After hearing Celestia's anecdote regarding her teleportation training, Twilight burst out laughing.
"What is so funny about that, Twilight?" Celestia asked, genuinely confused.
Twilight composed herself and sighed. "Sorry, Princess. I was just remembering my own practicing for teleportation, and it definitely began as hopeless as yours!"
"It wasn't- Alright, maybe it was a bit hopeless at first! But, in time, we all came to perfect our skills, and the results were far less humorous," Celestia admitted.
Twilight smiled at her mentor. "I'm sure you did, I just thought it was interesting how similar things were for me."
Celestia returned the smile. "Oh, I am sure we are similar in far more ways, dear Twilight."
~ ~
As we approached the Dining Hall, I tried to take in every part of the castle that I had not seen yet, but there was just so much to see that I knew it would take many more times walking down the hall to fully appreciate and notice everything. The stained glass windows were exquisite, depicting scenes of Princess Aurora's great triumphs. One showed her standing triumphantly atop a tall mountain, bestowing a ceremonial medal to Commander Braveheart, the soldier who was said to have single-handedly won the final battle of the First Griffon War. Seeing that one made me a bit teary-eyed as I remembered my father's fate in the war. Still, the war was ultimately a victory for our side, so my father's death wasn't for nothing, I supposed.
Along with the stained glass windows, which were different from those we have today, were large vases full of colorful plants and flowers, spiral staircases that seemed to go on forever, and mysterious doors that could have held anything on the other side. I was determined that, during my time in the castle, I would explore every single one, assuming the Princess gave me permission, of course. Some of my fellow students, I knew, wouldn't hesitate to ask permission, but at the time I didn't want to invade on the Princess' privacy. Everyone was entitled to a little privacy, even the Princess, right?
We finally arrived at the large, intricately decorated doors to the Dining Hall and were escorted inside. The Princess was already seated, sitting at the end of a long table, and she gestured for us to sit at the four already set spots opposite her. No food had been placed on the table yet, but there were various utensils and other objects for dining ready for use. Sombra sat down looking as expressionless as ever, but Luna and Discord had looks of confusion upon their faces as they poked at the different utensils.
"Why do we have so many forks?" Luna whispered to me. "Do we have to use them all at once?"
I tried to hold in a chuckle, but a little snort came out instead.
"Is there something funny, Celestia?" the Princess called from across the room.
I quickly returned my expression to normal. I was tempted to just say it was nothing, but I was eager to hear the Princess explain the reason for such a set-up. I knew that rich ponies ate differently, but why did they need so many forks? "Sorry, Your Highness. My sister and I were just wondering what the purpose is for having three forks," I explained.
The Princess' frown turned into a small smile. "Oh, I understand. A common dilemma, I assure you. This is why I invited you all to dinner this evening: to teach you some manners. If you are all going to be the hosts at the upcoming Gala -"
"We get to go to the Gala?" Discord interrupted.
The Princess glared at him, and then continued on. "If your manners prove to be up to par, then yes, you will have the privilege of attending and hosting this year's Gala. It will be the perfect way to introduce you all to the world of royalty and to show off what you have learned. And after the complete disaster that was last year's Gala, I am hoping that with four ponies to help me, we can make sure it does not happen again."
"What happened last year?" I asked.
"A giant tornado of candy corn flew through and ravaged the party, creating pure and utter chaos!" Discord said, grinning widely as the Princess raised her eyebrow at him. "Uh, so I heard..."
The Princess decided to let this one go and went on to explain tonight's goals. "Tonight I will show you all the proper way to behave yourself when dining with guests. By next time we meet, I will expect to see your manners improved so that I you act properly without my assistance. Understood?"
"Understood," three of us said, nodding. Sombra just stared blankly, but we assumed that meant 'Yes'.
"Wonderful," the Princess said, underwhelmed. "We shall bring out the first course then."
Two of the unicorn pony chefs bowed to the Princess and exited into the adjacent kitchen. I heard stomachs rumble around me in anticipation of food, but hoped to myself that the others wouldn't act foolishly. I'd seen how Luna acted when she was particularly hungry, and it was not a scene I wanted repeated in front of the Princess. The chefs levitated bowls of carrot soup in front of us, then bowed once again as they took their places to wait for us to finish.
The aroma from my bowl smelled delicious. Our mother used to make the soup back at home, but as good as that always tasted, this smelled even better. It must have contained such expensive, exotic spices, mixed together in such a way as to create the perfect dish. Perhaps I will have some after I finish this story of mine...
Anyway, I waited for the Princess' orders, but the others dove in right away, even Sombra. Sombra, however, was eating his properly, using the soup spoon specifically for such a course. Luna was attempting to use all of the utensils at once, probably convinced that this was the way 'fancy' ponies ate. Discord had neglected the use of utensils completely and was levitating little blobs of soup for him to eat. To me, it was a horrifying sight.
The Princess cleared her throat loudly, causing everyone else to stop what they had been doing. She was surprisingly calm, but it looked like it was taking most of her effort to appear this way.
"I do not believe I gave you all permission to eat, hmm?" We all remained silent, but I believe I saw Discord rolling his eyes. "Now then. As Sombra here has correctly demonstrated, the proper utensil for this course is the soup spoon. You work from the outside-in when it comes to utensils, and you certainly do not use all of them at once." The Princess didn't even glance at her, but Luna smiled sheepishly. "Also, you wait for me to eat first, then follow accordingly along with your guests. Let's try this again, shall we?"
We all watched as the Princess took the first delicate sip of her spoon, and then we copied her action. For the rest of this course, we sipped silently, none of us wanting to start any conversation that would irritate the Princess.
During the next three courses, we followed her actions exactly as she had performed them, but the room retained an awkward silence. I was impressed at how Luna was able to follow along, how Sombra somehow already knew the correct rules for polite dining, and how Discord hadn't made it start snowing over our heads out of boredom yet. By the final course, however, he finally cracked. Thankfully, it was in a way that was amusing, yet nearly undetectable as being caused by him.
The chefs brought out the dessert course, a slice from the delectable Canterlot cake that I adore so much, and set it down in front of us once again. The Princess lifted a utensil to eat her cake with, but instead of finding a dessert fork, she found a utensil that at the same time looked like a spoon and a fork. As she dug into her slice, she noticed this peculiar item and her eyes widened.
"What...is...this? This...horrifying creation! And how did it get on to my table?!" She searched through her other utensils, hoping to find the dessert fork hidden underneath her napkin or some other location, but it seemed to have disappeared. Or perhaps it simply morphed...
"This is unacceptable!" she said, forgetting we were sitting across from her and seemingly speaking to herself. "What if a guest had found this? And what is it made out of? Certainly this flimsy material is not of any metal! Such negligence on the part of the servants! I must speak with them immediately!" With that said, she stomped out of the room, followed by her guards. I certainly didn't want to be any member of her staff at that moment.
After she was fully gone, Discord burst out laughing. "Wow, I did not expect her to react that intensely! I thought it would make her slightly irritated, but that was ridiculous!"
"While I do admit that she seems to have taken this whole 'manners' thing a bit too seriously, you shouldn't have upset the Princess that way. And think of what she'll do to the servants now that she believes it's their fault! They're completely innocent," I said with a frown.
Discord thought about this for a moment, then frowned as well. "I guess I hadn't thought about that. I just wanted to get back at Miss 'Understood'? Or is it 'misunderstood'? Ooh, aren't I witty?" He said, with a grin anticipating our reaction to his 'wit'.
Luna and I just stared at him while Sombra returned to eating his cake, with the correct utensil, of course.
"What was that utensil, anyway?" Luna asked. "I don't know why it made her so upset...it looked like a really useful tool! You could use it to eat anything!"
"I call it 'The Spork'. Spoon plus fork? Get it? Whew, I am on fire tonight!" he said, literally patting himself on the back.
As he did so, a different guard entered through the door. "The Princess will not be returning tonight. I will escort you all back to your rooms."
We stood up to leave as I asked a question. "What happened to the other guard? The one who led us in here?"
"That's none of your business. Now let's move along."
I was prepared to let the subject drop, but Discord was not as content. "What do you mean 'it's none of our business'? We're the Princess' royal students! Besides, how secret could the answer be, anyway?"
The guard simply turned around, ignoring Discord's question entirely. "Hey, I'm talking to you!" he demanded. Discord teleported in front of where the guard was walking and asked the same question. The guard continued to walk around him and Discord continued to teleport in front of him.
Finally, the guard stopped and sighed. "Look, I don't know what happened to him, okay? One minute I was talking to him about hitting the pub later and the next he went off somewhere with the Princess. I haven't seen him since. Now, let's move along."
The guard stepped in front of Discord one more time, and this time Discord held back to speak with Luna and I. "Now that is suspicious. I mean, I may be a proponent of many conspiracy theories, but this actually seems like a problem. What would the Princess do to one of her guards?"
"Don't you mean 'what happened' to one of her guards?" Luna asked.
"No, I mean what I said," he whispered. "I'd bet my good ear that the Princess had something to do with his disappearance and I don't think it could be anything good."
Luna's eyes widened. "Do you mean...she could be torturing him? Like making him eat asparagus dipped in ketchup while wearing a dress and singing the Equestrian national anthem?"
Luna seemed genuinely horrified at such an idea, but Discord just seemed impressed that Luna could think of something so wonderful. "Now that I would pay money to see! No, I don't think that is what's happening, but it could be anything, right?"
I thought this over, but at the time, I didn't think it seemed like something the Princess would do. "She probably just sent him off somewhere else in the castle. Just because this guard hasn't seen him doesn't mean he's gone forever."
"If you say so, but I won't be convinced until I see the guard walking around and acting normally again," Discord said.
Luna just shrugged, unsure what to think, but happy at least that Discord had convinced her that he wasn't being tortured in such a 'horrible' manner.
The guard led us up to our rooms, bowed, and then walked down to his position at the foot of the staircase. Sombra and Luna immediately headed inside, but Discord lingered for another minute.
"You may not be convinced, but I think something weird is going on in this castle. For starters, why would the Princess want to look for students like us to help if she wasn't nervous that something might happen to her? It seems to me that she's looking for successors, so what is her problem?" Discord asked.
"Maybe she's just looking for some apprentices or someone to help her out. That doesn't necessarily mean she's seeking a replacement. And what does that have to do with the missing guard, anyway?" I said.
"Well, it doesn't necessarily mean that, but it highly suggests it. There's definitely something chaotic happening around here, and this time, I am not the cause of it."
He went in to his room without another word and I followed suit. He can't be right, can he? I thought to myself. There has to be a logical explanation for this, something that isn't as dire as Discord is making it out to be. I desperately hoped this to be true, but as I would find out later, I could not be farther from the truth.