Split Apple

"Oh, an' one more thing." Blossom sat up, tail lashing. "She wants to meet Fancy Pants."

Cadance recoiled. "How did she ask that?" That potential trouble lurked there did not elude her.

"She weren't angry." Blossom sagged a little. "She's too good fer that... She just wants to meet 'em, talk to 'em. Um, ah did say he backed off the moment I told them about havin' a special somepony."

Cadance relaxed with a sigh. "Good good. Now... this opens a possibility. I'm going to need you to describe a few things for me, seeing as I wasn't there." A fact that clearly annoyed her. "What is her opinion of Fancy Pants?"

"Huh? Well..." Orchard Blossom barely touched her hooves together in faint taps. "Ah think she thinks highly of 'em, but from a distance. Like most ponies think ah Celestia, ya know?"

"I do know." Cadance's sly grin returned. "So, from her view, you were solicited by a Big Deal, but you were loyal."

"Ah don't feel loyal." Blossom flopped to the table, the plates shaking with the thump of impact. "She deserves better."

"And she wants to meet them, and she isn't angry at you." Cadance sat back with a little chuckle. "I may be leaping ahead of myself, only Sugar Belle could say for certain... But I do think you should give her exactly what she's asking for."

"Hm?" Blossom pushed back to a sit. "What is she askin' for?"

"To meet him." Cadance waved off in no specific direction. "Fancy Pants. In fact, with your permission... I'd like to be there. Think of me as a moderator! A pony to be calm and collected in the middle." Also a gossiper that wanted to see the juicy details from a front row seat, but she didn't mention that. "Now! One thing. I remember Celestia's letter. Auntie said you could teleport, and you did. Poor guard. But that's aside the point. Can you get us back to Canterlot faster than the train could?"

Blossom dared a little smile. "That ah can do, um..." She looked Cadance up and down. "Don't get me wrong, really appreciate the helpin' hoof... But ah'm curious. Celestia can raise the sun. Luna does the moon." She made grand sweeping motion with each. "An' she watches dreams. What's yer... thing?"

"And you teleport through the night, it seems," added Cadance with an easy smile. "I did mention, I am the princess of love. I can see connections between ponies. That's why I said you have a tangled web, and that makes sense. You have two ponies worth of connections dangling off of you, going in every direction." She reached out to brush an unseen thread. "This is the strongest. I bet it leads to your Sugar Belle." She came up short. "Oh, sorry. Strongest passion line. You have some thick ones that I'd bet go to family members."

Blossom eased at that. "Ah'd be right upset if you couldn't see 'em. Love 'em terrible! Um..." Blossom tried to see the lines that Cadance was speaking of, but she saw nothing there in the air, even as Cadance openly ran her hooves over them. She had given permission, neigh, even encouragement for Cadance to focus on that. "Ah can teleport you... Can you share your gift with me?"

Cadance perked at that. "Oh, I'm being rude." She drew her hooves back. "Indirectly. It's what I'm doing right now, serving as a helpful voice. I can't make you see what I see, but I could strengthen one of those lines, or weaken one, temporarily." She curled her tongue with a faint frown. "Let me put it this way, to be more fair. Can you make me able to teleport around?"

"Ah... could teleport you?" But she could not make Cadance able to teleport. Celestia rose the sun for them all, but she couldn't easily just pass sun-rising as a giftbox to somepony... "Ah get it... Sorry, weren't meanin' to imply nothin'. Been nothin' but kind to me."

Cadance patted her fellow princess on the shoulder. "No offense taken, I promise. Now! Since you can teleport, with me, let's arrange a little meeting, hm? Go and ask Sugar Belle and Fancy Pants if they're up to meeting. Bring me to it with them, and we can have a little chat." She steepled her hooves with that calculating look. "I will also get to see them, and their networks may reveal quite a bit more on this topic."

"Huh?" Blossom rolled her ears back. "Ah'm the one being unloyal. Sugar Belle's a good pony! One of the best! Um, and Fancy Pants ain't with nopony right now." She labored to consider. "He has his rich friends and his servants, but ain't nothin' romantic there, ah think."

"I can verify that," sang Cadance. "There's a reason Chrysalis chose to get rid of me. If she had replaced Shining Armor, I would have noticed straight away. The game would have been over before she made barely her first move." She set her hooves on the table. "But I don't imagine this will happen tonight, and I'm tired, anyway. Feel free to rest here, or head home. I suppose home's a thought away?"

She smiled at that. "What a power... I wouldn't trade mine for it. Still... what a power... To be anywhere? Hold that close and dearly, new princess." Cadance slid down to her hooves. "Feel free to enjoy the snacks remaining. My castle is your castle. I feel like we're newly introduced sisters... I'd love to learn more about you." She giggled on the way to the door. "But your sister needs her sleep."

Blossom scrambled to her hooves, rushing after Cadance. "Wait! Um... at the least, how should ah come knockin'. Just flyin' in and demandin' it is kinda rude, ain't it?"

"So polite." She captured Blossom's cheeks in her hooves, mashing those round bits with a smile. "Don't teleport right in front of them before they can even see who you are. Walk towards them like anypony else, and they'll be happy to see you. I'll tell them you are a welcome guest." She yawned thunderously into a hoof. "But, for now..." She left without further word, eyes mostly closed and ready for slumber.

Blossom didn't stop her that time, the door closing with a soft click in front of her. "Right neighborly..." She still had so many questions, but not many of them could be addressed by Cadance right that moment. "First..." She peeked out of the room. "Could ya--" She waved down a passing butler. "Could ya tell the maid that filled this room." She pointed back to the room she was coming from. "Tell her the snacks were delicious, and thank you."

"With pleasure." The crystal stallion bowed his front towards Blossom. "It is our job, but a good word is always appreciated, ma'am."

Blossom reached up to tip the hat... Oh, she was still wearing her police cap, which was fine for tipping. With a smile, she trotted in a jog for the front and slipped down the stairs to the streets of the Crystal Empire. Part of her wanted to look around, but it was late in the night. "Ain't the time to be startin' no new adventures." And she wasn't there anymore. She was in front of her home, the motel she had a room in. Not as grand as the crystal palace, but it was hers, at least the room she was renting.

"Good enough fer a princess."

She flopped and went to bed.

He woke up, stretching out his legs and clopping to the floor. "Glad that's sorted." At least, the next step was clear. He had no way to approach either of them right that moment, so he descended towards the kitchen for breakfast.

But there were boxes, a lot of them. They had bright and colorful wrappers, most with equally ornate ribbons. "What the?"

Grandma Smith was there, arms crossed. "Was gonna ask the same thin'. Only you could answer that."

Big Mac wove around the piles of boxes to reach her. "How could ah help?"

She reached and knocked a box off its pile, right onto Big Mac's snoot in a fit of good timing. "They're all addressed to you! So open 'em up so we can stop wonderin', and maybe get some space back."

Big Mac sat, bringing up two hooves to hold the box and bring it down just in front of himself. The label seemed clear.

To: Big Macintosh/Orchard Blossom
From: Fancy Pants

Big Mac began to color swiftly, eyes going wide. He looked to Grandma, who was just watching him evenly. "D-did you.. um... Did you read it?"

Grandma rolled her eyes. "Who's this Fancy Pants? And they know who you are, both of you! Is it trouble?"

Big Mac started peeling away the wrapper of the box he was holding. "Don't think so... We ain't quarralin' or nothin'... He's a wealthy pony, up in Canterlot." He pointed the way before leaning in to bite lose a stubborn part of the wrapping. With a pop, a box was revealed. He had to get some scissors to finish that job, slicing it open to reveal a felt smaller box.

His heart began to thump. There was also a bit of paper in there. Maybe that'd help!? He got the letter out and read it swiftly.

Hail and salutations,

I was nothing but a bore, and it weighs on me terribly. I don't know what order you will open these in, so expect many letters repeating this, but it's equally true, this I assure. This is not a gift for you, not precisely. This is for your ladyfriend. You are welcome to claim all the credit for it. I owe at least this much for putting you in such a terrible position! Maybe you could use it to ask a particular question? I'm wishing you the very best of fortunes!

Hoping We Are Still Friends,
Fancy Pants

Big Mac opened the felt box carefully, as if it may have a bomb. Inside glinted the explosive. It as a ring, topped by a diamond that was too large. He gasped in sync with Grandma's sharp whistle. "Lookie that!" Granny raised a brow. "Ain't many reasons fer a stallion to send one of those... There somethin' you need to share wit' me?"

"Ain't like that!" hotly denied Big Mac, face somehow managing to be more red than it already was. "He's sendin' this so ah can give it to Sugar Belle." He waved the letter defensively. "Says so right here."

Granny took the letter from Big Mac's flailing hoof. "Let me see that..." She popped on her reading glasses, eyes sweeping left and right. "Huh... Sorry fer thinkin' you were tryin' to get somethin' past me. It does say that." She leaned to the side for a better look at the ring. "This..." Her eyes wandered to the other boxes as she took off her glasses. "He sent this many gifts?! What did he do that he thinks you're that angry wit' 'em?"

Big Mac clopped a hoof to his face with a miserable grunt.

"Figure--" Applejack came in, already glistening from the morning work she'd started. "--Whoever sent these either hates you, or loves you, so which..." She saw the ring too. "Oh..." Not many ponies would send a ring like that to who they hated. "Um.... Shoot... Now I feel real like a heel..."

Big Mac covered his face with his other hoof, both working in concert to hide from the world. "He made a pass at me, when ah was Orchard Blossom! Done told him afterwards ah'm a taken pony! Backed off real quick... But guess he still feels powerful bad about it."

Applejack reached for the box, pressing it gently closed. "Shoot... when ah got an admirerer, they didn't give any such nice gifts... They figured they were gift enough." She rolled her eyes. "Don't make yer sister jealous of you!"