Blueblood

Ambrosia's wide, admiring eyes grew to match the saucers in size as they, and the rest of the tea set, emerged in the unfolding of that great flower of feminine civilization. Without exaggeration, it was the fanciest tea set she'd ever set her eyes on, exceeding even the finest china at home. Not that there was much; though Applejack would likely award her with a matching set once she finished her lessons with Twilight... say, in ten years or so. All the little packets of loose-leaf unfolded like some Saddle Arabian merchant's wares before her, promising exotic and luxurious delights. "Oh-Kay, Glitter!" She assented, in absolute trust of her older cousin as the sommelier of leaf water selected her beverage base. Soon enough, the alchemy of Long Guo was working its magic, as aromatic steam arose from the prepared cup, causing the little filly to sit bolt upright in anticipation. "Bitching tea... Bitching!" She repeated with all the juvenile enthusiasm that was sure to cause parental trouble for them both down the road. The chime sounded, and she activated her horn, delicately lifting the cover as Twilight trained her, lifting the cup, letting it cool as she blew over the top, taking her first sip.... and making a face. This was... not like her favorite tea. Not a single apple, or any kind of fruit at all was in evidence! Caffeinated tea of any kind was, as a matter of fact, new to hear. New, and not entirely pleasant; that sort of thing is an acquired taste she had yet to acquire. "Mmm..." She tried her best to put a game face on it, but her next "...bitching." Was definitely less enthusiastic. ~~~ Mosely and Cara snapped a look at each other, not sure whether to be amused, horrified, or ashamed by Applejack's proposal for a direct approach. Certainly, it never occurred to either of them to walk into so... disreputable a place as a Manehattan Municipal Guard station! Not that they'd be there as anything but concerned citizens, but there was something... unsavory about the place. At least to the upper class of ponies in this town, who had as little to do with them as possible. If either of them were sufficiently suspicious, that might have raised a few vermilion banners, but in some respects, the Oranges were as congenially trusting as the Apples, just for a different set of ponies. In either case, they were glad enough to change the subject to offspring, tittering at their country cousin's little joke in turn, and quick to oil over any waters she thought she may have troubled. "Oh, we know well enough! Though, I'm not so sure the change has been so much between a colt and filly, as it has been between a foal comfortable in their skin, and one that wasn't." Mosely swiftly reassured AJ, with Cara ringing in support. "Indeed, there's quite a few ponies in this town that don't quite... fit, you know? It's not something we're unfamiliar with, though I do have to say it was most fortunate that Prince Blueblood- Or, Princess Bluebelle, was Valen's primary influence when he was navigating that difficult decision. I can't help but think that they were a much healthier influence than might have been found in SoHoof, don't you?"

Ambrosia was starry-eyed as she took in her adored older cousin's room. Moonlight Glitter had made an impression on the little filly, and would likely be promoted in her eyes to 'glorified relative', future mentor in the world of modeling, should her cuteness career veer in that direction. Which it probably shouldn't; it would be most unfair to show up a fellow clan member on the stage, after all! "Ooh, ooh, I love tea! Especially apple cinnamon, I serve it at all the tea parties I have with Pwincess Twilight!" The little unicorn giggled with delight, clearly as pleased to be sharing a cup with her cousin as with the sovereign ruler of Equestria. After all, her mama's close friends were all honorary aunts anyway, so this would be another lovely day with family! ~~ Elsewhere, her family was having, if not a more enjoyable tete-a-tete over tea and tea-like beverages, at least an interesting one. Like most city mares of a... certain age, Cara had a certain relish for gossip, even (or especially) if said gossip was of a salacious, scandalous, or dangerous matter. Leaning over her unspilled orangey beverage, she spilled the metaphorical tea like a clumsy waitress. "Well! Funny you should mention the ransom business. See, the guard advised actually gathering the money, so they could use the payment as an opportunity to spring a sting operation and arrest the scoundrels. But do you know what happened when they day came?" She paused, savoring the moment of anticipation. "They somehow got clean away with the cash, despite the whole building being surrounded by cops! Now, I would never dream suggesting that any member of the force was taking bribes from criminals, but you must admit the whole thing looks quite suspicious, don't you agree?" Mosely snorted, with the air of a stallion who'd made up his mind on the subject. "I would go so far as to say that somepony was definitely, ahem, 'on the take', as the street patois goes. I can only be thankful that poor Branchward escaped safe and sound. As for younger ponies these days... well. All I can say is, I'm quite pleased to see that you're keeping your own safe from corrupting influences as much as possible. Such a sweet filly, little Ambrosia. Has quite a cosmopolitan taste for fruits of quality, eh?"

Jizara had the effontry not to blush at all at Niilaavin's words; it had been a long time since she'd had so good a time and wasn't the sort to apologize anyway. Well, aside from giving one of the rawer-looking claw marks a cleaning lick. "I for one appreciate pleasant surprises, so you can enchant my mate all you please~" Perhaps in future nights she'd have cause to regret that... but that was for later. Staff disputes meant little enough to her at this point, but she did chime in to take the opposite bet of whatever Cadence chose to put money on. "Just to make things even and interesting." The newly-minted sphinx was a little surprised to see Niil bow so, and wasn't quite sure what to say to it, standing aside a bit awkwardly, caught between staying put and joining the bow. Eventually ending up doing a little dip and still not feeling comfortable either way. The high of elation could only take you so far through the changes of a lifetime, and they were starting to sink in a little now.

Glad to see his friend was open to keeping late hours, Kahz stepped aside to give Foxtrot a better view of Yu with all the presantory pride of a big winner at the local casinos astounded by his own good luck. "Yes she is! Drifted into town one day and caught a show of mine, as well as my eye. Not quite sure how I caught her own, but hey! A changeling ought to know as well as anyone the caprice of love, eh?" He gave his marefriend a quick kiss, practically skipping inside with all the humble levity of one who has given up on ruminating upon the question of whether he deserves his good fortune, and only seeks to enjoy it to the full. "Yu was interested in taking dancing lessons with me, and I wanted to start with a style we were both equally ignorant in, for fairness' sake. I thought of you instantly; I figured it was about time I took up your offer on 'special private lessons', if you don't mind making it a couple's deal, eh?" He gave a meaningful wink to the dance instructor, certain that he was already co-conspirator in his little surprise. Equally as certain as he was that Yu would take it in good humor, though there was a little bit of doubt in the back of his mind that gave this enterprise an ever-greater thrill. Kahz did have something of the risk junkie in him, after all...

Amby wasn't quite sure what photo-genic meant, but she knew when she was being called cute! Not to mention, the nickname 'Jackles' for her mother just made her giggle. "Ah, yeah! I could be a plushie so that everypony can hug me just like momma does!" A little confused in the concept, but she got the main gist of it alright! Though, her mind was quickly on to the next thought as soon as Glitter asked, "Oh oh oh! I wanna see your dresses! Auntie Rarity told me about your pretty dresses!" Her fillyish enthusiasm would soon lead her to bound after her cousin eagerly, wanting to spend some quality time with a fellow sartorial enthusiast! Mosely watched the two of them indulgently, holding in a sigh until he heard the door close behind them. "It's good to see the young ones so happy." He said, after a bit, turning an unmasked face of weary worry on Applejack. "Things haven't been easy lately in this city. I'm sad to say, one of the main reasons for our paucity of visits to our mutual cousins is that it just hasn't been safe recently to travel downtown! Just this past fortnight, one of our business partners was ponynapped and held for ransom!" Cara looked up from the camera, sympathetic to her husband. Makeup did a better job to hide the worry lines on her face, but their existence could be easily deduced. "I don't know what this city has come to! I mean, there was always some crime, the Mafia and all that sort of riff-raff. But they've never been so... hm, how can I say it? So targeting of citizens rather than establishments? Something must have happened in the underworld of Manehattan, but I can't say I know any more than that."

Mosely had barely time to nod in assent to Applejack's question before his wife came back with the camera, though he did silently mouth, "Talk after bedime for her." He knew full well what Applejack meant, but there were other considerations... that he'd rather not say in front of little, innocent ears. Said pair of ears were currently being cleaned of stay orange droplets by her mother, no doubt, as Ambrosia was making an effort to pose herself as cutely as possible. Moonlight Glitter would have an expert eye for that sort of thing, and she'd be able to see how good a moddle the little filly would make. Or singer. Or dancer. Or actress. Or basically anything on stage where folks could see her. She was the sort of cute that would blossom into beautiful one day, and this would be a picture that future biographers would prize to show her early blossoming! "Applepies!" She said right before the flash, a phrase that never failed to bring a smile to her face.

"Ah, correct; do excuse me Glitter." Mosely was nothing if not a devoted and supportive father, but after all, he'd needed to change his habits of referral towards his offspring long after he'd ever expected to have to; and it wasn't as if ponies had consistent patterns of what they wanted to be called in terms of first or last names. It would have been much simpler, of course, if Moonlight Glitter had swapped one of those names for the family fruit, but it was quite clear that her talent and future were not to be found amidst the Orange groves... He'd be lying if he wasn't slightly saddened by this; as Moonlight's flair for the orange cream drink showed she had lost none of ther adroitness in handling that fine fruit. All respect to the Apple, of course, but citrus was where it was at. Ambrosia, meanwhile, was beginning to have the heretical suspicion that all fruits were actually equally delicious when cultuvated with earth pony care, but even at her age knew not to speak of such things in the presence of Mama. She only slurped, enjoyed, and tried not to make too much of a mess as she bounced with excitement at hearing Babs had to be in town. "Yay, I wanna see her! Where does she live? Is it far?" Mosely pursed his lips. "I believe our mutual cousin resides in the Lower Manehattan neighborhood of Hooflyn. Or was it the Broncs? Business doesn't take us there very often." "Huh? Y'all got family in town but you don't see 'em?" The very concept was alien to Amby, and it troubled her beyond what even the prospect of looking cute on camera could assuage. Her innocent little mind had yet to grasp any kind of concept like class division, and while it wasn't quite true that such things actually split the clan... it did put some distance between some of the tree branches.

Seeing the huge pile of food in front of Flurry Heart disappear so fast made Shining Armor whistle. He could have put that much away back when he was a growing colt, or just going through basic, but as a full-grown stallion who kept an eye on his fitness... well, there were only so many calories he could take in a day! Still, today would take enough out of him to warrant a second omelet, by no means a common thing these days. Still, he made sure to pace himself, as his daughter would need the lion's share of eggs this morning. "You sure are, Fluffalump." He smiled, unable to resist taking the opportunity to use the cute nickname he'd coined for his daughter when the opportunity presented itself. After all, she was growing up, and far from slowly these days. Soon, the days when he'd carry her to the table on his back would come to an end... No, best stop that line of thinking there. The eggs were salty enough without paternal tears at the passage of time. He nodded in assent to Cadence's house rules, "Number two, no freak blizzards. I know those come easy to you, but save it for the next invasion, OK?" It was only half in jest; Flurry Heart got her name for a reason, after all. Special talents could give access to legendary-level spells, after all. He himself had access to a near-inpenetrable shield, but he would prefer not to use it today!

Amby's ears perked up as soon as she heard that voice from the kitchen. Could it be...? The sight of the young mare emerging with her drinks left no doubt. "Cousin Moony!" Ambrosia called out cheerily, excitedly clopping her hooves, using both them and her magic to catch the orange cream granita, all those tea parties with Princess Twilight coming in handy! Taking a sip from the thoughtfully-provided straw, her eyes lit up at the taste. "Mmm, dee-licious! Thank you very much." Ever polite, she nodded to all three oranges in the room, with Mosely being the first to acknowledge the gratitude. "Mm, yes, a family recipe. One which I'm glad to see Moonlight Glimmer respects... at least, in how it turns out in the end." Any family drama in the kitchen to which this might have alluded passed right over Ambrosia's innocent little head, as she happily partook of her treat. She was only silent for half a minute before a thought came into it. "Hey... if cousin Moony is here... can we see Cousin Babs too mama? She lives here, right?" It hadn't sunk in how big Manehattan really was; after all, in Ponyville, everypony knew everypony, so surely it was the same here, right? Especially if they were family!

Once he got Yù Xīn's approving nuzzle, Kahz began to direct her off the Main Strip out towards the residential district. "Excellent! I happen to know somepony from work who keeps a studio in town; he's brought in to choreograph a lot of the shows for the resorts here, but he did offer some private lessons after I cut a few tracks for his own shows." Shows might have been Kahz's most visible form of work, but despite how esteemed he felt right now in his marefriend's presence, he wasn't a top-tier rock star. So, that meant a lot of jobbing work, but he didn't mind so much; the sociable little lovebug loved meeting new ponies, and you didn't meet so many good ones once you rose too far up the fame pyramid. After a few minutes, he found the house-studio out on the flats of the plateau. "Hopefully Foxtrot doesn't mind the evening call..." Kahz said, as he trotted up with Yù Xīn to knock on the door, buzzing his wings a bit in anticipation...

Jizara, for her part, was just a bit too happy to bother about whatever the servants were squabbling over. Not that she interfered with the 'Help' on a regular basis before; she usually gave orders, and a deadline by which she expected a task to be sorted out with associated consequences for failure. Beyond that she had no concerns over how the sausages of housework or legislation were made... And, frankly, after the big changes performed and... consumated over the course of the course of the afternoon, she wasn't much in the mood to do anything right now except rest against the side of her new matek, purring softly half-asleep. Resting in bliss, daydreaming (rather selectively) about what a second go at parenthood would be like... but the reality check of rambunctious kitten litters was for the future, for now, Niilaavin was rousing for some fresh air, and the pink sphinx stretched out, paws out and rump up, instinctively falling into feline movement. "Arrawwrrr... Ah, you know, this is my first time in the Crystal Empire. I don't think I've ever seen its full extent." Padding along with her mate outside, she nodded towards Princess Cadence. "I need to thank you again, I think. I sensed the presence of your blessing, and I hope to soon show you its fruits." She beamed, with a glow that would tell the alicorn that said hope would not go unfulfilled.

It was indeed one of those Trottingham phrases, a smoothing over of 'Frightfully'. The super-refined ponies of that part of Equestria prided themselves on being able to speak without using their lips at all!... Though ponies from more hot-blooded regions would snidely allege that they couldn't use their lips for much of anything useful anyhow. As for keeping Ambrosia from using Fancy talk... well, some forces of nature wouldn't yield even to the strongest of Earth Ponies. But that was a confrontation for a much later day. For now, the little filly bounded after her Aunt and Uncle, cheeing at the promise of a treat. She giggled at Auntie Cara's talk about the rooster. "Nooo, ol' Crowy's a sweetie! He lets the hens eat first like a gennlecolt!" She recalled the words from a little lesson that her mama was giving her older brother about manners at the dinner table. "But the bas- basi- baketlets are sca-a-a-ary. One look and -unk!" She froze in place, imitating the pose of a pony suddenly turned into a stone statue.

Casually tossing out the last bits needed to cover their bill and tips, Kahz took up Yu's arm and strolled out into the darkening street. It was just getting to that time of the evening where the land was darkening, but the sky hadn't yet. Of course, this being Las Pegasus, the sky never really got dark, as all the lights in the buildings above were coming on. "Better get a little further from the main strip..." The changeling murmured to himself, trying to remember if there was anypony in his contacts from the casino resort he worked at that kept a teaching studio. A name suddenly sprang to mind. "Say... I was thinking, we should probably find someone who teaches a style of dance we're both equally unfamiliar with, right?" The cheeky grin on his face would have tipped the mare off that her changeling coltfriend had something devious cooking under that chitin dome of his, but hopefully she would find it enjoyable!

"Yay, parade!" Ambrosia cheered, and her present cheer would in no way diminish the cheering she would do on the actual day of the festival. That was the advantage of being so young; good things didn't have to be artificially rendered surprises to be felt strongly and sweetly in their moment. Anticipation could take root, and bloom in its time. And speaking of anticipated joys...! "Unca! Auntie!" The sight of new, or at least new to her, family was enough for the little filly to bound off her mother's back, practically bouncing off the cobbles right into a hug around the Aunt's leg. "I had your juice on the train! It was really good!" Having said her important piece, she nuzzled into Auntie's chest like her mother, before releasing her grip, stepping back, clearing her throat, and going into the closest resembling thing she could manage to the curtsey Rarity had taught her, "Ah, a-hem! It's so fraffly nice to see you!" Exciteable little country filly as she was, she couldn't help but aspire to finer things and manners, even at this age. Perhaps, especially at this age! This was the branch of the family that flowered into big-city glamour, and she wanted at least something of that to rub off on her.

ullo, friendly neighborhood admin here! I'll start off with the standard tour of the main RP sections: If you just want to jump in right away, we have the Free for all board here: https://www.canterlot.com/forum/427-free-for-all-roleplay/ For the more longform RP on site, you'll have to fill out a character profile for either your OC's or the canon characters you want to play; that way we can ensure the power level stays within show-compatible parameters, and also gives folks a preview of what kind of characters you play and what threads you want to participate in! Gen 4 (Twilight Sparkle's Equestria) is found here: https://www.canterlot.com/forum/416-character-applications/ Gen 5 (Sunny Starscout's Equestria) is found here: https://www.canterlot.com/forum/471-character-applications/ Just as a note, Canon's are not first come first served; if you want to RP your favorite, you still can, even if someone else already has an application for them! The standard form we use for character profiles is here: