Florid Deal (My Little Pony Fanfiction)

Chapter 6: Bloom

At last, Evening Primrose's social battery died and she figured lying under a rose bush would do the trick. She would have not guessed that the Princess of the Sun herself would creep up behind her after having looked all over the palace without avail. 

-"Eve?"

-"Oh, sh*t!" Evening exclaimed as she pulled herself up through the bush and struggled to turn around to face Princess Celestia, "Heyy~"

Celestia smirked and then bowed her head slightly, "You know, you remind me so much of Luna,"

-"Smart, pretty, and talented?" Eve posed as she started to stroll in the garden.

-"I was going to say short and I never loved her enough," She melancholically turned to the moon and sighed.

Eve hid her wry face from the Princess as she faced away from her. For the last centuries, she had known Celestia and Luna had a relatively tight relationship. At some point, Luna stopped by Everfree to unwind before flying back to Canterlot. Even during the time that Evening studied in Canterlot, Celestia didn't spend or appreciate Luna half as much as she could have.

The fact that she was bringing up the same mistake with Eve started turning her night sour. 

Eve cleared her throat, "Well, you're always busy and I'm always busy so I never really noticed that,"

-"That's not a good thing," Celestia caught up with Eve and put her wing around her, "I thought the same for Luna, and look where she ended up..."

-"Her lash-out was your fault,"

-"Well, I don't want the same for you," the Princess answered as she took her wing back and walked ahead of Eve.

Evening stood still as she watched Celestia study the large gardens and stop in front of a decorated statue, "The difference is that I have no reason to worry if other ponies don't love me,"

-"Why not? Don't you want to be loved?" Celestia prompted her.

She sighed, "Genuine love, not she's-our-leader-we-gotta-love-her love,"

-"Now you're making fun of me," Celestia continued walking and Evening playfully followed.

-"Maybe I am! The love you get is for raising the sun!" Evening playfully rammed her side, "You're the Princess, the Goddess of the Sun! Everyone loves themselves a pretty leader! Besides, you keep them from freezing to death in the cold of the night. Everyone loves that!"

-"Well, then! Do they love me or not?" Celestia raised a brow. 

-"They worship you, babe. They can't love-love you if they don't actually know you,"

Celestia stopped in front of the statue of the long-frozen foe, Discord, "And where do you fall in that scale?"

-"Mother Nature knows her children, love. And her children know her," Eve bowed her head over the bare bushes around the statue and ignited her oddly green magic on the bush, "I've personally known hundreds of ponies throughout the years. I've seen their families grow, of course, they genuinely love me,"

-"I have too!" Celestia argued.

-"Not quite like me," Evening sprouted flowers from the bushes as she turned to look at Celestia, "You don't serve those ponies ice-cold lemonade during hot summers with the highest quality lemons and flowery flavors,'

-"I give them the summer!"

-"And I give them spring! Now which one of us is year-round staying up late working to make sure everything looks pretty in the morning? ME!" Evening jumped on top of an empty platform, "Nature is fine without me, but without me, you wouldn't have magic plants! 

Plants to make you grow,
Plants to give you everything you desire,
Everything from nicer manes to enhancing magic power!" 

Vines sprouted from under her feet.

"You cannot possibly make potions without some fancy powders.
Even if you tried, they would only turn out sour.
Why without my magic here and there, no illness would have cures.
Can you imagine all those ponies dying off without me, high numbers for sure!"

-"Can you please get down from there? It's making me nervous..." Celestia's eyes pointed at the unstable platform over a sphere.

She jumped off and the platform broke as it hit the ground.

"Well, if my heart plays its part,
You'll get a million sweetheart hoya art,
If the love for me is true,
Then I'll make it with rain with yew.
Leaves of color, leaves of gray,
When true passion finds its way~
It'll make us sway,"

-"Yes, but plants can't bloom without the sun!" Celestia added while Evening marched to the fruit tree section of the garden.

-"Mmm... Well then, if you insist," Evening arrived at a clearing in the garden.

Fertile soil for some blooms,
Running rivers for their food,

We'll make the loveliest trees in here,"

She magically removed all grass from two sections, much to Celestia's disdain.

"Root grow deep into the dirt,
Bring in trunks of polished wood!
Leaves so fine to place in food.
Flowers pure as inn'cent loving,
Born from budding cherries growing,
Bloom into a gold bouquet,"

Celestia came closer to study the area where Eve had just made cherry and pomegranate trees spring out of the ground. She was greeted with sweet and woody scents. Eve changed the key.

"Make magic come from the sweetest life,
Or grief spring willows from the ground,
Is this love, or just a cozy shadow?
We'll meet our ends with glowing halos..."

Eve stopped in exhaustion after making twenty trees bear fruit in a single night. Celestia held her so Eve wouldn't lose her balance and hurt herself.

-"You need to stop," Celestia sat Eve down on a nearby bench.

-"Why?" Eve sighed and weakly smiled.

-"Because you're drunk. Stop doing crazy things so when you pass out you don't wake up with a horrible hangover AND some injury you won't remember how you got," Celestia snorted in slight annoyance, "Thanks for the trees though,"

Evening laughed softly while Celestia started trying to walk her back to the main party area. Celestia knew that the Gala always somehow ended with a disaster here and there, so she was hoping that this year wouldn't be too bad.

She was wrong.

As soon as they stepped into the room, Evening finally passed out on the floor and Celestia would have to drag her back to her chamber. Part of the room was caked with icing and pie fillings, likely the result of the ongoing food fight.

-"What is going on?!" Celestia asked one of the guards, who were backing into the wall so hard she half expected it to crack.

-"There was a dispute about whether apple pie or pecan pie was better, then this happened," He stammered pointing at the mess.

-"Classic," Celestia rolled her eyes and spotted one of the columns tipping over while all the ponies in the room ran away as fast as they could. She just sighed and started to make Evening's intoxicated body levitate so she could easily take her to her room.

Soon enough, Celestia had put Evening in her chamber's bed so when she woke up, Eve wouldn't be lying on the hard floor. Before Celestia flew to her own room, she took one more look at the sleeping Duchess.

-"Oh, Little Primrose. What am I going to do with you?" She sighed and left.