully, as it had just a little edge, enough to feel it, and she wouldn't have wanted it pressing in on her finger.
Instead she slipped it on and wriggled all her digits at Trash. "Good, yes?"
"Oh, yes, very good." He nodded slowly. "It looks so much better on my big bling momma... Do you like it?"
"Like it, yes, very yes." She suddenly threw her head forward, headbutting him and narrowly avoiding either of them being jabbed by the other's horns. Such was the life of a tsuki and a unicorn. "Trash good hunter. Angel sorry think not." She shook her head quickly, ears flopping wildly in the motion. "Good hunter."
"Different hunter," he retorted easily, though his eyes swirled, the impact of that headbutt leaving him wobbling in place. "So... how do you hunt, Angel? Can you show me?"
"Yeah, that." He clopped his hooves once. "Show me your magic, tomorrow, alright?"
"Tonight," she countered. "Night better for hunt. Day hunt, can do. Did do." She pointed to her new collection. "Harder. Night better." She turned that arm to point out the window. "Night. Hunt?"
He looked to the same darker sky that hinted at a Canterlot under Luna's watch. "I wasn't planning on it," he admitted in lazy tones. "But for you, alright. Show me your magic."
She snatched him up into a hug just to roll over, him suddenly on her back as she bounded for the window. "Hunt!" she cried with joy, throwing it open.
"Woah, hold on doe." He clutched to her with all four legs. "You can give a fella a moment before--" They were in the air, propelled by her powerful thumpers into the night sky. "--this," he lamely finished, clinging to her. "Not that I don't trust you, Big Momma, but I'm usually a ground pony, sort of like an earth pony, with magic."
"Earth pony?" She landed in a courtyard of the castle just to spring back into the air. "What that?" In her mind, images of ponies made of rocks and dirt trotted along curiously. "Never see. Want see."
"They're not that odd. Just imagine me, and take off my horn. There, you have an earth pony." He reached one hoof up, the other three still holding tight. "Don't take my horn. I rather like it, ya dig?"
"Not dig, jump," she corrected as if mending the words of a child. She landed on a roof outside the castle and turned in place, hunting looks in her eyes. "Now hunt."
"From up here?" He sat up a little, the bouncing seeming to be over. "How do you hunt from up here?"
"Angel magic! You watch." She leaned over the side of the roof, peering into the darkness below. "There." Below them, a stallion with a ring on their horn, and another clasped around one of their legs. "Shinies."
"Yeah?" Angel inclined his head at the stallion below. "Those are his. Gonna ask him for some?"
"Ask?" She glanced over her shoulder and back. "Hunt. Angel magic. Watch!" She followed after the stallion from above, never making her presence known. "Look tired. Good."
"Good?" Trash licked over his lips, one golden brow raising. "Baby girl."
"Big Momma," retorted Angel.
"Nuh uh, right now, Baby girl. Are you going to steal from that pony?"
"Steal?" She easily hopped from one roof to the next, remaining close to the pony.
"Steal. Take what ain't yours. Take his shinies." He pointed down at the pony they were stalking.
"When Angel hold, is Angel's," she explained as if it should have been very obvious. She held up a hand, the new ring perched on it. "Is Angel's."
"It is," he gently agreed. "I gave it to you. I wanted you to have it, because I like you."
Angel felt her cheeks warming even if she couldn't quite place why. "Trash good hunt."
"Trash good friend, he hopes." He inclined his head a little. "So... can we not steal from the pony?"
"Want see Angel magic, see. Wait." She crouched down, rump wiggling as the pony went into a manor. "Lots shinies, hard get. Hard hunt, good hunt. Many shinies..." She clucked her tongue against her great teeth and jumped down to the street just to rebound up onto another roof where she could see the manor from another angle. "Mmm..."
"While you are... adorable planning and scheming." He reached to put a hoof on her head right between her horns, rubbing gently. "You don't have to. You shouldn't. Calm down, Angel."
"Not want see Angel magic?" She slumped visibly. "Know how hunt. Ready hunt." She pointed to the manor. "There."
"Not tonight..." Not any night, he figured, but getting her to slow her plans was the first step. "Angel... It's alright. Let him keep his shinies."
She coiled on herself and grabbed him. He squeaked in surprise, but she just set him down gently on the roof. "Wait. Trash wait. Not scare with jumps." And she was gone, bounding towards the manor without time for a reply.
He thrust a hoof out where she had been, words dying on his lips. "Well..." He looked left and right slowly. "Huh..." There was no obvious ladder to get down from there. "Maybe a night-owl pegasus will go by." He turned his eyes for the sky, hoping for such a lucky event.
With a loud thump, Trash landed on a bush that absorbed his mighty impact and threw him up and to the side. He sailed through the air before crashing to the ground with an oof. "Don't know how pegasi do it..." He sat up, putting a hoof to his spinning head. "Down."
"Why were you on my roof?" A mare with a monocle over an eye was peering at the dishevelled Trash. "You don't appear to be anypony I hired to work up there."
"Oh, no, no ma'am." He dipped his head towards her, almost falling over with vertigo. "The name's Trash Prince and--"
"--What an uncouth name," she spat, face twisting with disgust. "Were you trying to rob me?"
"Huh? No. I was trying to--"
"--Get off my lawn." She pointed towards the street. "Hoofer, dear, assist this... gentlepony on his way."
A butler stepped forward with a formal bow at the same time. "With me, Sir." Those were the last words he had to say for a while, grabbing Trash with magic and yanking him into the air easily. Hoofer marched with firm steps towards the edge of the lawn and his magic winked out, dropping Trash onto the sidewalk outside their property. "Good day, Sir."
Trash picked himself back to his hooves. "Well, I never," he said, affecting the tone of a bothered aristocrat. His lazy smile revealed he wasn't actually feeling it. "Time to go home." But he didn't get far before remembering. "Where is she?" He had spent much of the night up there, considering ways to get down until he dared to make the jump.
Which he had made! He nodded with satisfaction at that. Still... He craned his head around as if a soaring bouncing bunny could come into view at any moment. But there was no sighting of her by the time he reached the castle, not that he got inside it easily.
There was Celestia, at the top of the steps. She was speaking with a guard idly, at least until Trash came into view, then her gaze turned towards him with obvious irritation. "We need to speak."
"What's up, Auntie?" He kept his trotting gait, approaching her as any other pony. "I'm ready for the afternoon class."
"That isn't the problem, for a change." She let out a little breath and turned towards the inside. "Follow me. I'll be in the third." The guard nodded at her as if that were clear and she began to walk. Even at a stately walk, her long legs helped her move at a decent rate.
Trash trailed along after her, one ear askew. "Something wrong?"
"There is." She nodded to a passing pony. "We will speak of it in a moment." She shared no other words until they reached the named sitting room. Celestia gestured towards it. "Have a seat. We need to talk."
"Sure thing." He settled on the cushion lightly, his horn glowing as he snatched a cookie from one of the many trays of snacks there, nibbling on it idly. "What's going on, Auntie?"
"You." She leveled a hoof at him directly. "I had wondered how you always seemed to be practically buried in jewelry despite my tightening your allowance, but theft?"
He suddenly coughed on his cookie, the poor baked treat falling from his numb magic. "What?!"
"Do not try to prove otherwise." She wagged a hoof lightly. "We found the stolen property inside your room, reported fresh from a pony. I'm not interested in wild tales of courtly intrigue, either. You aren't nearly involved enough in court for anypony else there to have an interest in you." She drew in a heavy breath, her large form swelling noticable before it escaped her. "Golden Lash, is this what I have taught you?"
"No! No, of course not, Auntie." He shook his head slowly. "I am no stealer! My hooves are clean."
She glanced at his hooves, scuffed as they were from his night spent on a roof and crashing into a bush and walking home across a city. "I see... I received a report that you were found perched on a noblemare's roof just today. An innocent mistake, I gather?"
He went rigid, and that was apparently enough of an answer for Celestia. "It's too much, Golden Lash."
His teeth clenched. Again, his dead name, thrown in his face. A moment of fury washed over him, impotent as it was. "Stop calling me that."
"I will stop calling you anything." She pointed towards the door. "I have done my best to educate you and shelter you, but you do not listen. You begrudge my presence. Fine. Leave." She pointed more firmly. "You are hereby banned from the castle. Your jewelry is being confiscated, to be returned to their rightful owners."
The world was spinning. "But... most of that's already mine..."
Celestia hiked a brow at that. "I have a hard time believing that right now. For now, leave. If we haven't found the proper owners in 6 moons' time, you can petition then. Until that day arrives, I want to hear not a single word more about it. I am very disappointed in you, Golden Lash... Some advise me you should be thrown in jail." His ears flipped back and his breath caught. "Out of respect for your mother, I will not do that, this time. Go."
"Alright..." He rose to his hooves, the cookie abandoned on the floor. He had no desire for it, or anything in that moment. "I'm going..." He turned to go, but something tugged at the base of his tail. Glancing back, he could see Celestia's magic grasping at the ring near the base of his tail. "You got that for me," he got out quickly, sounding more choked than he had intended.
"I did... I hope you find your own path. Perhaps this is for the best, away from me." She looked away from him, her magic releasing the ring. "Some ponies can only blossom away from the sun."
For the second time of the day, he was kicked out. The guards at least were happy enough to let him walk out on his own hooves, but were just as inflexible about him leaving. One of their horns glowed as a small bag came into view. "Princess Celestia said this is your last allowance."
He accepted it between his two forehooves, sitting there at the top of the stairs. "Thanks..." His last allowance. He was really on his own. He had been cast out onto the streets of the city. Standing up stiffly, he started down the stairs that felt like they could give way at any moment. No, those were his legs. "I didn't even do it..." He could guess what had happened. He had little else to do than muse on how it all happened.
Trash could imagine some of the jewelry Angel had stolen laying there for Celestia, or maybe some of the maids, to find. Freshly taken from some mare, just the day before... And he wasn't there to defend himself, being dropped on a roof to wait miserably.
"Angel..." She had cost him dearly. He clenched his teeth with impotent rage, but he slumped as he passed through the gates of the castle proper. "Angel..." She didn't... realize what she was doing was wrong. Not that this helped him... He couldn't quite muster full and proper anger at her. "Where even are you, Blingmomma?"
An upturn of nobles, or so he called them, their noses held up high, marched past him into the castle, paying him even less mind than usual as if they somehow knew he had been just cast out. They didn't so much as glance at him.
He wasn't part of their circle anymore, not that they ever really enjoyed having him there to begin with. "Right... right... Keep it calm, man... You have contacts." He had friends outside the castle. It was time to pull a favor or two. "Where are you?" he grunted, clopping the ground with his right forehoof and starting to march away from the castle, tail lashing behind him.
"I don't know if I'll hug you or choke you when I find you, but where are you even hiding?"
Angel thumped against the wall and reached for the wooden shutters, pulling them open to gain access to the window, sliding it open a moment later. "Angel home," she called with a smile. It was only that moment she realized it was her home. She had found a good place, with good people, a good person specifically. "Trash?" She threw herself inside, squirming through the hole into the darkened room.
There was no Trash there. Perhaps he was at a class or something equally boring. Poor Trash. "Stupid boss pony." It was her fault he had to do those things. She turned instead to the mirror and gazed at herself, glittering with her newfound treasure. A massive green emerald on a platinum chain dangled around her neck, shining brilliantly. "Good hunt..."
She reached for it and ran her fingers along its delicate edges and bold great gem surface, but there was something not quite right... "Show Trash." Yes, she had to show him the result of her magic. That would make it better! She hopped to the door and burst through it into the hall. A guard was there, as usual, but he wasn't ignoring her.
"Angel?"
She nodded at him. "Where Trash?"
"Miss Angel, Princess Celestia requests your presence."
Angel recoiled a few inches. The boss horse?! What good could come out of that? Still, she was the boss... "Where?"
The guard began to walk. "This way." He didn't say why or what for, he simply walked. The guards were so formal that way. Angel walk-hopped in the slow way that didn't carry her past him. Why did they have to walk so slowly?!
At last, he reached a door flanked with two other guards and he pointed inside. "She's inside, seeing other ponies. Go in and wait for her to call you."
"Wait, yes." Not that she wanted to wait, especially for the boss horse, but she was the boss... Angel approached the opening double doors, revealing Celestia already mid-conversation with several snooty ponies with shinies. worn.
One of them, a mare, noticed Angel right away. "Look at that. You're quite the extravagant creature."
The stallion inclined his head. "I say... that looks familiar..."
Celestia cleared her throat into a hoof. "That is Angel, a tsuki in our care. I would speak with her, after we finish our conversation. Angel, where did you get that?" Surely there was no way Golden Lash could have afforded such an obviously expensive piece.
Angel inclined her head faintly. "Angel magic show Trash." She nodded softly as she settled to wait on her belly, watching the ponies.
"I... see..." Celestia turned back to the other ponies and they resumed their conversation of some boring pony matter that went right over Angel's head. Something to do with land somewhere? The two left with smiles, apparently satisfied with whatever had been agreed on.
Angel sat up on her haunches, seeing the conversation was over, and Celestia was coming closer. What did the boss horse want? Angel remained quiet, allowing Celestia to speak, or leave. Leaving would also work.
She didn't leave. "That pendant, did Golden Lash give it to you?"
Golden Lash? Oh... "Not name."
That only made her frown. "So, yes then? I will need that back." Her magic made it vanish right from around Angel's neck. "I'll see it gets back to its original owner. Angel, you are hereby set free. I was a fool for even allowing this game to proceed as far as it has. If you would like assistance in reaching your people, I will gladly assist--"
Angel's fur stood on end. "Mine!"
"No."
For once it was she, Angel, that had been stolen from. It didn't feel all that great, but the boss pony looked capable of fighting her for it, and winning. "Mine..." she repeated, but in more of a petulant whisper.
"You are no longer Golden Lash's ward. He has no power over you. Go in peace."
Angel landed lightly on a roof, sitting on her haunches. She had her shiny taken away, her largest and most recent. But, there, on her right forepaw, she could see the smaller glistening bauble given to her. It was not hunted for, unlike most of the shinies she ever had.
A nice pony whose bodyparts confused her had made it for her. He had asked nothing for it. She didn't have to wait until he wasn't looking... She reached for the ring, slowly turning it and admiring the way the light reflected off of it. He had just surrendered it to her, despite being an obvious collector of shinies, much like herself. He adored shiny things, and made them with his magic.
And he just gave that lovely little piece to her without hesitation. He had made it, just for her. It didn't make sense.
Angel slumped, her belly flat on the roof as she grunted. Why had he been so kind to her? Well... Well... Maybe she was overthinking it. Wasn't it obvious, really? He had said why. He wanted to be her mate. He wanted to be with her, to be her companion.
He was a friend.
And he was lost. Where was he? She sat up with a little frown. "Not make kits," she said assuredly, failing to imagine how he could do that with her. "Still friend. Still mate." He had tried the hardest, without trying, to win that position. He wasn't some random buck that tried to show off how fit and fast they were. He hadn't tried to force their way onto her, however odd that would have been. She softly chuffed, imagining Trash on her back, perhaps growling? But there would be nothing he could do back there but make little noises until she shook him off.
He didn't want her for kits. He wanted her... For...
Why did he want her? She was increasingly certain he wanted her, but why? She would have to ask him. And to ask him, she would have to find him.
It was at that moment that memory clicked, her eyes widening. "Stupid Angel." She slapped her forehead with the fleshy pad of her right hand. She had remembered she had left the poor thing on that roof. He couldn't jump like her! Was he still there, on that roof? Poor thing. She bounded quickly back where she had left him. "Not be hurt. Not be mad..."
But that rooftop was bare, nothing on it but herself as she landed on it lightly. There was no sign of her prince. She peered over the edges fretfully. Had he fallen and hurt himself? She didn't see his broken body, or trails of red that would imply that unfortunate fate.
A sharp pain lanced across her form and she jumped with fright. A unicorn was climbing up onto the roof, his horn crackling with power. That roof wasn't a safe place! She hit the roof just long enough to bounce away from it. "We will need spikes," grunted the pony as he turned away from her.
Had poor Trash been attacked by the other pony? They didn't usually attack each other, or much of anything, really. Yet there that pony was, zapping her. She had to find Trash! Her face brightened, remembering one pony who could possibly know and would be willing to tell her.
The source of his trash magic.
Trash sat down and looked out the window of his new, small, apartment. His allowance wouldn't allow him to even keep that for long. He sighed softly as he turned his head away. "Gonna need to earn some bits..." There wasn't anything else for it. Allowance was done, over... He'd have a roof over his head for a little bit, then he'd be a pauper on the streets.
That wasn't his style! "Time to do... what you do best." Make things he liked? Well... "Yeah, but I have to do something with it afterwards..." He stood up and started for the door. "I have to sell it." Oh, if only he still had his collection. A little frown marred his face. "For one, it's mine," he grumped as he willed the door open and stepped through. "For two, selling some of it would have helped." He closed the door behind himself. "For three, I made them!" His walking began to relax, his usual sedate mood seeping back in, replacing the momentary flaring of irritation.
"Stepping out?" asked the pony by the front door of his apartment building.
Trash knew him, they had a guard, one guard. Not nearly as many as he was used to having, still, at least one. He had turned down other places for their complete lack. It just... felt strange not having at least one around. "Yeah. Gotta work."
"Don't we all?" The guard nodded towards the door heading outside. "Got your key?"
"Huh? Oh." He drew his key from his pocket, floating in his magic. "Thanks for reminding." He had forgotten his key once or twice, back at the castle.
"Sure thing."
Trash pocketed the key and trot out to the street. There were ponies moving about their business, but they were not aristocrats. Well, some of them were, and many of them wished they were, but most of them were common unicorn ponies, just trying to get their business done.
He wasn't in the castle anymore. He wasn't a hoofstep away from Celestia anymore. That was good, right? She wasn't ordering him to do things he didn't want to do. He was free...
Free to fail. His trot faltered down to a walk, but he pressed onwards, heading towards the one place he knew he could get to work.
The source of his trash magic.
"Haven't seen him today." The junkyard pony lifted his shoulders softly. "If you want to hang around, bet he'll appear eventually. I tried keeping him out, never worked."
Angel inclined her head faintly left and right before she sat up and clapped her paws together. "Will hunt. Get shiny."
He hiked a brow. "Ya still don't know how to get around the junkyard without hurtin' yourself. Ya know, Trash did that no few times."
"Did what?" She flopped back to all fours, great ears wagging a moment from the motion.
"Hurt himself in there." He turned back to the junkyard. "Every time I told him to go home and not come back. This ain't a place for random ponies, but he always came back, and he didn't get hurt the same way twice."
Angel imagined the situation, teeth clenching before she nodded firmly. "Will learn." She pointed to herself. "Show how hunt."
"Woah woah woah. Hold onto yer horses." He shook his head firmly. "I didn't teach him, and I don't plan on teachin' you. You don't work here. All I want is for you to stay out here." He pointed to the ground. "This is the way in, so if he comes by, he'll have to go by here."
He was the only horse there, but he wasn't hers, so she decided she shouldn't hold him. Even if a little hug might have helped his grouchiness. There was exactly one horse she wanted to hold... "Angel stay." She flumped down her haunches solidly, planting herself. "Hunt."
"No hunt." He grunted softly, looking irritated, but he usually did.
She inclined her head. "No, hunt prince. Hunt Trash Prince."
"Oh, well, sure." He began trotting off towards the junkyard. "You see him, you catch him and ya did it, hunted him real good."
She would hunt him!
A hoof touched her left rump and she jumped into the air, coming down facing the source. "Trash!"
"Blingmomma." There was Trash, a little smile on his face. "I thought I lost you forever..."
Angel grabbed him up, hugging him tightly, smothering in soft warm fur as she flopped to the ground, becoming his affectionate prison. "Trash okay? Trash hurt? What happen? Angel sorry! She forgot. Forgot Trash not jump. Not jump like Angel. Angel stupid." Tears stung at her face as she rocked back and forth with her precious pony. "Mad at Angel? Mad forever?!"
"MmmMmmmMm," was all he could mumble from the depths of her embrace. What anger he felt towards her felt so small and distant at that moment. No matter how badly things had gone, there she was, worried for him. With a firm wriggle, he got his head free of her and gasped for breath. "Not... mad. Okay, maybe a little mad..."
Angel set him down carefully, wiping her wet nose with the back of an arm. "Not be mad. What Angel do? How make better?"
"Ain't a lot you can do, Angel. Celestia kicked me out."
Angel shrank back. "Lose den? Lose den! Bad boss horse. Bad!" She thumped the ground with a hand, making Trash vibrate with the impact of it so close to him. "No den?"
"New den," he corrected, pointing in the direction of his little apartment. "I need to work to keep that new den." He then pointed into the junkyard. "I was gonna go hunting, the Trash way. Stealing makes trouble..."
She inclined her head left and right, unsure exactly how things had worked, but... "Angel help. Show how hunt. Hunt Trash way."
"It's dangerous." He began to walk around her. "Lots of sharp edges."
"Angel careful." She step-hopped, matching his glacial pace. "Show. Show how hunt." She leaned in, pressing the side of her massive body against his smaller one. "Hunt Trash way. Trash magic!"
"It might hurt," he gently warned.
But that wasn't a no. She smiled brightly and suddenly plucked him up, placing him on her back. "Show how." She bounded towards the junkyard with, for her, sedate bounces along the ground. She even stepped over the line that seperated the junkyard from the rest of Canterlot, sniffing the air softly.
Trash slid back down to the ground with a slow breath. "Alright, first lesson, don't go grabbing your trashy boy without asking first." He nodded once softly. "Second lesson, big jumps could mean big ouches. Little steps, and watch where your, uh, paw's coming down."
Angel turned her left paw around to look at it before setting it on the ground lightly. "Did it."
"You did." He nodded, walking past her. "On the main paths, like this one, it's a little safer. The further you go away, the more dangerous it gets, but if you want to hunt, you gotta be brave, but not stupid."
"Brave, not stupid..."
"Trash!" came a shout from above. The junkyard pony was up in a crane, leaning out the side of it to frown at the two of them. "Are you bringin' yer damn rabbit in here? What'd I say?!"
"She's my responsibility, promise." He put a hoof over his chest. "I'm teaching her how, and if she gets hurt, we won't tell anypony at all."
"Not a one?" He raised a brow high.
"Not a one." Trash looked around more at ground level. "This way, Blingmomma. We'll start easy and work you up."
"Keep her close enough to prod her when she does somethin' dumb," warned the junkyard pony as he turned his attention back to what he was doing, directing his crane to grab a big heavy slab of metal with a great crunch of metal on metal. "Some of us actually have work to do."
"We got our own work," promised Trash quietly enough that only Angel heard him. "We won't be keepin' it this time. We hunt for food and, um, home. Yeah..." His tail gave a soft lash as he made his way carefully forward.
Angel followed after Trash, not a smile on her face. She had a calculating and wary expression on. She was hunting. Sure, it wasn't her usual form of hunting, but hunting was hunting, and she planned to do it right.
And there wouldn't be any big boss horses to take away what she got!
The guard scrambled to his hooves, blinking at what he saw. There was Trash Prince with a pile of floating bits of metal, glass, and other things. It was all junk, much of it crushed and starting to rust. And the smell...
Behind him was a massive rabbit-like creature, its back heavy with another collection of random trash. "Hey, no pets." When all else failed, he went to the policy that was the most direct and hardest to argue, in theory.
Trash inclined his head a little. "We don't have that relation, man. She's a friend."
Angel nodded in agreement, stepping in over Trash into the new building that would be her home. "Different."
Noticing her speak, he shook his head slowly. "Making a mess gets you charged for cleanup."
"We'll get out of your mane." Trash advanced forward, going right under Angel and past her to the stairs. "This way. Don't drop anything."
The guard watched the two of them ascending towards Trash's apartment, rubbing his head light before he leaned over his desk to see if anything had been dropped. The scent, thankfully, was passing with them. "Huh..." He floated out a pen and scribbled something on his clipboard.
Inside Trash's apartment, his door swung open and he floated his finds inside before gesturing for Angel to follow it. She stepped forward right into the sides of the door, hugging her tightly. She dug her claws into the ground and pulled herself, sliding bit by bit until she popped free and tumbled into the room.
He followed after her, though she took up a considerable amount of the space. He closed the door and turned towards her. "This is our new, uh, den as you called it."
"Small den." She wriggled in place and the pack of things began to slide. She caught it easily and soon had it on the ground. "Easy protect. Cozy." She firmly nodded, seemingly approving of it, at least until her expression turned mildly to confusion. "Where shinies?"
"Shinies?" He set his own pile down right beside the pack she had worn. "I have to make those."
"No." She rubbed her cheek, thinking of words. "Shinies. Trash shinies." She suddenly thrust her hand right in his face, wriggling the finger that still had his ring perched on it.
"Oh, my old shinies..." He sighed softly as he glanced away. "Celestia took them."
Angel thumped the floor with a scowl, her tail lashing back and forth. "We take back. She did me." She pointed to her chest. "Took shiny. Took shiny!"
Trash held up a hoof gently. "Calm down now. Storming in there will just cause a lot of trouble, for us mostly. I'm angry too, but that isn't how we'll fix it."
"How fix?" She leaned in closer. "How?"
He inclined his head towards the collection of debris they had brought with them. "With my specialty. We'll show her how great trash magic is. I figure we'll know we won when... she shows up, buys something, and wears it." He tapped gently with each step of the revenge.
"Buy?" That was not a word she was familiar with and she went in, thumping her forehead against Trash's, their horns jostling. "What?"
"That's when one creature gives another creature coins." His horn began to glow as a bit floated into view from his last supply. "And the other creature gives them something for it. Like I'm giving coins to a pony to have this den."
"Den ours." She reared up and spread her paws over the expanse of the small apartment. "Ours."
"Only so long as we pay for it. If we stop paying, they'll chase us out." He reached for a long bit of metal and his magic grabbed a scrubber from across the room, starting his work of getting the rust clear of what would become art. "We don't want that, right?"
"No chase. Our den." She nodded softly. "How get?" She pointed at the still floating coin. "Want hunt? Hunt for." She glanced towards the window and her head canted a bit to the side. "Small..." She abandoned the former topic instantly, approaching and pawing around the edges of the window. "Small." One could almost see her measuring how likely it'd be that she could pop out through it. The odds didn't look to be in her favor.
He set the metal aside and reached for an old toy that had once marched stiffly, but had its motion long since beaten out of it. His magic wrapped around it, starting to undo screws and pull parts free of one another. "I'll give you another chance to make ponies smile..." The thought put a little content smile on his own face. "Won't that be nice?"
Angel let her hand fall away from the window that would not fit her easily. "Nice?" She turned away to see him working with the doll. "Trash magic." She clapped her paws together with a paff of pads. "How. How get." She pointed at the still floating coin. "Tell how."
"We make things ponies want." He slowly assembled piles of different parts, organized in a sliding scale of how rust-free the metal was and how rotten any scrap of cloth he pulled free happened to be. "The ponies will want them. They give us those." He nodded towards the floating coin. "We get bits. They get shinies. Everyone wins."
She frowned softly, puzzling it through. "But... Shinies." They had so little of it anymore. "Keep shiny?"
"Not if we want coins, and we do." His magic let the coin go and it fell to the floor. "Make shiny, trade for coins."
"Trade for coins," she softly repeated, holding up her hand and splaying her fingers, making the ring on it visible. "Trade..." She grabbed one hand with the other, pulling the ring free with a few soft grunts as she worked it free. "Trade?"
"Woah, hey, no..." He raised a hoof and pushed the ring away even as she tried to give it to him. "No... That's for you, Blingmomma. I made it for you."
"But..." She curled her fingers around the ring even as she gestured at the piles he was making. "Make more shiny, trade. Keep den. Angel make trouble. Angel help." She opened her hand, showing the ring. "Trade."
"That's... sweet." He leaned in as if to take the coin, but he kissed the largest pad of her paw instead. His magic moved the ring right back onto her finger. "Keep it, and help me make more shinies. That'd be more helpful." He pointed to the pack Angel had worn. "Start pulling it apart, and put the shiniest stuff on this side." He pointed a hoof. "And the dirty and rusted stuff on this side." He pointed to the other side of the line. "If you're not sure, ask."
"Ask..." She pulled open the pack and emptied out half of it, starting to sort through it with a dedicated look. "Shiny... shiny..." Soon she was adding to the piles. Without being told, she matched metal to metal and cloth to cloth. She even seemed to understand the different kinds of metal, adding copper to the copper piles and steel to the steel piles and even different kinds of cloth ended up forming their own stacks at her discerning touch.
Trash's work slowed, watching her sort, a smile growing on his snout. "Hey, wow... you're good at this."
Angel paused, blinking at him. "Good?"
"Yeah, good. You're good at this part. Keep going." He gently waved her on. "I'll do the next part of the trash magic. You have this under control." He clopped his fore hooves once. "Oh, if you're not sure, really, ask. It's cool, babymomma. We're all confused sometimes."
"Sometimes." Her own expression brightened as she got back to work. She was good at something. She was helping with the trash magic. She was helping her friend and mate. The day had taken a positive turn and she eagerly threw herself at the task. It was surely a different kind of hunting than she was used to, but she was good at it. She knew she had to be, Trash told her. And he knew a lot.
The shinies began to happen. In the glimmering crucible of his magic, metal was melted and shaped, combined and pulled apart. He watched it with half-lidded eyes, calmly overseeing the forging of new from the old. Bracelets came first, simple bands as if warming up, then a crown, bits of glass and plastic studded in swirls and fractal patterns to draw the eyes if one didn't notice, or mind, the fact that they weren't real jewels.
He gently set it aside with a satisfied nod. "Let's make a new toy."
"Toy?"
"Toy," he echoed as he began drawing new material, metals first. He made the rough skeleton of a creature with two obvious horns jutting from its head. "Something ponies will like." The cloth began to swirl in as if he were painting muscles and sinew onto that skeleton, wrapping around the skeleton and slowly giving shape to things. The great ears were where Angel abandoned what she was doing and began watching with a hung jaw.
He was forming a tsuki all of his own, with bright glass eyes and big hanging ears and a little tail. Bright horns jut from its plush forehead and big eyelashes marked it as a female of the species. Angel began to clap in approval, watching each detail be put into place. "She smile," she noted with a big grin of her own. The little doll had a little happy smile and was sitting on its haunches, though it was also floating in the air. "Not shiny?"
"Not shiny, but I bet ponies will want it." He set the toy down carefully. "You don't know it, Angel, but ponies think tsuki are big and cute."
"Ponies small and cute," she retorted, pointing at him before reaching right in and mussing his mane gently, fingers playing over his ears. "Very small, very cute."
"Very large, very cute," he lazily replied, allowing her to pet him as he reached for more materials. "That's cool. We both see each other as cute. It could be worse than that. You can be my big cute angel."
"You small trash prince." She nodded once firmly, patting him in a series of quick pat-a-pats before drawing her hand away. "Cute," she added as if she had forgotten it a moment. "Make pony?"
"Mmm. I could..." He was making another skeleton that looked already more like a tsuki than a pony. "Other ponies make ponies, ya dig? I'll be the only one making tsukis. We'll get the coins. That's how we'll hunt."
"Hunt..." She nodded softly, wrapping her mind around it from that angle. Too many ponies hunted pony dolls, so there weren't many coins left to be found there. They'd hunt something new, be clever, get lots! "Yes. Yes yes. Good hunt." She began to nudge the bits he needed forward just before he reached for them, as if she had learned the order and which materials were used on the last one already. "Make good toy. Trade coins. Lot coin. Keep den."
"Yeah, you get it." He took up the materials as she offered them, working them into place carefully as his smile deepened. "You get it... And no trouble. No one will be mad at us for this. We don't have to be sneaky. We don't have to be fast. We just have to be smart, and make good things to trade."
"Good things to trade." She turned back to her pack and grabbed inside, resuming adding to the piles. "Angel helps."
"Angel does help," he gently agreed as he worked. "You are a great helper."
Sure she had also caused him to have to do it in the first place, but, at least in that moment, he didn't feel very upset about it.
Canterlot had a proper place for everything, which included merchants who didn't have a proper store of their own. Unlike little towns like Ponyville, just setting up a stand on the side of the road or in some plaza would not do. There was an actual bazaar for that, and Trash faced the guardian of it, a large unicorn.
"First time here? I don't recognize you," noted the male.
"Yeah," easily agreed Trash. "Me and Angel are both new here."
The guard looked up at the great rabbit creature. "I heard of those... Anyway, first day you get a discount, lucky you. Fifteen bits. Twenty after today. That's per day. Whatever you make selling, that's yours."
Trash stiffened. That was a good chunk of his remaining cash. But if he couldn't sell what he had made... "Alright." He produced his bag of coins and pulled out most of them, surrendering them to the guard. "Auntie either hates me or she trusts me."
Angel inclined her head softly. "Auntie?"
"Boss Horse," he rephrased, starting past the guard. "She barely gave me enough to get started. Today we turn this around, get a lot of coins."
"Good hunting." She nodded once firmly. "Show how. This not... Not Angel hunt."
He looked left and right, picking a booth that had no creature already in it and claiming it as his own. He tapped the counter. "First step, get off your backpack and start arranging things all pretty-like. Make them draw ponies over."
"Pretty..." She swung the backpack around and set it down, then began to fish out what they'd be selling that day. She placed the crown in the center at first and started arranging the dolls around it, facing away from the crown in all other directions.
Once she had them all out, she frowned a little, then picked up the crown. She nudged the figures instead until the largest doll was the one being looked at adoringly with smiles, then set the crown on its head, even if it was comically oversized for the doll.
Trash burst into easy laughter. "I love it. It's like the princess of tsukis is being crowned right before our eyes. Do tsukis have princesses?"
Angel had no idea and admitted as such with a shaking of her head and a lifting of her shoulders. She thrust a hand into the backpack, pulling out the remnants, little rings and chains and things she spread over the table, making it shine with assorted bits of jewelry. "Is good?"
"Is good." He pointed down. "Now come back here. We have to be in the booth while we work."
She did not go around the stand, instead half-stepping, half-hopping over the counter to land beside Angel and turn about. "Now what?"
"Now we wait." He sat down on his haunches, getting comfortable. "They'll open soon and ponies will start coming in, looking for interesting things to buy. Trade these for coins." He waved a hoof over their collection. "Our job will be to be nice, but convincing. Watch me."
A bell sounded, like someone ringing a standing bell with a mallet in a series of strong impacts. The atmosphere changed, both with a rush of fresh air, but expectation. The ponies began to filter in, bringing conversation with them. Snooty Canterlotians were discussing what they were already in the middle of, interrupted when they saw something interesting.
Trash faced outwards, sitting down, smiling in his lazy way. Angel kept glancing at him and towards the ponies. Some of them wandered past, glancing at their dolls, or her, but most of them were giving little more attention than that.
One of the dolls floated up as a filly reared into view, her hooves coming down on the counter. "It's cu--" She dropped the doll, spotting the real creature it was based on. Her eyes widened like saucers. "Wow! How much for the big one?!" She pointed at Angel, waving her hoof desperately.
Her father(?) stepped in just behind her. "It's impolite to point at creatures."
"But that's a doll and I want it!" She thumped the counter with a hoof, glaring back at her guardian. "How much?!"
Angel reacted faster, leaning forward. "Trade coin? Trade many coin."
Trash laughed softly, if a bit nervously. "She's new at selling things." Not that he had all that much more experience. "She's also not for sale, since she's alive, not a doll."
"You bought a cat for me before, that was alive. How much?"
Angel spread her paws wide. "Many coin! Give Trash." She pointed at him directly.
The father coughed softly into a hoof. "Why don't we get one of the dolls instead? They look a lot easier to take care of."
The filly squinted at the great living doll that was Angel before lowering her eyes to the collection of tsuki dolls. Her eyes gravitated towards the crown and the largest doll that wore it. "Is that the bunny princess?"
"Yes," blurted Trash before Angel could correct the child. He gently nudged Angel as he leaned towards the child. "They're called tsuki. That's a tsuki princess."
"Soo key princess," she said each part seperately, not as one word. "Oooo... Is she a princess?" She pointed a hoof at Angel.
Angel snorted softly, shaking her head. "No princess."
The father seemed relieved. "Let's get the princess. That's more appropriate for a high class filly like you, hmm?"
"Yes!" She agreed with a grin. "I'll take it!" Her magic grabbed the doll and its crown without seeming to have any worry for the price of either. She trotted away as if all business had been handled.
That left the father figure to sigh softly. "I suppose we're taking that. How much?"
"Many--"
Trash slipped in front of Angel, cutting off her enthusiastic cry. "Two hundred bits."
And the father just paid. He didn't argue the price or try to haggle. Two hundred-bit coins were set on the counter, and off he went, chasing after the wandered filly.
Trash's horn glowed as he slid the coins back off the counter towards himself. "I... thought he'd try to haggle a bit... I was aiming high."
"Haggle?" She inclined her head at the strange word. "Got coin. Not many coin. Why happy?"
"These are special coins." He waved one in his magic. "Each one is worth a hundred normal coins."
"Hundred... Hundred..." She frowned softly. "Hundred is many?"
"Hundred is many," gently agreed Trash as he tucked the coins away. "We already made a profit. We're doing good."
There was another word she didn't recognize, mouthing it and speaking it under her breath, "Profit..." But her thought snapped as another little pony, a male, came into view. She leaned over the counter. "Hello!"
The colt jumped in surprise, eyes snapping to the large presence that had called to him. "Oh! Hi!" He waved quickly. "You're not a pony."
"Is tsuki," she corrected with a smile, looking proud to know something a pony did not. They thought they were so smart. "Bring tsuki. You want?" She gently cupped one of the dolls and lifted it into easy view of the colt.
The colt glanced left and right with hesitation, but stepped forward despite it, peering at the little tsuki in the big tsuki's hands. "Cool." He inclined his head left and right. "What do tsuki do?"
"Tsuki jump. Jump high!" She bounced, slapping her head against the roof of the stall easily, her horns leaving fresh dents with a great thump before she came back down.
"Woah! Cool." He held out his hooves and she gently placed the doll on top of them." He began to make little hoppy motions with the doll. "Are they tough fighters?"
Angel bobbed her head. "Tough fighter. Good hunter!"
The colt got a sudden grin. "They'll be so surprised." He looked to Trash suddenly. "How much?" As if Angel would have no idea. As it turned out, he wasn't wrong.
"They're very good hunters," agreed Trash with a soft nodding. "And surprisingly sneaky thieves."
"What!" The colt's eyes widened further. "Cool! How much?" he repeated the question, bouncing in place a little.
"You don't want that one." He suddenly took the little colt's doll in his magic. "You want this one." He picked a darker colored and smaller doll and lifted it towards the colt. "This one's an expert sneak."
"Yes!" The colt hugged his fierce little ninja tsuki tight. "How much?!" he repeated, sounding desperate to know.
"Seventy five bits." The coins hit the counter almost instantly and the colt dashed off, barely leaving an impression of himself that faded away.
Angel tilted her head at the 13 coins. "More coin. Do better?"
"Less than last time, but that was our biggest one, and a crown." He slid the coins off and away. "But this one was the smallest doll... "
That wasn't to say everypony wanted what they were selling. The next few barely glanced towards them, even with Angel waving a doll at them eagerly. It just didn't seem to interest anypony for what felt like forever.
A rotund mare stopped in front of their stall. She paid Angel no mind, nor the dolls. Her eyes were on the jewelry, eyes drifting from one to the next. "There's something wrong with these... Are these forgeries?"
"They're not gems," admitted Trash. "Not forgeries, since I'm not trying to claim they are, Ma'am."
"Not gems?" Her magic plucked up a ring to turn it slowly in air. "What are they made from?"
Angel clapped her paws together with a big smile. "Trash magic!"
The ring was dropped instantly as if it were suddenly made of molten lava. "Dreadful!" With an upturned nose, she marched past.
Trash rubbed behind his head softly. "A+ on enthusiasm, blingmomma, but most ponies don't appreciate things made of trash."
"But... trash magic..." She reached for the dropped ring, turning it about in her fingers. "Very pretty. Good magic."
"I know that. You know that. They don't know that."
"Stupid ponies." She huffed softly and set the ring down where it had started. "Shinies. Trade." She spotted a stallion walking past and suddenly thrust out a hand, blocking his walk. "Have mate?"
The stallion blinked rapidly. "Excuse me?"
"Have. Mate?" she repeated, emphasizing each word of her question. When he nodded, she smiled and pulled back just to grab a shiny bracelet of glass and plastic. "Shiny. Give mate, make happy."
He turned in place to peer at the curious bit of jewelry in the rabbit's hands. His eyes fell, noticing all the dolls. "How delightful... I have a little filly too and she would adore a little something cute."
Angel perked with sudden ideas. She draped the bracelet over the doll he was fixed on, adorning it. "Better."
"That is better," admitted the stallion, raising a hoof to tap at his chin. "A doll and her first bit of jewelry... I like it." He fixed on Trash suddenly. "Did you make these?"
"With some help." He inclined his head towards Angel. "They came out really well, right?"
"Very well," murmured the stallion thoughtfully. "Why are you here?"
Angel and Trash both blinked at the question.
"I run a store where we sell things for little ponies, and I never heard of this before." He swept a hoof over the collection with a growing smile. "Most of them won't come in here. You're in the wrong place. Don't get me wrong, the ones you do find probably have more bits each, but there will be so many less of them."
Angel looked confused at the entire thing, but Trash picked up what was being said, nodding his head. "You want to sell our dolls?"
"They would be a very nice addition, I should say." He put a hoof on his chest. "Tell me more about them."
"They tsuki," quickly noted Angel, looking so proud. "Made with trash magic."
"Come again?"
Trash slumped, envisioning it all going up in smoke.
"Take old thing," explained Angel with a proud expression, her paws clapped together. "Make new thing. Shiny. Trash magic."
"Recycled," gusted the stallion with understanding. "And an excellent job too!" He leaned in over the table, examining the toys and jewelry laid out. "I used to do this myself. Why make a new doll if you can repair an old one?"
Trash perked up. They hadn't been shot down? "Y-yeah! Exactly."
"Not old doll," corrected Angel.
The stallion perked an ear up at her and sat back, looking at her. "Not old dolls? What do you use?"
Angel reached a hand into the backpack she had been wearing, grabbing some loose bits of old metal and fluff they hadn't put into new dolls, setting it on the counter.
"You made them from scratch?!" he blurted with obvious surprise and wide eyes. His magic picked up the metal that shone, already polished and made new, though not incorporated into anything just yet. "I wouldn't know this wasn't just forged."
"Trash magic," sighed out Trash with an awkward smile. "We take things past their prime and give them a new lease on life."
"You really should sell that angle." The stallion angled his hoof at Trash. "Recycled toys... That could catch on... Make them green." Both of them looked perplexed. "Green? Eco friendly. Push that and posh parents will be snatching them up in no time." He waved a hoof suddenly over the stand.
"How much to make you close?"
Angel blinked as things suddenly took a turn she didn't expect. She scowled at who she thought was a good customer. "Not make go away. We hunting!"
Trash set a hoof on her side, trying to calm her. "What do you mean by just closing?"
"I want you to close up this shop so I can get you over to my shop and we can sell these dolls, with a little tweaking of the brand." He held up both of his hooves as if framing some imaginary thing. "We're both going to make some bits and put some smiles on little foals' faces."
Angel looked ready to defend Trash's honor, but he slipped in front of her, gently holding her back. "He's on our side."
She tilted her head at that. "But want go away."
"He wants us to go to a better place. Get even more coins," calmly explained Trash, a lazy smile on his face.
"Oohhh," breathed out Angel, getting it. "That good." She suddenly slid Trash to the left, putting him out of the way with almost no effort. "Three big coin." She reached under the table and got one of the first coins they got and held it up so it could be seen.
The stallion whistled softly. "You have an eye for business. Three hundred huh?" He tapped his chin softly, considering it. "I want a doll and some jewels for it, the rest go home with you." His magic plucked up one of the tsuki as he glanced towards Trash. "That work for you?"
"Yeah," he allowed, if perhaps a bit confused at how things went. "We'll pack up once you pick your jewels." With a glowing horn he picked up a few pieces and lifted them up next to the tsuki. "These fit."
The color around them shifted as the stallion took hold and placed them on the tsuki gently. "The name's Little Surprise, by the way," he introduced himself. "We'll be working together."
"Angel." She put her paws to her chest, then pointed to Trash. "Trash Prince."
Little burst into a short fit of laughter. "You are really leaning into that already, great. Let's make that the brand." He raised a hoof to his chin. "Some of them could even have some fake damage. They'll need extra special homes to recover in."
Angel tilted her head in complete confusion. Trash picked it up more easily, sliding things away as he did so. "That could be cool. Do foals want that?"
"Are you kidding me?" He flashed a big bright smile. "Give a foal a reason to feel sorry for a doll and it's like magic. Half of them will avoid it, the other half will rush it home without another thought." Seeing everything was put away, he turned back towards the aisle. "I'm going to finish my browsing. Since you're done for the day, maybe you should too, may get some new ideas. Oh!" A card floated out from his pelt, set on the counter gently. "My card. Would be a shame to lose contact with--"
Angel's hand came just to the side of him in the direction he was turning. "Three big coins," she reminded firmly.
"Oh, yes, of course." Three of the hundred coins floated free to rest beside the card. "A deal's a deal."
Trash took the coins and tucked them away without delay. "We'll talk later. Enjoy the show." He waved softly as Little trotted down the line. Trash looked to Angel with a dreamy smile. "I can't believe that happened."
"Is good?" Angel inclined her head, great ears hanging at an angle.
"Is very good," he assured. "We made plenty of coins today, and we have a way to make more..." He pointed at her backpack even as his own magic got his own bag into place. "C'mon. Let's get it put away, then we can celebrate. What do you like to do to celebrate?"
Celebrate? "What that?" She followed him, bag slung over her.
"When something good happens, and you want to be happy about it," explained Trash as they emerged from the bazaar into the cooler and fresher air of the outdoors. "Because something good happened."
Angel looked a bit pensive as she easily kept up with Trash with little hops. "Get good food with coins," she decided with a firm nod before spotting a pony operating what appeared to be a food cart. "There!"
Trash ambled towards the cart with an easy smile. "Hey, whatcha got?"
"Hello, sir and madame," greeted the cart pony with a warm smile. "Carrots on a bun, hot and buttered. Just the thing to take the edge off a hunger."
Trash turned an ear towards Angel. "Sound good?"
"Sound good," she easily agreed.
"Two--three carrots on a bun," ordered Trash with a soft nod, gauging his large friend would want perhaps more than a single carrot, on a bun or not.
"Want anything on it?" With a gesture of a hoof he made it clear there was relish and mustard and ketchup to choose from.
Angel leaned in, nose dancing as she licked her lips. "All good. Take all!"
"The works! A mare after my own heart." The cart stallion laughed as he got to work, making carrots burdened with all the condiments he had.
"Not mare?" Angel tilted her head, only to become a frown suddenly. "Trash stallion!"
Trash gently tapped her shoulder. "He meant you, not me. She's a doe."
"Doe? That's what they call rabbit mares? Awesome." Held in his magic, he floated up the three carrots, ready to go in their bread buns. He got the coins for it from Trash, the exchange complete. "Enjoy!"
Angel accepted the carrots being held aloft in Trash's magic, one to a hand. She sniffed over the one in her right hand before chomping about a third of it clean off and chewing it with soft appreciative noises.
Trash took a more sedate chew of his. "Huh, never tried it with everything... not bad. So... this changes things."
"Carrots change things?" She peered at the suspicious food that had changed things.
"No. We hunt in a new way now." He inclined his head back in the direction of the bazaar. "We won't be going back there. Come on, we have to get ready." He took another bite, floating as it was, it waited patiently as he walked towards home.
"New hunt?" Angel stuffed the rest of the carrots and their buns in to her face, going quiet but able to keep up with her bounces as she worked on them. "Old hunt not good? Angel bad hunt?"
"Angel great hunt," corrected Trash. "So good, you got us a new hunting territory."
This made sense! "Angel help!"
Soon they found themselves not at home, but at the junkyard. Trash nodded towards it as he approached at his usual sedate pace. "We need more trash."
"For trash magic," concluded Angel confidently.
"Exactly. Now, you're still in training in scavenging." He could see her deflate a bit. "But I'm going to give you a chance to prove yourself."
She perked right up. "What do?"
"I'm letting you get out from under my hoof." He held up one of those hooves. "Take it slow. Take it careful. I'd rather you come back with nothing than come back hurt. So be careful, please. Alright, prettymomma?"
"Careful." She nodded slowly. "Careful," she repeated, bouncing in place a little. "Thank." She suddenly leaned in and smooched his cheek. "Careful." And off she went, bouncing into the junkyard with great leaps, only to transition to careful steps the moment she hit the actual junkyard, heading inside.
Trash winced when she first bounded away, only to blink as she walked so carefully. "Maybe this'll work out... Hey!" He waved towards his friend who seemed to be in a big plow of some sort. "Doin' the rounds."
"Hay's for ponies," he grunted. "Which... I guess checks out." The junkyard guardian shrugged softly. "I saw yer rabbit hopping ahead of you. Sure she'll be alright?"
"I told her to take it slow," Trash assured. "Besides, she won't learn if I never let her try... Still my responsibility, man, I promise." With a slow nod, he moved to trail after Angel.
"Don't go getting hurt yourself," shouted his friend.
Inside the junkyard, they foraged for good bits of metal and cloth. Angel kept appearing with new things she wasn't quite sure of. "Good hunt?"
Sometimes the answer was yes. Other times... "Put that down." The slimy thing she was holding would not be turned into anything useful. "If it's slimy, it's no good."
"Slimy bad," she dutifully reminded herself, wandering off to resume her hunt.
Just as Trash was pocketing the last of what seemed to be a good haul, he heard Angel for a change as she landed near him. "Got something else?"
"Yes." But when he turned to her, she was holding nothing. "Better than trash."
Trash inclined an ear with a little smile. "What's better than trash?"
She tapped her head softly. "Learn." She pointed at him firmly. "Show better hunt. Celebrate." Already she was using the word she had learned that day. She grabbed him and set him on her back. "Ready?"
Trash smiled easily. "I don't know what you have in mind, blingmomma, but I'm curious. Go ahead."
"We go." She thumped the ground, leaving a divot from the great impact that threw herself and her precious cargo into the air, soaring free of the junkyard in a single great leap. "Slow inside. Not inside," she explained as they touched down outside just to bounce right back into the air, the wind whistling past their ears as she pressed into town. "We celebrate."
She didn't bring him to a shop. She didn't bring him to a restaurant either. They ended up back home. She peeled his bag free and set it aside before taking off her own. She nodded softly with self-satisfaction before putting a finger on his nose. "Angel bad mate, get better. Angel help, now better. Better hunt. Celebrate. Tell Angel, good mate?"
"You're the best roommate I ever had," easily allowed Trash with a slow nodding. "Also the fi--" his words were cut off, his vision, and lips, filled with tsuki as she just planted a great big kiss on him.
That wasn't the sort of celebration he had in mind, but as she gently pet over his sides and the top of his head, he began to relax into it. Perhaps Angel had the right idea about a good way to celebrate.
She trembled softly with anxiety, watching from the back eagerly. "No talk?"
Trash shook his head. "He let us watch, but no talking."
They were in the back of the toy shop. There was a big stand full of what they had made, proudly labeled with quite a few buzz words noting their environmentally-friendly origins. The biggest was clearly addressed to the foals themselves, Trash Rescues. Adopt your own rescued toy. They needed your help and were ready for adoption.
A filly had her head tilted almost sideway, regarding the whole thing with thoughtful little mmms. "Only one?"
Her mother nodded softly. "Just one."
"Just one..." She raised a hoof and pointed at a tsuki with a big ring in its ear. "That one. She needs a mommy and I'll be it."
"That's a big responsibility," warned the mother with a gentle smile. "But I know you can do it." With a glowing horn, she carefully picked up the toy and moved to the counter.
Angel began quietly clapping her big soft hands, only to notice Trash holding up a hoof. She knew that! She slapped her hand against the hoof, combining a high-five and a brohoof into one in that instant. "We hunt."
"We sell," corrected Trash gently. "But yeah, we did it."
As the day went on, their supply dwindled. Foals came in, toys went out, as it should be. Not every foal went for theirs, but there were enough of them to put a significant dent in the supply.
It was almost closing time, but the jingle of the bell on the door alerted to a potential customer. Large steps suggested a different kind of pony, and certainly not a foal. Angel returned to where she could see and scowled. "Boss horse!" she harshly whispered.
There was Celestia, examining the stand and what toys remained. "Excuse me?"
The shopkeep, Little Surprise, was already looking at her, smiling broader than even before. "Y-yes, Your Highness. How can I help?"
Celestia dipped her head. "You may relax. I'm just curious, do you know who made these?" She was directing a hoof towards the stand of their toys.
"Trash Prince and Angel," quickly replied Little, nodding in a rapid bob. This was written on the stand, but he didn't have the nerve to point that out to the monarch before him. "They're in the back."
"Are they?" Her eyes darted, just barely catching some fuzz withdrawing with the sound of a little squeak from the frightened Angel. "I would care to speak to them, if I may?"
"S-sure! I'll tell them." He broke into a trot quickly, vanishing into the back. "She's asking for you. Princess Celestia! This is the first time she came into my store. Why is she here?! I'm not complaining. Think she'll buy something?!"
Trash shook his head. "I doubt it." He didn't remember Celestia ever having any toys. "I'll find out." He got to walking out front without delay. Angel's hand came down on his shoulder.
"Boss horse. She'll take things," she warned, shaking her head.
"I have to." He gently touched his nose to her arm for a quiet moment before he nudged it forward, brushing her arm off and resuming his journey.
Angel grumped and began to follow. At least she could try to protect her friend from the terrible power of the boss horse.
They all emerged to find Celestia examining a doll that floated in her magic. A different tsuki, small with a big smile and a fake bit of metal (really just a bulge of fluff colored like metal) poking free of its side. It wore a big torc around its neck, glittering and shiny despite its wound.
Trash closed with a lazy smile, his favorite kind. "Hey..."
"Hello yourself." Celestia turned to face him directly. "What was this, before it became... this?"
Trash squinted at the doll, but he had not memorized what specific bits had gone into it.
"Some bed," started Angel. "Took fluff. Some pony bike, take metal." She was gesturing with her hands as she spoke, describing each part. She went down the full list of which specific things became which parts of the doll as if she had written it down.
Celestia softly nodded with each thing. "All those different places, now all one toy..." She sucked softly on air through her teeth. "Is this what you were trying to tell me?" She set the toy down on the counter. "I would like to purchase this. If I may, I would like to purchase it from the craftscreatures that made it.
Trash quirked an ear softly. He was selling something to Celestia? "Woah, alright..." He pointed to the doll. "It's--"
Celestia raised a silencing hoof. "I have my own offer. I would like to extend my blessings, and hope that you will visit some time. You have found a niche, and I think it suits you well."
Trash's smile eased, no longer mildly forced. "Aw, thanks... It's still sixteen bits though."
Celestia burst into a titter of a laugh. "I can afford that." The coins came floating free, making three piles on the counter. "That is higher than the price of most of the others, despite being... what they are. How is that?"
Little hopped in at that, leaning over his own counter, "You see, ponies pay for many things. In this case, they are paying to be good to the environment and feel good about themselves. Foals pay because they look like they want a friend, need a friend, and that is just what some foals want to be."
"I see..." She gently lifted the doll she had purchased. "Why did you steal?"
Little recoiled in horror. Had he stolen something?!
Trash knew what she meant and shook his head. "I never stole anything."
"Angel steal," she confessed, pointing at herself. "Angel hunt. Angel hunt steal. Bad hunt. Trash teach better hunt. Make happy little pony, get coins. Is good hunt." Angel bobbed her head fiercely, making her massive ears dance about in the motion. "Trash good mate."
Celestia watched Angel for a quiet moment, matching the defiant gaze of the large rabbit that was somewhat larger than even she, an unusual situation for her. "I see... Then I owe another apology." Her eyes shifted to Trash. "And this one bits will not cover. I didn't trust you and assumed the worst." She raised a hoof to her chest. "I... lost my patience, and that was wrong. At least, in the end, it seems it led to a good place, but that does not excuse my mistake."
Trash reached out and put a hoof right on her hoof and her chest. "We cool," he stated simply with that relaxed smile of his, eyes half-lidded. "We cool." For just a moment he considered asking to return to the castle, but he could remember what sorts of ponies awaited him there. He never got along that well with most of them. "I'll visit." His ears suddenly perked, eyes opening wide a moment. "Oh yeah, give Angel back my gift."
Angel nodded once firmly, full scowl returning. "Boss horse steal too!"
Celestia inclined her head. "I don't have it on me... Tell me and be true." Her eyes were on Angel. "Which of the many things Trash had were stolen by you?"
"One." She held up a big pudgy finger. "One."
"Just one?" She raised her hoof to her chin. "That does explain some things... Give me your address and I will have the rest sent to you. I will offer no more apologies today, they'll lose their meaning." She smiled gently at that. "Instead I will wish you continued fortune. Make little foals smile, that's a lovely goal to have."
The address was given, and Celestia departed, taking her new doll with her riding on her back as if the little tsuki had somehow tamed her. "Good evening, Trash Prince." The door shut gently behind her with the jingle of the bell.
Little sagged in place. "That was nerve-wracking... But she bought something!" He bounced up and began counting coins before frowning. "She... overpaid, by a lot. We have to get her change to her!"
Trash had crashed to his haunches. He heard what Celestia had called him, and a single unbidden tear had rolled down his face.
Angel short-hopped over to the piles. They were the right number, she counted, but they were the biggest 100-bit coins, not the little 1-bit coins. "Boss horse say sorry." She reached and took all but one coin. "Is yours."
Little blinked at the one coin remaining, but it was a 100-bit coin. He lifted it in his magic and quickly got it into the register. "When did she start doing your negotiating?"
Trash laughed softly as he gestured to her with a broad hoof-wave. "This is Angel. She hunts. She hunts good." He raised the same hoof and it was met instantly with a paw, the two smiling at one another.
Little laughed softly. "A fine hunter she is. You two need to resupply me for tomorrow, alright? But, just a warning, have an open mind towards your next line. We made a fad, but it will fade. Like the e is just magnetically drawn to the other three or something." He dusted himself off with a sweep of his hooves as he started towards the front door on his hind legs before falling forward. "Let's close up shop."
Angel set down the coins on their little bedside dresser. Trash placed the rest of the coins with them, their share of the day's sales. "We hunted," he said with confidence, hopping up onto the bed and sitting down.
"Good hunt." She hopped up onto the bed, making it sink towards her, which made Trash slide up against her side. She reached an arm around him, holding him to her side affectionately. "What buy?"
Trash glanced around. "Well, we made enough... we could get a bigger home."
Angel tilted her head left and right, considering... "Bigger here?"
"Yeah, probably have some bigger apartments here." He slid down to his hooves. "Want to ask?"
And they did that, moving from the small one-pony apartment into one sized for two, even if Angel was more than happy sharing the bed. The extra room was still appreciated as a work space, where they could really set themselves up to work without having to put everything away each time. It was their workshop and it made both of them happier.
But there was one other little thing. Angel thrust her head out through the opening of the balcony door, sliding it open the rest of the way and wriggling free. "Is big!" She finally had a big enough opening to come and go the way she preferred from her den.
Trash nodded softly, watching her explore the balcony with joy. "Hey, we still have work to do."
"Oh, yes. Hunt. We hunt." She grabbed him up without even a moment's pause and they were gone right out that balcony, bouncing through the city with the roar of wind in their ears.
They had toys to put together, trash to hunt, and happy foals to make.
Trash gently rubbed the back of her head as they went, affectionately showing his approval of the great tsuki mate he had. They were partners, and that was certainly a good thing.
