Chapter Eight: Lost in Translat%8@

And one must always remember that one's duty is to sacrafice, even one's time, therefore distractions must be put aside.

Bored!

Rainbow Dash was indeed bored out of her mind. There was only so much training one could do without wanting to go mad and break something valuable... like a palace wall for instance... she could easily smash through one, sure Twilight would berate her again but at least she would be paying attention to her friend instead of doing whatever it was that a princess does.

“Come now, you know she’s busy.” Wisdom responded with a motherly tone.

Rainbow Dash frowned and stretched out her limbs, at least the air was cool up here on the roof of some tower looking up at the sky. The tiles weren’t even that uncomfortable, after all she was a master in the arts of napping anywhere and on anything.

But laying there... watching the clouds drift by lazily was just another reason why she wanted to bang her head against a wall. It was all so very boring! And where was her best friend? Not hanging with her that was for sure!

“It’s only been two hours...” Wisdom responded with a profound metaphoric look of disbelief.

“Why are we here?” Rage growled, “Why don’t we just go back to Ponyville, maybe the gang will want to hang around with us losers.”

“We’re not losers!” Instinct snapped.

“Then why are we here waiting around for something that will never happen!?” Rage scoffed.

“I wish we could just tell Twilight that we lov...” Loneliness began.

“Shuttup!” Rage interrupted with a blush, “No need to say that word here!”

“And anyway,” Fear announced, “What if she rejects us!?”

“This is pointless,” Wisdom sighed, “Let’s just ease up, go for a swim or something,”

Rainbow Dash muttered something unintelligible, lately she had been feeling really stressed, sure the night she had spent with Twilight had been, well lets be honest here, absolutely cool! It was unlikely to happen again anytime soon.

Sure it was boring... but right then there were no answers, therefore a swim would probably cool her down some more and maybe ease some of her stress...

“Fine... swim it is,” She growled to herself.

Twilight looked down at the document with a scowl, the whole purpose of it was to eradicate any hope to keeping the promise she had made to restore the charity ball and with it the happiness of the poor unfortunate fillies and foals of Canterlot.

At this time it holds no purpose to hold the annual charity ball with the encroaching threat of the Gryphon bandits...

The laws were definite, there was no way around it, in times where war was possible all national wealth would be hoarded in case the need arised to pay for an army and supplies to combat the enemy, whomever it would be.

It made sense of course but still… she had made a promise…

“Oh…” Twilight groaned, her head falling upon her desk, “…how do I get around this nonsense...”

“It would seem that we have no choice but to accept the court’s decision on this matter,” Marshal answered with some regret.

“But… I hate to think that I’m letting all those children down,” The Princess responded with some desperation, the idea of all those tearing eyes broke her heart.

“I can see no way out of it...” The weathered warrior shrugged.

Twilight sighed deeply, she had been so happy to have made some headway on the gryphon crisis that she had thought putting the ball back on track would be easy… it seemed however that the fact was entirely the opposite.

“There has to be something…”

“Maybe you could speak with the court,” Marshal began, “I know they can be stuffy at times but…”

Twilight grimaced, the unicorn court of Canterlot… oh yes, the one group of ponies on the planet that were so rigid on law that they had let half of Equestria starve two hundred years ago because a farmer refused to give away half his livestock to some noble lord who had demanded too much from his vassals.

The same court who had declared war on any number of countries under the pretence of unification. The same court that Celestia had formed and stated many times since as having been the worst mistake she had ever made in her entire life.

Oh yeah… Twilight was sure to convince them that the necessity of some charity drive was just as important as the encroaching war with one of Equestria’s strongest rivals.

“Let’s not go to them unless we need to,” Twilight frowned, looking through the sheets of paper she hoped may hold some clue as to fixing her predicament.

“Fair enough,” He nodded, he too knew how bad they could be.

Giving up on the various documents Twilight looked around the office with a hopeless expression… however a certain white unicorn came to her mind, and with her an idea that may just solve the issue.

“Perhaps… perhaps I can turn to the nobles on this matter…” Twilight began, rubbing a hoof against her chin in serious thought, “If the court is unwilling to go ahead with this maybe we can hold our own, away from official government business.”

Marshal considered her words, they made sense, “You would have to get the nobles on your side… that would mean speaking to the more influential ones.”

Twilight nodded, “Alright, who would you say I need to get on my side?”

Marshal considered it, thinking through the names of all the nobles he knew to have strong influence over all the minor ones, “Well… there’s Fancy Pants of course.”

“Of course,” Twilight nodded, that wouldn’t be too hard, all knew Fancy Pants was always the first to jump at the chance to prove his charitable nature.

“Then there’s Paradise, she’s one of the richest ponies in the world,”

“Paradise,” Twilight recalled her as being rather cold but definitely concerned about rather unimportant issues… the princess was sure she could make a deal with her.

“Oh!” Marshal grinned, remembering the name, “The other would be Slight of Hoof, as I understand he’s quite a respected Lord.”

“Slight… of Hoof?” Twilight responded with no emotion whatsoever.

“Yes…” Marshal raised a brow, “Is there a problem?”

Yes... there was, she hadn’t even dealt with that pony's proposal yet, the fool wanted to enforce heavy taxation on villages around a certain border of Equestria.

“Is he important?” Twilight asked.

“I’d say so,” Marshal nodded, “Fancy Pants basically leads the business sector nobles of Equestria, Paradise runs the old fashioned, and Slight has the respect of every one of the highest ranking nobles in Canterlot, something the other two do not have.”

Twilight’s groan was powerful and her head fell upon the desk once more.

“Princess?” Marshal frowned with concern.

Clouds… they were clouds…

Rainbow Dash looked up at the sky with some annoyance, she remarked upon the many times she had looked up there to see different shapes that were funny at the time but now…

Oh look… that cloud looks like a cloud… and that one over there looks like a cloud too… and surprise surprise… another cloud shaped cloud…

“Bored!” She declared smashing a hoof upon the surface of the lake she floated upon.

“I can’t take this anymore!” Rage roared.

“Yeah… this is really boring…” Instinct muttered

“I have an idea!” Desire burst.

“Go on then,” Rage huffed, “Tell us your brilliant idea.”

“Let’s go bug Twilight!”

“She’s busy,” Wisdom argued, “It would only cause problems.”

“I’m tired of waiting, I want to hunt something!” Instinct rumbled.

“Twilight’s off the menu,” Loyalty answered.

“I say we put it to a vote!” Desire put forward with some desperation, “Those in favor of giving Twilight a visit say aye!”

“Aye!” Instinct,
“Aye!” Desire,
“Aye,” Rage,
“Aye!” Loneliness,

“I’m Hungry,” Appetite added.

“That counts!” Desire cheered, “Those against?”

“No,” Loyalty stated.
“Nay,” Wisdom,
“Uh uh!” Fear worried.

“Anyone else?”

…

“Well!” Desire ringed triumphantly, “That’s five against three!”

“About time!” Rage snapped.

“This is going to end badly…” Wisdom commented but was promptly ignored.

Twilight was getting ready, she had to look her best if she was going to visit Canterlot’s most notable figures… she didn’t feel comfortable with this but it was her duty as a princess to help those who could not help themselves.

It was also the duty of a knight but with all she had been through it should count.

She had bathed, selected a dress… which wasn’t hard as she only had three… put it on, add some makeup and then don her crown. She continued to practice her smile, she was sure she had it down now… her earlier attempts had made both Celestia and Luna laugh.

She hadn’t known but there was a big difference between smiles, the smile of a student, polite and respectful, and the smile of a princess, warm and kindly, with a hint of dominance and power.

It had taken some time, however she believed that this time she wouldn’t blush uncontrollably. With some care she put on her dress using her magic and then applied some makeup, not much, just a touch of eyeliner and some blusher.

Lifting her crown she placed it upon her head and looked into the mirror for the full effect.

Rarity would probably say she looked gorgeous! Then make a hundred thousand comments and tips about how she could improve it ‘a smidge’, Rarity was strange like that… still this would be easier if she had the fashionista there to help.

Especially since she was about to ‘have lunch’ with Fancy Pants.

She was ready, and without any excuse she moved to the door.

“Hey Twi!”

From the window came a flash of blue, sadly Twilight was walking past the window as a certain cerulean pegasus decided to barrel in. Twilight may be used to that kind of contact, especially in light of the many patched holes her tree library contained… but her dress certainly was not.

As they rolled across the ground Twilight heard the telltale rip that had just rendered all her efforts useless.

Twilight used magic to throw the Pegasus off her as she got up to inspect the fabric, and there, as she had believed, a giant tear along its rump.

“Damnit Rainbow!”

“Well!” Dash complained, getting up from the heap she had been tossed into, “Nice to see you too!”

Twilight couldn’t pay attention however, she had already ran back to her cabinet to retrieve another dress, thankfully it had similar colors so the makeup wouldn’t clash, “I’m kinda busy here Dash!”

“Yeah…” Rainbow answered, ogling a certain area of Twilight as the alicorn backed out of her ruined grament in a provocative way, “I can see that,”

“I have lunch with a certain pony, I don’t really have time to mess around,”

“Pfft!” Dash argued eloquently, “Why don’t you go to lunch with me instead?”

“I can’t Dash,” Twilight responded with irritation. "You know why."

“Yeah…” Rainbow Dash’s ears fell somewhat, disappointed.

“What? Seriously!?” Rage snapped, “Just like that?”

“She’s busy,” Loyalty returned, “You knew that!”

“But…” Desire began,

“Pushing this any further will only make things worse,” Wisdom cut Desire short.

“Who’s this ‘other’ pony anyway!?”

“Wow!?” Rage froze, “Who said that?”

“I… “ Loyalty was also confused, “It sounds familiar…”

“This 'other pony' thing is probably just part of her job,” Desire sighed.

“It’s also her job to lead us!” Jealously responded, “Why is she always off then! Why is this new job more important to her than us!?”

Wisdom moved in to counter this voice, “Its not her fault she became a princess, and its also our job as her friend to be understanding…”

“Does she understand us?” Another voice demanded.

“Wha… who are you?” Fear shook.

“If you have to ask you’re not very smart.” Ignorance stated.

“I… didn’t mean to….”

“Be quiet, no one likes you!” Ignorance snapped.

“Hey now!” Loyalty began. “Be nice…”

“What!? Can’t we have a say too?” Jealousy butt in.

“Its obvious Twilight doesn’t want us around, she’s already left Ponyville!” Ignorance continued.

“It’s not forever!?” Desire declared, “Its only for a little while!”

“And you know that for a fact?” Ignorance snorted.

“She likes it better being a princess then our friend!” Jealousy declared angrily, “She’ll leave, they always do!”

“Friend’s are only temporary after all…” Ignorance muttered.

“Now you know that isn’t true!” Wisdom answered pointedly.

“She hasn’t left us yet!” Desire added.

“Emphasis on the yet!” Ignorance growled.

Jealousy also had a response, “And meeting with some other pony for lunch is more important to her than having lunch with us!”

Rainbow Dash was caught in this tumult of emotions, unable to move or speak, instead she just sat there, looking troubled and depressed. Twilight finished preparing herself once again and looked to the clock on the wall.

“And now I’m late!” The alicorn muttered, “I have to go!”

The princess moved quickly to the door, in a panic to say something Rainbow Dash raised her head but found only a closing door before her… Twilight had left without even saying goodbye.

“But… She…” Loneliness was close to tears.

“See!” Ignorance huffed, “She doesn’t even care!”

...

No voices argued… in fact everything went still… and Rainbow Dash was left in an empty room feeling lost.

“I don’t belong here.” She whispered to herself and moved to leave through the window.

Author's Note

Hmm... I will admit this went in another direction than what I had intended...
And from here it will not get any easier for the two ponies involved.

On a lighter note I got into a bar fight! I can't say what the conditions were for winning and losing but... I was one of the few left standing when the cops came, also one of the few that remained.
SELF DEFENCE BABY! ;D

Its funny how a good fight can improve my mood!
Nearly got bottled though...