The Elements of Turmoil

By RadaVonVon

Chapter 13: The Filly Who Waited

It was this time of night that always made Rarity think. She glanced up at the night sky, only slightly darker than the scalding cup of coffee she held between her hooves. It had been quite a while since she was last here. The last time she could recall sitting in the small outcropping of an outside section of the cheap diner, Donny’s, as she recalled it, was the night before she and Spike had moved to Manehattan.

Goodness, it had been longer than she thought. This was long before Gem was born. Augh. She shivered at the memories of endless sleepless nights, toiling away whenever he cried.

Rarity shook her head, but she smiled weakly. He had been worth it. In a sense, she was proud of him. He had a way to go, but… A small smile danced on the edge of her lips. He was intelligent.

She took her thoughts off her family for a moment, knowing she would only stress herself out further. It was an odd hour to be up. Four in the morning. She idly scanned Luna’s night. The bright lights streaming in from the 24 hour diner outshined many of the stars, but the majour ones were still visible.

Most of the early birds wouldn’t be up for another hour, and even some of the most extreme night-owls would be asleep at this time. It was rare for anypony to be up at this particular time. She knew that in an hour, the sun would be glimmering prismatically on the horizon, sending its rays glimmering throughout the sky, as several sleepy business ponies wandered the streets with their ties and briefcases, shivering in the cold aftermath of the ten hour stage of darkness.

Spike was at Twilight’s library, sleeping. He’d been sleeping since three o’ clock in the afternoon. Sometimes, she wanted to scold him for being so lazy. There had been times when he had gone out and bought gargantuan orders of hay fries and fallen asleep on the couch, his face covered in cheese sauce and chili from them. Celestia knew what else he had ordered on those things.

He was adorable, but could be so silly at times.

Rarity’s reason in particular for being up at this particular moment was that Twilight had returned with Pinkamena, the poor girl, carrying a stack of invitations to the Grand Galloping Gala. With the only reason for her bad experience last time far, far behind her, she expected it to at least be a somewhat enjoyable experience.

Earlier in the evening, Rarity had taken it upon herself to go through stacks upon stacks of dusty old boxes and dig out the six old dresses she had packed away so long ago. After calling over the other five, she had tried them on each of them, taking notes on whether or not they needed to be taken out or let in, patches she needed to make.

And only thirty minutes ago, the dresses had come to fruition. They looked just as beautiful, if not more so, than they had all those years ago.

Staying up to watch the foals had become everyone’s priority and taken up most of their time. Thankfully, the foals had resisted Discord’s tricks. How he knew about them after being encase in stone made no sense, but that was unimportant.

What was important was that they finished the job Princess Celestia had asked them to do so that they could come home as soon as possible, and everypony could move on with their lives.

So, here she sat, with her hair bedraggled and a shrug haphazardly thrown over her shoulders while she sipped quietly from her mug. The waitress had given her some nasty looks for just sitting there, drinking coffee, but she’d be sure to tip. After all, she was the Element of Generosity. Aside from that, however, she was no cheapskate and certainly not a cruel pony to leave a waitress who made minimum wage income without any money.

Tentatively, she cast her almond-shaped blue eyes upward. To her shock, she saw a familiar white unicorn stallion. She raised an eyebrow. “Hello.” She sighed politely, smiling faintly.

“Hello. May I sit with you? I’d be honoured to join your company.” Blueblood asked politely, an air of snootiness still floating passively from his voice.

Rarity blinked. “Erm. I suppose.”  She murmured tentatively, sweeping her bangs out of her cobalt eyes. Blueblood smiling, pulling out a chair and flagging down the waitress, a pink earth pony with a blonde mane.

“Could I get a coffee as well, please?”

“Of course.” The waitress grimaced, sighing and walking off.

Blueblood turned to Rarity. “What is a young lady such as yourself doing all alone here?” He asked.

“I couldn’t sleep.” Rarity answered politely. “I’ve been preparing the dresses for my friends to attend the Grand Gala.” She frowned. “What are you doing here? This place only serves, ah, common carnival fare?”

Blueblood frowned. “Can I not apologize enough for my behavior?” He asked, cocking his head and frowning.

“You were very rude.” Rarity snapped. “Then you decided to blatantly come and try to apologize for your actions, as if you did nothing at all. Do you think you’re so available?”

“I’ve done what I can to redeem myself, Miss Rarity.” Rarity watched the stallion’s eyes darken. “I apologize for any offensive behavior you may have been forced to deal with, but I’ve done my best to change. Applejack has taught me that, and the meaning of hard work.” He leaned in, scrutinizing. “And I understand you’re happy, too. I haven’t judged you for your own relationships, so please, don’t judge me for something that happened so many years ago.” He smiled to the waitress as she begrudgingly handed him a mug of coffee.  “Thank you.” He bowed his head. The waitress only glared, grunting and rolling her eyes.

Blueblood turned his eyes back onto Rarity. “I want to apologize. I’m so very sorry. I was spoiled.”

“I’m not in the mood, Blueblood.” Rarity mumbled.

“Are you still angry about that? I’ve done all I can to apologize.”

Rarity sighed, turning to him. “No, I’m not still angry, per se. I’m miffed. Being angry is unladylike.”

“Why does this still miff you, then?” He murmured, resting his hoof on hers.

Rarity snapped her hoof back, lowering her eyes. “Why you little double-dealing, duplicitous-“

“No, no!” Blueblood glared at her. “How dare you even suspect me of…?” He sighed. “Miss Rarity, I understand you have misconceptions. Simply because I try to show some kind of physical connection doesn’t mean the thought of adultery crosses my mind.” He growled,  getting to his hooves. “I’ll be taking my leave, Miss Rarity.” Blueblood sighed. The sun had begun to rise. He turned on his heel, sighing.

Rarity smirked in satisfaction, watching him reenter the library.

He wasn’t totally oblivious. He’d heard the mutters and whispers and rumours floating around. Sir Prize had been constantly aggravating him about it. Considering the fact that the blue Pegasus’ wings had shot out one time when they had simply been idly speaking, it had become something he wasn’t able to ignore.

In truth, this was the first time in his life that books hadn’t told him how to react to this. He wasn’t too sure how to respond, in truth. Thinking about her only made him edgy. He liked her. Whether or not it was in that way…  He scratched his head nervously and sighed, glancing over his shoulder, while everypony was packing up. He still hadn’t confirmed whether or not they were going to listen to Discord’s warning and turn back to Equestria, or continue on with their path that the Princess had instructed them to follow.

He had been on edge about it the entire night. He hadn’t slept, he hadn’t eaten. He sighed, looking at the five ponies expectantly glancing his way.  “I think… I think we should take a vote.” Clockwork grumbled. “I’m not sure when I became the default leader here, but somehow I did. I’d like to take a vote.” He mumbled, sitting on his haunches. “All in favour of listening to Discord, please raise a hoof.”

Anxiously, he scanned the group. No one raised their hooves. “So, I can assume that all of us want to continue?” He asked, and a resounding murmur of agreement came from the group. The excitement of Apple Core receiving her cutie mark had faded in lieu of the realization of the seriousness of the situation they were now in.

“Let’s go, then.” Clockwork mumbled, turning on his heel and cocking his head toward the door. The sky was still grey and the grounds and none of the surroundings had shown any signs of the rain from the previous night, though he could see that Sir Prize’s white leg was still covered in the sticky residue of the chocolate milk.

The haze was still settled along the ground of the city. They had to avoid the cobblestone paths that flowed like some sort of liquid, and traveled on the purely checkered areas they had been following thus far.

The city was large, but there was a clear path running directly through it and, in spite of the fact that Clockwork would have liked to have stayed longer to study the draconequus architecture, he had complied and they had gotten through as quickly as possible.

The thick fog still hadn’t lifted, and it was significantly humid, though cool, and dampness began to build up on their skins and penetrate through their coats. He had learned to recognize Solar Flare’s gait. She approached behind him. “Hi,” She murmured.

“Hello.” Clockwork murmured, trying to look around him to see something through the fog. His brow furrowed. He couldn’t see any mountains, just the greyish fog endlessly pooling and swimming around them. He realized even Solar Flare, standing right beside him, was partially hidden.

“Uh, listen.” He heard her mutter quietly. Clockwork nodded absentmindedly. He half hoped that she would just go away. He knew this wouldn’t be the case, though.

“Yes?” He murmured under his breath, not bothering to look at her.

“Uhm,” When he finally looked to his right to see that her face was red, he sighed. “Just, uh, don’t listen to whatever else anypony says, okay?”

“Yeah,” Clockwork mumbled through his teeth, raising an eyebrow. “Okay.”

Solar Flare walked awkwardly beside him for the next several minutes, staring at her hooves and the moist ground they were traveling on. He heard her swallow audibly.

After several more moments, the fog was impenetrable. Clockwork stopped when he was barely able to make out Solar Flare’s outline a foot away from him. “Guys, it’s really thick here.” He muttered nervously. “We need a light or something. Anyone have any matches or anything?

There was no answer. A long, piercing silence echoed through Clockwork’s ears, and he only frowned, flitting his ears around the general area in an attempt to pick something up.

After a moment, he heard a loud belch and a massive flash of bright green, heat momentarily passing over the length of his body. Whipping around in shock and smelling singed hair, he realized the fog had been cleared.

Gem looked shocked, and he opened his wide mouth with small fang-like incisors, much unlike a pony and not unlike a dragon, and released a massive stream of green flames again bursting from his mouth, plasma and heat rolling forth from his mouth and rotating in a bulky, swirling supercell of a fire storm, singing the ground and sending it forth, burning through the fog with a path of charred ground in its wake.

Clockwork stared at him, mouth agape. “Y-you… I didn’t know you could do that!”

Gem blinked, looking equally shocked. “I didn’t either!” For once, the hybrid had an emotion that wasn’t angry or upset. He was purely shocked.

Clockwork heard Apple Core gasp, “Gem! Yer cutie mark!”

On the hybrid’s flank sat a smoldering, flickering green flame.

The Grand Galloping Gala was even duller than she had remembered. They had all decided just to sit down at a food table together. Needless to say, they were each nervous wrecks. More or less, they just glanced around awkwardly at each other wondering what their foals were doing.

Last they had seen, they had just left Discord’s castle. They had each seen the message that Discord had left for the foals, and, luckily, had dismissed it just as easily and passively as the foals had as more of his lies. Discord couldn’t possibly actually think that they couldn’t see straight through his façade?

Admittedly, Pinkamena had been shaken up by his comments about being Chaos’ father, but she was going to be fine, according to Fluttershy. She just needed a lot of rest. She had attended the Gala anyway, and sat between Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle, to keep her from doing anything risky. The dresses were the same as they once had been, but renewed.

They were still marvelous, but Pinkamena seemed to look far different. No doubt this was attributed to her straight hair. Though, Twilight could have sworn that her coat was darker, more colourless. Almost as though Discord had cast his spell on her.

Sickeningly, she realized this was somewhat true. A shiver ran down her spine.

Though each of the ponies had food on their plates, none of them touched it. If they were to run into Celestia, they would inform her of Discord’s message. Aside from that, none of them had wanted to come by any means. But, they were invited. It would only be proper to come.

The only one who had been eating or drinking anything was Rainbow Dash, who’d requested a glass of wine. Or two, or three. Now, she was chuckling obnoxiously about the cowlick Soarin had and was trying fix it.

She’d become rather boisterous, laying over the other blue Pegasus. Soarin had defended her by snickering nervously and trying to explain that the competition they’d been at recently had taken a lot out of her. They’d left Scootaloo to watch over the library and the orb.

If there was any trouble, they had warned, she should immediately come to Canterlot without hesitation. It was a little ridiculous. Twilight sometimes felt as though Scootaloo was treated like a foal, in spite of the fact that she was about the age she herself had been upon first traveling to Ponyville.

Rainbow Dash was now obnoxiously licking her hoof and slicking back Soarin’s hair, much to his distaste. No one was judging Rainbow, but she certainly wasn’t representing herself well if the Princess were to approach.

That was the least of their worries, though.

“Aw, hell, RD.” Applejack groaned, finally flagging down a waiter, dressed in a black tie and white collar. “Listen, ya got any hard cider?”

“No, madame. We unfortunately only serve the finest in-“

“What’s that bubbly stuff?” The muted orange earth pony squinted her eyes at the waiter.

“Champagne?”

“Yeah. That. Ah want that.” Applejack mumbled, resting her head on the table. Blueblood glanced over at her and chuckled.

“I’ll have to educate you on the drinks of finer society, dear.” Blueblood laughed, resting his head on top of hers. “Are you feeling quite alright? Aside from what I suppose is obvious?”

“Yes.” Applejack mumbled, smiling weakly. “Ah just wanna go get some sleep. Ah never wanted ta’ come ‘nyway. But it’d be sorta rude otherwise, huh?”

“Yes, unfortunately there are many unnecessary rules on the Canterlotian type of etiquette. I grow weary of it.” He lamented softly, laughing weakly. “But, it has its upsides.”

“Oh, yeah? Get me some hard cider.”

“Of course.” Blueblood flashed the apple pony a smile, flagging down another waiter and whispering something in his ear while making several small hoof gestures.

The waiter nodded and moved off. Within five minutes, both a glass of champagne and another, dark amber substance was in the same type of glass. “Free of charge,” Blueblood sighed passively. “Having a royal title does help, you know.”

Applejack stared at him for a moment and chuckled. “Uh’course, Ah shoulda known.” She murmured, smirking at him and kissing him briefly. “Thanks, Sugarcube.” She murmured and took a hard swig of the ochre liquid, before coughing. “Ah, Celestia! That’s the extra-hard stuff!”

“I can have it taken back?”

“Nah. Just wasn’t what I was expectin’ at a froo froo place like this. This is the kinda stuff only me and MacIntosh could handle. Eh, Mac?”

“Eeyup.” The red stallion murmured. Fluttershy had been drifting off and was now leaning lovingly against his shoulder, her pink mane covering one of her closed eyes as she hummed softly in her sleep and he nuzzled the top of her head.

Rarity leaned over. “Applejack, if you’re uninterested in the champagne, I’d be glad to take it off your hands.” Applejack nodded in acknowledgement toward Rarity, who took it into her hooves and tentatively sipped on it next to Spike.

Spike had, unquestionably, been receiving odd looks the entire night, but he had blown them off and simply stayed within the group. Tonight, nopony cared how they really presented themselves in front of some high-class snoots.

The most important people right now were the foals, the Princess, and the Elements of Harmony themselves. Twilight had dismissed the possibility of the Elements of Turmoil even existing as Discord had said, and therefore dismissed everything that the draconequus had said as complete and total lies, not even a grain of truth.

It was for the best. If he wasn’t lying, then they were warned. But, there was no sense in listening to what the chimera had claimed. He had tried to destroy Ponyville and all of Equestria, and he hadn’t succeeded. What would stop him from trying to do it again, but manipulating innocent foals to do the dirty work for him?

Fluttershy lifted her head groggily, blinking and yawning. Big MacIntosh nuzzled her head. “No worries, I got’cha.” Twilight heard him murmur lovingly. She felt a small pang hit her heart, but suppressed it immediately.

A waiter passed by, clearly noticing the amount of drinks on the table and leaned toward Fluttershy. “Anything for you, miss?”

The canary yellow Pegasus wiped the sleep from her eyes, cooing for a moment. MacIntosh looked up. “She’ll have an apple juice.” He answered for her. Fluttershy nodded gratefully, leaning into the large red stallion once again. He put a foreleg around her.

“Soarin!” Rainbow Dash hiccupped obnoxiously. “H-hey, why haven’t you drank… drunk… dranked… had something to drink?” The rainbow-maned pony asked, her head  sitting in his lap and staring up at him.

“Because I want to make sure we get home safely, Dashie.” Soarin chuckled. “Hey,” He turned his attention to Applejack and Big MacIntosh. “Have you guys made any of those apple pies lately? I love those things!”

“I know!” Rainbow hiccupped vociferously. “He always asks me if we have any,” She slurred. “Ah always tell ‘im we don’t! You dope.” She mumbled, haphazardly waving a blue hoof at the waiter several feet away. “Hey, buddy, uhm,” She coughed. “I’m Rainbow Dash, y’know, like, one of the members of the Wonderbolts and stuff. I really like this red wine stuff in whatever this is. Can I have some more?”

“You’ve had enough, Rainbow.” Soarin warned nervously, resting his hoof on hers.

“C’mon, Soarrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiin!”

“No. Sorry for bothering you.” He smiled good-naturedly at the waiter, who only raised an eyebrow and stumbled off. The stallion pushed Rainbow Dash upright, out of his lap.

“Come onnn, we never cuddle.”

“Not here, not now. You’ve had too much to drink, RD!” Soarin insisted, gently stamping a hoof on the table, sending the champagne glass with the narrow, thin neck shivering with the vibrations he had sent through the table. A small speck of condensation rolled down the glass and put a dark, moist spot in the immaculate tablecloth.

Rarity nodded, reaching a hoof over and placing it on Dash’s. “Please, if the Princess see’s you-“

“Screw the Princess.” Rainbow Dash growled, staring at the tablecloth and earning a few strange glances from not only those at their table but those surrounding the area. “She sent all our kids off on this stupid,” She paused to hiccup. “Thing! She does it on purpose!”

Rarity took a gentle sip from the golden, sparkling liquid in her glass.  “You need some sleep, darling.”

“If anyone’s in need of sleep, Miss Rarity,” Blueblood interjected. “It’s you. You were up rather early, weren’t you?”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. You remain nothing more than a massive royal pain in my eye-“

“Hey!” Applejack stood up. The cider was taking its hold upon her. “Don’t insult ‘im!” She snapped, glaring at Rarity. “He’s a diff’rent pony! Ah’m the Element of Honesty, Ah of all people should know. You should be generous with your kindness!” The earth pony snapped.

“Yeah, and I’d like a large order of nachos. Could I get some sapphires and emeralds on there, maybe a few topazes for seasoning? Yeah, thanks, dude! You’re the best.” Spike ordered his food, interrupting the building tension in the midst of the group.

He turned back to realize everypony was staring at him and turned slightly red. “Heh, sorry. I just got kind of hungry. I haven’t been able to kind any good gems out here lately, and they offered...” He scratched the back of his neck with his claws.

Twilight groaned, throwing her head against the tablecloth and raising a hoof to flag down somepony, anypony. Thankfully, she heard a female voice behind her ask, “What can I do for you, Madame?

“Maretini. Fast.” She mumbled, stomping the same hoof she had just had raised down on the table. She heard the waitress nod in acknowledgement and then canter away to get her order. Twilight slowly raised her head, sighing as her gaze fell upon the rest of the ponies sitting at the table. “Please don’t fight. I want to get out of here as much as you guys do.”

Her gaze fell upon a half-asleep Fluttershy, curled up next to Big MacIntosh, sucking contentedly on the straw of a green juice pouch with the image of a bright red apple stamped on the front of it.  The violin music floating through the area was just beginning to get on her nerves. She tapped a back leg hanging off the chair nervously against the tile as silence befell the group.

Ponies were leaving their tables to dance a slow dance. Though for of them had their partners, none of them got up to leave. Pinkamena had said nothing the entire time, which concerned her slightly, but Twilight wasn’t about to harass her about it. She could understand, particularly with what she had gone through, that she may want to keep to herself, at least now and until her idea that something was wrong in the universe, (aside from the obvious things Celestia had revealed.)

Her head snapped up when she heard Rarity mumble, “Oh, dear. What’s going on, there?”

Her maretini hadn’t come yet, but she could notice that there was quite a ruckus of assorted guards and several guest ponies either trying to peek over the backs of other ponies to see just exactly what was going on, or looking as though they were pushing something back.

“What’s going on over there?” Spike asked, raising his head as he piled a colossal mound of chips, unidentifiable sauce, and gems into his mouth.

Twilight got to her hooves, slowly walking over to at least try to get a better look. There was a lot of shoving and yelling. She could hear a guard yell, “No list, you don’t get in!”

At this point, she was rather interested. She almost dove into the group, swimming through and getting shoved from side to side. A dark grey Pegasus pony shoved her to the ground, causing her to cry out before getting to her hooves once again. They were forming some kind of barrier to keep something outside. She continued shoving through the groups of ponies, only to get shoved back over and over again.

She sighed, deciding it would clear itself out and turning around to head back to the table, shrugging at those remaining.

But, then, she heard a sickeningly familiar Buckingham accent call, “Twilight? Twilight Sparkle!”

Next Chapter: Chapter 14: A Not-So Common Misconception Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 13 Minutes