Gleaming and Barbara Part 1
Gleaming and Barbara
Life in Canterlot had been quite hectic lately. Townsponies and royals alike hustled to the castle in preparation of young Prince Tempo’s Temperance Twirl (which can be summed up as a super important social event). Among those preparing for the event was the youthful guard-in-training, Gleaming Shield, a strong, yet eloquent when needed, mare. Alongside Gleaming, was her best friend, Barbara, a baby dragon who she’s know since her brother, Dusk Shine, hatched Barbara from an egg.
They too, had been preparing for the festivities to come, bringing in the many heavy and various deliveries of food, party favors and decorations ordered by the Prince himself. Beyond that, Gleaming and Barbara did what they had always been assigned to do, protect Prince d’amore Tempo at all costs. But it was during this time, that the prince himself had sauntered over to Gleaming and Barbara prepared to ask gleaming a question.
“Throw a box of those over here, Barb!” Gleaming says.
Barbara picked up the box of eggs that were going to be used to make the cake for the Twirl and threw it over to Gleaming. On the way over, Gleaming could have sworn that she heard the faint sound of chirping from the box.
“You don’t think any of these eggs hatched yet, do you?” Gleaming asks her friend standing at the other side of the box.
“What? No! They were plucked only this morning.” Prince Tempo says as he walks over and takes an egg from the large box. As he does, the egg hatches, and once again the faint chirping sound returns only to be silenced by Tempo’s hoof covering the baby chick’s beak.
“Just hand them off to the chefs and they will take it from there.” Tempo says as he attempts to cover up his blunder.
“Eh. Makes sense, I guess.” Barbara says as she reclaims the box and hands it off to the chef walking by.
“So, can you run the…whatever you called it by me again?” Barbara asks as a look of confusion crept upon her face.
“You mean my Biannual Tempo Twirl? Tonight?” Tempo says in response.
“It sounds like it going to be a pretty big deal.” Gleaming exclaims.
“Oh yes, a fairly big deal indeed. And I’d like to ask if you would come as my special guest?” Tempo says as Gleaming begins to wear a slight, yet noticeable blush
“You want me to go to the Twirl with you?” Gleaming questions and her blush intensifies, Barbara getting a knowing look on her face.
“By Solaris’ beard yes! As my buddy!” Tempo exclaims with a look of glee dawning his face.
“Oh. Right.” Gleaming mumbles in slight disappointment.
“It starts at 8. So don’t be late!” Tempo finishes as he begins to saunter off, laughing at his poor rhyme only somepony such as himself would find funny. As he does, both Gleaming and Barbara notice that a black fog has begun to roll in, unsure of what to make of it, they prepare for a defensive.
“Gleam, it looks like trouble. What should we do?” Barbara asks with worry in her voice.
“We do what we always do, we check it out. And if we need to fight it, we fight it.” Gleaming says nonchalantly as she begins to ascend one of the many towers in Canterlot Castle.
As they both reach the top of the tower, they begin to see a figure appear from the fog. What they saw was a tall, slender body covered by a black coat and mane, piercing red eyes, and a small crown adorned above what looked like a crooked unicorn’s horn. Both Gleaming and Barbara knew who it was right away.
“It’s Queen Oscura!” Gleaming exclaims.
“The Prince shall be my slave...of love!” Oscura screams as she descends from the fog, creating spires of black crystal with her magic.
“Get inside the castle!” Gleaming yells out to Barbara and Tempo as they all run into the safety of the castle and away from the deranged queen. But as they continue further, another black spire erupts from the wall, Oscura not far behind.
“Why are you always after Prince Tempo? Aren’t you with King Metamorphosis or something? ” Gleaming asks confused.
“Him? I wouldn’t even bother with that bug or a stallion.” Oscura retorts. “Why do you get to keep all the hot stallions for yourself? You’re totally fog-blocking me here.” She continues, Tempo holding his look of disgust upon his face.
“Whaaaaa...?” Gleaming blurts out from the utter randomness of Oscura’s response.
“Not today!” Oscura says as she forms a fog beast around herself prepared to attack.
“Yeesh! Fog Beast!” Tempo exclaims, still in disgust.
“Barb, I choose you! Use Flamethrower!” Gleaming orders as Barbara stabilizes herself on all fours and unleashes a powerful, green flame at the fog beast. As the beast dissipates, black goo spreads across the room, covering the prince, Gleaming and Barbara.
“You saved me from Oscura.” Tempo says with gratefulness in his words.
“Yeah. I guess we did. Is she gone?” Gleaming asks the prince not asking the better question of what the goo they were covered with is.
“She must have fled. Gleam you’re so strong. And you look beautiful covered in goo. What are you doing later? Tempo asks as Gleaming regained her previous blush.
“I was going to go home for the night and look after my…” Gleaming says.
“Come with me. Let’s go out.” Tempo says as Gleaming wears a questioning look on her face.
“Go… out?” Gleaming asks at Tempo’s sudden question.
“Yeah. Let’s go somewhere.” Tempo hurriedly answers hopping for the answer he is looking for.
“What?” Gleaming once again questions due to her lack of believing her current situation.
“We’d love to!” Barbara answering for Gleaming in a squeeing manner.
“Great! Meet me in the castle gardens in an hour!” Tempo says, beaming with glee as Gleaming makes a meeting with the floor beneath her as she passes out from the shock and awe of what just happened.
Barbara begins to drag her friend out of the castle in preparation for the “date”. “What am I going to do with you girl? I won’t always be there when you get asked out.” Barbara says as she continues out into the crowded streets of Canterlot.
Author's Note
I hope you all enjoyed this stupid late night thing I made. If you haven't noticed already, this is basically the Adventure Time episode Fionna and Cake. None the less, I hope you all enjoyed it and come back for the next chapters as they come out. Also, when I finish up this arc of the story. I plan on creating my own stories for these two. Have a good night. OTN
Gleaming and Barbara Part 2
Back at Gleaming and Barbara’s Canterlot apartment, they prepared for whatever Prince Tempo had planned for the guard and her dragon friend. Though Gleaming didn’t seem too excited about it, it didn’t stop Barbara from making up the lack of excitement in her friend.
“Oh, it’s a date!” Barbara squeed as she turned to Gleam with a look of glee and utter bliss upon her face due to the recent news.
“No, it’s not! I’m sure when he said ‘go out’, he meant ‘go out’, not ‘go out’!” Gleaming yelled back to her friend in a vain attempt to ward off her inquiries.
“Shut it and listen to me Gleam. He. Is. Into. You.” Barbara replied while giving Gleam the most serious stare down she had ever seen.
“Look. You heard what he said. I’m just a pal in his eyes.” Gleam said with a hint of disappointment in her voice.
“Well that could change tonight” Barbara said urging on as she grabbed something out of the large, wooden chest near Gleaming’s bed.
“If it is a date, why are you coming with me? Don’t you think you’ll be somewhat of a third wheel?” Gleam asking her friend a somewhat important question.
“Don’t worry, I’m not trying to steal your man from you or anything. I’m coming to help you.” Barbara said as she continues to rummage through the chest. “Just hold on. I’m looking for my xylophone.”
.
.
.
The loud and exaggerated groan coming from the mare could have been heard from here to the Griffon Kingdom.
(Meanwhile, in a Manehatten based xylophone orchestra)
“Okay everypony…and a one, and a two, and a one two thr-“ the conductor began
Suddenly what sounded like a xylophone based groan could be faintly heard across the entire orchestra, and was travelling away fast.
“Sir, what was that odd sound?” One of the xylophone players questioned, unsure of the sudden eruption of sound.
“I…I don’t know. It felt like a disturbance.” The conductor replied, also unsure of what had just happened.
(Back at Gleaming’s apartment)
“What? It’s a conversation starter.” Barbara said as she strapped the instrument onto her back.
“Fine. I’ll do this if only to prove you wrong” Gleam said as she began off in a huff, but Barbara could have sworn that her friend’s blush had returned once again.
Outside the vast and beautiful gardens of Canterlot Castle, a young guardsmare and her dragon friend came prepared for the mare’s “date” with a certain prince. But as they came up to the meeting spot, the mare began to face an uncertainty with going through with her “date”.
“Mm…maybe we should just call it off and go home.” The uncertainty undoubtedly noticeable in Gleam’s voice as she approached the gardens intensifying with each step she took.
“No! No backing out now.” Barbara said, pushing her friend further towards the entrance to the sun-lit gardens. But soon after, none other than Tempo himself appeared from the gardens to meet up with both Gleam and Barbara.
“Hello Gleam. And I see you brought Barbara.” Tempo says in a voice that could melt butter (and puts the author in a coma due to how amazing it sounds, but moving on).
“It’s okay right.” Gleam asked with a sheepish smile plastered across her face.
“Only if it’s okay that I brought…Ignatus along.” Tempo said, carefully reaching out his forehoof to perch the large phoenix that had descended from what ponies would have thought was the heavens.
“Hey there hot stuff.” Barbara says as she begins to flutter her eyes and dawn a blush of her own. Ignatus begins to spell out his own greeting with the flame of his tail, ending up with “Hey” in response, intensifying Barbara’s blush to an intense red.
“Please. Take these as tokens of esteem” Tempo says as her gives a large bag to Barbara, and bouquet of flowers to Gleam.
“Oh, you didn’t have to, Tempo…” Gleam responded awkwardly to the gifts from the prince.
“Nonsense. Now Barbara, in the bag is enough gems to last you a month.” Tempo says kneeling to Barbara’s eye level.
“Sweet Celestia! Gems!” The little dragon beamed as she looked into the bag.
“And for you milady. A bouquet of white roses to match that wondrous coat of yours.” Tempo continued explaining his gifts.
“Oh…uh…they’re…” Gleam stuttered repeatedly as her eyes glossed over and a smile crept upon her face.
“There is a surprise at the center.” Tempo said reassuringly.
“How many licks do you think it will take to get to the center of this, Barb?” Gleam asked her friend jokingly. But as she reached into the center, she emerges with a brand new crystal shield, twice the size of the bouquet, but who cares…new shield!
“Wow! A crystal shield! How’d you know I was all about shields?” Gleam quizzed the prince.
“I pay attention to things I see you all about” Tempo responded, looking Gleam in the eyes as he does. “Come the amazement has just begun!” Tempo finishes as he leads Gleam and Barbara to Ignatus in preparation for a ride.
As the ride continues on, Barbara whispers “Tell Tempo you think he’s hot” to which Gleam immediately responds “What? No!”
“Oh, Gleaming!” The prince exclaims, scooting closer to Gleam as he does.
“Yeah, what’s up?” Gleam asked Tempo.
“I thought we might have a race to the meadows. You up for it?” Tempo asked with a hint of determination and playfulness gracing his voice.
“Good, I’m gonna kick your flank…not that I’m thinking of flanks…” Gleam responded quite awkwardly, preparing for the race.
Tempo rides off with Ignatus, leaving Gleam and Barbara in their dust. “Okay Barb, you know what to do.” Gleam said to her friend.
“Are you kidding me? I’m a baby dragon, I can’t carry you and your flank honey.” Barbara answered defensively, which was met by Gleam’s unsettling glare. “…Fine…hop on…” Barbara muttered begrudgingly.
“Well…that was a pretty good race.” Both the prince and Gleam said before falling to the ground gasping for breath.
“You know, I don’t see why you two are breathless, we did all the running.” Barbara snarled to the pair before passing out.
After getting up from the flowerbed they rested upon, Prince Tempo dived into what seemed like a sinkhole beneath the flowers, only emerging after a short time holding what looked like a crystal skull.
“Sorry. I saw this shimmering skull down there. It reminded me of you. The way your eyes sparkle.” Tempo said as he stared into Gleam’s shimmering eyes as she did the same with him.
“Gleam. There is something I’d like to tell you.” Tempo said before turning away to begin what he wanted to say.
♪I feel like nothing was real until I met you.♪
♪I feel like we connect, and I really get you.♪
♪If I said, "You're a beautiful mare," would it upset you?♪
♪Because the way you look tonight, silhouetted, I'll never forget it.♪
♪Oh, Gleaming.♪
♪Your fist has touched my heart.♪
♪Oh, Gleaming.♪
♪I won't let anything in this world keep us apart.♪
♪I won't let anything in this world keep us apart.♪
“Wow! That was the stupidest thing ever.” Gleaming said before once again falling back into the flowerbed along with the prince, laughing as they did.
“I’ll see you back at the apartment.” Barbara said before taking her leave with a wink in her friend’s direction. “Let’s hope he doesn’t try anything funny on the first date…”
Author's Note
Here it is. Part 2. The finale will be up at some point. After that, I'm gonna want all of your help for story ideas for these two. Yup, this is going to be a comment and reader-driven story. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and stick around. Until then.
