Life in The Crystal Empire

Rosie grabbed a crystal water bucket and watered her flowers, watching them spring to life in beautiful colors.

Living in the grand splendor of The Crystal Empire was nice, especially when everything was so pretty.

Rosie picked a bush of her namesake, the rosella roses, and poured a bucket of glittery plant food over it. She plucked a bud and put it in the now-empty bucket, carrying it along in her teeth. It rattled around inside as she trotted back to her apartment.

Her home was nice. It was in the center of the Empire, with a rather nice view of the castle. Rosie dropped the bucket on her way in and put the bud in a pot on the stove, turning up the heat.

"I must get this made just right!" she piped, looking out her window. It would take a couple hours for the bud to release it's juices and reduce down to what she needed, so she set a kitchen timer and leaned out the window, looking for anypony who might need a smile put on their face.

Primary trotted deliberately through the Empire, her mind set on getting to her home. She desperately needed her supplies, she had found something new to paint, which was rare in the Empire.

She had already painted basically all of the Crystal Empire, save a few remote and hidden places she intended to uncover.

Prime trotted passed a house with flowers surrounding it and a light green pony gazing out the window. Prime barely batted an eye at her.

Primary, the painter pony, trotted by, looking hellbent on accomplishing something important. Wait a bit... No smile on her face.

"Oh, Maaaaaaaaaaaary!!!!!!" Rose called, leaning further out her window. A pang of longing hit her, as she had seen the mare around town in That-Place-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named. The heart scar on her chest was just a whisper, but there it remained, carved into her hide forever.

"Maaaaaaaaary! Guess what! I've got a still-life for you!" she squealed, holding up a pot of crystal flowers.

Prime glanced up at Rosie's voice.
"Oh, hey Rosie! Didn't see ya there," she called as Rosie held up a vase with crystal flowers. "Wow, those are beautiful! Are they from your garden?" she asked, trotting up to the window. She remembered seeing Rosella in Ponyville, but thought it best not to bring that place up. She remembered Rosie's friend Iris telling her that Rosie didn't like talking about it anymore, though Prime didn't know why.

"They are!" Rosie squeaked. "I've got a few of these, and if you're interested, you can keep one to paint. The rest are being exported across Equestria. It's a good way to keep up an income while working on my dye."

She popped her head back inside and trotted to the downstairs of the apartment building, opening the door and waving Prime in.

"So I have crystal calla lilies, roses, hydrangeas, sunflowers, freesia, orange blossoms, and irises," Rose said, pointing to each row of pots in turn. "We can also mix them in one pot if you want."

Primary smiled and walked in through the open door.
"Hmm," she thought for a moment, studying the flowers, "how about putting one of each in one vase, but two of one." she finally said, walking around the pots. "Well, good thing I still have some paint."

She pulled out a small canvas and set it up on a stand, followed by several different colors.

Rosie carefully dug up one of each from the first pots in each row, unearthing a large pottery bowl and arranging the flowers in artful spots around the bowl. In the front, two crystal roses crossed over each other in an x, a subtle symbol that only meant something to Rosie: Love is barred to those who are not good enough to sustain it.

Turning to her plants, she calmed herself and let her happy mask settle over her face, blocking her emotions from the outside world as she evened out the soil where she had taken the flowers.

"What brings you to this part of the Empire?" she asked, trying too keep up conversation. "I don't see you around here often."

Prime grinned sympathetically, "I was just heading to the store, and then I was going home."

she shrugged and sat down on a chair behind her stand. She began scrutinizing the bowl and the flowers, looking from them to the canvas. She took her palette out an began mixing colors.

"So what are you doing back here? Last I heard you were in Ponyville." she asked, stroking the brush across the canvas.

Rose seized up, freezing in place.

"I don't like to talk about it," she muttered between her teeth. "Pink or red?"

With a shudder, she yanked her scarf over her chest, hiding the scar underneath. There were painful memories there, memories that Rose preferred not to dredge up.

oops Prime thought, glancing at the nervous-looking Rose,

"Sorry, I, I didn't know." she said apologetically, "how about red."

((Troll -_-))

Rosie poked the rose, and it changed color, darkening to a deep crimson.

"They're shy," she explained. "It's blushing."

With expert cuts, she snipped a few roses off their stalks in the back pot, freezing the life of the flower in literal stone as she weaved them together into a crown. After about ten minutes, the stalks hardened into place, and the flowers had turned into full crystals. She attatched a price tag and gently set it in a box, continuing again.

"Wow!" Prime said, looking at the crown, "That's beautiful! May I?" she asked, gesturing to the headpiece. She so desperately wanted to pick it up, feel the material in her hooves. She set down her palette, forgetting all about the painting for a brief moment.

"Go ahead," Rosie said, waving towards the crown. "Don't drop it, though; it'll dent the floor."

With a chuckle, she finished a third and stuck it in the box as well. Each crown was going for 100 bits, and they were usually used in weddings and dances.

"Any flower jewelry requests?" she asked. "I'll do it for free for you."

"Oh wow!" Prime said as she picked up the crown to observe it. It was a bit on the heavy side, but she didn't drop it. She set it back where it was and turned to Rosie "At the moment, no. Though I have been wanting a necklace....of course I would pay for it, I don't need any free things" she insisted.

She turned back to the canvas, lifting the palette onto her hoof and looking back and forth between the flowers and her soon-to-be new masterpiece. Another stroke across the canvas, creating the bowl.

In the back, Rosie hummed and grabbed a few irises and hydrangeas, artfully wrapping them together and stringing the flower pendant along a crystal chain. The flowers solidified, and she snuck up behind Prime, slapping the necklace around her neck.

"I haven't had company in a while," she explained. "It's the least I could do."

She oohed at the bowl painted on the canvas.

"It's just the base, but it's already beautiful. Ooh, I wonder if we could get royalty to buy it. That would be out of this world!!"

Prime jumped as Rosie surprised her with the pendant. She looked down at it in wonder, "wow, that's amazing! How do you do that so quickly?"

She laughed at Rosie's question, as if royalty would ever even consider her art. Instead of crushing the mare's happiness, Mary said, "hm, maybe. If we could get an audience." she laughed again, dipping the brush in the emerald paint.

She brushed the bristles across the thick paper, painting the stems of the flowers.

"Oh, loads of practice!" Rosie cried, giggling. She turned and trotted off into the kitchen.

"Would you like something to snack on? Something to drink?" She called from the kitchen, snacking on a daisy sandwich. "Whatever you want!"

She was happy. Rosie didn't exist often anymore, more commonly being Rose, the polar opposite of the bubbly Rosie. It was nice for Rosella to be Rosie.

"I'll have an iced tea, thanks." Prime called, glad to have her friend back. She quickly added the rest if the flowers an sat back, staring intently at the canvas. She mulled I've every detail, knowing it was missing something. She just couldn't figure out what.

Rosie balanced two iced teas on her muzzle and trotted back into the room, heading one to Prime and grabbing the other in her teeth, downing the drink in one gulp.

"What's wrong?" she asked, looking concerned at the sparkly mare splattered with paint.

"Thanks." she said, taking the tea in hoof and drinking it as she stared at the painting.

"It's missing something, but I can't figure out what." she sighed, squinting at the canvas as if it was just out of sight. She sipped it slowly, her brows furrowed together in thought. She set the glass down and picked up the brush. She almost pushed it against the canvas, but stopped at the last moment and sat back again.