Blueblood

Grateful have the dangerous thing mama warned her about out of her grasp, Ambrosia found herself paying more attention than usual to Twilight's own dexterous manipulation of a blade. She would be able to do the same, when she grew up; that was the first time the filly had been able to see the beginning and end of a journey of magical learning at once, and it was affecting her in ways she couldn't articulate fully yet... as much from hunger as an untrained vocabulary! "Mmm, that looks yummy, Princess!" Not yet confident enough in her magic to eat with it, she took a slice of fruit in her little hooves to much on, making a heart-melting picture of cuteness! "Momma calls me Amby, sometimes. You can too!"

"Windy!" Sky trotted over to give his wife a nuzzle and his daughter a tickle with his wing. "Better be careful then, if Glimmer gets into the candy we'll have to deal with her on a sugar rush!" He joked, but a hyper foal would probably not be a good-spirited gift for their friend's grand opening. Actually, that did bring up the question of what he could do about the place. He'd never worked in a shop before, though he had done a stint in the Cloudsdale cold storage. Upon hearing about the Piano, his eyes lit up. "Do I? It's what I do for a living! Well, keyboards mostly, but I can tune it..." His vest pocket had a tuning fork and some wire turners in it. Just in case; his dad had taught him to always be prepared. "Might take a minute; if it's been a long time since it was played, the strings might snap if they're worked too hard... got some oil?" With the proper tools and supplies, he headed over to the piano to start tuning it up, one scale and arpeggio at a time...

There it was! That sweet, sparkly smile that lit up Gloomy's formerly... gloomy world. She didn't want to see it disappear again. "Even if things do go awry in a hurry, I'll still be with you, no need to worry." Giving that one last bit of reassurance with a pat to her marefriend's hoof, she gave a smile to Alphabittle too, who was certainly helping in the 'cheer up Sugar Moonlight' mission. "Well, I'll let you settle in for a day or two; just moved in, I understand? Say, next Monday. I'll need the time to look over these," He raised the crystals in his hoof, "To give you more details. For now... they feel about as dense as clay, and slightly malleable, though I'd have to see if they retain that over time or grow more rigid. Suppleness is a good sign for polishing into gems, but cutting might not be the most efficient way to do it. I'll need a few days on my workbench to say for sure."

"You were already a great help before, this is just a little more." Gloomy reassured Sugar with a smile, which would have been a rare sight for Alphabittle, though her marefriend had seen quite a lot of the expressions she inspired in the unicorn already. For his part, the stallion was glad to see his old employee so happy, and felt assured in his mind that he'd done the right thing in sending her out to find a friend. "Oh, that's all right, everypony needs some time to fit in. Heck, Gloomy here had a lot of stage fright at first! Could barely mumble into the microphone. But I don't give up on anything that easy, whether it be ponies or puzzles!"

Seeing Caramel come down, confirming this confectionary as a Corn Clan caper... it made Sky smile. Family working together... it sparked in him once more the dream that little Glimmer would one day perform with him and Windy, making their show a true family act! The only worry he had was what sort of affect being a young performer would have on his daughter, growing up. He made a mental note to ask Golden Bit for some advice there, and put those thoughts away for more present questions. "Well, sweetness is kind of its own advertising... plus, I think Golden Bit might have done a couple of things to spread the word. She's that kind a mare." He chuckled, holding back a yawn. "Whooah, excuse me. I'm an insomniac normally, and having a little filly around the place doesn't do much to help one sleep, you know?" He joked a bit as he followed Candy into the storage room. "Hah, wow, thank you! That's generous; we'll try not to put you out of business. And yeah, it looks like Glimmer is going to follow in Windy's hoofsteps. She can sure put away the chocolates, especially now that she's back to dancing and can burn them off quick." He lowered his voice a bit, "Don't tell her I said this, but I don't mind when they stick around her flank." He blushed a bit to even say something like that out loud.

Alphabittle could sense Sugar's nervousness, but being a unicorn, he was more comfortable ancestrally with magic manifestations. "Well, if there's one thing I know about, it's crystals! I can take a look at these for you, and figure out what's what with them. And I have to say, as owner and operator of the Crystal Room Tea Shop, there's certainly a spot open on my staff for a mare who can hoof-make her own crystals!" He gave her what he hoped was a reassuring pat on the back, before taking up the multicolored crystal too. "Fascinating..." Seeing her dear friend so distressed, Gloomy had to try her own hoof at reassurance. "I don't see how it could hurt, as long as you are aware and alert. When it manifests you will know, because you can see and feel the glow."

At first, Ambrosia squinted at the knife, not sure why Twilight thought it was so different from other knives. Then, of course, Auntie Twily showed exactly why it was so different from other knives, and her eyes grew as big as the saucers before her. "Wow..." The little filly felt a shudder go through her hooves as she watched the blade flow over the alicorn's. It was a little much for her to take in, but it was certainly a memorable reminder of just how big a possibility space magic opened. Not that she would have phrased it that way, but she certainly felt it! She still wasn't certain, but if a Princess said it was ok, then surely it had to be, right? Mama would understand, surely... "Okay..." Amby said, still a little nervous as her horn lit up, giving the knife a trembling grasp as she brought it over to the apple. The cuts were... not perfect, and quite a few juicy slashes were cut into the skin before a slice was extracted. She didn't like the fact it looked so bad... but she did it, right? "There!" She hurriedly put the knife down after that, the nerves of doing something that mama had warned so strongly about getting to her.

A few minutes before Windy arrived, Sky Sailing drifted down beside the receiving door. The two of them had come separately, as Sky had to arrange some recording sessions with another artist earlier that day. His head was still full of the other's music, more mournful than what he himself would usually write, but very powerful all the same, bound to make an impact. For all that, though, the sky-blue stallion was glad enough that this was his next stop. A candy store was *just* the sort of place to drive the gloomies from his head, and the fact that he and his wife would be taking their little filly on her very first visit to one was just so... sweet! He gave a knock on the door to signal her. "Hey, Windy and Glimmer will be along in a few, I just had to fly over from the studio. Looks like you've got a some the attentions of the sweet teeth in town!"

If Twilight remembered anything from her very first day in Ponyville, it was that the Apple family could put away a meal twice the size of the average pony. 'Brunch' for them would be, at least in quantitative terms, a rare feast to a Canterlotian. And for all that Ambrosia was a unicorn, putting on unicorn airs... she was an Apple at heart. She'd take measured, elegant bites for sure... but there would be no leftovers. "Uhh... mama says I'm not old enough to use knives." The filly was giving the blade a leery eye. Like most parents, Applejack had put a little bit of steel in her filly's sense of morals by telling them tales of what could possibly result from improper and underaged handling of blades. Not that AJ had ever actually said that a knife could lash out independently like a snake and mark a guilty little filly with a scar to mark their disobedience... but it was altogether safer to act as if they did, right?

"I... don't know..." Gloomy was just as flabbergasted as Sugar, though still a bit too sanguine to be panicky. "I mean, there's a lot of strange stuff going on..." "Hah! Saved it!" Alphabittle, apparently not having yet noticed the little episode, came back with the tea, his mane looking as if it had just been steam-cleaned. "Ooh, what's this?" As a collector of crystals, the older stallion had quite an eye for them, and picked up the red one from the table, squinting at it. "Hmm... never seen any quite like this before..." He tapped it on the table, noting that it seemed to bend a little, before setting like plaster. "And I've never seen one do that before! Hm, did you just bring this in for me to take a look at? Or is this your idea of leaving a generous tip?"

Hearing that Sugar Moonlight planned to be there at her next performance wasn't at all surprising. Gloomy honestly felt more reassured than nervous; for all her somewhat subdued personality, the stage had become natural ground to her from long practice, and she'd be very surprised if the same wasn't true for Sugar. "I'm glad you will be there to hear, but to call it magic is a bit much here-" She began modestly, before feeling a rush of tingling energy that seemed to go from hooves to horn, and made the teapot steam and sing a full minute before Alphabittle expected it. He was surprised, but not near as much as the earth pony at the counter, who was now holding a soft crystal up to the light. The other customer, who had been playing against Alpha in a puzzle box contest, took one look and had his instincts take over. "Bing Bong!" He called out, before placing a hoof over his mouth, in a bit of embarrassment, as if he'd just let a curse word slip in front of a filly. Gloomy just sighed at that, facehoofing. "I guess... we're not done with surprises yet. But still, that's rather nice magic to get..."

Giving one last flourish to the final 'a' of her latest masterpiece, Ambrosia was giggling with delight and clopping her hooves together. Magic sure was fun when you could actually do stuff! Oh, wait, was Twilight saying something? Picnic? At the very mention of the word, the little filly's stomach gave a growl. She'd used more magic in the past hour than she had in the past year, which burned quite a bit more energy than she had anticipated. And that apply looked yummy. But then again, most apples grown here were, in fact, yummy, so that was normal. What wasn't normal was a picnic with a Princess! "Yes!" She gasped out, excited at all the grown-up looking cutlery. The books... were less exciting, but for an occasion like this, Amby would forgive most anything.

Alphabittle chuckled at hearing Sugar ape Gloomy's rhyming habits. "Well, she already seems to be rubbing off on you. I think you'll do alright together... anyway, I'll put on a pot of your favorite, Gloomy; Blackcurrant and Strawberry. Blueberry scones alright?" The unicorn mare nodded, and the stallion went to the back to get the treats ready. Gloomy sat back a bit, still somewhat amazed she'd gone so far to reveal their status, but now that she'd said it out loud... it was an increasingly comfortable reality to inhabit. Didn't hurt that the beautiful mare in question was right in front of her. "Yeah... I wonder... I'll probably rest from the journey tonight, but I'll be on that stage tomorrow night. Though being with you is simply bliss... there's a part of my work I truly miss." She hoped Sugar would understand; perhaps after a long enough break from modeling, she too would crave taking the stage again.

Alpha wasn't exactly one to pass judgment; attempting to fleece the first guest Bridlewood had in a long time and run her out of town when he saw she was an earth pony like Sugar Moonlight left him in the kind of glass house in which one should not throw stones. Dice might even have been tricky, but he wouldn't turn down a game of backgammon if offered... "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Moonlight." The stallion beamed at the pair of them. "Looks like you did find that friend you were looking for, Gloomy. I knew you would!" "Indeed... a bit more than a friend she is to me... but for now we'd like some scones and tea." Gloomy nodded, gently blushing as she took a seat at the counter. She hadn't planned until just then to introduce themselves as being... that close, but this wasn't a big town. Surely they were going to find out anyway, so best get ahead of things.

Gloomy shivered a bit at the sultry whisper. She had no doubt by now that things were most likely headed... there between the two of them, they'd just grown a bit too close over the journey for anything else to be the case. But, that was for later, as her stomach reminded her with its grumbles, breakfast now. The smell of tea and scones, mixed with jasmine and beeswax, hung about Alphabittle's Tea and Puzzle shop, and it smelled like a second home. "I think a lot of us were the same, growing up. Extroversion was something we had to work up to, and I wonder if that's why Alphabittle set up this shop. Grew up lonely, and wanted to always make sure he had ponies to play with. Even the bets he took on were just extra enticements at first. Don't expect to wager anything these days, though." She took a deep breath, and smiled as she pushed open the door, showing the shop proprietor himself engaged in a puzzle-solving contest with another unicorn. "He's got playmates enough now..." It was but a few seconds before Alphabittle slapped a finished cube back on the table. "Hah, no free cookie today, chum, try again tomorrow!" He good-naturedly chortled before looking up at the door. "Gloomy! You're looking... oddly sparkling today. Anything to do with your new friend here?" He gave her a knowing smile, causing Gloomy Sonnet to blush a bit. "A friend indeed I did find, a mare as pretty as she is kind. Sugar Moonlight is her name, modeling her source of fame." She hoped Sugar didn't mind the introduction, she had to think of a rhyme real quick!

"Yay!" The toy store! That wonderful place of... wonders! The source of her littlest tea set, and most of the dolls and stuffies that attended her regular afternoon sessions of pretend! Amby should have known the capoff to a wonderful day was a trip to that place, and Zappers would love it too. It was something both siblings held in common, at least. Speaking of Zappers, it looked like he was getting into a bit of the ol' rough and tumble with another colt. Amby gave an exaggerated sigh and tossed her mane back, fully intending to display the utter lack of patience fillies had for colts being colts, but her winged brother getting beanballed caused her to wince. "Is Zappers OK mama?" She called out, not at all alleviating the teasing Zap Apple was likely to get from his peers over nicknames... not that she would have stopped herself had she known!

Eagerly acting on the royal encouragement received, Ambrosia did try it again, producing a somewhat more legible version of her name each time. It was like... in her mind, she was holding a paintbrush, and each time the brush became a little lighter and more nimble. Not any easier after the third time, though, but she clearly had a grasp on it, as her expression shifted from amazed to confident. Twilight's next question broke her focus, sending her letters scattering in glittering shower of sparkles as she sat back down to think. "Um... like, I thought I felt something in my hooves once, but it was just ants, icky!" She shook her hooves in a phantom memory. "My shoulders did tingle, though. No bugs there." She reached back to tap the spot on her shoulders where her wings would have grown if she were a pegasus.

Haven had to admit, she didn't have very many names to mind. Avalanche was one, though; the snow-white stoic seemed a relic of an older, more courtly time. Yes, now that she thought about it, he would be perfect for watching over her little Petal, as well as keeping Vermillion in line. "Yes... red and white together would look good, and suit you, I think." She finished the last bite of her ice cream, wondering still how her daughter could put away twice as much in almost the same time. "Let's clean up a bit, and then take that nap. I think we both could use one now."

"Given the demonstration of loyalty, promotions seemed appropriate." Haven smoothed over the previous topic, not even reprimanding her daughter for the visible reluctance. It was understandable; the filly would just have to learn to live with not always getting her own way. Even queens couldn't dictate to absolutely everypony at their every whim. Not if they wanted to stay queen, anyway. "Vermilion?" Haven tilted her head; the sergeant was skilled in his work, she supposed, and loyal, but... well, not the sort of company she considered a good influence. As long as he was silent in his guarding, that wouldn't be an issue, but if he talked to her often, or worse took her drinking... She sighed. "Well, I suppose I can find a partner for him that is equally trustworthy, and that will make a pair." Loyal, skilled, and above all polite for all that was beautiful and good in the world.

About the only thing Ambrosia could relate "parlance" to was the big book of sports that Mama had read to her once. Not really her primary interest, but it was one of mommas, and Zapp's. It had included both jousting and golf, so the image that came to mind was of a pony charging at a ball to hit it with a lance towards some sort of hole. Maybe Zapp would play that sort of game? Sounded tiring to her, but Princesses didn't have to play sports, they just had to sit on the sidelines and wave their pretty handkerchiefs to the brave knights on the field! Wait, what were they talking about again? Oh, how great she was doing, yay! She beamed, as Twilight did yet another thing that could be covered by that word. Her eyes grew wise as the Princess projected upon the wall. *This* was the kind of magic she wanted to do! "OK!" She said excitedly, practically vibrating as she squinted at the wall in concentration, her desires and passions now working with her magic rather than merely sitting at the sidelines. That, along with the ring, enabled her to cast a weak beam of peach colored light, that laboriously traced a sparkly-pink "A" on the wall. She even gave it a fancy flourish, with much better penponyship than she would have managed with an actual gel pen. She even managed "mbro" in the same style, though the "s" sort of trailed off into a little squiggle-spiral with a dot on top for the unreadable "i". Still, pretty good for a first effort, and she looked upon her work with amazement. "I did that? I did that!" She was a little sad to see her first work of magic immediately begin to fade, but that was probably for the best; mama didn't like it when you drew on the walls.

"Well, I do want you to make a good impression, at least on my boss, so... gonna have to ask you to wait until late to ride me." Gloomy did relish the feeling of Sugar's belly sliding off her back, delighting her in a sample of pleasant friction. "Best place to get breakfast in town is Alphabittle's tea shop. Best drinks, good scones... and there's not a whole lot of restaurants out here. Most of them are just run out of somepony's home kitchen, opened after we started getting visitors." Indeed, Bridlewood was like a rural town that suddenly had a train station, and neither the hosts nor the guests brought in from outside knew quite what to do with each other. Well, besides Alphabittle, who's tea and novelty shop now had a small lodging business for visitors, not to mention a pony-powered arcade for entertainment. "It's not far from where I live... do you play games or puzzles much? He's probably going to challenge you if you do."

Haven's smile dipped a little at the hint of a tension over succession. Hoo boy this was a can of worms she did not want to dump over their ice creams, so she skated on by it for now, resolving to have a little talk with Zipp to help smooth things over from the other side. "Well, it certainly is a good thing that her flight experiments are proving to be as useful to the crown as your streaming." She agreed, hoping as she sampled the chocolate that such diplomacy oiled the rough waters for now. But it seemed that the time of troubling topics was far from over. Re-arming the retinue was one of them. The thought, frankly, was distasteful to her, but Pipp was old enough now to no longer be satisfied with dismissals. She would have to give actual reasons if she wanted her daughter to be brought into full cooperation with the Crown. "I'm not sure that taking a more militaristic stance is a good idea right as we're negotiating a new era of peace and cooperation between the tribes. That's going from 'bad look' to 'completely counterproductive.'" She sighed, gently spooning a scoop of vanilla. "But an increase in hoof-to-hoof combat training is most definitely in order. I'd hate for there to be... incidents but..." She cut herself off there. Haven didn't want to put violent ideas in Pipp's head, but one more swarm like they'd encountered coming in and some tabloids would be made examples of! "Well, it's hard to top the pair that helped me escape from the dungeons, Captain Zephyrwing and Lieutenant Thunder." She gave a little smile at Pipp. "I hope you didn't have your heart set on either..." Her smile didn't even fade as Pipp hinted at personal guard connections. After all, it was just about at Pipp's age that she had started seeing her father...

The absolutely towering confection of sugar and cream that temporarily hid PippHa's face from her mother was awe-inspiring... for all of the ten seconds it remained intact. Haven made a mental note to increase the focus and pay of Pipp's personal trainer; the filly was going to make herself into a pigasus if left to her own devices! A doubly-dangerous fate to the public image of any slightly pinkish Princess... as a fairly chubby young Haven had been given a rather hard lesson in. Mockery hurt worse than sore muscles after squats, she knew that from experience. For all that, though, she was right enough about the patrols, once her now-smeared face became visible again, Haven favored it with a nod. "Hence, our ponypower being at a premium. Not to mention, the number of guards we have that can actually fly *well* is doubly limited. I will make sure you get at least one, and two if we can spare it for your bedroom patrol."

Just as Pipp nestled instinctively under her mother's wings, chirping like a little baby bird that had narrowly escaped from a cat, Haven instinctively covered her, cooing and clucking like a concerned hen. It was a display that the royals would never, ever do in public, but she knew her daughter needed just a little while longer as a normal young mare. "Just a few more steps, little Petal..." She whispered in the smaller pegasus' ear, as she guided her towards the kitchens. Word had been sent ahead to fetch ice cream, and today Haven was not going to be strict on the portions. That would likely mean less dessert tomorrow, but today, she needed it almost as much as her daughter. The table by the kitchen was in a little room used for when the Royal Family had no guests at dinner, just a nice comfortable dining table at which they could sit, and enjoy large bowls of Neighpolitan Ice Cream together. "Hoo... I will say, if I had to live the life of a commoner, I would be thankful to not have to deal with all of that again." She took a bite out of the strawberry side with a spoon, holding it poised delicately in her wingfeathers.

Ambrosia's face involuntarily scrunched when she heard Twilight compare magic practice to working out. She really didn't like the implication that this would turn from a reflection of her inherent cuteness and elegance into the sort of thing that made you all sweaty and stinky! That was way, way too much like... *shudder* chores... Still, she had the social sense to not be a pouty little pooper in front of a Princess, and so beamed right back up when Twilight offered to practice something else. "Can't... trip? Is that like dancing?" Unicorn she may be, but she'd inherited her mother's unfamiliarity with fancy-talk. Her enthusiasm only went so far to remediate her lack of luxurious lexicography. "Ooh, art? I'd like to try!" She was excited, but would have been for anything that wasn't lifting those darned rocks!