The Virga Fields (Celestia/Roseluck)

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Her eyes were closed, her head taking up the rhythm of the music in her headphones and of the carriage rolling, rolling, rolling over a path of rocks and dirt, her hoof tapping on the deep reddish wood of the cabin. The carriage stopped in the middle of a melody, and Roseluck opened her eyes, sliding back her headphones onto her neck. Either the coach driver was stopping to get off his yoke for a restroom break, or maybe ... maybe there were wherever they were supposed to be. From outside, the wind hissed, and her hoof kept tapping.

Minutes later, she stood by herself on the thin grass of the road, the dust from the departing carriage tracking its path into the wide blue of the sky. She sat down and unrolled the scroll the driver gave her on the ground. It was, seemingly, a really old map, frayed and faded, and by no means drawn by an experienced cartographer. All that was depicted was an arrow for north and a path going west ... maybe a mile or so? Somewhere, a mile west, there was a small hill, and on it, a lone cabin. "Seriously? Did I get the Horrors & Hangings date or something?"

The wind continued to hiss and wisp around, her, and as she stood and glanced forward, she didn't see the hill or the cabin. All she saw where the endless swaying heights of Early Spring grass. Somewhere in there, larks trilled and the cicadas rose in chorus with the wind. Her ears flattened and she took a breath as a single word echoed throughout her: alone. But after a moment, she shook her head and whipped her tail. "By the thighs on high, I've got to get my act together. With my luck, the mare I'm meeting has been waiting for hours, whoever they are."

She rolled up the scroll, stuffed it into her saddlebag, and after taking a big tough-mare inhalation, stepped into the field. Her thoughts went to imagination as she walked through the thick of the landscape. So ... the date ... a day and a night in a cabin so far away from others that it'd pass for the hideout of some kind of transcendentalist supervillain. She giggled at that. "Beware, all ye that come, for thou art in the domain of the Dread Poet Whitmane! Fear my epic similes and innuendos! Heh ... yeah ... confidence, I got it." I probably don't have it.

She stood up on her hind legs, and beyond a tree, there might've been something geometric and artificial, perhaps a rooftop, yet that didn't quite cause her to come down until her legs where annoyed. The earth was green, and the sky was blue, simple and absolute. "Okay, c'mon, almost there, get out of your head, Rosie. Reach deep, feel the romantic confidence surging within. Surging! Yeah! You try to be best, 'cus you're only a mare, and mare's gotta learn to take it ... wait, no montage music. Just be you, Rosie. Rock on." She took a deep breath and walked on.

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~♥~ Princess Celestia ~♥~ ~♥~ Harmony Shall Reign Eternal ~♥~

Ƭhe wind tousled her mane without restraint. Not an ounce of magic or scrap of cloth contained it. Instead, it moved with the breeze and fell around her shoulders. She'd been to the Virga Fields on a few separate occasions... All of them were decades ago in memory. Still... It was one of those few places that seemed to exist out of time... Nothing but grass flowing like the sea to surround her. ͼelestia supposed that she arrived before her counterpart. This was actually the first year that she had opened herself up to mares in the blind date event. Previous years saw her with stallions. Stardust and Silver... They were both nice stallions but not for her. It wasn't that Celestia had never been with a mare before. Rumors still churned about Equestria regarding that one adviser of hers from two centuries back. They were wrong. It was her sister. It wasn't a serious relationship but it was a fun one. She still recalled mentioning how many times she'd fallen in love to a lost earth pony. The alicorn unconsciously smiled at the memory. ϧhe believed that she could hear her date. It definitely sounded feminine in origin. But, with how the kingdom was in the present time, she could never be too sure. Celestia would assume it was a mare until proved otherwise. Celestia looked down at herself to see about her appearance. She'd left her jewelry at home and actually dressed casually. She had a red flannel shirt with only a few of the buttons actually buttoned. Celestia had gotten plenty of rest beforehoof so that she could come without a spot of makeup on her face. She felt as natural and free as the wind in her mane. Everything felt... right. She only hoped this date went as well as she hoped it would. ŋot that she was clamoring to find love. If anything, she'd learned to let love blossom where it would. But, still... It didn't stop her from having fond memories and yearning for that time again. It had been some time since she'd had that kind of companionship... She wouldn't focus on that. She'd focus on her date... of whom she could see now! A nice cream color with a dark cascade of reds... Easy on the eyes. Celestia smiled softly, knowing that if she could see the mare then the mare could see her. That could cause any number of reactions so she was excited to see which kind would come from her. "ωhy hello there. It's nice to meet you. I'm your date, Celestia." She gave an amused, yet genuine smile. A soft flutter entered her chest. She just had a feeling. Even if this didn't end in love... Celestia was going to have a good time.

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She froze on the spot, her coat and ears pinning back, her eyes tearing wide. This ... this isn't real! It can't be! Oh glory McGaga Gods' giddy gusset! What the buck do I do?! As her thoughts scrambled, she just gave a dopey smile laced with the anticipation of terror, like the face one makes at the first second of a roller coaster fall. DO SOMETHING, ROSELUCK! DON'T PANIC! YOU'RE THE ROMANCE MASTER, THE KISS BOSS, BLUEBELL, QUEEN OF THE INTIMATE INTRIGUE! TO GLORY! AAAAAAHHH! She took a step forward and tripped onto her face with a pomf in the grass and dirt, and she rolled forward, got to her hooves, and gave her best smile! "Good afternoon and hello, Miss! Um ... my name's Roseluck, from P-Ponyville, and I guess I'm your date! 'Sup?!"

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~♥~ Princess Celestia ~♥~ ~♥~ Harmony Shall Reign Eternal ~♥~

αt least she wasn't hyperventilating. Celestia tilted her head ever so slightly which changed the patterns that her hair had been twisting and turning in. She'd seen the very face that Roseluck had on quite a number of occasions. The smile was forced but genuine. Ears back, eyes wide, a certain anticipation... The one thing that the eternal alicorn did not anticipate was for Roseluck to fall flat on her face. She blinked in surprise down at the mare. Ƭhen she played it off quite well. Remarkable. Some ponies would fall apart after such a blunder. Celestia laughed softly to herself before igniting her horn. A gentle, warm wave of magic washed over Roseluck and cleaned away all the dirt and grass. "I am your date... as you are mine. My day has been full of excitement and preparations for this very moment... Which is exactly why I'm going to drop all of my court talk so that we can have fun! By Tartarus, isn't this place gorgeous? I forget how amazing it looks." She grinned and transferred her gaze to the fields. Ʀight in that moment, she could just feel everything wash away. It was just Roseluck, Celestia, and the wind... And it was beautiful. "I hope you'll relax... I know it can be daunting to go on a date with me. That isn't me being prideful; it's just something I've seen over the years. Ponies put me up on a pedestal and think I'm unreachable or some kind of goddess... But would a goddess do this?" Celestia then stuck her tongue out at Roseluck and blew a raspberry... before descending into giggles. "Ooo, I bet the presses would have a field day with that! But, I'm rambling and maybe weirding you out, aren't I? How was the ride here? Did everything go well?"

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"Everything went well, Celly, no sweat, but ..." She gave a grin while biting down on her right lower lip a little. "This is ... really, really strange! I mean, not you ... you're cool! I mean, this whole thing with the horror-story cabin ... I mean, I totally get it, but there's such a surrealism going on here ... that I really don't want to worry about it, actually!" She walked forward, mane and tail tossing in the breeze, the cabin gently creaking behind her, and softly took the Princess' hoof and gave it a shake. "Daunting ... I don't see it. What's daunting about another beating heart? I mean, you know, it's fine and don't worry 'bout a thing!" She shimmied her shoulders and swished her tail like she was misstepping the hokey pokey.

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~♥~ Princess Celestia ~♥~ ~♥~ Harmony Shall Reign Eternal ~♥~

αll of this felt rather... normal. A piece of her brightened at the thought that Roseluck was looking past the Princess image and just treating her like Celestia the pony. Refreshing was a good word for it. There was always a certain reserve ponies held when speaking to her. They weren't doing it on purpose, but it just happened. Roseluck seemed different. ͼelestia smiled and stood up. "I completely get it. Old cabin out in the middle of nowhere... Surrounded by seemingly endless fields of tall grass... Just begging to be the setup for some horror author's newest novel. But, I think I can be much scarier than anything this place can throw at us." She looked back and forth before winking at her. "Unless it's hiding Discord in there. Now that would be scary!" A giggle slipped from her. Part of it was from her own little joke. Another part was from watching Roseluck's dance moves. ŋow then... "Shall we head on over to uncover whatever dark horrors await us? I have to say, I'm quite eager to find out." That was true for more reasons than one. She was excited to learn more about the pony in front of her. At the very least, she could see being friends with Roseluck.

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Roseluck hummed thoughtfully. "My bits are on there being a ton of graffiti inside. Suddenly, we're attacked by some crazy pony with an axe. I distract him by trying to juggle jars of old honey for all of a couple seconds before things crash and it becomes totally clear I can't juggle. He's mad, boo hoo, and we escape with our lives! We research and research and find out about a not-so-urban legend, and ... long-story-short, there a magical drawing among the graffiti that made the monster possible. We paint a heart over it, and bam, just like that, harmony in the heart house! So given I made that keen prediction, I'll go first, so the karmic price is on my head and I'll be the first to brave the flannel-laden horror!"

She grinned playfully with a childish wag of her fluffy brushed-and-rushed long tail, turned, and strode towards the dark-stained and well kept door, but her face turned away from Celestia for those twenty or so steps, anxiety seeped into her features, her ears falling a little and eyes growing somber. When the time was so exciting, a side of her rushed into her thoughts, the words stark, harsh, and Germaneic. The voice that spoke them was cold, but her own, as if winter came for the petals and left the rosebush with no beauty, no softness, just freezing old thorns. Not this time ... just one night ... I can pull through. All too quickly, the cherrywood-stained beams of the cabin door met her gaze. She turned around, showing her previous quirky cheer.

"I introduce you to ... the haunted manor?" Her grin strong, she opened the door and stepped inside.

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~♥~ Princess Celestia ~♥~ ~♥~ Harmony Shall Reign Eternal ~♥~

ͼelestia laughed through Roseluck's entire ridiculous story. If it turned out to be true, she'd eat her own tail. She gave a delightful smile to the earth pony and followed along with the mare who deemed herself the recipient of cosmic curses. As they walked though, she could've sworn she saw Roseluck's ears fall... Maybe she wasn't as sure of everything as she'd led Celestia to believe. Nevertheless, Celestia wouldn't draw attention to it. ϧhe stepped up beside Roseluck, pulling her wings in close to her body. "Maybe there's an old ghost inside who thinks whoever enters stole her broach. We duck and dodge her frantic attacks and make it out just as she throws a knife towards us. We find that the broach was with her late husband buried out back. We enter and have to conduct a ritual to appease her spirit and allow us to continue our Hearts and Hooves with only minimal wear and tear." Why couldn't Celestia pull a story out of her flank, too? Maybe it'd help ease whatever tension Roseluck was feeling. No point in not trying. She peeked over Roseluck to get a look at the inside as the door opened.

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As Celestia peeked, she saw the majority of the cabin in its main room, which openly included the kitchen, dining room, and living room without walls, a hall at the far end no-doubt leading to the bedroom. The living room had a large shaggy pastel-green area rug under an old sofa of worn linen with a wool throw blanket folded over the back. The couch itself faced a charred fireplace with equally-used fireplace tools hanging from hooks in the red-brick hearth. The walls were decorated oddly personally to Celestia, an impressionist oil hanging that showed the old Castle Everfree as it was in its prime, and draped in sunlight, then she spotted a framed stained glass panel in the window that depicted the view from the royal tower’s balcony over Canterlot.


Roseluck seemed similarly interested in the wall’s coverings, a framed poster of two feminine silhouettes locked in embrace next to a massive photo print of the fields outside Ponyville, greener than the fields around the cabin, the light less lonely. The mare’s sideways smile perked as she looked at the picture of the silhouettes: kinda tacky, she thought, but somepony definitely knew her groove. She walked in and meandered into the kitchen, counters finished in cracked pale tile, a refrigerator that could probably survive a megaspell. “Whew, I’m thirsty! Would you like me to pour something for you, Celly?”

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~♥~ Princess Celestia ~♥~ ~♥~ Harmony Shall Reign Eternal ~♥~

Ѻh... Of course they did. Celestia slowly walked up to the fireplace, looking up at the depiction of Castle Everfree. So many memories of that place. The good and bad evened each other out in the long run. Her eyes took in the stained glass next. It was a sight she'd seen many times. A wonderful one to be sure, but only one that could've been made with the right permissions. ͼelestia turned her gaze from the ones made for her and allowed herself to gaze at the ones notably for her companion. The feminine silhouettes made her smile a bit. Interesting. The next one were the field by Ponyville. She would've dwelled more on it had she not seen Roseluck make her way into the kitchen and then call to her. "Oh, sure. I... would give you my preference if I knew what was available. What did they supply us with?"

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Roseluck opened the refrigerator, bottles and jars inside the refrigerator door clinking, and she took a look inside. In a moment, she snickered … it was practically her refrigerator from back home! “Well … let’s see … what do we got here … we got whole milk, orange juice, bloody mary mix sans vodka, a jar of pickle juice – y’know, after somepony chomps the pickles – looks like a pitcher of ice water too. Anything sounding groovy?” She eyed the jar of pickles. Damn, she loved those things, especially the spicy ones … but there was no way she was going to go through the day with pickle breath. However … She squinted menacingly at the jar. You’re mine tonight once the Princess is asleep, pal. “Heh …”