When Flurry Heart's adopted son and a honey-deliverer mare get involved in a deep, serious problem...
The Crystal Empire. An astonishing place up in Nort-Equestria, where crystal ponies live and give their belief to the crystal heart. The ruler is Queen Flurry Heart, her adopted son, Prince Pinto Cloud is the heir of the royal throne.
The date is not long before this year's Hearts Warming Eve Royal Ball. As a welcomed and so beloved tradition, many treats of far-away Equestrian land are served for the guests – including the juicy, gooey honey straight from Ponyville, a small town close to Canterlot.
Only the deliverer pony is the only update in the well-known system: Honeybuzz, the second mare child of Goldenjar, the owner of Ponyville Honeyfarm. The stallion gave his daughter the task to deliver the ordered quantity for the royal ball – however, a mystery coming to daylight messes up everything planned.
How did the Prince himself and a simple mare cross paths? Why does a long-forgotten royal affair pop up right before such event?
Loyal to the cold winter weather, it was incredibly freezing out around the Crystal Empire. However, even from the rushing train, it was clear that the ponies didn't care much about the cold – they were too busy decorating all over the streets and squares. The houses were all shiny by the long garlangs of shiny and colorful gems symbolising every kind of winter subjects from snowflakes to reindeers, ponies smiling while helping each other making the empire as beautiful as they could just turn it into.
Happy chattering and singing ruled the excited crowd of four-leggeds – except one, orange colored earth mare with a huge cart of jars, filled with the best, the most sweet honey of all Equestria. The wooden cart was heavy and old, giving a squeaking noise with every movement of the rusty wheels turning around and around. Honeybuzz was afraid the precious, golden liquid could fall out and ruin the entire adventure she had been through, just to get to the empire and deliver a business of her father, Goldenjar to the royal family for a corny celebration.
The earth mare was around her 20s in human years and had been about to apply for addition to Pinkie Pie's bakery, to learn out how to bake special bakery stuff. However, her father was a quite stubborn stallion and since his elder daughter had already moved out from the family-nest, Honey was the only available helper. Plans rumbled, dreams crashed – no hope to start studying the mastery of baking soon.
At least the unending excitement and cheer of the crystal ponies brightened her day as she trotted along the rich-decorated streets of the Empire. With her gaze, she was both gazing the mesmerizing picture of the beautiful ornaments and searching for the back gate of the castle. The second one was a bit challenging task as the crsytal royal guards weren’t guarding only the royal palace but the festive mood as well.
As soon as the mare had found the destination of the honey jars, or else the V.I.P. gate at the back of the castle, she began searching for the order letter from The Queen’s assistant, Bright Feather. The shiny paper with the cracked, crystal pattern contained the royal seal of both Queen Flurry Heart and her son, Prince Pinto Cloud.
“Good afternoon, Miss. How may I help you?” one of the muscular guards asked the golden mare.
Honeybuzz handed the order letter to the royal guard. “Good afternoon, Sir. I have delivered an order for the Hearts Warming Eve Ball, requested by the royal family. Honey from Ponyville Honeyfarm”
The guard swiftly read through the letter to make sure it’s real. The seal showed it was, so his stiff look warmed up in no time. He nodded to his other colleagues to let the deliverer mare in. “Of course, Miss. Please, let me show the way”
With that, the stallion turned around and guarded Honey on her way along the endless foyers of the Castle. As the golden mare followed the guard, she traversed the astonishing palace: it was rich-decorated for the ball, even better than the outer areas. Guards were all over the place, either guarding given rooms or showing the way around for other deliverers and important ponies. Honeybuzz couldn’t help but drink in the mesmerizing and buzzing picture of the royal palace as they crossed foyers and rooms after foyers and rooms.
Once, they finally reached their destination. A huge storage for every kind of goods from all over Equestria, all from the best producers. In front of a pile stood a lightblue crystal stallion, an inky feather as his cutiemark.
Honeybuzz immediately recognised Bright Feather, the Queen’s assistant, thanks to the description the stallion attached to the order letter. “Good afternoon! Bright Feather, right?”
The stallion nodded with a warm smile. “Good afternoon, Miss Honeybuzz. Oh yes, I am indeed Bright Feather” he took a quick look over the ordered goods. “Glad to see that both you and the hars arrived in one piece. The weather is getting colder and colder outside”
“It was a long journey, but I try my best to fulfill such an honored order” the mare responded. “Where can I park the cart?”
Bright Feather turned around toward a free place only a couple of hoofsteps away. He pointed there with his sharp chin. “There, Miss. Do you require any help?”
“I’ll manage, but thank you” Honey said and she immediately started off toward the mentioned area. The mare could park the old cart with the countless, heavy honey jars easily, only with some swift movements.
Thankfully, she had previous experiences, so it was an easy task. No other goods were harmed, like a professional she did her job. The mare began unpacking the jars of gooey liquid into an enormous stock, every piece fitting perfectly together. It didn’t took long for her to finish, the cart was behind her in no time.
However, the deliverer story couldn’t end so easily. The earth mare just didn’t find Bright Feather anywhere, even after asking all around the huge storage-room and the nearby areas. Not to ruin anything, Honey parked the wooden cart at an outlying area – she was about to become more and more antsy due to the disappearance.
Why?
Due to the holiday in the Empire, the number of trains back to Ponyville was reduced greatly. The mare really had to hurry to reach the last train since no hotels had free place in this time of the year, even when she had money to reserve a room for the night. Plus, she couldn’t lay down outside since it was freezing cold.
It was understandable that the mare was more and more nervous as minutes passed with no Bright Feather around. Not to mention her unplanned, nerv-controlled moves of tearing up doors after doors – behind one of these doors was the royal heir himself, Prince Pinto Cloud.
Thanks to the sudden „appearance” of the prince himself, Honeybuzz fell back in surprise. Her anger simply vanished into thin air and pure embarrassment took its place. With her oceanblue pair of eyes the mare took a quick glance at the royal stallion and at the end, she shut them down towards the marble floor while bowing in honor.
"I'm incredibly sorry breaking onto you, Your Highness!" began her explanation with stammering voice Honey. She knew the royals weren't brutal murderers if they are interrupted. After all, they were as much just ponies as their subjects and they knew that well. It was rather the earth mare who felt herself ashamed. "I didn't mean to disturb you or anything, I just got lost in the castle and I couldn't find my way out and the last train..."
For her even more surprise, Prince Pinto Cloud soundlessly walked to his subject, hoofs after hoofs, heavy and costly golden shoes clicking on the cold marble. A lightheaded smile formed on the stallion's lips as he lifted up a hoof and carefully put it onto Honeybuzz's shaking lips. The mare got so much startled that she immediately quit the explanation.
"Hey, my Lady, stop the blabber, please. It's unneccessary" the stallion laughed warm-heartedly.
The prince was a healthy, robust stallion with walnut brown coat and with snowwhite marks like water boots. His short mane and tail were black with very dark grey colored, thick line in it, shiny gold, royal guard helmet blinking in the light sunlight. His cutie mark, a dark grey cloud with a powerful, yellowish lightning coming out of the cloud was on a well-seemable position on his chestplate. However, his caramel gaze didn't dictate such rigor, they were rather kind and warm, lightheaded.
"Oh, my bad, uh" Honey blinked multiple times to hide her awkwardness. She was jumpy, like the first time she had to enter one of her dad's beekeping sanctuary. Her heart pounded with a turbo speed and her lips trembled endlessly. The fact that the prince was last but not least pretty handsome made the situation even more unpleasant. Honey had to turn the awkward discussion toward another topic. "At least I could meet you in person, Your Highness. It's an honor to finally meet Queen Flurry Heart's son in real life"
Prince Pinto seemed used to such formality, although he clearly deemed it unuseful. After all, he was just a normal pegasus stallion, who was lucky to be adopted by not else but the Queen herself from the orphanage. He didn't have real, royal blood in his veins, which made him feel closer to his subject and helping their problems. "I'm glad I'm such a famous pony to make you happy. Although, if I were you, I'd rather be happy to taste some samples of the local delicacies. They're way more enjoyable then my company"
Honey couldn't help but chuckle on the stallion's statement. "Why do you say such thing? Your company is as enjoyable as some orange gempie or such"
One of the stallion's eyebrows slowly crept upwards, together with one end of his mouth. "What about testing your theory?"
At first the golden mare didn't believe her ears. The royal heir of an entire empire wanted to have a piece of crunchy, absolutely unroyal pie with an unknown mare he just met. It couldn't be real. But even after nipping herself, Honey had to realize that it was indeed real. The mare swiftly recollected herself. "You mean eat some orange gempie with you?"
"Exactly" the stallion replied with a cocky expression. "May I ask for your name, so I can reserve a table at one of the best cafés in town?"
"Oh, of course, I haven't even shared my name with you. My name is Honeybuzz from Ponyville Honeyfarm and I delivered the honey for the Hearts Warming Eve Royal Ball" the golden mare finally introduced herself with a gentle bow. Even before continuing her speak, Honeybuzz began smiling. "I guess you don't have to introduce yourself, Your Highness"
Prince Pinto Cloud chuckled. "Thankfully, I'm bad at introducing myself. But you don't have to be so formal, I'm just a pony like you. Please, do call me Pinto"
The golden mare was surprised by the directness, but gladly accepted the royal prince's trust. "As you wish, Pinto"
“Two pieces of your most tasty orange gempies and two mugs of caramel milk, please”
Time flew quite rapidly as the freshly met due made their way to Prince Pinto’s favourite café in the heart of the capital. It was a tiny place with cozy, wooden texture inside it. Thick, wooden benches acted as chairs with similar tables, all of their surface smoothed with the finest material. Checkered, red-white blankets decorated the tables with beautiful flowers in colorful vases. The place wasn’t full, just the usual amount of ponies hung out there, chatting and chilling beside delicious, homemade treats. The bartender pony, Buttergem, a young adult unicorn mare was also the owner of the cozy café – also, one of the best friends of the royal prince. They come from the same orphanage.
Thanks to that, the service arrived quick to them, by Buttergem herself. Notebook and pen floating with lightbrown unicorn magic, she was ready to take her friend’s order.
“Aye aye, Prince” the delighted mare greeted her friend with a wide smile. Her coat was cream-colored, mane and tail dark oak colored. Her cutie mark, a piece of buttercake with a gem-marked fork introduced her job perfectly. “What can I do for you and your friend?”
“Buttergem, great to see you” Pinto seemed as joyful as his good friend, which also made a wide smile creep up onto Honeybuzz’s lips. It was astonishing how commonly the prince acted. It made the golden mare somehow calm down from her previous, jumpy state. She had enough, new experiences to think about instead of the worrying thoughts. “Two pieces of your most tasty orange gempies and two mugs of caramel milk, please”
“Your wish is my command” the joyful unicorn replied while quickly noting the order. “Anything else?”
Pinto turned his attention toward Honey. “Would like anything else?”
“No, thank you” stated the golden mare with a small smile.
“Alrighty” ended the conversation Butter. “One second and your order will be fresh and ready”
And with that, she disappeared behind the wide and fully packed counter, the clicking sound of cuttlery noticing that she immediately began making the ordered delicacies. The prince kept looking his silly childhood friend for some more moments, delighted smile shining on his mouth. “At least I have her as my only childhood memory”
Honeybuzz had to shake her head to recollect herself from aweing at probably every tiny corner of the small, cozy café. It was such and adorable place that the golden mare couldn’t help but gaze its every details whenever she just could. Even a plan of trip had formed in her head to visit this place again with her goddaughter and her older sister, along with the other famous and astonishing attractions of the Crystal Empire. “From which age do you have memories of your childhood?”
The stallion let out an elongated, painful sigh. He didn’t really have full scenes of his colthood, only blurry soots of memories. However, most of these were unhappy: when the guards had brought him to the oroahange after the accident, where his parents stuck under the broken tree. His wounded, all-over scarred coat with his broken wings. How he feared to accept his new position... Thankfully, there were two ponies in his life, which turned the never-ending nightmare into something exciting and joyful: Queen Flurry Heart and his silly colthood friend, Buttergem. He just couldn’t thank enough for their caring, their unselfish love. The playful afternoon with Butter. The motherly love of a pretty young Queen, who loved him as her own blood. These were the actions, which made Pinto go on and on with the capital-lettered „life”.
“Maybe when I was just a colt, around the age of starting nursery” replied the prince after long consideration, putting a low-key smile on his lips. Trying to keep his swirling sea of thoughts busy, the stallion began examining the facial features of his feshly-met friend. Her ocean blue, always curious and mysteriously adorable gaze. Her curly and colorful, honey-and-orange colored mops of hair – it reminded Pinto of his mom’s favourite aunt, Pinkie Pie. Not to mention that somewhat Honeybuzz had a pretty similar personality deep inside, what she only let to be seen rarely. He deemed her as an interesting mare. “My two main reasons for not giving up this entire prince-stuff is her and my Mom. I don’t know what would I have done wirhout them”
“I see” stated the golden mare, working up all the infos she has received from the royal stallion so far. She didn’t know what to reply immediately, so she brought up some V.I.P. informations about herself. After all, the prince only knows her name and her job. “Same with my sister, actually. She was the one who gave me support while I had a eough period with my dad in the Beefarm”
The sudden-came mention of similarity took Pinto by surprise. His eyebrows ran up a bit, his caramel gaze shrinking. He almost choked on his split. “Really? What could cause such stress between you and your dad?”
Honey sighed. She knew that after mentioning it, she must also give an explanation – even when the argument hasn’t come to an end yet. Her joyful and curious, blue eyes sparked with a bit of grief but after giving herself time to recollect the strength to share such thing, the golden mare opened her lips to speak.
However, before even giving out a sound, a snowwhite hoof gently pressed her lower lip back to her upper lip, making her halt back the explanation. The mare was so much staggered that she didn’t know how to react. The royal stallion was the one who didn’t let her explain herself. “Why... why didn’t you let me explain myself?”
“It’s clear that you haven’t put an end to this problem” replied Pinto Cloud with a small but warm, reassuring smile. The kindness made Honeybuzz’s racing heart calm down step by step, her trembling mouth stop. Pure calmness flooded the earth mare in the companion of the royal stallion. “I don’t intend to tear up unhealed wounds. If we’re friend in the future and you’re ready, you’ll explain it then. I’m a patient pony you know”
And just as he finished his little speech, making Honey now stare in disbelief of how generous her café-companion was, two fully packed plates landed right in front of them. There was barely any place beside the richly stuffed, homemade and incredibly fresh, delicious orange gempies and the custard, which came together with it. In the retro mugs they received swam creamy, tasteful caramel milk, its scent is tranquilizing, No doubt it became so many ponies’s favourite place with such service and delicacies.
“There ya go, your order is ready and steady” chuckled Buttergem joyfully, her mane jiggling from one direction to the other. It was astonishing how happy she was all the time. “Enjoy your meal! Oh and Pinto... make sure to visit me more. I’m getting used to not see you for weeks”
Honeybuzz smiled how kindly the prince was scolded, which made the stallion smile as well. “Sure, Butter. I’ll come more and eat you out of your resources”
“We’ll see, ma friend... no pony has come to Equestria yet, who could have eaten me out of my resources” chuckled the unicorn mare as she made a turn toward another table and trotted there to take her other customers’ order as well.
Honey couldn’t help but chuckle. “I understand why you like having a friend like her. She’s always so happy and daring, it’s unbelievable”
“Well, I’m lucky to have her for sure” Pinto smiled gracefully for having such support behind his back. He changed the topic as the sweet scent of the pie hit his nose, daringly looking at his companion. “Now fulfill your resolution and taste the pie. We’ll see if my or its tasty companion is the better one”
The golden earth mare couldn’t force back the badgering grin sneaking up onto her lips, forming a wide, daring smile. One of her thin eyebrows crept upwards, fork in hoof. Her blue gaze shone with adventourness. “Let’s do this, Princey”
With that, Honey stuck her cutlery into the tasty-looking cake. The fork sink into the stuffed, soft sponge-cake without problem, disappearing in the thick cream of freshly minced orange and edible gems. As the hard outside of the sponge-cake cracked, the sweet, interesting scent began floating outwards, right into Honey’s curious nostrils, making her gape in awe. She even began drooling, not to mention the satisfied moan as she tasted the best pie of her life.
Prince Pinto was viewing the scene with satisfied laughter, smiling at the hungry mare. The stallion knew well that this pie, especially the ones made by Butter were the most enjoyable food all over Equestria. They counted as rarities, just like the apple or honey from Ponyville. No doubt such a tured deliverer pony, especially a young mare who was hungry as a wolf enjoyed this pie so much. It was a funny scene how much Honeybuzz enjoyed munching on the tasty bites of the delicacy, tiny crumbs stuck around her mouth. The stallion was about the gently whip them off, however, something interrupted his gentle action.
Not just something, rather someone. A huge explosion, sending the entire café and its surroundings into the air and all around. Wooden furnitures cracked in half, glasses broke into barely visible pieces. Ponies cried out in agonizing fear, running away or helping the ones who got hurt. Buttergem was helping a small filly out from under a huge wooden plank when Pinto finally recollected himself. He was in the air, flapping his wings rapidly to get back his balance.
His mind immediately made him remember the sweet, golden mare, who he couldn’t see anywhere. The stallion’s heart began pounding with pure horror of the thought his new friend getting hurt or even... no. No! She was too strong to loose her life with such accident. She must be somewhere!
“Honeybuzz!” the prince echoed with afraid, trembling voice. His movements were fine and swift in midair, he flew from one position to the other, examining the ground below. His heart beat like the fastest train in Equestria, his caramel eyes darting rapidly. He was scared. Scared for real after so many years. “Honeybuzz, where are you?!“
It came unexpectedly, just like an energetic slap in the face. Honeybuzz didn’t have time to prepare, it hit her while enjoying her food and considering how to badger the prince after it. It’s not surprising that she almost choke on the bite when a wide and heavy, wooden plank hit her hard on the top of her head. She passed out for long moments, her body unable to do anything. The booming noise of the surrounding world blurred as she fainted onto the messy ground, right in the middle of the catastrophe.
Her last energy was used for a scream, weak and barely hearable. ”Pinto Cloud!”
Thanks to Celestia, the prince had quite sensitive ears, which pricked immediately after hearing the emergency cry. His caramel eyes darted in the direction of the scream, heart beating with an even quicker pace as he noticed his fainted friend, lying lifelessly on the floor.
The stallion dashed toward the golden mare, landing right beside her. His caramel gaze was wide in terror as he barely dared to touch her thin body. She was like a porcelain doll, who could break in any moments.
If it wasn’t for Buttergem, Pinto’s colthood best friend, the prince wouldn’t have even dared to touch Honey. She rushed to the shocked stallion, shaking him to bring him back to reality. “Pinto! Prince Pinto Cloud, look at me! You must take her to the hospital before it’s too late! She may fall into come if you don’t hurry”
“But... but what about the other customers?” inquired Pinto in a weak, worrying thoughts. After all, he was the prince, responsible for every single life of his ponies. He couldn’t just leave them there! “I can’t leave you alone with so many injured ponies. You need my help, as well!”
The unicorn mare’s always joyful expression vanished and left a determined, strict pony behind. She looked right into Pinto’s confused caramel gaze. “Listen, Pinto! I may be just a simple bartender. But I can handle things on my own, I have already noticed another royal guard who was on his free days, taking lunch only metres from you. Help is on its way, plus locals can also save injured ponies. But now you cannot stay! You must save Honeybuzz before it’s too late. Take her to the hospital, now!”
The prince listened to his friend’s speech with all of his remaining concentration. She was right, he had to admit. Buttergem wasn’t hopeless, if he had had to mention a strong, independent and determined pony, it would have been Butter. He had to listen to her advice and save Honey before it’s too late.
Power and conclusion flooded his every vein, making him narrow his eyes and nod in agreement. “Understood. I must save her, before time runs out!”
“That’s the spirit!” the unicorn mare exclaimed. “Now go!”
“Alright. Be careful, Butter” with that, the stallion carefully took the fainted porcelain body into his muscled front hoof, gently flapping his injured wings to float into the sky. As he soared away from the location of the attack and toward the hospital, he turned his trembling gaze at the lifelessly lying Honeybuzz. He hadn’t noticed before how thin and endangered the mare was. She was both small and thin, which made a funny comapnion with her delighted and indicate personality. He immediately felt sympathy for the fierce mare, which made him compulsory to save her from the cold hoofs of death.
He had to save her. He had to hurry.
> >> • << <
It felt like coming back to life from death. Her head hurt as someone was using a saw on it and the entire surrounding area was spinning round and round endlessly. Even the sounds and the speech of the other ponies were beyond her depths – Honeybuzz thought she’ll never wake up. She thought it’s her time to move on and join her sister’s first foal, Bumblemane, a premature little filly and her grandparents.
However, thanks to Celestia, after an endless wait, both sounds, scents and the entire scene began to sharpen. It took quite a while for every senses to return, but in the end, the ocean blue gaze began moving again, their owner gasping for air and sitting up instantly.
“What... what happened?!”
Pinto Cloud, the prince was half-asleep beside her all time long. As soon as the previous words left the mare’s thin lips, the stallion jerked up from his sleep with borh surprise and grace. He jumped to his injured, somewhat scarred hoofs and immediately hurried to Honeybuzz. His eyes were wet from the held-back tears of thank.
“You’re alive! You haven’t fallen to coma, oh my Celestia, thank you very much!” relief came like a powerful wave and washed through the shaken prince. He was smiling widely as he leaned carefully over the freshly-woken up mare and gave her a warm, welcoming hug. He could barely believe his freshly-met friend coming back to life after such accident she had had to go through.
The barely awake, golden mare let out a light chuckle when seeing the prince, the royal heir of the throne becoming so joyful of her awakening. She returned the hug, drilling her muzzle willy-nilly into the muscular shoulder of the stallion. The mare couldn't help but receive a huge dose of the spruce-scented perfume of the royal stallion, which both made her feel dizzy of the astonishingly marvelous fragnance and enjoy it, as well. “I’m too strong to fall into coma so easily”
"That's for sure, you're way more stiffThe royal pony felt his heart ease in relief as a light chuckle left his dry mouth. Even the surroundings were more peaceful, as if everything calmed down together with the jumpy male. The walls let out a calmer greenish hue, the tiny pots of colorful flowers gave the mood a positivity-dose.
As Pinto was examining the warrior mare, who probably defeated coma or even worse, when all of the sudden the nurse ponies trotted in rushing, together with the doctor himself. The prince returned the gentle bow they gave him and stepped backwards, giving enough place for the professionals to do their job. He walked to the flung-open door and took a last look at the brave, golden mare who he didn't know for long, before leaving the room to wait outside and organize his royal duties of the attack. "I'll be outside. I'll come back when we're alone again... we must talk about what happened"
