A sneaky strawberry escaped its crispy confines, but Lovey Dovey rescued it with a noisy slurp before it could tumble to the ground or make her feathers even stickier.
She pinched the funnel cake between her primaries, and her cheeks glowed as she imagined Magny's lips caressing the pink-on-pink feathers. Preening would be especially sweet this evening thanks to the funnel cake, cotton candy, caramel popcorn, and other treats she'd been scarfing all morning.
The best thing about the Summer Sun Fair was the food!
Carts, tents, and travelling mini-kitchens from all over Equestria gathered in Canterlot to hawk their greasy, shugary treats, and she gleefully indulged!
Popping the last bite into her mouth, she fluffed her wing, scattering a puff of icing shugar, and strolled aimlessly through the joyful crowd. Heart-shaped sunglasses perched on her muzzle, the lenses giving everypony a rosey-tint and obscuring the glowing love lines that tangled and flowed around them. Oh, she could still see them but they weren't nearly as distracting, and on this festive day nopony was setting her heart pounding with a love problem. The heat from Celestia's sun blended smoothly with the warm feelings from all around.
It was a perfect day — almost.
No Magny!
She stomped her fore hooves and pouted. Despite her annoyance, she hoped her stallion's super duper important business meeting was going well. How could it not on such a lovely day?
Dreaming about him made her stompy hooves feel light again as she skipped past a booth where a filly was having her face painted with tiger stripes. She spotted a vendor selling sour green apples wrapped in caramel. Yum! Her mouth watered, but she skidded to a stop at a pony-wide blue line on the ground.
She had been seeing them all morning!
An indigo line had snaked its way from the train station to the fair grounds, and this was the — one, two, three, four — fifth one she'd found underhoof! A luminous Persian or maybe sapphire, she wasn't sure; pinks were Lovey's speciality, not blues.
She scuffed it. Was it chalk or paint? Was it even real? Maybe her special talent had started showing her blue lines as well as pink ones? She glanced around and nopony else was paying it any attention. What did it mean?!
Distracted from sweet-and-sour apple-y prey, she followed the line, wondering where and why it led.
It snaked around a bottle-toss game and snuggled up against a baby-blue line. A short trot later and a navy blue line joined them, then another tint, and another. She followed the orgy of blues doggedly, head down. Lovey was so distracted that she almost walked into the tail-ends of a pair of teenage colts!
Looking up, she saw that the river of blue ended at a magnificent tent of shimmering green and blue fabric which towered over a short line-up. It was straight out of a Saddle Arabian romance, its golden tassells and streamers waving gently in the breeze. Above the flap was a banner painted with swirly script: Azurite the All-Knowing!
Leaning around the chatting teenage colts — who had the thin shoot of a budding love line linking them — she spotted a blackboard.
~ Your Future Revealed for Only 5 Bits!!! ~
(Proceeds to E.R.G. Homes for Foundling Foals)
Hoof Reading, Tea Leaf Ceremony,
and the Crystal Ball of Wonder!
♡ Love Fortunes a Speciality! ♡
Lovey's eyes were wide with wonder! Love fortunes?! Could this be a pony with a talent like hers? Were the blue lines a subtle spell to lead blue and heart-sore ponies to the All-Knowing's tent?
The colts laughed and ribbed one another over which schoolfilly to ask to the dance, oblivious to the fragile pink line between them. They weren't even a teeny weeny bit heartsore — a little in denial perhaps… Lovey's heart pitter-patted and she opened her mouth to intrude, but after a moment she softly closed it again.
A young mare squinted and blinked as she slipped out of the tent and into bright sunlight. Her pale cream cheeks were flushed and Lovey could see the telltale glint of hopeful infatuation in her eyes.
The next pony, an older mare with a bottle-green coat and dark brown but greying mane, thrust her head through the tasselled door flap and disappeared inside. The snickering colts were next and a desperately curious Lovey a step behind. She tried but couldn't overhear anything thanks to bonging game bells, semi-musical hoots and whistles of a steam calliope, and the clamour of hundreds of ponies visiting the Fair.
Lovey's ears pricked at muffled laughter from inside. The greying mare came out moments later, chuckling and shaking her head.
"Excuse me!" Lovey called as the colts entered the tent.
The mare blinked and said, "Oh!? Yes, hello?"
"Hi! Umm… this might be kinda personal, but did the All-Knowing tell you a love fortune?"
Lovey peered over her glasses at the mare's love lines; shimmering spider web hints in the air, except one which had a remote chance. Thin to the point of breaking where it touched the mare's blue-green chest, it swelled as it flowed away, around the corner of an ice cream parlour, and into the crowd.
The mare shook her head and chuckled, "Yes, but it was daft nonsense about a secret admirer confessing undying love." She barked a harsh laugh, "At my age? Can you imagine?
"I don't think sooo", she sang over her shoulder as she trotted away.
Lovey shivered.
Lovey bit her lower lip.
Lovey sincerely hoped that mare would bump into her special somepony, and she was sorely tempted to chase after her to make sure that she did.
She fidgeted while waiting for the colts to emerge. Minutes ticked by and there was no laughter. When they finally shuffled out they weren't joking about fillies any more. Oh no. They were subdued, nervous, and very carefully not looking at one another. The line between them pulsed in time with their rapid heartbeats, thicker and brighter.
Lovey sat, shocked, hooves over her muzzle as her lips slowly spread into a grin.
"Next, please!" called a squeaky voice from within the tent.
The dark grey stallion behind Lovey chuckled and said, "That'd be you, missy."
"Huh? What? Oh! Sorry! Thank you!"
Struggling to close her stiff wings, Lovey nuzzled open the heavy flap and tip-hooved inside.
Warm air wrapped around her like a comforter, thick with the rich scent of Frankincense. Layers of Saddle Arabian carpets with colourful geometric patterns muffled her hoofsteps as she approached a low round table in the centre of the dimly-lit tent. Its top was littered with a dozen fat candles, many burned down to flickering stubs. A teapot and several mismatched cups crowded the left side and on the right was an out-of-place fishbowl with a chubby, bobble-eyed goldfish swimming lazy circles around a miniature minaret.
There was no sign of Azurite the All-Knowing.
Not until a dark blue throw pillow moved and Lovey realised it was really a crazy-big turban perched atop a tiny blue mare's head. The All-Knowing placed a pair of freshly cleaned and dripping wet cups on the table with only the glowing tip of her horn poking out of the head wrapping. She could easily be mistaken for a young filly playing at tea, but Lovey Dovey was no dummy — aside from the pillow thing. She'd seen the results of this mare's mystic powers!
"Hi!" Azurite chirped. Her eyes widened and, forcing her perky voice down an octave, she intoned, "Ahem. I mean, welcome O' Seeker of Knowledge. Please be seated and OH MY STARS IT'S YOU!" she squealed and lunged up onto her hooves, banging into the table and almost knocking off her turban.
"It is me!" Lovey forced perky ears and a smile as she hope hope hoped that Azurite wasn't mad at her. Her fake smile became a relieved grin as the fortune teller giggled and pranced.
Lovey had had many matchmaking clients before she retired and sometimes the relationship road she set somepony on turned out to be a rocky one. The love lines showed her the best way a pony could find their special somepony, but it wasn't guaranteed. She could point them in the right direction but it was up to them to do the seeking and the catching and the nurturing.
Love was sometimes tricksy to get hold of and hang onto.
She knew that only too well after Magny had almost slipped through her over-eager hooves.
But the All-Knowing was doubly-lucky in love! Even with her pink sunglasses, Lovey could see Azurite's pair of thick magenta love lines. They glowed with healthy warmth and looked relaxed, showing that her loved ones were nearby and their relationships were mellow. Relieved, Lovey plumped her rump down on the carpet but was careful to not squeeze her maybe-too-full tummy between her thighs.
"Look, Mr. Peepers!" Azurite chirped while hooking a leg around the fishbowl. She pressed a cheek against the glass and pointed at Lovey. "She's the love advice mare I told you about!"
Mr. Peepers blew a solemn bubble.
"Whaddayou mean you don't remember?" Azurite gasped at him. "She's the one that was no help at all when Sunny and Soarin were makin' my heart achy!"
She cocked an ear at the fish for a moment and chirped, "Oh, yeah!" She smiled at Lovey and said, "He's right. You told me what I needed to hear, I just didn't know it until after a lot of crazy stuff happened."
Lovey giggled. "Love is all about that crazy wonderful stuff! I'm sorry what I told you didn't help, but you know what it's like trying to tell somepony about their love lines, right?"
"I do?" Azurite blinked, shook her head and grinned. "Right! I totally do!" She coughed and straightened up, intoning, "Welcome to Azurite the All-Knowing's presence, O' Seeker of Knowledge. For a small fee, I will reveal your destiny. Woooo-oooo-oo-oooooo…" She made a sweeping gesture, pointing her hooves at a wooden box beside the table.
Fishing five bits out of her purse, Lovey dropped them into a slot cut into its lid.
Azurite nodded, held out her hooves and asked, "May I see your hoof, O' Seeker?"
Careful of the candles, Lovey stretched a leg out across the table and Azurite cupped both of her hooves around hers, turned it over, and peered at the underside.
"Hmmm…" she hummed. "Mmmm… I see… I see you travelled by train. Yes, you travelled by train to the Fair."
Lovey held in a delighted squeal; they had taken the train!
"I see… I see you love cotton candy and caramel corn and-", her blue nose wrinkled as she snuffled, "Deep-fried garlic pickles?"
"Yes! Yes, that's right! How did you know?"
Azurite sat up, returning Lovey's hoof. "A real fortune teller never reveals her mysterious secrets, O' Seeker. Now, before the tea ceremony, I shall gaze into the Most Magical and Mysterious Crystal Ball, through the fog of spacey time, and reveal your future. Woooo-oooo-ooo-ooooooooo…"
The fishbowl glowed and slid into Azurite's waiting hooves.
This wasn't how Lovey saw a pony's fortune in love — staring into a fishbowl instead of at her love lines. If she had any. Lovey had never seen her own love lines and felt let down that the All-Knowing didn't seem to see them either, but however she did it, there was no denying that her love advice was real! Lovey nibbled her lip and couldn't wait to hear how to make Magny fall even more in love with her, if that was even possible!
"I see… I see you meeting a new very special somepony soon. Soooon, yes yes." Azurite glanced at her and grinned, "Very soon. And you will…" She stared into the fishbowl, her brow wrinkling in concentration. "You will fall deeply head over hooves in looove with them."
Lovey gasped, staring in shock at the teeny-but-mighty fortune teller.
No! No, that wasn't right!
She already had Magny!
Azurite tore her eyes away from Mr. Peeper's fishbowl and squinted as blinding sunlight suddenly burst in. "Hey, wait!" she squeaked as the flap slumped closed, leaving her alone in the dark tent.
The quaintly cobbled streets of Canterlot, never terribly busy by Manehattan standards, seemed abandoned to Magnate. Only a few shops were open to serve the influx of tourists and the hoofful of snooty nobles promenading. Most everypony was attending the Summer Sun Fair and other attractions around town.
He'd be joining them shortly, now that business was taken care of. A signed contract was tucked into his suitcase, next to tickets for a scenic balloon ride and a romantic dinner-theatre. The publisher's representative from Vanhoover, Glowing Praise, had lived up to her name and assured him that his and Lovey's Romantic Getaways guidebook would be a smash hit! He might balance the books with the sales income and he anticipated a boost to his travel planning business. Win-win!
Magnate allowed himself a pleased smile and a skip in his trot as he searched for the cafe he'd arranged to meet Lovey at for lunch. He caught scents of tea, spices, and baking in the air, and heard somepony sobbing. His pleased smile slipped and then crashed as he rounded a corner and spied Lovey's pink-on-pink-on-pink. Jolting into a gallop he ran towards Cinnamon Chai's Tea and Cake Shop with his suitcase dragged along in his wake. He skidded to a stop beside one of the cafe's outdoor tables as Lovey stuffed a chocolate into her muzzle. Judging by the half-dozen empty boxes, she had been here a while. A cafe server sat a few paces away, clutching her tray, looking concerned and helpless.
He gasped, "Lovey! Lovey, I'm here! W-what's wrong?"
She didn't seem to taste the bitter-sweet chocolate as she chewed mechanically nor did her teary eyes recognise him when she looked his way.
Heart throbbing painfully, he caressed her cheek and quavered, "L-Lovey?"
She gasped as her eyes finally focused on him, then burst into fresh tears.
Bewildered and frightened, he sat on his haunches and threw his forelegs around her. He distractedly whispered soothing words into her flattened ear, while stroking her back and trying to control his shattered emotions. Her sobs and shudders eased a little and Magnate relaxed his desperate hug. The collar of his expensive shirt was damp and smeared with chocolate, but he only had eyes for Lovey.
"Oooh… M-Magny, I d-don't want to lose you!" she rasped between hiccoughs.
"Lose me?!"
She winced and he grimaced at his shocked outburst.
Forced his voice to a more comforting tone he asked, "What are you talking about? You're not going to lose me. I'm yours, heart and hoof, there's nopony else I ever, ever want to be with." Was she worried about the mare from the publishing company? Because, although she was undeniably pretty, there was no way-
"Ih… Ih…", she hiccoughed and wrapped her wings around herself, ducking her head behind the wall of sweet-scented pink. She blurted, "It's not you, it's me!"
A cold chill bristled up Magnate's spine and if he weren't clutching onto Lovey he might have fallen over from the dizzying shock. That terrible phrase was a classic break-up line!
"No", he rasped, "No, this can't be happening."
Lovey was a flighty mare, even for a pegasus, and what she said and did often left his head spinning. Their relationship may have started badly, but had become pure bliss once he'd stopped fighting it and bent his knee to propose. His once drab and lonely existence in the heart of Equestria's most densely populated city was now filled with hope and love he hadn't known he was lacking. Swallowing heavily, he gently bushed aside the cocoon of pink feathers and tipped her chin up. Her pretty eyes were more red than pink and her eyelids looked puffy and sore.
"I- I don't understand. Why would you want to-", he choked and swallowed the lump in his throat, "To leave me?"
Lovey struggled to speak, sniffling and snorting wetly as the cafe's waitress appeared, holding out a napkin. Magnate took it and gave her a wobbly smile before she faded back into the background. He gently dried Lovey's cheeks and then pressed the moist napkin against her muzzle.
"Blow."
She did, and it was every bit as loud and disgusting as he'd anticipated. He absently tossed it onto a half-empty chocolate box.
"I…", Lovey hesitated and sucked her lower lip. Unable to meet his eyes she finally confessed, "I'm going to… to meet somepony new and f-fall madly in l-love with them!"
"What? Why would you do that?" Was she unhappy with him? What had he done wrong?!
With a helpless sigh, she said, "I don't want to b-but it's true! Azurite the All-Knowing stared into her mystical fishbowl and told me my fortune." She clutched at his arms and urgently gasped, "She's the real deal, Magny! S-she was right about that mare finding her surprise secret admirer a-and about those colts who didn't know they loved each other! She… She said I'll meet a new pony and f-fall madly in love with them!" The last part was more wail than speech as she shuddered and buried her face against his chest.
Magnate was stunned for a moment but broke into relieved laughter.
"Lovey! Lovey, my sweet silly bird!" He gently caressed her large round belly and crooned, "Of course you'll be meeting a special new pony soon. And I'm sure we're both going to love them."
Author's Note
Lovey Dovey, Magnate, & Azurite belong to Crystal Wishes and Anzel and appear in this story with their blessing.
I had a blast writing this - it was great fun to 'play' with Lovey and company - and I'm delighted and flustered that it won. 
This story is really a 'thank you' to them for publishing their own wonderful ponewords.
