//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: Royal pains. // Story: Inner workings - Galsthan's stories // by HyperRandomness //------------------------------// Friday, April 17th. 9:12 A.M. Canterlot Royal Castle. Well, that escalated quickly. This was the first thought in Galsthan’s mind as he awoke. His head was pounding, his wings hurt, his left shoulder felt like it was on fire, and he couldn’t see straight. So, like a moron, he tried to stand. WHUMP! was the sound of an Alicorn connecting with the floor. The cold, stony floor. Wait. A lone thought echoed through Galsthan’s head as became aware of his surroundings. This isn’t where I wa- oh shoot. Realization struck him as he applied a hoof to his forehead. “Ah, you’re awake.” A warm voice confirmed his fears. Welcome to punishment town, he thought sarcastically to himself as he tried to regain his hoofing, Population, me. “You were out for some time.” the clearly feminine voice spoke. Galsthan’s vision began to clear as he looked up and at the source of the voice. Princess Celestia was sitting before him, but he wasn’t exactly a happy camper. In his eyes, Princess Celestia was now his foe. She tried to blast him out of the sky, had kidnapped him, tried to keep him from his one true love, and kept trying to force work onto him. That’s messed up. If he were Princess Celestia, he’d see it differently, but he wasn’t the Princess, so he took an aggressive standpoint against her. Scowling, he stood slowly, gaining his balance as he attempted to look the Princess in the eye. He fell again, suddenly having a searing pain ripple through his entire front left leg. His head had a reunion with the floor, but it was not a happy one. His teeth clacked together and his head rattled for a moment, but he did not try to stand again. Another wave of pain coursed through his body. He lifted his head and gritted his teeth, trying not to scream. “So… let me” don’t scream “get this straight… I crash after you” don’t scream “try to shoot me down, now I’m injured and” don’t scream “can’t stand right, so you just lay me down” don’t scream! The pain intensified as Galsthan attempted to get into a sitting position. He failed and toppled left, but rolled onto his stomach. “nngh… on the floor, and don’t get me any medical attention?” He looked up at the Princess with a mix of anger and unbearable pain portrayed across his face. By this point, his hooves began shaking with how severe the pain had started to feel. Then, as quickly as it began, the pain halted. The Princess’ horn was aglow with its usual golden tint, which had also enveloped Galsthan. Shortly thereafter, the glow faded, and Galsthan felt the pain no more. “What in th-“ “Healing spell.” Princess Celestia cut off Galsthan as he began with impatience in her voice, “Now you’re all healthy. Since you’re healthy, we have royal duties to catch up on.” Her horn lit up and a small scroll appeared before her, which she levitated to Galsthan. Galsthan stood, testing his leg for any misfires, but he found quickly that the pain had subsided for good. He would have turned to start spewing foul language at the Princess, but two things stopped him. One, simple logic and reasoning told him it would not be wise to anger an already miffed Princess. Two, a scroll was now hovering in front of his face, which he took into his hooves and unfurled. It was a list. A very long list. A very very long list. A very very long list of chores. Oh joy, Galsthan thought to himself, rolling his eyes, she takes me away from work to do more work. Sure is fun being royalty. “You'd be wise to get started. I don’t have the time to stay and babysit you, so just do what the list says.” Princess Celestia said with a huff. She stood and walked swiftly from the room, leaving Galsthan by himself with the list. Might as well, seeing as I won’t be leaving soon, Galsthan thought, noticing two royal guards in the room. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quick Fix awoke with a start. A stallion beside her jumped back in shock with a bag of bits in his mouth. As her vision cleared of weariness, she saw the mysterious stallion galloping away. She briefly wondered why, before noticing her saddlebags were significantly lighter. In a panic, she quickly checked her saddlebags and confirmed her suspicions. Thief! rang out in her mind as she scrambled to her hooves to pursue the bandit. She took off as quickly as she could in pursuit of the thief, who had caught on to her plan and had accelerated to unbelievable speeds. She couldn’t keep up with the stallion, but someone else could. A crimson streak tore from the sky and shot towards the thief as swift as lightning, then made impact with a shattering WHAM!! The thief, taken by surprise, was hurled across the way and into a nearby tree. He crumpled to the ground exhaustedly, and a red Pegasus mare trotted up to him with a victorious smirk on her face. She turned and bucked him square in the chin, which put him out faster than Quick Fix could blink. “THAT’S what you get for stealing from me.” The Pegasus said, turning her nose up with a “hmph!” She then proceeded to reach into the stallion’s saddlebags and produced a blue bag, which she placed on her back. She noticed Quick Fix walking up to the stallion, to which she responded, “Stole from you too, huh? Some ponies just don’t learn.” She swayed her head back and forth disappointedly before turning and taking to the skies in a flurry of wind. Quick Fix held up a hoof to protect her eyes, and when the wind cleared reclaimed her sack of bits. She tucked the money safely away in her saddlebags once more, then let loose a sigh. She didn’t remember what she was doing the night before, but something vaguely about Galsthan floated through her head, to which she suddenly remembered she was looking for the crash site. She figured that, by now, the Princess would have found him first, but she walked by Sweet Apple Acres just to be sure. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “This suit itches." “My apologies, sir.” “and stop calling me ‘sir.’” “My mistake, sire.” “Ugh.” Galsthan hung his head in frustration, to which the Tailor responded by pushing it back into place. “I need you to remain absolutely still or the suit won’t be the correct proportions.” he said, levitating a piece of blue fabric over Galsthan’s left hind leg. “Is this going to be much longer? I’d much rather be doing anything else right about now…” Galsthan said with a dissatisfied tone. “It will not be long, sir.” the Tailor responded. “I said to stop calling me sir.” Galsthan shot the Tailor a look that only a certain yellow-and-pink Pegasus could rival. The Tailor looked away swiftly, not wanting to look in those mismatched eyes. “My apologies, m’lord. Now please, hold still.” Seriously? Galsthan thought to himself, rolling his eyes and managing to stay in place. “Is this going to be a constant thing with you?” Galsthan asked almost rhetorically. “But of course, m’lord. I am to address all royalty with the utmost formality, as it is only just.” the Tailor replied, taking various measurements with several measuring tapes. “You don’t have to do that ALL the time, y’know.” Galsthan said, looking down at the Tailor. The Tailor was easily half his height, with a strong – yet refined – looking build with a sky-blue coat and a slicked-back tree brown mane. His tail also appeared to be slicked, which gave him a very upper-class sort of look. His cutie mark was a needle pulling a thread, which explained why he was a Tailor anyhow. He had a very simple appearance on his face, however, which made Galsthan question where he had come from. Silently, of course, lest he should inspire him to talk more. Several measurements and sewn pieces of cloth later, and Galsthan was standing in a teal business suit that complimented his brown coat nicely. The Tailor then took a brush and started to brush at Galsthan’s hooves, which began shedding a layer of thick ash and soot. A golden color shone from under the blackness, to which the Tailor was quite surprised. “Highly unusual, that.” he said without direction, brushing away more of the black and revealing Galsthan’s golden hooves. He marveled at them for a moment before Galsthan cleared his throat, drawing the Tailor’s attention immediately to his face. “Oh, my sincerest apologies, sire, I was simply admiring your spectacular hoof color.” “Well, stop that. I seriously want to get this list out of the way so I can leave.” Galsthan said with a snort, which drew a frightened look on the Tailor’s face. “O-of course, your highness! Your suit is finished s-so you may depart now!” the Tailor hid his face from Galsthan and ran to a door on the other side of the room, which he quickly darted through and slammed behind him. Whoops. Getting a little too mean here, Galsthan thought with a slight cringe of guilt. He set all his hooves on the floor and found an exit into a main hallway, so he pulled out the list the Princess had tasked him with and set off to accomplish it. “Let’s see, next task… Royal Court?? How am I supposed to know anything about that?” he stared at the paper in shock. He hardly knew anything about the law system in Ponyville, so he certainly wasn’t going to know anything about it here! However, with a reluctant sigh, he turned to make his way to the courtroom… as soon as he stopped for directions.