A Creator's Gambit
Chapter 2
Sitting in the elevated hospital bed, the young man who was covered in bandages as though he was a living mummy stared at the TV. He watched the screen intently, as it showed a creature that looked like a parody of a horse with white fur and a red mane and tail, along with a horn and wings. Said creature was conversing with a significantly smaller creature who was, although of similar shape, was a different color, and had neither wings nor a horn.
The young man repositioned himself in the hospital bed, letting out a sigh, as he laid his head down. With a groan, he stated:
“He is taking way too long… let’s speed this up.” The man grabbed the remote that had been lying near his left leg and raised it up to the TV. He pressed the fast forward button as the images sped up on the screen.
It was just another day in the Equestrian Court System. Celestia sat on her throne, sneaking a bite of cake as she listened to the noble, of whom she could not even remember his name, drone on about a law that would require all tea to be mixed with pink food dye.
Celestia didn't particularly understand his reasoning, nor did she really want to hear it. She had already decided that she was going to deny the petition, but it was professional courtesy to allow the speaker to finish. Of course, if he went on for too long, there was always the Lord of the Floor to stop him.
However, the Princess knew that the noble still had five minutes left before the Lord of the Floor would stop him. And already, she was bored by his argument. However, this was soon to change.
A commotion was heard on the other side of the great doors of the throne room. Several shouts were heard from guards, but Celestia heard one that stood out. It was not the voice of any of her normal guards, but a stranger’s voice.
“Sorry! I can’t stop! I literally can’t slow down! I don’t know why!” As this sentence was finished, the great doors burst open. As a pegasus crashed into the crowd of organized desks that were on the main floor. The pegasus tumbled as she attempted to stop herself.
“Ah, here we go!” The bandaged man said to himself with joy evident in his voice. He pressed the pause button and then hit the play button.
The pegasus came to a rest at the foot of the throne, her back facing Celestia. Replacing the previously speaking noble who had dove for cover after the doors had burst open. Resting on her haunches, the pegasus was still for a moment, as the courtroom was silent. The little pony slowly looked over her shoulder, realizing where she was.
She shot up and repositioned herself so that she was bowing to Princess Celestia.
“Your majesty!” She squeaked out. She attempted to level her voice, and went on. “I apologize for the rude interruption and hope you’ll forgive me. But I come bearing urgent news from the town of Hollow-Shades. Queen Faust has blessed us with her presence.”
At the mention of the Queen, the entire courtroom shot to attention. Including the previously slouched and very bored Princess Celestia.
“Continue.” Celestia spoke, doing her best to hide whatever excitement was building up in her.
“The Queen graced our humble town with her appearance, asking for its name. The mayor ordered a feast in her honor and tasked me with informing the Royal Sisters of their Mother’s return.”
That was proof enough for Celestia, as she disregarded all royal procedure and shot out of the throne room. As she was making her way to her sister’s room, the excitement of seeing her mother again began to take hold. But there was a small question in the back of her mind.
“Why would her mother ask for the town’s name?” However, the excitement quickly pushed this thought out of her mind.
“I really must insist, Mr. Mayor, that all of these preparations are not necessary. A dinner would have just been fine.”
The Mayor waved his hoof.
“Nonsense!” He said. “You are the Queen and we must prepare festivities that are fit for a Royal of your standing. As such, a stage for the royal table must be present!”
Faust lowered her voice, as she mumbled out a statement to herself.
“I still don’t know what you’re on about. I’m not a royal.”
Or, at least, she thought it was to herself.
“Oh! Always so humble, my Queen!” The mayor stated, his head held high. However, he quickly turned around and yelled to the workers who were constructing the stage.
“Hurry up! The Royal Sisters will be here soon! I want that stage constructed before they arrive!” At the Mayor’s prompting, the ponies sped up the construction.
“Luna, I know you’re excited, but you must slow down! If not for my sake, then for the sakes of poor guards!” Celestia shouted at her sister, in an effort to slow her down.
And indeed, several hundred meters behind them, the two groups of guard, Solar and Lunar, struggled to keep up with the Alicorn siblings.
“Why would we slow down? Mother has finally come back and the guards can catch up to us. It’s not like we need their help anyway. Besides, we’re just a few minutes from the town now! We can’t slow down!” Luna yelled back to her sister.
“Luna, if we’re going to fly this fast, then you need to pay attention to where you’re going!”
Faust stood upon the newly constructed stage, hesitantly hoofing the wood, unsure of its structural integrity. After all, it had been made in about an hour. She might not have been an expert in stage making, but that just didn’t sit right with her.
“Are you… are you certain this stage is safe?” She asked the Mayor.
“Of course! I wouldn’t dare put the Queen on something I didn’t trust my life to! Now, if you would, a podium has been placed right there, please feel free to practice your speech as we wait for your daughters to arrive.”
Faust raised her head, her eyes widening.
“Speech! What speech?” She questioned.
“Why! The Royal Speech! It is tradition for visiting royals to give a speech to their gathered subjects as a way to open the feast. By tradition, it is the oldest royal present who gives the speech. And since you are the oldest of anyone, there is no one to outrank you!”
“Did you just call me old, Mr. Mayor?”
“A wise pony once said that it is the greatest honor of all to have grey hair. I mean... obviously you can’t have grey hair, but the point is still there. And the pony kind of… died before he had grey hair… ”
“Damn this charismatic mayor.” Faust thought to herself. She began to move to the podium where she would improvise her unprepared speech and hope it worked out.
However, luckily, or perhaps unluckily for Faust, a shout came from above.
“Incoming! Look out below!” As a blue streak came plummeting from the sky. She landed on the stage, where the abnormally sized planks that are big enough for an alicorn to set all four legs down on at the same time, combined with shoddy construction equalled sending one surprised Faust who had no intention of flying, flying.
Luna popped her head up from under the stage, as she looked around confused, while Celestia landed gracefully on the stage.
“Where’s mom?” Luna questioned, as she continued to pivot her head in search of her mother.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” A scream sounded, but quickly died down.
“What was that?” Luna asked, her face the very picture of innocence.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” Faust screamed as she floundered through the air, with the grace of a whale attempting to do ballet. Her hooves flailing around in the air, fruitlessly attempting to grab something to halt her fall. Of course, as this is the sky, there was nothing for her to grab.
Despite the fact that she had been gaining altitude, she realized that she was now losing it and falling. As she flipped several more times, she realized she was going to land in a field.
A field, which oddly enough, happened to have a brick wall built exactly where she was about to land.
“ARE YOU KIDDING ME!” Faust yelled, as she impacted the wall at high speed. The wall itself crumbling, and covering her in bricks.
This time, Luna landed much more gracefully in the field that she had accidentally catapulted her mother into. She noticed a pile of bricks, but could not see her mother anywhere.
Behind her, a light flashed as Celestia teleported the crowd of ponies who had been at the stage and herself to the scene.
“Luna! Where’s mother?” Celestia asked her younger sister, who was looking around, once again, in search of their lost mother.
“I don’t know!” She replied. “I landed here and all that was here was this pile of bricks. But I’m absolutely certain this is where mother landed.”
Before anyone else could reply, the pile of bricks began to move, as a large figure removed itself from the mess.
Faust stepped down from the pile, evidently shaken as she attempted to find her footing. She stumbled several times. And when she finally found her balance, she yelled:
“I’m fine! I’m fine!” As the crowd of ponies looked on in amazement.
However, as she finished her sentence, another shout was heard.
“Look out below! Incoming!” It wasn't even a second after this sentence had been spoken that a piano fell directly on top of Faust’s head, bringing her down to ground, cold. And smashing the piano into hundreds of pieces. The pile once again covered Faust, with nothing but a horn and a twitching hoof sticking from it.
“My piano! My piano!” The mayor cried, as the crowd of ponies, and the Royal Sisters, unanimously turned to him and gave him a dirty eye.
The mayor nervously cleared his throat, as he realized all eyes were on him.
“Ahem, I mean… My Queen! My Queen!”
Before anyone else could say anything, another cry was heard.
“My wall! My wall!” An orange earth pony, with a comb-over blond mane in a black suit with a tie wailed over his destroyed wall. The crowd of ponies, the Royal Sisters and the Mayor turned to this pony and stared angrily at him.
A young mare from the crowd called out:
“Will you stop building those stupid walls everywhere? It’s not like they do anything! I can just walk around them!
The bandaged man repositioned himself once again.
“Well, that was interesting, but he’ll be out for a while. So let’s see what’s going on with Earth right now.”
He flipped the channel to a new channel. Where a man standing at a podium with a blond comb-over, wearing a black suit and tie was speaking.
“I will build a great wall -- and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me -- and I'll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words."
A nurse poked her head in at the sound of hearty laughter. She realized what was happening when she saw the young man who quickly stopped laughing and grabbed his chest in pain.
“Oh, fuck, that hurt.”