The Super Speedy Warp'n Weavy 3000

Chapters

1: Enter The Brothers
3: Reunions and Heartsongs
4: Baroness Vs. Baroness
2: Previously, In Canterlot

1: Enter The Brothers

3rd of Ardeurmois, 0 ER

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the sky was brilliant blue, and it was neither too warm nor too cold. It was a welcome contrast to Chroma’s perpetual thunderstorm, which had recently ruled the skies over Ponyville and the Everfree and had nearly washed the town away before the Knights of Harmony had claimed their elements and driven away the mad alicorn.

Baroness Dame Adagio Dazzle wriggled slightly in her seat, luxuriating in the perfect weather, the delicious lunch she was enjoying, and the company of her friends. From its perch atop her mane, the Element of Magic radiated contentment and approval.

She’d forgotten how nice it could be to have friends. Between her parent’s death and her own confirmation, she’d had many acquaintances, and even a few allies, but no true friends. Most of those of her own rank she didn’t dare trust, the tactics she’d been forced to use meant that the rest didn’t trust her, and those few that she could trust, most prominently Iron Will and Suri Polomare, were too far below her in rank for a proper friendship. But now she had five real friends, ponies whom she knew she could trust and who, thanks to Queen Chrysalis’s knighting, were more or less of a rank with her.

“Nice work on the weather, Aria,” Adagio remarked to one of those five before carefully grasping a shell of folded bread stuffed with vegetable drenched in sauce in her field. Sonata Dusk’s “foldies” were delicious, but Adagio had learnt the hard way over the past few weeks that squeezing one the wrong way could squirt the contents of the bread shell all over her. It had taken Suri hours to get the stains out.

“Thanks,” replied Aria Blaze with a shrug. Then she snorted. “I’m just glad Chroma hasn’t decided to make her return. Wonder what she’s up to?”

“I don’t even dare guess,” replied Adagio. “I’m more worried about Echidna. We hit Chroma with the Elements, twice. That’s got to have had some impact on her. Plus, even before the Elements Chroma wasn’t quite as cruel as Echidna. She might have been crazy, but she did let the Ponyvillians alone after they bowed to her.”

“I bet I can make a guess at what those two are doing to each other,” chimed in Lightning Dust. “Two smoking hot mares who’ve been locked away for centuries? They’re going to be wanting to scratch some itches, if you get my meaning.”

There was a splortching noise as Starlight Glimmer squeezed her foldie too hard. Luckily, the contents went all over the table instead of all over her. “Lightning, that is disgusting!” she said, “Where did that idea get into your head? I thought you were into stallions.” Her eyes narrowed and she pulled away from Lightning Dust a bit. “Lightning, is there something I should know about you?”

Lightning burst out laughing. “Cadance’s wings, no! Don’t worry, Starling, your virtue’s safe with me,” she replied, shifting on the bench to throw a leg over Starlight’s withers. “Strictly stallions for this mare. But you don’t have to be into mares to know what looks hot to those who do. And Chroma and Echidna may be deranged maneiacs who threaten to usher in an era of darkness, but they’re also prime specimens of “athletic sexy” and “classical beauty”, respectively.”

Starlight slapped Lightning in the face with her foldie shell. “Honestly, Lightning, does it never cross your mind that two ponies might not succumb to their hormones at the earliest possible opportunity like rutting bonobos?”

“Nope!” replied Lightning with a grin, before taking another gulp of beer.

“You know, do we even know if Chroma and Echidna were into mares?” wondered Adagio. “I wish I could get another chat with Magic, there’s so much we don’t know.”

“I know, I know,” said Starlight. “But there isn’t exactly a lot of reliable information on the Elements, and what I have uncovered suggests that we were Harlequin-touched lucky you even got one chat. I haven’t been able to find even one reliable account of the Elements talking to their Bearers before we got ahold of them.”

Magic sent a brief flash of rebuke at Adagio. She winced internally. She hadn’t realized how her words would sound.

I still have a lot to learn about being a friend, she thought, doing her best to emote contrition back at Magic.

“Sorry,” she said out loud. “It’s just a little disturbing, realizing how much is going on that we don’t understand.”

“You can say that again,” said Starlight. There was a moment’s pause, while Adagio and (presumably) her friends reflected on the revelations the Element of Magic had dumped onto them during her vision in Master Tirek’s cave. Adagio once again reminded herself to look up Master Tirek in the history books. She had a gut feeling that the crazy old centaur knew more about the Elements of Harmony that he had let on at the time. She was even beginning to suspect that he might have been the sixth Bearer of the Elements, alongside the five loyal alicorns.

“I probably should make a dirty joke at this point, to relieve the tension, but nothing’s coming to mind,” chimed in Lightning Dust. “Though speaking of relieving tension…”

Adagio’s horn lit up, and an amber aura formed around Lightning Dust’s mouth. Her lips continued to move, but no sound came out.

“Thank you,” said Starlight. Evidently giving up on talking until Adagio unmuted her, Lightning finished off her beer mug and then switched to making funny faces.

A few moments later, Sonata trotted by their table, an empty tray across her back. “Hey, Dagi,” she asked, “When will Iron and Suri be getting back here? I miss the big guy already.”

“That’s just because he always pays extra,” said Adagio with a laugh.

“Hey!” said Sonata, fake-incensed. “I like Iron Will for a lot more than just his bits!” There was a moment of absolute silence as everypony processed what Sonata had just said, then Lightning Dust slumped in her seat and began to shake with silent laughter. The earth pony’s cheeks went from blue to purple as she blushed.

“Well,” said Sonata eventually, “unlike some ponies, Iron Will always has something nice to say. It’s a trait more ponies could stand to emulate.”

“Not going to argue with that one,” admitted Adagio, “I love that about him too. And Iron and Suri should be getting back from Canterlot sometime early tomorrow.”

“Yay!” chirped Sonata, then she cocked her ears. “Whups, the fish is singing. I gotta run!” Suiting action to word, she disappeared back into the kitchen at a dash.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You know, I still can’t believe that she uses the Element of Kindness to cook with,” remarked Adagio some time later, as she trotted back towards her manor. “Or rather, I suppose I can believe it, it’s very Sonata, but it still doesn’t feel right.”

“Why not?” asked Aria from alongside her. “If the Element didn’t want to be used to cook things, why would it turn into a cooking implement? Besides, it works really well. She hasn’t burnt a thing in that pan yet.”

“I know, it just feels weird. Somehow the concepts of “ancient artifacts of phenomenal cosmic power” and “cooking lunch” don’t feel like they should go together. It’s like if you were reading through The Fall Of Roam and there was a passage declaring the glories of Sweet Apple cider.”

“Well, is that really any weirder than the fact that we have the Elements in the first place?” retorted Aria. “The Elements aren’t just legends and stories anymore. This, us sitting here and eating foldies, this is just as much part of the saga of the Elements as the sealing of the Fallen.”

Before Adagio could reply, a new voice rang out.

“Well, lookie what we got here, brother of mine, it's the same in every town
Come, my little ponies, come and gather round.”

Adagio glanced up to see that a large house-wagon-thingy had pulled up in the middle of Everfree Square. A unicorn with a cream-colored coat and a bright red mane clad in a striped suit and a straw bowler hat had climbed out of the wagon and was singing at an incredible rate, head thrown back and forelegs lifted high.

“For I am Flim,” sang the unicorn,

“And I am Flam,” sang a second unicorn, identical to the first save for the presence of a bright red mustache, as he leapt out of the wagon.

“And we’re the world famous Flim Flam Brothers,” sang the two in unison.

“Traveling artificers nonpariel.”

“Nonpawhat?” interjected Apple Bloom.

“Nonpareil,” repeated the one with the mustache, “and that's exactly the reason why, you see, Nowhere else can you find this wonderful opportunity.

“For I am Flim,” sang the one without the mustache.

“And I am Flam,” sang the one with the mustache.

“And we’re the world famous Flim Flam Brothers.”

“Traveling artificers nonpareil.”

Both horns lit up with identical bright green auras as dozens of assorted items were levitated out of the interior of their cart.

“We bring lights to light your house,” sang Flim.

“A trap to catch a mouse,” sang Flam.

“A skillet to cook a meal,”

“A tool to apples peel,”

“And this, my ponies, is just the start,”

“Of the wonders in our cart,”

“But first, before we share our hoard,”

“We must seek out the local lord,”

“For we must have with her a word,”

“And she your lengthy song has heard,” sang Adagio as she stepped into the square, her own horn glowing amber.

“What you seek is here at hand,” she continued.
“I am the mistress of this land,”
“Let us repair to my own place,”
“And there you may present your case.”

“Raindrops, keep an eye on these gentleponies’ cart while we’re talking, would you,” said Adagio, dropping out of song. The two unicorns climbed down a set of stairs that extended from the door of their house-wagon, and Raindrops promptly trotted over to take a seat on the steps.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Adagio took a seat behind her desk, briefly wishing that Suri was there. Though the earth pony mare was no longer Adagio’s servant, she was still her assistant and companion, and Adagio could use her insights in dealing with these peculiar ponies.

“Well, gentlestallions, I believe you had something to discuss with me?” said Adagio.

“Why, as it happens, yes we do,” sang the one with the moustache.

“My lady, have we got a deal for you!” sang the one without the moustache.

“A chance to get in on the next great thing,”

“Cock your ears, opportunity’s knocking,”

“For I am Flim,” sang the one with the moustache.

“And I am Flam,” sang the one without the moustache.

“And we’re the world famous Flim Flam brothers,
Traveling artificers nonpareil,” they continued in unison.

Wait a moment, thought Adagio. Wasn’t the one with the mustache Flam when they were doing this song back in the square

“And my brother and I have something most unique and superb”
“Unseen at any time in this big new world”

I must have just lost track of which of them’s which. They really are so close to identical it’s creepy. And that song doesn’t help matters. They’re good at juggling their song until you lose track of who said what. Very hypnotic, if you don’t know how to counter such things.

“Oh we’ve got opportunity
In this very community”

Ok, this is getting silly.

Adagio’s horn lit up amber and she stepped into the song.

“Eloquence is silver,
But brevity is gold.
Could you get to the point
Before we all grow old?”

The unicorn brothers looked taken aback, but continued their song gamely.

“To come to the point then, and frankly speak,” sang one.

“We from you patronage seek.”

“Ideas we have, which a fortune could bring,”

“But we lack enough funding, and a noble’s ring.”

“Give us funding and backing, and we’ll repay you tenfold.”

“And we offer proof of our skills. Behold!”

The one with the mustache ignited his horn and levitated what seemed to be a set of annotated blueprints over to Adagio.

“The unbelievable

“Unimpeachable”

“Indispensable”

“I-can't-believe-able”

“Flim Flam Brothers' Super Speedy Warp’n Weavy Three Thousaaaaand!”

They dragged out the last syllable into a crescendo, before snapping shut their mouths and taking identical bows.

“Okay, so what am I looking at here?” asked Adagio, squinting curiously at the blueprints. As a properly educated noblemare, she had a good grasp of basic magical theory, but these blueprints were as opaque to her as if they’d been written in Lóng Huà.

“The Super Speedy Warp’n Weavy Three Thousand,” said one of the brothers

“A revolutionary development in automagic and fashion.” said the other.

“Capable of cutting, stitching, and sewing a perfectly fitted dress or suit for any body type within minutes.”

“And with our new chromatic relationship modules, it can even select colors and styles to best accent its wearer’s unique appearance.”

“Making clothing available even to the common pony.”

“And making you a considerable sum of money should you choose to back it.”

“A mere five hundred gold or so should be sufficient for us to acquire the remaining supplies and materials to build this device.”

“And in return, you would receive up to fifty percent of the profits from this device.”

“And this is merely one device, we have ideas for dozens more.”

Adagio’s head was beginning to spin as the two brothers talked faster and faster, volleying their lines back and forth like a pair of fencers.

“And there is very minimal risk to you. Even should The Super Speedy Warp’n Weavy Three Thousand not be a success, you would still have us in your service.”

“We have strong horns and clever minds, and you’ve already heard our singing voices should you want evening entertainment.”

“Or if you are interested in the other form of evening entertainment, we would be willing to oblige, for sufficient recompense.”

“I’m sure we’d be able to earn our keep in some fashion or the other.”

Adagio felt a burst of outrage at the brother’s innuendo, but refused to let it show on her face. Instead, she ignited her horn and channeled the outrage into a sharp-edged blade of sound that cut across Flim and Flam’s pitch.

“Enough. I’ll need to think about your proposal, and there is a crowd of ponies outside waiting to buy your more regular wares. Go take care of them, I will get back to you when I have made a decision one way or the other.”

The two stallions exchanged a quick glance before trotting out of the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Adagio flipped through her ledgers, wishing again that Suri were there. She could use somepony else to check her numbers, and to share her thoughts with. Unfortunately, Suri wouldn’t get back from the capital until the next day, and there really wasn’t anypony else that Adagio shared quite that same level of casual intimacy with. Even her other four friends were simply too new for the relationship to feel quite so natural.

I want to help them. I desperately need more businesses and trade in my lands, and if those two can do what they say they can they’d be a gift from Harmony. But I don’t really know them, and becoming their patron would be a pretty big commitment.

Perhaps I could just loan them the money they say they need? That would still be a risk, but much less of one. Between some clever politics and the reward from Queen Chrysalis for her and her friends’ actions when Chroma had assaulted Ponyville, she’d managed to pay off most of the debts that Fancy Pants’s mismanagement had saddled her with. Even so, five hundred gold livres would strain her finances to the breaking point. On the other hoof, the payoff if it worked would be huge.

Suri would love this, floated across her mind. She was always complaining about how unicorns have an unfair advantage at tailoring because telekinesis is so much more versatile than mouth and hooves. If this thing works the way I think it works, it will take that difference out of the equation. It will be purely down to the creative skill of the pony in question.

Baroness Dame Adagio Dazzle raised her head, her mind made up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Thirty bits from the mare in the back! Thirty bits is bid, do I hear thirty-five?”

As Flam chanted from the cart’s folding stage, Flim rummaged through the brothers’ stock, looking for anything else that might be popular. A large part of the trick was to never stop selling once they’d started. Even going off with Baroness Dazzle like that had been a calculated risk, though luckily it seemed to have whetted the crowd’s appetite. But the minute they stopped pulling out items and were forced to wait for requests, the fervor that drove the crowd would fade.

“Thirty bits going once, Thirty bits going twice… Sold! To the yellow mare with the red bow for thirty silver bits.”

The mare in question trotted forward to receive her purchase, an automagical-cranked four-spindle apple peeler.

Flim stepped back into the carriage, and Flam stepped forward to take his place, levitating his find in his aura.

“Mares and Gentlestallions, the next item on our list comes to you all the way from the Minoan City-States, beyond the borders of the Heartlands. A genuine hand-carved minotaur puzzle cube, deceptively simple yet endlessly engaging. You will observe that each of the individual squares has been stained one of six different shades. By rotating the individual layers like so-” Flam twisted the cube with his magic, demonstrating how it was to be operated. “-it is possible to get all the squares of a given shade on one side, such that each side is a single color. But possible is by no means easy. What am I bid for this wonder?”

“Three jangles!” shouted a colt from near the front.

“Three jangles? Really, three jangles for such an exotic treasure as this? Very well, three jangles from the colt in the funny hat. Would anyone care to make a bit more serious bid?”

“Six jangles!” called out a lilac unicorn filly from the other side of the front arc.

“Seven!” retorted the colt.

Flim took a breath, and when there were no immediate replies resumed his chant. “Very well, seven jangles is bid. Do I hear twelve? Seven jangles going once, Seven jangles going-”

“Two sous!” A familiar voice cut through Flam’s patter like a knife, and he glanced up to see the Baroness at the back, where she must have just arrived.

“Very well, two bits from Baroness Dazzle. Would anyone care to make it five? Two bits going once, two bits going twice… Sold! To Baroness Dazzle at two silver bits.”

The Baroness trotted forward and passed the brothers their bits.

“Once you’re finished here, come back up to my house,” she said quietly as she took her purchase. “I have looked over your blueprints, and I have a proposition for you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Much later, after most of Ponyville had left for dinner, Flim and Flam trotted up to Baroness Dazzle’s house. Behind them, their wagon was locked and what security spells they could lay were in place upon it.

As they trotted up, Flam allowed a small flicker of hope to begin to grow inside him. If Baroness Dazzle was interested enough to make a proposition, then the brothers had already gotten past the first obstacle to their success.

Now, “proposition” could mean a lot of different things, but Flim was hoping that the Baroness was about to offer them a patronage contract. A full contract of patronage would mean the brothers would become part of Baroness Dazzle’s household. It would mean that she would be bound to provide them with a decent salary, a budget to invent with, and her protection from other nobles and powerful ponies. It would mean security, safety, and a chance to bring their dreams to life without having to worry about money or noble wrath.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a totally one-sided arrangement. As their patron, Baroness Dazzle would have the authority to dictate what they could or could not build, and she would take half (or maybe more, depending on the exact details of the contract) of the profits from their inventions. But even half a large fortune was still a small fortune, and Flam was confident that the Baroness would approve of at least some of their ideas.

A pony in the Baroness’s orange and purple livery answered the door and escorted them to the study, where the Baroness was waiting for them.

“Well, sirs,” said Baroness Dazzle, “I’ve reviewed your proposal, and while your ideas are impressive, I’m not prepared to offer you patronage on just words.”

Flam flinched internally.

“However,” said Baroness Dazzle, emphasizing the word carefully, “I am prepared to lend you five hundred livres to build your automagical clothing maker. If I am sufficiently impressed by your work when it is finished, I may offer you a contract of patronage. Naturally, should I do so the loan would be wiped out. And if I am not interested in offering you my patronage, or if you do not wish to accept it once the machine is finished, you will still have the finished machine, and should be able to use the money it brings in to repay the loan.”

And if anything goes wrong, thought Flim, we lose everything. If we can’t get the machine to work, or if it isn’t as big a hit as we think it will be, then she’ll take our cart and tools and stock to recoup her losses. And take us as indentured servants as well. If we take this offer, then either we win big, or we lose for good.

“Well,” asked Baroness Dazzle. “What do you say?”

The two brothers exchanged glances and nods. Each of them knew exactly what the other would say. They really didn’t have any choice. Baroness Dazzle was very nearly the last potential patron left. Either they took her offer, or they for all intents and purposes gave up on ever achieving their dreams. Better to try and fail then never try at all.

“We accept,” said the brothers in unison.

Author's Note

EDIT: 10/08/17: Was rereading When It Rains, and I realized that given the described location of the Southern Breeze, Adagio couldn’t have heard the brother’s song from there. So I made a slight edit to put her in the right place at the right time.

3: Reunions and Heartsongs

1rst of Ardeurmois, 0 ER

Suri had been to The Queen’s Mane before, though not for a while. It was up towards the upper edge of quality, and the prices had been rather outside her budget during her time with Adagio. Of course, she could easily afford it now with her royal reward and the funds Starlight had given her down in Cetum Cellae. She supposed that that made picking it as the location for her and Sassy’s dinner a minor case of wish fulfillment on her part, but she felt that she was entitled to the odd wish fulfilment.

And there came Sassy now, trotting through the crowds. She’d clearly had a chance to get prepared for the dinner, as she was now brushed and curried and dressed in what appeared to be a saddle of ribbed silk, with glittering beads around the edges.

Sassy held her tongue with visible effort until the two ponies had entered the restaurant, been shown their table, taken their seats, and ordered drinks and appetizers.

“So how’d it go?” asked Sassy the instant the waitress departed.

Suri had spent a few idle moments contemplating exactly how to answer that question while waiting for Sassy to arrive. She knew she should probably avoid mentioning anything about her feelings regarding Baroness Pommel. While she trusted her friend’s character implicitly, she didn’t necessarily trust Sassy’s discretion. The mare was horrible at keeping secrets.

“Well enough, I suppose,” she replied. “Prim Hemline stated that I’m free to reenter the Guild as a journeymare, though I’ll have to present a masterpiece just like anypony else if I want to make master. Speaking of which, are you planning on attempting a masterpiece anytime soon? It’s been nearly five years since you became a journeymare and I’d love to see you make mistress.”

“Actually, Ah have been thinking about that. Here, take a look.” Sassy’s horn lit up, and an image took shape in the air between them.

Suri whistled. “Luster’s hooves, but that’s beautiful!” she said. “It looks like it’s made out of glass.”

“Glad you like the idea,” said Sassy with a grin. “Ah’ve been doing some practice samples with linen and glass beads, but Ah’ll need silk and gems for the real thing. Lots of silk and gems. Practice only gets you so far if it’s not with the good stuff. Been saving up some to afford those.”

“Well, I could loan you some bits if you need it,” said Suri.

“Nah,” said Sassy. “Ah appreciate the offer, but Ah’m not in a huge hurry. Ah can take mah time, earn the money Ah need fair and square.” She took a sip of water. “And speakin’ of masterpieces, any ideas what you might do for yours? Dunno how much time you’ve had to think about fashion while you were with Baroness Dazzle, but Ah figured you’d have to have at least put a few minutes into it.”

“No really clear ideas,” admitted Suri. “Up until a few weeks ago, I was a servant, and as far as I knew it could be years before I even became a journeymare again. It seemed kind of silly to try and think about masterpieces when I wasn’t even sure I would ever get back in the Guild at all. And since Chroma I’ve been too busy just trying to get a handle on this new life to really think about tailoring.”

“Ah see,” said Sassy. “Hay, speakin’ of Chroma, what really happened there? Ah’ve heard the rumors, of course, but they’re pretty loopy, and half of them don’t agree with the other two-thirds.”

“Well,” replied Suri, “It all started with the Festival of Remembrance, of course…”

They got through the appetizers and were well into the main courses (squash soup with croutons and candied apple bits for Suri and a mixed vegetable salad for Sassy), before Suri had brought them back to Ponyville and to their knighting.

“… And since then we’ve all been pretty busy just trying to get our new lives in order,” finished Suri.

“Wow,” replied Sassy. “You know, Suri, I’m not sure which weirds me out more: that all these crazy things are happening to you or that you aren’t more weirded out by them. If Ah had your life, Ah think Ah’d be running around screaming like a banshee. At least you got a really nice cloak out of the deal. What in Luster’s spangly flanks is it made of anyway?”

“No idea,” replied Suri with a wry smile. “It looks like silk, obviously, but it feels as soft as wool. Plus it didn’t get scuffed or burnt or torn, even when Chroma threw us all over the place or shot lightning at us. And on top of all that, the color seems to be a part of the cloth, not like a dye.”

“No kidding,” said Sassy. “Ah’m not sure even Tauran red can get that bright a red.”

“Starlight’s best guess is that the cloaks and weapons and jewelry are made out of solid Harmony magic,” continued Suri, “not out of metal and crystal and cloth. That would explain why we don’t recognize half the materials.”

“Paisley and poplins,” muttered Sassy.

“Maybe we should talk about something else,” said Suri. “Anything interesting happening in the Guild these days?”

“Well...” said Sassy, “Bottom Nick has made master.”

Suri whistled. “I bet that tweaked a few tails,” she said. “A donkey jack as a Guild master?”

“Yeah, but even Baroness Pommel had to acknowledge that he’s dead good. Has this trick of weaving metal wire into clothes and making the most beautiful designs with it… Here, take a look.” Her horn lit up again, and an image of a waistcoat decorated with a design of tiny golden suns took shape above the table.

“Wow,” said Suri. “That is beautiful.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4th of Ardeurmois, 0 ER

“So what did those two unicorns want?” asked Starlight, peering over the edge of her tea cup

She and Adagio were sharing a breakfast in the sitting room of her tower this morning, after the latter had stopped by for an unexpected social call. It had been a slight surprise as Starlight wasn’t exactly used to other nobles wanting to spend time with her. But, most of the other Heartlands nobles weren’t bound together by mystical artifacts of harmony and friendship.

Adagio swallowed one of Sugar Belle’s blueberry muffins. “They were looking for patronage and funding. Apparently they have a lot of really impressive ideas, but they need funds and noble protection to put them into practice. I told them that I wasn’t about to offer them patronage without something more concrete than words, but I did manage to scrape together a five hundred livre loan to let them build one of their designs. Some kind of automagical sewing machine thingy. If they’re as good as they say they are, I’ll probably offer them patronage, and then they can either take it or pay back the loan with the profits they’ll make from that device.”

Five hundred livres, thought Starlight. Luster’s horn. Living on the road like that, those two almost certainly don’t have anything to their names beyond what’s in that cart, and there’s no way that’s worth anything close to five hundred livres.

Adagio, what have you done?

“And what happens if their machine doesn’t work?” she said out loud.

Adagio froze for a moment, a butter knife held motionless in her aura. When she spoke, her voice was just a shade too casual. “Then I suppose they’ll have to find some other way of paying back the loan.”

“Some other way like being bound in indenture?” said Starlight pointedly.

“If it comes to that,” replied Adagio.

Starlight grit her teeth, a surge of anger flowing through her. “Adagio! You’re playing with those stallions’ lives! You know how easily the system is abused and you just...eagerly run into it? Was this really the only option you had?”

Adagio blinked back at her, frowning deeply. “Starlight...do you really think so little of me? After everything we went through together?”

“...That’s not fair,” Starlight sighed, her ears drooping. “Adagio...why didn’t you come to me? I could have helped cover the bill, or maybe-”

“You still have free assets after buying out Suri’s contract?”

Starlight slumped. “Well, not right now, but there are some things I could move around.”

“And if you somehow wind up indentured from selling every bit of property you own, you can’t help anypony!” Adagio fired back. “And I won’t be able to support you while bankrupt! You may be the Element of Generosity, but that doesn’t mean you have to destroy yourself trying to save everypony!”

Starlight didn’t know what to say to that, but Adagio wasn’t done. “This is what frustrates me about you, Starlight! You’re so smart, and your heart is in the right place, but sometimes you completely refuse to consider the consequences of what you’re proposing. And I don’t just mean the consequences to you. What do you think would happen if you abolished indentures and debtor’s prisons?”

“No more ponies would be enslaved and abused!” retorted Starlight.

“And poor ponies wouldn’t be able to get loans, wouldn’t have any way to start new businesses,” said Adagio. “Ponies aren’t stupid. Nopony who routinely makes risky loans stays in business long. Buck, take these two unicorns. The only reason I could risk loaning them those five hundred livres is because they could put up their indenture as collateral. Yes, the system can be abused. But the solution isn’t to abolish it, it’s to fix it. Tighten up the laws, make sure the ones we have are enforced, get the decent nobles to band together and boycott the ones that abuse the laws.”

“...Fine,” Starlight almost spat. Capitulating felt like ash in her mouth. “This time, Adagio. This time I won’t...say anything if this goes badly. But this isn’t right. There has to be a better way.”

Adagio sighed, getting to her hooves. “I’m sorry Starlight. Really. I don’t actually like this sort of thing, you know. I just don’t see any other way to make it work.”

“...I know.”

As her friend left, Starlight Glimmer couldn’t help but stew.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ow, thought Flim as he awoke. He lay there for an indeterminate amount of time, and eventually came to the conclusion that his head really hurt. After a further indeterminate length of time, he determined that he probably had a hangover, which was followed with surprising swiftness by the thought that he should pour himself a dose of the brothers’ hangover cure. A groan from his brother’s slumped form reminded him that he should pour his brother a dose of the cure as well.

A few minutes later, after both brothers had finished the shudders and spasms that accompanied the cure working through their system, they exchanged glances.

“Well, my brother--” said Flam.

“--I believe we may have gone a tad too far celebrating our success last night,” continued Flim.

“Or perhaps the distance we traveled was just right,” said Flam, a shower of green sparkles from his horn illuminating a hastily scrawled blueprint tacked to one wall of their cramped cart.

“I am hungry, and so are you,” said Flim. “I shall go get us something nice for breakfast---”

“---While I attempt to reconstruct last night’s work,” finished Flam.

Different ponies responded in different ways to alcohol. In the brothers’ case, they had discovered long ago that when they got very drunk, they tended to break through into a narrow window where they could make intuitive leaps and logical connections that would never have occurred to them sober. Unfortunately, while this alcohol-fueled inspiration was excellent at creating breakthroughs, it tended to leave the brothers in no fit state to record their thoughts. This was far from the first morning that Flam had been required to puzzle out what in Midnight’s mane his brother and he had invented the previous night.

In this case, Flim and Flam seemed to have invented an automatic apple-picking and cider-pressing machine. It would need a lot more work even to get the blueprints to the point where the brothers knew roughly how to build the device, much less actually go ahead and build it, but the basic concept seemed doable. That wasn’t always the case, unfortunately. Some months ago, the brothers had woken up after trying to drink away the pain of one of their earliest rejections to find what purported to be blueprints for a second Sun. They never had managed to figure out how that had been supposed to work.

By the time Flam had finished the preliminary annotations and added the blueprints to the brothers’ idea stash, Flim had returned with an egg-and-fried-grains casserole from the Southern Breeze. Over savory food and strong coffee, the brothers began to lay out their plans. They had three months to finish their device before they had to start making payments on the loan the Baroness had given them. Three months, for all intents and purposes, until they would have either won their dreams or lost everything. They might be able to make a few payments before they’d have to start selling their tools, but not many.

“First things first,” said Flim. “Before we even start on the actual job, we need to familiarize ourselves with the town a bit. And we need to restock on foodstuffs.”

“And drinks,” said Flam, opening a cabinet. “We’re out again. I think I saw a place selling cider on the way in here…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Ah know this is probably rude,” said Apple Bloom as she rolled out a barrel of cider, “but Ah got to ask: How come you two have apples for your cutie marks when your talent is for making devices? Are we related or something? Cos as far as I’ve ever heard the only reasons you’d have an apple for a mark are because your talent has something to do with apples, or because you are an Apple and your mark’s reflecting your heritage.”

“Well,” said… whichever one of them had the mustache... “In the first place, our talent’s not actually for making devices--”

“--though that’s a common misconception--” continued No Mustache.

“--it’s for finding solutions--” said Mustache.

“--or filling in holes, or however you want to put it.” said No Mustache.

“Just like his mark fills in the gap in mine, so we see how to fill in the gaps in things.”

“We know what it is ponies want and need.”

“When one of our inventions doesn’t work, we can see exactly what parts are missing to make it work.”

“Etcetera and so forth.”

“But to loop back to your original question, we really have no idea whether we’re related to you.”

“Our marks do in part come from a familial connection to the fruit business.”

“The rest of our family are unicorn field hands, working in the orchards of Countess Jubilee over near the border with the Solar Prelate.”

“Though most of her farmers are of course earth ponies, she makes it a point to keep a few unicorns on hoof to do things that would be difficult to manage with mouth and hooves and help with picking the fruit.”

“It’s not a bad life. We have a brother and a sister still working there. Pays well enough.”

“Just too boring for us. We were attracted to more intellectual and creative tasks.”

“But in any case, that is where we come from.”

“So, do you have family over in that part of the Heartlands?”

Apple Bloom was so disoriented by the unicorns’ rapid-fire juggling of lines that it took her a minute to realize that she’d been asked a question.

“Well, we have family just about everywhere,” she replied. “The saying’s that wherever you find apple trees, you find Apple ponies tending them, and that’s more true than it ain’t. But Ah don’t think there’s all that many Apple unicorns. Probably just a coincidence. Kind of a shame, it’d be interesting if we were related.”

“That it would,” said Mustache cheerfully. “In any case, my thanks for the cider. And I do hope you’re enjoying your new apple peeler.”

“Haven’t really got a chance to try it out yet,” said Apple Bloom. “But I’ll be sure to let you know what Ah think of it once Ah do get a chance to use it.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As she came out into Everfree Square, Suri blinked in surprise. Parked in the center of the square was a large house-wagon combination, such as was sometimes used by wandering performers or merchants. One side of it had folded out into a kind of impromptu patio, and a pair of unicorn stallions were seated at a table on that stage, working away at something. They were clad in identical striped suits, wore identical straw hats, and had the same pale cream coats and dull red manes. In fact, the only differences between them seemed to be that one of them had a mustache.

“Hello,” she called out as she trotted into the square. “I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.”

To her surprise, the one with the mustache burst into song.

“Well, my brother, take a look
And say you unto me,
Is this who I think it is?
See you what I see?”

The one without the mustache responded.

“Well, my brother, I do see
A pony standing there.
Methinks ‘tis the one and only
Dame Suri Polomare!”

“But who are you?” Suri heard herself say.

“Ah, that’s our cue,” sang Mustache.

“Well, I am Flim,” he continued.

“And I am Flam,” replied the one without the mustache.

“And we’re the world-famous Flim Flam Brothers,”
“Traveling artificers nonpareil.”
“And we’ve got opportunity,” they sang together, “in this very community.”

“For to Baroness Dazzle we did propose and unfold,” sang Flam, now singing far more quickly.

“A plan that promises to bring her a full mountain of gold,” replied Flam at the same ear-blurring speed. Suri’s head began to spin trying to keep up with their song.

“And when the Baroness our plans did behold,”

“She quickly determined not to leave us out in the cold.”

“And a five hundred bit loan she gave us to hold.”

“I suppose by now you’re wondering, from whence this gold shall come.”

“Any horse can make a claim, and any pony can do the same.”

“But my brother and I have something most unique and superb, unseen at any time in this new world.”

Suri’s head was swimming by now. Everything seemed a bit fuzzy, except for the song. The wonderful, wonderful, song. She had to keep listening, and she had to have whatever the brothers were trying to describe.

“Folks, it’s the one and only, the biggest and the best,” sang one of the brothers.

“The unbelievable,” sang the other.

“Unimpeachable.” Most of the onlooking ponies joined in on this line.

“Indispensable.” Iron Will came in on this line, his deep voice booming through the town square like a drum.

“I-can’t-believe-able,” Suri heard herself singing along.

“Super Speedy Warp’n Weavy Three Thousaaaand!!!” The song finished on a crescendo that shook the windows facing the square.

“Coming soon to a town square near you,” said Impressive Mustache with a bow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The blade came whistling down at Adagio’s head, and she brought up her rapier to block. The two blades made an odd crackling noise that rang through her manor’s courtyard when they came together, a result of the safety spell Moon Dancer had cast on them before the match began. This was only practice, after all, and there was no point in getting anypony hurt.

Moon Dancer’s blade whipped through intricate arcs, probing Adagio’s defenses. Adagio carefully countered, weaving her own amber-glowing blade around Moon Dancer’s weapon. The fight was fairly evenly matched. Moon Dancer was the more skilled of the two, as befitted a guard, but Adagio had put in a fair amount of practice herself.

And Adagio’s Harmonic rapier was a truly masterful weapon, so well made and perfectly balanced that it felt more like an extension of her will than an object she needed to manipulate. She particularly liked how it sounded when it hissed through the air. Just like its mistress, the Sword of Friendship went forth to battle singing.

Both unicorns didn’t move that much, focused on the blades that danced between them in their telekinetic grips. Now and again one of them would jump to one side or leap back to avoid a blade thrust.

Adagio saw Moon Dancer’s forehoof move, and just barely managed to jump to the side. A kicked pebble shot through where her horn had been just a moment before. Had that connected, the backlash would have left Adagio dazed and wide open for a strike.

But now Moon Dancer was momentarily unbalanced and distracted. Adagio’s rapier leapt out, swatting aside Moon Dancer’s own blade and striking her on the flank. There was a flash, and Moon Dancer yelped with pain and fell over on her side. The safety spell kept the blades from actually drawing blood, but a hit would still sting painfully, as well as leaving a line of glow in Moon Dancer’s pale lavender on her hide to mark the touch.

Moon Dancer clambered to her feet and her horn flashed pale lavender. The safety spells on the blades fell apart into raw mana, and the lines of light on her and Adagio’s bodies faded away.

“Two out of five matches,” said Moon Dancer, panting slightly. “Not bad, your Ladyship.”

“Thank you, Moon,” said Adagio. “If I’m going to be the Heartland’s first line of defense against the likes of Chroma and Echidna, I’ll need the practice.” She flourished her Harmonic rapier for no particular reason.

A little off to the side, there was a crash. Aria and Raindrops had also been sparring, and it appeared Aria had tried to put Raindrops in a headlock. They’d both fallen out of the sky, but Raindrops had managed to twist at the last minute so that she landed on top of Aria, knocking the wind out of her. The two struggled for a moment more before Aria slumped limply. Raindrops rolled off her and helped her to her hooves.

“And so will the rest of us,” noted Adagio as she turned and began to trot off towards her house in search of a bath. “I really don’t know what to do about Suri or Sonata. They’re not warriors at all. Lightning’s a Ranger, Aria’s strong and I think she’s had some martial arts training, I’ve practiced with the rapier and know some combat magic, and Starlight knows all sorts of spells. But Suri and Sonata…Obviously they have to come along, that’s how the Elements work. But I worry about leading them into fights when they don’t have any kind of combat skills.”

Moon Dancer said nothing. Which was fair enough, since Adagio hadn’t really been talking to her. Just thinking things through out loud. Her thoughts were instead interrupted by the distant noise of a song coming from the town square. At first she didn’t pay the song any particular heed, but then she heard the booming of Iron Will’s voice joining in.

Iron Will? she thought. He and Suri must have gotten back from their trip. On a hunch, she ignited her horn and reached out, probing for certain very specialized magical emanations to which her mark sensitized her.

Yes, that’s a heartsong. Strong one, by the feel, and it seems to have just climaxed. Wonder what set it off? No prizes for guessing who.

She trotted over to Everfree Square and sure enough, it was packed with ponies just rousing from the song trance.

“Adagio!” boomed Iron happily.

“Iron, Suri!” replied Adagio with a smile. “So good to see you! I’d give you a hug, but I know I’m all sweaty. So just give me a few minutes to get a bath and get the rest of the girls together, and you can tell us all about your trip.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Perhaps half an hour later, the seven were gathered together on the patio of the Southern Breeze, enjoying another fine day and the fruits of Sonata’s skill.

“So,” asked Adagio, “How did the trip go? What did Mistress Hemline have to say?”

“Well,” said Suri, “Mistress Hemline was actually quite fair. Laid out the rules, but she didn’t seem to be holding a grudge, and she actually did quite a lot to help me out. Basically, the ruling was that when you bought my indentures, you took on all the debts I owed the Guild for the stunts I pulled. So when the Queen knighted me and wiped out my debts to you, all the debts were wiped out. I’m free to rejoin the Guild as a journeymare, and Mistress Hemline even confirmed that the Guild won’t object to my continuing to serve as your assistant for a while.”

“That’s wonderful!” said Adagio, a huge smile breaking out on her face.

“Yeah, but then we get to the Scorpan in the council. Pommel was there, and she was just as, well, Pommel as ever. Tried to make the whole thing into a dominance fight. She basically said that either I surrender to her, or she’ll go out of her way to ruin me again. And even Prim Hemline agreed that I had to do something to publically reconcile with the Guild, or else it would look like I was trying to defy them, and that would give Pommel an excuse to step on me again. Obviously I couldn’t just accept Pommel’s dominance, but I couldn’t afford to get into a fight with the Guild either. So I pleaded the need to talk to you and got out of there.”

“Ouch,” said Adagio, grimacing.

“I feel like I’m missing something,” said Starlight. “What’s the deal with Baroness Pommel? It sounds like there’s something a little more than the usual “noble” antics going on here.”

“Yeah,” said Suri, flinching internally. “The short version is that after I finished my apprenticeship under Prim Hemline, I didn’t want to wait until I attained mastery to open my own shop. I moved to Manehatten, in the Solar Prelate, and tried to open my own store. In retrospect, I probably wouldn’t have gotten away with it anyway, but Pommel decided to go out of her way to get vengeance for my going outside the Guild. Seemed to feel that I was defying her authority.”

“Mistress Hemline went along with it, mostly because I had broken Guild rules and she’s as bad as the Bloody Baroness about such things. They drove me out of business in a matter of months, left me deeply indentured. After that, Mistress Hemline pretty much ignored me. Pommel, under the other hoof, decided to drive home the lesson. Gave me all the worst jobs: Wool dying, leather tanning, all the things that were grimy, boring, and had no actual craftsponyship to them.”

“And that’s where I come in,” said Adagio. She grimaced wryly. “I really wish I could say that I bought Suri’s indenture out of kindness, but honestly it was mostly because I was tired of Fleur De Lis sneering at me for not having any servants and because I wanted to do something to mildly annoy Baroness Pommel. So yeah, mostly spite at first. But I grew to rely on Suri surprisingly quickly. It was a lonely life I lived back then.”

Suri shifted on her seat to give Adagio a hug. “Whatever your reasons were, I’m just glad you did it. Scorpan’s tail, even being under Fancy Pants would have been better than what Pommel was putting me through, and you’re leaps and bounds ahead of him. And I don’t think it could have all been spite. Even then, you were a better pony than that.”

“Thank you, Suri,” said Adagio. “But yeah, Baroness Pommel’s going to be a problem. If we try to go directly against her, she’ll set the Guild against us. But if we simply accept her authority, she’ll sense weakness and try and crush Suri. No, we need to outmaneuver her. Find some way to divorce her authority from that of the Guild, in this matter at least. Without the Guild to back her up, she won’t have the strength to truly hurt us. Maybe I can bring Marquis Toity into the picture. He and I have at least a half-decent relationship. I’ll have to think on it a bit.”

There was a short pause while the various ponies enjoyed lunch. “There’s something I wanted to tell you about, Suri. You remember those two unicorns, the ones that have parked their contraption in the square?”

“Oh, yeah, them,” replied Suri. “They did something to me, felt kind of like getting drunk.” Terror slowly trickled into her mind, and she felt her eyes widen. “Oh ascarids. They cast a spell on me, didn’t they? What did they do to me?”

“Just a heartsong,” said Adagio. “When a lot of ponies get excited about something, all that excitement can gather enough magic to it to form a kind of spontaneous spellsong. They’re generally harmless, and I kept my horn on this one.”

Suri felt the terror ebb a bit.

Adagio continued. “But anyway, that’s beside the point. The point is, they’re artificers and they came to me with an idea for a device. They’re calling it the Super Speedy Warp’n Weavy, and as near as I can tell it’s an automatic clothes-making device.”

“A what?” asked Suri. Surely she’d misheard.

“An automatic clothes-making device,” said Adagio, smiling broadly. “A device that turns ideas into cloth. Aren’t you always complaining that it’s hard to hold a needle and thread with hooves? Well, if this device actually works, it’ll bypass all that. All you’ll need to do is create the dress, and the device will actually make it.”

“And if it doesn’t, Adagio will be out five hundred livres,” said Starlight. “And she’ll take those two as slaves to pay off the debt.”

“Starlight!” scolded Sonata. “Honestly -- sorry, Aria, just an expression -- do you think Adagio is the kind of pony to abuse indentures? Weren’t we just saying how she was good to Suri?”

Suri’s heart sank. She hadn’t misheard. Was Adagio that much of an idiot, or… had Loyalty’s nightmare been prophetic after all? After all, Midnight and the rest had been paragons of Harmony once. Did Scorpan’s curse still cling to the Elements, twisting any who sought to pick them up again? Was it only a matter of time before she became another Chroma, mad and dangerous?

Shut up! she thought at herself. This is ludicrous. I know the Elements. No curse of darkness could stick to them. No, this is just Adagio being her old self. Too much to hope for that she’d change completely in just a few weeks.

“Adagio, what in Midnight’s mane possessed you to do something like this?” she said out loud.

Time to see how deep this well goes.

“What do you mean?” asked Adagio. “I would think you’d be thrilled. Hay, come to think of it, this could make the perfect peace offering for Baroness Pommel. She’s an earth pony, she’d be just as thrilled to have a device that puts pegasi and earth ponies on a level footing with unicorns.”

Sheer horror consumed Suri, and for a moment she seemed to detach from her body, her mind fleeing inwards. “You have to stop this!” she heard herself saying. “Send those two away, or something. Adagio, please tell me that you haven’t already signed anything.”

Adagio sighed and facehooved “Not you too,” she said. “Is this is about the heartsong? Because I already told you that was harmless. I admit it was in bad taste, and I’m going to have a talk with them, but it’s nothing to flip out about. Or is it the indentures? Because, like I told Starlight, I had to have some kind of collateral if I was going to make that big a loan, and indenture was the only collateral those two had. And yes, I already signed the contract. I can’t go back on my word now, even if I wanted to.”

Luster’s hooves and horn, thought Suri. If I hadn’t heard it with my own ears, I wouldn’t believe even Adagio could be this foalish. This… this would destroy the Guild, if it actually worked. The Guild has wealth and power precisely because, though most ponies can design dresses, few have the time and skill to make them. And Adagio thinks that Baroness Pommel will approve? Ascarids, this will be worse even than when I went rogue. I was just trying to escape the Guild. Adagio’s trying to destroy it. And either she’s a better actor than I ever guessed, or she has no idea what she’s proposing to do to them. And to me. Either way, what do I say to her?

The words seemed to knot around each other in her mouth, gagging her. How was she supposed to explain the depth and breadth of Adagio’s mistake? Before she could think of a way to put her horror into words, she was interrupted.

“Iron,” said Sonata loudly, “How was your trip?”

“Very well, thank you,” said Iron, also a shade too loudly. “I got something for you.” He dug into his backpack and came up with a beautiful wooden spice rack, one decorated with intricate designs of blowing wind. Also…

“Oh, it’s beautiful!” gushed Sonata. “Oh, and it’s got my name on it! And it’s already full of spices!” She wrapped Iron in a tight hug. “Oh, thank you thank you thank you!”

Iron returned the embrace. “You’re very welcome, Sonata. Least I could do for such a wonderful chef and pony as you.”

“Eeee!” squealed Sonata into Iron’s broad chest.

“It is beautiful, Iron,” said Suri, swallowing her objections. Now was clearly not the time to bring the issue up.

And maybe their device won’t work out after all. Who knows?

Author's Note

And it’s another chapter!

So we see Starlight and Adagio sparking off against each other again. The way I see those two is that Starlight is very much the stereotypical liberal and Adagio the stereotypical conservative. Starlight sees a problem, and wants it fixed immediately. Adagio sees a system that, while flawed, still works, and wants to be sure that any change does not do more harm than good.

BTW, please understand that I’m just trying to write both sides as best as I can, and I’m not trying to make a political statement. Also, I don’t necessarily think either side is 100% right in that scene.

And my thanks to GreyGuardPony for her assistance with this chapter. This was another difficult one, and required several full rewrites before I got it into its current shape.

4: Baroness Vs. Baroness

Rain poured down from the sky.

The physical aftereffects of Chroma’s colossal storm had at last worn off, and that meant that the weather patrol once again needed to schedule the occasional day of heavy rains to water the fields around Ponyville and wash away the accumulated dust of town life.

Raindrops stood inside the arch of Ponyville’s gates, staring out at the heavy downpour. A month ago, she would have stood her watch outside or on the top of the wall, feeling the rain under her feathers and reveling in the sensation. A month ago, the mad alicorn Chroma had not yet returned and brought her perpetual storms down on Ponyville. And even now, weeks after her defeat, Raindops still could not look on or feel rain without the memories coming back.

She hated Chroma for that. Her rational mind knew that tainting the rain with her memories was the least of Chroma’s crimes, but deep down in her gut, down where logic and reason meant little, Raindrops knew that the thing she loathed Chroma for above all others was that Chroma had taken the rain that she loved, that had given her her mark and talent, and spoilt it forever.

Raindrops was distracted from her brooding by the sight of a triad of ponies making their way up the Great Western Road. All three were clad in hooded all-weather cloaks of red-trimmed purple. Two appeared to be earth ponies, one large and bulky and probably a stallion, and the other short and slim enough to most likely be a mare. As they drew closer, Raindrops confirmed that the third pony had a unicorn’s horn under his hood. The unicorn and the earth pony stallion also showed glints of chain mail under their cloaks.

As the triad entered the gate, stepping out of the rain, Raindrops and her fellow guard, an earth militiapony by the name of Turnip Ghost, stepped forward.

“Halt! Present yourself,” said Raindrops.

The central pony raised a hoof and threw back her hood, revealing a cream-colored face with pale blue eyes and a mane striped in two colors of light blue. Raindrops recognized the mare instantly, and her next words confirmed her identity beyond a shadow of a doubt.

“Baroness Coco Pommel,” she said, producing her badge of office.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Baroness Dame Adagio Dazzle took a long drink of cider, letting the cool, crisp bite of the alcohol wash away the rich spicyness of Sonata Dusk's foldies. She put down her glass, and selected a foldie from the second plate Sonata had brought out. The bread shells on these foldies were lighter and thinner than the normal, and where Sonata's regular foldies were packed with chunks of vegetable and spicy sauce, these foldies held berries and chopped fruits drizzled in honey. These were Sonata's latest culinary experiment, and her friends had been volunteered to test them out. Still, at least these fruit foldies were free. With Adagio about two bits from being reduced to grazing until the next round of payments from her holdings came in, that was nothing to sneeze at.

Adagio took a bite, and sweetness exploded in her mouth. Rather too much sweetness, in fact. The fruits were plump and juicy, but between the natural sweetness of fruit, the rich drizzle of honey, and the trace of sweetness baked into the bread shells themselves, the sweetness was overwhelming.

Adagio set down her fruit foldie and took another draught of cider to clear out her mouth. Sonata should probably serve these things with cream, she thought, remembering eating berries dipped in cream with her parents. Cream would cut the sweetness a tad, keep it from being so cloying. I'll tell her later.

“Mmmm, delicious,” said Lightning Dust, before taking another large bite of her fruit foldie.

“A bit too sweet for Iron Will’s palate,” boomed the sixth member of their table. “Iron Will is a bull, and prefers a bull’s fare. But most of Dame Dusk’s customers are ponies.”

“I agree with Iron,” said Adagio. “The sugar’s a bit overwhelming on these. I think they’d do better with some cream or something to cut the sugar a bit.”

“Really?” chimed in Aria. “They taste just fine to me.”

“I’d have to agree with Adagio,” said Starlight. “These really need something to dilute the sweetness.”

Lightning Dust giggled. “So we have two votes for ‘too sweet’, two for ‘just right’, and one vote for ‘I’m a macho beefcake and don’t have the same tastebuds as ponies’. Suri, guess that makes you the tiebreaker. What do you think?”

“Uh…” Suri looked uncomfortable. “I don’t think that this is supposed to be a debate. If Adagio and Starlight think these are too sweet, then some other ponies will too. So I think Sonata should serve some cream or something with them. That way the ponies who want something to cut the sweetness will have it, and the ones who like these the way they are can have them the way they are.”

“Well said, Suri,” said Adagio with a smile.

“But still, what did you think about the sweetness level?” said Lightning.

There was a moment’s pause. The background chatter of the Southern Breeze’s other patrons and the steady drumbeat of the heavy rains on the roof seemed to grow suddenly louder, as if to highlight Suri’s momentary silence.

“Well…” Suri began, but before she could continue her sentence she was interrupted by a new voice.

“Baroness Dazzle, ma’am?”

Adagio glanced up. Sure enough, that was Raindrops standing just inside the door of the Southern Breeze. Water dripped from her all-weather cloak to the floor, as if in echo of Raindrop’s cutie mark or of the rains outside.

“Yes, Raindrops?” Adagio replied.

“Baroness Pommel has come to see you, milady,” said Raindrops.

Suri froze for a moment, glass of cider halfway to her mouth. She very carefully put the glass down.

“Did she say what her visit was regarding?” Adagio asked. She had no idea what Baroness Pommel could want with her, but she doubted it was anything good.

“No, she did not,” replied Raindrops. “Just that she needed to see you about something.”

“Chroma’s horn,” muttered Adagio. She quickly glanced around. Suri had already gotten to her hooves and was pulling on her Elemental cloak. Surprisingly, so had Starlight.

“Starlight? What are you coming for?” she asked.

Starlight shrugged “I am the mayor of Ponyville. There’s at least a decent chance that whatever Pommel is up to will involve me as well as you. Besides, I want to keep an eye on Pommel. From what you’ve told me, she’s not to be trusted.”

“Thank you,” replied Adagio.

Starlight snorted. “And come to think of it, I should probably be keeping an eye on you after what you did with those two unicorns and the cultist hunt.”

“Thank you,” replied Adagio, letting her sarcasm slide into her voice. She supposed she should be grateful that she and Starlight could have the occasional squabble without breaking the bonds of Harmony that held them together, even if such squabbles made Friendship uncomfortable in the back of her mind. But she was so Midnight-damned tired of having ponies sneer at her for doing what needed to be done. It had gotten old long before Adagio came into her inheritance, and it certainly hadn’t gotten any less annoying since. And despite Starlight’s almost insane idealism, Adagio really did value the Mayor’s good opinion.

But now’s not the time to brood on that. Against Pommel, Starlight forcing things to play out above-board will work to my advantage. The official rules are on my and Suri’s side here, it’s the unofficial rules that favor Pommel.

She turned back to Raindrops. “I’m assuming Baroness Pommel is waiting in my foyer?” she said.

“Yes ma’am,” replied Raindrops. “She also brought two guards with her. Caramel and Moondancer are making them welcome.”

“Very good,” replied Adagio. “You may return to your post now.”

“Yes ma’am,” replied Raindrops. She turned and trotted back out the door into the pouring rain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As they headed out into the pouring rain, Suri's heart was in her shoes. There was no way that the presence of Baroness Pommel could mean anything good. All Suri could think was that her time must have run out. Adagio’s attempts to reach out to Marquis Toity in hopes of circumventing Pommel must have failed, and Suri was back on Scorpan’s horns.

Ascarids! thought Suri suddenly. I never explained to Adagio about the brothers' device. She'll still think Pommel will be pleased with their work and try to use that as a bribe. She could get in so much trouble...

And you call yourself the Bearer of Loyalty? Chroma's raspy voice seemed to whisper in her ear. At least I tried to rescue my friends, even if I thought I had to wash away all Equestria to do it. You let your friend, your Bearer of Friendship, walk into a trap because you were too embarrassed to tell her the truth.

Shut up, Suri thought back. Recriminations later, explanations now.

"Adagio," she said in a low voice. "Whatever you do, do not mention those two unicorns or their device to Pommel. If she finds out about it, she will be furious. And it will give her the ammunition she needs to turn the Guild against us."

"What?" replied Adagio. "Why? I thought..."

"I'll explain later," hissed Suri over the roar of the rain. "No time now. Just don't mention those two to Pommel!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Adagio entered her house just in time to see Baroness Pommel slap Caramel across the face.

"Baroness Pommel!" said Adagio.

"'S ok," said Caramel thickly through a hoof pressed to his muzzle, waving his other forehoof placatingly. "My fault. Said the wrong thing."

"He did indeed," snorted Moondancer. "Coltanova here thought now was a good time to ask Baroness Pommel out on a date."

It was only when Adagio felt dripping oilcloth against her face that she realized that she'd forgotten to remove her rainboots before facehooving. "Fine," she sighed. "Caramel... just go someplace else for a bit, ok? Take a look at that nose and go flirt with somepony other than Baroness Pommel."

Caramel nodded, plucked his raincoat off the clotheshorse by the door, squeezed past the trio of ponies in the entrance, and disappeared into the curtain of rain.

Adagio took a deep breath. "Well, Pommel, I was given to understand that you had something you wished to discuss with me?"

“Yes, I did,” replied Pommel. “But if I may ask, what is she doing here?” She nodded her head towards Starlight.

The expression on Starlight’s face was technically a smile. “As the mayor of Ponyville, I have an obvious interest in keeping tabs on the dealings of nobles in my town. I’m sure you understand, Baroness.”

Pommel’s smile was precisely as warm as Starlight’s. “I do indeed, Mayor Glimmer,” she replied. “However, I must insist on discussing this matter with Baroness Dazzle in private. As I am sure you are aware, you have developed something of a reputation, and I would really rather not deal with your… unique… views on these matters.”

Well, thought Adagio, if Pommel doesn’t want Starlight present, that’s as good a reason as any to make sure she’s there. Plus, I really don’t want Starlight thinking that I’m pulling something sneaky with Pommel.

“I say, Baroness Pommel,” she said, “is there something going on here you’re not telling me? Because I can’t think of any reason to exclude Mayor Glimmer from our discussion. I certainly do not intend to say anything that I would mind being repeated in public, and I am sure you don’t either, so it’s not as though her presence could be harmful. Mayor Glimmer may hold unusual political views, but she’s no liar.”

Adagio continued. “And even if our discussion has nothing to do with any of Starlight’s interests, the only way she can be sure of that is to be present for our discussion. What harm could it do, other than the risk of wasting a bit of the Mayor’s time? And surely it is Mayor Glimmer’s decision whether or not to take that risk.”

“Fine,” Pommel hissed, before taking a deep breath and struggling to restore her mask.

“Shall we adjourn to my study, then?” said Adagio in her best faux-innocent voice.

“Yes, let us do so,” replied Pommel, tone light once more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suri quickly took her usual seat behind a small desk off to the side, and tried as best she could to just look like part of the furniture. Adagio took her Baronial seat behind a larger and more ornate (if somewhat scuffed) desk, and Starlight and Baroness Pommel settled into chairs in front of Adagio's desk.

“So, Baroness Pommel,” said Adagio, “What was it you wished to discuss with me?”

Pommel reached inside her saddlebag, and pulled out a sketch of the Flim Flam brothers. Suri clenched her teeth and waited for the hammer to fall.

“I’m looking for these two unicorns,” said Pommel. “I understand they’re currently in residence here?”

“I believe they are,” said Adagio. “Why are you looking for them?”

“Because they are thieves and conponies,” replied Pommel, lacing her tones with indignation. She was good. If Suri hadn’t known better, she would have believed that Pommel was being totally sincere. “Three weeks ago, they came to me. Promised me wonders and marvels if I’d grant them my patronage. Well, they appeared to have some real skill, and my holdings had produced well this year, so I offered them a fairly generous patronage contract. Two days later, they bolted with hundreds of livres in funding and stolen supplies.” Pommel’s tone shifted from faux-angry to faux-sympathetic. “I do hope they haven’t pulled the same stunt on you. Chrysalis knows you can’t afford to take a hit like that.”

“Nice story,” said Starlight sarcastically. “I don’t suppose you have any proof?”

The grin Pommel gave looked like it really belonged out in the ocean, with a fin on top of it. “As a matter of fact, yes. I do.” She produced a set of papers from her saddlebags.

“May I take a look at those?” asked Adagio.

“Of course,” replied Baroness Pommel.

Adagio took the papers in her amber aura and began to read through them. “Hmm... Well, Baroness Pommel, I might quibble with your definition of ‘generous’, but that’s really neither here nor there. This certainly looks legitimate.” Starlight looked like she was about to say something, but Adagio cut her off.

“Suri, could you please get Moondancer from the main room and bring these two here? Let us see what they have to say for themselves.”

Suri slipped out of Adagio’s meeting room, hope warring with terror in her gut.

This could be it. This could be the thing that saves me. If those two are criminals and conponies, if Pommel takes them away, then Adagio will be off the hook for their invention. Adagio gets back the money they took, I get a shot at rejoining the Guild, and everypony’s happy.

And all I have to do is turn those two over to Pommel.

Suri wasn’t sure where that last thought had come from.

“Moondancer, could you go fetch the Flim Flam brothers?” asked Suri out loud. “Baroness Dazzle needs to see them about something.”

“On it,” said Moondancer, levitating over her raincoat and disappearing out into the pouring rain.

Why do I feel so guilty? Suri wondered as she waited for Moondancer to return. Those two deserve what Pommel is going to do to them.

Really? retorted some other part of her psyche. You know what Pommel is capable of. Do you seriously believe that that was a genuine contract she pulled out? And even if it was, do you honestly think they deserve what Pommel will do to them? Did you deserve what Pommel did to you?

It’s not the same thing! the first part of her insisted. All I did was try to open my own shop. Those two are trying to overthrow the Guild! Doesn’t that mean I should believe Pommel’s accusations?

No. It doesn’t.

Her meditation was interrupted as Moondancer entered, Flim Flam brothers in tow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As soon as he stepped in out of the pouring rain, Flim knew he and his brother were in trouble. Two months was not nearly enough time to forget Baroness Coco Pommel or her colors, and now Baroness Dazzle's foyer was full of her thugs. Flam had no idea what Baroness Pommel was doing here, but it couldn't be anything good.

"Right this way, please," said Moondancer politely. She deposited her raincoat back on the clotheshorse and then led Flim and Flam into Baroness Dazzle's study. Flam took in the room at a glance. Baroness Pommel and Mayor Glimmer were seated in front of Baroness Dazzle's desk, the one looking smug and the other furious. Behind the desk, Baroness Dazzle's face bore the inscrutable neutrality of a noble who did not want to give anything away. Out of the corner of his eye, Flim saw Suri Polomare slinking towards a smaller desk in one corner, looking even more terrified than Flam felt.

"Ah, Flim and Flam, good to see you," said Baroness Dazzle. "I'm afraid we may have a problem on our hooves. According to Baroness Pommel here, you signed a contract of patronage with her, then made off with quite a sum in coin and goods. I don't suppose you would care to shed some light on this matter?"

"Baroness Dazzle, We solemnly swear," said Flim, words tumbling over each other in desperation,

"We signed no pledge to that Baroness there," continued Flam.

"Tis all a lie, a trick, and a -"

BUUUUUUUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!

A loud monotone buzz smothered the brothers’ voices, and only then did Flim realize that his words had slipped into the rhythym of heartsong. The amber glow around Baroness Dazzle's horn continued, but the buzz died down to a faint background hum.

"Correction," said Baroness Dazzle, the background hum rendering her words oddly flat. "Would you care to explain without the use of heartsong?"

"Baroness, I swear-" said Flam, his own words deadened by the background noise.

"-We both swear-" interjected Flim.

"We never signed any contract with Baroness Pommel, and we certainly never took anything of hers," continued Flam.

Flim took up the narrative. "We came to her a couple of months back, and she did offer us a contract of patronage. That much is true."

"But when we read the contract, it was so one-sided that we had no choice but to refuse it and go on our way."

"The only thing we accepted from her was lunch, and that was before she offered the contract."

"I see," said Baroness Dazzle. She levitated a bundle of papers off the table. "So this must be the contract you never signed. But in that case, whose signatures are these at the bottom?" Her magic flipped through the pages to reveal the last page, which was indeed decorated with a trio of signatures.

"Not ours!" blurted out Flam. "It must be a forgery!"

"Of course you would say that," said Baroness Pommel.

"Adagio!" said Mayor Glimmer, face furious. "Surely you aren't-"

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!

The background hum briefly spiked into a cacophonous buzz, cutting off the argument, before dying down to background noise once more.

"Peace, all," said Baroness Dazzle. "As it happens, there's a very simple way to check. Mayor Glimmer, I know you know the spell for scrying signatures. All we need to do is have Flim and Flam here sign something, here and now while we are all watching. Then Mayor Glimmer can scry that signature against the one on this contract. If the two match, then Baroness Pommel is telling the truth. If they don't..."

"But how are we to know that Glimmer will perform the spell correctly?" asked Baroness Pommel. "Everypony knows she's practically an anarchist in these matters. Surely she'll report that the contract's a fraud whether or not it actually is!"

"Listen here, you-" spluttered Mayor Glimmer, but Baroness Dazzle's voice cut through hers, the background hum dropping away to bring out the cold steel in her tone.

"Baroness Pommel, I suggest you think very carefully about what you just said. Starlight may be mistaken about certain things, but she is no liar. If you do not retract your words immediately, you will be baselessly accusing my friend of breaking her vows as mayor and knight. And I will be quite happy to testify to that effect in a court of law." Her horn flared amber and she drew her jeweled rapier an inch or so from its sheath. "Or stand as her second in the dueling arena. Whichever should prove necessary."

For a single moment, everypony was frozen as through Baroness Dazzle’s challenge had sealed them in glass. Then Baroness Pommel slumped slightly in her seat and let out a sigh.

“You are right, Baroness Dazzle,” she said. She turned to face the mayor. “Mayor Glimmer, I apologize for my accusations against you. I let my tongue run away with me, and spoke without thought.”

“Apology accepted,” said Mayor Glimmer, in a tone which made it quite clear what she thought of Baroness Pommel’s apology. “Now, Adagio’s idea is a good one. Shall we?”

Baroness Dazzle produced a sheet of paper covered in numbers rambling this way and that. “Here, you two can sign in this corner. Baroness Pommel, you’d better sign too. Might as well check all three signatures.”

Considering how shaky his legs felt, Flim astounded himself with how neat his signature was. His twin’s signature was of course a twin to his, while Baroness Pommel’s had the blocky quality common to earth ponies and pegasi.

“Ok, we’re all witnesses that these three signatures are definitely those of Flim, Flam, and Baroness Pommel. Starlight, will you check these against the signatures on the contract in dispute?”

Mayor Glimmer ignited her horn. Twin streams of turquoise magic extended from her horn to touch both sets of signatures, then a third arc of magic connected the two. After a moment, all six signatures began to glow blood-red.

“Interesting,” said Mayor Glimmer. “It would appear that none of the signatures on the contract in dispute are in fact genuine. Anyone care to offer a guess as to how that came about?”

Baroness Pommel blushed prettily. If he didn’t know better, Flam suspected he would have found it quite convincing. “Well, this is embarrassing,” she said. “I’m not sure what happened. If I had to guess… I did have a couple of copies of the contract made. I must have gotten one of the copies mixed up with the original.”

Baroness Dazzle arched an eyebrow. “If you say so, Baroness Pommel. In any case, without the original contract, I’m going to have to accept the Flim Flam brothers’ word on the matter. Innocent until proven guilty and all that. You know how it is. So unless you have any other business…

Before Baroness Pommel could say anything, Baroness Dazzle let out a quick giggle. “Oh, I almost forgot! I have a matter to discuss with you.” She tilted her horn towards Polomare, who, while she wasn’t actually hiding under her desk, looked as though she wanted to. “Suri and I are going to be accompanying Marquis Toity on his trip to the Lunar Kingdom in a few days. I’ve been making arrangements to have Suri officially sworn into the Guild when we get back, since the Queen asked us to report to her at Canterlot when we return from the Lunar Kingdom. That’s not going to be a problem, is it?”

Flim had no idea why Baroness Dazzle had laid such emphasis on her last sentence or why it had made Baroness Pommel so furious even he could see it, but he didn’t really care. All his attention was focused on trying not to pass out from sheer relief.

“No, that won’t be a problem,” snarled Baroness Pommel. “Now if you’d excuse me, I’d really better be going.” She rose and stomped out through the door.

“I think I’d better be going too,” said Flim hastily.

“Lots to do!” added Flam.

They turned and all but bolted for the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starlight managed to hold her indignation in until the Flim Flam brothers were out the door, but she could wait no longer.
“Adagio, what was that?” she hissed. “Baroness Pommel just commited fraud of the highest order, tried to bind ponies into a false indenture, and perjured herself all over the place! And you let her go!”

Adagio sighed. “Starlight, you really are so naïve sometimes. Yes, we all know what Baroness Pommel just did. But proving it is a whole lot harder. Baroness Pommel’s story may be as transparent as glass, but to actually prove she’s lying, before a jury of the nobility? How do you propose we do that?”

Adagio continued as Starlight fumed. “Oh, I’m sure we could hurt Pommel if we went after her for this. We could probably get her on contractual irregularity or frivolous prosecution or something, make her pay some fines and do some damage to her reputation. And then, with us having spent all our ammunition, she’d have every incentive to strike back. As it is, we all come out winners. The Flim Flam brothers get away unharmed, and Suri gets back into the Guild. Pommel won’t want a fight either, so she’ll steer clear of Suri for a time. It may not be right, but this is the way the world works.”

“It shouldn’t be!” retorted Starlight. She tapped her Elemental gem with one hoof. “These are supposed to mean that we’re better than the rest of the nobility!”

Adagio laughed bitterly, “I dream of the day when I have that luxury. Unfortunately, that day is not quite yet.”

Before Starlight could figure out what to say to that, Adagio turned to Suri. “Suri, I think you owe us an explanation. Why were you so afraid of Baroness Pommel finding out about the Flim Flam brothers? What’s wrong with their project?”

Suri flinched, then took a deep breath. Starlight stamped down her frustration and settled back to listen.

2: Previously, In Canterlot

30th of Nouvelmois - 1rst of Ardeurmois, 0 ER

Suri was standing in the middle of a beautiful garden. Flowers covered the grass, ancient trees groaned under the weight of apples and pears and other fruits, birds sang from hidden perches, and the sun shone clear in a cloudless sky.

“Hello, Suri,” came a voice from behind her. Suri turned to see Adagio standing there, clad in a flowing gown of amber and lavender silks. On her head was a coronet of amber, shaped into the image of stylized flames or sunbeams.

“Adagio!” Suri rushed forward and embraced her friend. For a long moment the two ponies held each other close, then a jolt of pain shot through Suri as something hard and sharp plunged into her barrel, angling up towards her heart.

Suri crumpled to the ground, and looked up to see Adagio standing over her, levitating a long dagger in her field, the blade wet with Suri’s blood. Despite the pain, Suri gasped at the expression on her friend’s face. A wide smirk stretched her muzzle but no mirth reached her eyes. They were cold and predatory, regarding her as little more than a piece of meat. And then it wasn’t Adagio standing there, but Scorpan, and the dagger had been replaced with a bloody spear. Scorpan reversed his grip on the spear and plunged it into the ground.

Suri realized that at some point she had left her body, and was now hovering disembodied in the air, looking down on Scorpan standing over her body. From where Scorpan’s spear had sunk into the ground, veins of blackness shot out in all directions. Grass blackened and withered, trees twisted and shriveled, and the birdsong was cut off.

And then the ground itself began to crumble, and Suri was back in her own body as the ground fell away beneath her and she fell down into darkness, plummeting endlessly through empty space as the shadowy forms with their cruel blue eyes swarmed around her and their droning filled her ears....

Suri jolted awake, panting in terror and with a stabbing pain where a rock dug into her barrel. The tent reverberated with Iron Will’s snores as the burly minotaur sprawled out on his own blankets.

Stop that, she thought at the Element of Loyalty as she shifted her bedding a tad to avoid the rock. Adagio may be self-obsessed and have all too much to learn about friendship still, but she won’t turn on me. Not on purpose. I trust her that far, at least.

Loyalty didn’t give any reply, but she felt it shift in the back of her mind, the sharp edges of its pain at Chroma’s betrayal rotating away and being replaced with a softer and smoother presence.

Of all the Elements, Suri was pretty sure Loyalty had been hurt the worst by Scorpan’s corruption of the original Bearers. Even worse, Suri had had to ask it to turn its power against its own former Bearer. Loyalty apparently understood that Chroma had been corrupted beyond reasoning with, for it had answered to her will, but it was still hurting. And with Loyalty now sharing Suri’s mind (and possibly her soul -- Starlight hadn’t been terribly clear on that bit), its pain spilt over into her own nightscape.

Suri let out a long sigh and buffed the gem of her Element necklace with one hoof. “Sleep tight and pleasant dreams,” she whispered before drifting off to sleep again herself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suri stood before the Canterlot chapterhouse of The Most Honorable Guild of Weavers And Tailors, trying to work up the nerve to cross the street and enter the building.

Back in Ponyville, when she’d first gotten the letters from Baroness Pommel and her old master Prim Hemline, she’d felt a lot more confident about this meeting. In fact, she’d been so confident that she had refused Adagio’s offer to come up to Canterlot with her, feeling she had to do this herself. Right now, that was feeling like a major mistake.

She briefly wished that she’d at least asked Iron Will to join her for this part of the trip. But the bull had his own errands to run. While he’d been assigned to deliver her safely to Canterlot, once within the walls she was largely safe from physical threats. Now he needed to retrieve the old ledgers and other miscellany Adagio would need as she shifted her primary residence from Canterlot to Ponyville, and to go shopping for lemon drops from the Solar Prelate and moonshine from the Lunar Kingdom and all the other delicacies that he loved and that could only be found in the great cities of the Realm.

Come on, Suri, she lectured herself. You can do this. Just go across the street, knock on that door, go see what Pommel and Hemline want from you, and then decide what you want to do. You don’t have to be afraid of them. You’re not an apprentice or an indentured slave anymore. You’re free. You’re a Knight of the Realm. You have friends who will back you up, if you let them.

From where it lay clasped about her neck, she felt Loyalty projecting reassurance and an odd sense of something she was tempted to call indifference. The Element seemed to be communicating that it thought she was important, and if one of the fundamental forces of Harmony said she was important, then who were a couple of ponies to disagree?

“Fine,” muttered Suri under her breath. “Here goes.”

She trotted across the street, noted the wide-eyed looks of surprise from the ponies around her, glanced back over her own flank, realized that her giant needle had helpfully levitated out of its sheath and was hovering ready to impale somepony, and firmly commanded it to get back in its pocket. Once it had done so, she rapped on the knocker.

A couple of moments later, the door swung open, and Suri’s mood whiplashed from nervous to excited with such rapidity that it left her light-headed. For the sky-blue unicorn who had answered the door was perhaps the only pony in the Guild (or perhaps even in Canterlot, now that Adagio and her retinue had moved out), that Suri still considered a friend.

“Suri!” exclaimed Sassy Saddles. “Bust mah buttons it’s good to see you! What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to see Baroness Pommel,” said Suri, her excitement fading a tad at the reminder of her errand. “She needs to figure out what to do about my new status.” She paused for a moment as a thought occurred to her. “Say, are you free for dinner this evening? I’d love to take you out for a meal, swap stories.”

“That sounds lahk an amazing idea!” said Sassy cheerfully. “And Ah do hope things work out between you and Baroness Pommel. Ah’ve missed you, and it would be nice to have you back.”

“Thanks, Sassy,” said Suri as she trotted in, trying not to giggle. The incongruity between her own nerves and Sassy’s cheerfulness was remarkably relieving. “I rather hope things work out well myself, but that does kind of depend on both parties. Either way, Baroness Pommel is expecting me, so I’d better get moving. Does The Queen’s Mane at six sound good?”

“Works for me,” said Sassy. “And good luck!” she added over her shoulder as she trotted back into one of the workrooms.

“Thanks!” replied Suri as she trotted further into the building. Half-remembered fears tried to leap out of shadowed corners, but Suri let the memories of new friends and old drape over her just as Loyalty covered her actual body and hold the fears at bay.

Baroness Pommel’s office was still exactly where Suri remembered it being, and the sense of deja vu was only enhanced when she entered. There was the Baroness seated behind her desk, and Prim Hemline off to one side, seated behind a smaller desk.. There was, however, one difference. Every time Suri had been called into this room before, she’d been forced to stand. Now there was a padded chair for her. That small difference did more to calm her nerves than she could have believed possible. The Guild was, at least to some small degree, treating her as an equal.

“Dame Polomare,” said Baroness Pommel, voice as smooth as silk. “So good of you to join us.”

“Thank you, Baroness,” said Suri. “Before we begin our discussion, may I speak to Mistress Hemline in private for a moment? There is something I wish to say to her.”

“Very well,” said Baroness Pommel. She rose and left the room, shutting the door behind her. Suri knew she would be listening at the door, but at least having her out of the room would mean that she couldn’t officially acknowledge what Suri was about to say.

She turned to face Prim Hemline, and let her knees bend into a bow. “Mistress Hemline, I wish to apologize for the insults I offered you. I owed you a debt for what you taught me while I was your apprentice, a debt I failed to repay. For that, I am sorry.”

There was a moment’s pause, then Prim Hemline responded. “I accept your apology, Dame Polomare. As for your debt to me, the financial debt was washed out with the rest of your debts by royal decree. If you mean any other sort of debt, I suppose it is for you to decide how you must repay it. I only hope that we can come to some sort of amiable arrangement.”

“I hope for the same,” said Suri. She trotted to the door and pulled it open. “We’re done, Baroness Pommel,” she said. Suri and Baroness Pommel took their seats.

“So,” said Suri, “your letter indicated that you wished to discuss what role the Guild would play in my future?”

“Yes,” said Baroness Pommel. “We wouldn’t want there to be any… misunderstandings, now would we? The court’s confused enough about what you and your ‘friends’ being named ‘Knights of Harmony’ actually means. We wouldn’t want anypony confused about your standing with regard to the Guild as well.”

“No, we wouldn’t want that,” replied Suri. Let them state their position first, she thought. I can decide how to respond once I know what move they’re making.

Prim Hemline spoke up, her voice clipped and unemotional. “While your precise circumstances are of course unique, the relevant portions have occured sufficient times in the past to establish clear precedents. When Baroness Dazzle purchased your indenture, all relevant debts owed to me or the Guild for your apprenticeship and subsequent actions were transferred to her. With those debts now cancelled, you are free to reenter the Guild as a journeymare.”

“You will still not be permitted to open a shop of your own until you completed a masterpiece,” continued Prim Hemline, “but it would be well within precedent for you to continue to serve as Baroness Dazzle’s seneschal. While journeymares typically hone their skills by doing paid work for a master craftspony or traveling from place to place, it’s not unknown for a journeymare to take a commision as a personal designer for a minor noble or rich commoner. There is some… ambiguity… as to which ponies a journeymare may work for as against which must have the services of a master craftspony, but it has already been agreed in council that for you to provide Baroness Dazzle with tailoring and other services before you attain mastery would be acceptable to the Guild.”

“Very clearly laid out,” said Suri, “but it rather presumes I wish to join the Guild in the first place.”

“Oh Suri,” said Baroness Pommel with a poisonously sweet tone, “don’t try and be cute. Of course you’ll be rejoining the Guild. You trying to open a shop in the the Solar Prelate, trying to pass yourself off as a full Guild-approved seamstress, that was bad enough. But publicly refusing membership in the Guild now, when all of the Heartlands is focused on you and your friends? You might as well just slap me in the face.”

Suri filled in the blank. For a noble to slap another noble was the strongest challenge to a duel of honor. If Coco had been spiteful enough to drive Suri into indenture when she was trying to open a business in a different country, how much worse would she be when the challenge was so much closer to home?

“Really, Baroness Pommel,” she replied, trying to keep her voice light, “Surely you exaggerate. You might have a point if I were attempting to open a tailoring business, but I’m not even Baroness Dazzle’s dressmaker. As Mistress Hemline so accurately put it, I am her seneschal. And I can’t help thinking that you’d look rather ridiculous going after somepony who’s not even remotely a dressmaker for not seeking membership in the Guild.”

“Suri,” said Baroness Pommel, “are you really going to claim that you don’t do tailoring work for Baroness Dazzle?”

“On occasion,” said Suri. “But we all know I’m far from the only servant to get tasked with a bit of tailoring on the side. More than a few minor nobles do such, and the Guild doesn’t waste its time going after them.”

“Unfortunately,” interjected Prim Hemline, “You are not most servants. Though Baroness Pommel’s phrasing was perhaps regrettable, her statement of the case is essentially accurate. You broke from the Guild in an extremely public fashion, and your doing so is a matter of public record for those who take the time to look. If you are not reconciled with the Guild in some equally public manner, it will appear that you wish to continue your antagonism with the Guild.”

“And we wouldn’t want that, now would we?” said Baroness Pommel. “After all, even if you only appear to be trying to buck the Guild… well, appearances matter, especially in politics. I might find that I have no choice but to buck you over in return, just to save face.”

Great, thought Suri. Prim Hemline is right. If I don’t reconcile with the Guild in some fashion, then I’ll be practically daring Pommel to try and ruin my life and my friend’s lives. She might or might not get away with it --- even Adagio isn’t sure just how much weight the Elements give us and just how hard Sombra might come down on any attempts to screw with us --- but she’ll try it anyway, no matter how bad the consequences.

But under another hoof, if I join the Guild here and now, that basically amounts to surrendering to Pommel. She’s made this into a dominance fight. I can’t win, not without it costing more than I can afford to pay. But I can’t afford to lose either. Guess my only option is to stall for time.

“Well, you’ve certainly given me a lot to think about, Mistress Hemline. But I really must speak with Baroness Dazzle before I make a final decision. She deserves to know how this might affect our working relationship. If I may take my leave?”

Hemline nodded, idly waving a hoof towards the door. Suri eagerly took the opportunity to leave. The sooner she talked to Adagio, the better.

Author's Note

So while everything back in Ponyville was happening in the previous chapter, Suri is in Canterlot meeting an old friend and some old enemies. I wonder what she’ll think of what’s been happening to Ponyville in her absence?

On other notes, this chapter underwent some pretty heavy rewriting before settling into its current form. I owe Grey a great deal for all her feedback and helping me get everyone acting in-character and logically. I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and I’ll try and get the next one to you soon!