Chapter 3: One of Those Things Where We Meet Later - Part 1
Sandbag was the first thought la Fleur had when her sense slowly came back to her. She was fairly sure she’d been conscious for a while, but had been swimming in some kind of waking limbo where she couldn’t move.
As soon as feeling in her body and limbs came back a headache exploded from the deepest reaches of her skull all the way to the tip of her horn and back again. This was a feeling only for when alcohol was involved; before meeting a new employer was not a time she would ever drink, or so she thought.
At length she unsealed her eyelids and looked about the room. Her discomfort steadily grew as she took stock of just how nice this place was.
I couldn’t have been drinking yesterday. If I was, I wouldn’t have my new employer. Mild panic spread through la Fleur’s mind as these thoughts came to her. “If I did, then I’m probably fired. Sitting up she rubbed her eyes, anticipating the wave of dizziness soon to come. As it washed over her she took it like the professional she was, and didn’t let it stop her from getting out of the very plush bed.
Fleur de Lis trotted around the room looking at the various pieces of art and testing the furniture. The decor seemed tacky considering what she’d heard of Mr. Fancy Pants. All of her belongings had been put in a neat pile, which helped her to continue the lie that she hadn’t been drunk. It was far too neatly organized for a drunken unicorn to arrange.
A knock on the door made her turn, a bit too quickly at that. This time she wasn’t ready for the dizziness and stumbled a bit as she headed for the door. Opening the door with magic was out of the question and she knew it. Last time she felt this way she had applied force in the wrong direction on a pull door. The knob and lock mechanism were forced through the door and there was a considerable amount of apologizing.
Fleur de Lis opened the door and was greeted by a smiling green coated unicorn mare with a curly blue mane.
The green unicorn, upon seeing the beautiful white creature on the other side of the door, forgot her prepared introduction for new guests. The effect upon the stunned mare vanished when she saw the disheveled white and pink mane. There were also the light purple orbs hidden behind half shut eyelids. There was obvious reluctance to keep her eyes open in the light. All of these things were clear signs of a hangover. It wasn’t so unexpected from someone who had spent the night in a honeymoon suite but it still detracted from the overall effect of the white mare’s stunning appearance.
“Ma’am, would you like a complimentary fruit bowl?” The inn’s service mare magically pulled a cart of assorted fruits into view.
Fleur de Lis eyed the fruit hungrily, but there were questions she needed to ask first.
“Complimentary?” La Fleur inquired, squinting at the mare that stood in a sun bathed hall.
“Yes ma’am, it comes with the honeymoon suite.” She lost herself in thought for a moment, missing the dark expression that passed over Fleur de Lis’s face. Returning to her task she continued, “Do you need any extra towels or soap while I’m at it?”
Although her face had regained its out of sorts look, Fleur de Lis’s thoughts had remained in dark places. They stayed that way longer than was probably healthy at this point, but for some reason la Fleur couldn’t explain she couldn’t stay mad. Soon she was back to barely listening to the other unicorn while most of her mind was being filled by her impressive headache. Fleur de Lis even felt a strange confidence in her ability to not cry when this conversation was over, even though she’d yet again been reminded of her late husband. Somehow those tears were gone, and while the feeling of loss remained there was now a warmth left by something she couldn’t remember encountering.
“No,” la Fleur began when she realized the service mare had stopped talking, “I think I have enough towels. That fruit though...” She eyed the cart with her hungry eyes.
“Very well then.” The green unicorn said politely. As she began levitating fruit into a nicely engraved wooden bowl, she felt a second magic aura that was pulling the fruit between her and the tall white guest.
Fleur de Lis had forgotten the fact she’d been offered a bowl of fruit. As the first apple reached her waiting mouth she saw the look the green mare was giving her. Fleur de Lis then spotted the bowl partially filled with fruit.
“Oh, of course.” She said sheepishly placing the apple in the bowl and waiting with an awkward half-smile. This was a face that felt wrong to la Fleur. Normally being so composed and professional, this was an extremely rare occurrence, where she lacked the ability to take control of the situation with a few well-placed words.
The service mare quickly finished piling fruit into the bowl and levitated it to a table just inside the room.
With a light bow she said, “Have a nice day.” After that she was gone down the hallway.
For a short while Fleur de Lis stood in the doorway until a monstrous growl from her stomach reminded her just how hungry she was.
At the moment her plan was to: Eat, wash quickly, meet with Mr. Fancy Pants, and then hoof it to the palace to receive some amount of comfort from Princess Celestia. The only comfort she would likely receive from anyone, as far as she knew.
Fleur de Lis happened to walk by a mirror on her way to a couch. She nearly dropped the bowl when she saw the state of her upper features. Her face was covered in tear stains; her mane had knotted itself in several places, as if she’d been rolling on the ground. And to top all of this off, her eye shadow had been partially rubbed off and was smeared down to her cheeks in some places. How the service mare had managed not to make a face was beyond la Fleur’s realm of speculation at this moment.
Slowly la Fleur placed the bowl on the table and took a deep breath to prevent a freak out that she felt exceptionally vulnerable to this morning.
A comb and brush floated up next to her while the bath tub simultaneously began to fill up.
Fleur de Lis was no longer in denial. Alcohol had become a part of yesterday at some point. She was annoyed that all of yesterday’s bad experiences led to this morning’s ruin. Getting the honeymoon suite felt like some sort of cruel joke, and was likely going to sour the graceful and normally composed mare’s mood for the rest of the day.
In her own private display of levitation prowess, la Fleur got to work on her mane with comb and brush while holding an apple up to her mouth. She forced herself to focus through what she now accepted as a hangover, using it as a punishment for letting it happen in the first place.
The white mare winced as she tugged at a knot. With a long sigh she worked the knot out slowly and carefully. This was going to take a while.
==========
Fleur de Lis had recovered quite well after breakfast and the hot bath. Her mane was still slightly damp, but she couldn’t care less now that it was neat and in order.
After leaving a tip that was likely larger than anybody who had to clean such a small mess deserved, la Fleur was on her way to the front desk. Bits were something she wasn’t in the business of caring about at this point in her life.
It only took a few turns to reach the front desk of the inn. Fleur de Lis had always thought that a honeymoon suite was always supposed to be located at the very top of a building. She shrugged this thought away as she trotted up to the front desk, intending to inform some staff member of the vacated room.
Nobody was at the front desk, and Fleur de Lis’s hoof was touching the bell; a voice from the doorway that went to the back room caught her attention before she rang it.
Somepony was using a very defensive tone as they spoke. The speaking pony’s voice sounded very familiar to Fleur de Lis, even though she was unable to put a face to it.
“... I’m not making it up! She was this tall, with a slender body, and this pink and white striped mane.” A moment of silence followed then the speaker, a colt by the sound of his voice, continued, “And she cried, so I held her till she felt better.” His voice trailed off in slight disbelief of his own words.
“Uh huh, sure you did. Now why don’t you go and get some sleep, you look like you need it.” A much deeper voice chided, “You probably just fell asleep and had a dream about this filly you wish you could have.”
“Maybe.” The younger pony admitted sadly, “It was a little too incredible to be true. She was so pretty though and it felt so real.” Whoever he was, Fleur de Lis was convinced they had met last night. From the sound of things he’d given her an extended hug after some kind of alcohol related breakdown. If that was all that had happened she was going to need to thank him for being such a gentlecolt.
That opportunity was literally right around the corner as hoof falls approached the open doorway. A few moments later a light grey colt with a black mane came around the corner with a red vest draped around his neck. He was very very familiar to Fleur de Lis.
When the colt saw the white unicorn looking at him expectantly his mouth fell open and his throat produced a choked squeak; he’d just learned that trying to say ‘Oh my gosh you’re real!’ After your throat suddenly dried and without actually being able to move your mouth, was basically impossible.
Since reacquiring her ability to hold a good deal of power in conversations, and the astonished colt’s complete lack of said power, she spoke first.
“You were talking about me, yes?”
All Silver Leaf had left was the ability to nod and breathe at this moment in time. Both of which required conscious effort.
“Silver! I said get home. Did you fall asleep on your hooves or something?” Somepony said gruffly, his voice growing closer.
An orange stallion came around to stand alongside the gawking, grey colt. The stallion’s annoyed expression turned to one of curiosity as he followed Silver Leaf’s gaze to the white mare on the other side of the counter. It took several seconds for the orange pony, whose nametag designated him a manager, to put together that this mare was the one that was supposed to be part of his employee’s lonely dreams.
He hastily pushed past his slack jawed employee to take care of the strikingly beautiful customer.
Fleur de Lis detected an attempt at schmooze coming on by the poorly concealed sly smile on the stallions face. She was not very interested in him. Her eyes stayed set on Silver Leaf as she waited for an answer to her question.
“How may I help you ma’am?” The stallion used tried to use his smooth talk voice.
“Get him to answer me question please.” Fleur de Lis still hadn’t taken her eyes off of Silver Leaf. Now, she went as far as to look straight into his eyes, and the grey colt was in no state of mind to look away.
Out of jealousy, Silver Leaf received a dirty look from his boss. Fleur de Lis took this opportunity to cast a spell. Her horn glowed softly for an instant, and Silver Leaf’s eyes went wide while the spell tried to bring up any recent events that could have left guilt behind. The spell took less than a second to do its job and it brought Silver Leaf out of his catatonic state.
Fleur de Lis was very pleased when the grey colt didn’t instantly break eye contact, which would have been a sign of guilt in her presence.
“Silver! Answer the lady.” The boss pony barked.
“Hmm?” Silver Leaf looked around like someone who had just regained their sight.
“A guest of our inn asked you a question.” The stallion said grudgingly.
“I’m sorry misse- Miss, um... What did you ask?”
“Fleur de Lis,” she began, pointing a hoof at herself, “I asked if I was the mare you were referring to. The one who was drunk and crying, and the one you were holding?”
“I- Everypony thought you weren’t real; I started to believe it too.” Silver Leaf wasn’t avoiding the question. He was simply somewhere between shying away from the mare he’d convinced himself he wasn’t worthy of even knowing, and being ecstatic about the fact she was real.
“Well, I only ask because, and this is the opinion other ponies, I am considered ‘pretty.’ Last I checked I was a mare. White and pink mane?” She flourished her mane, it momentarily concealed her face before falling back into place. “That all sounds like me. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Yes! Yes it does.” Silver Leaf shifted to “ecstatic about the situation,” and forgot to control the volume of his voice.
Fleur de Lis dropped her interrogation face and replaced it with a warmer expression. Silver Leaf received her kind look as well as a ‘What the buck?” look from his boss.
“Then thank you. For comforting me when I had nopony else to go to; also for having enough decency not to take advantage of a drunk mare. I truly do not believe some spare bits are an adequate thank you, but I don’t exactly know what you would like.” Fleur de Lis paused hoping he would make a request.
Silver Leaf was no worried that he was dreaming again. A beautiful mare was asking him how she could show her gratitude for his actions. Of course being who he was, sex was not a form of currency in the least. Being that the last time a mare had offered him anything was a year or so ago, when his mother had volunteered to help him move to Canterlot, he wasn’t sure what to do. So he went with the first thing that came to mind.
“Food is nice.” He said awkwardly.
“What the buck?” The orange stallion grumbled.
“Umm,” Fleur de Lis intoned while she interpreted Silver Leaf’s statement, “Lunch?” She looked at the clock, 11:07 AM There were several things she needed to do. “Dinner perhaps?”
“Sure, it’s a date! Er- an event that is scheduled at a later point in time.” Again Silver Leaf’s last “date” consisted of lunch with his mother and a filly she was trying to set him up with, he’d figured out that he had more in common with a brick wall than with his mother’s choice in fillies.
“Right, dinner it is. Where do you live so I can find you tonight?” She levitated paper and pencil to the counter from one of her bags.
Somewhere in the back of his mind Silver Leaf realized this was completely backwards as far as male-female interactions were supposed to go. He tried to shut out these thoughts while writing down his address for la Fleur. It took him several tries to get something better than scribbles onto the piece of paper.
Fleur de Lis pulled the piece of paper up to eye-level and looked it over, she would have to get directions later.
“Glad that is all in order then.” Fleur de Lis smiled at Silver Leaf, who gave a goofy smile in response. “Thank you again.” She bowed and started trotting to the door.
Silver Leaf suddenly caught on to the jealousy radiating from his superior. A feeling in the pit of his stomach told him getting off of work was going to be hard. He quickly checked to make sure the white mare wasn’t quite out the door yet.
“Uh sir, can you have somepony cover my schedule tonight.” The grey colt said rather loudly. He then cringed as if expecting physical retaliation.
Fleur de Lis heard this and paused with her hoof still on the door.
“I don’t-” The orange stallion began, but was cut off by a sideways semi-glare from the white mare who managed to remain imposing even at this distance.
“Yeah I think I can find somepony to do that.” He patted Silver Leaf on the back acting friendly under Fleur de Lis’s gaze. As he nudged Silver Leaf out from behind the counter he said, “Now go home and get that sleep. I mean it. You wouldn’t want to fall asleep while having dinner with the nice mare now would you?” He put on the fakest smile in the history of Equestria.
“No sir, no I wouldn’t.” Silver Leaf said as he took charge of his own movement and headed to the door where Fleur de Lis still stood.
At the moment her hoof was on the floor, but as she reached up to push the door open Silver Leaf instinctively rushed over and touched the door first. La Fleur was at the very least impressed by his speed; when he pushed the door open for her, she felt doubly impressed.
Accepting his chivalrous gesture she went through the door. He followed quickly behind her, and found that she was waiting for him with a knowing look in her eyes.
Silver Leaf misread her expression. “What?” He asked hesitantly, “Oh, please don’t tell me it was a joke.” He felt despair coming on already, the despair of being right about not being worth the beautiful mare’s time.
“No no no. That isn’t it at all. I was just marveling at how much of a gentlecolt you are, in addition to being able to think ahead fairly well.” By the look on his face Fleur de Lis could tell he wasn’t quite tracking. “You knew your manager would do something petty like make you work all night, so you spoke up before I left. If nothing else I could have asked nicely, but he seemed to have caved on his own.” She chuckled quietly to herself, because she knew full well what had happened.
“Uh, yeah I guess so.” He smiled with a bit of confidence.
“While I’m thinking about it-” Fleur de Lis happened to see the clock tower out of the corner of her eye.
11: 32
“I have to go. We can talk at dinner.” She was galloping quickly as she spoke, “Expect me sort of late-ish!” Then she was gone, leaving Silver Leaf with a dreamy-eyed stare.
==========
It was decent exercise getting to Mr. Fancy Pants’ estate. Fleur de Lis was currently catching her breath on his doorstep. Or rather, she was catching her breath in front of the gate that led to small courtyard where his front door was. The door did still have a step up to it.
As soon as Fleur de Lis caught her breath she began moving forward, pushing the gate open with magic. The courtyard Fleur de Lis found was more of a series of small gardens. Each section had a pony rearing up; the sections opposite each other had the same kind of pony. The first set was pegasai, growing in their patches were trees that had leaves like clouds. The second were a pair of earth ponies, one of the patches had rows of vegetables, and the other earth pony patch had ground fruits. All of which looked tantalizing.
The last set was, by process of elimination, unicorn ponies. Their patches were beds of flowers of all sorts of vibrant colors. Another thing that set the two patches apart was that the statues were at the back of their sections, and water was flowing from their tips into a reservoir that trickled into a waterway. The water, presumably, was recycled if it wasn’t absorbed by the soil.
Fleur de Lis paused by one of the flower beds mesmerized by the colors. Wherever a red and yellow flower grew near each other, a third orange colored flower seemed to exist. Where blue and red flowers grew together purple flowers also seemed to grow. When two of the imaginary flowers grew together they made yet another color of flower appear. The longer someone were to look at the bed the more and more they became a sea of ever changing hypnotic colors.
As Fleur de Lis came back to the present, the infinite number of new flowers began to separate out into their original colors. When she came back to reality she la Fleur felt relaxed and content, there wasn’t a thing wrong with life. She nearly danced up to the front door. With a cheerful smile she tapped the door with a hoof. Colors that had no name were being used to paint beautiful scenes in her mind.
As hoofsteps came for the door the colors began to fade. Eventually they were gone altogether, leaving behind a lasting smile and a much more focused mare.
Magical
The door opened to reveal , a white unicorn buck with a wavy deep blue mane. Fleur de Lis resisted the urge to raise a questioning eyebrow when she saw his thin, equally blue moustache. The monocle did suit him however, as did his suit.
The male unicorn did not suppress a quizzical look when he saw an attractive smiling unicorn mare, who evidently had business with him.
In the moment of silence they share they studied each other, being careful to keep as neutral an expression as possible.
In the time it took for Fleur de Lis to decide whether or not she was going to like her new employer, her smile faded. She then began to go through her much more professional routine.
“You know,” she began dryly, “if I were trying to harm you, you would have just made it easy for me.”
“If?” Fancy Pants’ normally respectful and indifferent look was lost for a moment as he looked around nervously. “So then, that must make you miss la Fleur, right?”
“Fleur de Lis.” She nodded and bowed.
He bowed lower and said in an apologetic tone, “Sorry miss Fleur de Lis, I’m not used to having enemies who wish me physical harm.” He stood aside, “Please, come in.”
Fleur de Lis nodded gratefully, and trotted past him into the foyer.
“It’s perfectly alright, most of our clients are in similar situations. That is of course, why they contact us.” Fleur de Lis’s sharpened senses picked up on the distinct lack of anything else happening in the house. “No butlers or maids?”
“I don’t make much of a mess myself.” He stated inviting her to a lounge area where she set her things down. “Whenever I have guests a catering company is called for food and servers. Afterwards I hire a cleaning company to tidy up.”
“Ah yes, you do live by yourself. Single, no children, and now I know you live fairly well below your means. I can respect that.” She realized she came across as judgmental, and smiled apologetically. As she settled down she looked around the room noting that the color theme for this room was a deep chestnut red, most of the pieces had gold embroidery. A few pristine looking, lit candles sat on coffee table. They must have been enchanted by the strength of their scent throughout the room.
Fancy Pants chose to carry on with the conversation, “You know things about me already?” His voice told of a few reservations about that.
“Only a little more than most. Most wouldn’t bother looking back to your colthood in order to make a few inferences about your preferences. Personalities you’re more likely to work well with and such. It wouldn’t do much good if somepony hired to protect you couldn’t stand being around you. It’d be a very short contract one way or another.” Fleur de Lis grinned slightly remembering a joke about: a bodyguard, a cliff, and his charge, who was a pain in the rump.
Fancy Pants, at the very least was able to infer what she was getting at with her last statement. He managed a small laugh.
Fleur de Lis cleared her throat. “I’d like to apologize for being so late. There was an incident yesterday that led to a very interesting morning. It won’t happen again.”
Fancy Pants checked his pocket watch.
12:13
“You know you’re seventeen minutes early, don’t you?” He asked, not trying to sound rude.
“I didn’t have an exact number. I knew I was early, but that is much less early than I had wanted to be here. I’m going to the palace in about an hour to meet with Princess Celestia. Before that can happen I need to inspect your property to make sure it isn’t too easy for an intruder to get in.”
“I do try to keep my doors and windows locked at night.” Fancy Pants said tucking his watch back into his suit pocket.
“Yes, but how many glass doors do you have?” She tested.
“Five.” He promptly responded. “I was informed by mail that I had a number of things to take stock of myself. To make your initial tasks easier.”
“Thank you.” She replied, bringing out a manila folder from one of her bags. “I have a couple questions that weren’t in the letter you received. First off, Since you have lived alone for a good deal of time, would you like me to find a different place to stay that’s nearby?”
“That hardly seems necessary.” He waved a hoof dismissively, “I don’t live alone by choice, I just haven’t made time to get to know somepony well enough that they could move into my home.”
“I see. About getting to know other ponies, what is your sexual preference? If you have one.”
“Pardon?” Fancy Pants sat up a little in his chair.
“You don’t have to answer at all, it is just a thing that I have to attempt to cover. If somepony were to approach you at a party and have some deep meaningful conversation with you for an hour or so, that you then brought home for some ‘romance;’ only to find that that somepony was hired to get you into a vulnerable position where they could harm you, that could be a problem. I ask so that I can watch for that sort of thing. If you’re uncomfortable telling somepony who is mostly a stranger that is understandable.” Her example was more than enough to get the point across.
“I wish I could answer that question better then. It has been quite some time since I’ve been intimate with anypony, I don’t know what else to say. I’ve sort of lost interest I suppose.”
Oh my. la Fleur thought to herself.
“Oh my.” Her eyes widened as her thoughts slipped past her lips. She brought a hoof to her mouth in a vain attempt to recapture her words.
“Oh my?” Fancy Pants raised an eyebrow. Fleur de Lis noticed that the questioning look fit him very well.
Clearing her throat she said, “I’m sorry I shouldn’t judge like that.”
“Oh no, it’s quite alright. It surprises me sometimes too.” His tone assured the ashamed mare he held no grudges.
“You know Mr. Fancy Pants, you’re much more- How should I put it?” Fleur de Lis brought a hoof to her chin, “Tolerable than some of the aristocrats of Canterlot. I mean no offense to any friends you may have, but some of them have their noses in the clouds for no reason.”
Fancy Pants knew exactly what she was referring to. The way some of the wealthier ponies would refuse to look at any they deemed to be lesser was an appalling gesture, and one he avoided as much as possible.
“You don’t need to address me as Mister. I understand the need for professionalism, but I’d still like this to be a somewhat informal arrangement.” He said settling back into his chair.
“Because the rest of your life is always formal? I think I can manage that.” Fleur de Lis said with a smile.
“You seem to be a rather opinionated mare if you don’t mind me saying. Opinionated but thoughtful, and task oriented too, perhaps.”
Fleur de Lis nodded thoughtfully, considering his words. “That seems fairly accurate, but it doesn’t cover everything about me I don’t think. A discussion for another time?”
“It would certainly be an interesting conversation.” Fancy Pants gave her a scrutinizing stare for a moment, “You- Are you the widow of Mr. Staples by chance?” There was a certain amount of hesitation in his voice.
“I am. Why?” Fleur de Lis asked shortly. She wasn’t going to let the question ruin this day, but it still wasn’t a question she liked hearing.
“I just was surprised by how well you seem to be holding up. I was at your wedding, and the look in your eyes was simply ‘Love’ and nothing else. I can’t begin to imagine how much that loss must’ve hurt you.”
“Well, yes I was hurting. I still am as a matter of fact, but I finally allowed myself to cry I think. I’ll always miss him, but I feel like I can at least keep going now.” She grimaced, “Thank you for being the second pony to have any interest in my emotional wellbeing. It’s surprising how hard it is for someponies to have any empathy when their own wallets are hurting so much.”
Fleur de Lis gained a menacing glare and unintentionally aimed it at the concerned buck. “I’m sorry to hear that your husband’s business partners behaved like they weren’t ponies at all. Truly it is a saddening concept.” Fancy Pants took all of the negative feelings channeled through her gaze in stride. He knew it wasn’t directed at him.
It didn’t take la Fleur long to catch herself staring angrily at Fancy Pants for no reason, and corrected herself.
“Sorry about that.” She looked away from him.
“I brought the subject up. I could have done better about asking more delicately.”
“You may be too forgiving for your own good. Still, it’s an admirable trait.” la Fleur was very glad to have his forgiveness.
“Thank you.” Fancy Pants nodded in approval.
At this point, Fleur de Lis spotted a clock on the wall. It was noon.
“Do you have a way to protect yourself, until I get back?” Fleur de Lis asked, getting to her hooves.
“I do, sort of.” la Fleur raised an eyebrow. “I have fairly heavy doors for my bedroom. They have sturdy locks in case I would need to retreat behind them.”
“Satisfactory for now.” Fleur de Lis was already at the door. “I’m sorry our first meeting had to be like this. After meeting with Princess Celestia, I’ll try to return. I’ll be out again late this evening, but tomorrow I’ll be able to give you my full attention.” She opened the door and stepped outside, “Oh! When I get back I would like to know more about this new enemy you’ve made. I’ll need details on exactly what you did to piss him off.” She called as the door closed behind her.
An interesting mare to be sure. Fancy Pants thought as he levitated her luggage to a spare room.
Chapter 3: One of Those Things Where We Meet Later - Part 2
Fleur de Lis stood in front of the Canterlot palace, taking enough time to make sure all of her looks were in order. After her meeting with Fancy Pants, Fleur de Lis had stopped by a cafe for breakfast. Again she arrived with time to spare, and again it wasn’t as much as she’d hoped for. Magic brushed over her coat and through her mane several times. Once she felt presentable, Fleur de Lis trotted up to one of a pair of stallions, a red earth pony, guarding the gate.
“Can I help you ma’am?” He asked as soon as he noticed the white mare’s approach.
“Yes, I’m here to meet with Princess Celestia.” La Fleur said with a smile.
“You and fifty other ponies.” He scoffed, “Go on in you’ll find the line quickly enough.” His partner, a brown unicorn, opened the gate.
“I am actually expected by her.” Fleur de Lis narrowed her eyes. She did not receive condescension or sarcasm from strangers.
“Oh, I’m terribly sorry,” The guard had not dropped his snarky tone. “Let me check the list they give me to see if you’re on it.”
Fleur de Lis’s expression turned to a scowl when the guard stood completely still. Clearly there was no list.
As tempting as it was to leave him with horrible feelings, la Fleur was slightly sympathetic to the monotonous life of a guard. He’d likely dealt with all sorts of ponies demanding to see the princess immediately; after a while one could easily forget their manners.
“Fine then, I hope you at least have the ability to send word ahead that Fleur de Lis has arrived. If that gets done I may even forget to mention how rudely I was treated by the guards at the front gate.” With a huff she trotted past them, down the lane that led to the palace proper.
Both guards shrugged at the other, and the unicorn stallion’s horn glowed as he sent a message to another guard inside the palace. After a short wait his eyes blinked in rapid succession, he’d received a response. Slowly the unicorn turned his head towards his partner, his nervous eyes made the earth pony stallion raise a questioning eyebrow.
“You done goofed.” The unicorn said, with a crooked smile.
Fleur de Lis quickly let go of her annoyance. She didn’t feel like having a hissy fit in front of a princess.
When la Fleur got inside the palace, she found a rather surprising scene. There was a line of around fifty ponies, but that wasn’t the surprise. What shocked the reserved mare was the fact that the room was single file and everyone was quiet.
There was a guard at the front of the line, one stationed at a side door to another room, as well as a guard who was conversing with a few waiting ponies. There was also a guard by the entrance Fleur de Lis had come through. When their eyes met, he gave her an apologetic half-smile.
“I’m here to see Princess Celestia.” She whispered, not wanting anyone else to have a chance to say something snotty.
“I’m afraid to say there’s a fairly long wait. You’re lucky you made it here early though; by afternoon this line goes all the way to the front gate.” His voice was equally quiet.
“I’m expected by the princess. Mizz Fleur de Lis?” She stood up straighter hoping that it would help her be recognized by the guard.
At the mention of her name, the guard’s eyes went wide, “Oh my, miss Fleur de Lis, I received word from the front that some unicorn claiming to be you was mistreated by one of the front guards. On behalf of all the guards I’d like to apologize.” The guard maintained a quiet voice, but his tone was very sincere.
“Think nothing of it, I’m just glad they chose to send word ahead like I’d asked them to. Really I’m over it.” She waved a hoof dismissively.
The guard turned to look at a clock, “You’re a bit early I’m afraid. I’ll show you to a lounge where you can wait. Princess Celestia will be notified immediately. Guard Talus will show you the way.” He nodded to the pegasus stallion guarding the side door.
“Thank you.” Fleur de Lis got her smile back from the considerably more respectful treatment.
Fleur de Lis trotted over to the guard designated Talus.
Talus saw her, and regarded her like any other civilian who was out of line, with poorly disguised annoyance.
Fleur de Lis picked up on the guards thoughts almost instantly, and quickly said, “I’m Fleur de Lis. That guard told me to come to you so that you can take me to a lounge to wait for the princess.”
With a disinterested sigh Talus said, “Cool.” He turned and trotted down the hall, taking Fleur de Lis to the lounge.
When she indicated that she was comfortable by settling down on a couch Talus left without saying anything.
Now that she had fully experienced the entire spectrum of palace guard hospitality, she was free to enjoy a rare moment of rest.
Fleur de Lis soon lost track of time, thanks to this room’s lack of a clock. All she knew is that it had been more than ten minutes; counting the seconds lost its entertainment value very quickly. So she began to actively relax as she waited for Princess Celestia to be available. This was certainly the kind of place for her to not worry about every, little, thing.
“Being early didn't do that much good this time .” She said to the room in general.
“I’d like to disagree. I have to say it gave me something to look forward to." Came the warm, voice of the sun goddess.
"Princess Celestia!" Fleur de Lis was off the couch in a flash. she moved a little too quickly and, fell on her face; she had intended to bow, but this was much less graceful than she'd wanted.
Telekenetic magic gently wrapped around the fallen unicorn, putting her upright; while at the same time revealing a light blush on her face, from embarrassment.
"Please, Lisa- May I still call you Lisa?" Fleur de Lis nodded. "At this moment I would like you to think of me as a friend, not your princess." She smiled warmly to reinforce the point.
"Thank you princess, er- Just Celestia?" la Fleur asked apprehensively.
Fleur de Lis had been more or less starstruck at her first encounter with the princess. This had caused her to believe that the princess wouldn't notice her; therefore they'd only really exchanged polite greetings when they were introduced by la Fleur's husband.
The sun goddesses' kind smile did not fade as she rolled her eyes, "Tia is fine for now. It was given to me by a friend, some time ago."
"Thank you." Fleur de Lis breathed a small sigh of relief from having the awkward tension swept away.
"I must say you are looking rather well given recent events, I’m glad to see." Celestia said, moving the conversation forward.
"Yes I am doing better. That is a very recent thing though; it was tough getting sympathy from anypony my husband knew in Philliedelphia. Sad really."
La Fleur made her way back onto the couch after adjustung her mane. Celestia settled down on a couch opposite her guest, her expression was one of concern.
"Surely you don't mean that nopony came to see how you were doing. That doesn't seem possible."
"Aside from his relatives, nopony seemed to even know that I was his widow." la Fleur confirmed sadly.
"That is simply awful. But you said you've been doing better recently, what happened?"
"Well, sometime yesterday, after I accidentally consumed a good amount of alcohol, I-" Fleur de Lis was rightly interrupted by a question she should have seen coming.
"Accidentally consumed?" Celestia asked, her kind and caring expression replaced by a skeptical one.
"Um, well- Yes actually. I don't know when it happened. I think it was sometime around lunch though; most of my afternoon is missing you see." The unicorns light blush returned with the admission.
"Nothing bad happened I hope." The princess' warm smile returned as well as her concerned tone.
"According to a young colt," Celestia shifted nervously, anticipating some horrible news. "I entered the lobby of an inn, intoxicated of course, and wound up throwing a crying fit of some sort on the floor. He was kind enough to hold me until I felt better." Fleur de Lis's eyes showed her appreciation for the kind act she could barely remember.
"Well isn't that just wonderful. You did thank him I hope, such kindness deserves positive reinforcement." Celestis relaxed visibly when no bad news followed.
"I'm treating him to dinner tonight to thank him; that, and I'd like to get as many details as I can straight." Fleur de Lis frowned for a moment, remembering yet again that alcohol had been involved. "All of the morning, yesterday, had me feeling miserable about my late husband. When I woke up today I felt better, aside from the headache. It just seemed like I'd simply moved on past that stage of loss. I'll always miss him, but I can continue living with all of the good memories from our marriage. I suspect this has something to do with the colt I met last night, I'd like to know for myself."
"It truly is wonderful to to hear and see that you, are in fact, doing better." Celestia's horn glowed softly, "Would you like something to drink, rum perhaps?" The un princesslike joke was followed by an equally un-princesslike snicker.
Fleur de Lis responded to the joke at her expense with a flat look, while inside she recognized that this was a side of the princess rarely seen by anyone else.
"Er, I'm sorry. It was supposed to be a joke." Celestia's ears flattened slightly from her guest's seemingly unamsued expression.
Fleur de Lis spared the royal mare any further imaginary guilt by letting a wide grin spread across her muzzle. "Oh no Tia, I was well aware. I just didn't know an alicorn could have a sense of humor." The unicorn poked a little fun at the princess in return.
Celestia, not being used to her subjects joking with her, felt the need to point out how few differences truly existed between alicorns and any other pony.
"Why couldn't an alicorn possess a sense of humor? I can think and feel just like-" Celestia stopped herself after she saw la Fleur's grin widen even further. The princess's eyebrows furrowed, silently questioning her friend's intent.
"Yes, a joke." Fleur de Lis confirmed aloud.
There was silence a brief moment before the space between them was filled with a warm, rich laughter.
With a content sigh Celestia said, "I had that coming, didn't I?" The centuries old being almost failed to hide that her sense of humor was woefully underdeveloped; she momentarily hung her head in shame when the realization that her sense of humor was only slightly better than her recently returned sister’s. The question was a serious inquiry into how a good ribbing should go back and forth.
If Fleur de Lis caught on to the princess's true intent, she didn't show it.
"Yes, you did in a way. Tea would be lovely, if you have some." Fleur de Lis wasn't entirely sure what caused her to add the last few words; if there were any place in Equestria that would have tea or anything someone was looking for, it would be the Canterlot palace.
"Oh dear let me see if we have any tea." Celestia’s voice was full of fake concern, she was learning.
The majestic alicorn's fluted length was enveloped in a dim glow.
Only seconds later there was a knock on a door la Fleur hadn't been aware of. It startled her somewhat, but she was good at hiding such things.
"Tea your highness?" A stallion called from outside.
Celestia clapped her hooves together, "Did you hear that? We do have tea after all." A barely visible glow went up the princess's horn and the door swung open.
A unicorn servant came in levitating a silver platter with a steaming kettle of some sort of spiced tea, as well as two teacups and a bowl of sugar cubes. The unicorn was followed by an earth pony colt, presumably an apprentice, who was balancing a tray of scones.
The colt stopped short and his jaw dropped at the sight of the two exceedingly beautiful white mares. Both mares' eyes were on him, they'd caught on fairly quickly.
Celestia and la Fluer exchanged knowing looks, and both fought off the urge to laugh.
The colt's master quickly became upset by his proteges behaviour in front of the princess and her guest.
"Are you going to serve these two or continue staring at them?" The unicorn asked, getting the colt’s attention.
The colt hastily reached back and grabbed the tray with his teeth. He realized his mistake as he set the tray down, he tasted something sweet, and looked down to see his teeth marks in one of the treats.
Celestia was quick to act before the colt's master could reprimand his mistake.
The princess levitated the marked scone off the tray and held it in front of the colt, "Well Bow Tie it's good to see that you're being trained well. The tray made it to the table this time, didn't it?" Her tone was reassuring and kind.
The stallion had indirectly received praise from the princess herself, his ego was stroked enough to forgive Bow Tie's mistake.
The scone still dangled in the air, and it took the colt a moment to realize he was being offered food by the sun goddess. Hesitantly he took the treat in his mouth, and felt the magic holding it fade.
It wasn't a trick. Bow Tie thought, in pure shock of the idea.
He chewed thoughtfully and swallowed, while the princess watched patiently.
When he'd finished Celestia asked, "How are they?"
The princess had done well in minimizing the tension that hung in the air; Bow Tie, therefore, took time to consider the question. He worked his tongue around his teeth, getting the last little bits of the crumbly goodness off of them.
He nodded in silent agreement to himself before proclaiming, "Best I've ever had!" The colts mentor cleared his throat audibly prompting Bow Tie to add, "Your highness."
Celestia chuckled softly and said, "That is good to know." Looking to the unicorn stallion with her warm smile she ended with, "Thank you for your prompt service; you are dismissed."
"You are quite welcome your highness." He bowed his head low and backed up six feet before turning; his protege followed suit almost bumping into a chair on the way out.
From the other side of the door the two mares heard, "Oh no! She remembers the last time, she's never going to forget that!"
"Hush your trap, they can still hear you." The unicorn nearly hissed.This was followed by hoofsteps quickly retreating down the hallway.
Celestia and la Fleur shared a brief moment of silence; they then simultaneously burst into a fairly unrefined laughter. The laughing fit didn’t last long. When they were done the two mares began pouring out the spiced tea, both still smiling widely.
Fleur de Lis brought the cup to her lips, and inhaled deeply before taking a sip. A satisfied sigh escaped as soon as the the hot liquid trickled into her belly. The smell of spices and warmth spreading in her chest caused her to completely relax on the couch. It took a while before the near giddy unicorn remembered she was in the company of a princess. She shot back upright and looked to see Celestia chewing on a scone; watching the now embarrassed mare, who appeared to be in heaven, with the same warm and caring smile she gave to all ponies.
In an effort to distract the princess from her behavior Fleur de Lis said, “You spared that colt a good deal of trouble Tia, does that happen often?”
Celestia flashed her guest a knowing smile before responding, “Little accidents like that happen often enough in my presence. I’ve seen that particular colt twice now; the first time was a spectacular screw up on his part, but I completely understand. For one so young, meeting somepony revered by all, could be a little unnerving. I believe that is how it is for all under my employ, the more experienced are just better at hiding it.” The princess finished her scone, and took a sip of her tea when she’d finished.
Fleur de Lis carefully inhaled the scent rising from her cup before taking a sip, doing her best not to lie back down.
“He was very right. Try while they’re warm, you’ll love them.”
Fleur de Lis eyed the plate of baked treats a moment before lifting one to her.
“What if I like them ‘too much’?” She gently patted her stomach to get the point across.
“Please tell me you aren’t worried about gaining weight.” Celestia pleaded.
“Of course I am!” la Fleur bit back, maintaining a friendly tone. “Why shouldn’t I be?”
“Ugh...” Celestia intoned standing up and doing a quick one-eighty to physically present her argument. “You look fantastic, and it would take many pounds of food to change that even slightly. I on the other hoof am waited on by no less than fifteen ponies on any given day. By sundown I’m exhausted and go to sleep, and by sunup I’m sitting on my rump giving audience to everypony with a problem.”
The princess was clearly upset that such a gorgeous mare was talking down about herself.
“I have to admit, Lisa, I’m a little jealous of you. The simple fact that you can walk somewhere at any point during the day, is something you have over me.”
Celestia looked to the surprised looking mare watching her. The alicorn sat down hard on the couch, and settled herself with several sips of tea. She then smiled apologetically.
Fleur de Lis processed the princess’s rant a moment then said, “Okay then, I’ll try it.” la Fleur chuckled lightly before taking a bite of the floating snack.
Blueberries. She thought as the flavor of the tart little fruits burst in her mouth, accompanied by the warm, rich bread that surrounded them.
She chewed slowly, to savor the flavor. She swallowed, following up with a sip of her now slightly cooler tea.
“You were right ‘he was right’, those are easily the best scone I’ve ever had.” Fleur de Lis held herself in check as she took another, appropriately sized bite and chewed again, following again with a sip of tea. She repeated this until the delightful treat vanished down her throat.
La Fleur’s mind feebly protested as her body settled back down onto the couch. She let out a quiet whimper, half in satisfaction and half in disappointment of herself.
“Everything is alright, I hope.” Celestia shifted her head to look into Fleur de Lis’s eyes.
“I believe sleeping off alcohol is detrimental to proper rest.” The drowsy mare replied, weakly gesturing with a hoof in the air to emphasis her declaration.
“Oh,” Celestia intoned, resting her chin on a foreleg, “If you need time to sleep you’re more than welcome to a bed here. Rest would be a good idea before a date , wouldn’t you agree?” She attempted to tease la Fleur as if they were both schoolfillies talking about a crush.
Fleur de Lis scowled in a very unladylike manner. “It isn’t a date.” She corrected, “He’s a nice colt, but I think I’m going to wait before I start dating again. Seems appropriate, wouldn’t you agree?” She ended, mocking the alicorn’s question. Her tone was far meaner than she’d intended.
A hoof shot up to Fleur de Lis’s mouth when she realized what she’d said. Just before she apologized, Celestia spoke, anticipating the ashamed mares sudden guilt.
“Yes, yes it would. I’m sorry that I didn’t think before I spoke. I see the look in your eyes, and you did have a reason to be upset with my remark. I forgive you for any perceived fault you feel, I hope you can forgive me for being so careless.”
“Princess-” Fleur de Lis’s words caught in her throat as the first apology came not from her lips, but the royal creature who she’d almost raised her voice to. “I forgive you, but I don’t know if I forgive myself. I’d thought I was over all of this, but it looks like I was wrong.”
“Maybe you just have a strange way of going about the grieving process?” Celestia shrugged and resumed her kind expression.
“Clöper-Ross’s stages of grief?” Celestia nodded in confirmation, “I don’t actually know the order, so I just have to assume you’re right.”
“They are: Denial, anger, depression sadness and acceptance. True enough though, they don’t always happen in that order; in that case you’re probably perfectly normal. Hard to be out of order when there isn’t one.”
The uncomfortable tension from Fleur de Lis snapping at the princess had dissolved almost completely, allowing the two mares to enjoy the other’s company once again.
Fleur de Lis yawned widely and audibly. “Excuse me.” She pardoned her sleepy outburst, lazily staring up at the ceiling, “I think I will take you up on that offer, and thank you very much.”
“Think nothing of it, come I’ll show you to a bed.”
She worked her legs in the air, she soon found she didn’t mind acting a little foalish in front of the princess. Fleur de Lis had finally accepted that the god being in the room with her was also a friend; she didn’t mind a small amount of unladylike behavior in the company of friends.
The tired mare feigned a pathetic begging look and said, “Carry me, please?”
She’d meant it as a joke, but of course Celestia was of intent on making her guest as comfortable as possible; she therefore missed the part where Fleur de Lis wasn’t serious.
“Princess, er- Tia, you don’t actually have to carry me-” Fleur de Lis was about to explain the joke, but couldn’t before Celestia spoke.
“It is no trouble to me. I have been where you are now, minus having been drunk the previous night, and at one point had my sister carry me to my chambers. The look on her face was very memorable.” Celestia informed her floating companion as they moved through the halls.
“What I meant though was-” Again, Celestia stopped her.
This time her voice was a soothing whisper, and her horn subtly gained a slightly bright glow as she worked an enchanting magic. “Hush now, you worry about falling asleep I’ll do the rest.” The alicorn’s ‘hush’ seemed to echo through the halls, quiet though it was. It replaced every other sound in the palace.
One by one Fleur de Lis’s senses were taken away as the magically empowered desire for sleep engulfed her conscious mind. She was asleep long before her head ever touched a pillow, but the eternal ‘shhhhh’ of the princess’s magic continued. Even though she could not acknowledge that the sound persisted, her mind and body were very aware of it. By the time the sound, ended hours later, the spell had done its job, leaving a slowly awakening and refreshed unicorn in its fading absence.
All at once Fleur de Lis felt her senses return, but it was not a shock to her, it did not do anything to the tranquility of her re-entry into the waking world.
Whatever she lay on, it was soft; unimaginably soft, and warm as well. Afternoon sunlight poured in from the many windows that dominated one wall of the room, as well as the skylights above. There was no harshness or uncomfortable heat accompanying the sunlight. All of the windows were stained glass murals that possessed a glow of their own, made invisible by the light of the sun, that told of a magical enchantment of some kind.
The four-poster bed, Fleur de Lis noted, was large enough to accommodate four or five adult ponies comfortably. She began piecing together an easily interpreted fact based on the decor of the room. The large sun emblazoned on the comforter, as well as a clock shaped like a sun on the wall opposite the bed. The pillow cases were a divinely smooth silk, and the wood used to make the posts as well as most of the furniture in the room were a deep mahogany. The posts themselves were very finely carved spirals each ending in, and this was the part that killed all other theories Fleur de Lis could have formed, carved figures of alicorns.
A room fit for a princess. Fleur de Lis mused to herself, sitting up in the bed.
She already felt her body’s want to sink back into the comfy goodness of the bed, but these feelings were squashed by a mix of slight embarrassment from having slept in the bed belonging to a greater being than any other in the world, and spotting the clock that told her it was late afternoon. Since she still had to figure out where exactly Silver Leaf lived, and wanted to get ready before then, la Fleur forced her body out of bed.
Ignoring the slight pain from sleeping funny, la Fleur found that she felt amazing. It almost felt as if she were walking on clouds, and once the neck pain faded it would be easy to close her eyes and feel like she really was on a cloud.
Fleur de Lis trotted merrily to the large wooden doors, pausing only to manipulate the unfamiliar latch before stepping into the hall. Two unicorn stallions stood at attention watching the door to the princess’s chambers. These were two exceptionally large ponies, la Fleur noticed. If she had to guess, they would only be slightly smaller in a side-by-side comparison with Celestia.
As the door opened, the two looked at each other passively. One motioned towards Fleur de Lis with his head, and the other shrugged.
The shrugging stallion stepped forward and cleared his throat, “Princess Celestia ordered us to inform you that you are welcome to use her chambers for whatever you need. She also said to emphasise that her washroom is included in her offer, in case you need to ‘freshen up’ is how she put it.” Once he’d finished he took the two steps necessary to be back in his original place.
“Oh well, thank you. Please thank her for me, I don’t imagine I’ll get to see her again today.” Fleur de Lis ran a hoof through her mane and noticed how frizzy it was. She quickly retreated back into the royal bedroom, and went to make herself presentable.
By the time Fleur de Lis made her way through the maze-like halls of the palace, and was back on the street, it was getting on towards seven o’clock. Thanks to a rather helpful guard who she’d met halfway through, one who had saved her from getting lost, Fleur de Lis now knew how to get to Silver Leaf’s street.
This dinner was the only thing planned for the day that didn’t have a time constraint, and while she felt a little bad for making the poor colt eat so late, la Fleur felt Silver Leaf would be more than understanding.
At a brisk pace, Fleur de Lis made it to Silver Leaf’s house in only a few minutes. It was a humble dwelling. It was a nice enough neighborhood, but it wasn’t nearly as nice as some in Canterlot. His house was a white, single story home with a modest porch.
A sign attached to both the overhang and the ground read Home of Silver and Autumn Leaf In curvy silver letters.
It suddenly occurred to Fleur de Lis as she re-read the sign a few times, that earth pony painters must have it hard. If an earth pony had a talent for painting, they certainly deserved some respect.
Fleur de Lis quickly pulled herself from her thoughts, not wanting any more of the evening to disappear. She knocked three times and waited.
Glass broke somewhere in the house as the front door was flung open. The look on Silver Leaf’s face told her that he probably would have or had been greeting everyone who came to the door the same way, in case it was her. His expression turned to one of shock when he found that it really was the most beautiful mare he’d ever laid eyes on, and not the mailpony
The pained groan of someone, likely a filly by the sound, followed shortly after the door being opened and the crash of glass faded.
“Hi there.” Silver Leaf said, inspecting his coat for stray paint.
“Is somepony hurt?” Fleur de Lis asked, trying to see beyond the main room to find the source of the moaning.
“Well, my sister was posing on a throne of bottles.” He was looking back at Fleur de Lis, satisfied with his self inspection.
She gave him a bewildered look.
“They were glued together.” He explained, hoping it would alleviate her confusion.
“What happened though?” Fleur de Lis pushed.
“She probably moved too much even though I told her not to. Probably knocked the whole thing over.” He shrugged and moved to the side, “Would you like to come in?”
Fleur de Lis shot him a worried look but accepted his invitation nonetheless.
Inside she noticed that everything, aside from the furniture and tables, was in shades of silver-grey. Paintings of all sorts took up the space where a proper wall should be. Each painting Fleur de Lis could see depicted a unique scene or setting.
While Silver Leaf went to check on his sister, Fleur de Lis found herself captivated by one particular painting of a pegasus mare who stood far away from the frame. In addition to the precise brush strokes used to make it, the mare herself seemed to be alive with a fierce energy. Before long Fleur de Lis found herself locked in a staring contest with the mare composed of shades of grey. It was when she looked into the painted mare’s eyes that she found the power that almost put her at the mercy of the unthinking piece of art. The two distant orbs were actually a vibrant orange. Silver Leaf had evidently snuck in the color to bring focus to a particular point, and had pulled it off wonderfully based on la Fleur’s reaction. The fire that burned in the silver pegasus’s eyes is what brought a sense of passion to the whole piece.
Fleur de Lis smiled, finally turning away from the painting; she went in the direction Silver Leaf had. As she passed through the room, she noticed that in the most random places were thin, subtle streaks of color. The effect on the entire atmosphere was a world comprised of every shade of grey that was still welcoming and entertaining.
Silver Leaf suddenly interrupted the exploring mare, leaping in front of her just before the kitchen.
The grey colt stood on his hind legs doing his best to block her view into the room beyond.
“You don’t want to go in there.” He declared, looking over his shoulder. “There’s paint, broken glass and beer everywhere.
The panicking colt was mentally beating himself for allowing the high society mare to see his home in this condition; he needed a plan to get her out as quickly and politely as possible.
Fleur de Lis easily saw the distress written over every inch of the colt’s body, and realized this situation was slowly ruining his night.
“I just wanted to know if you’re sister was alright. We can get going if you’d like.” She offered, taking several steps back from the doorway.
“It umm- Yeah she’s okay. Drunk, almost unconscious, but okay. She’s had way worse, but I wanted to get her to a bed before we left.”
Another moan came from behind Silver Leaf. With a sigh he dropped down onto all four hooves, and turned back into the kitchen; he nearly forgot that the mare in the hall shouldn’t rightly be anywhere near such a mess.
Nearly.
“It is a bad mess, really. You shouldn’t have to see it.” Silver Leaf said over his shoulder, disappearing into the kitchen.
“It isn’t so bad; when you said you were a painter I half expected there to be paint everywhere and- I guess there is, isn’t there?” She paused, just before stepping into the kitchen.
It was as Silver Leaf had said. Several hundred bottles were scattered around the room, the remnants of some bottle made structure sat in the middle. A slowly spreading puddle of alcohol mixed with silver paint was carrying small bits of shattered bottles across the floor. In the middle of it all was a fairly large earth pony filly. Her coat was a warm, orangish-red, and her mane was white with gold streaks but was cut fairly short.
She appeared to be having difficulty getting her entire body to touch the floor, and she rolled around until her withers finally made contact with it The dampness didn’t seem to phase her as she worked every muscle along her back, trying feverishly for repeat success. As the drunk pony continued shifting around on the floor, Fleur de Lis noticed how well toned the red filly’s muscles were; that in addition to a slight pudge, thanks to years of drinking, fully explained her impressive size.
After a few moments of focusing on the filly’s wiggling flank, Fleur de Lis determined her cutie mark to be a golden springboard.
An athlete of some sort. she thought to herself while Silver waded through the shallow glass sea to his sister’s side.
“Hey, Autumn?” He spoke softly and nudged her with a gentle hoof.
Autumn Leaf froze instantly when she heard her brother’s voice.
“Hmm?” She intoned, her eyes almost completely shut.
“Remember when I told you I was going to have dinner with somepony?” He reminded her, knowing full well she’d forgotten.
“Maybe.” She replied flatly, opening a single eye to look at him.
“Well, that somepony is here, so I’m going to be leaving shortly. I was wondering if you wanted help finding your bed before I left.”
Her eyes opened all the way to look at him skeptically. Suddenly a huge grin spread across her muzzle; the larger sibling pulling her brother down with a foreleg around his neck and roughly messing his mane.
After finishing her intensive noogie, she released her brother and said, with her voice heavy with lovey-dovey teasing, “Look at my wittle brother going out with his lil’ filly friend. This time it’s even not one of mom’s half baked blind dates! Where is she, I wanna meet her.” Autumn Leaf cast her gaze around the room, looking everywhere except the only entrance to the kitchen; the grin she wore faded when her eyes fell upon Fleur de Lis, who was shaking off a slight blush from embarrassment for the recently assailed colt’s sake.
Autumn Leaf looked from her brother to the beautiful, slender mare who was supposedly his date, several times before settling angrily on her brother.
“Autumn, this is miss Fleur de-” Silver Leaf tried to introduce his guest.
“You!” His sister interrupted, pointing an accusatory hoof at her brother.
“Me? What did I do?” Silver Leaf asked slowly, keeping in mind that his sister was much stronger than himself.
“You keep me holed up in here making me feel guilty for not being able to bring in any money so I can’t pay rent. And-” Her cheeks puffed up as words got caught in her mouth. It took some time while her brain caught up with her angry thoughts that had skipped by any sort of moderation.
“Okay, Autumn, you’re a little drunk,” He reminded her carefully, resisting the urge to move out of her considerable reach. “so if you could try to avoid saying something you or I will regret, that would-” He was cut off by his sister when the rest of the charges against him made it to her tongue.
“How much are you paying her!?” She demanded, flailing a hoof in Fleur de Lis’s direction.
“All well, there it is.” Silver Leaf turned to look at Fleur de Lis, he didn’t bother saying he was sorry, instead wearing the shame from bringing Fleur de Lis into his home.
“She isn’t- That’s not what this is.” Silver Leaf denied. As weakly as he’d said it, it was still the truth.
The honesty in his voice penetrated his sister’s drunken haze long enough to bring her some much needed insight. Though she believed him, the situation confused her to no end. Her thoughts were slowly trudging through the alcohol her brain was drowning in.
Fleur de Lis, for her part, simply stood and absorbed the accusation of being a prostitute without flinching or attempting to form an insult in return.
“But she’s beautiful,” Autumn Leaf insisted, “What other kind of date happens-” She tried to read the clock, but quickly gave up settling on, “However late this is. It’s later than four, that’s when I started drinking today.”
“You believe she’s not a-” He choked on the word, not wanting it to be in a sentence associated with the beautiful mare behind him. “That... Right?” His sister nodded sullenly. “Do you want help getting to bed?” He hung his head and breathed a sigh of relief glad to finally be making progress.
After several attempts to stand on her own she nodded again. Silver Leaf dragged a chair in front of his sister, noisily disturbing many bottles along the way; he motioned towards it with his head while he walked to her side.
Fleur de Lis watched with quiet curiosity, wanting to know how a chair fit in to getting the drunk filly to a bed.
Autumn Leaf lifted herself up with help from the chaty, wanting to know how a chair fit in to her getting to a bed.
Autumn Leaf lifted herself up with help from the chair. It was clear she wouldn’t stay that way if she didn’t get support. Her brother was quick to act, positioning himself so as to giver her a place to fall.
Autumn Leaf cried out in alarm when what little balance she retained was lost causing her to fall forward. He caught her falling weight with a loud grunt. With one of his larger sibiling’s legs slung over his back and three of her hooves on the floor made the drunk filly a very awkward load. The determined expression Silver Leaf wore said that he’d done this before, and all that was needed was patience and a little willpower.
When he saw the white mare watching the awkward display with passive eyes he also blushed, realizing he had an audience.
Fleur de Lis smiled and said, “Wait please, let me help.” Her horn began to glow; as the light from her horn brightened the room, the somewhat proud mare felt a stab of envy remembering how impossible it was to tell when Princess Celestia ever used her magic. She shook off these feelings and focused on the present.
As Autumn Leaf was wrapped in la Fleur’s magic aura and lifted, she flailed weakly in protest but gave up when she caught on to its intent.
For the drunken filly’s comfort Fleur de Lis turned her over and carefully cradled her with the magic. She also tucked her tail between her legs in an effort to cover her private area; not that Autumn Leaf was with it enough to appreciate the gesture, or that anyone present was interested in seeing it anyways.
Silver Leaf quietly lead them through the house; he was contemplating how many more thank yous and apologies he now owed the caring and patient mare. There was a heavy knot in the pit of his stomach from the thought of how horrible an impression this night was going to leave.
Silver Leaf pushed the door to his sisters room, and stood aside to let her floating form pass by.
Fleur de Lis laid the filly down bottom first, lifting a towel from the floor and drying her mane before laying her head on a pillow.
Silver Leaf quickly trotted into the room, and pulled the covers up to his sister’s searching hooves. She smiled gratefully, and pulled the blanket up to her neck.
Before leaving he gently kissed her forehead and whispered, “Is there anything you want me to get you to eat?”
“I’m full.” She whined sleepily.
“You know you’ll be hungry in an hour, so I might as well get you something while I’m out. Unless you want cereal.”
“Mmm..” Autumn Leaf intoned thoughtfully, before grinning. “How about a marshmallow casserole and a large alfalfa bomb shake from that one cafe?”
“First of all, that place is probably closed. Second, I’m not buying you booze; you’ve had enough for one day.”
“Okay,, what if you get back after midnight?” Her grin widened further.
“Then I’ll be quiet coming in. I also sort of doubt that will happen anyways, it’s just dinner.”
“But then it would be tomorrow and I could start drinking again, right?” As much as Silver Leaf hated his sister’s drinking problem, the short moments of lucidity where she managed to form coherent thoughts made him smile.
Silver Leaf suddenly realized that the mare who was treating him to dinner had likely reached the limits of her gratitude after what she’d been subjected to under his roof. If she simply left, he wouldn’t blame her.
“Sure it isn’t.” Autumn Leaf yawned sleepily, giving her brother a nose full of her alcohol tainted breath. He recoiled in disgust reflexively; he’d grown used to it, but that didn’t mean he had to pretend he didn’t mind.
“Just remember not to expect a kiss on a first date.” She reached up and gave her brother a heavy pat on the top of his head. It was meant to be reassuring, but it hurt more than anything else. Silver Leaf said nothing about it.
After Autumn Leaf’s last statement, Fleur de Lis felt the need to move away from the doorway. She made her way back to the front room. She wanted to allow them some privacy as well as escape the drunk filly’s insistence of the romantic implications of going to dinner with the good-hearted colt. To outside observers it could very well seem like a date. As long as she and Silver Leaf understood that it wasn’t, Fleur de Lis would be fine.
Silver Leaf heard her quick hoofalls away, and felt his fears validated. He said a final goodnight to his sister, and headed to the living room to make sure the door got shut after Fleur de Lis left.
To the disheartened colts immense surprise, Fleur de Lis was waiting patiently on a chair. They both perked up when the other came into view.
“You’re still here?” Silver Leaf asked nervously. He was now thinking of all the harsh comments that were soon to come.
“You do recall I’m taking you to dinner, yes?” She raised an eyebrow while standing to walk to the door.
“You still want to do that?” His eyes were unsure, like a confused, curious puppy. Silver Leaf, after having been reassured by the too-good-for-him mare, still couldn’t wrap his head around her willingness to be anywhere near him.
Fleur de Lis sighed and opened the door.
“Just step out onto the street, and maybe when I join you, you will finally see that I’m serious.”
Silver Leaf quickly retrieved his saddlebag, and followed the silent command of her pointing hoof.
Out on the street, he waited quietly until the tall mare came up next to him.
“Where would you like to go?” Fleur de Lis’s soft voice told that she had many questions to ask. She knew better than to unload them immediately after the worry he’d been put through.
“Where did you want to go?” Silver Leaf replied, trying to be polite.
“I arrived yesterday, and this is my third visit to Canterlot, ever.” She said with a small laugh. “I don’t know where the good places are, I hoped you did.”
“I guess that is something I do know, if only because I know I can’t afford to eat at those places.” He said offhandedly, shrugging as they began down the street.
“Great then, show me the way!” She suddenly dropped her normally reserved attitude in an effort to alleviate the tension still evident in the colt next to her.
“Are you sure? I really wouldn’t mind somewhere less expensive.”
Fleur de Lis stopped and fixed him with a flat look.
“Oh yeah, you’re wealthy aren’t you.”
“Something like that.” She said resuming her slow walk.
They went along quietly for a while before Silver Leaf started looking around nervously.
“I wasn’t even paying attention, but this isn’t the best place to be at night.” His voice was just above a whisper.
Fleur de Lis looked up and down the empty streets casually. She decided this neighborhood wasn’t much different from most. It was, in fact, slightly more upscale than the area Silver Leaf lived in.
“I think we’ll be okay if we just hurry through. Nopony is even here.”
“It’s too late to try going around I suppose.” The still worried colt admitted. “We’ll probably be ‘closing down’ whatever place we eat at.” He finished, then followed her advice and picked up his pace.
Unbeknownst to the two, they had been spotted. A short tremor rocked Silver Leaf’s body as the observers began to talk about him and the mare he walked next to.. At the very least, there was no immediate danger.
His worry returned for a reason he couldn’t explain. He actually spotted something pony shaped in an alleyway. Unfortunately for his conscious mind, it didn’t register while he was preoccupied with finding a restaurant suitable to the refined unicorn’s standards.
It was another twenty minutes while Silver Leaf showed Fleur de Lis the only eatery left on his mental checklist of places he could or should take her.
Taste the World the sign almost demanded in large gold letters.
This restaurant, as Silver Leaf informed the quizzical mare, not only served the fruits, grains and vegetables that were cornerstones known to a pony’s diet, but strange and exoctic delacacies from Zebra lands and beyond.
A prime example was an egg hardboiled in special herbs and elixirs native to zebra lands. It had becoming wildly popular since its introduction. He’d gone on at her request continued while they made their way to the establishment.
A pony had to work very hard to find out where the bright shelled egg had come from.
The cook hired to prepare dishes known to zebras alone, who was himself a zebra, simply said, “Phoenix eggs they are not, now would you like one fresh from the pot?” On any other topic he was an excellent conversationalist, but when it came to his recipes, he said next to nothing. The silver colt went on and on without realizing. Fleur de Lis was delighted that he’dd managed to talk to her without imput for so long. She only hoped this attitude would last the though the night.
As Silver Leaf and Fleur de Lis approached the large, polished oak doors, flanked on either side by the large pillars that held the restaurant’s name aloft, Silver Leaf moved to open the door for the already too kind mare. Just before reaching them, they swung open with the aid of la Fleur’s magic.
In his mind he’d once again failed her as well as himself. He looked down at the ground as she caught up with him.
Predicting when he was about to fall into this particular mood was quickly becoming second nature to the perceptive mare. She rolled her eyes; coming up behind him, she quickly swatted his cutie mark with masterful precision and minimal force.
Silver Leaf yelped mostly in surprise as the light sting shot through his flank. He spun around looking for the source the attack. The only things behind him were a sweetly smiling unicorn, and her outstretched hoof. She made no attempt to deny what she’d done, Silver Leaf was therefore thoroughly surprised.
Before he could ask she answered, “ I appreciate all the effort you’re putting forth to make this night pleasant for me.” She took on a stern expression. “This night is for you to enjoy. Jumping through hoops because you think you may offend me by breathing, doesn’t seem pleasant to me; as a matter of fact it’s sort of upsetting me. Does it really do anything good for you?”
Her tone was just harsh enough to drive the point home once and for all, but she managed to maintain her kind, understanding demeanor.
“Alright, so I don’t need to help you with your chair?” He laughed awkwardly.
“I think you’re getting it.” She nodded, and started walking through the door while a wave of relief washed over the frazzled colt’s face.
Just inside the door, Fleur de Lis halted. A strange, warm and heavily seasoned scent assailed her senses. A part of her wanted to know what was producing the smell, another simply demanded to know how long it was before whatever it was could be in her mouth, yet a third part remembered she was, in general, very hungry. This third part managed to give the orange stallion waiter an answer.
“Table for two. No I don’t have a reservation.” She levitated out twenty bits for walking in without a reserved table.
If she had looked around the dining area, she would have had ample reason to protest the expense; her eyes were fixed on the large selection of foods to find the source of the tantalizing smell.
“They’re going to seat us.” Silver Leaf said, coming up next to the near mezzmerized mare. She jumped a little when he’d suddenly come from nowhere. She had been very focused on a single task, allowing him to “sneak up” on her.
Fleur de Lis swallowed several times in order to prevent any saliva from escaping her mouth while she spoke.
“That sounds wonderful.” She said, taking one last look for the source of the smell, before turning to catch up with Silver Leaf.
They followed the waiter as he led them to a booth where they were very far away from any potential noise. The central dining area had a few other late night diners, whose conversations barely broke a whisper. The kitchen was exceptionally quiet. In this area the silence was a blanket draped comfortably over those within it.
It took until she no longer had line of sight to the food that she noticed the decor of the restaurant. Strange cultural items adorned all the walls in sight. The booth and chair cushions were made of a smooth, red velvet, and were constructed of the polished oak that this establishment seemed especially fond of.
One piece in particular caught Fleur de Lis’s wandering eyes while they ordered drinks. Both got water. The piece was actually several pieces that made up some sort of ceremonial battle armor. It was composed of: a metal helmet with a rounded top, a chainmail chestpiece under a harness with several knives. It wasn’t until she spotted the gloves near the waistline that she placed what culture it belonged to.
Silver Leaf had been apologizing about worrying so much earlier today.
She finally came back to the present and asked, “Do they serve griffon food here?”
The slightly confused colt took it as ‘We aren’t going to worry about that anymore.’ So he let it go.
“Yeah they do, why?” He asked, getting comfortable in the booth.
“What do griffons eat?” She asked trying in vain to think of anything that could be a part of a griffon’s diet.
The answer she got embarrassed her slightly. It should have been obvious.
“Meat mostly.” The grey colt shrugged.
“Are there enough griffons in Canterlot to justify serving meat here? I can’t imagine they sell enough to make it worth importing.”
“Ponies that try it, say that it isn’t that bad.”
Fleur de Lis winced at the revelation.
“Ponies do not eat meat.” She stated rather forcefully.
“Apparently they can, and do.” He said apologetically.
“Have you tried it?” She asked, honestly curious.
“Once yeah. My parents came to visit, and took Autumn Leaf and I here. After a bottle and a half of wine, my sister wouldn’t stop hitting me under the table until I tried some. So I did, before she broke something.”
“How was it?” Fleur de Lis leaned forward excitedly.
“I don’t know how to describe it exactly, but it really did taste twice as good as it smelled. It smelled really good too. I just don’t know why it tastes so good.”
“What does it smell like?” She pushed on, as the waiter came back with their water.
He sniffed at the air, “Like that.” He said waving a hoof in the air.
Fleur de Lis mimicked his action and was immediately reminded of the cooking food that had been driving her mad as soon as she’d entered.
“That smell, is meat?” She said skeptically.
“Yeah, the way it’s cooked it kind of dominates other smells. I think, unless you know to order something specific, the chef will give you a- Stalk?” He rubbed his chin in thought. “No, it’s a steak! That’s what he called it, steak.”
“Steak, huh?”
“Would you like Kris to prepare you a fresh steak this evening?” The waiter had returned intending to inform them that this was a buffet. It had apparently slipped past their notice, as enraptured they were by their conversation.
“I’d like that a lot.” Silver Leaf spoke up. “If she wants to try it she can have some of mine.”
“Very good then. Please feel free to help yourselves whenever you’re ready.” With that the waiter bowed lightly.
“Oh, right.” Silver Leaf got up, “It’s a buffet; I’d forgotten about that.”
Fleur de Lis shrugged and followed him to the food bar.
As adventurous as she considered herself, Fleur de Lis was having a difficult time choosing things other than normal pony food. It didn’t help that the diet of zebras and ponies overlapped in many areas. Or that diamond dogs ate almost everything that ponies didn’t, including certain types of rocks. Looking at all the different kinds of food, the practical mare couldn’t find any justification for carrying these foods in Equestria’s Capital. She kept quiet about it, and put several small portions of foods she didn’t think would make her gag, on her plate.
That’s when she came to the zebra chef’s station and spotted a mushroom sauce intended to top rice.
Before she could put any on her plate the zebra mare gave her a warning, “The owner of this place wishes to inform you, these mushrooms may, for a night, change your world view.” Her accent was wonderfully exotic, which did little to help Fleur de Lis in interpreting the warning.
“Umm, I don’t think I understand.” She blushed slightly, feeling the non physical impact of a language barrier.
“Oh jeeze, she means you might have minor hallucinations if you eat the mushrooms.” Squawked a male griffon standing by a grill several stations down. “You and I both know you’ve lived here long enough to stop doing that, so stop.”
A black stallion poked his head out of a back room and cleared his throat loudly to get the griffon’s attention. When the griffon, looked the stallion slowly shook his head, while wearing a stern expression.
The griffon relaxed his shoulders and let out a deep breath. Returning to the large cut of meat sizzling on the grill.
“Speaking the pony dialect I could do, but I love the reaction that it gets from you.”
She chuckled lightly and turned back to the waiting unicorn.
“There you have it young pretty mare, you may try the sauce, if you dare.” Her tone was jokingly grave, or that’s what Fleur de Lis got from the smile she wore.
“How does it taste?” Fleur de Lis asked still unsure.
“In special sauce these mushrooms stew, they taste quite sweet to all but a few.”
“Okay, thank you for the warning.” She was still unsure, but was now more at ease as she walked away with a helping of rice and mushroom sauce.
The zebra did say “may” have side effects; they looked, smelled, and sounded well worth the minor risk. This was how Fleur de Lis reasoned away any concerns she still had. She had fairly poor risk-assessment skills on an empty stomach, something she was loath to admit.
Silver Leaf had beaten the fairly selective mare back to the table, and was waiting nervously for her return. He had some unreasonable hang-up about being here first; he took some comfort in recognizing it as unreasonable, and managed to push it out of his head.
“I can’t believe that you would just go get all the good foods, and leave me standing there with no idea of where to start. That doesn’t sound fair to me at all.” Fleur de Lis asked crossly, just around the corner to their booth
SIlver Leaf felt both a sinking feeling and a laugh coming on; once she came into view the latter feeling won out. She wore a wide grin that was quickly mirrored by the waiting colt.
“You didn’t ask.” He retorted with a haughty tone.
“Sounds like you’re finally starting to enjoy the evening.” She said, settling down and looking over her plate of mostly unrecognizable foods.
“Yeah.” Silver Leaf smiled once she was seated, and began eating.
They ate in silence, while all the questions Fleur de Lis had held back began to bubble to the surface of her thoughts.
Fleur de Lis politely cleared her throat before speaking, “Can I ask you about your sister? Though if you don’t want to talk about it, I understand.”
“I’m not very used to talking about it; due to the fact that nopony else has really met my sister. To that end even fewer know I have a sister at all.”
“Like I said there’s no obligation to talk about something personal like that.”
“Well since you had to go through that whole mess where she accused you of being a- You know...” Silver Leaf shifted uncomfortably.
“Street walking prostitute?” She finished for him.
Silver Leaf nearly squirmed all the way off the bench.
“Yeah that.” He tried to avoid looking at her while the topic still hung in the space between them.
Fleur de Lis clopped her hoof on the table, causing both the water glasses and a startled colt to jump.
“You were saying...?” She asked, grinning cheekily.
“My sister, right?”
She nodded, and put a fork full of the rice and mushrooms in her mouth, eagerly awaiting an answer to her question.
“Autumn Leaf lives with me because she couldn’t wait to move out of our parents’ house years ago. After her career fell to pieces, she was too proud and stubborn to go back and live with mom and dad; with no place else to go, I let her move in with me.”
“Yet another instance of you being a good pony, why all of the drinking though? What was her career?” Fleur de Lis noticed her tone becoming increasingly insistent.
She took a breath, cleared her throat again and said, “Excuse me, continue if you wish.”
“Nothing to excuse.” He shrugged his shoulders and continued, “She was a gymnast. When we were growing up, ponies at home always said the way she climbed on everything was unnatural for an earth pony. Sometimes it seemed she was more afraid of the ground than she was heights. Once she got a trampoline for her birthday, that was basically it. She was all over town with it; it was small enough that she could carry it with her."
Fleur de Lis confirmed that she "saw" with a slight nod. She also saw the bittersweet smile slowly forming on his face from the trip down memory lane.
"That trampoline was the thing that helped her get a cutie mark; why it wasn't a trampoline I'll never know."
Silver Leaf shrugged and forked a mouthful of fried brussel sprouts into his maw. He savored the flavor and crunchiness as long as it lasted; then he noticed the slightly anxious looking mare staring at him.
The hungry colt swallowed with confused look, “Did you have another question?”
“You didn’t answer my last two.” Fleur de Lis said pointedly, taking a few sips of water.
“Oh, right.” He thought for a moment, and somewhat reluctantly put his fork down; starting carefully he said, “When Autumn joined the Flightless Fliers, a once famous acrobatic-slash-ballet group, her name became known pretty quickly. They all had a special talent that got them into the Fliers, but she excelled at everything the show was about. Made good money too, for a while; she seemed so happy, and I’d like to think she was in the beginning. I’d like to think that, but she wasn’t.”
Silver Leaf let loose a long drawn out sigh and continued, “Her co-stars, for lack of a better word, were getting jealous of her, and convinced the manager to make all pay equal regardless of popularity or skill. My sister with all her pride and determination, took the poorly concealed, spiteful attack in stride. This was when the drinking started. After a couple months, she was ‘famous enough’ to be invited to parties; I knew for a fact that Autumn Leaf, MY sister, never partied. It didn’t take long for her to discover how a few drinks made being in a large crowd less and less awkward. It bled into her private life, and then into her work. Eventually, she’d shown up late and drunk to rehearsals one too many times; so the rest of the crew pushed the manager to cut ‘that menace’ from the show.” Silver Leaf scowled and piled more food into his mouth, followed by a large drink of water.
“So he did then?” Fleur de Lis asked sadly.
“Not right away, no.” SIlver Leaf cleared his mouth and throat. “He tried to talk to Autumn and get her help. She refused to admit her problem, like so many do, so he had to cut her; his biggest star was gone, and the entirety for the acrobatic community felt it. The Flightless Fliers felt it the worst. All the bad publicity from cutting her was losing them ticket sales like nopony’s business. My sister drank and partied away half of her savings during the month of the group’s fallout; by the time they came to ask her back, she was too far gone to the bottle to care. From there, she drained most of her savings down her throat, and felt the burn pretty badly afterwards. I took her in after that.” He concluded with another mouthful of food, staring at his plate in deep contemplation.
“It really always happens to the best of ponies.” Fleur de Lis shook her head slowly. “You truly are one of the best.”
“Why does being good hurt then?” Silver Leaf looked to her for an answer she didn’t have.
“I wish I could tell you.”
They shared a moment of silence, during which Fleur de Lis realized the need for a sad-thought distracting subject.
“Come to think of it, I do believe I saw the Flightless Fliers when they were in Fillydelphia. It was a fantastic show as I remember.”
“One of their last.” Silver Leaf added gloomily.
When he said that, the well meaning mare realized she’d failed to properly change the subject.
“Unfortunate.” She said, grimacing at his gloomy tone, but planning to attempt another subject change in a while; she had another question first. “Why don’t you let her find work now; she complained about that right?”
Fleur de Lis guiltily marked another question off her mental checklist.
“She was upset when she thought you were a- Umm... Prostitute.” Silver Leaf received a slight nod telling him all was still well. “She was upset about it because I won’t let her sell her body for bits. The drinking keeps her out of other lines of work, so there isn’t much for her to do. The helpless feeling eats at her a lot.”
Fleur de Lis was starting to feel some of the pent up frustration she assumed Silver Leaf carried with him every day. The situation he was in was enough to keep a hundred ponies busy.
“Your steak sir.” The waiter stallion approached the table after detecting a lull in the very private conversation. Working here for many years he’d heard many, which helped him to keep his usual nonchalant disposition while he served the pair.
The strong scent of spices suddenly drove the dreary thoughts away; replacing them with a strong desire to drool, a desire Fleur de Lis had to battle with. She caught her tongue hanging over her lower lip without permission and silently chastised it, drawing the wet muscle back in before Silver Leaf or the waiter noticed.
“Will that be all then?”
Silver Leaf was having an equally hard time keeping his tongue in place, but managed to respond. “No thank you; this is just right.”
The waiter got away with rolling his eyes since the two customers were fixated on the steak. He shook his head walking away from the fascinated couple; why some ponies fell in love with meat he would never understand.
Fleur de Lis forked more rice and mushrooms into her mouth, and finally registered the flavor. Being so enraptured by the grey colt’s tale, she’d missed their bitter taste that quickly transitioned to a sour bite, before mellowing out.
She made a series of rather unbecoming faces, in time with each of the sensations assaulting her taste buds. First her eyes puckered while her eyes shut tight. She then threw her head back, while all but a small part of her wanted to spit the food back onto the plate.
Silver Leaf couldn’t stifle a laugh, at the range of faces she displayed, in time. Fleur de Lis shot him a dirty look but found herself unable to resist the infectious laughter when what he’d likely witnessed sunk in.
“The zebra said they were supposed to taste sweet.”
“Oh Celestia no. Did you get the mushroom sauce that should have an actual warning label?” Silver Leaf sat up straight.
Uh-oh
“Yeah, why?” She looked at the remaining mushrooms suspiciously.
He laughed into his hoof before providing his answer, “When my parents took Autumn and I here, mom tried those.” He got his giggling under control and paused for dramatic effect, “It was by far the funniest thing I had ever seen. It was like she’d been drinking for an hour straight, except her breath wasn’t horrid and she could control the volume of her voice.”
“Oh my.” Fleur de Lis subconsciously moved the plate away.
“Yep, I learned much more about my parents’ love life than I ever wanted to.”
“I See.” Fleur de Lis saw that she’d eaten almost all of the mushrooms and rice.
“I bring it up because it didn’t taste sweet to her either.”
The embarrassed mare facehoofed. “I made a mistake.”
“Maybe if you drink a lot of water it won’t be as bad.” Silver Leaf offered.
Without hesitation or consideration as to how toxins might work, Fleur de Lis downed her glass of water.
His most recent task of helping someone complete, Silver Leaf cut into his steak and hummed as the flavor melted his taste buds. It took some time, as he had discovered previously, ponies lacked the “tools” to eat meat effectively. Fleur de Lis’s curiosity was piqued upon hearing the colt come close to purring.
“May I?” She asked, her mushroom dilemma having been “dealt” with.
Silver Leaf nodded and continued to chew. It didn’t matter how long it took, each movement of his jaw brought out more flavor; he couldn’t think of a reason for ponies not to eat meat.
Meanwhile Fleur de Lis was watching the small bite of meat hanging in front of her. She inhaled its heavily spiced aroma one more time before closing her eyes and putting the morsel between her teeth.
Her eyes shot open once the seasoned, juicy bit of food toucher her tongue.
“It’s amazing.” Fleur de Lis said, admitting defeat in a battle that hadn’t taken place.
==========
The rest of dinner passed by happily after Fleur de Lis’s first taste of steak. She’d started asking him increasingly personal question as the non-fatal toxins from the mushrooms began to work their magic. Silver Leaf answered them all, the whole time unsure if he was allowed to do the same.
They stood just outside the restaurant by the time he worked up the nerve to ask his questions. He proceeded very carefully, “Can I ask you some questions?”
“Didn’t need my permission for that one did you? Keep on going.”
“Cool. He paused, while choosing where to begin. “What does a wealthy, beautiful mare like you do for work?”
“I’m a prostitute.” Her great willpower slightly degraded by mushrooms, Fleur de Lis couldn’t keep a straight face, especially when she saw the look of complete shock on the grey colt’s face.
“Really though, I ensure the physical well-being of whomever hires me. It’s my job to see to it that no harm comes to them..” Naturally she wouldn’t be so forthcoming with such information, but the mushrooms. The dizzy giddiness along with the night’s purpose, which was polite enjoyment, loosened her lips considerably.
“So you a: stunningly beautiful, wealthy, high-society mare, with the mind to be polite to everyone else; chose to be a bodyguard, instead of living somewhere nice and being rich the rest of your life?” Silver Leaf took a deep breath to recover from the long winded question.
“Yes, and thank you for the compliments. I’ve been told how beautiful I am before, but I feel old sometimes. It’s nice to know the opinion of a younger pony.” She yawned into her hoof and stumbled a bit in the process.
“Oh come on how old-” Silver Leaf’s eyes went wide and he stopped moving.
No no no absolutely not. Don’t finish that question, think of something else for Celestia’s sake! He was pressuring himself to come up with a way to finish that question without a mare’s wrath falling upon his head.
“How old do you think the clocktower is?” The pitch of of his voice ascended towards the end of his question.
“Dunno.” She grinned knowingly. “Trust me, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
Fleur de Lis yawned again, this time followed by a small squeak.
“Aww...” Silver Leaf intoned, he’d just heard a sound cute enough to melt the heart of the most bitter creature ever to exist.
“Oh, wow.” Were the next words out of his mouth. Their conversation had carried them farther from his home, or her’s; anothing thing that he’d have to straighten out before long.
“Why wow?” She gave him a sideways glance.
“We’re way off course, so to speak, it’s late and I forgot my sister’s food.”
“Oh.” She prioritized the issues in her head. “Where are we headed?” The top priority according to her slightly drugged brain.
“Would you like me to walk you home?”
“Oh no, I couldn’t have you walk to the other end of the city and back just for me.” She put a hoof near his withers and gently rocked him back and forth, “So very thoughtful of you to ask though.”
“I wouldn’t mind walking back to your home before we say goodnight.” She amended.
“Great.” Silver Leaf had a few more questions to ask.
Once they were on the right path he asked the follow up to his previous question, “Did you husband know about your line of work?”
“Well of course, he hired me for protection initially. I wouldn’t have met him otherwise.” She said it as if it were a frontpage story in yesterday’s paper.
“Wait really?” She halted mid stride. “Are you allowed to do that?”
“No,” She said angrily, “but I did anyways so- Oh, you aren’t Sandtrap sorry for yelling like that. I suppose after what I put you through last night, you deserve an explanation.”
“Not if you’re going to start crying again you don’t.” Silver Leaf took an almost authoritative tone.
“I won’t, I promise.”
“Pink Pie Swear?” Silver Leaf asked automatically, somewhere in his mind was a pink, poofy maned filly poking herself in the eye.
“I- Uhh... What?”
“I honestly don’t know. Just go ahead.” He shook the confusion from his mind.
“So umm...” Fleur de Lis forgot where they’d left off. Silver Leaf quickly picked up on her troubles.
“Your husband hired you as a bodyguard...”
“Oh yes,” She nodded, “He had a temper and managed to turn some business rivals into personal enemies. He contacted us after a severe beating on the street in front of his house, and I was one of a few not on assignment. It was good pay, and I’d have a nice place to stay. Even at that time I wasn’t exactly living paycheck to paycheck, it was still an appealing contract. It took weeks before I was sure I could even work with him once I started. Staples had some reckless behaviors that made protecting him a real hassle, but when I finally managed to set some ground rules I could tolerate his other activities. Once that tolerance was established, we got along , started talking like two actual ponies, instead of to partners bound by a contract.”
The resumed walking while Fleur de Lis continued.
“I didn’t know I was falling for him until about eight months on the job. He proved he felt the same way when he proposed to me. He was really a changed stallion; he liked his new self and he went to make up with his enemies. Our contract would have ended there, but he wanted me around longer. I wasn’t ready to go.”
“So you said yes, then what?”
"Then," She said through momentarily gritted teeth, "After six wonderful years of marriage, my boss decided to enforce certain policies. If I didn't end the marriage, there would be 'problems.' Staple's temper resurfaced when I told him it had to end. He wouldn't listen to the why of the issue; we had a fight, a divorce then finally he ended our contract and sent me away."
"But he died? After you'd left him, why did you take it so hard?"
Fleur de Lis turned to glare at the grey colt, her eyes leaking barely contained rage as well as tears.
"I still loved him! Why can't anyone understand that?!" Her voice was far too loud for the sleeping neighborhood.
"Miss Fleur de Lis I'm so sorry I didn't mean-" She interrupted him unable to register that he was attempting to apologize.
"We should have been together for the rest of our lives, I never wanted to leave him in the first place." Her voice died away when she saw Silver Leaf cowering beneath her furious verbal onslaught.
"I'm sorry." He said again, sitting up and forcing himself to look into the puffy white eyes.
"What do you have to apologize for?" Her voice was slightly hoarse from shouting.
"Because I pushed you on a topic I had no experience with. I love my sister and I love to see her happy, but I've never loved like you have; so who am I to question why you were hurt by his death? I guess I just hope all the good you shared with him outweighs the way it ended. I couldn't know so it was wrong of me to talk like I did.”
Saying he messed up in any other situation was simple for Silver Leaf. Customer right, Silver Leaf wrong. The only mare he could ever safely disagree with was his sister; with this mare he had to always justify his apologiies. To him it seemed a little backwards.
“You answered all of my questions, so I tried to do the same for you; that made us even. I snapped at you for no reason, I owe you an apology at the very least.” Fleur de Lis spoke as if informing a child on a fact of life.
“I don’t want you to owe me.” He complained. “I can’t have you owing me anything; I don’t want someone like you owing me, it just isn’t right.”
“We’ve talked about this, you are just as good as any other pony, if not better. Why are we-” Fleur de Lis paused for a moment, a crooked, half-smile crept onto her face.
“Why are we having this conversation again?” She chuckled, he joined her.
A brief moment of heavy sighing later, the heat of their argument had vanished; leaving an apology on the tips of both ponys’ tongues.
Silver Leaf attempted to voice his apology, prompting Fleur de Lis to put a deliberate hoof to his mouth. Her aim was entirely off, and she instead clipped the side of his head.
“Oops.” She said, steadying herself by sitting.
“Ow!” The unintentionally assaulted colt rubbed the side of his head.
The light jarring was enough to get Silver Leaf to look around. They were in that neighborhood again.
In the next instant two stallions, both unicorns, appeared seemingly out of nowhere five feet from where the pair had stoppped.
“Alright, let’s make this quick.” The speaker, a creme colored pony, took a few steps forward. His associate stood in place, continuing to look menacing.
Silver Leaf swallowed the lump in his throat, and positioned himself between the two muggers and his marefriend.
No she’s not my mare friend. Silver Leaf lost focus of the situation. She’s just a mare who happens to be my friend, right? The sound of Fleur de Lis’s voice brought him back to the present.
“Make what quick?” Fleur de Lis took her sweet time in acknowledging the newcomers.
She thought for a moment before deciding upon what exactly they meant, “Oh, I’m not like that.” She was going off the assumption that they were mistaken like Silver Leaf’s sister was initially. She was far too busy “seeing the air” to give her full attention to the situation.The mushroom’s potent effects were in full swing, filling her brain with mixed sensations.
“Not like wha-” He covered his face with a hoof, “Oh nevermind, just drop your bags and back up. Or else.”
Silver Leaf presented his broadside to them in order to get the considerably larger stallions to look at him.
“You won’t lay a hoof on her.” He growled, nostrils flaring.
“Ma’am, control your son.” The creme stallion barked.
“Oh, are they trying to mug us?” Fleur de Lis was finally catching on. An awkward grin appeared on her face while a warm feeling filled her body. The toxins provided a very pleasant downward slope; something she would be grateful for, if she were actually aware of her condition.
Recently voiced threats managed to pierce Fleur de Lis’s mindfog. When she realized they were directed at her and her companion, she fought through the haze and focused on the two would-be muggers.
As much as she could, the trained mare took stock of the situation. She found it fairly annoying that it took so much effort to count the number of ponies not on her side. Two she finally decided.
Two stallions, one levitating a length of pipe, the other a chain; finally, they wanted her money.
Like hell that was happening.
Fleur de Lis noticed how sluggish her movements were, and her head slightly numbed. She still felt confident in the fact that she could surprise them. As quickly as she possibly could, she reared up and tried to charge forward, instead winding up hanging over her guardian colt’s back. She’d neglected to count him at all.
“Hey, what are you doing there?” She giggled at the silly colt.
“Trying and failing to be intimidating.” He looked back at her quizzically, “What about you?”
“Don’t worry about me.” She shifted on his back.
She was heavier than he would have ever dared to guess. Still, she weighed next to nothing compared to the average pony.
He didn’t drop his confused expression, while she remained slung over his back.
When Fleur de Lis looked back towards the two muggers, who were growing more impatient by the second, a brilliant idea came to her.
Silver Leaf felt silk run across his neck as the mare on his back moved her head, her lips stopping just shy of his ear. He shuddered both in confusion and slight excitement when he felt warm air flow over the cup of his ear.
Her voice was quiet, dark, serious but interrupted by small snickers. Fleur de Lis couldn’t help herself from enjoying her plan.
“When I shift my weight, drop to the ground. Okay?” As confused as the grey colt was, he was glad that someone present had a more positive way to deal with the stallions.
Fleur de Lis waved a forehoof at the two stallions spastically. “You can have my bits over his dead body!”
“Alright, enough of this.” The unicorn in charge growled. Both now advanced, bludgeon and chain floating a few inches from their owners.
Silver Leaf looked at the mare hanging over his backside with growing concern .It didn’t occur to him until it was too late to stop her, that she intended to try something risky. Her weight shifted forward. The signal. Reacting solely on her instructions Silver Leaf’s body did as she had said, in direct defiance of his shocking realization.
The mare became a pink and white streak, as soon as all four hooves hit the ground. As she moved Silver Leaf swore he heard, “No worries dear. After all I am a bodyguard.”
The nearest stallion managed to say “Wha-” Before the agile mare was underneath him, and tossing him into the air; her horn grazing his skin. With the aid of her magic, he was catapulted into the air landing with what would be considered, just under lethal force. His concentration broken, the chain fell to the ground.
The second she stopped, the world lurched forward, causing her to fall on her face. Luckily for her, the second stallion was having trouble believing that a wealthy looking mark had just charged his friend, let alone tossed him like a stone. This unnacceptance of reality slowed his reaction to her falter.
Silver Leaf was in the same boat with the shocked stallion. He’d just watched the most beautiful and probably nicest mare he’d ever known, plow into a stallion defending both herself and him. He’d also watched her face plant with an utter lack of grace.
“Hey!” The still standing stallion shouted, finally registering that one of the ponies he was holding up had moved a considerable distance.
He spun around quickly and found Fleur de Lis recovering from her crash. Their eyes met as the pipe swung towards her head. Fleur de Lis’s horn flared up , emitting a violent, pale-pink light. The pipe suddenly without the magic force driving it, lost some of its power; it still glanced off the side of the white mare’s head with enough force to do moderate damage. Her assailant dropped to the ground and covered his head in his hooves.
Overwhelming guilt mixed with the debilitating fear of persecution spiked through the criminal ponies’ mind. Two worries long since locked away, suddenly freed themselves and ran through every thought he formed. His sobs filled the deathly silent streets.
Silver Leaf had rushed to her side as soon as the pipe started through the air.
“Miss Fleur de Lis!?” He was hyperventilating, near tears, and about to scream. All these feelings sprang up from the fear that he might have just watched her die.
This rising and falling of her chest cleared away some of the rampant emotions; though the red patch pooling by her head caused him to choke on several sobs.
“No no no- Please say something, anything!” He parted her pink and white mane to look at the wound.
“Anything?” Fleur de Lis responded weakly.
“Yeah,” His entire body trembled with a large amount of tension released in a long sigh, “anything will work.”
A series of cries started up from two nearby houses.
“I think we woke the children.” Silver Leaf said, moving her mane to check the wound again. He dug around in his saddlebag as a sudden realization struck him, pulling out his work uniform. He pressed it to the seeping, red gash, and held it there while somewhat successfully fighting back his tears.
“No,” She began, looking to the weeping stallion a few feet away. “I think I overcharged the spell. My head felt numb before the pipe hit. The blood loss isn’t helping I guess.”
“I- It should have been me.” Silver Leaf said sadly, looking away while keeping pressure on the wound. The sounds of ponies in armor were fast approaching, far beneath his guilt ridden mind.
“Nah, how else would I have paid you back?” Fleur de Lis tried to lighten the mood slightly.
“Dammit! You paid me back with dinner, so quit saying stuff like that. I can’t and won’t have somepony like you owing me anything ever!” Recent events brought back his feelings of unworthiness. Never would he have guessed that the night would end with him being emasculated, and then made helpless to effectively aid a friend in need.
He’d clearly surprised himself with the outburst; before he could apologize however, the Canterlot guard arrived, forming a circle around the scene.
The young grey colt surrounded by two large stallions, one crying, the other unconscious; holding the beautiful, white, but most importantly bleeding mare, who he happened to be yelling at her by the time they showed up, was very quickly hauled away and arrested for assault. He wasn’t fully aware of what was happening, or who the ponies around him were, all he knew is that they were in the way of him keeping pressure on the wound; so he fought, adding another charge to his growing list of crimes. It took three guards to restrain his squirming form completely.
If he weren’t so angry with the world, the tingling in his mane would have tipped the struggling colt off about the bottomless hole of trouble he’d just jumped into. He’d figure it out soon enough, but first he was hit with a paralysis spell that magically stopped the brain from performing major motor skills. His breathing became shallow and his limbs stopped flailing; the world retreated behind a black curtain. All that Silver Leaf could see was a white mare with her hoof pointing at him, weakly trying to protest the treatment he’d received.
Then. Nothing.
Even after yesterday's fiasco, Fleur de Lis was being given a second chance. Instead of coming home a little after midnight, like she'd told her employer, she was held up in the hospital with a head injury. Normally such a screw up would mean she would be replaced on the spot; her employer, on Mr. Fancy Pants, insisted she stay. After spending a full day with him in his estate and familiarizing herself with the grounds, la Fleur could honestly say she was glad she hadn't left.
Fancy Pants the appointed "Most important pony in Canterlot" was truly a delight to work with. Both as a pony and her charge. She wasn't so much dazzled by his admittedly great charisma, simply found him very acommidating to her mode of operation.
Try as she might though, even with all she was doing to prepare the house, a nagging thought of the shy colt Silver Leaf stayed with the otherwise focused mare. As much as she wanted to go and apologize, her personal life was now a thing of the past. That and she was somewhat convinced that Silver Leaf would be even more afraid to be near her than he had been before last night.
Because of the difference in social standing between the young pony and her employer, her hopes of crossing paths with Silver Leaf were significantly dimmed.
Fancy Pants commented once or twice on her seemingly aloof gaze, she dismissed it as her wound acting up. A lie she could tell Fancy Pants didn't buy; he held is tongue on the issue nonetheless.
It was 8 p.m. by the time Fleur de Lis was satisfied the house was impervious to the average intruder, or would shortly be made so partially at her company's expense. Where physical means of preventing entry were mostly impossible several layers of warding magics were placed. Several different spells were put in place twice in each instance; Fleur de Lis did the first, followed by an overlapping spell by Fancy Pants. She'd had to teach him most of the spells, and she was pleased to see he was a quick study in intermediate magics. The primary wards were there alert the caster of anyone other than the caster who passed within a few feet of the rune. The rest were merely there to hinder intruders until someone could respond. She'd briefly thought about using slightly more lethal spells, but when she'd presented the thought to Fancy Pants he'd dismissed it immediately as unnecessary.
Despite the distracting thought it had been a very pleasant day, one she hoped to repeat several times. Though working with the contractors tomorrow to put in more resilient windows was sure to be a detractor from any pleasantness, she was sure she could make it work.
After a light dinner and a few more words traded with Fancy Pants, Fleur de Lis found her way to an unfamiliar bed that was hers for the first time tonight, and would be for many nights to come.
Late into the night, how late she could not tell, Fleur de Lis felt a tingling sensation in her horn. It was more than enough to rouse her from her sleep.
It's tingling because... because... She tried to string together thoughts through the haze of sleep. Adrenaline suddenly shot through her body and she bolted upright, and in mid air as she said "The wards!"
As gracefully as she could Fleur de Lis landed on all four hooves, clumsily as the adrenaline kicking through her system washed away the sleepiness. Her door swung open and she was out in the hall in time to see Fancy Pants coming out of his room much the same way.
"A basement window." La Fleur stated as she nodded in the weary stallion's direction. He'd made remarkable time getting out of bed, but he was clearly not the kind to be ready for a fight at a moment's notice.
"Right, should I-"
"Stay near me, and keep as quiet as possible." This was her area of expertise. She was in charge now, and her tone cut through Fancy's own sleepy haze and suddenly he was wide awake.
Fancy Pants, now truly aware of the situation, looked nervous. Something Fleur de Lis had never seen before. He nodded and fell in step behind his bodyguard as she stepped very carefully down the stairs. He mimicked her as best he could, but of course he was considerably heavier than the slender mare.
He wasn't quiet enough for Fleur's liking so the moment they were both at the foot of the stairs she wheeled around and looked him straight in the eye.
Her direct gaze was assisted by the soft pink glow of her horn as she whispered, "I need you to focus Fancy, you're going to be fine." Her words were carried along with a small enchantment spell that would at least temporarily calm his nerves.
He nodded again, more confidently. He dared not speak, because he knew his voice would carry in the house.
They made their way through the house down the stairs to the basement. It was an open doorway into the basement, without an actual door. Another thing that was to be fixed tomorrow.
Fleur de Lis stopped short of the doorway, and Fancy Pants followed suit. Her ears swiveled back and forth to try and locate the intruder as she turned to look back at her charge. He had an uncharacteristically determined look instead of his usual inquisitive indifference. No doubt a consequence of the enchantment. She was going to have to discuss with him how to handle situations like this in the future. As well as get actual permission to use compulsory magic on him when needed. She'd taken a slight liberty in using the spell in the first place. She expected some forgiveness after this was over.
From somewhere in the basement came a series of shuffling sounds followed by the clacking of something solid against the stone.
La Fleur's brow knitted together in concentration as she tried to discern what would make such a noise. If it was something walking it wasn't equine or quadrapedal. A minotaur would never have fit through the window. Were it so inclined it might be able to break down the wall, but that would've made a noise far too loud to be ignored the next block over. Another look back to Fancy Pants told her that he'd heard the sound too, but had just as many answers as she did.
Silently la Fleur raised a hoof while looking at Fancy Pants. She brought it down with the well manicured edge pointing down, without touching the floor. She waited for a moment before Fancy Pants nodded and slowly sat down. She pointed to her ear and the into the room before moving forward.
Her horn was glowing again, the light it shed was similar to the light of a single distant star. It didn't help her see any better but it kept her hooves from making a sound. A spell for sneaking practiced many times over, the amount of magic needed to maintain it was very much the same as the light her horn produced; minuscule.
No more than a couple yards in to the substantial basement she froze. Her earlier assessment of the intruder's gait was off. It was a quadruped, and part of it's walk was very well padded, in addition to the clacking of what she determined to be talons. A gryphon.
Now every one of the intruder's steps made her cringe slightly as she moved through the rows of shelves filled with assorted collections. She'd believed she had the superior force if absolutely needed to take on a single intruder. Before her initial assessment she knew she could take on a single pony with Fancy Pants as back up if things went horrifically wrong. Assuming a biped, she didn't know what to expect and left Fancy Pants out of it completely; he would be able to run for help if nothing else. A gryphon was not something she wanted to engage in close quarters; not in conversation nor physically.
Fleur de Lis knew a gryphon that worked as a bodyguard. His gruff attituded with employers and extreme measures of protection lost him several jobs, but he almost always garunteed no one would approach his ex-clients with hostile intent for fear he was still around. Most of his service records involved physical altercations that were barely inside the bounds for a response of "overwhelming force." She thought of him now, because he'd convinced her he was one of the nice ones.
As she neared the source of the noise, through a labyrinthine series of shelves as opposed to the neat rows elsewhere in the basement, she wished she'd sent Fancy Pants to fetch some guards. If she took her time perhaps he would do so anyways. She could only hope. At last she peaked around the corner and spotted the intruder.
It was in fact a gryphon. A gryphoness to be exact her, plumage had a coloration that Fleur de Lis could not discern in the glow of the moon. . As la Fleur spotted her she was standing on her hindlegs, staring at a chart while carefully marking the wall with chalk on a bare spot of wall. Previously boxes had been stacked up in the corner of the room where she worked, which explained the shuffling from earlier. Many things started to click into place for Fleur de Lis, but what she was chalking onto the wall baffled her. They appeared to be an arcane diagram for a spell she was unfamiliar with. It appeared to be a little under half way done and it was vast and extremely complicated. She could deal with the symbols after the gryphon was out of the way. Just as Fleur was about to act out a plan that was slowly forming in her head she froze again.
On the gryphon's arm were a series of colored bands some multicolored others a single solid color. A gryphon tradition she remembered being taught by her colleague. They were trophies, of kills. To a gryphon nothing less than a kill warranted taking a trophy. All of them were bands of ponies' tails. How many she dare not count for fear of losing her nerve.
Upon further examination she realized something that made her shudder. The chalk the gryphon used to write the arcane symbols was wide where she gripped it and featured a singular spiral pattern. A severed unicorn horn. A twinge of sympathetic pain sped through her own horn, but she kept her focus. This gryphon was a hardened murderer. She steeled herself to approach the intruder hoping that she could talk the gryphon down loudly enough for Fancy to hear so he would fetch the guard. Any altercation with the gryphon would result in a serious injury at least.
"See something you like?" The gryphon asked without shifting her position. Her voice was gruff, but undeniably feminine
Fleur de Lis looked up and realized her mistake far too late for the knowledge to help her. The gryphon's back was not completely turned to la Fleur, and as she examined the paper she held, she did not need to turn her head at all to be able to see the mare's head poking around the corner. Fleur de Lis was speechless.
"I know I do." The gryphon continued, looking fully between her work and back to Fleur de Lis. Seemingly satisfied she put the paper and "chalk" on the floor and stretched out her limbs. Her movements reminded the found-out mare that the gryphon was a truly powerful predator. Her wingspan dwarfed that of any pegasus she'd ever met. Her talons sharp enough to rend flesh and bone with little resistance. The simple act of stretching was a show of power.
Having been caught Fleur moved away from her cover, and for a moment neither gryphon nor pony moved; save for the eyes traveling up and down the others body to size up their potential opponent. It seemed the gryphon wasn't willing to take the slender mare as a true combatant and instead eyed her in a way that Fleur de Lis was all to familiar with. The thought of not being taken seriously gave mare hope of a solid surprise attack and disheartened her at the same time. The gryphons confidence in herself was likely not misplaced. She held onto the hope though, as she knew underestimating any opponent was a sign of some overconfidence.
After a few more drawn out moments of examination, the gryphoness settled onto all fours and smirked.
"Why don't you give me a once around." She said it as a command rather than a request.
La Fleur didn't budge, not to obey or attack. She simply stood there, with as impassive a look as she could muster. Given the circumstance her lips may have curled into a slight from; which did little to betray the trepidation she felt about being in this situation.
"How about this then: You do a little twirl, maybe let me get a peak under that silky tail of yours, and I won't cut you open and hang you up by your entrails till morning?" The gryphon shifted into a pouncing pose, fully ready to make good on the less appealing side of the deal.
"Why are you-" Fleur de Lis began, but was quickly interrupted.
"Shh sh shhh. Turn in place and then I'll answer questions."
With a look of absolute resentment Fleur de Lis did a practiced twirl in place. It was apparently to quick for the sly gryphon's liking.
"Again. Slower." She commanded sitting to enjoy the show. She knew she had the mare's cooperation for the moment.
Reluctantly la Fleur spun in a much slower circle. The moment she was faced away from the gryphon she was commanded to stop.
"The tail?"
Fleur de Lis shot the gryphon a bored, questioning look. Her face had initially been a scowl of utter resentment, but she switched it to maintain her calm appearance.
The gryphon crossed her arms and waited, giving no room for other options.
Slowly she lifted her tail to the side. She wasn't embarrased or humiliated by the action like some mares were. On a windy day a pony's tail could get away from them and put their "hidden treasures" on display. The fact that she was being more or less forced to frustrated her to no end. As soon as her tail settled over her back the gryphon made a short strained noise and the clack of talons on stone clued Fleur de Lis in.
In a swift motion she bucked her hindlegs out and up at where she knew the gryphon would be. She may not have had accuracy or sight on her side, but she didn't need it to strike such a large airborne target. Her hooves connected as she turned her head. She'd struck the gryphon in the sternum.
The look on the female gryphon's face was one of realization that likely struck the same time la Fleur's hooves did. Her opponent wasn't big, so she must be fast.
Fleur de Lis's first blow was a short lived victory as the winded projectile of a gryphon landed on her. Likely not the way the gryphoness intended, but she still had the mare partially pinned. Fleur de Lis scrambled to get away from the gryphon while she could, but already felt her attacker's grip around her left hind leg.
"You dumb whore." The gryphon wheezed. "I thought you'd at least be smart enough not to fight back."
La Fleur managed to slip away from the gryphon as she recovered. Turning around to face her once again she saw the devilish glint in her opponent's eyes. In an excellent display of a gryphon's fortitude she had already recovered from a blow that would've downed a lesser creature for at least a minute.
"I'm no whore." Fleur de Lis stated simply as her horn began to glow steadily brighter.
"That's too bad, I was looking for a good time too. Is that Fancy Pants guy still passed out upstairs?"
"You mistake my presence here." Fleur retorted snappily, "I'm a bodyguard."
The air around them became flooded with a bright pink light that vanished as suddenly as it appeared. Fleur de Lis was visible as a transparent outline of herself. The gryphon leapt for her prey and passed right through her ethereal form. Fleur de Lis dashed through several shelves, passing through them unhindered.
Once she was safely away her body became corporeal again and she started breathing heavily from the strain of her spell. Two deep breaths and she had steadied herself enough to become quieter. She listened for the gryphon who was certainly stalking through the maze of shelves. Already she could feel the sweat drying on her body. She was in it now, her comfort zone; the fact that she was most comfortable when her life was threatened always made her smile.
The tell-tale sound of talons on stone drew steadily closer. Expecting the gryphoness would sniff her out shortly, Fleur de Lis readied a very forceful spell that illuminated her position. The clicking picked up in speed as her horn glowed, and the gryphon charged around the corner partially airborne.
"Gotcha!" She roared just as la Fleur unleashed her spell.
A bright pink bolt of magic in the form of an armored hoof impacted the gryphon's throat. The gryphon crashed into the shelf behind Fleur de Lis as she dodged to this side.
The gryphon staggered to all fours and immediately began clutching at her throat, signalling to Fleur de Lis that her windpipe had likely been crushed. Pressing her advantage she felt out with her magic for anything that could be used to tie up her stunned opponent with, and found several suitable materials within reach of her levitation. In short order the gryphon was tied, still suffocating from the blow to her throat. Even at death's door the gryphon managed to remain menacing as she was bound.
Only once her opponent was tied up six ways from Sunday, did Fleur set about repairing the gryphon's crushed windpipe. With her magic she reset the damaged muscle allowing for very shallow breathing.
The gryphon, at the verge of unconsciouness began writhing against the multitude of clothes and ropes at the very uncomfortable sensation of her throat being magically manipulated, and the burning pain of oxygen suddenly allowed back into her body. She wanted desperately to clutch her head, but was held in check by her bonds.
"I will eat you alive!" The gryphon shouted, using up what little air she'd managed to take in. She started panting from the exertion.
"I have no doubt you'll try. Before the guards come to haul you away though you'll answer some of my questions."
"Bite m-" A lance of pain shot through the gryphon's left wing, halting her speech and setting her back to panting again.
"For every answer I don't like I take three of your primaries." This stopped the gryphon's struggling for a moment.
"What kind of pony are you? I can almost respect you, just for that."
"I don't want your respect." Fleur de Lis said coldly. A constant soft light began emanating from her horn.
Three feathers hung in the air before the gryphon, and she felt a light pressure on both her wings. She wiggled into a slightly more upright position and tried to fake calmness with a slight grin.
"First question: What were you doing down here?"
The gryphon opened her beak and closed it several times, trying to find a way to answer the question in a way that wouldn't lose her more feathers.
"I was doing a job for someone?" She tried, more as a question of whether or not that was adequate.
Fleur de Lis smiled as the expression on the gryphon's face was one of fear; she had her opponent under her hoof.
"Who?"
"You know I'm not going to tell you." The gryphon said flatly, followed by a grunt of pain as three knew feathers joined the three already hanging in the air.
"I suppose not. Third question: How did you complete so much of such a complex arcane script so quickly. That was too accurate to have been done in the time it took me to get down here."
"You're right," The gryphon confirmed quietly. "I've been at this for a month or so now. Slipping in and out unnoticed.to do my work. Then one night, some slim piece of flank waltzes in and interrupts me."
Fleur de Lis rolled her eyes at the "compliment" and continued her questioning.
"What is the spell for?"
"It's some kind of portal. I was told it was two-way from some place really far away." No feathers lost. At this point the captured gryphon began to visibly relax.
"Are you-" La Fleur's ears perked up as the sound of armored bodies moving through the basement caught her attention.
An orb of light floated from Fleur's horn up to the ceiling to guide the guards.
"Do you have any allies to continue your work?"
The gryphon snapped her beak shut. The astoundingly mean pony couldn't keep this up once the guards arrived.
"Answer me or you'll be bald by the time they get here to take you away."
Pain shot through the gryphon's entire body in half second intervals steadily increasing in severity. After only a few moments her silence was broken.
"We work independently, if one fails others will continue their own work!" She said it much louder than she meant to.
The pain suddenly stopped. Hanging all around her were feathers and patches of bloody fur.
"You can't actually be a pony, there's no way a pony would do this." She said in exasperation as the last of the throbbing pain died away.
"Only in dire circumstances would I every do this to a living creature. It's easy enough to imagine though, isn't it?" Fleur de Lis said with a tired chuckle.
The feathers and fur vanished, as did any remaining traces of the pain the gryphon felt. Her wings were untouched her fur was only a little damp from sweat. She was unharmed.
Fleur de Lis looked tired. Her body glistened with sweat in the pale moonlight that shown into the basement. As several guards rounded the corner into the small space she fell back on her haunches and let out a long sigh of relief. She ran a hoof through her mane and grimaced at how frayed it felt.
"Ma'am?" One of the guards spoke up.
"Take her away. I'll tell you what I know."
Two of the guards moved forward, then backed away unsurely. Even while bound the gryphoness was an imposing figure. They nodded to each other, before one of them approached her quickly. The other followed behind with his horn glowing, and the gryhpon was quickly immobilized. The closer guard checked her current restrains and added cuffs to the ensemble.
"Fleur?" Came the concerned voice of Fancy Pants.
With an exaggerated sigh she responded, "Didn't I tell you to stay put?"
"I felt the need to do something. I'm sor-"
"Don't be. If you followed everything I said to the letter we might both end up paying for my lack of foresight. You did exactly what I hoped you'd do."
The gryphon floated by Fleur de Lis with a slightly haunted look about her.
"That was fake?" She asked with uncertainty.
"All in our imagination." She replied with a nod. At her response the guards halted the gryphon's passage.
"That's a pretty twisted imagination you've got for a pony. Ever taken a life?" All eyes turned to the mare with a morbid curiosity.
Fleur's expression became hard to read as a storm of mixed feelings overcame her. "I never got your name." She said calmly.
"Shriek." The gryphoness said shortly.
"I have." Fleur de Lis answered just as curtly. The guards took the hint that la Fleur was done and continued carrying Shriek away.
She turned to the remaining guard.
"Can I answer questions tomorrow?" To emphasize her point she yawned widely and sagged to show how tired she felt. The post adrenaline high was quickly giving way to exhaustion.
"Y-yes ma'am, there will be an investigation team tomorrow. You can answer their questions." The guard was clearly shaken by the prospect of the slender mare having killed before.
Fleur de Lis shook her head as she thought about all the guards who'd likely never been in a proper fight before.
"The gryphon is a practiced killer, handle her very carefully." She warned.
The guard nodded quickly, before turning to leave. Fancy Pants cleared his throat as the last guard retreated to follow his comrades.
"Is this going to happen again?" He said as though this were simply a nuisance. This wasn't the same nervous wreck of a stallion she'd had to enchant upstairs.
"No this won't. Although she wasn't after your life."
"That's both troubling to hear and a relief. I suppose I should let you rest though. Thank you."
"It is my job after all." She said bemusidly as she moved past him.
Back upstairs Fleur de Lis barely managed to find her bed before sleep overtook her. Fancy Pants checked on her just before he returned to sleep. Carefully he moved her fully onto the bed and under the covers. The door to her room clicked closed without a sound.
Fancy Pant's felt his nerves skitter as he tried to fall back to sleep. Surely he was safe for now, but thoughts of what lie ahead lost him sleep through the night. Both Fleur de Lis and Fancy Pants eventually found themselves in a dreamless sleep that night.
The first rays of sunlight came far too early for either of their likings.
Author's Note
Leave a comment telling me how much you hated the wait, unless you're a new reader. If you are new then tell me how hyped you are or aren't.
