The Battle of Beauty and Love

The trip was short, as the location where the small gathering was held, was literally across the street. An old fashioned pub. It was purposefully built and maintained as an old fashioned pub. The lighting was a large roaring fire and sever candle chandeliers as well as a few candles on each table. The band playing was as old fashioned as the pub. An old, tarnished stand up tuba, a violin, a flute, an accordion, it was a folk dance band. The jaunt being played Fleur recognized immediately, though it made her smile for a short time. She was not used to this place at all, yet everyone around her spoke in the french they were born from, or learned. A few had a single Fleur De Lis on their flank, the cutie mark of a traditionally known french pony.

Though, she was high class. She was even a little snooty sometimes, but she was high class. Everyone there was either wearing something a peasant would wear, or wiped off all their make up and undid their hair. It was like watching a council of patriotic rich folk go insane. But...they were having fun.

"Bonjour Fleur!", Luna addressed the pinkish mare.

"Luna! Bonjour, voltre altesse!", Fleur bowed.

"Rise, no need for that."

"Luna, I'm not sure if you are the one for me to go to, but, I need help."

"What kind of help?"

"Well, I have been with Fancy Pants for some time now, as you know. He is my translator. But, I don't want to be just a French Ambassador and her Translator, I love him too much to even think of us like so. But, recently, he has found another mare."

"Well, it seems the odds are against you. He sees things differently. While I would respond to something that isn't perfect, like running a marathon like a hillpony, he would see it as an opportunity. He prefers less than the upper crust of Equestria."

"You mean, he would prefer to be with someone like Twilight sparkle, instead of someone like Miss Upper Crust?"

"If that is how it seems to you, then yes."

"So every morning applying a thick mask of make up to look beautiful, to get him to notice me, was all for nothing?"

"I wouldn't say so. Just think of how much he thinks of you, build from there."

"Thank you Luna, but why are you giving me this advice?"

"Oh, I have been around. It was a good one hundred years before that fateful night, one thousand years ago. I can't say I haven't been with a stallion or two of a...different look."

"Well, I'm not one to question another."

"Well, since you're here, why not join int eh festivities? It's fun!", Luna smiled.

Fleur smiled again, finally finding happiness in thoughts of joining the lesser known life of rich folk.

She was exhausted, plumb out exhausted. She could barely dance straight anymore. The music died down a while ago, switching to small lullabies and even legend songs. It was soothing though. But Fleur couldn't say she hadn't been drinking. Her thirst quickly built as she danced and sometimes she chugged entire mugs of the alcohol that the pub sold. At first, she was uneasy about it's strong taste, but the bitter, salty taste began to get better, even causing her to just sit back in a chair and drink down several mugs.

She was drunk indeed. Could not stand up straight, hanging to the side a litte. Her sight was slightly buzzed, seeing a picture which could barely be registered more than it was spinning.

"Fleur, you are drunk of your ass!", Luna laughed as Fleur stood again, nearly falling over as she hung on ehr left side.

"But, but you gotta think, what if there really are rats working a giant mechanism of gears underground? We'd have to call, call an army!"

"Like I, like I said, you're drunk!", Luna laughed harder.

"I'm serious, what if, what if they decide to just stop working, and talk away all our electricity!"

Luna fell over, her laughs carrying on with several others. Her disguise, a simple fedora to hide her horn, and it's enchantment to change her mane and tail into hair, fell out.

"Woops! Looks like the secrets otu!", Luna laughed again.

She got to her hooves, swaying from side to side in her own drunken state. Looking around, she found Fleur.

"Would, would you help me get home, I can't, can't remember where I parked my guards.", she chuckled weakly.

"Y-you could, you could, you could stay with me for the night. I, I mean, it's right, across the the street. There is, like, twenty bedrooms."

Luna looked on towards the spinning door, her smile fading as she thought that through.

"Yeah...yeah. That would, that would be better. That way I'll be sober in the morning. And then, then I could go home."

"Ok then, lets, lets go."

The two drunk mares left the pub, swinging from side to side, and even nearly falling over. The trip across the street was a lot worse, Fleur tripping over the curb as she stepped up onto the other side of the street. Luna ddidn't have as much luck, tripping as she stepped down off the curb on teh opposite curb, stumbling out into the middle of the street. Though, they both made it to Fancy's mansion. Fleur tried to go up the stairs but fell up them on the first step, only for Luna to help her up.

"Are you sure Fancy won't mind? I mean, he does own this mansion.", Luna said

"It's, it's ok. He doesn't get mad. But I'm not sure about that mare he was with earlier. That mare just, just doesn't go well with me."

"Well, she did take your stallion out on a date, talking to you about it like it was casual."

"If, if I see her, I'd like to just pull off all her hair, and shove it down her throat, make her taste revenge, er, whatever she'd be tasting. It'd probably taste hairy.", Fleur laughed.

Luna laughed as well, "Well, I'm about to fall, so...So where are the beds?"

Fleur looked at the room, seeing the familiar sight of her bed and Fancy's bed. Though, in her drunken state she couldn't see that Fancy and Elaza were clearly looking at the two drunken mares which had interrupted their time together. Though Fleur just laid down where she was and her eyes closed slightly.

"My bed...feels, like a rock. It feels, flat. You need, you need to feel this Luna.", Fleur said.

Luna didn't stand much longer, though, falling against the wall just inside the door and slumping down as she slept.

"Yeah, I know, it's probably even better, it'll probably get better...if I g to sleep. Yeah."

As she finished she almost passed out, laying her head down on her hooves, then fell asleep a few seconds after.

Out of the small venture they had getting across the street, the two drunken mares ended up falling asleep on the polished wooden floor. And not in a planned way. Fleur's mane was sprawled across where she slept, tangled in with ehr own tail. Luna on the other hand had just slid down the wall, laying against it.

Her head throbbed, like something inside was beating against her cranium, trying to get out. And upon knowing it, she awoke, looking at her surroundings. It was sunrise, definitely, but Luna was not in the room Fleur had walked into last night.

"Fleur. You're awake."

Fancy's voice only worsened the painful throbbing.

"Please be a little quieter...", Fleur pleaded.

"I saw you come in last night."

"Y-you did? Am I...in trouble or something?"

"No, no. I'm just, disappointed. You brought Princess Luna home, you cracked one of the front windows, you came home drunk, and I ound out about the window, the stool, and your angry shouting."

Fleur laid her head down, covering her eyes as she tried to hide her tears.

"I'm sorrryyy! I, I just got angry because you left with that mare, I hadn't even known about ehr before you told me you two were going on a date, and I...I just couldn't stand the pressure! I couldn't hold it in!", she sobbed.

Fancy put a hoof on her shoulder.

"I said I was disappointed in you, I didn't say I was angry about it or that I hated you for it."

"Fancy, I zink it better if we just leave her."

"Well, I'd like to stay. Out of the many things she told me of herself over the years, she is very sensitive. I will not leave her till she is happy once more."

"Well zen, Fancy, I take my leave. I have an appointment anyvay."

"Well, go then. I guess we will meet again in the park later?"

"As planned last night. Vich, might I add, was very...fun...Until the interruption..."

Fleur, catching what she said, sat bolt upright and grabbed the nightstand, throwing it at her, "Get out!!!"

Startling the mare, she skittered across the polished hardwood out the door.

"Fleur, my word, what has gotten into you?"

Holding her head in her hooves, she waited for the throbs to ease down before speaking.

"Fancy, I can't really explain it more than I already have. Not until I can get past commitment issues."

"Commitment? You mean you are in love with someone?"

"Yes!, thats what I've tried to tell you for years now."

"Well, then who is this sharming stallion?"

Fleur sighed and turned away, "You don't even understand, do you..."

"Fleur, I want to, but you just are not giving me enough to work with. I need a name, a sight, even, to even have a clue who this is."

"Fancy, I've lived with you for six years, how could you not know?"

"Because you never said anything."

It was true. She had kept her feelings for the stallion a secret from him for years. And not once did she tell anyone, not until yesterday.

"What do you think I am doing everytime I lean on you, stare into nothing, or sometimes even stand on you? You never even asked why I did that."

"Well, I expected you were just trying to find a comfortable position to stay by me. That, and I thought you jsut liked to stare at things all the time."

"Fancy, you are just too clueless."

"Fleur, I assure you, I am as aware of our relationship as Ambassador and Translator. If you wanted to ever spend some time together, you could have just asked."

"I couldn't. Commitment issues, remember?"

"Oh...Oh dear...Could I have been so blind?"

"I've clearly spent nearly every moment with you for six years now, how could you not have known?"

"It's embarrassingly remarkable how I have not noticed."

"But, now that you know...Would you spend more time with me, not as a translator, but as a..."

Fancy had stopped her.

Sighing deeply, he looked at her with his full attention, "Fleur, I can't just agree to that. It's like having a relationship with two mares. I'm afraid that I can not go to either of you, you or Elaza. Not until I've thought it through."

Fleur laid her head back down, "I understand."

"Listen, it's not a punishment, I'm not going to refuse either. But, Elaza and I were easily as drunk as you were last night, and...things got intimate. Leaving her will be harder for her to handle. It would cause a bigger problem than leaving you."

Fleur could feel her heart sink lower and lower.

"But...I'm not sure if leaving you will be easy for me. Not one bit. A competition between remorse for her and self forgiveness."

"So...You won't leave me?"

"I'll break it to her in three days. That will give her enough time to grow used to me a bit mroe. It will leave her heart broken, but it will be better for you and I."

"I'm not sure if I'd be able to handle that. I'd not be able to live without you."

"Well, lets not let that happen. Would you like some coffee or tea?"

"Yes, I would."

"Would you like to join me?"

"I'd love to."