Chapter 1
Trust Is A Fickle Thing
Chapter 1
As the soft glow of the morning sun shone through Lily Blossom’s bedroom window, the mass of blankets on the bed started to stir. After a few seconds, an opening was made and a light purple nose pokes out. There was a quiet rush of air as it took a deep breath, then a head emerged shortly after. The features were hidden by a long yellow mane that was extremely disheveled. After some more stirring, the blankets were pushed away and a mare stumbled off the bed.
She teetered uneasily to the side for a couple steps before gaining her balance and trotting slowly to her bathroom. She placed one hoof on the sink to steady herself and used her other hoof to push her mane out of her face. A pair of purple eyes looked back at her through the mirror. She reached for the brush that was next to the faucet and started running it through her mane, mumbling incoherently under breath.
A muffled thump from her bedroom made her pause. She peeked around the doorway to see the blankets laying on the floor in a heap. She smiled and giggled, tiptoeing across the room to stand next to them. With a flare of her wings and a short pounce, she jumped onto the blankets. She was rewarded with a yelp and a shove as the blankets flailed around. A white head and silver mane popped out, glaring at her with bright blue eyes.
“Lily Blossom, what was that for?” he grumbled.
Lily Blossom just giggled again lay down on him. “I’m sorry, but it was just such a perfect opportunity.” She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Do you want me to make your coffee?”
He smiled and looked up at her, his eyes half shut with sleep. “That would be great,” he said before letting his head flop over as he fell asleep again. Lily Blossom just smiled and stood up, trotting across the room into the hallway that lead to the rest of the house. She passed through the living room and into the kitchen, grabbing the coffee grounds and pot on the way to the sink.
As she was filling up the pot with water, she felt a light tingling in the back of her head. She scratched her head, but it didn’t go away. She cocked her head in confusion and put the now full coffee pot on the brewer. She opened the grounds bag and poured some into the filter, then turned on the brewer and leaned against the counter.
The tingling hadn’t stopped. It actually seemed to have become more incessant. Lily Blossom scratched her head again, but didn’t expect it to go away. It didn’t. She shook her head to dispel her thoughts and proceeded to make two cups of coffee for herself and Silver Cloud.
She returned to her bedroom to find Silver Cloud sitting up on the bed, the blanket and sheets neatly folded. She placed the coffee cups on the table and sat next to him, laying her head on his shoulder with a sigh.
He caressed her face with his hoof. “Is something wrong?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve got this funny feeling that something big is going to happen soon.”
Silver Cloud looked her in the eyes and smiled. “Whatever it is, I’m sure you’ll love it.” His smile widened, and Lily Blossom got the feeling he knew something she didn’t.
She ignored it for now, and picked up her coffee cup. “I have to get ready for work,” she said. “I’ll see you tonight.” She stepped off the bed and back into the bathroom to clean up.
* * * * * *
Lily Blossom walked through Ponyville with a smile on her face. It was a beautiful day outside. The sun was warm, the sky was completely devoid of clouds, and the air had just the perfect breeze flowing through town.
She stepped inside Ponyville’s flower shop, looking over the displays and checking the flowers for their health. She brought her nose to a set of roses to smell them before continuing to the counter.
“Hello, Roseluck,” she said to the mare behind the counter.
The cream mare looked up from a ledger, her maroon hair bouncing slightly at the sudden movement. She smiled at Lily Blossom and waved. “Hey! Good morning!” She returned her attention to the ledger, flipping a page and grabbing a pencil to make some notes.
“Is anything wrong?” Lily Blossom asked as she walked over to look at the book. “You don’t normally pull this out.”
Roseluck shook her head. “No, nothing’s wrong. In fact, things are going pretty good. It looks like we’ve been getting a lot of tips lately. If my calculations are correct, we have about four hundred extra bits in our possession. We should have enough to do some renovation to the outside patio. What do you think?”
Lily Blossom bobbed her head a bit in thought. “That might be nice. Perhaps if we—“
Her sentence was cut off by the ringing of the bells over the door. Lily Blossom and Roseluck looked up to see a grey mare walk in. Her yellow eyes were both looking in different directions and she carried a brown mail bag.
“Message for a Miss Roseluck in the Spring Air Flower Shop,” she said with a goofy smile on her face.
Roseluck raised a hoof. “That would be me,” she said.
The mailmare reached into her bag and pulled out a letter. She laid it on the counter and walked out, bumping into the door frame on the way. Lily Blossom and Roseluck just blinked and picked up the letter.
“Poor Ditzy,” Lily Blossom said with a slight frown. “I wish there was a way to get her eyes fixed.”
“I know. She seems to get by, though, and she doesn’t seem to be too bothered by them.” Roseluck tore open the top of the envelope and pulled out the letter inside. Her eyes darted across the page as she muttered under her breath, her eyes widening the more she read. “Dear Miss Roseluck, you have been cordially requested by Princess Celestia to provide the floral arrangements for the marriage between the fair Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and captain of the Royal Guard Shining Armour, to be delivered by the end of the month. Enclosed are details of the requested arrangements, as well as a contract for a stipend from the Royal Treasury as payment for your services. Another stipend will be written after the ceremony for personal pay.”
Roseluck slid the letter over to reveal two more. The first letter was a list of bouquet sets and arrangements. The second was the contract that was mentioned. Roseluck’s breathing picked up at the sight of it. She put a hoof on the counter to steady herself. Lily Blossom looked at the contract and gasped.
“Tw-tw-two th-th-thousand bits?” She flipped the contract over, then back again just to be certain she had seen it correctly. “Is this for real?”
Roseluck just stared at the contract. A few minutes passed before she was able to slow her breathing down and speak again. “This is the best. Day. EVER.” Her smile nearly broke her face in two, and her eyes sparkled with absolute delight.
She picked up the bouquet list and her smile lessened. “That’s a lot of flowers.” She passed the sheet to Lily Blossom.
“Wow,” she said, her face paling slightly. There weren’t too many flowers listed, but each one had no less than two or three hundred marked beside them. There was also a list of two dozen arrangements below the basic flowers. “This will take a lot of work. But OHMIGOSH! We got a commission for royalty!” Lily Blossom couldn’t help but jump up and down excitedly at the thought of it.
Roseluck joined in her celebration for a few moments. “Is this actually happening? We aren't dreaming, are we?"
"Nope!" Lily Blossom exclaimed. "If we were dreaming we'd have a room filled handsome stallions," she said with a giggle. Roseluck burst into laughter at the comment, passing the bouquet list to Lily Blossom.
"Here. Start picking the flowers. I'll go get the ribbons and baskets for the bundles." She trotted through a door in the back of the room to where they held the supplies. Lily Blossom glanced at the list and memorized the first three flowers and their numbers before starting the tedious task.
As the sun was beginning to set Lily Blossom and Roseluck put the bouquets in the back room and stepped outside, locking up the shop on the way out. Roseluck turned to Lily Blossom. "What do you say we go to dinner tonight to celebrate? You could bring Silver Cloud and we could make it a double date."
"That sounds great," Lily Blossom said.
"Sugarcube Corner at seven?"
Lily Blossom nodded. "I'll be there."
Roseluck turned to leave, waving back to Lily Blossom and saying "I'll see you there."
They went their separate ways to freshen up for dinner and figure out how to convince their coltfriends to come along. The night was full of much excitement (and in the stallions' cases, a few cups too much of wine), and when Lily Blossom and Silver Cloud finally stumbled back to their bed hours later they forwent their nightly routines and simply fell into bed.